This Week’s Topic: Scary Books
If you have ever visited WLABB before, you know I am a lover of the light and fluffy books. Sometimes, I got for something a little bit darker, but I have never ventured into the realm of horror.
Oddly enough, I watched all those slasher films in my teens. I mean, it was the 80s, and people were expected to see all those films - Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, these were the films of my generation. Yet, I have not read a horror book to date, at least I don't think so.
I will admit, that realistic fiction books featuring violence or people trapped in natural disasters scare me. This is probably because that sort of stuff could really happen, but I think the topic is leaning more towards the Halloween type of scary, and since I have yet to dip my toe into horror, I can honestly say, that I have not read a "scary" book, BUT I have read some that were more on the creepy side.
The authors of each of the books below did a fabulous job creating the mood for these books. I felt fully immersed in the darkness and their descriptions could almost make the hair on my arms stand on end.
Fowley-Doyle did an impeccable job creating an atmosphere to support the overall vibe of her tales, which is largely strange and mysterious. Both The Accident Season and Spellbook of the Lost and Found carried an air of magic and mysticism, and it was all the unknowns that created the real tension for me.
Shea Ernshaw also showed she had a gift for mood in Wicked Deep. She magnificently created an atmosphere that was ethereal and lavish and totally wrapped itself around me.
The Graces was also is very atmospheric, but the creepiness also comes from the characters, who are shrouded in quite a bit of mystery.
- The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
- Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
- Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
- The Graces by Laure Eve
Now it's your turn!
Do you read scary books?
What makes a book scary for you?
Do you have a favorite scary book?
Do you have a favorite scary book?
Let us know in the comments!
Nothing actually scares me in reading! I love all kinds of horror especially creature feature, slashers and psycho killers. I like fast paced books that just get on with the plot instead of 100 pages of slow stuff to get started. I like a mix of tension and action and don't mind gore, violence and torture. But I've never found a horror book too scary!
ReplyDeleteYour enthusiasm for the genre really shows. I KNOW it's fake, but I guess I let my imagination run away from me.
DeleteI am not super into scary books. Fowley-Doyle's books were great and I loved the atmosphere and feeling of those books. Every Heart a Doorway was another with a creepy feeling throughout without being truly scary.
ReplyDeleteI have heard a lot of good things about McGuire's books, but have not read any yet. I am good with creepy, but I don't really like scary.
DeleteI very rarely pick up anything remotely scary these days. I don’t enjoy being scared and I’m just not drawn to scary/spooky books. But... I did go through a phase back in the late 80’s/early 90’s where I was reading a ton of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. And the scariest book I ever read was Helter Skelter, the story of the Manson “family” written by one of the defense attorneys. I actually had nightmares after reading than one - and was convinced the Manson family was watching me!
ReplyDeleteThe "family" were a scary bunch. I could see reading about them being terrifying, and again, because they were real and what they did really happened, it would be even scarier to me.
DeleteI read scary books! For a lot of my life, I only read scary books. Scary fiction doesn’t bother me too much, but I do get nightmares from true crime and scary nonfiction. I guess the more realistic it is, the more likely it is to terrify me. With fiction, you can always tell yourself that it’s pretend.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I am with you - the more realistic, the scarier it is. I do tell myself it's fake, but still, I get wigged out too easily for any of the things you mentioned.
DeleteI never read much as a kid but when I did it was horror. And I love creepy things but since I started blogging I haven't read any horror - except Anna Dressed in Blood.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more that the books that I get for review and the genres I've been introduced to mean I have no time for horror these days. But I'd love to get back to it.
The other thing is that it takes a lot to scare me. Like AJ above - it's the real things that scare me. Not monsters or fictional horror.
Karen @ For What It's Worth
It takes very little to scare me. I won't ride an elevator alone. So, it's good I stick to the fluffy books.
DeleteI can't read horror or watch movies with too much violence. Yes, it's fake, but my heart just hurts too much to even think that people would be able to do this to anyone. Right now I'm reading City of Ghosts and that's my level of scary.
ReplyDeleteViolence gets to me too. I am the person, who cries when she reads the newspaper.
DeleteYes! I have always had a fascination with horror films, but I've never gravitated toward horror books, for whatever reason. I tend to go for the more atmospheric, quietly creepy reads like the ones you mentioned! Loved the atmosphere in both Spellbook and The Wicked Deep. My favorite *~creepy~* books are Strange Grace (which I read earlier this month and FELL IN LOVE WITH ah it's so great) and The Diviners!
ReplyDeleteAtmospheric is not my goto, that would be fluffy books, but they are as scary as it will get for me. I have been hearing a lot about Strange Grace, and my daughter loved The Diviners series.
DeleteI still need to read the WIcked Deep. The Accident Season was such an atmopshperic read, so different. Thanks for being a part of TMST.
ReplyDeleteI think Fowley-Doyle is so good at atmosphere. I hope we get another book from her soon.
DeleteYes yes the mood can be as frightening than real horror! You don't need gore to be frigthened but the mounting tension and the wait can be as creepy! Sophie @bewareofthereader
ReplyDeleteSome authors have been able to deliver some real chills with the way they set the mood for me, and those books seem to work for me better than blood, gore, and violence.
DeleteI love that you watched all the classic horror movies but stay away from the genre when reading. I like scary books but am usually more creeped out then scared. The Bird Box is my latest spooky read.
ReplyDeleteEVERYONE was watching those movies in the 80s. I sort of didn't have any choice int he matter, but they scared me. I will never forget waking up, and my sister had wrapped this clown doll's arms around my neck a la Poltergeist. I just looked up the Bird Box - asylums are always scary.
DeleteI love creepy settings, but I prefer if there is a scary/horror element. Which is funny because I'm a wimp when it comes to scary movies!
ReplyDeleteI am always a wimp, so you are braver than me.
DeleteI'm sure you know I read horror. LOL Like the films too. Ever since I was a young girl I've loved being creeped out. My family thinks I'm weird. LOL
ReplyDeleteMore power to you! I can see the appeal, and have many friends, who adore the genre as well. I almost feel like it's scarier in writing than on film, because my imagination makes it worst.
DeleteI am SO bad at being scared in books, and I am not sure why? I mean, I used to be one of those people who was scared of everrrything, but now I am VERY hard to scare- especially in books! That said, I fully agree with you about the atmospheres and characters in the books you mentioned! Well, I haven't read Spellbook For the Lost and FOund yet, but I really need to because I looooved The Accident Season! Fun post!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that your imagination doesn't get the best of you. Mine is always going in the direction of worst-case-scenario (probably explains my chronic anxiety). I really liked Spellbook. I hope you get a chance to read it.
DeleteI love a good horror story - book or movie!
ReplyDeleteThe Accident Season was awesome - I need to read more from that author. :)
Fowly-Doyle's other book was really great too. I thought the story and the way she told it was really interesting and surprising.
DeleteI don't read horror either, and I definitely don't watch scary movies lol. But these types of ominous, moody, atmospheric books can definitely be a bit creepy and a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say moody books dominate my read-list, but if they are done right, I enjoy them.
DeleteI don't really read scary books that often. I read a couple this fall, but it's definitely not my go-to! I'd go for something for gothic and eerie, like Rebecca.
ReplyDeleteGothic novels can be scary too. I guess they just have less gore?
DeleteI loved slasher films when I was a teenager but now I am a huge fraidy cat and can't watch them at all. I do like scary books, but not realistic-scary, if that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteJen Ryland Reviews
I totally understand what you mean by not realistic-scary. The more real it is, like true crime, the scarier it is, because it could really happen. Whereas something that is totally fictional and otherworldly can be scary without haunting me and making me paranoid (like that Clare Mackintosh book, I See You)
DeleteI'm not a big horror reader- I think the closest I've gotten lately is finally reading Stalking Jack the Ripper, but I would consider that more historical fiction. I don't mind books that are spooky but I am so not interested in anything that crosses the line into gore or just gross scary stuff. I do miss how popular paranormal books were in the mid 2000s and would love to see them become popular again!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started pleasure reading again, I was reading a lot of paranormal. I would definitely say there are a lot less of them in YA lately.
DeleteI don't watch horror (unless you count Supernatural), but it's not because I get scared. It's just that I'm not interested in movies as a whole - TV series are my jam. And I do read spooky/gory books, but it depends on the type of gore...for example, I have trouble with Stephen King's brand of body horror. I was extremely sensitive about blood and gore in my youth, but things have gradually changed. That been said, today I mostly don't flinch at bloody, mutilated corpses, but I can't stomach bugs or creepy-crawlers of any type, especially in connection to the aforementioned corpses (that's why the only episode of Supernatural I refused to watch - and never will - was "Bugs"). And I always wonder why the thing with horror seems to be "wow, it's scary" more than "yuck, it's gross" LOL. I can't feel the scare, but when it's too gross, I have to avert my eyes.
ReplyDeleteEverything you wrote made me flinch. I am wimp, and I am ok with that. I did used to watch, and enjoy, Supernatural. I guess I saw it as more paranormal than horror, but it had some scary parts too. Yeah, bugs are a NO for me too.
DeleteQuote: "Everything you wrote made me flinch."
DeleteOops, sorry about that! That was indeed a lot of creepy stuff for a single comment LOL.
It's all good. You be you. =)
DeleteI definitely love scary books, though they rarely if ever manage to truly scare me - some horror movies though had me screaming haha. A trope that's freaking creepy to me is being in a place where you are isolated and can't escape from. The actual ghosts and whatnot of The Shining by King didn't creep me out but the idea of being locked up in a hotel for the whole winter with no real escape plan... *shudders* Great discussion, Sam!
ReplyDeleteVeronika @ The Regal Critiques
Jack terrified me, but I definitely understand the idea of being trapped amplifying the fear associated with the other stuff.
DeleteI'm not really into scary books either, although I think gory books probably bother me more. I'm also with you in that I find a book scarier when things that happen in the story are very realistic and seem like they could happen to any one of us at any time. If the events are more far fetched, for some reason they don't bother me quite as much.
ReplyDeleteLike true crime books are terrifying.
DeleteI do like a good gory horror novel from time to time. I have never been afraid from a book and gore doesn't bother me. Creepy is good as well.
ReplyDeleteYou are braver than I am, but then again, my favorite books are the fluffiest of the fluffy.
DeleteI don't do horror either. I can do dark, I can do a bit creepy, I love UF and enjoy the odd mystery/suspense but I don't do horror or crime/thrillers. I don't like being scared and I don't like reading about stuff that *could* happen to me.
ReplyDeleteLight and fluffy is a lovely place to exist.
I do dark every once in a while, but it's not my goto at all. Same with thrillers. I am right there with you - give me the light and fluffy.
DeleteHorror is a genre I hadn't read up until the start of this year. I am on the quest to read every genre so I decided to tackle horror this year by reading some horror novels and I enjoyed them! I also really like the creepy, eerie feeling in books you mentioned too. It's why The Wicked Deep is on my wishlist.
ReplyDeleteI think it's awesome that you want to read something from every genre. You are way more daring than I. I have found I am happiest in my wheelhouse, and have decided to stay there, for the most part.
DeleteI watched all those movies as a teen too, but I was never really a fan of them. I don't read much horror at all, but I did get Claire LaGrange's Sawkill Girls recently. Haven't read it yet, though. :-)
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
People seem all over the place with Sawkill Girls, but the concept sounds interesting.
Delete