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?

On the back of this thread I have started 'No one Gets Out Alive' (the title put me off but I decided to go ahead anyway!).

It is EXCELLENT and definitely scary so far.

I don't read horror books but the scariest book I've ever read is We need to talk about Kevin. As a mother, the idea of your child turning out to be a monster is horrifying.

On a similar theme, Saving Noah is a hard read for any mother.

I'll third The Little Stranger. There is one scene in particular that still gives me the heebie jeebies if I think about it.

This is a great thread. I think I have read pretty much everything mentioned and love that pps flagged up Graham Masterton’s Mirror which is a particular favourite of mine with its Alice parallels. I grew up on James Herbert, Stephen King and Shaun Hudson, and actually reread a load of those books in lockdown.

I’m intrigued so many people have mentioned The Little Stranger which I read when it came out and was my least favourite SW book. I might need to give it another go!

Well that's just unlocked a memory for me. I'd forgotten I'd read this story until WorkingFromHomeShite's post. And yes the unexpectedness of the story amidst the rest made it significantly more scary. And I know what you mean about "that aspect"!

I 'd read a few by him and up to then really liked Gerald Durrell's writings about animals and family.

Didn't put me off horror as a genre though.

The Amityville Horror scared me so badly but I was only 11 at the time.

So on the back of this thread I have just finished the road.....extremely depressing and very bleak.

I have a Graham Masterton next. The house of a 100 whispers. I get all my books from the library and have a few of the books mentioned on order

Yikes, I now know what the horrifying book was called that I took from my local library as a teen about the unfortunate childminder, brought it back and I feel unsettled all over again some 40 plus years later…

@Reduxrabbit.... Oh, I think you're talking about That Book that I mentioned up thread. Lets Go Play at the Adams.

Rosemary's Baby is scary as hell. Haven’t read it for years but the sense of creeping dread and ultimate horror is so well done.

I adore Stephen King. But I couldn't finish Pet Semetary.

I don't even want to know what happened.

I have read about 5 pages and had full-on nightmares, so have paused for now. Nothing's even happened yet but the atmosphere got me so fast.

Come Closer by Sara Gran freaked me out when I read it. I slept with the light on for a few nights after that!

I couldn’t finish On The Road. Just the abject horror of it all.

I must admit it was a bit of a slog

The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks. Horrific.

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. A very convincing book about possession.

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons. Quite hard to find, but a brilliant bit of 70s haunted house horror.

Carrie by Stephen King.

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill. About a guy who buys a ghost on eBay. Written by Stephen King’s son, but he’s got the writing chops in his own right.

I have to read this now to find out what you mean!

Please do. They are so under-rated. The Shining is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking portrayals of a dysfunctional family dynamic I have ever read.

the father who is an alcoholic and loves his family deeply but still hurts them

the mother who loves her husband and stays and hopes she can change him despite the flaws

the child who loves his daddy, even right at the end when his daddy is a monster

The spooky ghosty stuff is really just a backdrop to a beautiful piece around how we can hurt those we love and the ties which keep a family together. It’s one of my favourite books ever. 11.22.63 is fun but nowhere near as good so you are in for a treat

OMG yes. The road. Nightmares for weeks. That’s my vote too

any votes for 1984?

it’s just so bleak.

and wondering whatever did happen to winston smith’s mum and baby sister and why

Yes, 1984 is horrific.

I love a scary short story, too. Shirley Jackson wrote some fantastic ones. The Lottery is particularly chilling.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

M R James scares the hell out of me, but I love him.

I think Tolkien's description of Shelob's lair in LOTRs is the darkest and most horrible thing I've ever read. It haunted me. I flippin HATE spiders anyway, so that made it worse.

Just tried to read Salems Lot...sorry but couldn't get into it and have given up about 60 pages in.