Unsettling Horror

piano_island · Mar 19, 2011

I'm looking for recommendations on horror stories that left you feeling unsettled. In other words, it doesn't have to be particularly gross or gory, but stories that stayed with you for days and left that gnawing horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach like the feeling that something was seriously wrong with humanity in general. Maybe something a little absurd. Sorry if I'm not being very clear, but I don't know how else to describe it.

I've read a lot of horror stories recently and they haven't done anything for me. I'm looking to feel absolutely awful and completely "squicked" out, borderline self-hatred for making myself read something so horrible.

Thanks!

donatos · Mar 20, 2011

The Nightwalker by Thomas Tessier. Werewolf novel where the werewolf doesn't necessarily show up. But the sociopathic nature of the MC starts to wear you down. There's also a small story within the novel that is a zombie story I can't ever forget. It seems to me the books you're talking about usually do without all the gore or horror tropes. It's the nature of man that's so disturbing.

Rhoda Nightingale · Mar 21, 2011

The Mist by Stephen King, although the movie unsettled me more than the novella.

Selah March · Mar 21, 2011

The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson. No gore, no monsters, not even a ghost, but Jackson took me so deeply into the heads of the singularly disturbed main characters that I didn't think I'd ever shake their voices.

And thirty years later, I haven't.

seun · Mar 21, 2011

Not out and out horror exactly, but read The War Zone and try forgetting it.

Jcomp · Mar 21, 2011

Thomas Ligotti's "My Work is Not Yet Done," even thugh I think it went off the rails a bit in its effort to be nihilistic and unsettling, the overall idea was pretty disturbing.

piano_island · Mar 21, 2011

Thanks everyone! I'll be looking into your suggestions shortly.

Rhoda, The Mist is a perfect example of that feeling I'm looking for. I haven't read the novella (I don't like King's writing style, but I love his ideas.) but I did see the movie.

I'm going to add a book the the list myself. The Other by Thomas Tryon. Also disturbing.

Rhoda Nightingale · Mar 21, 2011

Happy to help! Although that's all I've got. I deeply dislike stories that drain me of all hope for humanity. I like dark stories, but I prefer them to be at least hopeful, if not conclusive, in the end.

dgrintalis · Mar 21, 2011

Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. One of the most disturbing books I've ever read.

Rane · Mar 21, 2011

Trapped and Endurance - both by J.A. Konrath - left me feeling unsettled. I thought about those stories for a week afterward.

I absolutely loved them.

Arch Stanton · Mar 21, 2011

piano_island said:
I'm looking for recommendations on horror stories that left you feeling unsettled. In other words, it doesn't have to be particularly gross or gory, but stories that stayed with you for days and left that gnawing horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach like the feeling that something was seriously wrong with humanity in general.
Thanks!

"The Dreams in the Witch House"
"The Shunned House"
"At the Mountains of Madness"
"The Whisperer in Darkness"
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth"

all by H.P. Lovecraft. I find his skill at creating lasting unease to be unmatched.

quicklime · Mar 21, 2011

piano_island said:
I'm looking for recommendations on horror stories that left you feeling unsettled. In other words, it doesn't have to be particularly gross or gory, but stories that stayed with you for days and left that gnawing horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach like the feeling that something was seriously wrong with humanity in general. Maybe something a little absurd. Sorry if I'm not being very clear, but I don't know how else to describe it.

I've read a lot of horror stories recently and they haven't done anything for me. I'm looking to feel absolutely awful and completely "squicked" out, borderline self-hatred for making myself read something so horrible.

Thanks!

There was a short in Moon on dark Water about a kid and a knife

The October Game by Ray Bradbury

a lot of Laymon makes me squirm by their gore and rape, but the two above are much more subtle

Storyteller5 · Mar 21, 2011

The Apt Pupil (Stephen King). It's a novella in the book Different Seasons. A good chunk of it is about the Holocaust.

chrysalnix · Mar 22, 2011

"Finishing Touches" by Thomas Tessier, I think. I almost wish I hadn't read it...almost.

seun · Mar 23, 2011

dgrintalis said:
Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. One of the most disturbing books I've ever read.

*adds to reading list*

Storyteller5 said:
The Apt Pupil (Stephen King). It's a novella in the book Different Seasons. A good chunk of it is about the Holocaust.

Good example. I loved how Todd is presented from the start as the perfect All-American kid...and...well, I won't spoil it for anyone yet to read it.

grandmastertuck · Mar 24, 2011

I can't, for the life of me, remember the name of the story, or remember the author. It was about a woman, a beautiful, sexy woman that was a serial killer. She would kidnap her victims, torture them and kill them. The main character was a cop that had been held prisoner by her for a while, and she had let him go instead of killing him, which was highly unusual for her. The story disturbed me because of the psychological attachment the cop had for her, and because of the way she would profess her love for him while making him drink teaspoons of drain cleaner. Just.... icky. Really good story, though, and I'm annoyed that I can't remember more... Anyone have any idea what it was?

Glen R Krisch · Mar 24, 2011

I have to agree with The Mist and Apt Pupil. I would also like to add anything by Gary Braunbeck. His horror is what I consider emotional horror. It hits hard and feels real. In Silent Graves, Keepers, Mr. Hands, Coffin County, Far Dark Fields.

seun · Mar 25, 2011

grandmastertuck said:
I can't, for the life of me, remember the name of the story, or remember the author. It was about a woman, a beautiful, sexy woman that was a serial killer. She would kidnap her victims, torture them and kill them. The main character was a cop that had been held prisoner by her for a while, and she had let him go instead of killing him, which was highly unusual for her. The story disturbed me because of the psychological attachment the cop had for her, and because of the way she would profess her love for him while making him drink teaspoons of drain cleaner. Just.... icky. Really good story, though, and I'm annoyed that I can't remember more... Anyone have any idea what it was?

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain.

grandmastertuck · Mar 25, 2011

Yes! Except it was the first one, Sweetheart. Thanks, seun!

seun · Mar 25, 2011

No prob. I haven't read it, but it did catch my eye at work enough for me to skim it. Some very nasty bits.

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 25, 2011

piano_island said:
I've read a lot of horror stories recently and they haven't done anything for me. I'm looking to feel absolutely awful and completely "squicked" out, borderline self-hatred for making myself read something so horrible.

Same with me. I can't think of any novel that's done that to me.

piano_island · Mar 28, 2011

dgrintalis said:
Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. One of the most disturbing books I've ever read.

Sadly, I read The Girl Next Door and didn't find it disturbing at all and I really wanted to be disturbed!

MetalDog · Mar 30, 2011

Another Stephen King story - Pet Semetary
The book rather than the faintly ridiculous movie, which may not work for you if you don't like his style. It's so full of wrong, I think you might like it anyway =) Audiobook might make it go down easier?

Arkadia · Mar 31, 2011

Definitely Apt Pupil by Stephen King. That would be my number 1 choice. Stephen King's Misery had some gore, but it was the psychological horror that messed me up reading it and the experience has stayed with me even though I first read it about 10 years ago.

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski is a brooding, deep horror novel that tells a terrible tale and examines the psyche of man at the same time. Zero gore but really bothers the mind.

Peter Straub has a short story called Juniper Tree, while it's not straight up 'horror' per se it is really, really disturbing and I felt very strange and dirty long after reading it. It's a great story. You can find it in his short story collection 'Houses without Doors' (and some other collections too). He also wrote another brilliant short horror story called 'Blue Rose'; I highly recommend it. It definitely left me with a 'people are really messed up' feeling.

I'm sure there are a lot of other stories I'm forgetting, so I'll probably come back to this.

donatos · Apr 2, 2011

MetalDog said:
Another Stephen King story - Pet Semetary
The book rather than the faintly ridiculous movie, which may not work for you if you don't like his style. It's so full of wrong, I think you might like it anyway =) Audiobook might make it go down easier?

I haven't read Pet Semetary but I know Stephen King has said that its the book that messed with him the most.

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