What line of fiction has sent a chill down your spine?

[MrsDanversAteMyIpod]

Have just read 1984 for the first time (-aged 32 - late I know) We did Animal Farm at school but I didn't get around to reading this until now.

I was fairly gripped and enjoying it to the point where Julia and Winston are echoed with 'You are the dead' & omg, it was so chilling..couldn't put the blardy thing down till the end

Any MNers experienced any similar literary chills?

lololol at Wittering

The bit in Lord of the Flies when someone tells Ralph they are after him and that Jack has
"sharpened a stick at both ends" scared the life out of me when I was a teenager. It just sounds so horrible.

The end of that book is totally chilling too, when the shift in perspective gives you the officer looking at a bunch of snivelling kids after the life and death battle that the reader has gone through with Ralph and Piggy.

The section in The Lovely Bones where it describes Susie's 'soul' colliding with Ruth :

"On my way out of Earth, I touched a girl named Ruth. She went to my school but we'd never been close. She was standing in my path that night when my soul shrieked out of Earth. I could not help but graze her. Once released from life, having lost it in such violence, I couldn't calculate my steps. I didn't have time for contemplation. In violence, it is the getting away that you concentrate on."

That bit freaked me out, more than anything else in the book.

To parpaphrase a line from an Iris Murdoch book (can't remember which one)

every year we pass the date of our death.

Has stuck with me for ages that thought.

There is a fantastic short story by Stephen King, called 'Survivor Type' about a doctor who crashes on a deserted island, with a broken ankle and only a supply of morphine. As he faces starvation, and as his ankle gets worse and worse, he eventually decides to amputate - for both medical and culinary reasons. There is a great line - "I washed it very carefully first" which always makes my teeth itch!

And though Hardy drives me mad, that bit in 'Jude' - 'because we were too many' has always stuck with me.

Brokeback Mountain eh? haven't read the story but I thought the film was diabolical!

SPOILER ALERT - DON'T READ IF YOU'VE NOT READ REBECCA!!!

The bit at the end of Rebecca where they come round the corner of the road and the house is on fire.

oh yes - Jude the Obscure and little old Father Time - terrible moment. The only other time I've just sat in shock at a book that way was with Germinal.

Also Heart of Darkness - not so much spine tingling perhaps as soul-emptying "the horror"...

oh and Mrs D, don't know how you've ordered TYP but it's in a collection edited by Joyce Carol Oates called American Gothic Tales. Brilliant one to take on holiday (as long as you're not holidaying alone in a creepy old house in bad weather )

The same bit from the Lovely Bones! Also The trun of the screw I'd forgotten that as I read it years ago but it was really chilling. Interested to her more about "We need to talk about Kevin" as I saw it on my aunts shelf yesterday and wondered about borrowing it. Is it really scary?

Yes, Jude the Obscure here too, by an absolute mile. Never mind chilling, I was devastated !!

Blardy norah, both Jude the Obscure & Heart of Darkness are on my To Read List, don't tell me anything else

Mavis, that is quite chilling, don't think I'll forget that now.

There should be a spooked out emoticon really, maybe one with a wobbly line for a mouth...

I think we should set up a post-Jude recovery group.

janeite, that is a great story. mmmm ladyfingers

SLF, found The Yellow Wallpaper on Amazon by Virago Classics,

will try to avoid that holiday scenario, doesn't sound like much fun somehow

What a great thread! Absolutely agree with the Jude "we was too many" bit and 1984.

Also the bit when Winston's "safe" house was suddenly revealed to be not safe. Can't remember the exact line - will try and search it.

The end of Brave New World is pretty horrible too

cyteen - I couldn't even finish that bloody book. World War Z will remain unfinished for me. I doubt I'll be able to go back to it. Zombies scare the shit out of me anyway and that book is soooooo well written. Poopy poop pants!

In "After the Hole" where it says in the "report" section right at the end "It is generally accepted that [what's-his-name] died on the second day." Sorry, not read it for about 15 years!

F&T do you mean when the iron voice echoes Julia & winston with 'You are the dead.'?

See op

I know, it chilled me to the core. Not one to read with a young baby - I spent the entire time practically in tears wondering how I would protect DS [hormonal] - but it is so well written I had to finish it. And actually it does finish somewhat upbeat.

I could have lived without DP inadvertently giving me a horror scare with his snoring one night though 1am, settling DS in a darkened room, half asleep, I hear GROANING echoing down the corridor. I nearly had an undignified moment, I can tell you.

Also the line in Iain Banks' "Use of Weapons" - "It was a good battle, and they nearly won" - on which the whole plot twist pivots!

MavisGrind - that line from Iris Murdoch has made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I am going to have to try and forget that.

OK, am now using this thread as my Amazon wish list. I read A LOT, and cannot for the life of me remember lines like you guys are quoting! I bow before masters!

Poem by Edwin Morgan "black block condemned to stand, not crash"

MrsDanvers, it might well be that line!

It's been a while since I read it.... [blush again]

MrsD and ImOverThere - it does stick with you doesn't it?! Mind you I'm trying to think in terms of 'life's too short, better get on with it' rather than consulting the calender and wondering 'will it, at some point in the furture, be today?'

Just wish I could remember which one it was in now!