First Horror Novel recommendations?

[witt19800]

Hi. I'm new to the horror genre and I'm looking to buy my first book. Here's my criteria:

1. Scares the shit out of me.
2. Contains the supernatural. Scary books without the supernatural are thrillers. Blood Meridian is not what I'm looking for.
3. Is a short read. Stephen King's brilliant but I don't have the attention span for 500 page novels. I'm looking for 250 pages or less. A quick read that builds to a nice climax and makes me want to buy another book.
4. Again, is scary. As in, Why the fuck did I read this? Palahniuk's Haunted is funny but not scary.

Any suggestions are much appreciated. I've done some research over the net, and would've bought Simmon's Song of Kali but the local Chapter's didn't have it. Big surprise.

Thanks guys.

[The Villain]

I have no idea what to suggest because no book has ever scared me

[hueyisme]

I wouldnt know what to tell you, some of the ones that have creeped me out might not have any effect on you. If you like the classic stuff you might try some of Arthur Machen's stories or Algernon Blackwoods The Willows. Those always gave me chills. You will probably just have to read different stories until you find the style thats suits you.

[neverending]

Try one of King's early novels- like Salem's Lot.

[kelvecion]

Dean Koontz' Phantoms is an idea. Spooky stuff.

[witt19800]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, keep em' comin'. And if I read something I like, I'll write about it here.

[TheWickerFan]

You could try short story collections. Stephen King's Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, and Nightmares and Dreamscapes are excellent. Also Bentley Little's The Collection.

[witt19800]

Another thing I've noticed. I've sampled a lot of books on amazon, reading the first few pages.

And I realize now that genre is only part of it. More important is the author's voice. The way he puts one word after another. Where he puts a period, where he puts a comma, where he starts and stops a paragraph, and with which rhythm. The way he fucks around on the page. When a writer writes, he converses with you. You listen to the way he talks and thinks and you know exactly who he is as a person.

Having said that, James Ellroy is a better horror writer than most horror writers I've sampled. He does crime fiction. But his voice is so dark... I was reading LA Confidential and the book is gruesome. Some of the passages are a nightmare. Now that's voice. You could listen to him tell you how to make a casserole and there'd be an undertow of darkness. His mother was murdered when he was young and it shows in every word.

So ideally, I'd like to find a book where there is a marriage between the darkness of the genre (horror) and the darkness of the writer. When I flip through Stephen King or Clive Barker, I get the impression I could kick his ass in a fight. I don't want that. We're dealing with Fear here folks. You should write hard, ferocious sentences.

Don't be afraid of the characters, be afraid of the author.

[witt19800]

So I almost finished Off Season by Jack Ketchum last night. The first chapter sucked me in. Remember the X-Files? How they would always begin the episode with a murder? Hook you in before the opening credits? When books do that, it's effective. So I was hooked.

I like the excessive violence and sex. But alas, I'm 31 and the verisimilitude meter is much higher now than it was before. When the main action sequence occurred, I found that I enjoyed reading it. But I couldn't go on afterwards. The believability factor was gone. Also, Jack Ketchum's voice as a writer really changed in that action sequence. No longer did I feel the cool assured hand of narrative authority. I felt like his writing came apart, lost focus and sounded a little juvenile. I simply lost interest.

Also, I'm not so sure about these long character developing passages. David Mamet says that all stories follow the structure of the joke. The punchline of the joke is the whole point, and any extra information that is not relevant to the punch line should be cut. I really appreciate Ketchum's attempt at character development, but it really slowed things down. And when the character was killed off, I didn't feel empathy for her, I felt that I had wasted time empathizing with someone who was simply meant to be killed off. In the joke, the punchline is the laugh. In horror, the punchline is the scare. GET TO THE SCARE. This is not Dostoevsky. Know the goal of your genre, and get to the point. Brevity is your friend.

I also think that I will look for something written in the first person. I've read the pros and cons of first versus third person and it comes down to taste.

With me, third person constantly reminds me that some fool author is spinning me a yarn, and it breaks my suspension of disbelief. Also, when he takes me into description of the killer's activities, he ruins the killer's mystery. And humanizes him. And both things diminish FEAR, which IS THE POINT OF HORROR. There's no shame in this. You do not need to "deepen" the work by borrowing techniques from other genre's. I love relationships and character development, but when I want that stuff I'll read the plays of Arthur Miller. I won't pick up Off Season by Jack Ketchum. Respect the genre.

First person has an immediacy, fuck "intimacy", it has an IMMEDIACY that third person does not have. Many novels will use first person in the first chapter to hook you in. They know that you're at the bookstore with ten thousand other books and they want to prevent you from putting the book down. So you buy the book, and lo and behold, you get home and chapter two is written in boring ol' third person. Well folks, why don't you just KEEP THE STORY IN FIRST PERSON THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH, AND I WON'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN AT ALL. You think that's implausible? Steven Pressfield told you the entire military campaign of Alexander the Great in first person. The novel's called Virtues of War and you should read it. Believe me it can be done.

[m_valdemar]

I personally don't see why a book cannot be scary AND have artistic merit beyond cheap thrills. I personally believe that makes the mark of a truly good writer.

Writers like Poe spring immediately to mind. Although, as has been pointed out, while I might find some of his stories particularly unnerving (I, also, have never been truly "scared" by book, but certainly have been thrilled) other people might entirely disagree. But, again, very personally, scary or no, if I were entering into the horror genre (or any genre) for the first time, I would go to source and read the originals. Stoker, Poe, Lovecraft (who can be very scary) etc...