Place |
Name |
Characteristic in the rating |
1 | Pet cemetery | Best-seller |
2 | Viy | The struggle between good and evil for the human soul |
3 | The Master and Margarita | Classics of Russian literature |
4 | Well and pendulum | Man in a trap |
5 | The Drowned Woman, or the Third Key | Temporary plexus in the plot |
6 | How the tin was tempered | Top Reviews |
7 | Wendigo, demon of the forest. Hour of the hunt | Best for teen audience |
8 | Hammer of the Witches | Lots of bloodshed |
9 | Heart shaped box | Most Anticipated |
10 | Ice kiss of fear | Playing on fears comes from childhood |
Those who like to read and tickle their nerves with atmospheric scenery, tense action and a plot that excites the imagination, books in the horror or mystic genre are ideal. In such works interest is preserved until the last pages, because it is always interesting to find out what the matter is and what the hell is going on. Often, horrors have a psychological connotation, often the fears that haunt the heroes originate from childhood. Reading nightmares can develop observation, intuition, and even temper the psyche.
Perhaps books in the horror genre are one of the best tools to artificially immerse yourself in the world of fear and notably worry, because it is with a book in your hands that you are left alone with your imagination and independently draw pictures of the plot in your head. Even more entourage can be achieved if you read horror stories at night. To make your search easier, we have compiled a selection of the best scary books, according to ratings on literary resources.
TOP 10 best horror books
10 Ice kiss of fear
Author: Natalia Kalinina
Book price: 318 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.2
A Russian mystic detective story tells about a group of people consisting of 2 best friends (a horror writer and a photographer), a father and son and a young male businessman, who, by the will of fate, found themselves in the same minibus that breaks down on an empty night road and those following advice of the driver, they go on a hike to the nearest village in order to spend the night there in a hotel.
Having settled in a hotel, they find themselves in a trap, from now on they will not be able to get out of it. Heroes experience every new day what they would like to forget forever and delete from their biography. The year is 1983 on the calendar, the telephone is not picking up, but the messages come in, not a single living soul except them, but in the dining room every day someone leaves them fresh food. Fuel is added to the fire and 5 graves found in a cemetery near the forest with their names. The whole horror is that each hero is haunted by his own fear, originating from childhood.
9 Heart shaped box
Author: Joe Hill
Book price: 210 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.3
The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, was filmed before its release, making it the most anticipated publication of 2007. In the story, rock star Jude Coyne, 54, is in a creative crisis at the end of her fame. One of the hero's hobbies is collecting occult items related, for example, to witchcraft.
Jude, with skepticism, makes a purchase of a dead man's costume, which comes with a ghost, via the Internet, and now, he receives a box in the shape of a heart, after which a series of terrible events begins, because the ghost has its own views on the new owner, associated with past events.The plot keeps in suspense, a lot of attention is paid to the experiences of the characters, the topics of childhood trauma are raised. Although most of the book is written in the genre of mysticism and horror and is full of bloody hard scenes, there was a place for a love line in it.
8 Hammer of the Witches
Author: Konstantin Obraztsov
Book price: 349 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.3
Peter. Evening. An educated, handsome 49-year-old man suddenly starts a chain of murders. He takes the lives of women, doing it as thoughtfully as possible with the most non-standard torture. He is convinced that he is doing the right thing. Next to the lifeless bodies, the killer leaves their passport to make it easier for law enforcement to identify the women, and a message with the inscription "Witch", against which he is given the nickname Inquisitor.
The book is rich in episodes of the covens of modern witches, where they soullessly crack down on babies, inflict damage, and impose curses. Some scenes can terrify impressionable readers, as they contain bloodshed. The author played the scenery in the best way, worked out the plot, the chronology of events to the details, introduces the characters in detail and plunges into the atmosphere of mysticism. Will they be able to track down the serial killer and catch him? Is it possible to justify his actions?
7 Wendigo, demon of the forest. Hour of the hunt
Author: Eduard Verkin
Book price: 190 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.4
Wendigo are creatures that will be the focus of attention in the book by Russian author Eduard Verkin. They resemble people, but monstrously thin, clothes hang on them in a bag, they are dirty, as if they had just come out of the ground, white bulging eyes are visible on their sharp skull, on which the pupils are barely visible.
Interestingly, the story is told from the perspective of a Rottweiler dog.The book is quickly read not only due to the light style, but also due to the small volume. The author is better known as a writer for a teenage audience, as children often become the main characters in his works. "Wendigo, demon of the forest. The Hour of the Hunt” will be the best mystic reading for the evening.
6 How the tin was tempered
Author: Alexander Shchegolev
Book price: 150 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.4
One woman started an underground business. The place of her lover was always vacant, as the previous men constantly disappeared somewhere. Where? They became part of her business, or rather victims. The lady dismembers them and sells them. The illegal supply of organs for transplantation comes to mind, but that was not the case. Such is the nightmarish truth of the bloody "business" that it is much more profitable to sell a person in parts than in whole.
From the first night of love, a lady cuts off parts of the body of men, depending on the wishes of the customer. Clients are people who have a high status in society, otherwise they would simply not be able to afford it; here and the prime minister, and the deputy. The horror is that the enterprising lady is helped to run the business by her daughter, who has been involved in the business since she was 15 years old. This brutal horror book by Russian writer Alexander Shchegolev teaches you how to fight for life, adapting to even the most difficult circumstances.
5 The Drowned Woman, or the Third Key
Author: Tatyana Korsakova
Book price: 290 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.6
Aglaya, who came to her grandmother, will be brought together by fate with old comrades, with whom she is united by events intertwined with a terrible story of a century ago. The plot will unfold in the interweaving of 3 time periods: the beginning and end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.A quiet pond, located in an old estate in a Russian village, hid a mechanical statue in its waters for 15 years, which the people called the Sleeping Lady. Before that, she decorated the garden, and at her foot the corpses of women were often found.
Tatyana Korsakova brilliantly managed to combine several genres at once - this is a detective story, mysticism and an unobtrusive love story, which makes the work the best reading for an evening for women, because its volume is quite small. "The Drowned Woman, or the Third Key" will make you doubt everything and everyone. A dynamic plot will not let you close the book, you will empathize with the characters and solve mystical riddles with them.
4 Well and pendulum
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Book price: 150 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.7
If you are a fan of small horror stories with a plot where a person is trapped, then Edgar Allan Poe's book "The Well and the Pendulum" will be the best option to read. Events take place in a dark chamber without a single ray of light coming through. From the Spanish inquisitorial prison, a prisoner sentenced to death for the crime he committed leads his story about his torments and the tortures experienced in it.
Perhaps everyone has heard about the tortures of the Inquisition, which have always been famous for their sophistication. Here is the main character, even within 4 walls, death can await at every step, so he behaves extremely carefully. A cell with a well in the center of it and a sharp pendulum on the ceiling - the prisoner himself will have to choose what to die from. The author wants to show that while a person is alive, he will grasp at every straw to save his life, even knowing that death is inevitable.
3 The Master and Margarita
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Book price: 185 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.8
Do you like works with a love line? Do you appreciate a beautiful literary style, brightened up with witty irony and intellectual humor? Are you interested in mysticism and mysteries? Then the book "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov is the best choice. She will turn the clichéd ideas about Good and Evil. Woland appears in Moscow - the devil himself - in the company of a colorful retinue: Azazello, the cat Behemoth, the vampire Gella, and Koroviev-Fagot. But the role of evil in the work is occupied rather by the townspeople with their sinful thoughts and deeds, but not as guests of the world of darkness.
Work on the creation of the book began in the 1920s and continued for more than 10 years. As a result, the work remained unfinished. However, the immortal novel of the genius of Russian literature Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", saturated with mysticism, despite long bans on publication, nevertheless saw and fell in love with the whole world.
2 Viy
Author: Nikolai Gogol
Book price: 591 rub.
Rating (2022): 4.9
Wandering in the dark, 3 bursaks, led by Khoma Brut, will stop to spend the night at the old witch's farm. To save his own life, Khoma kills an old woman who turns out to be a young lady. In the last minutes of her life, she will ask her father to fulfill her last will: "Find the Bursak Khoma Brutus, let him read for 3 nights on my sinful soul."
If you love mysticism, the book will completely draw you in from the moment when demons, devils, the coffin will fly up, icons will fall, glass will crack ... And then the most important question will arise, compelling to read the work "Viy" by the Russian-Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol: why does evil spirits feel at home in a holy place? Behind the fantastic episodes lies a philosophical, and sometimes even a religious subtext, which makes one think about conscience, the fidelity of the chosen path, about faith.
1 Pet cemetery
Author: Stephen King
Book price: 391 rub.
Rating (2022): 5.0
Nightmare can break into your life in any face. The family moves into a new house, but they do not know what kind of mysticism he is preparing for them. Near the dwelling there is a cemetery for pets, and behind it are the burial places of the Mikmak tribe, where, according to local tales, an evil spirit, the Wendigo, lives. Ghosts, animated animals, persecution by some people... Your heart will stop, Stephen King will make you feel the whole gamut of feelings: from compassion to horror, disturbing the blood.
The characters are written brightly, they are constantly revealed from an unexpected side, it is interesting to get to know them, to find out their past. This novel in the horror genre is called by many the best creation of the author, and he himself has repeatedly noted that he considers "Pet Cemetery" his most terrible book. Having experienced the events of the work, you will be convinced that you should not hold on to the past so tenaciously, you need to be able to let it go, and consider past mistakes as experience and learn a lesson.