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.

I absolutely adored the point horror books! I had forgotten them, another one to add to the list for my daughter for when she's older!

Still shudder in horror at remembering the teenage aimed Pointe Horror series of books, and particularly the April Fools one. Oh god. The nightmares as a child.

Found it in a charity shop a few months ago AS AN ADULT, and thought would be a giggle to read again.

Screamed and hid under the duvet again. The shame

I don't really do full on Horror books, but I do like some of the spookier sections in Julia Gray's The Guardian Cycle. Also suitable for Halloween, as it has a ghost as a main supporting character!

Clockwork by Phillip Pullman is the only scary story that had us all terrified.

Edgar Allan Poe - Complete Tales and Poems. Nothing beats it for me.
I also read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman to my toddler, brilliant book!

The Owl Service by Alan Garner still freaks me out 35 years after first reading it. It is based on the story of Blodeuwedd in the Mabinogion and is a brilliant, spooky read.

For adults Something Might Happen by Julie Myerson is a really gripping thriller that gave me chills. Or The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.

For children Grimms tales and Where the Wild Things Are.

I second Naomi's Room (Aycliffe) which is terrifying.
And F.G. Cottam. The Waiting Room is a film waiting to happen. Dark Echo also excellent.

Book i loved as a kid was The Ghost Diviners. Really recommend it if your kids love reading (age 10 PLUS) Not sure if it's out of print but i managed to buy an old copy online. Rollicking good time travel ghost murder mystery.

Another Jonathan Aycliffe- The Lost. A truly terrifying vampire story.

The Pear-shaped Man - short story by George R R Martin. Read it years ago and then discovered it was by the Game of Thrones author. About a creepy man who lives downstairs and seems to stalk the narrator.

Children's books - A Candle in her Room, can't remember the author. Loved it as a child and all the Susan Cooper books.

Am now going to download some horror stories onto my kindle.

Omg almost forgot: Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Proper scary Victorian horror story.

Not a horror story, or even scary, but as a kid I absolutely loved the pop up Haunted House book by Jan Pienowski. I've just bought a copy on amazon for my little boy, and I hope he loves it as much as I did - it's perfect for a younger child for Halloween!

• Jan Pienkowski

Dark Matter - Michelle Paver

She creates a fantastic air of isolation and unease, I read t last winter, it really creeps you out...

Would def recommend it, it's not blood and guts, it's very unsettling!

Another vote for Dark Matter. Brilliantly creepy.
The Woman in Black too.

Probably already been mentioned but The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and Dracula by Bram Stoker.

I didnt read Dracula until I had seen Coppolla's (sp?) film and the ending where they are racing to the castle had my heart banging more than the film did! Its a fantastic book, I can re read it time after time and still get the thrills everytime. The diary of the ships captain is especially chilling.

The Raven is creepy in a proper Halloweeny way! Madness, ghosts, a talking raven, its all there!

Another vote for Dark Matter, The Woman in Black and The Little Stranger.

For kids, The Witches by Roald Dahl.

I can remember as a teen being spooked by The Magic Cottage by James Herbert. I'd like to read it again as a grown up.

Also a book about Aliens by Whitley Strieber : Communion (I think). I was so scared of it I had to hide it under the sofa. I was a teenager also. The picture of an alien on the front cover was horrible. I think I eventually put the book on the fire one cold day!
I think I'd be fine reading it now.
My son tells me there are some spooky, but not scary bits in harry Potter.

The wierdstone of brisingamen by Alan garner. The bit where they are stuck in the mine and also the feeling they are being watched all the time.

Any of M R James' ghost stories. My particular favourite is the Mezzotint.

The TV adaptations are usually broadcast at Christmas time and there are some excellent theatre productions by Robert Lloyd Parry (Nunkie productions), who takes on the role of James telling the stories.

Ooh, I love the Christmas ghost stories on TV - there was a terrifying one on Christmas Eve a couple of years ago with John Hurt.

A classic one for us has always been the Witches by Roald Dahl. Great one through the years for children and adults.

While not horror as such, I find John Wyndhams books like Day of the Triffids scary as he writes about civilisations collapsing in such a unassuming way. There is also a book called K in for Killing I have somewhere all about what would have happened if the States went down on the side of the Nazi's in the 2nd World War, that book makes for a pretty uncomfortable read.

It has to be the Hairy Toe by Daniel Postgate. What could be scarier?! And for adults, a good old fashioned ghost tale: John Boyne's This House is Haunted. Boo!

It was cool when I was a teenager to read James Herbert books and I can remember that the fog was the one everyone read. I didn't like it, but did read Fluke, which to this day I think is a brilliant mind bender of a book. It is the story of a man, and a dog, or is the man the dog. Read it to find out as its a great book. Super spooky for Halloween!

I always remember as a kid the Goosebump stories scaring the life out of me.

As an adult one of the ones that gave me the creeps was The Woman In Black by Susan Hill.