An engrossing horror book can send chills down your spine without VFX effects and deafening soundtracks. Three popular Indian authors pick their favourite scary tomes
Illustration/Uday Mohite
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Henry James. Pic Courtesy/ Wikimedia commons
The Turn Of The Screw
I have read it two or three times, and each time I have come up with an explanation that has fully satisfied me. Only, each time, it is a different explanation and once, the new one was diametrically opposed to the old one.
James casts a long shadow; I suspect the angelic and terrifying Damien in [the film] Omen owes much to Miles, the beautiful and mysterious boy in The Turn Of The Screw. James understood that ugliness may bring fear in its wake but beauty, poisoned by evil, can shake some fundamental belief inside you about the nature of the world.
Jerry pinto
Stephen King. Pic/AFP
The Shining
It's an incredible book; it blows your mind. I read Pet Sematary first, which prepared me for King. The imagination of the way in which the hotel is in the middle of nowhere is compelling, and so are the characters. I believe the little boy in The Sixth Sense [the film] is very much similar to the child in The Shining as he can see ghosts too.
King is such a great writer, he could write anything, but he chooses to write horror. The Shining is his best book. It doesn't get into the gory aspect or sexual abuse and other violent things; it's clean but a real hair-raiser.
Anuja Chauhan
Mervyn Peake. Pic Courtesy/wikimedia commons
The Gormenghast trilogy
It's not outright horror, but my favourite dark book has got to be the Gormenghast Trilogy: the Titus Books (Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone) by Mervyn Peake; especially the first two.
One of them has my all-time favourite murder scene; no other scene can match it! It's my favourite because it's dark, glowering, malevolent and leaves a feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach. It won't let you sleep!
Ranjit Lal
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