Favorite Horror, Scary, Spooky or Ghost Story Writers

[delalluvia]

I read a lot of Anne Rice, but I just never thought her books were scary.  Perhaps because she's telling the story from the 'creature's POV in her vampire novels?

[serious crayons]

Hey Bud, great idea for a poll!

I wish I could add to my vote. I somehow missed voting for E. A. Poe!

Here's a fun EAP prank: A few years ago, I bought one of those sleep-noise machines -- you know, the kind that makes white noise or the sound of waves or whatever when you're trying to sleep? Anyway, one of the settings was "heartbeat." It so happened that at the same time, my older son, then about 12, was reading EAP stories. So my younger son and I set the little machine for heartbeat, hid it, and then when my son said "What's that sound?" pretended we didn't know what he was talking about.


 

I considered putting Toni Morrison on the list because of Beloved.  I think Beloved is an absolutely fantastic book and it does involve a ghost.  It's one of those books that's always stuck with me. 

I didn't really know if it would qualify for this type of list, or if the use of the ghost theme in that book is too metaphoric... or, in other words... if the inclusion of the ghost in that book was for motivations so different from a lot of typical ghost stories, that it wouldn't really be appropriate for this list.

For anyone who's read Beloved, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Well, I loved Beloved. It didn't scare me, though -- except in, you know, the larger political/humanity sense. 


I also voted for Stephen King. I used to love Stephen King in his earliest days -- like the first 10 books or so  -- then I got kind of sick of him. This isn't very scary, but in recent years I've circled back around to like him again, partly because he seems like such a likeable person in real life, as far as I can tell. I read his memoir about writing, and it was pretty charming; he seems very down to earth, and not to have changed that much since the days when he was a regular unknown horror-magazine geek. And he certainly knows how to keep you turning the pages!

Also, as I've said many times, his book The Stand is the closest parallel I know of for Brokieism. I guess that's not very scary, either, but still.

I read a lot of Anne Rice, but I just never thought her books were scary.  Perhaps because she's telling the story from the 'creature's POV in her vampire novels?

I'm almost going through something similar with Anne Rice, except in an even weirder sense -- I've never read any of her books! When I lived in New Orleans, she just seemed kind of annoying (that's where she lives, in a big scary haunted-looking house). But now, in retrospect, I'm developing a certain affection for her, too. I think she deserves a lot of the credit for the trend these days to humanize/romanticize vampires. I'm not a big vampire buff (ooh -- no pun intended!), but her idea was pretty original, and the Twilight series and its ilk owe a lot to her.

[Monika]

Phantoms by Koontz was really scary if you can suspend your fear of his really careless writing.  The story is good though.

this made me remember another novel that scared the shit out of me - Whispers by Koontz. Thinking back on it today still gives me the chills.
I don´t think I ever read Phantoms though.

I´ve also read Beloved, but never thought of it as a ghost story inspite of its magical elements.



As I kid I also read a lot of Stephen King. I think that the stories I found most disturbing (in the scary sense) was IT (that clown...uhhh) and the short story The Langoliers.

[Brown Eyes]

Thanks Buds!

I think there is an actual ghost in Beloved, if I'm remembering correctly.  It's been a long time since I've read it, so a lot of the details are not fresh in my mind.

I always thought Beloved was eerie and vaguely spooky... though certainly not a truly scary, scary ghost story in the more conventional sense.

But, it's really interesting to think how wide a range of tone and feeling the category of "ghost story" contains.  Ghost stories can be pretty subtle, or they can be very blatantly scary.  I mean even a some Shakespeare involves ghost stories while not necessarily always being truly scary.

I'm a huge wimp when it comes to scary stories... I get scarred really easily from good scary stories and movies. I think my imagination runs wild easily... and things like ghost stories tend to impact me the most (more than, say, stories about killers or gory horror stories/ movies).

[Sason]

I don't care much for regular horror type stories, but in them earlier days I've read a fair deal of psychologically scary and creepy stories.

I've read Ira Levin and liked him.

But I miss Ruth Rendell in the list, her books are truly scary that way. The perpetrator always turns out to be a truly sick and deeply disturbed person. When I used to read them they usually gave me chills down the spine.

[retropian]

The scariest and most horrifying novel I've ever read is "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. Not a horror story but a novelization of a horrific murder of an entire family in Kansas circa 1959. Based on true events and real people it is the only novel i can recall that gave me chills and goosebumps. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up for two reasons: First, the recounting of the senseless and brutal killing of a blameless and innocent family, and the subsequent tragic consequences for all, including Truman himself and second, the exquisitely tight prose that vibrates with tension.

[Mandy21]

Great topic, Amanda.  And very timely.

I use my memory of "The Tell-Tale Heart" every time that I can't sleep.  I picture a murderer standing over the side of my bed just waiting to see if my breath gets faster, or stays calm.  If I stay calm, I won't have known he was there, so he can just choose to walk away, but if I start breathing heavy, he'll know for sure that I'm going to turn him in, so he might as well hack me to death.  That forces me to breathe calmly, which in turn, leads to sleep.

Sick, I know.

I blame my parents for not monitoring my reading and viewing habits as a child.  Being given free rein can be a dangerous thing.   

[serious crayons]

I use my memory of "The Tell-Tale Heart" every time that I can't sleep.  I picture a murderer standing over the side of my bed just waiting to see if my breath gets faster, or stays calm.  If I stay calm, I won't have known he was there, so he can just choose to walk away, but if I start breathing heavy, he'll know for sure that I'm going to turn him in, so he might as well hack me to death.  That forces me to breathe calmly, which in turn, leads to sleep.

Hmm. Have you tried counting sheep?

Kidding, but it doesn't sound like the most soothing sleep ritual.

When I was a kid, I loved collections of ... what would you call them, not exactly horror, more like suspense, I guess. Collections of stories from "The Twilight Zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock" and things like that. At one point in grade school, someone gave me a book called "Alfred Hitchcock's Solve-Them-Yourself Mysteries" in which people would get killed or kids get kidnapped, and the stories were salted with clues to solve the crime. I don't think I solved any, because they were really hard, though I read them over and over. I can still remember some of the clues! Like, a British millionaire is murdered and his last words are, "I suspect mice!" but in the end they figure out that he was saying, "I suspect my solicitor."

[Jeff Wrangler]

Hmm. Have you tried counting sheep?

There are over a thousand of 'em. At least you could try to get the count right. ... 

[delalluvia]

Hmm. Have you tried counting sheep?

Supposed to guard the sheep, not count 'em.