The Horror Books That Scared Me

PREFACE

• This is MY list of books that scared ME. If YOU made a list, it would probably look different. What we aren’t going to do is suggest a book doesn’t belong on someone’s list because it wouldn’t be on our own list. That’s a very self-centered way of defining if a book is scary or not. Also, “scary” can mean a lot of things. Sometimes it means disturbing or unrelenting scenes of terror that get lodged in our psyche. Sometimes scary means emotionally upsetting. Basically, making a list like this is personal so my recommendation is to engage with it as it relates to what you and I have in common, the ways in which horror communicates a mutual fear OR discuss our differences—what scares me doesn’t scare you. Just don’t tell me I’m wrong or that a book on my list isn’t scary because it just isn’t based in reality.

• My truth is that horror is the most scary when the stakes are very high. And for the stakes to be high, I have to be emotionally invested in the fictional characters. If I don’t give a shit about them, how can I care? The threat level is at a zero and that’s not scary. Cardboard cutouts of people being fed through a meat grinder doesn’t trigger my empathy. People who FEEL real on the page? Traumatic. Big difference.

• Lastly, it’s my opinion that short fiction is the premium format for maximum horror. Talented authors can maintain tension/dread for the entirety of the story and THAT is scary.

THE LIST

OUR SHARE OF NIGHT by Mariana Enriquez- “Mercedes was the firmest believer in the exercise of cruelty and perversion as the path to secret illumination.” Maybe the most terrifying woman in literature. All of the young people in this book suffer. And that’s the horror of this book–what the children and young people must endure at the hands of those who love them or want something from them like the physical torture inflicted upon those Mercedes believes to be mediums or oracles. Some scenes were just mind-alteringly scary. And it made me think of reality. The real horrors inflicted on the most vulnerable humans among us who need protection and don’t have it.

INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE by Josh Malerman-This feels the same way as when my husband and I go to the theater to see a horror movie and it hits every beat. Just, perfectly executed terror. And then you're all quiet as you walk out of the theater lobby but the minute you get away from everyone else, you start blabbing about all the good parts? And you talk about it in the car all the way home. Then, in the quiet of the night, your brain replays THOSE SCENES...and you get scared all over again and you have to watch Spongebob or some cooking show with the lights on just to erase all the scary.
That's this book.
You can't read this one at night, turn out the lights and go to sleep. This book has actual jump scares! Other Mommy is just WRONG. Trust me: Daytime only in a room with no closets.

THE REFORMATORY by Tananarive Due-My heart felt like a wood-burning stove and every chapter fueled that fire until it was burning so hot, there were times I almost couldn’t read anymore–I was genuinely terrified to turn the page. The different sections have titles and some of the titles are like a neon sign of what’s to come–the danger that awaits.
I was thankful for my friend who already read it so I could message her during all the intense scenes–my emotions all flared up and tears in my eyes.
Books this good don’t come around all the time.
Not only is this the best Horror book of 2023, but it’s also one of the best books of all time, period. In any genre.

A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS by Paul Tremblay-“Actually, I'm possessed, only I'm possessed by something so much older and cooler than Satan.” Tremblay is an expert at creating tension and a sense of foreboding. The entire time I read this book, I lived in a state of being disturbed, unsettled and uncomfortable. It was so full on I couldn't read it at night. And I had to check on my daughter multiple times to make sure she wasn’t levitating off the bed or sitting alone in her room with greasy hair strands hiding her face. But even though I would only read it during the day and tried to read light hearted things before bed, this book still managed to creep into my sleepy thoughts and freak me out.

BODY SHOCKS edited by Ellen Datlow-The stories in this anthology are so fucked up and scary, I wrote up a review for each one which you can read HERE every tale is a body horror banger and reading each one, back-to-back is an experience I will never forget. All-time favorite horror anthology.

CUNNING FOLK by Adam L. G. Nevill-Terrifying.
There were scenes where I was crawling out of my skin and could feel my eyes bugging out of my head in shock and horror. He has done it again. I loved THE REDDENING from 2019 and this is an excellent companion piece to showcase his knack the for savage, wicked, ritualistic horrors of the occult against its unsuspecting, unprepared, and inexperienced victims. (also his new one, MONUMENTAL got me GOOD)
But this one really fucked with me.
(and I love that)
Highly recommend for readers who love to sit at the feet of a gifted storyteller who brings serious nightmare fuel to the reading experience--then lights a match.

THE LAMB by Lucy Rose-a gruesome account of a claustrophobic world with a ravenous, needy mother who is never satisfied; never full. This woman drags her own daughter into her selfish hellscape of cannibalism and reckless abandon. It’s absolutely disgusting, bleak, and disturbing. My mother-heart ached and ached. I will never forgive Lucy Rose for inviting me into this story and enchanting me with this seductive story only to dash my heart on a rock. But I do love it.

WHERE I END by Sophie White-There is an overall sense of dread and sadness that permeates the whole aesthetic of the book. Everything is cloaked in shadow and mystery. The islanders seem strange, something is clearly off about the main character, Aoileann, and the situation with the mother and her relationship with her daughter is so disturbing, I remember feeling this heavy weight on my heart while I was reading--anticipating the climax--some kind of revelation so I could start piecing this puzzle together, and then WHAT THE FUCK!!! One of the biggest WTF ending s ever

HUMAN SACRIFICES/COCKFIGHT by María Fernanda Ampuero- “If I had dropped dead right then and there, I would’ve done so knowing that existence is pure horror, being alive is pure horror.” These two collections are unrelenting in their terrors. Brutal, shocking, unflinching, so fucked up and way too real. I love them but I would never read them again.

-domestic horrors/family violence
-generational trauma
-graphic, explicit depictions of SA
-child abuse
-gruesome, realistic stories of every day violence especially against vulnerable people (children, women, the elderly, animals)
-the horrors of femicide in Latin-America
-misogynistic violence and oppression
-psychic trauma

N0S4A2 by Joe Hill-My first Joe Hill book and I was shocked at how scary it was. I was immediately sucked in and not sure I felt comfortable. I wasn't sure if Hill could be trusted! There were a few times I wanted off--I closed the book after a couple of scenes and wasn't sure I was going to open it back up again but I'll tell you when the whole thing flipped for me: I fell in love with the protagonist, Vic. Not at first--it was a slow love. "I hope he doesn't kill her, please don't die!"
I do this during King's novels too. I fall in love with people and pray that they don't die because my heart would burst.
This story that Hill wrote is so imaginative, so original, I have never read anything like it. It was disgusting, horrifying, fascinating, endearing, raw

BELOVED by Toni Morrison- “That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up. And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own. The best thing she was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful, magical best thing—the part of her that was clean.”

This book broke me. It’s so fucking painful to read a book like this and come to the realization that human beings are monsters. The shit people do to each other is beyond comprehension. It makes me sick. People often ask me why I include this book on my horror book lists and it makes me wonder why people think it doesn’t belong there. I haven’t read anything as horrific as this in all my life and it’s fucking REAL AS SHIT—this kind of thing happened and is happening, so—what else?

THE DEEP by Nick Cutter-There were parts of this book that were so terrifying, so utterly unlike anything I have read, my eyes were glued to the page and bulging out of their sockets. I couldn't look away.
Well, actually, I did. I did the equivalent of watching a horror movie through your fingers and I skimmed over certain parts that I just couldn't deal with the details. Trust me, NOBODY writes the graphic, gory details like Nick Cutter, of that I am sure.
Nobody I have read before anyways. He’s gross!
You have the plot written out very neatly for you in the book's description so beyond that, I will say that this book is a mind bending, psychological, claustrophobic, descent into the deep, dark (evil) abyss that lies at the bottom of the ocean. Never go to the bottom of the ocean. Not on anyone's bucket list.

JAWBONE by Mónica Ojeda- just know this book is 1,000 different kinds of fucked up. Triggers for everything under the sun. It's very disturbing. It's almost impossible to suspend disbelief concerning teenage girls behaving this feral, unhinged, and violent but the writing is so good, I bought in. It's borderline exploitive, honestly and it messed me up so bad and made me feel so dirty, I probably won’t read anything by her ever again. She has a book called, Nefando that I won’t read, so—there you have it

“SOLVE FOR X” from AFTER THE PEOPLE LIGHTS HAVE GONE OFF by Stephen Graham Jones-my worst nightmare actually. This woman is abducted and tortured and has to solve math equations? Kill me. Like, never me—please. I hate how he captured the raw vulnerability of this woman and constructed it against the absolute power held by this fucking psychopath, god this story is so fucked up

OLD SOUL by Susan Baker-do you know how magic tricks work? The sleight of hand and art of distraction? That’s this book. The author so skillfully distracts the reader with all these nested stories and intricately crafted narratives—you forget about the subject of the story until suddenly, you see her—and it raised all the hair on the back of my neck. Sophisticated horror unlike anything I have read

BROTHER by Ania Ahlborn-This book IS HORROR. Terrifying. The Morrow family, collectively is evil in the flesh. Individually, Rebel scared me the most. DO NOT read this book if your cup of tea is like "milk and honey" because this cup of tea is "blood and gore". It's awful and beautiful at the same time. Don't say I didn't warn you. But if you like your tea murky and dirty, then by all means--let me pass you the cup and saucer.
*wink*

COME CLOSER by Sara Gran-...certain things are going to scare certain people. Okay? Let's just start there. Not everything is going to have the same impact on every, single reader because we all come to the story with so much baggage--preferences, worldviews, triggers, perspectives, pet peeves, history, so much baggage.
For me, Sara Gran touches on a subject that hits very close to home. So, the protagonist, Amanda--I can relate to her.
Things happen to her that feel akin to my context.
This book got under my skin in the worst/best way.
I'm recommending this read for people who enjoy those psychological, unreliable-narrator, creeping-dread, disturbing stories that just get more and more messed up and crazy as it goes on.
Truly, there were some stand out moment here that if this was a movie, I’d cover my eyes.
Scary, scary, scary.
Maybe not for some--I understand that, but it was for ME. Big time.

THE SILENT COMPANIONS by Laura Purcell-I AM OBSESSED. This was an incredible journey! Readers spend time in both the 1600s with one woman, Anne at The Bridge estate as she experiences impossible evil and in the 1800s with another woman, Elsie plagued by the same evil--in between narratives, the fate of what is to become of Elsie hangs in the balance.
I was not expecting to be this terrified! Genuinely creepy, horrific scenes!

THE EXORCIST by William Peter Blatty-

Last but never least.

maybe you do believe in demons, like me so you just make wide circles around that stuff okay? Don’t touch it! Don’t think you’re so faithful and pious you’d know what to do in a situation like this.
That’s why this book was so terrifying.
It scared the hell out of me.
But I loved the different way the characters approached it—The detective with his logic and sleuthing
The Father with his background in psychology
The Exorcist with his unflinching faith
Even the mother scored points with me in the end with her unwavering plea for help.
I cried as she begged for help. I could empathize with her as she sought medical, mental and spiritual help for her daughter in horrific crisis. This book feels REAL