Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

vulcanvillalta

macrumors 6502
May 19, 2014
420
3
Anyone have any recommendations for really scary books? Anyone read anything by Stephen King? I've only read 11/22/63 about 2 years ago, but it's not a horror book. I'm in the mood to read some horror :D

Try reading some of John Saul's very early work. His first five books are a lot of fun. As for Stephen King, I would recommend Different Seasons, The Shining, The Stand, and most without doubt, IT.

IT is his best one, and though it is upwards of a thousand pages, I finished it in a few weeks. It was a joy to read. But if you want something quick and easy, take a few John Saul's. (I've read around half of his work, and most of it is repetitive, but it is still fun from time to time.)
 

LadyX

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2012
2,374
252
Try reading some of John Saul's very early work. His first five books are a lot of fun. As for Stephen King, I would recommend Different Seasons, The Shining, The Stand, and most without doubt, IT.



IT is his best one, and though it is upwards of a thousand pages, I finished it in a few weeks. It was a joy to read. But if you want something quick and easy, take a few John Saul's. (I've read around half of his work, and most of it is repetitive, but it is still fun from time to time.)


Thank you. I've never heard of John Saul before although Suffer the Children does sound good.
 

VI™

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2010
636
1
Shepherdsturd, WV
Thank you! I totally forgot that I've read Carrie. It was the sort of book that keeps you reading because you want to know what happens but it was OK. Those are a lot of recommendations! If you had to recommend only one, which would it be? It has to be one of his scary novels though. I've heard people say IT and Salem's Lot are the scariest. What do you say?

World War Z is a good read. As far as King goes, it's more supernatural thriller than outright horror in my opinion. There's a few exceptions like Desperation and The Regulators (one was written as King and one as Bachman but they both go hand in hand) are two of my favorites of his and do fit in the horror genre.

I'm a huge fan of the horror genre, but it's often times hard to find a good horror book.
 

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Aug 17, 2007
19,579
10,875
Colorado
Thank you! I totally forgot that I've read Carrie. It was the sort of book that keeps you reading because you want to know what happens but it was OK. Those are a lot of recommendations! If you had to recommend only one, which would it be? It has to be one of his scary novels though. I've heard people say IT and Salem's Lot are the scariest. What do you say?

If I had to recommend the the scariest one it would be It.
 

LadyX

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2012
2,374
252
VI[emoji769 said:
;19240419]World War Z is a good read. As far as King goes, it's more supernatural thriller than outright horror in my opinion. There's a few exceptions like Desperation and The Regulators (one was written as King and one as Bachman but they both go hand in hand) are two of my favorites of his and do fit in the horror genre.



I'm a huge fan of the horror genre, but it's often times hard to find a good horror book.


Thanks, V. Never heard of those two King titles. I'm assuming they're some of his lesser known works. I've heard good reviews for World War Z so I think I'll check it out.


If I had to recommend the the scariest one it would be It.


That's what I thought. Thanks!
 

LadyX

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2012
2,374
252
That is correct. They are all independent of each other, but you will see that they are closely related (same story structure, but fun still)


Okay. Thank you. I'm interested so I'll start reading the first book on my Kindle very soon and then I'll read King since It is a long book.
 

vulcanvillalta

macrumors 6502
May 19, 2014
420
3
Okay. Thank you. I'm interested so I'll start reading the first book on my Kindle very soon and then I'll read King since It is a long book.

Good choices!! Be sure to let us know what you think! Or feel free to PM me for any other suggestions.
 

VI™

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2010
636
1
Shepherdsturd, WV
Thanks, V. Never heard of those two King titles. I'm assuming they're some of his lesser known works. I've heard good reviews for World War Z so I think I'll check it out.





That's what I thought. Thanks!

Desperations was pretty popular when it came out. I'm not sure about Regulators though, but like I said the two are connected. I think Desperation was his last great horror novel before taking a turn towards what he's writing today. IIRC, Bag of Bones, The Girl Who Loved Tom Glavin, and other similar titles were what he was writing at the time, stuff that was less gruesome. I did really like Under the Dome and the more recent one about the boy from The Shining all grown up, but out of all of them, Desperation is my favorite. I've read it several times actually.

If you like that type of reading, check out Neil Gaiman. He does dark fantasy/supernatural that has some horror elements but isn't anything over the top. Neverwhere, American Gods, Anansi Brothers, etc...
 

berthaconners

macrumors member
May 20, 2014
86
3
To the poster above, I read desperation, and found it to be....not very good? Or at least not King's best at all. It just felt so out of his normal sphere of work.
 

AVBeatMan

macrumors 603
Nov 10, 2010
5,967
3,848
I recommend "Desperation" and "The Regulators". Terrifying!

----------

VI[emoji769 said:
;19240419]World War Z is a good read. As far as King goes, it's more supernatural thriller than outright horror in my opinion. There's a few exceptions like Desperation and The Regulators (one was written as King and one as Bachman but they both go hand in hand) are two of my favorites of his and do fit in the horror genre.



I'm a huge fan of the horror genre, but it's often times hard to find a good horror book.


Beat me to it!
 

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,181
47,565
In a coffee shop.
Anyone have any recommendations for really scary books? Anyone read anything by Stephen King? I've only read 11/22/63 about 2 years ago, but it's not a horror book. I'm in the mood to read some horror :D

I don't know whether or not you ever read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. This is a brilliant book, with more than a touch of horror, Gothic and haunting, and (needless to say, as this is Oscar Wilde, after all) beautifully written. Strongly recommended.
 

LadyX

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2012
2,374
252
I don't know whether or not you ever read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. This is a brilliant book, with more than a touch of horror, Gothic and haunting, and (needless to say, as this is Oscar Wilde, after all) beautifully written. Strongly recommended.


Yes I have. I'm a fan of Wilde :)
 

LadyX

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2012
2,374
252
Ah, but still a wonderfully disturbing and haunting book.



Some years ago, I also read R. L. Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" another classic of Victorian horror. It is extremely good, rather unsettling and gripping.


That I have heard a lot about but never read. I'll put it on my TBR list. Thank you, SS.
 

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,181
47,565
In a coffee shop.
That I have heard a lot about but never read. I'll put it on my TBR list. Thank you, SS.

My pleasure. I hope you enjoy it.

Another (again, Victorian horror) I cannot recommend highly enough is Emily Bronte's stunning masterpiece, "Wuthering Heights."

This is a book I had deliberately steered clear of for years, as I feared that it would not live up to its reputation and that much of the commentary about the book was cult like in its devotion or over inflated hype. You know, the sort of book that has such a high reputation that when you end reading it, it comes as a huge disappointment as it fails to live up to your expectations.

I could not have been more wrong. Over twenty years ago, sitting in an old apartment which I had rented for several months in the old city centre of Vilnius, the sort of elegant high-ceilinged apartment where the owner, an academic, possessed one of those wonderful libraries where books in six languages spilled from shelves and modern art adorned the walls, I came across a copy of "Wuthering Heights" on one of those shelves and decided that that particular night was the night to take a look at it, and see what all the fuss was about.

Oooof. This book was spellbinding. It was so good that I literally couldn't put it down, and had to take a coffee break every few hours just to draw deep breaths, and pace about for a few minutes before returning to immerse myself once more. Actually, it was so good that I found myself sitting up all through the night, just to finish it, unable to stop reading, and finally managed to so so at around six a.m, when I found myself sitting there, fully dressed, and feeling as though I had been dragged through a wringer. An absolutely brilliant book, and fully deserving of its reputation as a classic.
 

AVBeatMan

macrumors 603
Nov 10, 2010
5,967
3,848
I don't know whether or not you ever read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. This is a brilliant book, with more than a touch of horror, Gothic and haunting, and (needless to say, as this is Oscar Wilde, after all) beautifully written. Strongly recommended.


And free in the Kindle store.
 

mobilehaathi

macrumors G3
Aug 19, 2008
9,368
6,353
The Anthropocene
Been reading Dolores Ibárruri's autobiography...

What a woman!
 

Attachments

  • 41XAA5W7GXL.jpg
    41XAA5W7GXL.jpg
    32 KB · Views: 59

LadyX

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2012
2,374
252
SS, I totally agree with you on Wuthering Heights. In high school, we had to read it for English class and for the first time, every single girl (I say girl because it was an all-girls private school) in class loved the book. I recall the teacher being so happy about it. We had an amazing discussion as a class, it was great fun. We had to return the books since it was part of school property but I bought a copy for myself soon after. And wow, I absolutely love your description of the place and how you came about to reading the book. I really love your style of writing. You seem like a professional author :)


And free in the Kindle store.


Really? That is even better news, for those who like to read on a Kindle.


The majority of the classics are available for free as ebooks but I always get the paid version because the free versions tend to have lots of grammatical/spelling errors and the formatting isn't that good.
 

bearwrestler

macrumors regular
May 19, 2014
127
1
SS, I totally agree with you on Wuthering Heights. In high school, we had to read it for English class and for the first time, every single girl (I say girl because it was an all-girls private school) in class loved the book. I recall the teacher being so happy about it. We had an amazing discussion as a class, it was great fun. We had to return the books since it was part of school property but I bought a copy for myself soon after. And wow, I absolutely love your description of the place and how you came about to reading the book. I really love your style of writing. You seem like a professional author :)








The majority of the classics are available for free as ebooks but I always get the paid version because the free versions tend to have lots of grammatical/spelling errors and the formatting isn't that good.

I'm not sure where everyone is from here, but if you don't like the kindle books, I usually get "older" books at Half Price Books. If you can find an old copy (printed before the 1970's), they will charge you half price. So since most books back then costed less than $1.50.... :) and no grammar errors!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.