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 😨

The Treatment closely followed by Birdman, both by Mo Hayder! Kept we awake at night!! 😩

I recently read The Birds and unexpectedly found it terrifying!

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!

I just gave that to my teenage son to read - he was really unimpressed!

Pet Sematary. When Judd kept saying 'It's just the loons...' Google the sound of a loon - it's so haunting. Ooh and Victor Pascow - 'The soil of a mans heart is stonier Louis...' Chills.

I read the Wasp Factory by the wonderful Iain Banks when I was quite young and it had an impact on me. The imagery was horrifying.

I was also quite scared reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

I'm not a fan of the horror genre.

I tried reading Mo Hayder on holiday and I found it absolute rubbish. Not scary, just ridiculous.

Pinkarsedfly That readers digest book, YES! I used to take that into school and me and my mates would sit about reading all the stories to each other!

Pus I will always remember the one about the twins “Dogs named Toy!” even though it wasn’t scary, just weird.

MoominMantra which Mo Hayder did you read? Some aren’t great!

I read some Mo Hayder books after a similar “scary book” thread.

I found her novels disturbing and disgusting. They were scary but not in the same way as Stephen King is scary. I won’t read any more.

Will absolutely be looking all these up tomorrow to read. Love a scary book and grew up on Point Horror's! I remember reading a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl as a kid, meant for adults, and being horrified. Programmes like Black Mirror remind me of them. Also read Gerald's Game when I was about 15 and was also scared! As an adult I think Enduring Love by Ian McKewen (sp?) freaked me out the most. The thought of no-one believing you and thinking you're mad, then not being entirely sure yourself... Plus the thought of stalkers in general give me the fear. Misery also got me in that it similarly has that creepy obsessive theme.

@Dontsayyouloveme it was Pig Island. It's probably the worst book I've ever read. I didn't finish it.

MoominMantra I read that one too, it was ridiculous! Total nonsense!

Tokyo by Mo Hayder. Shivers...

The woman in black

Bless the child by Cathy cash Spellman

I agree about Mo Hayder. The only scary thing about her work is the sheer gratuitous violence she throws in. The crime novel version of a slash movie.

there was a short story in a collection of writings by Gerald Durrell called Fillets of Plaice. The last one in the book, absolutely hair raising. About a dead person in a mirror or something.

Yes! ‘The Entrance’! I’ve never met anyone else who’s heard of it before, and it is absolutely the scariest thing I’ve ever read. I am still a bit worried about mirrors now.

I read both Dark Matter and the Silent Companions on the back of one of these threads and just sat round going "so, when is the scary stuff going to start?"

Last Days by Adam Nevill really got me going. Might just have been because I was heavily pregnant and taking a mini-break by myself in a creaky old hotel room!

I agree that the Entrance is a satisfyingly nasty little story.

I was underwhelmed by Dark Matter when I first read it ten years ago. I re-read it this year and something about a comment in the Author's Note (to the effect that she finds the idea of consciousness after death terrifying) really got under my skin, so that the book left far more of an impression.

Some great suggestions here.

I'd say the scariest was Naomi's Room with Pet Cemertary in second place.

American Psycho was truly disturbing but not scary. I too needed regular breaks though!

Thanks to PP for the recommendation for the Heidi Perks book. It's 99p on Kindle so will give it a try

Ooh loving these! Have put Pet Semetary and Salems Lot on order with the library. Cold Fire is 99p on Kindle so got that too.

Will probably come back to this thread if I ever find the time to get through those 3...

Some nice suggestions on here. Definitely:
Woman in Black
Rosemary's Baby
Dark Matter
The Little Stranger in an ominous 'Rebecca' kind of way
The Ritual
The Shelter was daft but scared me mindless!
And a book whose title was spelled out in ripped up newspapers, something like 'A warning to you about the entity in your house' which proper shit me up

Christine, IT and Misery all terrifying. And when I was a teenager those Point Horror books.

No contest for me. 1408 by Stephen King.

Also very creepy was Winter Moon by Dean Koontz. I won't give spoilers but its about an isolated ranch experiencing paranormal events. The chapter where the guy who lives alone at the ranch first notices that the racoons around the property are behaving strangely, was for me what reading creepy stories is all about.

Just finished Cold Fire by Dean Koontz. Read on 24 hours (day off today), enjoyed it but wasn't scared. I'd call it a thriller rather than a proper scary horror novel.

Dark Matter was available at the library so I have that to read next, the blurb looks amazing so I'm excited to start.