What's the scariest book you've read?

I found Gerald's Game, The Woman in Black and Little Stranger all scary.

The only book that has made me scream out loud when reading it was The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan. Really scary and upsetting.

The scariest book that I have ever read was Slayride by Dick Francis. I think it was the suddenness of bodies being discovered that shook me and I have never been tempted to re read it.

Pet sematary. Just an awful, awful book. The one Stephen King book I haven't reread dozens of times - just too scared of it. Especially now I'm a parent.

Reading 'The Shining Girls', Lauren Beukes atm. Is giving me a few chills...

Pet Semetary, IT - Stephen King

I find Mo Hayder's books quite disturbing and chilling. She has a rather twisted imagination that really stirs up your subconscious fears. Especially The Treatment [shudders]

The Little House by Philippa Gregory is quite disturbing too. It seems a quite innocent story of rivalry between a woman and her MIL but the more you read the more macabre it gets, and the ending is quite chilling.

What's really scary about it is that it's so subtle with the characters being polite on the surface but underneath there's some really twisted under-currents going on. Clever stuff.

And then there was the sex scene in "Don't Look Now." Donald Sutherland naked: yikes.

Don't Look Now; short story by Daphne Du maurier; terrified me. Was living at my parents house at time and nearly asked to get in bed with them (age 21).then stupidly watched the film. Shiver. My son (22) suggested we watch it a while ago; I went to bed and he watched it on his own, a great lover of gore and horror; he slept on the settee with the lights on. My sister has a very nice red duffel coat but she has learnt not to wear it when she is with me.

The book that scared me most was Intensity by Dean Koontz. It's a long time since I read it (I used to read a lot while babysitting) but that was one book that had me checking under the bed for a while and wondering where to hide. I was young :)
Great post, must check out some of the books mentioned....

I don't like Mo Hayders books. I read one and the descriptions of a dog dying of thirst was just..sick. Not frightening, just horrible. I have tried again with her books and they are just, well, sickening.
I couldn't finish Dark Matter - too creepy ! but I will, eventually.
I thought that The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters was creepy, and frightening because it could really have happened at that time (trying not to give away the story)

A book has never scared me as much as Dark Matter by Michelle Paver did!

Pet Semetary, that was my last Stephen King, too scary.

swamper -the old version of the haunting -YES. I got so scared watching it I cried. The part where she thinks she's holding her roommate's hand and the lights come on and she's over the other side of the room! I am all shivery just thinking about it.

The book is excellent. "What walks in Hill House walks alone."

Ah I see, thanks daemon. It's also £19 which I couldn't justify at the moment!

Oh definitely don't spend that much on it. It's a book you will either love or throw at the wall.

Marshmallows not the whole of a Handful of Dust but the chapter where Tony is lost and delirious in the jungle and is rescued by Mr Todd. And then doomed to spend the rest of his life reading Dickens to his rescuer.

Scariest book for me is "When The Wind Blows" by Raymond Briggs. A nuclear war story drawn in the style of The Snowman. It upset me so much I couldn't even have the book in the room with me.

ive just bought house of leaves and was expecting it to arrive today! I cant wait!!!!

Someone mentioned The Ring, which reminded me of another really great film that freaked me out a lot: A Tale of Two Sisters. It's Korean. Some real watching-through-the-fingers moments.

The Stranger Beside Me, an autobiographical book by Ann Rule, who volunteered with the US serial killer Ted Bundy on a suicide helpline. She had absolutely no suspicions about him, finding him charming. I was pregnant at the time I read this book so my hormones were probably a bit chaotic, but I remember literally crying uncontrollable tears of fright as I read certain parts. One evening my then partner returned to our rented flat to find me sitting on the stairwell in the communal hall - I was too scared to be in the flat alone! Why I put myself through this during such an emotionally vulnerable time of my life, I have no idea. Just to add, horror - both film and books - is one of my favourite genres and I'm regarded as pretty hard-nosed/freaky by friends because of my enjoyment of it. So, pregnant or not, this book really hit the mark. Perhaps because it was about real events and the evil that another human being can be capable of - for me, far scarier than a monster in the wardrobe or a werewolf on the moor.

little stranger by sarah waters. absolutely freaked me out. stephen king mildly scary by comparison! although the shining did give me nightmares.

Under the Skin - Michael Faber. Deeply disturbing.

Books: In Cold Blood. Do not read if you are alone at home in the countryside. And it's all too real.

Films: The old version of The Haunting did it for me in the creepy department. I also found the Blair Witch Project really frightening when it came out!

House of Lost Souls by FG Cottam scared me a lot.

And SK's Bag of Bones.

I didn't find Dark Matter scary at all and I really wanted to.