Scary Novelists Reveal the Scariest Narratives They have Actually Read

A Renowned Horror Author

A Chilling Tale from Shirley Jackson

I discovered this tale years ago and it has haunted me since then. The so-called vacationers are a family from New York, who occupy a particular off-grid country cottage annually. During this visit, rather than heading back home, they choose to extend their vacation an extra month – a decision that to unsettle everyone in the surrounding community. All pass on a similar vague warning that no one has lingered at the lake after Labor Day. Nonetheless, the Allisons are determined to remain, and at that point events begin to get increasingly weird. The person who supplies fuel refuses to sell for them. No one will deliver supplies to the cottage, and as the family try to drive into town, the car won’t start. A storm gathers, the batteries within the device diminish, and with the arrival of dusk, “the elderly couple huddled together in their summer cottage and expected”. What are they anticipating? What might the residents know? Whenever I revisit Jackson’s disturbing and inspiring story, I’m reminded that the top terror originates in the unspoken.

An Acclaimed Writer

An Eerie Story by Robert Aickman

In this concise narrative a couple journey to an ordinary coastal village in which chimes sound the whole time, a perpetual pealing that is bothersome and inexplicable. The first very scary episode happens during the evening, as they opt to walk around and they are unable to locate the water. There’s sand, there is the odor of rotting fish and seawater, surf is audible, but the water appears spectral, or another thing and even more alarming. It is truly insanely sinister and whenever I visit to the coast at night I think about this story that ruined the ocean after dark for me – positively.

The recent spouses – the woman is adolescent, the husband is older – go back to the inn and find out the reason for the chiming, during a prolonged scene of claustrophobia, necro-orgy and death-and-the-maiden encounters grim ballet chaos. It’s an unnerving reflection on desire and decline, two bodies aging together as spouses, the bond and brutality and tenderness of marriage.

Not just the scariest, but perhaps a top example of short stories available, and a personal favourite. I read it en español, in the initial publication of Aickman stories to be published locally in 2011.

A Prominent Novelist

A Dark Novel from an esteemed writer

I delved into this book beside the swimming area in France a few years ago. Despite the sunshine I felt cold creep within me. Additionally, I sensed the thrill of anticipation. I was working on a new project, and I had hit a block. I was uncertain if there was a proper method to compose some of the fearful things the narrative involves. Going through this book, I realized that it was possible.

Published in 1995, the story is a bleak exploration within the psyche of a young serial killer, Quentin P, based on a notorious figure, the criminal who murdered and cut apart numerous individuals in Milwaukee over a decade. Infamously, the killer was consumed with producing a submissive individual who would never leave with him and attempted numerous grisly attempts to achieve this.

The deeds the novel describes are terrible, but just as scary is its own psychological persuasiveness. Quentin P’s dreadful, broken reality is plainly told in spare prose, details omitted. You is sunk deep caught in his thoughts, obliged to see mental processes and behaviors that appal. The strangeness of his psyche resembles a tangible impact – or finding oneself isolated in an empty realm. Going into this book feels different from reading but a complete immersion. You are consumed entirely.

An Accomplished Author

A Haunting Novel from a gifted writer

During my youth, I sleepwalked and subsequently commenced having night terrors. Once, the fear included a nightmare where I was trapped within an enclosure and, upon awakening, I realized that I had torn off the slat off the window, attempting to escape. That building was decaying; during heavy rain the entranceway flooded, insect eggs came down from the roof onto the bed, and at one time a sizeable vermin ascended the window coverings in the bedroom.

When a friend gave me Helen Oyeyemi’s novel, I was no longer living with my parents, but the tale regarding the building perched on the cliffs felt familiar in my view, longing as I was. It is a story concerning a ghostly clamorous, atmospheric home and a young woman who eats calcium from the cliffs. I cherished the story immensely and came back again and again to the story, each time discovering {something