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Original poster

Scariest book you have ever read!

117 replies

BookshowthatIcandrawupsidedown · 24/02/2024 15:04

I have just discovered discovered two new authors. Cj cooke and Michelle Paver..ghostly thrillers. Like their books but I would like to read something really scary. I read a couple of james herbert many years ago. The fog and possibly one about a magic cottage. Don't remember them being really scary.

Any recommendations?

OP posts:
CastlesinSpain · 29/02/2024 01:27

One of the creepiest stories I've ever read was THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN By Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It's on Gutenberg, page 83 here: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17953/pg17953-images.html#VI

The Haunters & The Haunted
Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17953/pg17953-images.html#VI

StellaAndCrow · 29/02/2024 01:16

Crikey, just the summary/blurb for the CJ Cooke Haunting in the Arctic book is scaring me - I think I might be too much of a wimp to read the book!

StellaAndCrow · 29/02/2024 01:12

Any of MR James's short stories e.g. Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad.

I have to avoid reading them at night, otherwise I wouldn't be able to turn my light off! They're scary in a ghostly, haunting way, similar to the way Michelle Paver is scary.

Michelle Paver is usually my recommendation for a good scary book, so I'm guessing I might like your other recommendation of CJ Cooke - thank you!

Dee1224 · 28/02/2024 13:32

In no particular order:

Most disturbing:

The Road
Let the Right One In
Lord of the Flies
I’m the King of the Castle
Z for Zachariah

Most scary:

The Woman in Black
Turn of the Screw
The Strain series
Marianne Dreams (watched the terrifying TV series as a child, read the book as an adult - it was still scary😹)

I have stopped reading King’s horror novels as I find them often too ‘sick’ for my taste, although, imo, his storytelling ability is second to none.

WhathaveIdoneagain · 28/02/2024 11:57

anythinginapinch · 24/02/2024 16:04

The Road.

Same here. I could not sleep for a long time after that.

HurrahWuff · 28/02/2024 11:56

@thenightsky Same! I've read quite a few that others have mentioned but this one is the one that has stuck with me Confused

thenightsky · 28/02/2024 11:47

HurrahWuff · 27/02/2024 13:11

Let's go play at the Adams' Psychological horror, which I read as a young teen. Terrifying.

I read that when I was a student nurse on nights in 1980. It's stuck with me to this day. I wish I'd never read that bloody book <<shudder>>

StrikesAtticFlat · 28/02/2024 11:43

Another vote for 'Hex'. I've read most of the books mentioned so far and 'Hex' really got to me - such a terrifying premise.

LegArmpits · 27/02/2024 23:44

Flesh and Blood by Graham Masterton. Missed my train stop reading it, absolutely horrible and unforgettable.

Other notable Graham Masterton stories: Mirror and Famine.

Pet Sematary, The Long Walk, Steven King.

Recently read Starve Acre, really good until it ended prematurely and I was like wtf 😂

Pokerprincess · 27/02/2024 23:24

Hex by Thomas Heuvelt

LightSpeeds · 27/02/2024 22:31

Stephen King's 'It' scared the bejesus out of me when I read it many years ago.

That Michelle Paver one, 'Dark Matter', did too 👻🧟‍♂️😬

YourTruthorMine · 27/02/2024 22:21

No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill, there's just something about his books, deeply unsettling

3smallpups · 27/02/2024 22:21

How we live now by Meg rosoff, has some chilling scenes that I genuinely still have nightmares about years later.

Am intrigued by the Gerald durell story, though also too scared to read it !

Jewelanemone · 27/02/2024 22:19

F

WelliesWithHeels · 27/02/2024 22:14

UtterlyButterly2048 · 25/02/2024 20:33

We Need to Talk about Kevin. By Lionel Shriver. Terrifying but absolutely possible, in no way is it science fiction! The film was crap (I read the book years before) but the book is amazing and the basic premise? Shit scary.

Absolutely agree. A very chilling book that stayed with me a long while.

tattygrl · 27/02/2024 22:10

Susan Hill's ghost stories! Woman in Black, Mist in the Mirror, The Small Hand.

emmylousings · 27/02/2024 20:01

Any by James Herbert.
I remember finding The Magic Cottage creepy but its pretty tame really. I'm wimp

NooNakedJacuzziness · 27/02/2024 20:00

House of Small Shadows - Adam Nevill. Horrible, unsettling and depressing, I had to throw it away when I'd finished it.

Pet Sematary is so good, much much better than any of the crappy film adaptations!

CatChant · 27/02/2024 19:56

WorkingFromHomeShite · 27/02/2024 18:42

A book by Gerald Durrell called ‘The picnic and suchlike pandemonium’ is ‘A third book of reminiscences describing the hilariously chaotic life of the Durrell family , and other matters’ according to Amazon. Whoever wrote that review did not read the final story in the book which traumatised me as a child. There is a certain aspect of it (I can’t say as it’s a spoiler) that affects me even now and I unconsciously avoid this thing in some situations. It genuinely put me off horror films and books for life.

Edited

@WorkingFromHomeShite DH read the same story as a child and it terrified him. He still remembers it. And it is so out of kilter with the rest of the collection and Durrell’s other books.

My scariest selection is:

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill,
The Face, short story by EF Benson,
The Tower, short story by Marghanita Laski,
The Hollow Boy, by Jonathan Stroud, specifically the chapters describing the investigation by Lockwood & Co at the haunted department store - it is creepy!

Droolylabradors · 27/02/2024 19:55

SilverSimca · 24/02/2024 15:16

Without a doubt, Children of the Dust which I read aged 12. It isn't horror as such, it's about a nuclear war, but it terrified me for years and years because it wasn't about monsters and ghosts, it could actually happen. I could never read it again.

I went through a Stephen King stage in my teens and remember being particularly frightened by Pet Semetary and Salem's Lot.

The only thing I have really read as an adult that I found scary was The Little Stranger and that might be because I was reading it alone in an empty house at night.

This. I'm 46, read it when I was 13 and I still have a physical visceral reaction when I think about it.

Especially where the family are under the table eating rancid item from the freezer as that's all they had.

And the fur on people's bodies.

A few years ago, drunk after a long lunch with a friend, I bought a new copy in foyles before I got the train home and read it before I got back to my station. Fresh fear!

I also terrified myself with The Stand.

Post apopolytic fiction is terrible for me and I can't watch any TV like this now!

bravotango · 27/02/2024 19:53

The Rats! Still think about it now 😂

CrunchyCarrot · 27/02/2024 19:49

Sussurations · 27/02/2024 19:41

@CrunchyCarrot The Wendigo is great, but The Willows I find really creepy. Love Algernon Blackwood.

Casting The Runes by MR James has a couple of flesh-crawling bits. Also The Mezzotint the first time I read it.

The Turn of the Screw. It’s a masterpiece!

Oooh yes The Willows! Yes that was hair-raisingly creepy.

Agree with all those!

Jelliclecats · 27/02/2024 19:42

The Rats. James Herbert. Terrifying.

Sussurations · 27/02/2024 19:41

@CrunchyCarrot The Wendigo is great, but The Willows I find really creepy. Love Algernon Blackwood.

Casting The Runes by MR James has a couple of flesh-crawling bits. Also The Mezzotint the first time I read it.

The Turn of the Screw. It’s a masterpiece!

Cookiecrisps · 27/02/2024 19:41

I think that Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black is terrifying but an excellent gothic horror novel. I first read it in year 9 at school and it often plays on my mind.