I remember the first time I read Clive Barker, it was his Books of Blood series and was I creeped out. But I kept going back due to his descriptions, characters, and mood. I physically reacted to those stories deep in the pit of my stomach. That was during my twenties.
Before high school I read a book about an abused dog…something keeps nudging my brain about being Red, it had a happy ending. Sorry can’t think of the title, but the story stuck with me.
Truthfully, I can’t remember a book that scared me in the sense of being afraid. Mostly, those have been movies based on books.
I’ve become emotionally invested in books. Afraid a character is going to be killed off or that someone I don’t want to be the bad guy is going to be the bad guy. But rarely has a book scared me.
The ones that have gone out of their way to scare end up being overdone and don’t offer the emotional pull I need.
Those – Poe, Barker, Lovecraft, King, and more – they have the element that have scared others but for me, I’m so drawn into the story I don’t experience being scared. For me, it’s what I assume is the adrenaline rush one feels after a roller coaster ride (now those scare the _____ out of me which is why I don’t ride them).
A sense of WOW – again!
I have put a book aside because a scene has creeped me out. Actually I only have done this once, King’s Gerald’s Game. It completely freaked me out with its opening. The idea of being that helpless…yeah couldn’t get past it.
However I’ll call that a failure to scare me only because I still wasn’t pulled in enough to continue reading.
A good scare requires the reader to want to continue. To get beyond the scare and find out more. To have the fear conquered. If I can simply walk away and not care – where’s the fear?
So how then can you scare me? Maybe the better question – quest – is write the story that makes me say – WOW, again!