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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:
Piffle · 08/09/2009 20:25

Under the mountain by Maurice Gee

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 08/09/2009 20:23

When The Wind Blows - very good animated film too.

Empty World by John Christopher was another of those post-disaster ones. Some illness I think killed almost everyone, the survivors looted Harrods for food and children drove cars and so on. I quite fancied that life.

OP posts:
thegrowlygus · 08/09/2009 20:16

DUST!

Good old wikipedia.

And another one that my dh has just reminded me about - House of Stairs

I did read some disturbing stuff as a child!

CybilLiberty · 08/09/2009 20:16

I wonder if there is actually only one copy of The Rats in circulation and we all read it?

IrishDraught · 08/09/2009 20:15

Brother In The Land, still haunts me.

IrishDraught · 08/09/2009 20:14

Brother In The Land, still haunts me.

janeite · 08/09/2009 20:13

And Brother In The Land by Robert Swindells too. Not so much scary but totally heart-rending.

janeite · 08/09/2009 20:12

Does anybody remember When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs? I was 15 I think when I first read it and remember just being speechless at the end of it.

thegrowlygus · 08/09/2009 20:12

Children of the ...... something.... hmmm.... off to google it!!

EccentricaGallumbits · 08/09/2009 20:11

The Tripods
Th Day of the triffids

thegrowlygus · 08/09/2009 20:11

That reminds me of a book I read aged about 13 about nuclear war, but it was divided into 3 parts - the first being when the bomb went off, the second about a family living in a 'compound' who were descended from the part one family's father (who had a free pass into the shelter) and the final part further in the future where they had adapted to life outside again (everyone had a slight hairiness to them to protect their skin against the sun iirc).

No clue what it was called now but has clearly stayed with me. And the part that really struck a nerve - the dog thing - the family in the first part had to put their dog outside.

PavlovtheForgetfulCat · 08/09/2009 20:10

vintage for some reason, I was more upset at the thought that my dog would die than the fact that should I be in that position i the first place it meant probably millions of people would have died!

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 08/09/2009 20:09

Oh Pavlov I remember watching some programme about an Arctic explorer or something tramping for days in hip-deep snow and he decided eventually he would have to kill his dog and when he tried to catch the dog, the dog thought he was playing and bounced around merriy. I sobbed into our dog's side the whole night.

(sentimental young fool)

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PavlovtheForgetfulCat · 08/09/2009 20:06

I read a book called "after the fallout' once when I was about 9. We had a supply teacher who gave us a big box of books and told us pick one and read quietly, so I picked this book for some reason.

And it horrified me. It actually gave me nightmares. It told in graphic detail about what would happen if there was a nuclear explosion, and gave examples, drawings of what it would look like, and examples of the perimeters of the fire ball, fallout etc on certain cities in UK, including London. I lived just out the 'fireball zone' in Greenwich and I feared we would either not have enough time to get out of the area so we did not die slowly, or into the fire zone so we could all die quickly.

It then talked about how we would die slowly, the likelhood of survivers and what to do to survive such as put pets outside the shelters as they took up valuable food and supplies. I was so at that as my dog was my world.

Even today I recall the fear of nuclear war that stayed with me for a long time after this.

TheWorstWitch · 08/09/2009 20:06

Tale of Two Cities.
When the woman in the end is about to be executed. For some reason, really brought home the idea of death as a reality for me

TwentiethCenturyHeffa · 08/09/2009 20:06

Ooh, I remember Marianne Dreams and Charlotte Sometimes, I loved them both and had completely forgotten! Marianne Dreams did scare me. I read loads of Agatha Christie from quite young as well, but only two scared me (Towards Zero and Murder in Mesopotamia).

There was a great book about a girl who goes to stay in Cornwall on holiday with her family and starts seeing ghosts of witches. That was quite scary as well. I can't remember it's title though

janeite · 08/09/2009 20:05

Oh God- The red Shoes. i read it when I was about seven and it STILL makes me feel ill, whenever I remember it.

I read The Rats and The Fog aged about 13. They were much thumbed in my circle of friends!

kathyis6incheshigh · 08/09/2009 20:05

me too with The Rats. It was passed around the class at school.

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 08/09/2009 20:04

Blighty that also reminds me of something else, The Red Shoes. Horror.

OP posts:
CybilLiberty · 08/09/2009 20:03

As a young teen I read James Herbert's The Rats. It was scary and rude, so just about perfect

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 08/09/2009 20:01

The Day of the Triffids. I read it when I was about nine. I really wouldn't recommend giving it to your average nine-year-old.

janeite · 08/09/2009 19:58

Molly - have just had a quick google and I don't think "Premature Burial' is the one I'm thinking of. I think he did several with that theme. I feel a re-read coming on!

MovingOutOfBlighty · 08/09/2009 19:57

Debbie comic used to have a spooky part. (how 80s am I?)
They used to freak me out quite a bit. Especially the one where the ballerina wished to relive the past hour of her triumphant performance and the wish was granted. But of course the past hour included the wish so she relived that hour...forever...!

mollymawk · 08/09/2009 19:55

Ah, yes janeite, it is coming back to me now. Still not sure why I found it so disturbing though...

EccentricaGallumbits · 08/09/2009 19:55

Tales of mystery. read them one year while staying with mad old grandmother.
And i wonder why i'm slightly insomniac.

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