Can Books Be Effective Horror? // Let’s Talk Bookish

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion where we discuss certain topics based on prompts allocated for each Friday of the week. You basically share your opinions and get into the conversation by visiting each other’s posts. You can find the August schedule here or here.

Today’s Let’s Talk Bookish topic is Do books make effective horror?, which was suggested by Dani @ Literary Lion.

I have always been the sort of person who can stomach a horror novel over a horror movie. I cannot stand the jump scares or the gory appearance of all the horrifying characters in the movies. But with horror novels, I can? Haha! Isn’t that weird?

SOME PEOPLE LOVE TO BE SCARED – OTHERS NOT SO MUCH. WHEN IT COMES TO READING DO YOU THINK BOOKS CAN BE SCARY?

I definitely think so! Personally, I have not read many horror books because I am not a hardcore horror fan, but the few I have read have creeped me out or disturbed me multiple times.

Growing up, I was a huge fan of collecting and reading Goosebumps books. That was my first step into the horror genre, followed by more classic works, like Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and Frankenstein. Now I have read more modern writings, like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.

ARE YOU LESS SCARED BECAUSE THERE ARE NO PICTURES?

I don’t think illustrations in horror books really scare me at all. In fact, they just enthrall me with the artist’s talent. I have always been a fan of artwork – mostly because I have zero talent when it comes to drawing even stick figures – so I always get blown away by the artwork I see everywhere.

So no. If a horror book has illustrations in it, I’ll most probably lust after it even more if anything!

DO YOU FEEL OTHER MEDIUMS SUCH AS FILMS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE FOR HORROR?

I think this is subjective.

For me, horror movies are the scariest in the genre. I can’t watch even a 2-minute movie trailer without scaring myself for a few days. When thinking about it, I think it is probably because I cannot control the ‘horror’ of a movie once I play it, but when I read a book my imagination would moderate the ‘horror’ element to a bearable level.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN KEPT UP AT NIGHT BY A BOOK?

Oh yes! There was this one book, Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough, which I read years back in 2013 and I was terrified when I was done! I remember being too scared to get off my bed because I was convinced that something would grab me! LOL!

When it comes to book that creeped me out and had me thinking about its disturbing premise when I’m in bed at night, that award goes to Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I was probably more disturbed more by this book than its movie adaptations honestly, and that’s a first for me.

What’s the scariest horror book you have read so far? What horror releases are you looking forward to this year?

My previous Let’s Talk Bookish posts:

• July 23: Does Having a Positive Message Automatically Make a Book Good?
• July 16: What Are The Best Ways To Get Over Reading Slumps?
• July 9: Should Books Have Content Ratings?
• July 2: Prologues & Epilogues: Are They Necessary?
• June 25: Good Covers Versus Good Content