has any horror writer surpassed Lovecraft?

[Kuranesno7]

been reading the work of H.P. Lovecraft. s' good, occasionally racist, but good. I've never really been scared by books, but the man's short stories have given me an existential shiver on occasion due to the true alienness,vagueness, and hopelessness in some of his stories. I've read some (read:some) Stephen king, but his stuff seems a bit silly. I can't think of any other prominent horror writers.

So I put it to you, is there a horror writer that has legitimately surpassed H.P. Lovecraft?
if so please mention a book the guy or chick wrote so I can look it up.

As a side note, since its halloween, I'm curious if anyone's here ever been legitimately scared by a book, if so tell us about it.

 

[smearyllama]

When I was in fifth grade, I remember being creeped out by I Am Legend, which may be one of the few books that legitimately scared me.
The Beast in the Cave did give me the jitters, I will say.

 

[plugav]

Poe was Lovecraft's great inspiration and a more skilled writer, so you should definitely read him if you haven't already.
Admittedly, though, no story by Poe has ever scared me as much as "The Call of Cthulhu" did back when I was 14.

Other worthwhile horror writers? I've read a bit of Clive Barker's stuff a while back and though most of it is extremely silly, The Hellbound Heart and "The Midnight Meat Train" are really great, somehow successfully marrying lovecraftian themes with splatterpunk gore. Just read them before you watch the adaptations.

 

[dlsevern]

So far, no. In the future, I hope. I love Lovecraft but I would like to see another horror writer surpass him. King is close but so many of his are not horror. There are a lot of great horror writers though.

 

[Schierke]

Some of Stephen King's books did legitimately scare me.

For example, the first time I read IT, I fell asleep about halfway through. Big mistake. I woke up in a cold sweat and physically couldn't get back to sleep until I finished it.