Scariest book you have ever read!

[BookshowthatIcandrawupsidedown]

I have just discovered discovered two new authors. Cj cooke and Michelle Paver..ghostly thrillers. Like their books but I would like to read something really scary. I read a couple of james herbert many years ago. The fog and possibly one about a magic cottage. Don't remember them being really scary.

Any recommendations?

Years ago I read a book called The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It was a true story and it still scares the crap out of me just thinking about it now.

The turning of the screw. Had to read it at uni but couldn't get past the first 40 pages.

As a child, And Then There Were None, which I found terrifying. As an adult, The Little Stranger the first time I read it was pretty scary. I don’t think I’ve ever read an actual horror book.

Oh my word yes! Hands down the scariest book I've ever read. Didn't think to mention it with it being based on true events.

The Road
The Wasp Factory
American Psycho
The Picture of Dorian Gray

(Different types of scary.)

Read quite a few of these books, recently I reread And then there were none, and like a PP, I found it quite scary.
The Road is very bleak, American Psycho I found very dark and violent.

The Wendigo - short story by Algernon Blackwood

The Road - kind of ruined a lovely holiday.

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

The Horla - Maupassant (Short Story)

A book by Gerald Durrell called ‘The picnic and suchlike pandemonium’ is ‘A third book of reminiscences describing the hilariously chaotic life of the Durrell family , and other matters’ according to Amazon. Whoever wrote that review did not read the final story in the book which traumatised me as a child. There is a certain aspect of it (I can’t say as it’s a spoiler) that affects me even now and I unconsciously avoid this thing in some situations. It genuinely put me off horror films and books for life.

Also The Last Days of Jack Sparks
Not only terrifying but an inventive and a brilliant read. Can’t recommend it enough.
Im a massive fan of horror, books and film, and it’s one of the only books that’s made me cry laughing and really frightened me.

Like a pp, I went through a horror phase around 12-13 and scared myself witless with Amityville Horror and Stephen King but hands down the scariest was Domain by James Herbert. It was hideous and absolutely terrifying.

The Nothing Man. Also The Shards, by Brett Easton Ellis is very creepy.

A window breaks CM Lewin

Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells.
I read it around the age of 13. It's about a young boy's survival during a nuclear war.
As if that wasn't scary enough, it was based around my City, so I was aware of where places were.
Every time we drive over the moors, I think of it.

Grew up on James Herbert and Shaun Hutson books,found Hutson's very visceral,especially Breeding Ground( think Herbert's The Rats but with giant slugs!!l)
I would recommend Rosemary's Baby & The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin.Not gory but excellent and very sinister.
Love the old Pan Books of Horror..excellent cover art from 60s&70s as well.

I love horror stories and have read a fair few of the ones mentioned here. However the ones that I found scary were:
Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
The House at Phantom Park by Graham Masterton
The Vessel by Adam Nevill

I think that Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black is terrifying but an excellent gothic horror novel. I first read it in year 9 at school and it often plays on my mind.

@CrunchyCarrot The Wendigo is great, but The Willows I find really creepy. Love Algernon Blackwood.

Casting The Runes by MR James has a couple of flesh-crawling bits. Also The Mezzotint the first time I read it.

The Turn of the Screw. It’s a masterpiece!

The Rats. James Herbert. Terrifying.

Oooh yes The Willows! Yes that was hair-raisingly creepy.

Agree with all those!

The Rats! Still think about it now 😂

This. I'm 46, read it when I was 13 and I still have a physical visceral reaction when I think about it.

Especially where the family are under the table eating rancid item from the freezer as that's all they had.

And the fur on people's bodies.

A few years ago, drunk after a long lunch with a friend, I bought a new copy in foyles before I got the train home and read it before I got back to my station. Fresh fear!

I also terrified myself with The Stand.

Post apopolytic fiction is terrible for me and I can't watch any TV like this now!

@WorkingFromHomeShite DH read the same story as a child and it terrified him. He still remembers it. And it is so out of kilter with the rest of the collection and Durrell’s other books.

My scariest selection is:

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill,
The Face, short story by EF Benson,
The Tower, short story by Marghanita Laski,
The Hollow Boy, by Jonathan Stroud, specifically the chapters describing the investigation by Lockwood & Co at the haunted department store - it is creepy!

House of Small Shadows - Adam Nevill. Horrible, unsettling and depressing, I had to throw it away when I'd finished it.

Pet Sematary is so good, much much better than any of the crappy film adaptations!