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One night I went in search of a shiver up the spine and got more than I’d bargained for. I’d been deeply terrified by the movie The Exorcist years before. To this day, if I chance upon the movie while channel surfing my thumb murders the remote control in a desperate effort to exorcise The Exorcist. But that night, when I was alone in the house, I decided to 'man up' and read the book. How scary could a book be? I retired to bed, where I mummified myself in a shroud of blankets, and propped William Peter Blatty’s demon possession novel The Exorcist on my knees.
By page two I’d fallen into the grip of a fear so severe, I couldn’t move. In my imagination, which had grown ten times its normal size, the book had become a conduit of evil that had summoned something terrifying which waited in the darkness outside the bedroom door. I listened hard. I didn’t want to hear even a tiny noise, not even a little mouse munching on toast crumbs in the kitchen — yet the silence itself was horrible – it felt like a weight pressing against the dark chambers of my ears.
After long, torturous minutes of absolute paralysis, during which I clenched the book the same way New Brunswick man Gilles Cyr held onto the tongue of the black bear that attacked him, I uncoiled myself in slow motion, and inched my way to the dirty laundry pile, where I buried The Exorcist. I never got past page two. Good job scaring me, William Peter Blatty. Too good.
Here are some creepy books for the Halloween season. I left the classics (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.) off the list in favour of twenty-first century horror. I hope you find one of these books scary enough to bury under your dirty laundry.
Happy Halloween!
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Haunted: a novel of stories, by Chuck Palahniuk. Book List calls this "an over-the-top gore fest." If you've got a stomach of iron and are morbidly inclined, this is your book. From the author of Fight club. |
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A dark matter by Peter Straub. According to Publishers Weekly, this novel "ranks as one of the finest tales of modern horror." Winner of the 2010 Bram Stoker award. From the author of Ghost story. By the way, did you know that Peter Straub and Stephen King collaborated on a novel called The Talisman? |
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Horns by Joe Hill. A guy named Ig Parrish wakes up one morning to discover devil horns on his head. Even worse, he is suspected of murdering his girlfriend. The secret's out: Joe Hill is the pen name for the son of the master of horror, Stephen King. (His real name is Joseph Hillstrom King.) |
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Dark Water by Koji Suzuki. Suzuki is the author of The ring, which was made into one of the creepiest horror movies I've ever seen. The first story in this collection inspired another very creepy movie, Dark Water. Suzuki is known as the Stephen King of Japan. (I wonder if Stephen King is known as the Koji Suzuki of America?) If you find gore a bore, these "subtly disturbing horror stories" might be for you. |
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Doctor sleep by Stephen King. Remember that creepy kid who kept saying REDRUM! REDRUM! in Stephen King's The Shining? In King's newest book he's all grown up and on a mission to protect a 12 year old girl with a powerful psychic ability, or "shining" from a group of evil old people who feed off special children like her. In an interview with CBC's Jian Ghomeshi recently, King said that for years people asked him what became of Danny, the boy from The Shining. King wondered the same thing, until inspiration for adult Dan Torrance struck in the form of a cat named Oscar, who has a knack for predicting when people will die. First time I heard of a fictional character being inspired by a real life cat! |
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Burial rites by Hannah Kent. Kent's "dark love letter to Iceland" is based on the true story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland (in 1830). If you'd like a little history with your horror, against a backdrop of bleak Icelandic landscape, this book's for you. |
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The ruins by Scott Smith. This is Smith's first novel since 1993's A simple plan (the best suspense novel of the 1990s, in Stephen King's opinion.) I give up — ALL scary roads lead to Stephen King. Horror fans, see if you can spot the red flags in this scenario: two American couples vacationing in Cancun set off for some Mayan ruins, using a hand-drawn map, in search of a guy who doesn't return from a day trip.
Tip: NEVER follow a hand-drawn map to Mayan ruins looking for a guy who hasn't come back! You WILL die!
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8 thoughts on “The scariest book I never read”
This is scary stuff. Great report on suitable books for this spooky time of year.
There are so many more books I could have put on this list! Thanks for your comment.
By far the scariest book I ever read was Salem’s Lot. Read it as a teenager and had to sleep with garlic hanging in my window for a couple of weeks!
I loved Salem’s Lot, Toni! One of Stephen King’s best books. But I haven’t read them all. Even Stephen King’s son Owen (also a writer!) said he hasn’t read all his father’s books. In the interview with Jian Ghomeshi that I mentioned in my post, Owen (who was interviewed with his dad) said he hasn’t read The Shining! Can you imagine? One of his dad’s best loved and creepiest books! He’s too busy writing his own, I guess.
After reading your experience with The Exorcist (and empathizing)I wonder why we are compelled to scare ourselves? Oh I know we all like a thrill or two…but a fear that grips you with “paralysis?” Manning up, as you put it, is easier for tackling challengingly hot foods and scary roller coasters. These books are something altogether deeper… Great article!
Yes, weird that we set out to scare ourselves. Could it be that we are testing ourselves for that moment when we are faced with something scary for real?
By the way, I don’t think those first 2 pages of The Exorcist would have put me in a state of paralysis if I didn’t have the mental baggage from the movie in mind. I might have made it to page 15 or 20…)
A word of advice on spicy foods and scary roller coasters: maybe don’t tackle them at the same time.
Thanks for your comment.
The author of The Girl Next Door is Jack (not Hank) Ketchum. Wasn’t Hank Ketchum Dennis the Menace’s TV father?
Hi Sarah,
The author of “The girl next door” is indeed Jack Ketchum. I did a quick check after reading your comment — Hank Ketcham created the Dennis the Menace comic strip. I must have been accessing some deeply buried memory vein of classic comic strip trivia when I made that error. Thanks for catching my mistake, which really made the Stephen King quote ridiculous — can you imagine the creator of Dennis the Menace being the scariest man in American?