All Hallow's Read Recommendations: Old Terrors

Neil invites you to All Hallow's Read and suggests books too! 

This year, give someone a scary book to read. 

Candy is ok, he says, candy is fine (oh, I bet it is!) but give it a go and swap scary books.

I must admit it, I'm not much of a horror fan. I'm naturally a scaredy cat (lately though it seems my tastes are changing...) but still, I love good books. I really enjoy atmosphere-oriented horror books and the general feeling they cause, but avoid with passion the regular Hollywood-style horror. I find this ancient fear of the unknown, the 'weird', speaking directly into my soul and survival instincts.

So my recommendations (and their free e-books, since they're all too old for a copyright) would be:

1. H.P. Lovecraft - The Thing on the Doorstep

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear."

Yes, who else could be first? I have a teenage love for Lovecraft I can't put very well into words. He sure imagined the weirdest stuff on this earth, ever. His artistry is insurmountable. 

And mad. Very. Mad.

Get the free e-book

2. Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow

"Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!"

This is a collection of short stories; some are better, some are worse. I'll tell you one thing: the figure of the King in Yellow still haunts my thoughts. Oh, the madness.

Get the free e-book

3. Henry James - The Turn of the Screw

"If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children-?" 

The classy grand-mama of horror. This "twisted little tale", as Oscar Wilde put it, is based purely on the sensations fear causes. 

Did I mention it's about madness?

Get the free e-book

4. Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper

"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"

Probably the first feminist horror and one of the best things I've read. It's about an 18th century woman who visits a country house as part of her cure for, well, madness. 

Spoiler: she gets madder.

Get the free e-book

5. Edgar Allan Poe - Histoires Grotesques et Serieuses

by sirxlem

"And now was I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere Humanity."

How could he NOT be on this list. 

For fans of horror, Poe is like the alphabet.

Get the free e-book

I think you know by now the kind of horror I prefer 

(yes, it's about madness, okay?). 

So, any recommendations for me? Nudge a book! 

All Hallow's Read, start!

Other recommendations can be found here and here.