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Books which have frightened you to the extent you've had to stop reading.....

RobertFKennedy

RobertFKennedy

New Member
There's only one so far for me.

Hostage to the Devil by Father Malachi Martin.

Father Martin is an exorcist and the book is his account of contemporary cases of possesion and exorcism in the USA.

The opening chapter scared me so much I had to stop.

Hopefully in a few years I'll have the strength and courage to read it.

Anyone else had to put a book down?
 
I picked up John Hershey's "Hiroshima" when I was about 12 years old and couldn't finish it because the images were so terrifying. But I don't think that's the kind of horror you mean.

I was up late one night, alone in the house, reading "The Shining" and really got scared. I kept hearing a funny noise - I would stop and hold my breath and listen and hear nothing, then go back to the book and it would start again. I finally figured out that my nose was stuffy and was making a little whistling sound. How embarrassing! So, I guess "The Shining" gets my vote.
 
The opening chapter of It with the paper boat, the drain, and the clown underneath. There was also a scene in The Tommyknockers about a child performing a magic act and he made his brother disappear (that single chapter would have made an excellent short story, but the rest of the book was muddled around it...)
 
oh sirmyk, i can't believe that you are the bunny i am scared of under my bed....It did it for me too, good grief. i did finish though.
and salem's lot where the kid is scratching at the window....i still have not finished that.
 
"The Manitou" by Graham Masterson

People being turned inside out - eeewww! I started to worry the ghost was going to come after ME.
 
Can't say that I've ever had this experience, though Marilyn Manson's biography really sent chills up my spine. I don't know if it was the nonchalant mentioning of waiting for his girlfriend's abortion procedure to end, or his recounting of his childhood and an essentially evil minded neighbor boy who poisoned Manson's dog.
 
SFG75 said:
Can't say that I've ever had this experience, though Marilyn Manson's biography really sent chills up my spine. I don't know if it was the nonchalant mentioning of waiting for his girlfriend's abortion procedure to end, or his recounting of his childhood and an essentially evil minded neighbor boy who poisoned Manson's dog.
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He is scary but fascinating at the same time. I have tried to think of a book that really, really scared me but it's been so long. I have trouble sleeping as it is so I've been avoiding horror these days.

It by King, scared me pretty good though.
 
RobertFKennedy said:
There's only one so far for me.

Hostage to the Devil by Father Malachi Martin.

Father Martin is an exorcist and the book is his account of contemporary cases of possesion and exorcism in the USA.

The opening chapter scared me so much I had to stop.

Hopefully in a few years I'll have the strength and courage to read it.

Anyone else had to put a book down?
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Never read anything scary enough to stop me reading. I do like the sound of 'Hostage to the Devil' checked it out on Amazon will purchase it with my next order.
 
RobertFKennedy said:
There's only one so far for me.

Hostage to the Devil by Father Malachi Martin.

Father Martin is an exorcist and the book is his account of contemporary cases of possesion and exorcism in the USA.

The opening chapter scared me so much I had to stop.

Hopefully in a few years I'll have the strength and courage to read it.

Anyone else had to put a book down?
Click to expand...

yup, thanks for the tip. the subject matter alone scares me even though i am writing this by day...just finished OLD SOULS about reincarnation, a little bit scary...oh i am so looking forward to Hostage to the Devil...
 
The Relic by Preston and Child. I know, I know, not really that scary, but I was home alone at night, so I had to put it down. :eek:
 
Whitley Strieber. I don't know if I believe him, but I believe that he believes himself.

Try Communion.

I was too scared to stop reading and go upstairs to bed!
 
StillILearn said:
Whitley Strieber. I don't know if I believe him, but I believe that he believes himself.

Try Communion.

I was too scared to stop reading and go upstairs to bed!
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:eek: I think that would do it, I am irrationally terrified of aliens and the description and summery I just looked up made me want to hide in my closet.
 
Another vote for IT. The part where Stan Uris' wife finds him in the tub really creeped me out when I first read it.
 
I'm tellin' ya.

"Strieber sought the help of a counselor/hypnotist, who did not accept the alien hypothesis. Eventually Strieber's wife was also hypnotized. The accounts both Striebers gave under hypnosis and the memories that surfaced after hynosis, as well as several witnesses to aspects of the visitations all corroborate that something abnormal occurred."
He writes about some persons being singled out in childhood (or before) for study by these aliens. I actually began to remember strange happenings from my own childhood -- strange noises and lost hours.

At present I'm way more scared by the behavior of those people -- but I digress...
 
I've never been so scared that I couldn't read on, but The Shining is the only book that has made me very nervous about turning the light off.
 
Halo said:
I've never been so scared that I couldn't read on, but The Shining is the only book that has made me very nervous about turning the light off.
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At least with The Shining you knew that it was intended to be fiction. Strieber does everything in his power to convince you that these abductions are currently going on all around us. Do you know anybody who is frightened of animals (anything) with owl-like eyes? Ha! Subconsciously, they're remembering the trauma caused by years of having all these alien eyes trained upon them.

The Shining was a piece of cake compared to Communion.

:eek:
 
One of the stories in Everything's Eventual, 1408 is the name of it I think, caused me to stop reading a couple times and just lay in bed staring reminding myself fiction is called so for a reason. Then I became too disturbed by the Edvard Munch poster hanging on my wall. I swear those flowing brush strokes were too flowing that night. :p
 
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