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 😨

I can't remember the title - many years ago - and can't find the book but it was written by Elie Wiesel about his experiences in the Holocaust ('Night' seems to be the best known one but it doesn't ring any bells). Anyway I couldn't finish it and it gave me nightmares for days.

IT- Stephen King.

It's not outrageously scary, especially, but I read Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons a couple of years ago and something about it lodged with me. Properly unsettling throughout (as well as being terrifically well-written).

I found dark matter oddly scary

On short stories, there's one by Michel Faber called the Broccoli Eel. It isn't horror per se but we read it at school and it gave me nightmares. Something about the language around peristalsis, intestines etc. It still sometimes pops into my brain and makes me shudder

www.theguardian.com/books/2003/aug/02/originalwriting.fiction7

ImpracticalCape A sincere warning about the entity in your home by Jason Arnopp? Tremendously creepy! His novel The last days of Jack Sparks is also fantastic.

Peter Straub Ghost Story

Paul Torday The Girl on the Landing

The Taxidermist's Daughter (Kate Mosse)
The Woman in Black (Susan Hill)
Under the Skin (Michel Faber)

We Need to Talk about Kevin creeped me out in a different way..

Dark Matter was chilling in parts.

I read pet Cemetery and Salem's Lot years ago and really enjoyed them, but I don't remember being that scared. Perhaps I should read them again, I'm more of a wuss nowadays!

I vote for The Woman in Black too. Much scarier than the film. I read it in one evening, it was midnight when I finished and I had to take the dogs out. It was foggy and we live rurally. The dogs ran into the field, and barked into the mist like in the book. I confess I ran off and left them, I was so spooked!

Teatro grottesco by Ligotti. I read nearly 3 of the stories, but was so discomfited by them that I simply coulldn't continue. I didn't even finish the third story! I found the whole thing absolutely terrifying!

www.amazon.co.uk/Teatro-Grottesco-Thomas-Ligotti/dp/0753513749/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&crid=1MX03TTSHK9IF&keywords=teatro+grottesco&sprefix=Teatro%2Caps%2C157&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1558893371&sr=1-1

The Girl in the Swing, couldn't sleep afterwards, so creepy.

The Girl in the Swing, couldn't sleep afterwards, so creepy

The ending is horrible but it is so badly written I found it funny. Really, really terrible writing.

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. It gave me such nightmares I had to physically remove it from my bedroom in the middle of the night and not read anymore.

The Shining for me too. Couldn't have the book in my bedroom at night!

the Tommyknockers. horrid book.

I was just coming to say Tommyknockers too chucky - weird and creepy.

I loved the writing Lass, it was a particular style. It was written by Richard Adams who wrote Watership Down.

That makes me really curious, Jux! Are they gruesome stories, or just creepy?

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver is terrifying - about someone working in the Arctic somewhere during the long dark nights and a ghost that keeps getting closer to the cabin- it chilled me to the bone.

I read this recently. I couldn't keep in in the house once I'd finished and it went in the charity bag immediately. Not sure giving it away can rally be described as charity, but I certainly didn't want it hanging around.

The Bunker Diary is very, very grim. The ending made me physically throw the book away from me and I thought about it for days.

I loved the writing Lass, it was a particular style. It was written by Richard Adams who wrote Watership Down

Er, yes I do know that. The creepiest thing about that book was the way the author was so clearly writing the main female character as his own sexual fantasy. Later Kingsley Amis novels have the same trope.

A dull, unattractive, middle aged man somehow gets a gorgeous young woman wanting to shag him senseless.

The Secret of Crickley Hall. The bit where the lights are flickering as the
Children go to bed,

..

I went through a lot if Stephen King books when I was younger.

Hands down, Salems Lot and The Shining gave me nightmares.

Room. One part gave me palpitations and I had to put it down for a few minutes! Also The Road - scary and depressing.

Bit off topic but I am not sure there is any law to say that they can't depict minors in sexual scenes. Many films and TV shows have done this (although obviously the actors themselves were adults).

I suspect they didn't include that scene from It for reasons of taste and avoiding controversy. Whereas Stephen King probably wasn't concerned when writing the book.

Anyway, some people have mentioned childhood scares and I remember a ghost story collection that included the story 'The Ghost Of Berkell Street'. Scared me but I may be misremembering the title as I haven't been able to find mention of it on Google.