This is a list of books that still scare me to this day. I’ve finished them, I know what happens, and still I’m afraid. Most of them, I don’t even remember the details, but if I spot the book on the shelf out of the corner of my eye, a chill will run through me.
Don’t open that book, I’ll think. You’ll have to start checking behind the shower curtain again.
But I really believe if you’re going to read something terrifying, summer is the best time to do it. The sun is shining, the weather’s warm, you’ve got the book in your right hand and an ice cream cone in your left. it’s the perfect cognitive dissonance. Try to enjoy while your cortisol spikes to new levels.
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Uketsu, Strange Houses
This book makes you realize even floor plans can be terrifying. It’s about the author and his architect friend who uncover all these houses’ hidden rooms, a conspiracy, and a murder.
Now I know…I shouldn’t have read this in my own home. I should’ve read it outside where there are no doors or walls. If you really want to read this one, find a pasture to do it in. That’s my advice.
Caleb Carr, The Alienist
This one’s about a serial killer running around carving up bodies and making sculptures out of their corpses. Don’t be fooled by the historical fiction setting. The fact that this guy manages to wreck all this havoc in a horse and buggy only makes it worse. Nightmares for a week and a half. Frowning for a month.
Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards
This book is also about a serial killer, and the way it’s written, it keeps you googling “The Trawler Los Angeles” just to make sure it’s definitely not real. I know for a fact who did it, and still all I think about is what they’d do to those victims’ pets.
Whenever I see other people reading this book, I feel compelled to do a wellness check.
Evelyn Clarke, The Ending Writes Itself
This one is a little less scary than the others, but it’s about genre writers getting murdered, so it hits a little close to home. The story takes place in a Scottish castle in the middle of the ocean and you know there’s a storm brewing. The atmosphere is enough to put you on edge, and just when you get attached to a character, oop, they’re getting killed.
And you think, yep, that could be me.
Jay Anson, The Amityville Horror
This one made my life hell. You think, oh, it’s just a haunted house! That’s a fictional thing! Relax! Then you do some digging and find out everyone involved insists it’s mostly true. Goodbye sleep! If you’re gonna read this one, do it at 10am somewhere that’s definitely not haunted, like a botanical garden or a CVS.
Be careful out there, and read with caution!
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