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| graphic credit: artcocktail.mallforarts.com stephen-king-characters-become-alive-in-digital-art |
I was headed running tonight and decided to download a new audible book. I typed into google, "Scariest novel of all time." I came upon Emily Temple's article, "The 50 Scariest Books of All Time." Sounds pretty good, right?
Guess what #1 on her list is -- IT
About IT, Temple writes:
All right, let’s get this out of the way up front: Stephen King is the you-know-what of horror, and if there wasn’t this pesky rule about keeping it to one book per author, this list could almost be wholly populated by his terrifying reads. This book might be the scariest of the lot, and has the added bonus of being about fear itself — the scariest thing of all. There’s also a murderous, shapeshifting clown.What do you think is the scariest novel of all time?
IT has some super-scary moments that still haunt me a quarter-century later (the mummy on the ice, dunno why), as well as other King novels like SALEM'S LOT and PET SEMATARY and THE SHINING, so those are top of my list. But I think the scariest thing I've ever read was the first time I encountered Jonathan Harker seeing Count Dracula climbing *down* his castle wall like a bat. To me that is the pinnacle of horror.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with epistolary novels.
ReplyDeleteI agree with It as the number one choice. Other than King, the most likely runner up would have to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell.
ReplyDeleteChrisC
I'm reading Swan Song again, and it's pretty scary.
ReplyDeleteIn my top three scariest novels ever read, Big Steve has two of 'em in the bag: Salem's Lot and The Shining. The third I'm giving to John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up - although, admittedly, it's not the visceral horror of immediacy which King is so good at putting us into; rather, The Sheep Look Up is horrifying from a distance, as it showcases what we're doing to our environment along with some inevitable, long-term consequences.
ReplyDeleteI never did read Swan Song -- it's something I need to rectify some day.
Nathaniel by John Saul really creeped me out when I first read it. In fact, Saul has probably come the closest, for me at least, to really being as scary as Stephen King.
ReplyDeleteAs for King himself, it's like trying to pick the brightest red out of a sea of Coke cans. I don't know. It is pretty scary, but so is Pet Sematary, and so was Black House.