I want your best, pant wettingly scary novels please

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

I've run out of scary books. I've read all of Stephen King's work. So come on, share your scariest, most memorable books here

I always thought Woman In Black by Susan Hill was v scary. Haven't read it for years mind you so might be magnifying in my head!

Is the play based on it? Because I've seen the play several times and I want an unexpected scare, iyswim. It is very good though.

Oh, what's that bloke's name... james herbert!
rats was a good one, v similar to stephen king!

I'm not keen on Herbert. His writing style leaves me a bit cold

I second the Woman in Black - you won't be able to sleep for a week after reading it. Even if you've seen the play, you will still find the book incredibly suspenseful and frightening. I read it after seeing the TV film and the play and I was astonished at how much it scared me.

Dracula is terrifying. I couldn't look in mirrors after dark for the longest time after reading that.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters gave me the willies.

Dracula left me 'Meh'. I'm not keen on that era of literature. Far too wordy. I want to be entertained and terrified and possibly bamboozled. The Little Stranger was alright

Ruth Rendell as Barbara Vine makes me nervous but it's not scary. a judgement in stone the best one for nervousness I think

sheridan le fanu? m r james?

jacob & wilhelm grimm selected tales? the fairy tales, original ones which are a lot nastier..

Ruth Rendell is Barbara Vine? Coo. I did not know that.

just finished Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin...totally terrifying and gripping! loved it.

I have Rosemary's Baby downloaded on to my Kindle but haven't started it yet. So it's worth a look then?

Wordy but terrifying: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Completely sets me off with the heebie-jeebies.

Just asked my (lurking) sister and she says early Val McDermid

Naomi's Room, by Jonathan Aycliffe. The little girl on the cover is scary before you even read it!

The Lost, also by Jonathan Aycliffe. Very scary, quite a spare style. I haven't dared read any of his others.

Oh, whistle and I'll come to you my lad by M R James televised last Christmas I think with John Hurt but original is a bit different.

Another vote for Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

Mo Hayder - Ritual (or any of her Jack Caffrey novels)

Agh - I came on to say 'It' or something else of King's.

I didn't like Woman In Black and wasn't scared by it - but lots of people on here really rate it. I also didn't like The Little Stranger, which felt like a huge anti-climax.

How about some Poe?

Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes is very suspenseful and menacing.

This scared me

Definitely some Poe.

I very much like Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper.

In fact any Gothic classic such as The Monk, Turn of The Screw, Lord Of The Flies etc.

Okay, this is going to sound odd, but Muriel Gray's novels are the scariest things I have ever read. So scary I couldn't sleep on a transatlantic flight.

Gosh yes to Lord Of The Flies and The Yellow Wallpaper - both terrifying.

I think Gothic stuff other than Dracula and Frankenstein is often funny rather than scary - The Monk, The Mysteries Of Udolpho and The Castle Of Otranto are pretty daft anyway but there may be others that I haven't read that are really scary. If so, please tell me what they are because I need to read them!

The People Next Door by Christopher Hodgson (? check author name) was pretty effing scary....