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 DSs were 3 they thought the Gruffalo was veeery spooky, at the point where the mouse goes 'there's no such thing as a Gruffal--oooh!'

For me, Stephen King's Carrie. The book, not the movie. The movie is only mildly scary although Sissy Spacek was great!

Probably out of print but "A Candle in Her Room" by Ruth M Arthur is fabulous!

I love Pet Cemetery by Stephen King and Needful things, both superb novels, not too scary but gripping enough to keep you absorbed for hours.

I remember reading Being by Kevin Brooks, a YA novel published in 2007 - I'm not sure that it actually intended to be spooky but my god did it have my heart racing. The entire concept of the novel is just brilliant, definitely recommend if you have teens along with other works by Kevin Brooks.

The lovely bones also managed to spook me so it doesn't take much ;)

I remember being spooked out reading 'Whispers in the Graveyard' by Theresa Breslin. Solomon finding the chest and sounding out the word properly stuck in my head for ages afterwards. That was also when I learned what dyslexia was, having heard the word before but never known what it meant!

These days I don't like spooky stories so tend to avoid them but I remember getting the shivers while reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Kind of like 'spooky lite' for people who don't do horror I guess!

Just seen someone mention the Gruffalo being spooky - it was the Gruffalo's Child for my DD, I remember her at 2, lying in her bed after lights out with the wind howling outside going 'His eyes, like pooooools of TERRIBLE FIYAAAAH'

The other spooky book she liked last year was this one - the illustrations are really cool and it's very non-scary in the end. Good for really wee ones!

Oh yes, I forgot the House of Leaves! Properly terrifying with weird goings on and very unreliable narrators. Really unsettling.

I'm glad someone else has said Candle in her Room, it was a real favourite of mine when I was younger. 3 generations under the spell of doll.

Dean Koontz The funhouse

Watched a Nightmare on Elm street film as a teenager and really could not sleep after that. Sleepless nights when you have kids is one thing but this was really NO sleep for a LONG time!

The Darren Shan saga
And Darren Shan's demonata

I'm going to go with a book that terrified me as a child in middle school - we read it as the class book one term and I had nightmares about it for months afterwards!

It's The Fate of Jeremy Visick by David Wiseman. A children's book, about a young boy who visits a local cemetery to learn more about local miners, and becomes obsessed with an inscription about a young boy who was never found after a mining disaster. It's truly poignant at times, as the main character Mathew becomes determined to find out more about the lost boy, and where he lies. It's mysterious, dramatic, and gave me serious nightmares about mine shafts and lost children. And Cornwall. Haven't been back since ;)

One for the kids and possibly my favourite childhood book....The Curse of the Egyptian Mummy by Pat Hutchins. Scary, funny and completely silly!

The Bad Place by Dean Koontz

Rosemary's baby.

I think it's because it relates to pregnancy. The idea of something evil taking you over, and the fact that everyone is in control of you.

And We need to talk about Kevin - I know it's not classed as horror but it really got to me! Not a good book to read while pregnant :o

Click, Clack the Rattle Bag is a good, spooky short story by Neil Gamon. The Graveyard Book (also Neil Gamon) and the Funny Bones series of books by Janet and Allan Allberg (sp?) also spring to mind.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Google it, the illustrations still creep me right out!

Bad Jelly the Witch by Spike Milligan - my young DC love it and find the witch quite terrifying.

I agree with the poster above re We Need To Talk About Kevin. I didn't sleep well for weeks after reading that while pregnant probably not the smartest idea.

Edgar Allan Poe is the best though.

The woman in black (by Susan hill)

Does anyone remember a book of short stories called (I think) Werewolf's Mask? I read it over and over again as a child.

I've seen a few comments about We Need To Talk About Kevin and I have to say I agree. Though it isn't classed as horror, it stuck with me, too. Probably because I am a mother to a son and I wonder what he will be like as he grows older and how the way I treat him may have an effect on him in later life etc. There have been other books that have stayed with me and I've taken to writing them down now as I mostly read books from the library!

Also, THE FUNNY BONES! Thank you so much CountryPheasant for mentioning those books! I loved reading them as a kid and then reading them with subsequent siblings, too! I want to locate some now and have a look through!

I wish I had my own library! lol

"The Birds" by du Maurier is one of the most unsettling stories I've ever read. Forget the Hitchcock interpretation, it's proper back-to-basics stuff.

Pratchett's "Johnny and the Dead" is good too - not exactly spooky (save for the suicide ghost) but poignant and humane as well as funny.

M R James of course. There's also a story by Conan Doyle (can't remember the name now and the book is in DD's room just now - she's asleep) about a pilot in the early days of flight investigating creatures who live in the upper atmosphere. Again, very unsettling.

As a train buff, Dickens' The Signal Man ticks every box

red room hg wells as and yellow wallpaper Charlotte Perkins gilman. love Stephen king short stories too

As a teenager it had to be the point horror nightmare hall series.

Loved those books!

Thanks so much for all your spooky suggestions. We're currently putting together a page of favourites and will post a link to the page once it's live on the site.

Congratulations to marymouse whose name was selected from the Mumsnet couldron and has won a boxed set of new edition Harry Potters. We'll be in touch by pm about how to claim your prize.

Although the comp has now closed, please do continue to send in your favourite horror stories.