With the Halloween theme going on all around the world and several book clubs having the book of the month theme being a horror book, I also fell into this trendy flow. Even though I haven’t read few books mentioned here, they were suggested to me by several fellow book bloggers.
I was very fond of horror stories from the very young age. The reason I got hooked is due to the narration style of my father. He told us several horror stories during our daily evening power cuts. What is scary? I Just don’t have one answer for this. What might shock one reader is laughable to another. Ghosts, great heaving monsters, creepy clowns, haunted houses, Dr Evil, necropolis, creature madness all figure into my countdown.
Horror novels are perceived by different people in different way. Just because something is scary doesn’t mean it’s not “literary” or well-crafted art, or story can be terrifying without necessarily being great art. if the core purpose of a story is served then it’s worth giving it a try.
This list is on random basis. Some books may be more gruesome than others so read with caution, because some definitely contain some upsetting subject matter.
2) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
3) The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
4) Several Stepehen King Novels (IT, Pet Semetary, The Shining, Misery, Salem’s Lot, Doctor sleep, Sleeping beauties, Elevation, The Institute, Cujo)
6) Goosebumps series by R.L Stine
7) H.P Lovecraft books (At the mountain of madness, The color out of space, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The shadow over Innsmouth)
9) Coraline and “The Graveyard” by Neil Gaimen
10) The Crucible by Arthur Miller
11) The Walking Dead by Robert Krikman
12) Turn of the Screw by Henry James
13) The haunting of the hill house by Shirley Jackson
14) Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
15) The Ghost story by Peter Straub
16)Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
17) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
19) The silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
20) From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
21) The Good House by Tananarive Due
22) The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
23) Hell House by Richard Matheson
24) Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
25) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Do I feel scared? Sometimes. Life is hard and fear often plays a part in that. But things don’t get less scary just because you don’t engage with them. It’s always good to have a healthy dose of fear. For me, the key takeaway from reading horror is that everything is surmountable and survivable.
In reading books that frighten us, we have the choice of whether to explore our fears or not. But if we do, we come away either knowing that the monsters can be defeated and that the darkness can be driven back or – at the very least – we find ourselves one step closer to the light.
If you can handle the chills and thrills, there’s no time like the present to find out what you’re made of, and to know what really scares you when no one’s looking.
Do you like reading horror books? Let me know your favorite books in this genre.
