SYNOPSIS:

There was a golden age of horror movies from the late sixties to through the 1970's, that was brought on by a renaissance of quality horror novels like The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, and The Shining. In a world where we're all jaded by fountains of blood , it is a testament to a book's quality that it can remain a staple on the "best horror novel" lists. The story is about an innocent young girl, who's possessed by an ancient demon, an old priest that specializes in exorcisms and the research of demons, a young priest struggling with his faith after the death of his mother, and a police detective investigating a grisly murder. The book is engaging, and of course has its intense moments of supernatural activity and shocking moments that might be considered tame by today's standards. The truly unsettling thing about the book — and what makes it linger as a classic — is how it tackles larger themes about belief and the unfairness of the world. It questions a god that allows an innocent to be struck down and made to suffer and questions why there is evil in the world. It leaves the reader very much aware of your own vulnerability and the vast unfairness of it all — which are the most terrifying things to contemplate.

 

SYNOPSIS:

Four people venture to spend a summer in the reportedly haunted Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for proof of ghosts, Theodora, his assistant, Eleanor, a young recluse, and Luke, the heir to the house. The group begins to experience strange and unexplained events. That plot might be familiar to you if you've seen either the intense 1963 psychological thriller movie The Haunting or the goofy, bad 1993 version of The Haunting. Jackson was such a master of creating suspenseful tension that there is even an award named for her that recognizes contemporary literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. What makes the novel so effective is its unreliable narrator, Eleanor. Being limited by her incomplete perspective makes the reader just as unsure and vulnerable as she is. This perspective become more suffocating and tense as the line between the real and unreal and the living and dead becomes more and more blurred.

SYNOPSIS:
The one-star and five-star reviews of this book actually say the same thing — it's absolutely disgusting and disturbing. A group of would-be writers answers an advertisement for a three-month writing retreat. When the attendees arrive, they're locked in an old-theater, with dwindling supplies. The novel is actually a series of short stories strung together under the artifice of the captives telling tales, and the tales become more horrifying and grotesque as the situation deteriorates. A situation made worse by the participants themselves, as they begin to practice murder and self-mutilation in the belief they are in some kind of reality show. It is said that when Palahniuk read the first tale "Guts" on book tour, people were fainting left and right. The reader is freaked out, not just by the graphic violence and unnerving supernatural bits — but also, the uncomfortable questions about what people will do for fame.