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?

Any by James Herbert.
I remember finding The Magic Cottage creepy but its pretty tame really. I'm wimp

Susan Hill's ghost stories! Woman in Black, Mist in the Mirror, The Small Hand.

Absolutely agree. A very chilling book that stayed with me a long while.

F

How we live now by Meg rosoff, has some chilling scenes that I genuinely still have nightmares about years later.

Am intrigued by the Gerald durell story, though also too scared to read it !

No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill, there's just something about his books, deeply unsettling

Stephen King's 'It' scared the bejesus out of me when I read it many years ago.

That Michelle Paver one, 'Dark Matter', did too 👻🧟‍♂️😬

Hex by Thomas Heuvelt

Flesh and Blood by Graham Masterton. Missed my train stop reading it, absolutely horrible and unforgettable.

Other notable Graham Masterton stories: Mirror and Famine.

Pet Sematary, The Long Walk, Steven King.

Recently read Starve Acre, really good until it ended prematurely and I was like wtf 😂

Another vote for 'Hex'. I've read most of the books mentioned so far and 'Hex' really got to me - such a terrifying premise.

I read that when I was a student nurse on nights in 1980. It's stuck with me to this day. I wish I'd never read that bloody book <<shudder>>

@thenightsky Same! I've read quite a few that others have mentioned but this one is the one that has stuck with me

Same here. I could not sleep for a long time after that.

In no particular order:

Most disturbing:

The Road
Let the Right One In
Lord of the Flies
I’m the King of the Castle
Z for Zachariah

Most scary:

The Woman in Black
Turn of the Screw
The Strain series
Marianne Dreams (watched the terrifying TV series as a child, read the book as an adult - it was still scary😹)

I have stopped reading King’s horror novels as I find them often too ‘sick’ for my taste, although, imo, his storytelling ability is second to none.

Any of MR James's short stories e.g. Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad.

I have to avoid reading them at night, otherwise I wouldn't be able to turn my light off! They're scary in a ghostly, haunting way, similar to the way Michelle Paver is scary.

Michelle Paver is usually my recommendation for a good scary book, so I'm guessing I might like your other recommendation of CJ Cooke - thank you!

Crikey, just the summary/blurb for the CJ Cooke Haunting in the Arctic book is scaring me - I think I might be too much of a wimp to read the book!

One of the creepiest stories I've ever read was THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN By Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It's on Gutenberg, page 83 here: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17953/pg17953-images.html#VI

Anything by Graham Masterton. That fella knows how to scare

Oh my gosh..so many recommendations!! Thank you all. I have a lot of reading to get through!!

@StellaAndCrow. Yes..a haunting in the Arctic....certain elements of this book will stay with me..its not for the everyone. Let me know if you read it.

Edit: spelling!

Like a pp, the Silent Companions terrified me. Read it on holiday in bright sunshine but it didn’t help! Haven’t read another spooky book since.

I agree with the Rats. I read it when I was around 18 and still think about it now every time I go to London and am in the underground. This is over 30 years on.

Pet Semertary terrified me.

Also tried reading Desperation by Stephen King and stopped after the first few chapters as that was terrifying me too. I have a memory of a cop driving a stranded couple somewhere and casually dropping the words 'I will murder you' or similar into a normal conversation. For some reason it gave me chills and I gave up there.

The Exorcist - read it as a teenager and remember slamming it face down on my pillow as I couldn't go on.

And another one for The Road - think I've re-read that 4 or 5 times now and it doesn't get any easier.

Both these books are leagues above the films.

This is the first book that came into my mind too, I didn't mind the film but the book was much much better! It's years since I read it and I still think about it!