Triple Threats

So the furniture market got in the way of my posting last week. I was so busy I didn't even notice that my reviews of spooky books didn't post. Since today is Halloween, it's the perfect day to finish up my list of the best horror books with a triple threat of fear. Don't plan to sleep tonight.

Ghost Story

by Peter Straub
You can't reference the horror genre without talking about Stephen King and Peter Straub. This was actually one of the first books I read that gave me nightmares, and it still spooks me today.
First published in 1979, the story does have a few references that date it, but Ghost Story will pull you in with its twisty tale.
Milburn, NY, seems like a sleepy little town; the kind of place where people play bridge, where kids still walk home from school, and where a group of elderly friends meet to relive memories in their Chowder Club.
This idyllic setting hides darker truths, and a spook (literally) has returned to reveal them. Gregory Bate haunts the town, and the Chowder Club, offering retribution and revenge. As the winter sets in, there is more than a chill in the air as evil takes over. (1979 - Pocket Books)

Helter Skelter

by Vincent Bugliosi
Moving from fantasy to reality, Helter Skelter proves that nightmares can come true. Written by the prosecutor who originally tried the Manson Family, the book has become a classic in the true crime category.
Familiar to so many today, it's a tale that is still impossible to comprehend. Charles Manson, an outcast and a loner, creates his own "family" by manipulating young and disenfranchised runaways in the '60s. Using a lethal mix of drugs and psychology, Manson convinces his followers that an apocalyptic class and race war is about to begin, it just needs a catalyst. He meticulously plans a mass murder, but asks his family to carry it out. The rest is, of course, infamous. But Bugliosi does his best to explain what is really unexplainable, offering in-depth interviews and an insider look at the investigation and bizarre trials. (1970 - Bantam Doubleday) 

Dracula

by Bram Stoker
A 100-year novel still has the the ability to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. In fact, this book scared me so badly when I first read it that I slept with the sheets around my neck until I was in college (okay, maybe for a little longer after).
This was not the first story about vampires, but it is the book that defined the idea of the vampire for a solid century after its publication.
Originally penned with the title The Dead Un-Dead, Dracula tells its story through a series of letters and diary entries, detailing the story of a young lawyer who travels to a remote castle to provide advice to a Count Dracula. Jonathan Harker finds himself a prisoner of the count, and begins to suspect that evil deeds are being done. When Harker finally escapes back to England, he finds that Dracula has followed him and is targeting Harker's fiance Mina and her lovely young friend Lucy. (new edition - 2011 - Platinum Editions)

Who Ya Gonna Call?

The Exorcist

by William Blatty
There is no scarier book in the world than The Exorcist, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year with a new edition. When I first read this book, it frightened me so much that I have still not seen the movie to this day. The book gave me enough awful images for a lifetime...I didn't need to see it on the screen too.
Author William Blatty has revamped his infamous storyline, adding new characters and passages. But the core remains the same: Young Regan begins to hear voices and suffer from nightmares after her parents' divorce, which seems at first to be related to the stress of the change. She claims, and others begin to believe, that she is possessed by the devil himself.
Blatty says this new edition is the version he always wanted to write, and the one he wants to be remembered for. He says he never really set out to terrify anyone, but really saw the book as a supernatural detective story. See his interview on the 40th anniversary book by clicking here. (Reissue in 2011 - Harper)

A Real Fright

Last week we reviewed spooky books, but this week it's all about the real frights, my list of five of the scariest books I've ever read.
Fear is a very personal thing. One person may hate spiders, when another can pick them up without a problem. My fears tend toward the real, rather than fantasy. So you may agree with some, but not with others.
Be sure to note the skulls at the bottom. They indicate the fright level, with one skull for a book that is slightly scary to four skulls for a book that should come with a warning for those with heart conditions.

The Stand 
by Stephen King
Ah, the master of frights, Mr. Stephen King. You knew he had to be on this list somewhere. To me, this is the scariest of his stories, because it could be only too real.
If your only idea about The Stand is from the Molly Ringwald and Gary Sinise miniseries, do yourself a favor and read the book instead.
The story begins with a very sick man escaping from a bio-lab. He crashes his car and dies, but not before infecting everyone near him with a horrible flu-like bug (think bird flu or the film Contagion).
In an very short time, just a few thousand people are left alive in the entire country. And, as with most extreme situations, some people handle it better than others, and two distinct groups emerge.
One is comprised of people who want to make the best of what they have left as they gather under the leadership of a mystical woman named Mother Abigail.The second group...well you can see where this is going. They find themselves under the spell of a sinister Randall Flagg in the almost-too-obvious Sin City.
Yes, it can be a bit over the top with the good vs. evil powerplays, but the core fear in this story is the very real chance that a superbug could be the end of the world as we know it. Do you feel fine? (1980 - Penguin Group)