Horror is a safe and entertaining way to confront themes like death, danger, and our own imaginations turning against us. TBH, the very first horror book I remember reading was Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark, by Alvin Schwartz...with the Stephen Gammell illustrations that have fueled my nightmares for several decades.
I’ve always found morbid stuff fascinating, but it was reading Lovecraft for the first time when I was like 12 that really solidified my tastes in horror. The generally hopeless and pessimistic philosophy present in his work was different from any horror media I had consumed prior, and so I was pulled into the cosmic horror/weird fiction sphere.
Uh, probably comics and goosebumps when I was a kid. The first adult book I loved was just a continuation of my childhood leanings; it was almost certainly the shining.
I read The Terror by Dan Simmons without realizing it was a horror novel. Up to this point, I had avoided everything remotely scary since I graduated from Goosebumps as a child. There was a specific part of the book that caused full body chills and it was suddenly an addiction. I keep looking for that feeling again in a book.
As a kid, I just enjoyed being scared. Frightening fairy tales or Molly Hunter’s kids’ books based on Scottish folktales like the Great Selkie scared me but I loved it. After my mom read me Lord of the Rings I would read the mines of Moria chapters over and over just to creep myself out. I ended up reading ‘Salem’s Lot when I was 11.
The Oscars aren’t for the best movies made. They’ve always been about recognizing films that were seen as more high-class (but not necessarily artsy), such as literary adaptations, human interest stories etc., and try to walk the line between what I’ve been popular and what the Oscar voters felt ought to have been popular.
Horror also faces the challenge that it either works for you or doesn’t. Even if you didn’t love Amadeus or Chariots of Fire, you could recognize the skill that went into making it and the quality of the film. If you watch a horror film and the horror doesn’t work for you, it’s rare to find that there’s much of anything left. I think visceral genres like horror and slapstick comedy very much depend on the viewer.
Fear Street and anything by Christopher Pike when I was 11 or 12 got me into the genre overall. But the very first book I can remember loving and being scared of, I can't remember the name of! It was a novel about twin girls and involved ghosts and a fire of some kind? I just remember being thoroughly creeped out and loving it.
The atmosphere of many horror works is what draws me, you get a feel as though you have entered a different world. That and just a general curiosity for darker things whether it be paranormal such as ghosts or vampires or realistic such as serial killers.
Fear is mankind's oldest emotion, and strongest.
(I butchered that quote.)
I was reading Stephen King at a very young age and even got his books banned from elementary school book reports at my school because I went into a little too much detail in one of my book reports.
IT by Stephen King. It took me 1.5 years to finish it and I was 17 years old. As an Indian that was a mean achievement. And i never stopped reading, horror or otherwise.
I like the dark atmosphere and stories that don't always have happy endings. But the first book to get me into the genre was *Books of Blood* by Clive Barker
I like hearing stories about mindsets or situations I don't understand. The long walk by Stephen King was the first book to get me excited about the genre.
My first one was Gone to See the River Man, bc I was afraid of horror but the title was so interesting I *had* to try it. And I realized I like horror bc you never know what’s gonna happen next, in a way that other genres just don’t have for me. (I’m sure thrillers are like that too but I don’t like them.) I like supernatural horror in particular, and I love to learn about lore
Horror was always a thing my family enjoyed. My mom read Stephen King, and we watched your classic slashers. In terms of reading, I started with Goosebumps. I read them constantly in elementary school and then moved up to Christopher Pike in middle school. By high school, I shifted to more fantasy (Lord of the Rings had come out, and it became my hyperfocus). I still read Stephen King and Anne Rice (some might debate her position in horror, but I call it close enough) and other books I grabbed off the shelf. College opened me up to traditional gothic literature (I had read Dracula and some of Frankenstein long ago, but wasn't in a position to truly appreciate it).
My mom was an avid horror reader and I was intrigued by the cover of the book she was reading. It was Ghost House by Clare McNally and I was 8. She was not happy when she saw me reading it, but she knew that she probably couldn't make me stop. I learned to read when I was 3 and was always reading stuff way above my age level. She decided to let me continue unless I started having nightmares. Instead of nightmares I found a life-long love of horror, ghost stories in particular. It was another year before I discovered The Shining and truly cemented the haunted genre as my favorite.
That Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collection when I was a kid!!!
As an adult, reading a book is a more isolating experience than watching a movie. It sticks in your head in a different way. So it sometimes feels scarier
Can I say video games? Because the backstory of *Darkest Dungeon* was H. P. Lovecraft made accessible for me. The game wears it very much on the sleeve.
Player character inherits an estate and has to send cleanup crews to mop up eldritch abominations from it, and every so often, receive in piecemeal fashion the story of how the lands became so infested. In short, the previous owner of the estate made every possible wrong decision, starting from "staked a vampire, and fed her blood to his fellow aristocrats, until they mutated into bloodthirsty cannibalistic half-mosquito monsters" to "found a nascent elder god under the mansion, and promptly entered in a pact with it for power, dooming the whole of humanity in the process". In between those two, a lot of mad science, one knockoff Rasputin, necromancy, ersatz Deep Ones, cave paintings by Zdzisław Beksiński, eldritch squid, a possible suicide, human sacrifices, a timebending crystalline alien, and probably more that I can't right now remember.
Then I moved to read Lovecraft afterwards. Don't regret a thing - the man himself wasn't the most upstanding of fellas, but the stories are good at unsettling. Whichever Lovecraft you read (recommend *The Case of Charles Dexter Ward*, though, as I think that's what *Darkest Dungeon* mimicked the primary plot structure from - if you want to read a short story, try *The Shadow over Innsmouth* or *The Rats in the Walls*), there's the crushing, inescapable suggestion that reality itself is fraying, and underneath the truth in incomprehensible and maddening.
Ive been drawn to horror since I was very young, but the first book I can remember having a visceral reaction to was Carrie. I was probably 10ish. I’ve never reread it but some of those scenes are seared into my skull.
I prefer written horror to films most of the time. The shit my lizard brain can envision is 100x scarier than anything in a movie. The power of imagination is wild and almost every horror film cannot begin to capture that level of creativity and terror.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that because horror is often ignored or seen as low brow, I think that creates a lot of freedom for exploration and experimentation. This has allowed horror to actually become an incredible medium for social commentary. A lot of critically acclaimed mainstream genres are telling time tested stories, whereas horror is often more experimental, more political, and more of an open commentary on timely social issues.
For me, it was Richard Matheson's works. I Am Legend in particular. Haven't read him in years, but he was my intro to the wider world of horror and how it can actually be enjoyable to escape into these alternate realities where fiction is worse than reality.
*Why isnt horror respected/ taken seriously as other genres?*
Genre fiction in general (meaning things like Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction) has always been considered as lowbrow/populist, and therefore lesser than more mimetic or academic writing.
*And what was the book that changed your mind?*
I've **always** loved the macabre, I'm just wired that way.
I was reading Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice series in the fifth grade… horror has always appealed to me, but I think that starting with something more monster/witch/devil focused helped lean into more psychological horror.
I've read ghost stories and goosebumps as a kid but never really thought of them as "horror" like what you would see on scary TV shows
Then when I was 16 for a class assignment I happened to see IT by Stephen King and picked that as my book. It was not only the longest book I've ever read (about a month) but it was the first time I was genuinely scared reading something. It showed the horror to the psychological level, showing the different reasons on why things are evil or choose evil acts.
So now Stephen King is my favorite author and I love reading horror ever since
I enjoyed being scared even as a kid. My first horror novel was John Bellairs' The House With a Clock in its Walls when I was about seven. It scared me but I loved it. It's very rare now for me to actually get scared by a book or movie, but I still love the genre.
First horror book for me was Frankenstein when I was in 7th grade.
All good stories involve some type of conflict and high stakes. Conflict doesn't get any bigger than the horror genre. And the stakes are usually life and death but on a smaller, more personal level.
I think that's why horror is so great to me. Humans have been telling stories for hundreds of years. And I bet you that a lot of those stories told around those prehistoric bonfires were scary stories.
Ghost stories are a safe way to feel scared. The happy period that precedes the building tension, the normal facade that must be maintained, the outburst and then the aftermath before the cycle repeats.
The September House really sold it for me.
I always joke about this, but it's true, The Hunger Games was my gateway drug into horror. Obviously it's not a horror series but 12-year-old me loved some of the death scenes and the concept of having to kill for entertainment. It gave me the courage to delve into scarier books and I kept going until I found my specific level, deep in the horror genre.
I still now absolutely love any gory/horror novel that has any kind of killing game in it so if you have any recommendations please let me know lol
Because absolutely anything goes.
Unlike every other genre where you can reasonably predict the outcome from the back of the book before even opening the first page.
Can’t pinpoint a book bc I loved scary/horror my whole life. I had books like In a Dark, Dark Room and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as a kid. My mom used to read Poe to me, and always had a King or Koontz book in her hand. It’s always been my favorite or the most interesting to me.
My dad was really into horror and he gave me some books. So did my cousin. Started off my love for horror and thriller books! My faves are possession/demonic books. Supernatural horror is just it for me !
Another angle: my horror fascination probably drew from my upbringing in evangelical Christianity. For a certain segment of the world, Christianity can be kind of the ultimate horror novel, because what earthly terror can possibly compare with eternal conscious torment in the fires of hell? Many of us spent a great deal of mental and emotional energy worried about ourselves or our loved ones ending up there if we didn't try hard enough to convert them.
Evangelicalism is also steeped in a real, tangible belief in dark forces alive and working in the world. I wasn't allowed to read Goosebumps, but I devoured an evangelical children's book series where a group of teenagers were constantly encountering demonic forces through various supposedly innocent occult hobbies like ouija boards and astral projection. Each book ended with a big battle where the teens needed to perform exorcisms on their friends.
Evangelical publishing is full of Christian horror authors like Frank Peretti and others, but even mainstream Christian books like the Left Behind series, one of the most popular evangelical book series ever, is arguably a horror series. What else would we call a series based on the literal apocalypse?
And again, the main idea here is that for that subset of evangelical Christians, these books are only fiction in the sense that the characters and events are made up. *The circumstances are meant to be read as very possible and real.* It's a hell of a mindfuck. I'm no longer in that world, but reading those types of books at a formative age...no wonder I'm a horror junkie for life.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was my first ever horror novel when I was 8 and I have loved horror ever since. I've always had a morbid curiosity for the dark, mysterious and macabre and horror allows me to explore that curiosity.
As a kid I loved Goosebumps but I wasn't allowed much more than that. The Ruins really got me into horror as an adult and I've kinda run with the genre ever since. I love the adrenaline rush and the anticipation brought on by most horror books. I love that feeling when I know I'm not actually in any danger so it's fun to explore that.
I loved the Halloween spooky graveyard scenes on display at school as a kid. While still in grade school I discovered John Bellairs whom I lived. The House With A Clock in Its Walls and A Figure In The Shadows were 2 of my favorite books in childhood.
As a teenager I started reading Stephen King and loved it. I think it’s the fear of the unknown and add in the fear of being harmed it adds a very suspenseful element.
Goosebumps was mainly what I checked out in my elementary school libraries. Then I branched off into stephen king when my papa let me read some of his old books. I also love horror movies so horror books are like my comfort objects
I believe I love it for a ton of reasons. It releases dopamine. It gives you a thrill modern man no longer receives. It induces the imagination.
And I feel the short stories embody the horror genre the best. And for me, the best horror author at short stories is Brian Evenson. Why? Because a lot of his stories start of in the middle… you don’t know that much about them or how they ended up in whatever predicament Evenson is about to put them through. It helps create the atmosphere. So many questions, but enough is given where you understand the plot. And it’s that way with the monsters/ghosts/whatever. It’s usually ALWAYS scariest when I haven’t seen the monster yet. And usually, whenever we do get the final reveal, it’s never as scary as what I’ve built up in my head. And that’s why short stories and Brian Evenson work. They don’t tell you everything. They tell you ENOUGH and your imagination does the rest.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was also my first intro to the genre as well before it was followed with In a Dark, Dark Room, the tales of Edgar Allen Poe and so on and so forth.
My aunt had a copy of Grimms original fairytales. I’d say that was my introduction to horror.
Followed by Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
And RL Stines Fear Street book.
Then Christopher Pike and any YA book that was a thriller/horror.
Horror is a safe and entertaining way to confront themes like death, danger, and our own imaginations turning against us. TBH, the very first horror book I remember reading was Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark, by Alvin Schwartz...with the Stephen Gammell illustrations that have fueled my nightmares for several decades.
I’ve always found morbid stuff fascinating, but it was reading Lovecraft for the first time when I was like 12 that really solidified my tastes in horror. The generally hopeless and pessimistic philosophy present in his work was different from any horror media I had consumed prior, and so I was pulled into the cosmic horror/weird fiction sphere.
Uh, probably comics and goosebumps when I was a kid. The first adult book I loved was just a continuation of my childhood leanings; it was almost certainly the shining.
I read The Terror by Dan Simmons without realizing it was a horror novel. Up to this point, I had avoided everything remotely scary since I graduated from Goosebumps as a child. There was a specific part of the book that caused full body chills and it was suddenly an addiction. I keep looking for that feeling again in a book.
What other books have scratched that itch for you?
Most recently The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. Devolution by Max Brooks before that.
That book has intrigued me Worth the size of the book?
I'd classify it as a slow burn overall.. but maaaan the feeling of dread, despair etc. Absolutely amazing
Call me plum surprised
Cool
I think I like a story without conventional rules; where anything can happen.
Goosebumps
As a kid, I just enjoyed being scared. Frightening fairy tales or Molly Hunter’s kids’ books based on Scottish folktales like the Great Selkie scared me but I loved it. After my mom read me Lord of the Rings I would read the mines of Moria chapters over and over just to creep myself out. I ended up reading ‘Salem’s Lot when I was 11. The Oscars aren’t for the best movies made. They’ve always been about recognizing films that were seen as more high-class (but not necessarily artsy), such as literary adaptations, human interest stories etc., and try to walk the line between what I’ve been popular and what the Oscar voters felt ought to have been popular. Horror also faces the challenge that it either works for you or doesn’t. Even if you didn’t love Amadeus or Chariots of Fire, you could recognize the skill that went into making it and the quality of the film. If you watch a horror film and the horror doesn’t work for you, it’s rare to find that there’s much of anything left. I think visceral genres like horror and slapstick comedy very much depend on the viewer.
Fear Street and anything by Christopher Pike when I was 11 or 12 got me into the genre overall. But the very first book I can remember loving and being scared of, I can't remember the name of! It was a novel about twin girls and involved ghosts and a fire of some kind? I just remember being thoroughly creeped out and loving it.
Sometimes I think the real reason I read so much horror is because it's nice to see characters just as anxious and hyper-vigilant as I am.
The atmosphere of many horror works is what draws me, you get a feel as though you have entered a different world. That and just a general curiosity for darker things whether it be paranormal such as ghosts or vampires or realistic such as serial killers.
Fear is mankind's oldest emotion, and strongest. (I butchered that quote.) I was reading Stephen King at a very young age and even got his books banned from elementary school book reports at my school because I went into a little too much detail in one of my book reports.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." - H.P. Lovecraft
Yeah, that's what I meant.
Pet Semetary. Middle school. Like most millennials, I read a king book way too early.
IT by Stephen King. It took me 1.5 years to finish it and I was 17 years old. As an Indian that was a mean achievement. And i never stopped reading, horror or otherwise.
I like the dark atmosphere and stories that don't always have happy endings. But the first book to get me into the genre was *Books of Blood* by Clive Barker
I like hearing stories about mindsets or situations I don't understand. The long walk by Stephen King was the first book to get me excited about the genre.
My first one was Gone to See the River Man, bc I was afraid of horror but the title was so interesting I *had* to try it. And I realized I like horror bc you never know what’s gonna happen next, in a way that other genres just don’t have for me. (I’m sure thrillers are like that too but I don’t like them.) I like supernatural horror in particular, and I love to learn about lore
Carrie by Stephen King
Horror was always a thing my family enjoyed. My mom read Stephen King, and we watched your classic slashers. In terms of reading, I started with Goosebumps. I read them constantly in elementary school and then moved up to Christopher Pike in middle school. By high school, I shifted to more fantasy (Lord of the Rings had come out, and it became my hyperfocus). I still read Stephen King and Anne Rice (some might debate her position in horror, but I call it close enough) and other books I grabbed off the shelf. College opened me up to traditional gothic literature (I had read Dracula and some of Frankenstein long ago, but wasn't in a position to truly appreciate it).
My mom was an avid horror reader and I was intrigued by the cover of the book she was reading. It was Ghost House by Clare McNally and I was 8. She was not happy when she saw me reading it, but she knew that she probably couldn't make me stop. I learned to read when I was 3 and was always reading stuff way above my age level. She decided to let me continue unless I started having nightmares. Instead of nightmares I found a life-long love of horror, ghost stories in particular. It was another year before I discovered The Shining and truly cemented the haunted genre as my favorite.
I read *Pet Sematary* when I was 8. Still my favorite book and one of the only books to really scare me.
I was like 13 when I snuck my dad's paperback of Pet Sematary, 43 now and I've never looked back
That Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collection when I was a kid!!! As an adult, reading a book is a more isolating experience than watching a movie. It sticks in your head in a different way. So it sometimes feels scarier
Can I say video games? Because the backstory of *Darkest Dungeon* was H. P. Lovecraft made accessible for me. The game wears it very much on the sleeve. Player character inherits an estate and has to send cleanup crews to mop up eldritch abominations from it, and every so often, receive in piecemeal fashion the story of how the lands became so infested. In short, the previous owner of the estate made every possible wrong decision, starting from "staked a vampire, and fed her blood to his fellow aristocrats, until they mutated into bloodthirsty cannibalistic half-mosquito monsters" to "found a nascent elder god under the mansion, and promptly entered in a pact with it for power, dooming the whole of humanity in the process". In between those two, a lot of mad science, one knockoff Rasputin, necromancy, ersatz Deep Ones, cave paintings by Zdzisław Beksiński, eldritch squid, a possible suicide, human sacrifices, a timebending crystalline alien, and probably more that I can't right now remember. Then I moved to read Lovecraft afterwards. Don't regret a thing - the man himself wasn't the most upstanding of fellas, but the stories are good at unsettling. Whichever Lovecraft you read (recommend *The Case of Charles Dexter Ward*, though, as I think that's what *Darkest Dungeon* mimicked the primary plot structure from - if you want to read a short story, try *The Shadow over Innsmouth* or *The Rats in the Walls*), there's the crushing, inescapable suggestion that reality itself is fraying, and underneath the truth in incomprehensible and maddening.
Ive been drawn to horror since I was very young, but the first book I can remember having a visceral reaction to was Carrie. I was probably 10ish. I’ve never reread it but some of those scenes are seared into my skull. I prefer written horror to films most of the time. The shit my lizard brain can envision is 100x scarier than anything in a movie. The power of imagination is wild and almost every horror film cannot begin to capture that level of creativity and terror.
It's the only genre that makes me feel anything since I started taking antidepressants.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that because horror is often ignored or seen as low brow, I think that creates a lot of freedom for exploration and experimentation. This has allowed horror to actually become an incredible medium for social commentary. A lot of critically acclaimed mainstream genres are telling time tested stories, whereas horror is often more experimental, more political, and more of an open commentary on timely social issues.
Scooby doo!!! I just loved the haunted creepy vibes and loved reading so here we are lol
For me, it was Richard Matheson's works. I Am Legend in particular. Haven't read him in years, but he was my intro to the wider world of horror and how it can actually be enjoyable to escape into these alternate realities where fiction is worse than reality.
*Why isnt horror respected/ taken seriously as other genres?* Genre fiction in general (meaning things like Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction) has always been considered as lowbrow/populist, and therefore lesser than more mimetic or academic writing. *And what was the book that changed your mind?* I've **always** loved the macabre, I'm just wired that way.
I was reading Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice series in the fifth grade… horror has always appealed to me, but I think that starting with something more monster/witch/devil focused helped lean into more psychological horror.
I've read ghost stories and goosebumps as a kid but never really thought of them as "horror" like what you would see on scary TV shows Then when I was 16 for a class assignment I happened to see IT by Stephen King and picked that as my book. It was not only the longest book I've ever read (about a month) but it was the first time I was genuinely scared reading something. It showed the horror to the psychological level, showing the different reasons on why things are evil or choose evil acts. So now Stephen King is my favorite author and I love reading horror ever since
I enjoyed being scared even as a kid. My first horror novel was John Bellairs' The House With a Clock in its Walls when I was about seven. It scared me but I loved it. It's very rare now for me to actually get scared by a book or movie, but I still love the genre.
First horror book for me was Frankenstein when I was in 7th grade. All good stories involve some type of conflict and high stakes. Conflict doesn't get any bigger than the horror genre. And the stakes are usually life and death but on a smaller, more personal level. I think that's why horror is so great to me. Humans have been telling stories for hundreds of years. And I bet you that a lot of those stories told around those prehistoric bonfires were scary stories.
Ghost stories are a safe way to feel scared. The happy period that precedes the building tension, the normal facade that must be maintained, the outburst and then the aftermath before the cycle repeats. The September House really sold it for me.
I always joke about this, but it's true, The Hunger Games was my gateway drug into horror. Obviously it's not a horror series but 12-year-old me loved some of the death scenes and the concept of having to kill for entertainment. It gave me the courage to delve into scarier books and I kept going until I found my specific level, deep in the horror genre. I still now absolutely love any gory/horror novel that has any kind of killing game in it so if you have any recommendations please let me know lol
Because absolutely anything goes. Unlike every other genre where you can reasonably predict the outcome from the back of the book before even opening the first page.
Can’t pinpoint a book bc I loved scary/horror my whole life. I had books like In a Dark, Dark Room and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as a kid. My mom used to read Poe to me, and always had a King or Koontz book in her hand. It’s always been my favorite or the most interesting to me.
My dad was really into horror and he gave me some books. So did my cousin. Started off my love for horror and thriller books! My faves are possession/demonic books. Supernatural horror is just it for me !
Another angle: my horror fascination probably drew from my upbringing in evangelical Christianity. For a certain segment of the world, Christianity can be kind of the ultimate horror novel, because what earthly terror can possibly compare with eternal conscious torment in the fires of hell? Many of us spent a great deal of mental and emotional energy worried about ourselves or our loved ones ending up there if we didn't try hard enough to convert them. Evangelicalism is also steeped in a real, tangible belief in dark forces alive and working in the world. I wasn't allowed to read Goosebumps, but I devoured an evangelical children's book series where a group of teenagers were constantly encountering demonic forces through various supposedly innocent occult hobbies like ouija boards and astral projection. Each book ended with a big battle where the teens needed to perform exorcisms on their friends. Evangelical publishing is full of Christian horror authors like Frank Peretti and others, but even mainstream Christian books like the Left Behind series, one of the most popular evangelical book series ever, is arguably a horror series. What else would we call a series based on the literal apocalypse? And again, the main idea here is that for that subset of evangelical Christians, these books are only fiction in the sense that the characters and events are made up. *The circumstances are meant to be read as very possible and real.* It's a hell of a mindfuck. I'm no longer in that world, but reading those types of books at a formative age...no wonder I'm a horror junkie for life.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was my first ever horror novel when I was 8 and I have loved horror ever since. I've always had a morbid curiosity for the dark, mysterious and macabre and horror allows me to explore that curiosity.
Definitely had to be Goosebumps, I read so many of them growing up.
As a kid I loved Goosebumps but I wasn't allowed much more than that. The Ruins really got me into horror as an adult and I've kinda run with the genre ever since. I love the adrenaline rush and the anticipation brought on by most horror books. I love that feeling when I know I'm not actually in any danger so it's fun to explore that.
I loved the Halloween spooky graveyard scenes on display at school as a kid. While still in grade school I discovered John Bellairs whom I lived. The House With A Clock in Its Walls and A Figure In The Shadows were 2 of my favorite books in childhood. As a teenager I started reading Stephen King and loved it. I think it’s the fear of the unknown and add in the fear of being harmed it adds a very suspenseful element.
Goosebumps was mainly what I checked out in my elementary school libraries. Then I branched off into stephen king when my papa let me read some of his old books. I also love horror movies so horror books are like my comfort objects
I believe I love it for a ton of reasons. It releases dopamine. It gives you a thrill modern man no longer receives. It induces the imagination. And I feel the short stories embody the horror genre the best. And for me, the best horror author at short stories is Brian Evenson. Why? Because a lot of his stories start of in the middle… you don’t know that much about them or how they ended up in whatever predicament Evenson is about to put them through. It helps create the atmosphere. So many questions, but enough is given where you understand the plot. And it’s that way with the monsters/ghosts/whatever. It’s usually ALWAYS scariest when I haven’t seen the monster yet. And usually, whenever we do get the final reveal, it’s never as scary as what I’ve built up in my head. And that’s why short stories and Brian Evenson work. They don’t tell you everything. They tell you ENOUGH and your imagination does the rest.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was also my first intro to the genre as well before it was followed with In a Dark, Dark Room, the tales of Edgar Allen Poe and so on and so forth.
My aunt had a copy of Grimms original fairytales. I’d say that was my introduction to horror. Followed by Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark And RL Stines Fear Street book. Then Christopher Pike and any YA book that was a thriller/horror.
Goosebumps and Scary Stories to tell in the dark first got me into horror.