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Original poster

What was the scariest/most chilling book you read as a child?

208 replies

VintageGardenia · 08/09/2009 19:42

And did you love it or hate it?

My ds is 11 and doesn't like reading scary books one bit - I hated them too when I was a child, I still do really. But the book that scared me most as a child was called Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr, I can remember every bit of it and it still gives me the creeps to pass a tall boulder.

Just wondering what other chilling books there were.

OP posts:
ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 09/09/2009 18:13

flowers in the attic by virginia andrews,, god it scared me and had me captivated all at the same time.

I read all the series

janeite · 09/09/2009 18:09

Yes, The Monkey's Paw is terrifying.

Thanks Moomin, for the reminder about Midnight Is A Place - I wasn't far off with a cotton factory then! I remember being appalled and gripped in equal measure whilst reading it.

PrettyCandles · 09/09/2009 18:04

Elidor, by Alan Garner

The Owl Service

In my early teens I read a book on Hiroshima, a factual account of several survivors over the course of 24h.

All three would still give me nightmares nowadays. Oddly enough, none of the Wyndham books do or ever have done, althoughthe films of his books scare me stiff.

When I was 8 my big brother was reading The Lord of the Rings, so I read it too. Definitely not a good idea!

Fanjita · 09/09/2009 17:56

Sorry, sorry! Usually I read a whole thread before commenting, so why not this time? Aaaah! I didn't even read the OP, can't believe it, so my post is inappropriate!!

Fanjita · 09/09/2009 17:36

When I was at primary school someone brought in the Arthur C Clarke mags and there was a huge article about spontaneous combustion with pictures of people who had combusted at home. This frightened me for over a decade!!!

lottiejenkins · 09/09/2009 17:07

I hated Chicken Licken!! The thought that the world was going to fall in terrified me!
Also the pictures in the Ladybird version Of Rumplestiltskin!!!!!!!!

bran · 09/09/2009 16:54

A Wrinkle in Time was quite scary, but the first time I "read" it was having it read to a group of us outside on a sunny day so I didn't feel the fear until the time I read it by myself, by which stage I already knew it turned out all right in the end. I really loved that book, I think it may have been the turning point that made me a sci fi reader as an adult.

wahwahwah · 09/09/2009 16:28

Any story my mum came up with. Especially The Monkeys Paw.

GreensleevesFlouncedLikeAKnob · 09/09/2009 16:25

also the Brain Sharpeners scared me

southeastastra · 09/09/2009 16:21

i remember something about a boy growing a grandmother or something.

GreensleevesFlouncedLikeAKnob · 09/09/2009 16:19

The Silver Crown scared the shit out of me

and A Wrinkle In Time

cyteen · 09/09/2009 16:16

It sounds quite a lot like Cube

southeastastra · 09/09/2009 16:08

house of stairs sounds bonkers

Botbot · 09/09/2009 16:03

The Tiswas Book of Ghastly Ghosts - a collection of extremely spooky short stories. Still have it, and still wouldn't dare read it at bedtime. It has the Phantom Flan Flinger on the cover, I believe.

cyteen · 09/09/2009 15:54

I remember a terrifying one about a house in Berkeley Square where two people volunteered to spend the night and one of them was thrown to their death on the railings outside by some spooky disembodied claws!

Reading that back it sounds pretty lame, but the amplifying effect of being 8 and reading under your covers with a torch should not be underestimated.

LittleWhiteWolf · 09/09/2009 15:46

Yep, I read both of those true ghost stories. I used to read alot of those books; if they were illustrated I would be all tense when I turned the page in case there was a spooky picture!

putyoursocksON · 09/09/2009 14:54

I recently read the first chapter of The Silver Crown by Robert O'Brien, which is such a good book, to DS1.

He cried with fear and made me leave the room. On the way out I kissed him and banged him on the face with my necklace. Then I gave him some lipbalm which stung.

'for goodness sake get out mother' was I think what he was trying to say (through his tears). I am mother of the year!

MrFlibble · 09/09/2009 14:47

cyteen, I remember the one with the lady on her wedding day, I read that one in a true horror stories type thing another story from that book that stood out was about a cyclist sheltering from a storm in an old farm house in France and decaying PJ's that were laying on the sofa coming to life.

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 09/09/2009 14:44

I was looking at some Edward Gorey books too. Although the drawings are really brilliant I find the books very unpleasant.

OP posts:
Seeline · 09/09/2009 14:37

I remember the Strewelpeter book - the cover picture terrified me. Was it a long haired man with very long fingernails, or is my memory really playing tricks? When I was in my early teens I reads loads of books by Ruth M Arther - they were all spooky I loved them.

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 09/09/2009 14:28

Oh don't watch this then re. thumbectomy terror.

OP posts:
deaddei · 09/09/2009 14:20

That should read Suckathumb- sorry

deaddei · 09/09/2009 14:20

Anyone got the Strewelpeter book with Victorian moralistic rhymes- the one with little Sucka thumv, who got his thumbs cut off by the Scissorman, is accompanied by a picture of a boy holding up his hands with bleeding stumps!!
Stopped my son sucking his thumb....

cyteen · 09/09/2009 14:14

I was terrified of the dark as a child, so of course I spent every spare minute reading as many age-appropriate ghost stories and horror novels as I could lay my hands on Lots of 'true ghost stories' about haunted places and who the ghosts were...there was one particularly horrid one about a 'white lady' type ghost who had been a bride playing hide and seek on her wedding night. She climbed into a large oak chest in a dusty side room and the lid clicked shut on her and locked...no one ever found her...eek.

SGB I loved Paperhouse, would like to see it again actually. Quite chilling in places. "I'm blind!"

MrFlibble · 09/09/2009 14:02

I cant remember any specific books from childhood, but I was addicted to reading the Misty annuals.

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