What's the scariest book you've read?

[imaginative]

My two are 'the woman in Black' by Susan Hill - sooo creepy, and much more recently, and probably frightened me a bit more - 'What Laura Saw' by Sarah King. This one has a couple of really great twists and a very sympathetic lead character.

So which books scared you the most? I am looking for another one to read alongside 'The State We're In'. I like to have a couple of books on the go depending on my mood. Thanks

[Pipbin]

In all honesty the book I have found the scariest is The Secret Garden. I read it as a child and it scared the shit out of me. Seriously, it starts with her waking up to find her parents dead! It took me about 3 goes to get past that bit!

[DistressedAndAlarmed]

Oh yes, Tokyo by Mo Hayder!

[AllThePrettySeahorses]

cosmicglittergirl - I was coming on to say Dark Matter as well. It's astonishingly good! I'm a voracious reader, but I couldn't pick up a book for over a week after I finished it because it was so brilliantly done.

[suboptimal]

IT by Stephen King. The parts in italics which told you what the childrens' subconsciouses were thinking were really creepy.

And the clown! Urgh

[Cocolepew]

Birdman! That was it.

[sanquhar]

Adam nevill, the one about a cult, can't remember the title. Scared the shit out of me, proper chills and sweats too. I couldn't sleep for a few nights after reading that one.
I'm now reading his one set in the Swedish forest.

They're great

[marshmallowpies]

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. One or two really upsetting bits and the end is just...well, you'd have to read it.

YY to Alias Grace. Not a conventional spooky book but one scene frightened the living daylights out of me. I read it on the bus coming home and was scared to go into my house alone in the dark!

Other books I got rid of because they upset me too much were the Road and the Suspicions of Mr Whicher. That one was just too distressing though very interesting. The Road was too much for me, I'd never have chosen to read it but it was for a book group.

[TheEagle]

marshmallowpies, I had to hide my copy of Alias Grace in the towel cupboard because looking at the cover freaked me out for ages

[ItsAllKickingOffPru]

Bird Box by Josh Malerman.

[GahLinDah]

Gerald's Game, I had to force myself to keep on turning the pages, ugh.

[PsychicCaramel]

Gerald's Game by Stephen King terrified me the first time I read it years ago. It was 'The Space Cowboy' that did it. Genuinely had trouble sleeping afterwards, I used to just keep imagining him standing at the end of my bed in the dark, watching me.

[BrokenBananaTantrum]

The Survivor by James Herbert. I actually had to get up in the night and throw the book in the bin outside. It totally freaked me out.

[Bolshybookworm]

Ooh, I love a scary book! My votes are:

Helen Dunmore- the greatcoat (really loved this, it was also beautifully written)

Michelle Paver- Dark Matter

Shirley Jackson- the Haunting of Hill House

Henry James- the Turn of the Screw

Edgar Allen poes short stories gave me horrific nightmares!

Mo Hayder I find gripping, rather than scary (for me, scary=supernatural), but I love her books. She's really developed as a writer, her books get better and better- I love the jack caffrey series.

[Bolshybookworm]

Love the sound of Bird Box, that's going on my must read list!

[AgentCooper]

I found Salem's Lot very scary, much more so than the (awesome) film with David Soul's glued on hair.

My scariest films are The Blair Witch Project and The Orphanage. Both great, but I always regret watching them later!

[DustWitch]

Another vote for the Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories is a great read and contains some really chilling short stories.

Scariest film is The Orphanage without a doubt!

[Mocheenee]

Joe Hill - Heart Shaped Box
Terrifying, written by Stephen Kings son. Really creepy - a guy 'buys' a ghost on an ebay type site. This stayed with me for weeks.

Scariest film - The Orphanage , Spanish horror with subtitles but exquisitely scary yet really sad and poignant too.

[Mocheenee]

Yep - Geralds Game freaked me out too - the guy at the end of the bed scenario......

[expatinscotland]

The Woman in Black

[FastWindow]

Stephen King Cujo. By å country mile.

The stand was awful in parts (where he goes back in to the tent and she's already dead?!...) but that really is just the first quarter. The rest is about rebuilding society.

The dark sweet treat in the bus shelter though... Grøssssss

[cosmicglittergirl]

Michelle Paver is an excellent author. I highly recommend her Wolf Brother series too. Dark Matter really creeped me out.

[Bolshybookworm]

For those who enjoyed the Orphanage, have you watched the Devild Backbone? It's a Spanish ghost film by Guillermo Del Toro and it's very good- poignant like the orphanage.

[SnotandBothered]

'House of Leaves'. Just. Oh. My. God
'Communion'. The only book I have ever had to limit to 'daytime reading' only.
Therese Raquin. Unsettling and jumpy.

And YY to Alias Grace.

Enjoy Stephen King and have read all the ones mentioned here but never unsettled me like these.

I am not easily scared by films. Conventional horror is usually too far fetched to really bother me but the original 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' scared me beyond words.

[Bolshybookworm]

devils backbone. Devilled backbone sounds like a particularly weird canapé.

[Mintyy]

I don't read horror or scary books but the most frightening thing I have ever read was a chapter in Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd, which perfectly and chillingly (as in a this could happen to anyone way) described how a person went from being a regular guy to a tramp on the road with terrible mental health problems and nothing to his name. I was reading it on the beach in southern France and had to keep stopping because I was so utterly creeped out by it. Peter Ackroyd is a fucking good writer, actually.