What is the scariest book you've ever read??

[ElektraLOL]

For me it's got to be The Shining. It's way scarier than the book! Especially the bit with the Dog Man 😨

Pinkarsedfly I love all of her stuff. I read a great biography of her recently and she was such an interesting woman. Quite a sad life, but what a legacy.

The Lottery is stunning, isn’t it? I remember the first time I read it, getting to the end and thinking ‘what the fuck did I just read?’ Now that’s a scary story!

The Fog by James Herbert, Salem's Lot - I used to read so many of these as a teen! Must reread them!

The Entity. The film is a bum flapper but the book is terrifying

The Walkers by Graham Masterton. About a load of insane criminals who learn how to travel into walls and pulled their victims in after them, very graphic.

Also one about a father trying to find his teenage daughter. She’d joined a cult where they believed in eating themselves - that was a bit grim.

Anything by Richard Laymond is also terrifying but in a sick way, some are a bit much (Beast House) but utterly terrifying.

I do read other stuff, mostly sci fi/fantasy now

witch I love Richard Laymon. Have everything he's written such s shame he passed away! I love the Beast house collection

Rosemary’s Baby is bloody terrifying!

The Hot Zone that a couple of you mentioned is also very very scary

Thank you to the people who corrected the title - I knew Gordon's Game sounded wrong. Gordon is such a cuddly name.

I stand by Gerald's Game being terrifying.

Theres quite a lot of books that turn my stomach, Needful Things was one which did and I stopped reading it but it wasn't scary, just unpleasant. But genuinely scary is something else. G'sG was one that kept me awake and I HAD to finish it to resolve it. Would have left me wondering otherwise, by finishing I could get it out of my head.

Oh yes, Gerald's Game is very anxiety-inducing.
The story which freaked me out the most though, was one I read in a point horror book as a teenager, think it was called Collect Call or similar. Totally scared myself silly with that one.
Also when I was about 11 or 12, I wrote a ghost story at school about a girl locked in an attic and a man climbing up the side of the house to get in. Couldn't sleep for about a week afterwards

Argh, that Usbourne Ghosts book! I used to get it out of the library over and over again when I was about 11. So scary!

As an adult, maybe The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. Not scary, but very very disturbing.

OP - when Bev has to have sex with each of the boys in turn to save them all. Cocaine is a wicked drug.

I’ve read a lot of the books previously posted, but they didn’t scare me as much as...

Now you see her... by Heidi Perks

Honestly, it’s just a (‘not exceptionally well written’) novel, but I kept having to put it down, whilst wanting to read the next bit...

I’m not sure if it was the fear of being in the position of either of the two main characters or peri menopausal anxiety, but blimey it was unnerving.

No one gets out Alive by Adam Nevill, I love horror and his books are the most disturbing I have ever read

I haven't properly read a book since the internet took off!
I love a good spine tingle.

A nature book I used to have as a child with pictures of huge spiders across its pages.

If I wanted to look up ladybirds or butterflies I used to close my eyes and peek through to check I hadn't got the spiders page by mistake.

chippy I was so upset when he died, too young

I love Stephen King. The scariest for me was The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

Scared the life out of me on two levels. I had a daughter the same age and picturing her alone and lost in a massive forest and of course the thing that is stalking her the whole time. I still get an icy stab in my stomach when I think of it.

WeepingWillow and unicorn, I think you’re talking about “The Entrance” - I read it as a teen and found it terrifying! I didn’t dare read it again til my 30s and it was still as bad as I remember it being!

Oh @WhispersOfWickedness I remember 'Collect Call' in the point horror book - indeed that was scary!! But I can't remember exactly what happened.

@ElektraLOL the scene they weren't all to film was the orgy with the children near the end, because of obscene laws (quite rightly illegal to portray minors in sexual acts even the actors are over the age of consent)

@RumpoleoftheBaileys ahhhh, yes of course. No they definitely couldn't do that as the kids were about 12!

@BillywigSting X post!

Another one that has stuck with me I'd from a collection of short stories, Roald Dahl's ghost stories (not written by him just compiled), ringing the changes and on Brighton Road really gave me the chills though weren't overtly scary and certainly not in a jump scare way

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(miniseries)
I stumbled across this series on Sky once, it was much more true to the book.

Another book I reread regularly is The Magic Cottage by James Herbert.
Oh, yes The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons, again a film was made but didn't come anywhere near capturing the horror in the book.

I wouldn't t even contemplate reading most of the books on this thread! As a child I was scared of almost everything, but bizarrely the book that scared me the most was a Famous Five book that had a supposed 'ghost train' ( I think it turned out to be a real train used by some dastardly crooks). I read it at my nan's house when I was supposed to be staying over and it freaked me out so much I had to go home .

Also, that Usborne ghost book! I'm a librarian and that section of the children's library still terrifies me!