Scariest Books You've Ever Read

What are the scariest books you have ever read?

Here are mine (no order):

1. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

2. It by Stephen King

3. Phantoms by Dean Koontz

4. House of Evil by John Dean

5. The University by Bentley Little

 

I dont think I've ever read a really scary book... the occasional unsettling one, maybe, but not really scary.

Maybe its the fact that I can withdraw from them, break the contact, whenever I please. The power resides with me !

Mind you, I can read horror fiction - or watch horror DVDs - just before going to sleep, and never a bad dream.



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I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and some Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems are the only written things that I've ever found scary.

 

goose bumps

 

Welcome to dead house by R.L. Stine

The first Goosebumps book, terrifying!

 

I read the original verson of Dracula by Bram Stoker many years ago. I was alone for a week-end in an old wooden Army Barracks near Chesapeake Bay. No other troops were there, I had weekend duty alone and I was totally creeped old. That damn building groaned and creaked, it stormed one of the nights and it was flat-out spooky. Loved it.

 

When I read Dracula, I only thought it was moderately scary. However, the scene where Johnathan Harker meets the brides of Dracula really creeped me out. There was one night where I dreamed they looked down on me while I slept, with their eyes and teeth almost glowing in the dark. When I woke up, I felt a hand on my chest. I almost panicked until I found out it was the hand of my girlfriend. I should've been relieved, but I was too scared to fall asleep again. Thankfully, it was after five in the morning, so I spent the rest of the night playing with my laptop.

 

Cool experience Slayer, I love a good scare and gettin a combination of right setting and good book it's great stuff.

 

the bible terrifies me

 

i haven't read many scary novels but a story that scared me like anything was 'The Hound of the Baskervilles.'

 

I read so many scary books, it's hard to keep track now! I do have a few favourites though I loved Servants of Twilight, also Pet Cemetary. But the freakiest book I ever read was a strange chick lit novel where some woman in LA lied about her age and then booked a wedding without a husband, then bought loads of clothes whilst trying to find a rich man to marry her very scary indeed... I only read half of it

 

I think the scariest books I ever read where also the scariest movies I ever saw ironically . Usually I saw the movies first because some of the movies were so old I really wasn't reading big novels back then . However I always find the books to be better and scarier then the movies .

These were scary to me

#1 - The exorcist book and movie will horrify me forever . freaky , scary shit , and based on some true events , except the girl Reagan was really a boy .

#2- Salem's lot - The movie scared the shit out of me as a kid , and the book as a teen .

#3 -Amityville horror- Both scared me many , many moons ago .

#4 - pet cemetery was a creepy little fucker too , the book for sure

#5 Anything written by Edgar Allen Poe , not so much scary but classic horror books and poems . Many deal with being buried alive , creepy and scary .
Fall of the house of Usher , the gold bug , cask of Amontillado , murders at the rue morgue , the gold bug , The pit and the pendulum , tell tale heart . I love all his works and have read most .

#6- The book of revelation . Always sends chills up my spine . It's very scary when you believe it's true and will happen the way it says . Heavy metaphors .

I am going to read next but have not yet . The divine comedy . I think it will be a pretty neat read .

 

Has anyone ever read Ghost Story by Peter Straub?

 

Gerald's Game by Stephen King....not that it's unusually scary, but the thought of being in the protagonist shoes err bed is.

 

I have. I think it is pretty scary, especially that scene where the dead woman looks at main characters before sinking into a river. However, I think his earlier book Julia is much scarier, and it caused me to feel cold while I read it.

 

goosebumps #18

 

The Bible

 

Dude! I almost forgot about that one. I used to LOVE R.L. Stine books when I was younger. I think the scariest book I have ever read was It by Stephen King, then I watched the movie afterward and I have been afraid of clowns ever since.

 

Crime and Punishment.

 

The scariest book I have ever read might have been The Off Season by Jack Ketchum. Crazy story about cannibals who are master hunters. They live in the the cliff faces of the North East coasts. Scary as fuck at the time.