Comments on: The Frightful Pages

By: Michael J. Farrand

Michael J. Farrand — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:09:32 +0000

Great post! Thought you might be interested in my classic reading list of novels.

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By: Kathleen Bolton

Kathleen Bolton — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:24:45 +0000

ugh, Perfume both disgusted and exhilerated me, Carina. It was one of those weird books that could push both responses.

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By: Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:12:09 +0000

Welcome, Carina from Portugal! I agree with you about characters in books and the ability we as writers have to make them even scarier than in movies. After all, we can do what movies cannot – plumb the depths of depraved minds. (Though movies have a tool we don’t: scary music to create instant mood.)

A character I thought frightening in book form was the dog Cujo from Stephen King’s book of the same name. Okay, not a human character, but a character nonetheless.

Thanks, Thea. I have no idea what happened to the costume jpg today. I’m in NYC today and unable to access the template to figure it all out. It’ll have to wait until Thursday. :)

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By: theamcginnis

theamcginnis — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:59:54 +0000

p.s. – great kids costumes, teri!!

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By: theamcginnis

theamcginnis — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:59:01 +0000

well, stephen king’s ‘salem’s lot’ was probably one of the scariest books i have ever read. vampires just strike at the heart of my fears – although buffy and all the vampire romances/thrillers etc out today pretty much have diluted the fear of vampires for the masses. (IMO) king’s book was so darn scary but the movie, sorry to say, was not. that man can capture fear with the written word like no other. and that goes for carrie, the shining, christine, pet cemetary – but salem’s lot was for me – the scariest of all his books.

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By: Carina

Carina — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:52:57 +0000

In all the books I’ve read, I never found a specific character that was especially scary.

I did feel fear, many times, while reading certain scenes. But in those cases usually the “bad character” was very general. Like when reading books set in Germany at the time of the genocide, a person can feel that fear deep inside them, but the “enemy” is what? The country? The nazis? Anyone from the Gestapo?

- Some people read Gaston Leroux’s “Phantom of the Opera” and feel fear toward the Phantom character. In my case I felt pity for him.
- In the book “Perfume”, by Patrick Suskind, the character of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is dark, scary and most of all… disgusting. He didn’t exactly scared me, but the things he did creeped me out.

I don’t think Movies do a better job at showing those frightening characters than Books. In fact, I think that in a book you can find a much more detailed profile of that character and maybe even know their background, motivations, etc. By reading, you can get much more information AND set your own pace at absorbing it.

By the way, when talking about frightening stories, the first thing that comes to my mind is Edgar Allan Poe. I read his stories when I was 9 and they gave me nightmares for a week.

Greetings from Portugal! :)

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