Literature is a magnificent thing to behold. Authors can make you experience a variety of emotions with only a few sentences. While Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts use their words to convey love and passion, Dan Brown and Alice Feeney use their words to make you doubt everything you read. Some authors write in such a way that the sole purpose of their work is to terrify their audience. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Adam Neville, Shirley Jackson, and Joe Hill, among others, deserve a lot of credit for promoting thriller and their ability to terrify their audience just via their books and writings.
Many suspense thriller books, as well as horror novels, have emerged for the big screen. However, in recent years, streaming services like Netflix, Prime Videos, and Peacock have created a trend of adapting novels into series or movies.
Here are the five most terrifying thriller books to date, all of which are adapted into films or series!
Haunting of the Hill House
Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror book “Haunting of the Hill House” was published in 1959. Jackson’s other horror books include “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” and “The Bird’s Nest.”
Dr. John Montague, Eleanor Vance, Theodora, and Luke Sanderson are four characters that live in a haunted home in ‘The Haunting of Hill House.’ The investigator is Dr. John, and he employs the two other individuals to remain at the residence with him. As a result, supernatural happenings occur naturally and predictably.
This book has been turned into two films, The Haunting, and both keep loyal to the narrative. On the other hand, the Haunting of Hill House is a highly acclaimed Netflix series that focuses on The Crain family, with some tweaks to the original tale here and there.
In the Tall Grass
In the Tall Grass is a novella written by the father-son duo Stephen King and Joe Hill. Their first collaboration together was another novella, Throttle. Otherwise, both the writers are successful in their way. Kind, known as the “King of Horror,” and his son Hill, has made a name for himself without his father’s shadow.
In the Tall Grass is a story of twin siblings, things that. But while trying to get out of the area, they encounter many things that might be supernatural or not.
Netflix has a movie on the novella, and it got the film rights in May 2018. And without delay, the movie was up on October 4, 2019, on the streaming service.
The Ritual
Written by Adam Neville, this British novel got released in 2011. The story revolves around four university friends who have reunited to go on a hike. They decide to go up to Swedish Mountains.
However, instead of taking the regular hiking path, the party takes a shortcut. What is ahead is their greatest fear, and only a select handful will be able to endure it.
The Ritual had its first air in 2017, and it is now available on Netflix worldwide.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of the scariest thriller books on our list by Lionel Shriver which has received critical praise. The plot revolves around a mother who writes letters to her husband about their mentally ill kid. But, unfortunately, things take a worse turn slowly yet steadily.
The novel had its release in 2003 and was made into a film with the same name eight years later. An audio version of the book is also available. It premiered on BBC Radio 4 on January 7, 2008, in daily episodes lasting about 10-15 minutes.
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