Question Do you get scared reading horror novels?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by SleepyTy, Apr 20, 2021.

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Do you get scared reading horror novels?

  1. Yes

    7 vote(s)
    14.6%
  2. No

    16 vote(s)
    33.3%
  3. Depends on the novel

    25 vote(s)
    52.1%
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  1. SleepyTy

    SleepyTy Well-Known Member

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    Is it just me who almost never gets scared when reading horror novels? I got a small amount of chills maybe once but that's about it. I cannot watch scary movies or shows cus I'm a scaredy cat so idk why horror novels have no effect. Maybe the novels I read aren't very good in the horror aspect? I see everybody in the comments talk about how scary everything is so I'm confused. Do you get scared reading horror novels? If you do please recommend me a few horror novels that scared you.
     
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  2. elengee

    elengee Daoist Ninefaps

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    I bought resident evil 7 like two years ago, still have yet to play it because it creeps me out, even though i want to do so.
    Haven't had a single book do that, might be the atmosphere created through music and visual tricks like darkness which don't work in writing.
    I've got a rich imagination and visualize everything i read, but somehow the feeling of being in control of what you 'experience' settles me down. :hmm:
     
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  3. Reindeer

    Reindeer RynDeeVuo

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    The horror in My House of Horrors is mostly the type that makes you sick when you think of it, it's not exactly the kind of scary horror. It's a horror that makes you afraid of how inhuman humans can get. Personally I don't like horror in general but when there's only my mind that's scaring me, it's a lot more enjoyable.
     
  4. Blank-1

    Blank-1 Fantasy-holic

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    I don’t really read horror novels, but I imagine that after reading enough descriptions about monstrosities and bloody scenes you kinda get desensitised to it in fiction.
    Like when I was younger, I was terrified of Dementors in a Harry Potter novel, but now I’d just happily accept that soul devouring spectres happen to appear in the streets of a fiction
     
  5. The loner

    The loner Well-Known Member

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    have you tried My House of Horrors? the feeling of powerlessness when facing those you can't understand is what horror suppose to be~

    well, MHoH is scary only until that point though.. when Mc already has the ability to face them, it's no longer scary imo.. on the bright side, we'll have his customers PoV when visiting his haunted house and he also facing circumstances where he can only depends on himself on the latter part of story.. so you can have enough horror from this novel~ :blobokhand:
     
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  6. Yhuandi

    Yhuandi Well-Known Member

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    Well horror novel didnt really scare me, but there is one time my heart jump out because my mother suddenly called me when i reading thrilling part XD
     
  7. elengee

    elengee Daoist Ninefaps

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    I've read the entire thing. I'll admit author did a good job, but i still never went beyond slight tension and excitement. More a minor adrenaline rush than a 'i won't be able to sleep' moment.
     
  8. The loner

    The loner Well-Known Member

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    well.. as someone who has less backbone than you, I don't think I know any novel to broke your record.. :blobjoy:
     
  9. Halcyon Observer

    Halcyon Observer Full stop

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    Agreed. I have not finished the entire novel yet, but nothing was particularly horrifying.
    Also, let me help you with that 'I won't be able to sleep' moment.

    "You've filed taxes late."
     
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  10. Kalione

    Kalione Well-Known Member

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    For me, horror movies make me scared but mostly due to the visual impact, as for horror novels they make me go on philosophical mode, thinking how much trash human beings are. Maybe because I read a lot of horror books since i was at brat age so i'm desensitized.
     
  11. elengee

    elengee Daoist Ninefaps

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    Hmmm, i did read a lot of 'goosebumps' series when i was young, so maybe you're onto something. :hmm:
     
  12. a14635

    a14635 Well-Known Member

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    Let's just say that the "Alien" franchise books sit among the top of my favorite horror/terror books. :blobsmirk:
     
  13. Greater thunder

    Greater thunder Well-Known Member

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    It really depends. Even when it's not supposed to be horror, Stephen King writing still chills me a bit.

    Most other things, nothing.

    As @elengee said, media where your imagination isn't king, but observer like games is what gets the fear rise up.
     
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  14. Nightangle

    Nightangle Well-Known Member

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    Well we are used to reading fantasy novels so there being a creature capable of doing something or looking horrifying or not human has become a common scene in novels. So we just take it lightly especially when we inherently know that mc also has been given some golden finger in the plot making him capable of dealing with the ghost or any other anomally. Horror movie scare us coz we are seeing from the perspective of normal people like us who dont have any ability to go against anything supernatural and we get scared bcoz we can relate to them being powerless against something powerful and beyond our common sense and we are not given a peek into the knowledge of specialist which are starred in the movies we dont know exactly how they deal with the ghost or how they acquired this knowledge they are mostly fumbling with different kinds of methods in the movie.
    but in the novel we know exactly what mc is capable of so most of the good horror novels are written mostly from authors perspective where the experience of people around mc are mostly written so that we can experience the thrill but it gets low after some chapter as we get to know that mcis powerful and can deal with anything so we get a mental support and stop being scared no matter how gory the scene is....
     
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  15. albeldayuia

    albeldayuia Can't-Re Member

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    I get scared no matter what.
    Seeing the vote result and replies it seems like the scared ones are the weird ones?
    I normally avoid visual media with the horror theme, and overly gore, psychological horror or the types of horror that involves purely human beings doing inhumane things, because it's totally bad for my health
    So for ghost stories type of horror, I can still tolerate a bit. But I will avoid if I could, unless I can afford being petrified in fear for the next few days, keep imagining the ghosts everywhere I look. Even if it's only written, I can still see it in my mind vividly. It doesn't matter that I grow up in a sort of horror environment, I never get desensitized to it
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2021
  16. MidstNost

    MidstNost 【 Reigen's Saltshaker 】【 Lingtian Raider 】

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    Yall haven't read r/nosleep and it shows. I'm the type of person who gets super bored watching a horror movie, because of all the typical gore or jumpscare tactics. I even watched The VVitch alone at night (with full-on no lights to maximize the creepy atmosphere) and I actually enjoyed it but it didn't scare me that much. The snacks probably helped comforting me though.

    Then months after, I tried reading the scariest short stories in r/nosleep during 11 pm, and I couldn't sleep until 2 am because of utter terror. I even messaged my friends to comfort me lmao. (It was this six-part series that caused that.) I actually felt scared enough that I didn't read another horror novel, then after another month or so, I built enough courage to read another one, then after that was the time where I really stopped reading on the subreddit.
     
  17. KhayDesu

    KhayDesu ❀Rᴇᴀᴅιɴԍ Eɴтнusιᴀsт❀ | ★ᴅᴇsu~★ | ✿Loquᴀcιous✿『☕』

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    Holy moly. @MidstNost this reminds me of the story 'Bedtime' from creepypasta.com it was multi-part series as well, it was more vivid and surreal than this one and i found myself spacing out thinking about it every now and then after i read it, there's also 'Psychosis' 'Love' 'Fenter Woods' 'The Melancholy of Herbert Solomon' and other creepy pastas
     
  18. Lissi

    Lissi 『Queen of Lissidom』『Holy Chibi』『Western Birdy』『⚓』

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    Yes, I get scared all the time~

    My favorite time to read horror novels is midnight, so I can feel my heart pounding hard and feel the terror! It's so thrilling~! Full immersion!!

    But how much scare you get probably depends on your imagination and environment.

    If I read these novels in broad daylight while trying to multitask, I would probably get 0 scare from it as well lol
     
  19. Txtlover

    Txtlover Well-Known Member

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    I’ve read just one horror novel that really scared me, can’t remember the name but it had very realistic factors and felt like something that could happen in real life. After reading a bunch of horror novel, it won’t scare me now but I realized that horror novels like that aren’t really my cup of tea
     
  20. Kalione

    Kalione Well-Known Member

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    Yes, goosebumps and i also think the kids born in the nineties witnessed the horror trend a lot. I don't know about you but in my country there wasn't a very good control on the ratings, so i remember me and my friends consuming this stuff a lot. At morning, we would watch courage the cowardly dog, even at the after school club our teachers would purposely put maratons of horror movies or cartoons. At night, when me and my older brother made sure our parents were asleep, we would play Resident Evil for an hour or two and then wonder why we couldn't sleep
     
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