Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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:
user5656 · 06/12/2019 08:58

We need to talk about Kevin. It's haunted me so much that I've never been able to read it more than once, but after the comments here maybe I will try.

il0vew1ne · 06/12/2019 08:48

another vote for Kevin - you need to read it a couple of times as others have said.

EskewedBeef · 06/12/2019 08:43

Dark Matter is the only book that I've had to put down for a bit because I was getting too scared. I've read a lot of horror, but that one was standout, genuinely frightening.

Cyberworrier · 06/12/2019 08:35

Julie Myerson’s The Stopped Heart is a good, atmospheric, haunting story. Not as out and out scary as some mentioned here.
I much preferred the book of the Haunting of Hill House to the film so may have v different taste! I thought the book was terrifying and amazingly written.
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, creepy and tense story of girl being brought up by a survivalist who is going increasingly insane and withdrawing from the world, with her. Beautifully written.

Raahh · 06/12/2019 08:25

Another Stephen King short story- The Long Walk, not a horror one, but truly horrific. Very much a precurser to the likes of the Hunger games. It has affected me lot since I first read it. I have read it over and over, and get the same feelings every time.

I think a film is being made of it, and I hope they don't ruin the mood of sheer desperation. ( sounds a riot, doesn't it, Grin).

CusheyButterfield · 06/12/2019 08:23

I would recommend Dark Matter by Michelle Paver if you're after something spooky. I absolutely loved it!

Meltedicicle · 06/12/2019 08:14

Yet another vote for We need to talk about Kevin. One of the few books I’ve read more than once.

And not so much horror but a very chilling/disturbing ‘can’t put it down’ book I read recently was A Little Life.

thesunwillout · 06/12/2019 07:50

I really enjoyed Thin Air, that was creepy and The Silent Companions.

Both set in old times.

Saucery · 06/12/2019 07:47

Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley really got under my skin.

icannotremember · 06/12/2019 07:45

Birdbox and Kevin as pp have said. Kevin really gets at you.

The Stephen King short story called Apt Pupil is creepy and disturbing. I know lots of King works are, but that one for some reason really unsettled me.

TheBitchOfTheVicar · 06/12/2019 07:38

American Psycho: I read it when I was 26 and it gave me many, many nightmares Shock

wishing4sun · 06/12/2019 07:30

Thinner by Richard Bachman aka Stephen king
I don't know why it just stuck with me as terrifying.

blamethecat · 06/12/2019 05:34

Peter James has some excellent chilling books, particularly Prophecy.
Mo Hayder also excellent.

RubbishRubbishRubbish · 06/12/2019 05:33

Also agree with The Collector and Wasp Factory, especially the latter.

RubbishRubbishRubbish · 06/12/2019 05:32

The Girl In The Box about Colleen Stan. Exceptionally chilling because it's a true story.

Coldhandscoldheart · 06/12/2019 05:10

@Househunt1 not a thing everyone does? I was a teenager, and I’m not sure why it freaked me out quite as much as it did. But yeah, couldn’t look at it.

BitOfFun · 06/12/2019 01:52

Pig Island by Mo Hayder.

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 06/12/2019 01:48

Well, obvious ones like M.R.James and Edgar Allan Poe, but if you mean more recent then:
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
The Small Hand - Susan Hill (also The Mist in the Mirror)
The Loney - Andrew Hurley
If you want non fiction, the Lucie Blackman story People Who Eat Darkness and Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter about the Manson Family murders.

daisydalrymple · 06/12/2019 01:15

Pet Semetary
Followed by Salem’s lot
Both Stephen King

Linnet · 06/12/2019 00:25

The ice twins Is by S.k Tremayne, it was really good.
I don’t find Susan Hill books scary at all. James Herbert books can be scary though, I agree Haunted is a great book.

PatriciaBateman · 06/12/2019 00:15

We Need to Talk About Kevin is like two books in one.

I read it through the first time with no preconceptions and all of my focus was on the horror that was Kevin.

Then a friend told me to read it again with a skeptic's eye on the mother as an unreliable narrator and narcissist...
completely changed the story and blew my mind.

A bit like Lolita - different ways to filter/interpret the words on the page.

TheVanguardSix · 05/12/2019 23:45

In Cold Blood! Yes! One of my longtime favourites. Truman Capote is brilliant.

elQuintoConyo · 05/12/2019 23:35

The Wasp Factory. It still haunts me 20 years on.

American Psycho, just pure disgust. Very good, but horrible.

Trainspotting had some awful bits.

I second pp's suggestion of Poe's The Mask of the Red Death

SqueakyChicken · 05/12/2019 23:18

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
The Snowman - Jo Nesbo

livingmyslothlife · 05/12/2019 23:10

Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne not chilling in a horror sense but real life sense. Read it early this year and it has stayed with me.

Gothic Horror I Enjoyed Silent Companions and The corset both by Laura Purcell.