Christine Feehan's Blog - Posts Tagged "graham-masterton"
Fun With Favorite Scary Books #Horrorweek
As a rule, I don’t watch or read books that are truly scary. I’m not a slasher movie fan either, even though my books are in the movie Happy Death Day, which came out this weekend. But, I like suspense and I like scary movies that are silly. I think those should count as Halloween reads, right?
My three favorite “scary reads” include –
Dracula by Bram Stoker. This classic horror story just never goes out of date. And though you may have seen the movie (my favorites of those include Dracula Untold and the Dracula movie with Gary Oldman) I suggest reading the book.
Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon, which has won some prestigious awards including the Bram Stoker award. This is from the cover copy-
One frosty winter morning, he and his father watch a car jump the curb and sail into the fathomless town lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a naked corpse handcuffed to the wheel. This chilling sight is only the start of the strangest period of Cory’s life, when the magic of his town will transform him into a man.
The Wolf’s Hour also by Robert R. McCammon. Very interesting look at the werewolf myth and one of my all-time favorite books by this author. I love his writing style. This is from the cover copy-
Now, as shifting as the shadows on the dangerous streets of Paris, a master spy is on the scent of unimaginable evil. But with the Normandy landings only hours away, it’s going to be a race against time. For Gallatin, caught in the dark heart of the Third Reich’s twisted death machine, there is only one way to succeed. He must unleash his own internal demons and redefine the meaning of the horror of war.
I thought it would be fun to have some other authors tell us what their favorite scary books are. If you put any of these on your shelf, let me know!
Douglas Clegg
My favorite scary books are too vast in number to mention. And I could just jump up and down and say Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe over and over again because the first poem my mother read to me as a child was by Poe (Annabelle Lee, which I still know by heart) and because I continually re-read his stories and poetry.
But here are the ones that in one way or another changed my life in terms of how they hit me. Plus these three books mostly set up the horror genre’s literary boom that came soon after:
The Other by Thomas Tryon. This was a huge bestseller of my early teen years, beautifully written and loads of fun. When I first read it I was struck by two things: first that it felt supernaturally-tinged but in fact it may not have been as a story. In this one there’s a good and evil twin story set in Connecticut during the Depression and for a relatively quiet horror novel it goes to some very dark places. Many stories since have borrowed or played with these story twists that Tryon did here. The book was that influential on the genre.
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin. A perfect novel in sentence style and story. The most fun for me, with one of the first bestsellers around the idea of the most lapsed Catholic young woman in the world, is re-reading this and watching a master craftsman at work. It is still creepy, though never quite as scary as the first time you read it without knowing where it’s heading. For any writers, if you read this first page you may detect where Rosemary makes the first unknowing misstep into the dark.
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty: A solidly commercial bestseller by design and a rip-roaring page-turner about a single working mother who returns home one day to find that her only child is cussing up a storm. Well it’s terrifying on first read, and after that, it’s a marvel of shocks and creeps, with an underpinning of religious dogma mingled with psychological fears that your home may be the least safe place on Earth. Oh, and the Devil. Plus, I grew up in and around Washington D.C., and anyone who’s lived there has always loved that famous stairway in Georgetown.
Jennifer St. Giles
#1 Mindhunter by John Douglas, reading about real monsters never fails to prey upon my calm.
#2 The Shining by Stephen King I read this book when stuck in the nursing dorm over Thanksgiving Holiday. I was the only person there and believe me I heard every creak that long weekend.
#3 Take Down by Brad Thor The scenario of terrorists isolating Manhattan rang really true.
Kim Jones
Scary books? I read a few Goosebumps in school. But reading is more of a reality than television to me. I visualize every tiny detail. My imagination would scare the absolute shit out of me if I tried to read a scary book. Can't do it. Again, (raises hand) chicken here.
Sheila English
Books are always scarier to me because those monsters, killers, and the scary music all live inside the private theater of my mind...where I tend to always go "worst case scenario" with everything. With movies you get hints that something is coming, at least as a rule. With books, your mind is trying to put you inside the story, not just watch it, which can be very frightening.
IT by Stephen King. Why? Why does he have to do scary stuff with little kids? Oh the anxiety! And clowns? Oh no! I read this book when I was 12 or 13 and it scared the crap out of me. It still does to this day. The remake of the movie is pretty darn scary too!
Innocence by Dean Koontz. It's not really scary in a horror way, though the main character frightens people to look at him. It's a sort of Beauty and the Beast story with a twist and Koontz's writing is so beautiful and haunting.
Neverland by Douglas Clegg. It goes back to the thing with kids, only this time you're a little scared of the kids. Things lurk in the darkness, calling to the kids "Let me out" is kind of the theme here.
And I'd like to give an honorable mention to Graham Masterton's The Manitou. This book changed my life. I was 9 years old when I read it. Way too young for something like this, but it made me want to read all the time, which I did. Great author!
__________________________________
There’s are a lot of great suggestions and as Halloween approaches perhaps you’ll spend time in the moonlight, with the wind howling outside your door as creaking of the house raises the hairs on the back of your neck to treat yourself with a scary read.
My three favorite “scary reads” include –
Dracula by Bram Stoker. This classic horror story just never goes out of date. And though you may have seen the movie (my favorites of those include Dracula Untold and the Dracula movie with Gary Oldman) I suggest reading the book.
Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon, which has won some prestigious awards including the Bram Stoker award. This is from the cover copy-
One frosty winter morning, he and his father watch a car jump the curb and sail into the fathomless town lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a naked corpse handcuffed to the wheel. This chilling sight is only the start of the strangest period of Cory’s life, when the magic of his town will transform him into a man.
The Wolf’s Hour also by Robert R. McCammon. Very interesting look at the werewolf myth and one of my all-time favorite books by this author. I love his writing style. This is from the cover copy-
Now, as shifting as the shadows on the dangerous streets of Paris, a master spy is on the scent of unimaginable evil. But with the Normandy landings only hours away, it’s going to be a race against time. For Gallatin, caught in the dark heart of the Third Reich’s twisted death machine, there is only one way to succeed. He must unleash his own internal demons and redefine the meaning of the horror of war.
I thought it would be fun to have some other authors tell us what their favorite scary books are. If you put any of these on your shelf, let me know!
Douglas Clegg
My favorite scary books are too vast in number to mention. And I could just jump up and down and say Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe over and over again because the first poem my mother read to me as a child was by Poe (Annabelle Lee, which I still know by heart) and because I continually re-read his stories and poetry.
But here are the ones that in one way or another changed my life in terms of how they hit me. Plus these three books mostly set up the horror genre’s literary boom that came soon after:
The Other by Thomas Tryon. This was a huge bestseller of my early teen years, beautifully written and loads of fun. When I first read it I was struck by two things: first that it felt supernaturally-tinged but in fact it may not have been as a story. In this one there’s a good and evil twin story set in Connecticut during the Depression and for a relatively quiet horror novel it goes to some very dark places. Many stories since have borrowed or played with these story twists that Tryon did here. The book was that influential on the genre.
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin. A perfect novel in sentence style and story. The most fun for me, with one of the first bestsellers around the idea of the most lapsed Catholic young woman in the world, is re-reading this and watching a master craftsman at work. It is still creepy, though never quite as scary as the first time you read it without knowing where it’s heading. For any writers, if you read this first page you may detect where Rosemary makes the first unknowing misstep into the dark.
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty: A solidly commercial bestseller by design and a rip-roaring page-turner about a single working mother who returns home one day to find that her only child is cussing up a storm. Well it’s terrifying on first read, and after that, it’s a marvel of shocks and creeps, with an underpinning of religious dogma mingled with psychological fears that your home may be the least safe place on Earth. Oh, and the Devil. Plus, I grew up in and around Washington D.C., and anyone who’s lived there has always loved that famous stairway in Georgetown.
Jennifer St. Giles
#1 Mindhunter by John Douglas, reading about real monsters never fails to prey upon my calm.
#2 The Shining by Stephen King I read this book when stuck in the nursing dorm over Thanksgiving Holiday. I was the only person there and believe me I heard every creak that long weekend.
#3 Take Down by Brad Thor The scenario of terrorists isolating Manhattan rang really true.
Kim Jones
Scary books? I read a few Goosebumps in school. But reading is more of a reality than television to me. I visualize every tiny detail. My imagination would scare the absolute shit out of me if I tried to read a scary book. Can't do it. Again, (raises hand) chicken here.
Sheila English
Books are always scarier to me because those monsters, killers, and the scary music all live inside the private theater of my mind...where I tend to always go "worst case scenario" with everything. With movies you get hints that something is coming, at least as a rule. With books, your mind is trying to put you inside the story, not just watch it, which can be very frightening.
IT by Stephen King. Why? Why does he have to do scary stuff with little kids? Oh the anxiety! And clowns? Oh no! I read this book when I was 12 or 13 and it scared the crap out of me. It still does to this day. The remake of the movie is pretty darn scary too!
Innocence by Dean Koontz. It's not really scary in a horror way, though the main character frightens people to look at him. It's a sort of Beauty and the Beast story with a twist and Koontz's writing is so beautiful and haunting.
Neverland by Douglas Clegg. It goes back to the thing with kids, only this time you're a little scared of the kids. Things lurk in the darkness, calling to the kids "Let me out" is kind of the theme here.
And I'd like to give an honorable mention to Graham Masterton's The Manitou. This book changed my life. I was 9 years old when I read it. Way too young for something like this, but it made me want to read all the time, which I did. Great author!
__________________________________
There’s are a lot of great suggestions and as Halloween approaches perhaps you’ll spend time in the moonlight, with the wind howling outside your door as creaking of the house raises the hairs on the back of your neck to treat yourself with a scary read.
