The 15 scariest books ever written.

Dear Colleagues:

This time of the year brings all aspects of our reverence, fear, and fascination for the culture of death to the spotlight. Whether you call it Halloween, Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, Obon, Ghost Festival, Baekjung, Sat Thai, Mataka Danes, or any other name; even if you do not observe or commemorate the day, festival or event during the month of October, and regardless of your religious, spiritual, or commercial motivation to do so, at this time of the year, most people think of their mortality and manifest it. This blog deals with the subject every year.

Because the topic is very appealing for a blog about language and culture, in past years I have written about horror movies, cultural observances and traditions around the world, and even ghostly legends. This time I decided to share with you my all-time top fifteen scariest books or novels. A big fan of macabre literature, it was no easy task to narrow it down to fifteen. I assure you many horror stories stayed out of the list even though they could be part without any argument. Some of the ones that did not make my top fifteen are probably among your preferred scary tales.

These are my top fifteen:

Dracula.

Bram Stoker’s master piece cannot be left out. The grandmother of all horror stories keeps you involved in the lives of Jonathan Harker, and Van Helsing as they fight against the formidable vampire from Transylvania in a magnificent Victorian Britain. The description of Dracula’s lifestyle in his castle never fails to scare me. Crawling up and down the walls, turning into a wolf, and his power over Lucy will give you some sleepless nights.

The Exorcist.

The 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty, that became the movie of a generation, narrates the demonic possession of 12-year-old Regan MacNeil and her exorcism by Father Merrin and Father Karras. Based on a story that Blatty heard about as a student at Georgetown University, the story describes the conduct of the possessed girl and the struggle to save her soul from the demon Pazuzu that culminates with Karras’ surrender of his own life in exchange from Regan’s. A very popular novel with past generations that should be suggested to all new fans of the horror genre.

El Panteón del Gótico Español (Pantheon of Spanish Gothic).

An anthology of gothic stories by famed Spanish authors such as Benito Pérez Galdós with his tale “Una Industria que vive de la muerte” (An industry that makes its living from the death); “Tristán, el sepulturero” (Tristan the gravedigger) by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez; Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s “El Miserere” (Misericord); Emilia Pardo Bazán’s “Eximente” (Exculpatory circumstances); “El Castillo del espectro” (The specter’s castle) by Eugenio de Ochoa; “Los tesoros de la Alhambra” (The treasures of Alhambra) and many more. Fifteen stories that live between the gothic and fantasy worlds, bringing us ghosts and other supernatural beings that accompany us from the moment we begin to read this compilation magnificently written by these 19^th and 20^th century superstars of the Spanish language.

Salem’s Lot.

Stephen King’s second published novel about Ben Mears, a writer who returns to the little town of Jerusalem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot) in the American State of Maine, only to discover that the residents are becoming vampires, and it can all be tracked down to the Marsten House, and old mansion he feared since childhood, now inhabited by the mysterious Kurt Barlow, who is never seen in public. The story begins with the disappearance of a young boy: Ralphie Glick, and the death of his brother Danny, who becomes the first vampire. The novel is full of suspense as everybody in town turns into a vampire. King himself has asserted on different interviews that Salem’s Lot is his favorite novel. In a world swamped with vampire novels, this one is a most read because of its implicit logic as people become vampires after a vampire attacks and kills them. It is uncommon to read a story where all victims end up as offenders.

1Q84

An interesting dystopian novel by Japanese great Haruki Murakami that takes place in Tokyo during a fictionalized year 1984. After Aomame, posing as a hotel maid, kills one guest, she has bizarre experiences that lead her to believe that she has entered an alternative reality inhabited by characters like the dyslexic writer Fuka-Eri and school teacher Tengo. Eventually Aomame’s and Tengo’s alternative worlds intersect as they are both investigated for the murder. Murakami keeps you involved with the fantastic characters throughout the story from its unique beginning until the reader understands the reason for this strange world to exist. Great reading for both, horror and science-fiction lovers.

The Silence of the Lambs.

This 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, a sequel to his 1981 novel “Red Dragon”, feature scary cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter and his interaction with FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling ordered to present a questionnaire to Lecter, a brilliant forensic Psychiatrist, and is serving nine consecutive life sentences in a Maryland mental institution for serial killers. The novel is full of suspense and intellectual content as Starling and Lecter get into a macabre intellectual dance of questions, requests, and answers, while the young FBI agent is trying to solve the murders of serial killer “Buffalo Bill”.  Full of interesting characters, and surprises, this novel is guaranteed to keep you reading until the end.

The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.

A delightful collection of the works of one greatest and earliest pioneer of the short story. Poe was the poet who perfected the tale of psychological horror, and we as his admirers, can savor his main works of satires, fables, fantasies, drama, and poetry in this anthology, including: “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “Annabel Lee’, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket”, and his masterpiece: “The Raven”, where he tells us of a talking raven’s mysterious visit to a distraught lover, showing us how the man slowly falls into madness because of losing his love: Leonore, as he listens to the raven who constantly repeats, to the lover’s distress, the word: “nevermore”.  All those who call themselves literature lovers must read the works of Poe.

Interview with the Vampire.

This gothic vampire horror story by Anne Rice cannot be left out of this list.  The reader “listens” to Louis as he conveys his 200-year-long life story to a reporter, starting with his days as a plantation owner near New Orleans, in the American State of Louisiana, and his search for death motivated death of his dear brother, that takes him to a vampire named Lestat de Lioncourt who turns him into a vampire and gives him immortality.  Even though Louis comes to terms with he killing to survive, he becomes increasingly repulsed by Lestat’s lack of compassion for the humans he preys upon. The interview covers the fantastic adventures of Louis in Europe, including his romances, and moves on to one last encounter he had with Lestat I n New Orleans in the 1920s. At the end of the story, the listener begs Louis to turn him into a vampire so he can also live forever; but Louis, frustrated and disgusted by this young man’s doing not learn anything from his story, attacks him and vanishes without a trace, and the interviewer decides to track down Lestat hoping to get immortality. This is a perfect story for a city like New Orleans, and it shows the values and “humanity” of a vampire in a way that neither Bram Stoker nor Stephen King ever do.

Dracula’s Guest.

This tale is apparently the deleted first chapter from the original “Dracula” manuscript, which the publisher eliminated from the final work as he considered it superfluous. After Bram Stoker’s death, his widow Florence published the chapter as a short story in the book: “Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories” by Bram Stoker.  The story, as published, can stand alone. It follows a nameless Englishman (because we read Dracula we know it is Jonathan Harker) on a visit to Munich before leaving for Transylvania on Walpurgis Night. The Englishman, against all warnings by the hotelier and the carriage driver, makes it to a desolated “unholy” place where he takes shelter from a snowstorm in a cave. He soon realizes that he is in a cemetery and that his shelter is a tomb where he is met by a beautiful vampire woman who attacks him until he realizes that it is a gigantic red-eyed wolf licking at his throat. The English man is later found by the locals who rescue him and take him back to his hotel where he learns that a note had arrived during his absence. It was from his host, Dracula, warning him from the dangers of the snow and wolves at night. This gets your imagination going once you learned that Harker’s first encounter with a vampire was in Germany, not Transylvania.

Aura.

This short novel by Mexican author Carlos Fuentes deals with dreamlike themes of double identity, as unemployed young historian Felipe Montero reads an add on the paper for a job to perform secretarial duties as a live-in for Consuelo Llorente, to help her organize and finish the memories of her late husband General Llorente. Montero goes for a job interview to Consuelo’s dark old mansion in downtown Mexico City where he finds her lying in bed with all lights off. She addresses him as she was already expecting him and hires him. Montero soon meets Aura, Consuelo’s beautiful young niece who lives in the house, speaks little, and mimics all movements and gestures of Consuelo. As his work progresses, Montero learns of Consuelo’s love story with her late husband, and about her infertility. He becomes more attracted to mysterious Aura until he falls madly in love with her. One day, Montero enters Aura’s room and finds her in bed. He holds her, and suddenly Aura transforms into the old widow, Consuelo, as he himself transforms into the old General Llorente. The story depicts the progression of the transformation of Felipe Montero into the General, and Aura’s transformation into Consuelo. This is a very original plot and it is wonderfully written by Fuentes.

Dark Water.

This is a collection of short stories by Japanese writer Koji Suzuki, originally published in Japan as “Honogurai mizu no soko kara” (From the depths of the black water). It includes seven stories: “Floating Water” about a mother and her young daughter who move into a run-down apartment after her messy divorce, and discover that another girl vanished from the building a year earlier, and that the disappearance was surrounded by terrifying events in the building; “Solitary Isle”, about a man who investigates the unusual circumstances of his friend’s death and an artificial island in the middle of Tokyo Bay; “The Hold”, about a fisherman who abuses his wife, and how their son tries to uncover the reason for the woman’s disappearance; “Dream Cruise”, “Adrift”, “Watercolors”, and “Forest Under the Sea”, complete the anthology. As horror and science-fiction novel aficionados read these stories, they will find out that some have been made into movies under other names.

Carrie.

This was Stephen King’s first published novel, and it deals with Carrie White, a misfit high school who uses her telekinetic powers to avenge from those who bullied her., causing one worst local disaster in American history, destroying most of the town on prom night. After learning she was conceived because of marital rape, and that she was the subject of a huge prom prank, a mortally wounded, but still alive, Carrie destroys the house where she was conceived, kills her bullies, and after forgiving her innocent girlfriend, she dies crying out for her mother. This is a classic novel taken to the big screen twice, but I believe that even for those who have seen the movies, the novel is a good read because of King’s terrific style, and to see how he was writing at the very beginning.

Ghost Story.

Peter Straub’s fascinating story of the “Chowder Society” of the fictional town of Milburn, New York. The characters are five lifelong friends who meet periodically to share ghost stories until one of them dies suddenly and the surviving four find themselves haunted by dreams of their own death. The story takes us back to a time when the protagonists were young and they all were involved in the death of a young woman whom they believe has come back to take revenge upon them. This is a novel we must read. Even Stephen King has included it among the finest horror novels of the 20^th century.

Rebecca.

This novel by English writer Dame Daphne du Maurier tells the story of how a young woman, while working as companion to a rich American woman on vacation in Monte Carlo, meets Maximilian, de Winter, a British middle-aged widower who she marries after a short courtship. She moves into his beautiful estate Manderley where she meets Mrs. Danvers, the enigmatic housekeeper who had been a devote companion to the first Mrs. De Winter, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident about a year before she met her now husband Maximilian. The sinister housekeeper drives the new wife to madness by constantly talking about the first wife’s beauty and intelligence, until the young wife is convinced that her husband regrets his decision to marry her as he must be deeply in love with the deceased Mrs. De Winter. Through Mrs. Danvers’ manipulation, the young wife attends the annual costume ball dressed like a woman in a portrait that hangs from one wall of the estate. This turns out to be the same dress Rebecca was famous for, and when her entrance to the ballroom is announced as “Caroline de Winter”, the name of the woman in the portrait, Maximilian gets very angry and orders her to change. Mrs. Danvers continues her campaign against the young wife and tries to get her to commit suicide, but at the last moment there is a shipwreck and a diver investigating the scene of the accident also discovers the remains of Rebecca’s boat with her body still on board. After some turmoil, Maximilian tells her he loves her; that Rebecca was a mean and selfish human who told him, on the night she died, that she was cheating on him and was pregnant with a child that was not his. In a moment of rage, Maximilian shot her and she died.  Later on he learned that Rebecca was told on the same day she would die of an incurable disease and she could have no children. Maximilian assumed that Rebecca, knowing she would die soon, manipulated him into killing her quickly. After coming to terms with these facts, Maximilian drives back to Manderley, but as he gets closer to the mansion, it becomes clear that the house was ablaze.  This is truly a suspense novel that will give you many reasons not to go near a boat or a masquerade.

Dear friends and colleagues, this is my list. I am sure that many of you will agree with some of my picks and disagree with others. I could have continued up to 50 or 100 novels, but I had to end the post at some point. For that reason, and hoping that you help me enhance the list, I now ask you to share some of your favorite horror novels, and please make sure that you talk about novels, short stories, or plays; I am not interested in horror movies this time around.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.