This one is for all you horror fans out there! Would you care for a ‘lights on’ experience at night? Then you should definitely check out some of the books on this list as they are filled with horror inducing components. Books in the horror genre have the ability to excite its readers and keep them hooked till the end. So all those who don’t mind some good scares coming your way, here are some books that are written to scare the wits out of you.
1.Mrs Peregrine’s home for peculiar children
A family tragedy drives a 16 year old boy to an island off the coast of Wales where he discovers a crumbling structure. Upon navigating its living rooms and bedrooms he discovers that the place is inhabited by young residents. However, their peculiar mannerisms and behavior scares him out of his wits and makes him wonder if they are truly alive or long past dead!
What happens to him from there on? Who are those residents of that crumbling structure? Only the pages of this fantasy horror book can tell. The texts in this book are also accompanied by vintage photographs that add to the already scary reading experience. There are also sequels written for this book so you can read up further after you are left on a cliffhanger.
2. Sharp Objects
Consider this a PG-13 book due to its portrayal of drug use, foul language, and sexual situations. The story follows Camille Preaker, a reporter who recently got discharged from a psychiatric hospital. She is told to cover a murder story in her hometown which you might think will make her feel at home. But with a hypochondriac mother and an eccentric half-sister, her experience only turned to the worse. While battling the problems of her own, she not only covers the story of the murder but is also close at heels with the murderer.
This book has the makings of a handsome psychological horror that will refuse to let you go before scaring the wits out of you.
3. Lord of the flies
The book ‘Lord of the flies’ proves that a story doesn’t require supernatural elements to make it scary. In fact, young children are the source of sheer terror and shock in this novel by William Golding. Replace Tom Hanks in the movie Cast away with a couple of school boys and that forms the premise of this book. However what follows is way worse than a single man fighting on a lone island for survival. All innocence and morals are lost as young boys indulge in evil practices to survive an uncharted island with no adult supervision.
This book is often treated as an allegory, political satire, and a prediction of the apocalypse due to its uncanny resemblance with the contemporary occurrences.
4. Pet Sematary
It hit them like a ton of bricks when a family that recently moved into a remote town lost their little girl in a road accident. All hopes are lost until the father from the family of three discovers a cemetery that is claimed to bring back the dead! So first goes their dead family cat and then the little girl beneath the surface of the eerie cemetery. However, what comes out from the cemetery happens to be more than just a normal living being.
The very sight of the cemetery in the first place is sure to scare anyone out of their wits. What follows during the rest of the story is a treat for genuine horror fans. There have also been movie adaptations of the book, but reading the book delivers the wholesome experience without having anything missed out or altered for cinematic constraints.
5. The Stand
Living through a pandemic is no joke. Several lives are lost. Many fall sick. And when such an occurrence is used as a central theme in a horror fiction novel, all hell breaks loose over its readers! ‘The Stand’ portrays a deadly virus that almost wipes out the entire world. With a partial pandemic looming over our heads, this could be a very relatable and terrifying novel to read during this time.
Here ends your quest for scary books to read. Do drop in more books from this genre in the comment section below.
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