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Fiction

In reply to the discussion: It's October. Let's talk horror. [View all]
 

closeupready

(29,503 posts)
9. The one book that was fun and filed me with fear was "The Shining".
Mon Oct 7, 2013, 03:00 PM
Oct 2013

No other Stephen King story comes close.

The UK's Ramsay Campbell has written numerous short stories that are highly effective at being creepy and shocking, the best collection IMO being "Dark Companions".

For whatever reason, I find older stories to be more effective at scaring me, maybe because when you read Poe or Lovecraft, you need to adjust your mind to accommodate the old-fashioned manner of narrating a story in English, and so since you're already making that accommodation, it's easier to make other accommodations and suspend disbelief further than with modern ghost stories.

For example, some older mystery books can be very creepy without a single gruesome episode, whereas modern stories go into great graphic detail about dismembering corpses and flaying body parts, etc., which is disgusting, but scary? No, not really, just disgusting.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

It's October. Let's talk horror. [View all] Dr. Strange Oct 2013 OP
"It" by Stephen King. CrispyQ Oct 2013 #1
Ghoul by Michael Slade sharp_stick Oct 2013 #2
I have that - I read it ages ago; kind of "Silence of the Lambs" story. closeupready Oct 2013 #8
Somethng Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Agnosticsherbet Oct 2013 #3
"Ghost Story" by Peter Straub (1979) Paladin Oct 2013 #4
The book was sheer horror. As you say, the movie-not so much.... Rowdyboy Oct 2013 #5
"Salem's Lot" by Stephen King Curmudgeoness Oct 2013 #6
I don't really care for horror, LWolf Oct 2013 #7
The one book that was fun and filed me with fear was "The Shining". closeupready Oct 2013 #9
"Children of the Kingdom", by T.E.D. Klein Moe Shinola Oct 2013 #10
"In Cold Blood"--not horror, but pretty horrific. nt raccoon Oct 2013 #11
Shirley Jackson Mz Pip Oct 2013 #12
Anything in King's "Night Shift." n/t AngryOldDem Oct 2013 #13
Have you read any Arthur Machen? Moe Shinola Oct 2013 #14
Read THE WHITE PEOPLE. zappaman Oct 2013 #15
Cool! Moe Shinola Oct 2013 #17
I've had that on my Kindle for about a year. Dr. Strange Oct 2013 #16
Dracula by Bram Stoker scarletlib Oct 2013 #18
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