A lot of people get in the autumn spirit with scary-movie marathons, but I much prefer the slow, unspooling terror of a good horror novel. I've got 21 terrifying books that are scarier than any horror movie I've seen, so people like me can enjoy their spooky falls just as much as the movie buffs.
Now, in the interests of full disclosure, you should know that I am not the kind of person who thinks that horror movies and books should only be read in the fall. Anytime is a good time to get spooked by a great story, so you should return to this list and others like it whenever you're in the mood, not just during the so-called horror-movie season.
Don't get me wrong, horror movies are great and all, but even the longer ones don't have time to build up a sense of true dread, in my opinion. The ones that do — I'm thinking here of Get Out, The Shining, and Alien, for example — are the exceptions that prove the rule. By contrast, horror novels have hours upon hours to develop their characters and ramp up the suspense, which means you're practically shaking as you turn those climactic final pages.
And because books require you to imagine all of the action taking place, your mind can come up with horrific images that special-effects directors can only dream of. I can still "see" Pennywise the Dancing Clown hug Adrian Mellon to death underneath that bridge in Derry. That scene was not in either the 1990 miniseries or the 2017 film adaption of Stephen King's IT, but I remember it vividly, nonetheless.
Reading does that to you. After all, who among us doesn't remember what Luna's bedroom ceiling looked like, or what happened when Ron won the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor? Those scenes didn't make it into the Harry Potter movies, but we all know how they would have looked on screen, because the reader's mind is a magical thing, don'tcha know?
This is all to say that the 21 terrifying books on the list below will stick with you long after you have closed their covers. Be prepared for their gory scenes and disturbing passages to echo around your head for years to come, and be sure to savor them when they do. Check out my picks and share your favorites with me on Twitter!
'IT' by Stephen King
With the all-new film adaptation sweeping box offices across the country in 2017, there's no better time to read Stephen King's scariest novel: IT. This book is about fear, and not just how or why we experience it, but how easily it can be turned against us. Yes, there's an evil clown in IT, but he's just the tip of the deeply disturbing iceberg that is this novel.
'Zombie' by Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates' 1995 novel isn't like other horror titles, but that doesn't stop it from being scary enough to keep you up at night. The story here centers on the narrator, who details, in stream-of-consciousness style, how he plans to create the perfect sex slave.
'House of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves has a reputation for being a novel that's both difficult and terrifying. Trust me when I say that this book — which reads a lot like a book within a book — lives up to the hype.
'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson
'Lovecraft Country' by Matt Ruff
'White Is for Witching' by Helen Oyeyemi
'Annihilation' by Jeff VanderMeer
'Fever Dream' by Samanta Schweblin
'Ring' by Koji Suzuki
When a cursed VHS tape gives a journalist one week to live, he throws himself into a race against the clock, investigating the tape's origins and the murder that he believes may be connected.
'The Vegetarian' by Han Kang
'A Head Full of Ghosts' by Paul Tremblay
'Geek Love' by Katherine Dunn
A family of manufactured circus freaks takes center ring in this haunting novel from Katherine Dunn, in which the firstborn son and main attraction, Arturo the Aqua-Boy, acquires an extreme cult following.
'Parasite Eve' by Hideaki Sena
'Night Film' by Marisha Pessl
'The Trial' by Franz Kafka
'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier
'The Hot Zone' by Richard Preston
'The Cipher' by Kathe Koja
'Penpal' by Dathan Auerbach
'The Tailypo' by Joanna Galdone
While y'all were scaring yourselves silly with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, I was terrified of a different kind of monster. The creepy swamp thing from Joanna Galdone's Tailypo pursues a hunter to reclaim its missing tail, and its disturbing chant has a way of haunting you for decades.
'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream' by Harlan Ellison
If the Hieronymus Bosch-like cover illustration didn't freak you out enough, rest assured that the title story in this collection will. It's the tale of a godlike A.I. that toys with its last human victims in a hellish domain. Check it out if you want to know what true body horror is.
