Share your favourite spooky books for Halloween to win a box set of new edition Harry Potter books

[RachelMumsnet]

We're wanting you to share your favourite spooky tales / terrifying horror stories for both adults and children so we can put together a compilation of the best books for Halloween. Let us know which books send shivers down your spine by posting on this thread before the end of Friday 17 October. Everyone who contributes will be entered into a draw to win a beautiful boxed set containing all seven Harry Potter novels in new edition paperback.

When Marnie Was There, by Joan G Robinson. I was about 10 when I first read it, and it haunted me until it came back into print about 20 years later, and devoured it...

I don't really do horror, but the Susan Cooper series of 5 books are variably spooky, The Grey King and Silver on the Tree being most so for me

About 20y ago I read a book that terrified me. It was about English second-homers and other incomers in Wales being haunted by a malevolent Welsh spirit (or possibly witch?) that defended the land.

I can't remember the name. Candlenight? Candlemas?

Somebody tell me the name and the author, please, so that I make sure never to read it, or anything by him, again!

I used to have a collection of the Roald Dahl ghost stories. Masterful

I've recently discovered relatively new British horror author Adam Nevill, his book The Last Days is the only horror novel I've ever read that actually made me sleep with the light on. His stuff is well written and worth checking out if you like scary horror.

Six, you're thinking of Phil Rickman. His Merrily Watkins series is very good, not full on horror, but creepy and interesting.

When I was very small I got a picture book out from the library called "The Tailipo".

It was supposed to be for children. It featured an old man in a cabin in the woods who had hunted the Tailipo and stolen its tail. One dark night it comes to get it back, scratches on the cabin door saying "Give me back my Tailipo......" and eventually gets in and murders him.

I was terrified. Especially as my father, thinking it was funny, would imitate the Tailipo and scratch on my bedroom door.

Anyway, I bought a copy recently, it's still scary.

Ooo... Good thread!

Mist in the Mirror and The Woman in Black - Susan Hill

Affinity and The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

Another vote for Wuthering Heights. I first read it when I was about 12, on a stir my night in Yorkshire. I was shit scared that Cathy was trying to get into MY window whenever the tree branch was blown against the glass.

The Amityville Horror is a classic. I must have read it first in the 1980s. It's the mix of ghostly goings on and children tapping into the supernatural that gets me. The passage about the tricycle when it peddles itself around the garden while the children clap in delight still gives me the chills.

Another vote here for The Woman in Black, and The Little Stranger. And Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber - not ghostly, but very grim.

Not generally a horror fan, but I do remember Stephen King scaring me as a teen, and Dean Koontz.

Weirdly, one book that I do remember scaring me was Jurassic Park!

Woman in black for me or bloody chamber by Angela carter - used to be v scared by the tales of the unexpected as well. Trying to find something for 5 year old dd at moment for suspense style reading but can't think of anything.

The Absence by Bill Hussey a- terrifying
The Waiting Room - Cottam
Heart Shaped Box and Horns - Joe Hill

Another vote for The Woman in Black - truly terrifying. I could only listen to the audiobook during the day because the actual text would give me nightmares!

I occasionally read Stephen King even though he scares the bejesus out of me. I tend to stick to the more mainstream fiction ones like Dolores Claiborne or Four Seasons but I did read one called Bag of Bones which can still give me a chill!!!

Got to agree with the magic cottage by Stephen Herbert, I had awful dreams about it!

I loved the goosebumps books as well. How I learned to fly had me terrified as I'd always loved the thought of flying...not after reading that!

Another vote for coraline for kids, fantastic book.

For adults, Dean Koontz tick tock, only book for a long time to make me leap into bed, you know, just in case.

Um. Lots and lots!

The first one that springs to mind hit home to me as I was always warned about, well, kinda what happens in this one (if you've read it, you'll know. If you haven't read it, oh, DO! It's a quick, stomach churning awfulness! Sexual content, too, so not for kiddies )

A short story by Chuck Palahnuik - Guts.

It's legendary (and for good reason) and apparently when ever he does a reading, at least one audience member will faint!

And of course, King is known as the master for good reason (my two favs would probably be Firestarter or The Dead Zone) but his short stories are sometimes even better than the novels. The Long Walk is so bleak, and recommended.

But his son is also making quite the name for himself too. Horns (as mentioned upthread) is interesting, and NOS4R2 is great.

A collection of short stories entitled High Spirits by Robertson Davies. He was a university professor and used to tell a spooky story at a faculty gathering every year.

I really enjoyed, in a too scared to read when alone kind of way, Angels Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, gothic, creepy, looking over shoulder while reading stuff.

As a child (about 11/12 ish) I read a book about the aftermath of a nuclear war, sadly can't remember name of book or author, It did leave me terrified for many years afterward though.

Also 1984, (George Orwell) scary in a 'it's all happening now and could be our future'

I'm going to check out Chuck Palahnuik Gut, anything that makes an audience member faint has to be good!

Our father had a Tales of Horror & Supernatural Stories book dating back to the 1940s - it was in a trunk in the garage for years but somehow made it back into the house when we were impressionable, horror-story loving early teens.... it was black but mildewed with damp and age and therefore very atmospheric smelling. Reading it at bedtime and then falling asleep with it by one's bed felt spooky in itself never mind the terrible and very scary tales...

They were all spooky and macabre from the Edgar Alan Poe ones to the HP Lovecraft and many more but my favourite just has to be The Casting of the Runes...it's all in the storytelling - not knowing whether the horrors and 'spells' cast were real or a figment of the characters' imagination....

No doubt when the DCs get older we shall be introducing it to them too - you just can't beat Victorian and Edwardian horror stories - I'm afraid they make Stephen King look like a light-weight.

PS Pity we can't have a horrified emoticon for Halloween !

Neil Gaiman ' s 'the graveyard story' and 'coraline' both for children but with sinister and spooky undertones.

For kids (aged 2-4) What's in the Witch's Kitchen? (Lift the Flaps)

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1406340073/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_shBoub1J53HFX

I still remember being utterly terrified by the "Horowitz Horror" books by Anthony Horowitz!