11 books scarier than any horror movie

We tend to search for ways to scare ourselves and test our limits because fear has always been an emotion we love to experience so long as it could be controlled. We hunt for for ways to grow goose bumps, feel the tinder shivers on the back of our necks and have heart-pounding fun.

Some people choose to go to haunted houses, some choose to scare others, and some choose to watch horror movies. But if you truly want a terrifying night on Halloween, here are 11 books scarier than any horror movie.

1. Horns By Joe Hill:



Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache and a pair of horns growing from his temples.

At first Ignatius thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances.

A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real. Once the righteous Ignatius had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community.

Ignatius had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.

But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ignatius was never charged or tried. But he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ignatius is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away.

Nothing he can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside.

Now Ignatius is possessed by a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a little revenge. It’s time the devil had his due.

2. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff:



Mackie is not one of us.

Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement—left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with an oddly intriguing girl named Tate. But when Tate’s baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

3 . Red Dragon by Thomas Harris:



In the realm of psychological suspense, Thomas Harris stands alone. Exploring both the nature of human evil and the nerve-racking anatomy of a forensic investigation, Harris unleashes a frightening vision of the dark side of our well-lighted world.

In this extraordinary novel, which preceded The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Harris introduced the unforgettable character Dr. Hannibal Lecter. And in it, Will Graham—the FBI man who hunted Lecter down—risks his sanity and his life to duel a killer called the Red Dragon

4. Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist:

Something peculiar is happening. While the city is enduring a heat wave, people are finding that their electric appliances won’t stay switched off. And everyone has a blinding headache. Then the terrible news breaks – in the city morgue, the newly dead are waking.

David always knew his wife was far too good for him. But he never know how lost he’d be without her until the night she died. Now she’s gone and he’s alone. But when he goes to identify her body, she opens her eye…

Across the city, grieving families find themselves able to see their loved ones one last time. But are these creatures really them? How long can this last? And what deadly price will they have to pay for the chance to see their spouses and children just one more time?

5. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirly Jackson:

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House:

Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting“; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House.

At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

6. From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell:

FROM HELL is the story of Jack the Ripper, perhaps the most infamous man in the annals of murder. Detailing the events leading up to the Whitechapel killings and the cover-up that followed,

FROM HELL is a meditation on the mind of a madman whose savagery and violence gave birth to the 20th century. The serialized story, presented in its entirety in this volume, has garnered widespread attention from critics and scholars.

Often regarded as one of the most significant graphic novels ever published, FROM HELL combines meticulous research with educated speculation, resulting in a masterpiece of historical fiction both compelling and terrifying. This new edition, which has been completely re-mastered, is certainly the finest edition of the book produced to date.

7. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake:

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before.

She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas’s life.

8. Miss Pergrine’s Home For Peculiar Childrenby Ransom Riggs:

A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

This unforgettable novel mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As the story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

9. Blood and Other Cravings edited by Ellen Datlow:

When we think of vampires, instantly the image arises: fangs sunk deep into the throat of the victim. But bloodsucking is merely one form of vampirism. For this brilliantly original anthology,

Ellen Datlow has commissioned stories from many of the most powerfully dark voices in contemporary horror, who conjure tales of vampirism that will chill readers to the marrow.

In addition to the traditional fanged vampires, Datlow presents stories about the leeching of emotion, the draining of the soul, and other dark deeds of predation and exploitation, infestation, and evisceration, tales of life essence, literal or metaphorical, stolen. Blood and Other Cravings will redefine the terror of vampires and vampirism.

10. Werewolves and Shapeshifters edited by John Skipp:

Werewolves and shapeshifters have morphed into the latest pop culture stars. This mind-bending collection includes thirty-two new and classic stories from the best writers in the genre

Werewolves and shapeshifters are the latest literary craze following vampires and zombies. The phenomenal success of the Twilight series, and the blockbuster movies that followed, has spawned a new obsession with these supernatural beings.

From John Skipp, the master of horror, comes this definitive collection of thirty-two classic and new stories, written by favorites of the genre including George R.R. Martin, Charlaine Harris, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, Joe R. Lansdale, Angela Carter, David J. Schow, Kathe Koja, Bentley Little, and more.

Skipp provides fascinating insight and details, through two nonfiction essays, into the history and presence of shape shifting in popular culture. Resources at the end of the book include lists of the genre’s best long-form fiction, as well as movies, websites, and writers.

11. Heart Shape Box by Joe Hill:

Joe Hill’s beautifully textured and deliciously scary novel will greet you with a sort of overwhelming skin-crawling supernatural terror.

Aging, self-absorbed rock star Judas Coyne has a thing for the macabre – his collection includes sketches from infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a trepanned skull from the 16th century, a used hangman’s noose, Aleister Crowley’s childhood chessboard, etc. So when his assistant tells him about a ghost for sale on an online auction site, he immediately puts in a bid and purchases it.

The black, heart-shaped box that Coyne receives in the mail not only contains the suit of a dead man but also his vengeance-obsessed spirit. The ghost, it turns out, is the stepfather of a young groupie who committed suicide after the 54-year-old Coyne callously used her up and threw her away.

Now, determined to kill Coyne and anyone who aids him, the merciless ghost of Craddock McDermott begins his assault on the rocker’s sanity.

In final thoughts….

Found a horror book that interest you? Or perhaps you have a book you’d like to tell others about. Feel free to suggest any if there’s a horror book that you would like to share with the crowds.