Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
Progress Posts 2017
>
43: A book with a chilling atmosphere (scary, unsettling, cold)
What are you reading for this category?The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea by James Brady
What's chilling about it?
The physical setting - the winters were deadly during the Korean War, and this memoir really highlights that aspect.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I don't usually care for the horror, paranormal, or thriller genres. I do get dragged into them sometimes by reading groups or my daughter (who keeps convincing me to read another Anne Rice book when I know that they are going to hurt).
Cold Earth
I'm reading Cold Earth, which is the latest and penultimate book in the Shetland series. The setting is very cold physically, taking place in the Shetland Islands in winter. It's also a mystery so is a bit unsettling in that sense.
I like psychological thrillers and mysteries but hate horror and anything supernatural.
What are you reading for this category?
The Bear and the Nightingale ... What a cover!What's chilling about it?
- physically chilling... set in historical Russia, in winter. Coldcoldcold!!
- thrilling-mystery-chilling... has similar folk/faerie tale roots to the old pre-Disney Cinderella stories combined with the Jack Frost/Winter King tales of all cold northern places. Its a creepy/fantastic folk tale with a little horror/romance, mixed in.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I've read a few, and love horror in general, but tend to get frustrated when I think it's going to be great horror but (a) its just gore or (b) its terribly predictable. So its a genre I'd like to read more of, as long as I can dodge the duds.
Some of my recent favorites:
Creepy!!
** warning, this one is also a beautiful, achingly tender m/m romance... if you're not into that, I'd suggest reading it anyway for the excellent horror element and just skipping the parts that squick you out ;) ... either way give it a shot, you might find a new genre you like!
What are you reading for this category?A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.
What's chilling about it?
Well, I don't know much about it other than everyone seems to love it, but ... I believe there's a monster.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Not so much any more, not traditional horror anyway. More realistically horrific, like The Handmaid's Tale, Nineteen Eighty-Four etc.
What are you reading for this category?The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
What's chilling about it?
It is a Gothic ghost story, set in a remote country location.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I tend to read a fair amount of horror and 'weirder' books. My mum and I have a shared Stephen King collection and I have introduced her to Iain Banks and Haruki Murakami.
Progress Post:What are you reading for this category?
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
What's chilling about it?
It is set in the aftermath of a mass school shooting, an obviously unsettling subject.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I love psychological thrillers and crime books like this that really go into the 'why' and explore the motivation and emotional factors behind the crime. We Need to Talk About Kevin, which has a very similar theme, is one of my favourite books, as is Joe Cinque's Consolation, A True Story of Death, Grief and the Law (different theme, non-fiction, amazing).
What are you reading for this category?Without You There Is No Us: My secret life teaching the sons of North Korea’s elite
What's chilling about it?
Suki Kim is living in North Korea being an English teacher whilst gathering information for her book. The school employing her doesn't know this and also doesn't know that she isn't Christian so she is hiding who she is and what she is ultimately doing from everyone around her.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Not particularly. Occasionally I do but they aren't usually the pulp fiction horror/thriller books.
- What are you reading for this category?Boy's Life
- What's chilling about it?
It is a murder mystery, set in Alabama, pagan rites are involved and some magic too.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I don't like horror books but I like reading thrillers.
What are you reading for this category?Bird Box by Josh Malerman
What's chilling about it?
The fact that you don't know what it is that you are suppose to be scared of. You don't know what's out there but you know that something is!
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
As a rule not very often. But I don't avoid reading books that I know will be unsettling.
- What are you reading for this category?The Einstein Prophecy
- What's chilling about it?
The book has demons and evil spirits in it. It had a very unsettling atmosphere.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
No, not at all. I was not sure what I was getting into when I picked this book, so I actually picked the book first, and then the topic it fit second.
- What are you reading for this category?Coraline by Neil Gaiman
- What's chilling about it?
I've only just started it, but I already get a feeling that there is something behind that door that's unsettling. And I saw it was on one of the lists in the suggestions thread, so I must be right.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Sometimes but not often
- What are you reading for this category?Heart of Darkness
- What's chilling about it?
The atmosphere.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
It is one of the genres that I keep returning to.
The Blood HouseAmy Cross family move into a house. House kills them! Very graphic and gruesome! Far fetched but couldnt put it down!
What are you reading for this category?Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
What's chilling about it?
The physical setting. They spent 2 years in the Antarctic--camping on ice floes, sailing and rowing lifeboats through Antarctic seas, etc. They used snow as toilet paper. Cold is an understatement.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
This doesn't really fit that category but in general, not really. Sometimes thrillers but not really horror.
What are you reading for this category?I am starting The Burning World by Isaac Marion
What's chilling about it?
This is the sequel to Warm Bodies so it is about zombies.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Here and there, I do. Since I do like science fiction and fantasy a lot, horror sometimes tends to be a blend of that. Books in this genre I've enjoyed in the past include World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, The Dead Zone, and The Girl with All the Gifts
What are you reading for this category?Pyongyang by Guy Delisle
What's chilling about it?
It's more unsettling than chilling, but Pyongyang is set in North Korea and the closed society felt very alien and hard to understand.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird)...
I don't seek them out, but good books often are unsettling.
-What are you reading for this category?Builders of a New World by Mahin Khan
- What's chilling about it?
This short story is set in a dystopian/apocalyptic world where a Grandmother trying to save her two grandchildren has actually put them into a world of the unknown.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Yes
What are you reading for this category?Peripheral: Tales of Horror at a Glance, by Sylvester Pilgrim
What's chilling about it?
It's about paranormal activity with a twist of horror
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I do enjoy them, but I don't go out of my way to seek them out.
- What are you reading for this category?The Sister by Louise Jensen
- What's chilling about it?
Someone is following our protagonist Grace, and things start going wrong in her life. They seem like accidents, but it soon becomes evident that someone is out to get her.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I do enjoy a good thriller, but I don't read this genre as much as I'd like to.
What are you reading for this category?
What's chilling about it? I actually googled "unsettling books" for this challenge and this is what I came up with.
The Description here on GRs:
A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She's not his mother. He's not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family. Fever Dream is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale. One of the freshest new voices to come out of the Spanish language and translated into English for the first time, Samanta Schweblin creates an aura of strange psychological menace and otherworldly reality in this absorbing, unsettling, taut novel.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...) Yes, yes, a million times YES!!! I love thrillers and horror, although lately I've been reading more fiction and YA.
- What are you reading for this category?Cujo by Stephen King
- What's chilling about it?
Well, it's about a young kid that is being threatened by a rabid dog. Given that I have a young daughter (the same age as the boy in the book), it sounds like exactly the sort of thing to put me on edge.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling?
I wouldn't say that i do so often, but certainly a few times a year. It is a nice flavor to experience once in a while in the course of reading.
What are you reading for this category?Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie
What's chilling about it?
It's about a murder.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Occasionally. I have to be in the mood.
- What are you reading for this category?The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
- What's chilling about it?
This story is an homage to the worlds of Lovecraft, and the characters live in the same unsettling dream world, with fickle gods and places that aren't always in the same place twice. The dialogue is also delightfully dark and forbidding.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Not usually, but not because I avoid them. Rather, I prefer a certain kind of spooky that doesn't show up so often.
What are you reading for this category? The Roadrunner Cafe byJamie Zerndt- What's chilling about it? It is about suicide and grief, but also about a tree that when cut down causes the people in the book to become unsettled.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...) No...I read a lot of mysteries, but they tend to not be unsettling. In fact, I try to avoid reading unsettling books.
What are you reading for this category? Coraline by Neil GaimanWhat's chilling about it? Intended as a children's fairy story, there are many disturbing characters and scenes in which a scary, witchy mother figure plays prominently. Also, the plot contains heavy subtext about mind control.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...) I like weird books and psychological thrillers, but not much horror.
- What are you reading for this category?: All the Missing Girls
- What's chilling about it?
Two girls go missing, 10 years apart. The first case still hasn't been solved and they are trying to see if they are connected. Also, the house the main character is staying in gave me the creeps, since it was isolated in the woods, and one of the doors wouldn't lock.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I feel like I've read a decent number of them the past few years. I don't enjoy horror, but more the psychological thrillers. However, I can't read them at night or it freaks me out, and I usually follow up a creepy book with something lighthearted.
- What are you reading for this category?
- What's chilling about it?
The title character, man's inhumanity to man, the creeping realisation that all is not as it appears.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Back after a long hiatus. Love a good thriller, horror, sci fi/fantasy with a dystopian backdrop.
What are you reading for this category?The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.
What's chilling about it?
The weather: it's set in Russia in the winter.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Thrillers and weird yes, but I don't read horror.
What are you reading for this category?
Moving Inby Ron Ripley- What's chilling about it?The house as an actual graveyard in the basement of it.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...) yes their one of my all time favorite types of books to read .
- What are you reading for this category?The Madman’s Daughter
- What's chilling about it?
there is animal experiments to turn them into humans.
the whole thing is just chilling to me.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
No, this is not a genre I read a lot
What are you reading for this category?
What's chilling about it?
I read John Saul as a kid, so this book brought back some of that nostalgic chill. In this, as in other books of his, he has objects with supernatural powers and the owner is affected by the evil in the object. The first one in this book was a doll. Creepy to me!
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I do like a good thriller!
A Christmas CarolThis is a well known Ghost story ( a re read as an audio book)
I don't usually purposely choose a book that is unsettling unless I'm forced to by a challenge prompt, but sometimes find books unexpectedly unsettling and still enjoy them.
What are you reading for this category? The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
What's chilling about it?
The Wall chronicles the life of the last surviving human on earth, an ordinary middle-aged woman who awakens one morning to find that everyone else has vanished. It is a tale of determination and persistence in the face of uncertain and daunting circumstances. But is it also beautiful to see how see finds love for all the living things around her. Loved this book, the movie is also beautiful.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I used to read quite a lot of mysteries/murder books when I was younger, not so much anymore. But I do enjoy a good dystopian novel quite often. Never read much horror books.
Abuse, child's death, stalker. All these aspects are chilling.
I won't necessarily pick out books with an unsettling atmosphere. But it's a fun and intriguing read once in a while and if it's a novel highly recommended
- What are you reading for this category?The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
- What's chilling about it?
Book is set on on the British coast, in the fog and chilled air, with a weird mysterious atmosphere
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Sometimes - not as a rule, but when the book is interesting, I will totally read it
- What are you reading for this category? A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
- What's chilling about it? The physical setting. Countries that use violence and intimidation tactics to control its citizens are very frightening to me. This book if fiction but East Berlin during the 1960's is not.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...) Not a huge fan of horror or weird books, but I do like a thriller. This book was especially thrilling at the end.
PROGRESS POST:--What are you reading for this category? I'm reading Shadow House: The Gathering by Dan Poblocki, which is the first book in this middle grade series.
--What's chilling about it? What's chilling about it is these five kids get lured to Larkspur, and find themselves trapped there. The building is empty, they can't escape, and it's haunted!!! Creepy kids roam the halls of Larkspur. These kids have to find a way to escape, and maybe discover why they were all lured there in the first place.
--Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...) All the time! I love spooky, weird, and creepy books. I find them to be a lot of fun. I don't know what it is, but I can read a horror book no problem, but horror movies really freak me out. I think it's the music. The music adds just an extra level of edge to movies and scare me silly. Jumpscares get me too. Anyway, I like reading scary books, they're fun!
What are you reading for this category?The Queen's Accomplice by Susan Elia MacNeal
What's chilling about it?
Some will find this less than chilling - but it was the sense of a woman living alone, with a stalker.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
I don't do horror. I do some thriller, although I find myself doing better listening to them in the car than reading them in bed.
- What are you reading for this category?White Fang
- What's chilling about it?
The setting (far North) and humans cruelty.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Yes, but not too much.
What are you reading for this category?Hell House by Richard Matheson
What's chilling about it?
It is set in a haunted house, where there is a history of people never leaving it alive
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Occasionally, but find it is harder to unsettle me as I get older
What are you reading for this category?Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
What's chilling about it?
Well, I know it's a ghost story... I haven't gotten that far into it, but the widow of the ghost in question seems to be fairly eerie...
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Not a TON, but I don't stray away from them either...
- What are you reading for this category?The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
- What's chilling about it?
hard to say without spoilers
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
No I prefer other genres
What are you reading for this category?Broken Harbor by Tana French
What's chilling about it?
The mystery and the atmosphere surrounding it. Tana French has this really great knack for writing mysteries in a very unsettling manner.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror thriller, weird)
Not usually; I have to be in the right mood for an eerie/unsettling read.
- What are you reading for this category?I read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.
- What's chilling about it?
It's chilling in that it is a TRUE story about the murders (and the associated governmental corruption) of Native Americans in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Not usually. I do read the occasional Stephen King novel. I rarely read true crime.
- What are you reading for this category?Störst av allt by Malin Persson Giolito
- What's chilling about it?
It follows a teenager on trial for mass murder.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Thriller is one of my favorite genres.
- What are you reading for this category?Drei Männer im Schnee by Erich Kästner
- What's chilling about it?
Winter setting.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
No, I don't like them very much.
What are you reading for this category?The Sending by Isobelle Carmody
What's chilling about it?
The setting was cold, they were hiking through mountains and deserts at night, but the atmosphere was quite unsettling as well.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
No, I get creeped out fairly easily.
- What are you reading for this category?
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson.
- What's chilling about it?
The premise is chilling. The main character lives with her sister and her ailing uncle in a house set off from the main village. The main character casually drops in that her whole family is dead and the people who live in the village seem to strongly suspect her sister of doing it.
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
Absolutely. The weirder the better.
What are you reading for this category?The Virgin Suicides
What's chilling about it?
The suicides in it plus the atmosphere of the girls' house.
Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)
No, this was a hard prompt for me to fill.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
In the Month of the Midnight Sun (other topics)Clown Wars Blood and Aspic (other topics)
Ice Cold (other topics)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (other topics)
A Pale View of Hills (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Tess Gerritsen (other topics)Shirley Jackson (other topics)
Shirley Jackson (other topics)
Josh Malerman (other topics)
Henning Mankell (other topics)
More...
For those of you reading in order: Oct 16 - Oct 22
You can find suggestions here.
To discuss the book, don't forget to add it in the A-Z folders or join the existing discussion. Please, don't discuss the book here.
Progress Post:
- What are you reading for this category?
- What's chilling about it?
- Do you usually read books that tend to be unsettling? (horror, thriller, weird...)