Monday, March 22, 2010

Books That'll Give You Nightmares

I been a huge horror junkie for as long as I can remember. Book or movie, cheesy or gory, horror speaks to me. Vicariously living through scenes with the victims give me an adrenaline rush I would never want to experience in real life.

Today, I want to talk about books that traumatize. This doesn't necessarily mean horror, although most of my most traumatic experiences have been through that genre.

Hardcore supernatural horror, your vampires, zombies, demons, etc., can be scary, but I generally view them more as fun entertainment. I know these creatures aren't real and while they can provide more than a few thrills, they don't keep me awake at night.

The things that give me nightmare are horror plots that focus on the improbable, but completely possible. When I was in middle school I read Christopher Pike's Bury Me Deep. I will never go SCUBA diving because of this book. My father and brother both SCUBA dive constantly. Not me. I won't even practice in the pool.

Bury Me Deep taught me how dangerous SCUBA diving can be. You dive with a buddy. What if that buddy wants to kill you? If he cuts your air and holds you down, how will you survive? Yeah, way to possible for me.

In my late teens, I discovered Bentley Little. I absolutely love his books. He was a way of taking something mundane and twisting it into something completely terrifying. While many of his characters are motivated by supernatural forces, the things they do require nothing more than human strength and an extreme lack of conscience. The Store was the first Bentley Little novel I read, which is most likely why it has stuck with me more than the others. The Association and The Policy also thoroughly creep me out.


The evil hiding behind big-box stores, homeowners associations and insurance policies is unlikely, but not out of the realm of possibility. That's what makes the stories so bone-chilling. While shopping at large stores like Walmart and investing in car, life, and medical insurance is unavoidable, it now makes me a little scared. I do know that I will never live anywhere that I have to belong to a homeowners association.

What types of books give you nightmares? Zombies? Serial killers? Rape? Fluffy bunnies? Why do those books effect you more than other types?

17 comments :

  1. I *LOVE* horror, it's my favourite genre and I love being scared! To be honest I love all types from ghosts to vampires, witches, demons and zombies. A lot of urban fantasy isn't really horror although it contains many of these elements. Authors such as James Herbert, Brian Keene, Stephen King, Dean Koontz (earlier work), Shaun Hutson and so many others, creep. me. out!! LOL

    Great post! :D

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  2. The scariest book I've ever read was by far It by Stephen King. I'm not usually scared by books, but this one absolutely terrified me.

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  3. Horror is by far one of my favorite genres. It takes a lot to scare me, actually. The most recent book that gave me nightmares was AFRAID by Jack Kilborn, mainly because the storyline was pretty plausible.

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  4. I love horror with an unhealthy passion. lol I only buy horror movies and pretty much all of my books are horror. I haven't been scared by anything yet, though I am determined to find something that does give me nightmares.

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  5. Christopher Pike is what got me through my teens too. He got to into stephen king and then Dean Kootz for a bit..Yeah gotta have some horror.

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  6. Books that can give me nightmares? The ones that are all lovey-dovey! =P I am not too into the horror genre, but maybe that is cause I have not read many books of horror. I do love zombies, demons, twisted angels and all sorts of supernatural creatures! =)

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  7. The first author who ever scared me was definitely Christopher Pike. Once I started reading Stephen King though, Pike wasn't as scary :).

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  8. I love horror movies but haven't tried to read them. I have been given a few Stephen King's to try this year. I hear It and Salem's Lot are good choices.

    I love to sit on the edge of the bed and not be able to blink, love that feeling, even though I can't really think of any that scared me. We will see how I do with reading.

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  9. I love reading horror, and I love scary movies! The scariest book that I can remember reading is Nathaniel by John Saul. Next in line would be Nightflyer by Christopher Fahy....very scary.

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  10. Pretty much ANYTHING remotely scary makes it hard for me to calm down enough to sleep. If I read the book at night, I am thoroughly scared and end up huddled in a blanket in the corner of my bed. I hate feeling scared, so I tend to read other kinds of books!

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  11. Ohman, I ALSO will NEVER go scuba diving because of Bury Me Deep. Funny how books will do that to you.
    Believable dystopian fiction gives me nightmares. Veracity by Laura Bynum, for example. . .

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  12. I read books with some horror elements in them.. and let me tell you zombies give me nightmares every time. Maybe it's their relentless drive to eat brains or pieces of their bodies falling off but they are definitely nightmare inducers for me!

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  13. Oh, I totally remember Bury Me Deep! Completely freaked me out. All the Christopher Pike books I read did. Which is why I had to stop reading them. Because... I am a total wuss. I cannot handle scary books or movies. It could very well be that Christopher Pike's books were the last creepy books I read, and that was when I was in my pre/early teens!

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  14. Although I love Dean Koontz, every single time I read one of his books leads to immediate nightmares. The last two Frankenstein books of his I read were very good but apparently so damn scary to my sub-conscious that I would wake up in night sweats and sometimes even yelping out loud and annoying the crap out of my husband. But that didn't stop me...no way, they were too good to give up!

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  15. True crime novels like In Cold Blood always scare the pants of me because it actually happened. I constantly have to remind myself that Jeffrey Dahmer is not waiting outside my backdoor.
    I have an award for you!

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  16. I have to finish scary books or i get nightmares, as long as it has a clear ending I am ok then.

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  17. OMG, I'm such a wimp. I think the last real horror I red was IT by Stephen King eons ago - now you know why LOL (I can still picture the cover & get chills!)

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