What is the most chilling book you've ever read?

[Beatgrrl]

At this time of year, I really love to snuggle up under a blanket, get all comfy and absolutely terrify myself with a great book and I could really use some recommendations. Which books have been absolutely bone-chillingly terrifying for you? Which have been the books that have left you too afraid to turn the lights out; too afraid to move? Which books have made you feel too scared to turn the page?

[panticus]

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (GREAT read by the way)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallant (also a great read, but there was one bit in particular where I had to put the book down, it was just too horrifying to read)

[peaceanddove]

Also feeling the love for Mo Hayder, but she seems to have stopped writing. Anyone know why?

[Hoolihan]

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss is so so good and had my heart pounding at the end.

Melmoth by Sarah Perry is very eerie and set largely in a snowy Prague, making it a fab winter read.

My best ever spooky read though is an anthology of Christmas ghost stories collected by Richard Dalby. I read it every year and love every story. My faves are Smee by A.M. Burrage, Someone in the Lift by L.P. Hartley and The Christmas Present by Ramsey Campbell. Deliciously scary.

[Fornit]

Love a ghost story!
A vote for the short stories of MR James. Have read them over and over again. Deliciously creepy.
Another fan of the Pendergast novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
(Waves across the thread to joCmummy)
And The Shining, of course!

[RoryGillmoresEvilTwin]

Duma key terrified me when I read it years ago! We need to talk about Kevin is also horrifying but in a different, much more plausible way.
I've just started The Institute by Stephen King. It's not scary yet but I'm hoping...

[ChanklyBore]

A handmaid’s tale.

Frankenstein.

[twilightcafe]

Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn chilled me to the bone. It's a biography of Fred and Rose West which pulls no punches.

[RuggyPeg]

American psycho for me too. The author plumbed new lows with that one. One sick n fucked up individual to think that shit up. For the op to blithely describe it as great is chilling in its own right.

[80sMum]

A book that I found "chilling", as well as very sad, is Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

It's not "scary" in the sense that a horror story would be. In my opinion, it's far more terrifying than any fiction because the events are real. The Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward were things that I had heard of but knew nothing about. Wild Swans enlightened me. I cannot recommend it enough.

[angstinabaggyjumper]

Short story: The Listener by Algernon Blackwood.

[Gingerninja01]

Behind Closed Doors

[Disillusioneddaisy]

I've read a lot of Stephen king - some are terrifying, some are chilling and some are plain daft but I know Pet Semetary stuck with me. I've read the lovely bones and I can't say it was particularly chilling, dark in places but quite uplifting in a weird way too

[Bbq1]

There's a few really I can recommend. As others have said Susan Hill is really good. I found Before I Go To Sleep so sinister and menacing. Tom Slemen does collections of true short stories.They are set mostly in Liverpool (where I am from) but you wouldn't need to know Liverpool to read them. They are genuinely terrifying as they are true and sometimes only happened 10 years ago!!

[ZombieVoicedAdam]

Yes yes Apolloanddaphne the premise of Under The Skin ((Michael Faber) is so original and terrifying, it's impossible ever to forget. Very frightening! Don't read it if you're on holiday in Scotland.

Another scary book I'll always remember is OUT by Natsuo Kirino. It's about a group of women who work in a bento box factory, put upon and downtrodden in different ways by the shitty men in their lives. NYT review says:


" OUT is a potent cocktail of urban blight, perverse feminism and vigilante justice"

I had to put it outside the bedroom door at night.

[WTF0ver]

I'm a scaredy cat and can't handle horror movies. I like a bit of Stephen King though, I found The Shining quite creepy. And The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

I really need to get back into reading books, I'm so easily distracted by the internet these days. Hmm.

[Flurgle]

Well based on this thread I read Thin Air last night.
Thanks for that - bloody terrified me! I’ll read Dark Matter later. Just to ensure I never sleep again.

[Hellomumsne]

The Stranger Beside Me by Anne Rule was chilling. By a colleague of Ted Bundy who used to do night shifts alone with him... and thought he was a lovely chap until she learned the truth!

[RaiderOfTheKitchenCupboard]

The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns is a good read, slow paced and unsettling.

[katy1213]

The Lottery, Shirley Jackson. It's chilling.

[Beamur]

Not a genre I like but, I couldn't finish The Road either. Short story collection by Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors has some very clever, deeply unsettling stories.

[SyntheticPumpkin]

I think it’s out of print, but Child Possessed by David St Clair

[SecretWitch]

The BTK Murders by Carlton Smith...no animal abuse but a terrifying true crime book. I had to read with the light on

Pet Semetary by Stephen King.

[habibihabibi]

We Need to Talk About Kevin - I actually threw up reading it.

[chickensaresafehere]

The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert ,
I read it when I worked at the local cemetery & crematorium. I had to lock up when everybody had left & it was dark.Scared the shit out of me!!!
The tv series was pants though.

[patchworkelephant123]

Behind closed doors