I've enjoyed suspense and horror for as long as I've been reading, though it's always hard to find appealing books in either genre. I have weird tastes and requirements for what I read. Most books just don't grab me, or some particular aspect keeps me from reading. Here's my list of some favorite creepy short stories and novels, in no particular order:
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
If you've seen any of the movie adaptations, forget those. They can't compare to the original, and in most cases didn't even try. I Am Legend is the story of one man alone in a world full of bloodsuckers--literally. Robert Neville is the last human after a plague turns everyone else into vampires. Every night he hunkers down in his fortified home; every day he makes repairs and steals supplies and kills vampires when he finds them sleeping. It's been called "perhaps the greatest novel written on human loneliness," and the twist at the end will haunt you for days, when you finally understand the title's rue significance. It's a short novel that takes no more than an afternoon to finish; give it a try, and see why people have felt the need to put this story to screen no fewer than four times.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Joe Hill is the son of horror icon Stephen King, and does his blood proud with the inimitably creepy Heart-Shaped Box. It has appeared on many best-of lists from authorities far greater than mine, and there's a reason: it's freaky as hell, and well-written to boot. Judas Coyne, an aging rock star living with his current girlfriend Georgia (he calls all his girlfriends by their home state) and two loyal dogs, is obsessed with death. When his assistant spots a supposedly haunted suit on an online auction site, he has to have it and buys it on the spot. It is haunted, and the ghost has his own reasons for hating Judas--he's the stepfather of someone that Judas hurt badly, come to seek revenge in the most gruesome way he can. The ghost sits in the house, swinging a razor blade on a chain, waiting. This is the stuff nightmares are sewn from.
You probably know the name even if you've never read one of his stories. Lovecraft has become synonymous with his most famous creation, the monstrous Cthulhu, though the creature plays only a minor role in his creator's own oeuvre. Ignore what you've heard and read "The Colour Out of Space," one of Lovecraft's best stories and one of his most unsettling. The absence of a tangible enemy makes the horror all the more disturbing, as in the aftermath of an assumed meteor hit strange things start happening on a family farm. The trees seem to sway without any breeze, the vegetables have taken on a strange color, and there's something living in the well. There's a remarkable sense of dread and cruel inevitability as you bear witness to the events of the past, and a family dedicated to staying on their ancestral land even as they fall to pieces. It's also one of the saddest horror stories I know. The archaic style may be off-putting to some, but trust me when I say that this story will suck you in and never let you go.
I first read an abridged illustrated version, and that alone stayed in my nightmares for years--though the insanely creepy illustrations may have something to with it. "The Upper Berth" is one of the most often anthologized horror stories, some would say too often. I think it should be in every single one, first story, so that everyone can read what real horror is. It's this. A man is taking a voyage across the Atlantic in cabin 105 of the Kamtschatka, one of his favorite ships, but this time things don't go as well as he would have hoped. The cabin is damp and smells of seawater. He has a roommate on the upper bunk, but he barely sees the man before he runs down the hall and disappears, leaving the door open. His roommate returns int he night, but now the porthole is open. The next day he complains about his room to another passenger--and learns that the last three occupants of room 105 have gone overboard. He's told to sleep in another room, offered an officer's cabin. He stays. Things, as they say, do not go well.
Well, that's what I have to offer. There are others, of course, other stories and other books meant to scare you. You could watch a movie, I guess, or visit a haunted house. But is that any substitute for reading by a bedside lamp, late at night, shades drawn, shadows dancing on the walls, scared witless and wanting more?
I think not.
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