What is the most chilling book you've ever read?

I read A child called it when I was about 20 long before I had my own children and it really got to me. I've never forgotten that book.

American Psycho. It's cruelty and delraviry gave my nightmares. I had to physically remove it from my bedroom and then threw it out.

I can’t read very chilling stuff or I get very bad nightmares… I remember reading something by Wilbur Smith when I was about 20, and a guy was murdered in the sauna or something… And I had nightmares about it for a long time after. Sorry, I can’t remember the name.

Another vote for Mo Hayder. I recently read one of hers called Tokyo. It had had poor reviews but I really enjoyed it and found it dark and unsettling. It’s definitely stayed with me.

We to talk about Kevin is superb.

Tried to read American Psycho while I was pregnant but couldn’t finish it as it was majorly freaking me out. Hormones probably didn’t help but I found it truly upsetting and disturbing.

American psycho. I was so disgusted after reading it I threw it in the bin.

Dark Matter - it’s the setting the isolation the narrator feels it’s very atmospheric and the audio is great too. Had to sleep with the lamp on

Non fiction - Killing for Company it’s about Dennis Nilsen at times you feel desperately sad for him it’s an excellent book and The Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy his crimes and that he appeared like such a nice, smart likeable man is absolutely chilling.

On the beach by Nevil Shute. That's strikingly sad at the moment given what is happening in Australia, though the cause is different.

Behind closed doors

The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert ,
I read it when I worked at the local cemetery & crematorium. I had to lock up when everybody had left & it was dark.Scared the shit out of me!!!
The tv series was pants though.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - I actually threw up reading it.

The BTK Murders by Carlton Smith...no animal abuse but a terrifying true crime book. I had to read with the light on

Pet Semetary by Stephen King.

I think it’s out of print, but Child Possessed by David St Clair

Not a genre I like but, I couldn't finish The Road either. Short story collection by Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors has some very clever, deeply unsettling stories.

The Lottery, Shirley Jackson. It's chilling.

The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns is a good read, slow paced and unsettling.

The Stranger Beside Me by Anne Rule was chilling. By a colleague of Ted Bundy who used to do night shifts alone with him... and thought he was a lovely chap until she learned the truth!

Well based on this thread I read Thin Air last night.
Thanks for that - bloody terrified me! I’ll read Dark Matter later. Just to ensure I never sleep again.

I'm a scaredy cat and can't handle horror movies. I like a bit of Stephen King though, I found The Shining quite creepy. And The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

I really need to get back into reading books, I'm so easily distracted by the internet these days. Hmm.

Yes yes Apolloanddaphne the premise of Under The Skin ((Michael Faber) is so original and terrifying, it's impossible ever to forget. Very frightening! Don't read it if you're on holiday in Scotland.

Another scary book I'll always remember is OUT by Natsuo Kirino. It's about a group of women who work in a bento box factory, put upon and downtrodden in different ways by the shitty men in their lives. NYT review says:

" OUT is a potent cocktail of urban blight, perverse feminism and vigilante justice"

I had to put it outside the bedroom door at night.

There's a few really I can recommend. As others have said Susan Hill is really good. I found Before I Go To Sleep so sinister and menacing. Tom Slemen does collections of true short stories.They are set mostly in Liverpool (where I am from) but you wouldn't need to know Liverpool to read them. They are genuinely terrifying as they are true and sometimes only happened 10 years ago!!

I've read a lot of Stephen king - some are terrifying, some are chilling and some are plain daft but I know Pet Semetary stuck with me. I've read the lovely bones and I can't say it was particularly chilling, dark in places but quite uplifting in a weird way too

Behind Closed Doors

Short story: The Listener by Algernon Blackwood.

A book that I found "chilling", as well as very sad, is Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

It's not "scary" in the sense that a horror story would be. In my opinion, it's far more terrifying than any fiction because the events are real. The Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward were things that I had heard of but knew nothing about. Wild Swans enlightened me. I cannot recommend it enough.

American psycho for me too. The author plumbed new lows with that one. One sick n fucked up individual to think that shit up. For the op to blithely describe it as great is chilling in its own right.