What do you guys like to read?
For the most part, I like books that scare me. Now, I read a lot of different genres, but if I get a shiver while reading a book, or if I am thinking to myself “Don’t go in that room CHARACTER, you’re gonna regret it!” then I’m happy as a pig in…well…you know the rest. Southern colloquialisms…ya gotta love ‘em.
I also like some fantasy. It has to be done a certain way, though. I used to love the Xanth books, but I had to stop reading somewhere around The Color of Her Panties. I just couldn’t get past all the puns. For my fantasy book-buying dollars, I’ll take Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman, R.A. Salvatore, Robert Jordan, and Terry Goodkind (although Goodkind does get a little long-winded from time to time).
Then there are thrillers. Yeah, I like those, too. Michael Crichton, James Rollins, Lisa Gardner, Alex Kava, and Robert Liparulo are just a few of my favorites in this genre. There are also some up-and-comers like Jeremy Robinson and Scott Sigler. Anytime you can read about a character getting eaten by a creature that hasn’t existed on this planet in several hundred million years or so, you have my undivided attention. Aaaah…good times. Goooood times.
But what most of those books have in common is that, at some point in the book, they creeped me out or even scared the poo outta me. THAT’s what I like. Like in Scott Sigler’s Ancestor when that fetus attacked a camera while still in the womb. Ooooh…shivers. Or in Steven King’s The Stand when a group of loincloth-clad black soldiers led a rebellion of sorts against the rest of the company, executing all of them in game-show fashion (the set up resembled The Price is Right). I still have nightmares about those two scenes.
One of my proudest moments as a writer (especially since I’m not published yet) came when one of my beta readers told me she had to sleep with the lights on after reading a scene I wrote. Big smile in McAfee Land that day. Shortly afterward, another beta told me she actually had nightmares about the same scene. Ooh! I scared TWO people with it. You can insert the theme from Rocky here, if you want to.
Alas, that book was not able to snag an agent, for all its charms (personally, I still love that book…but what do I know?).
But these things are selective, aren’t they? I mean, watching an unborn prehistoric animal fetus stare at a camera and attack it (with a mouth full of razors…a frickin’ FETUS, mind you!) might not have the same effect on some of you as it did me. So you guys tell me….when it comes to horror (or thrillers with horror elements), what does it for you? Are you a creep-factor reader? Do you like to read about some heretofore unknown critter chomping down on people’s vital organs? Maybe you like the psycho in the bathroom with a butcher knife theme. Or maybe you just pass on that stuff altogether in favor of Mitch Albom (who is friggin’ GREAT, BTW) or Nicholas Sparks.
You tell me. What floats your boat?
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6 comments:
I read all genres as well, but nothing does it like good old-fashioned horror tale, whether it's labeled, horror, thriller, fantasy, etc.
I remember reading Brandon Massey's Within the Shadows and was creeped out by the fact that this guy was being stalked by an ex and finding out that she had supernatural powers. That was just...crazy. :*)
Sometimes I prefer monsters, sometimes people, and at other times I prefer that thing in between. :*)
I'm not so much about the scary. I like fast-paced books that make me want to root for the hero. I know that sounds broad, but what can I say? I'm not picky.:)
Ice Station by Matthew Reilley.
The scene where a Marine is hung upside-down over a dive-pool in a research station in Antarctica & fed to the killer whales - just because.
Oh yeah.
Of course, the scene in 'IT' by Stephen King when the clown talks to little Georgie from down in the storm drain just before he kills him gave me nightmares for years.
Oooh, I'm reading Ice Station right now. Just started, in fact.
Can't wait to get to that scene. :)
David ~
If you have not read anything by him yet, you will be addicted after you are finished with that novel.
It totally rocked.
Hi! First time poster over here.
I had to stop reading Stephen King after a while coz I got creeped out too much. But to me the quintessential scary scene was in Pet Sematary when the character realizes his trip to the cemetery was NOT a dream.
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