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Original poster

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

207 replies

Beatgrrl · 05/12/2019 14:50

At this time of year, I really love to snuggle up under a blanket, get all comfy and absolutely terrify myself with a great book and I could really use some recommendations. Which books have been absolutely bone-chillingly terrifying for you? Which have been the books that have left you too afraid to turn the lights out; too afraid to move? Which books have made you feel too scared to turn the page?

OP posts:
twilightcafe · 14/12/2019 13:10

Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn chilled me to the bone. It's a biography of Fred and Rose West which pulls no punches.

ChanklyBore · 14/12/2019 00:35

A handmaid’s tale.

Frankenstein.

RoryGillmoresEvilTwin · 14/12/2019 00:21

Duma key terrified me when I read it years ago! We need to talk about Kevin is also horrifying but in a different, much more plausible way.
I've just started The Institute by Stephen King. It's not scary yet but I'm hoping...

Fornit · 11/12/2019 12:46

Love a ghost story!
A vote for the short stories of MR James. Have read them over and over again. Deliciously creepy.
Another fan of the Pendergast novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
(Waves across the thread to joCmummy)
And The Shining, of course!

Hoolihan · 10/12/2019 21:16

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss is so so good and had my heart pounding at the end.

Melmoth by Sarah Perry is very eerie and set largely in a snowy Prague, making it a fab winter read.

My best ever spooky read though is an anthology of Christmas ghost stories collected by Richard Dalby. I read it every year and love every story. My faves are Smee by A.M. Burrage, Someone in the Lift by L.P. Hartley and The Christmas Present by Ramsey Campbell. Deliciously scary.

peaceanddove · 10/12/2019 20:47

Also feeling the love for Mo Hayder, but she seems to have stopped writing. Anyone know why?

panticus · 10/12/2019 10:37

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (GREAT read by the way)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallant (also a great read, but there was one bit in particular where I had to put the book down, it was just too horrifying to read)

Stupiddriver1 · 10/12/2019 07:33

The Colony is quite scary.

Not supernatural but I couldn’t finish On The Road as I was so affected by it.

BelleSausage · 10/12/2019 07:08

Another vote for DARK MATTER.

It frightened me so much that I had to stop reading a couple of times!

Also, Woman in Black.

NotMyRealName123 · 10/12/2019 06:59

Surprised nobody has mentioned Richard Laymon yet? The best (worst?) I read of his was The Travelling Vampire Show double with a collection of short stories. The main book was great, not that chilling as such, but some of the short stories were seriously messed up.

The Beast House is good too

Celerysam · 10/12/2019 06:34

The Magpies, Mark Edwards. it still disturbs me now.

imhereforcake · 10/12/2019 06:29

Perfect child by Lucinda Berry made me feel uncomfortable and haunted me for weeks

MiniGuinness · 10/12/2019 06:19

Perfume: The story of a murderer, by Patrick Süskind, I read it as a teenager and my skin still crawls over some of the descriptions.

Besidesthepoint · 10/12/2019 06:11

Never let me go

It's a very disturbing dystopian book that I lost sleep over. My friend thought that I was exagerrating so read it too and planned to call me afterwards to tell me to not be a wuss, instead he called me and told me he also felt too scared to go to sleep.

sashh · 10/12/2019 05:14

Fizbo

I thought it was just me who couldn't read books 'out of season', I once started a Rebus book, it was describing a cold, wet Edinburgh, but I was reading outside on a hot sunny day. I had to put it down and read a John Grisham, set in the southern US.

Agree re Kevin and Lovely Bones - they are books that never leave you.

Unfortunately in my case, I didn't think much of them.

Bluewavescrashing · 10/12/2019 05:08

The Other Hand

I made the mistake of reading it on holiday!

grannyjacob · 10/12/2019 05:06

The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan. The Passage Trilogy, Justin Cronin. The Stand and Cell, both Stephen King. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson.

FlamingoAndJohn · 06/12/2019 18:23

Just hanging around for recommendations.

crosstalk · 06/12/2019 16:28

Another for M R James - eg Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. Short stories.

kitk · 06/12/2019 16:20

The Ice Twins by SK Tremayne

dontalltalkatonce · 06/12/2019 16:12

Another vote for 'Last Days'.

Also 'The Last Days of Jack Sparks'.

Lots of others because I love this genre.

schoolcook · 06/12/2019 16:03

Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham really spooked me.

HowlsMovingBungalow · 06/12/2019 15:37

I've got The Outcast on my bookshelf yet to read @Deecaff - interesting! May put off starting for a bit.

Deecaff · 06/12/2019 15:35

The most chilling book I've ever read was The Outcast by Sadie Jones. Not scary or terrifying but just a very dark, depressing book. I've read a few of the above mentioned scary/horror books and never find them that disturbing.

Drabarni · 06/12/2019 14:57

Lovecraft, not woodcraft Grin