What's In a Scary Reading Experience? (Pt. 2)

If you want to read Part 1, then check out the article below:

You've probably heard of my 'what's in a reading experience' article and if you haven't here are the rules:

1. the book doesn't need to be your favourite or even among your favourites

2. the book can be a novel, poetry anthology, novella, epic poem, nonfiction - it doesn't matter the form

3. if it's a scary reading experience then of course, it needs to have a memory of fright attached to it, otherwise there are no specifics

So, a scary reading experience is a book you remember because there was something chilling about it, something memorable about the scary reading and well, something that stayed with you whether you wanted it there or not...

These books are in no particular order:

Mister Magic by Kiersten White

An urban legend horror novel, this one definitely resonates with the era of children's television I watched growing up - often made fun of today for its odd and often off-putting aesthetics, there was something oddly relatable about the book. However, as someone who enjoys folk and urban legends, I felt like I could not stay away from this one. Though I am not a believer of any kind in the supernatural or the violence of something unseen and unknown, it definitely left things open for possibility after I had read it initially. Though the feeling of that would disappear, the memory of how it made me feel would not.

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Crawlspace by Herbert Lieberman

We who were there in 2008 when the trailer for The Strangers was released and all of us had the living shite scared out of us would no doubt enjoy yet another demon birthed from the belly of home invasion horror. The relatable nature of how difficult it is to say 'no' would haunt me. People pleasing happens to cause some very real consequences for the couple in the heat of the nightmare and they get worse and worse as the book goes on. I would love for someone to make this book into some kind of limited series, it would work so much better than a movie. The slow, doomed build needs to be drawn out for as long as it is possible to do so without losing any tension. I could not stop thinking about the psychological terror this book rained down upon me for a long, long time afterwards.

*

The Haar by David Sodergren

David Sodergren is the weird cross between the films of Tobe Hooper and the fiction of Stephen King. A writer who can put the fear of god into you and still make it fun. Blood-splattering folk horror roller coasters of legends and mystery pervade the books and the gore is definitely part of the experience, part of the story - it's not just there for shock value. I remember reading The Haar and by the time I had closed the book there were literally no words in my mouth, no thoughts in my head - I was well and truly shocked. I stepped out of that world as if I had just been riding top speed into the mouth of the beast only for everything to go dark at the last second. It left me sweating and quite literally out of breath.

*

The Terror by Dan Simmons

This book quite literally never left me and if I had the choice of three books to erase from my memory so that I could experience them for the first time again, one of them would be The Terror by Dan Simmons. All atmosphere and nightmares, feral and off-putting breaks in human nature, the way in which the writer weaves together this foreboding in all of its fear and trembling - it left me breathless. When I wrote the review, I remember not being able to choose which images and scenes I wanted to include as to not make the review too long. I wrote them all down and then started crossing them off by importance. I don't think I could describe what it's like to read this book but for a long while I was living in that arctic world which resonates with that of Mary Shelley's Robert Walton in Frankenstein. There's so much philosophy and existentialism which shifts and turns into the fully-forged nightmare it truly is - one full of monsters and yet, the most frightening monster is still man himself. Dan Simmons completely knocked this one out of the park and I will die with it replaying in my brain.

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Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

For a time last year and the year before there was a concept called 'wellness horror' (which unfortunately got old very quickly) but the seminal book from the era was Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang. The extended metaphor aside, the body horror of this book is quiet at first, so quiet you may blink and miss it entirely. The infestation begins as a psychological event rather than a physical one. The main character is imbued with ideas and ideologies in the form of a cult-like mentality and then, shit starts to hit the fan again and again. This book is quite literally one of the most terrifying things to come out of the wellness era because it is possible. It may be a fantastical piece of imagery when you look from the surface but, dig a bit deeper and it is uncannily realistic. That should frighten anyone because it scared the crap out of me.

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Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

Garden Horror, the terrifying botanical, the naturalist nightmare - whatever you refer to this sub-genre as there is no doubt this book will give you some very vivid nightmares. When Ro meets Ash, it seems like a nice and kind friendship and for the most part it is - they are going to get through this together. Unfortunately, that is also the main problem. Turning the idea of 'cottage-core' into your worst nightmare, turning the ideas of friendship and love on its head and turning the whole world of Rosemary and Ash upside down. Down the atmospheric rabbit hole we go and out the other side. I remember reading this in a bar during the heat of the day - I only looked up when I finished the book and when I looked in the glass of a window, I was white as a sheet. I must have looked insane. But for a moment, I was there. And it was pure nightmare fuel...

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Conclusion

So there's a few books that have stuck around from the last couple of years, books that are truly nightmarish experiences. Stay safe wherever you're going and make sure you watch a good horror film if you're staying in. When the day's all done and everyone's spooked out - perhaps, you can curl up with a good scary story to fall asleep to...

Happy Halloween Season x