History NothingIsScarier / Literature

** Similar to Sauron example below we never actually see the Shadow Lord once throughout all the books, only hearing his voice and in ''Return to Del'' as a shadowy figure briefly glimpsed on a tower. While his name and backstory is properly exapained in the expanded material, he is much more sinister as an evil [[TheOmnipresent omnipresence]] rather than one EvilOverlord. The [[Anime/DeltoraQuest anime adaptation]] decided to make the Shadow Lord a straight up EldritchAbomination instead.

** Worse still during the climax where Raoul and the Persian are traveling through the bowels of the Opera House, they encounter unexplained horrors like the figure or "shade" in a black hooded robe. The Persian claims the shade has almost caught him before and at Raoul’s questioning states the shade has nothing to do with Erik or theatre police, but disturbingly doesn’t elaborate any further. Not even the author’s notes offer any concrete explanation, making the cellars of the Opera and its shadowy inhabitants unknowable and frightening.

** King’s ''Literature/TheStand'' also employs this a lot. The first portion of the novel where world is slowly overcome with a pandemic of accidentally realised Influenza is scary due to fact it isn’t clear what is happening some way into the book. Though more terrifying is HumanoidAbomination Randal Flagg the Walking Man, we never once learn what exactly he is, [[spoiler: although ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' series would reveal he’s on the side of the SatanicArchetype Crimson King]] but the sheer presence alone Flagg has and the effect he has on people, even when he’s many miles away from them is palpable. In one scene a character talks through a doorway to Flagg who’s standing in a dark room, King purposely gives minimal description of the Flagg in the scene, making he’s character all the more unnerving.

** Another truly tense chapter is in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' where after enjoying the Quidditch World Cup and going to bed, Harry and co are awakened by Mr Weasely and told to flee into the forest. The trio only glimpse what's make out what's causing the fear i.e a group of Death Eaters dangling {{Muggles}} in the air and blowing up tents, but the really creepy part comes while hiding in the forest Harry (who is missing his wand and feeling vulnerable) "senses" someone standing a few yards away from them in the darkness- then that someone utters a spell that causes a giant green skull with a snake in its mouth to appear in the sky.

** ''Literature/WelcomeToCampNightmare'' while the TwistEnding is comical, everything leading up to it is pretty disturbing. Being dropped off the middle of nowhere the protagonist Billy gradually loses his friends over the course of the story as its clear there’s something sinister going on in the camp and nobody is allowed to enter the forbidden bunk where the creature Sabre lives. One chapter has Billy’s friends Jay and Roger sneak out to the bunk and only Jay comes back to their cabin screaming that something killed Roger as the others barricade the door. Whilst [[DoingInTheWizard everything gets explained in the end]], the preceding uncertainty and horror was still effective in its own right.

* ''Literature/Animorphs'' while more action and adventure focused has a suprising amount of this in lieu of ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers''. The Yeerks have taken over most of the adults and kids in the town including Jake's brother and the kids have to be on the [[ParanoiaFuel look out constantly for a threat they often can't see]]. Sometimes it's not even the Yeerks and normal people are just behaving creepily and dangerously which is just as frightning as the alien invaders.

** The ''Shifting Sands'' has an effective example of this with the guardain of Lapis Lazuil, [[spoiler: which is the Shifting Sands itself. Unlike every other book where the gem is protected by some guardain man or monster, the antagionist of the book can't be seen or known, it's the simply "The Hive" and its origin is a complete mystery having existed long before the time Adin. The Hive as the sands are called have a will of its own and draws people and objects to the centre of itself. Lief, Barda and Jasmine don't kill or defeat it, they simply get the Lapis Lazuil and escape whatever the hell it is.]]

** ''Literature/TheHauntedMask'' which is already one of the scarier books in the series, especially the [[Series/{{Goosebumps}} TV adaptation]] has a case of this with the unnamed shopkeeper who created “The Unloved” the eponymous haunted masks. In the books we never learn who he created these “real” and grotesque faces, but more disturbing in the show is the revelation that he made to masks to cover up his own NightmareFace and every beautiful mask he creates will soon turn hideous due to the ugliness within him. We ''never'' actually see his real face, making an already unnerving character even more scary.

** In his nonfiction book on the horror genre, ''Danse Macabre'', he explains it like this (quoting author William F. Nolan: "You approach the door in the old, deserted house, and you hear something scratching at it. The audience holds its breath along with the protagonist as she/he (more often she) approaches that door. The protagonist throws it open, and there is a ten foot-tall bug. The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it. "A bug ten feet tall is pretty horrible," the audience thinks, "but I can deal with a ten-foot-tall bug. I was afraid it might be a ''hundred'' feet tall.". So what you do is hold off on showing them the 10 foot tall bug as long as possible."

** In his nonfiction book on the horror genre, ''Danse Macabre'', he explains it like this: "So you build up suspense with noise and some scary lighting, and then they open the door and there's a 10 foot tall cockroach standing there. And the audience screams, but after a few minutes everyone's settled down again because everyone is saying, 'At least it wasn't a 100 foot tall cockroach...' and when you show them a 100 foot tall cockroach, they say to themselves, 'At least it wasn't a 1000 foot tall cockroach...'. So what you do is hold off on showing them the 10 foot tall cockroach as long as possible."

* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', being seminal GothicHorror invokes this. For a lot of the novel the titular antagonist is kept a mystery and he’s presence is mostly felt rather than seen. The first chapter opens with a bunch ballerinas fleeing into older dancer’s (La Sorelli) room and [[GhostStory share stories]] about the Phantom, as Little Meg reveals her mother knows the Phantom, they hear footsteps from outside and Sorelli goes into the dimly lid hallway to check wielding a knife and finds... ''nothing''. The Phantom’s first "appearance" in the book is as an angelic voice Raoul hears talking to Christine in her dressing room, jealously thinking it’s a rival suitor he enters the room after Christine leaves, but like with Sorelli finds ''nothing''. The eeriness is further enhanced when Christine is astonished to learn Raoul could hear the voice too and when she personally learns the terrible truth, she desperately tries to protect Raoul, who is shocked see how [[BreakTheCutie haggard]] she looks when she takes her domino mask off during the Masquerade ball. Eventually Christine fully reveals the terrifying true nature of the Angel of Music, making the eleven chapters of build up well earned.

* The vug under the rug from Creator/DrSeuss' ''Literature/TheresAWocketInMyPocket''. It is never shown, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin hiding under a rug]] in a dark room, and the only detail the reader knows about it is that it's the only creature the narrator is afraid of. This character, along with the red under the bed, was scary enough to be scrapped from the 1996 reprint.

** It’s especially unnerving later on when the Phantom starts stalking Christine and Raoul around the Opera House. While Erik never directly appears, Christine who has been a PluckyGirl up to this point, starts getting extremely nervous and jumpy. At one point Raoul wants to go down a trapdoor and Christine forcibly stops him and pleads with him not to. After a moment the trapdoor closes by itself and we never learn whether it was the Phantom or not. See also this passage.

** After Victor created the creature in his apartment and becomes horrified at what he’s brought to life, he flees in the middle of the night when the Wretch wakes him up. He later returns to the apartment in daylight with his childhood friend Henry and finds nothing in the apartment. Instead of calming him, the lack of the monster actually causes Victor to FreakOut and fall into a four month coma

** A later scene in ''It'' where the Losers’ Club travel through the Pennywise’s abode on Neibolt street, has a grand display of this. Up to this point we’ve seen the titular monsters transform in all kinds of horrors that directly threaten or attack the characters, but in the Neibolt house Pennywise for once doesn’t appear in person for most of the chapter. But this only makes his omnipresence more haunting as the kids walk through the decrepit environment, which seems to expand before their eyes - trying to seperate them from each other, which rattles the Losers’ Club into hysterics. This EldritchLocation where the kids aren’t even attacked manages to be more terrifying than any of the previous shapes the titular monster takes.

** The identity of who is raping and killing countless women in Santa Teresa is never revealed, he only get to see the (increasingly disturbing) crime scenes where their corpses are found.

** A later scene in ''It'' where the Loser’s Club travel through the Pennywise’s abode on Neibolt street, has a grand display of this. Up to this point we’ve seen the titular monsters transform in all kinds of horrors that directly threaten or attack the characters, but in the Neibolt house Pennywise for once doesn’t appear in person for most of the chapter. But this only makes his omnipresence more haunting as the kids walk through the decrepit environment, which seems to expand before their eyes - trying to seperate them from each other rattles the Loser’s Club into hysterics. This EldritchLocation where the kids aren’t even attacked manages to be more terrifying than any of the previous shapes the titular monster takes.

* This is actually fairly common in Gothic Romanticism. Ann Radcliffe wrote what amounted to a treatise on horror writing. Essentially, "terror" is the feeling that precedes an event, while "horror" is the revulsion felt during/after said event. The former is, by far, more difficult to pull off. Scaring the audience without a visible threat is no small feat, but, as the other examples show, it tends to be much, much more effective. Her ''Literature/TheMysteriesOfUdolpho'' spends its time terrifying Emily, the main character. At one point she freezes because of some unseen thing lurking in the shadows, only to be relieved when it turns out to be a suitor . Radcliffe gets bonus points for including a bit of FridgeHorror when the reader realizes that this takes place in the character's room; the real "terror" isn't the possibility of something supernatural but that someone is in her room without her knowing it.

** Jonathan’s journey to Dracula castle in Transylvania is ominous, despite nothing happening. The landlord and landlady of hotel he’s staying in look terrified and make the sign of the cross when Jonathan tells them where he’s going and the landlady insists he wear a crucifix around his neck, after pleading with him not to go without any explanation. During the carriage ride to the castle, the passengers all bless Jonathan in turn and don’t answer any of his questions. They even sigh with relief when initially no second coach shows up to pick Jonathan up, only to scream along with the horses when a calèche driven by a man with sharp teeth and black horses. In the following journey Jonathan see a pack of wolves surrounding the calèche and strange blue flames on the road... none of which gets explained.

** Dracula’s introduction and rapport with Jonathan also invokes this. The Count in spite of his threatening appearance doesn’t do anything violent or directly threaten Jonathan and is quite friendly, but the reader [[OurVampiresAreDifferent knows full well]] how much danger Jonathan is in, making every conversation has with the Count incredibly tense. Over time Jonathan witnesses the vampire nature of his host, meets the brides and realises he’s trapped in the castle.

* ''Literature/IAmLegend'' is set AfterTheEnd and has vampires [[spoiler: or at least vampire-like infected humans]] but the real pulse pounding horror, is agonising loneliness and dread the protagonist Neville goes through [[LastOfTheirKind as the last man alive]]. For lot of the novel Neville spends his time holding out in the ruins of humanity searching for a cure and in constant fear of being attacked at night by the horde. This novel set a standard for NothingIsScarier in post-apocalypse fiction.

** The ApocalypticLog the London police find on a shipwrecked European schooner the Demeter. The log-book which was found on the corpse of a sailor who lashed himself to the helm, details how while delivering mysterious cargo the crew are picked off one by one by something, leaving the narrator and others mad with terror of "Him". The second last survivor throws himself into sea after investigating the cargo below deck and narrator too scared to leave the helm starves to death. The lack of clear description makes Dracula’s presence and his slaughtering of the crew all the more terrifying.

** Dracula’s introduction and rapport with Jonathan also invokes this. The Count in spite of his threatening appearance doesn’t do anything violent or directly threaten Jonathan and is quite friendly, but the reader [[OurVampiresAreDifferent knows full well]] how much danger Jonathan is in, making every conversation has with the Count incredibly tense. Over time Jonathan witnesses the vampire nature of his host, meets the brides and realises his trapped in the castle.

* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' by Creator/MaryShelley might as well be the TropeCodifier for literary NothingIsScarier, being the mascot for Gothic Romanticism. The novel has explicit scary moments with [[FrankensteinsMonster the Wretch]] but they are far outweighed by the long hauntingly chilling moments of loneliness Victor Frankenstein goes through for the majority of the book. When the creature does make his appearance to Victor, It’s almost a relief compared to he’s absence wherein he could be ''anywhere'' and in latter half of the book, is always watching Victor from alps or the forest and killing everyone he loves.
** After Victor created the creature in his apartment and becomes horrified at what he’s brought to life, he flees in the middle of the night when the Wretch wakes up him. He later returns to the apartment in daylight with his childhood friend Henry and finds nothing in the apartment. Instead of calming him, the lack of the monster actually causes Victor to FreakOut and fall into a four month coma

** From the same book, the Chapter 17 “Bathilda’s secret” is all over this trope. Harry and Hermione have just visited the former’s parents grave in Godric’s Hollow in a tender moment, as they leave the graveyard Hermione says she saw something move in the bushes Harry looks around and can see nothing telling her it’s probably just a ghost (in this universe [[FriendlyGhost ghosts aren’t particularly frightening]]) but sees an eddy of dislodged snow and gets unnerved knowing ghosts can’t move snow. They leave the graveyard under the Invisibility Cloak and soon encounter Bathilda Bagshot who can somehow sense them under cloak, Harry trusts her despite being somewhat unsettled by her bad smell, creepy staring eyes and fact she doesn’t talk only beckons. It only gets creepier when they follow Bathilda into her derelict house and Harry agrees to go upstairs with her while Hermione has stay downstairs, at one point Harry when goes into a dark room and lights his wand he starts because Bathilda in those few seconds of darkness moved closer to him and ''he did not hear her movement''. [[spoiler: It’s then revealed Voldemort’s snake Nagini was inside Bathilda‘s corpse controlling her, which while very disturbing isn’t nearly as scary as everything leading up to that point]].

** The chapter where Bilbo traverses through the deep tunnels of the Misty Mountains after getting separated from Gandalf and the Dwarves strongly invokes this. Bilbo wakes up in the darkness and "He could hear nothing, see nothing, and he could feel nothing except the stone of the floor", he does find a light source in his elvish blade and goes on, not taking side passages and hurried on for fear of goblins and "half-imagined dark things coming out of them". The narration doesn’t help saying there are worse things than goblins that live and sneak around in darkness, just as Bilbo meets Gollum.

** King’s ''Literature/TheStand'' also employs this a lot. The first portion of the novel where world is slowly overcome with a pandemic of accidentally realised Influenza is scary due to fact it isn’t clear what happening some way into the book. Though more terrifying is HumanoidAbomination Randal Flagg the Walking Man, we explicitly never learn what exactly he is, [[spoiler: although ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' series would reveal he’s on the side of the SatanicArchetype Crimson King]] but the sheer presence alone Flagg has and the effect he has on people, even when he’s many miles away from them is palpable. In one scene a character talks through a doorway to Flagg who’s standing in a dark room, King purposely gives minimal description of the Flagg in the scene, making he’s character all the more unnerving.

* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', being seminal GothicHorror invokes this. For a lot of the novel the titular antagonist is kept a mystery and he’s presence is mostly felt rather than seen. The first chapter opens with a bunch ballerinas fleeing into older dancer’s (La Sorelli) room and [[GhostStory share stories]] about the Phantom, as Little Meg reveals her mother knows the Phantom, they hear footsteps from outside and Sorelli goes into the dimly lid hallway to check wielding a knife and finds... ''nothing''. The Phantom’s first "appearance" in the book is as an angelic voice Raoul hears talking to Christine in her dressing room, jealously thinking it’s rival suitor he enters the room after Christine leaves but like with Sorelli finds ''nothing''. The eeriness is further enhanced when Christine is astonished to learn Raoul could hear the voice too and when she personally learns the terrible truth, she desperately tries to protect Raoul, who is shocked see how [[BreakTheCutie haggard]] she looks when she takes her domino mask off during the Masquerade ball. Eventually Christine fully reveals the terrifying true nature of the Angel of Music, making the eleven chapters of build up well earned.

** Worse still during the climax where Raoul and the Persian are traveling through the bowels of the Opera House they encounter unexplained horrors like the figure or "shade" in a black hooded robe. The Persian claims the shade has almost caught him before and at Raoul’s questioning states the shade has nothing to do with Erik or theatre police, but disturbingly doesn’t elaborate any further. Not even the author’s notes offer any concrete explanation, making the cellars of the Opera and its shadowy inhabitants unknowable and frightening.

* ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' employs this quite a lot, there’s graphic and bloody moments horror sure, but the lurking dread Creator/BramStoker uses is just as effectively chilling.
** Jonathan’s journey to Dracula castle in Transylvania is ominous, despite nothing happening. The landlord and landlady of hotel he’s staying in look terrified and make the sign of the cross when Jonathan tells them where he’s going and the landlady insists he wear a crucifix around his neck, after pleading with him not to go without any explanation. During the carriage ride to the castle, the passengers all bless Jonathan in turn and don’t answer any of his questions. They even sigh with relief when initially no second coach shows up to pick Jonathan up, only to scream along with the horses when a calèche driven by man with sharp teeth and black horses. In the following journey Jonathan see a pack of wolves surrounding the calèche and strange blue flames on the road... none of which gets explained.

** The ApocalypticLog the London police find on a shipwrecked European schooner the Demeter. The log-book which was found on the corpse of a sailor who lashed himself to the helm, details how while delivering mysterious cargo the crew are picked one by one by something, leaving the narrator and others mad with terror of "Him". The second last survivor throws himself into sea after investigating the cargo below deck and narrator too scared to leave the helm starves to death. The lack of clear description makes Dracula’s presence and his slaughtering all the more terrifying.

* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' by Creator/MaryShelley might as well be the TropeCodifier for literary NothingIsScarier, being the mascot for Gothic Romanticism. The novel has explicit scary moments with the Wretch but they are far outweighed by the long hauntingly chilling moments of loneliness Victor Frankenstein goes through for the majority of the book. When the creature does make his appearance to Victor, It’s almost a relief compared to he’s absence wherein he could be ''anywhere'' and in latter half of the book, is always watching Victor from alps or the forest and killing everyone he loves.

** Well before that, there was the chapter where Bilbo traverses through the deep tunnels of the Misty Mountains after getting separated from Gandalf and the Dwarves. Bilbo wakes up in the darkness and "He could hear nothing, see nothing, and he could feel nothing except the stone of the floor", he does find a light source in his elvish blade and goes on, not taking side passages and hurried on for fear of goblins and "half-imagined dark things coming out of them". The narration doesn’t help saying there are worse things than goblins that live and sneak around in darkness, just as Bilbo meets Gollum.

** A later scene in IT where the Loser’s Club travel through the Pennywise’s abode on Neibolt street, has a grand display of this. Up to this point we’ve seen the titular monsters transform in all kinds of horrors that directly threaten or attack the characters, but in the Neibolt house Pennywise for once doesn’t appear in person for most of the chapter. But this only makes his omnipresence more haunting as the kids walk through the decrepit environment, which seems to expand before their eyes - trying to seperate them from each other rattles the Loser’s Club into hysterics. This EldritchLocation where the kids aren’t even attacked manages to be more terrifying than any of the previous shapes the titular monster takes.

* ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' another H.G Wells work has a Wait For It when it comes to the iconic Morlocks. The Time Traveler while exploring the peaceful land of the Eloi in the daylight finds several frightening structures that he can’t figure out and a deep dark well that fills his little companion Weena full of fear. All the protagonist can gather is that the Eloi fear darkness for some reason, the Time Traveler stays up and sees simian-like shapes moving on a hill and one sees a pair of red eyes staring at him in the dark. Soon he encounters the Morlocks and begins to fear [[DarknessEqualsDeath darkness]] and nighttime as much as the Eloi, even while exploring during the day.

** Jonathan’s journey to Dracula castle in Transylvania is ominous, despite nothing happening. The landlord and landlady of hotel he’s staying in look terrified and make the sign of the cross when Jonathan tells them where he’s going and the landlady insists he wear a crucifix around his neck, after pleading with him not to go without any explanation. During the carriage ride to the castle, the passengers all bless Jonathan in turn and don’t answer any of his questions. They even sigh with relief when initially no second coach shows up to pick Jonathan up, only to scream along with the horses when a calèche driven by man with sharp teeth and black horses. In the following journey Jonathan see a pack of wolves surrounding the calèche and strange blue flames on the road... none of which gets explained.

* In ''Literature/TheHobbit'' it's flat-out stated that the scariest thing Bilbo had to do in his whole adventure was walk down the lightless tunnel to Smaug's lair. Not the dragon himself, not the giant spiders from Mirkwood, not the Goblins, Trolls or Wolves from the Misty Mountains, just the tunnel and the crippling fear of not knowing if a dragon was sleeping at the end of it.

** This is played more for laughs, but what did the centaurs do to Umbridge after capturing her in the Forbidden Forest? She doesn't show any signs of physical damage after Dumbledore rescues her, but she's temporarily catatonic from whatever she endured, and she panics when the students taunt her with hoofbeat noises. (One infamous fan theory holds that the centaurs did to her [[MarsNeedsWomen what centaurs were infamous for doing to human women in general]] in Myth/ClassicalMythology, even though the wizarding world's wise centaurs are a far cry from their savage mythical inspirations.)

* For most of the first book in the ''Literature/DeptfordMice'' trilogy, ''The Dark Portal'', no one knows for sure what [[BigBad Jupiter]] actually is and that adds to the building tension. He is a living GodOfEvil who never leaves his lair in the sewers, the titular portal. Even his rat subjects haven't seen him. There are rumours that he is a giant, [[MultipleHeadCase multi-headed]] rat monster but in the end when he finally crawls out he is revealed to be [[spoiler:a hideous, bloated cat]].

** In the backstory, there's the Doom of Valyria. The Freehold of Valyria ruled an entire continent for five thousand years with the aid of their dragons. And then suddenly, for no known reason, ''the whole continent'' started exploding and brought the whole place low, with only a few people escaping. Most people consider the place cursed, and way back when, the Targaryen princess Aerea flew there on the back of the dragon Balerion. When they came back, Aerea gaunt, wasted, and afflicted with a horrific fever, with her last coherent words just being "I never...". Balerion, meanwhile, had a huge, bleeding wound on his side. Balerion was probably the largest and most powerful dragon the Targaryens ever possessed... and ''something hurt him''.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'':