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Scariest Book Ever?

I found Salem's Lot and The shining pretty scary reading. I think it all depends on your situation too e.g. alone in a big house in the middle of nowhere - I'd probably get the jitters reading Pride & Prejudice.

One book that did spook me was Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. I lived in a house that had a lot of glass and backed onto black nothingness after dark. I chose a bad time to start reading it, my husband was working away and I was alone in the house with a very young baby. It scared the bejesus out of me and I had to stop reading it. Every time the back security light came on during the night my heart almost stopped, for weeks I practically slept with the phone in my hand. I did eventually finish it a number of years later.
 
I suggest all of you to read, "The Girl Next Door". Not even King can come close to this nightmare.

You won't sleep for days, I guarantee. Five at most.
 
I read Jade Green when I was younger and it scared me for days. I couldn't sleep. It was morning and I was still paranoid about crazy severed hands crawling around.

I haven't read any horror since :p
 
i can't say i've read many scary books because i just don't know which ones to read. any recommendations for really scary books? More psychological scary than monster tearing your head of scary that is.
 
I haven't read any of his work, but I've heard Henry James can be quite 'freaky' in a mind-bendy fashion. Correct me if I'm wrong, people!

Ifpiper (hello! and welcome!), I'm the biggest if King fans, but I haven't been able to get through Salems Lot yet. Perhaps I'll spend the rest of the day reading it. I was quite disturbed by the dead dog in the early chapters.
 
Peronel said:
I haven't read any of his work, but I've heard Henry James can be quite 'freaky' in a mind-bendy fashion. Correct me if I'm wrong, people!

Ifpiper (hello! and welcome!), I'm the biggest if King fans, but I haven't been able to get through Salems Lot yet. Perhaps I'll spend the rest of the day reading it. I was quite disturbed by the dead dog in the early chapters.
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Hello to you too. I am also a big King fan (nice sig by the way), trust me about Salems' Lot, awesome book. Freaky ending.:eek:
 
The Stand - Stephen King
I know this isn't supposed to be a really scary story as far as there being a "booger" that will get you, but I read it when I was a freshman in college, living in the dorm. While reading the first part of the book where the super flu is killing practically everybody it got very late, my roomate was "dead" asleep and I couldn't find anyone on my floor who was awake! I even walked down the hall to the communal bathroom and couldn't find a soul. I felt like I was the only person left alive... VERY creepy!

Also Night Shift by S. King, caused me (from the age of 12) to keep one eye open and on my closet door while I slept . :eek:
 
ifpiper said:
Hello to you too. I am also a big King fan (nice sig by the way), trust me about Salems' Lot, awesome book. Freaky ending.:eek:
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I did sit down for a few hours yesterday and continued 'Salems Lot. I was actually about halfway through already , which surprised me, as I hadn't remembered reading that much of it! Anyway, I'm thoroughly hooked now, and I had to sleep facing the door last night (something I've been trying to get out of the habit of doing).

Jasmine, I found The Stand very freaky as well. My favourite parts of the novel were always when the effects on society at large were being discussed i.e.
how the flu was travelling, the riots and military responses, the takeover of the radio station.
I think you can feel the isolation that the characters themselves feel, and that was the scary part for me.
 
HBinjection said:
In Cold Blood was probably the scariest book I've read.

It's NF, actually, you could call it journalism, I suppose.

It details the events surrounding the grisly murder of an entire family in their own home.

Most of the novel depicts the life of the family long before the murder, and there is nothing particularly creepy about it, except the fact that you know their fate. It's a murder that doesn't make sense, seemingly motiveless.

The second half of the book humanizes the killers by showing us who they are. That part is a lot less scary, but the book still haunts me, and I can't sleep without locking the doors anymore.

One bit that stuck with me -- One of the killers took aspirin every day, and chewed it, because he liked the taste.

By Truman Capote

Author of Breakfast at Tiffany's [which I haven't read. Is it worth reading?]
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He took aspirin because he was in pain all of the time. Several broken bones caused him incredible pain in his legs. That is why he took the aspirin.
 
Peronel said:
Jasmine, I found The Stand very freaky as well. My favourite parts of the novel were always when the effects on society at large were being discussed i.e.
how the flu was travelling, the riots and military responses, the takeover of the radio station.
I think you can feel the isolation that the characters themselves feel, and that was the scary part for me.
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Yes, that's what I always liked about King's books. He pulled you in and you really were living in the story with the characters when the creepy stuff started to come down. LOVE IT!
 
I've never truly found a book that really puts true fear into me. Anything I've read either bores me or is just gorey, which isn't scary, just disgusting.
 
According to me the most scariest stories are 'Lukoondo' by Edward Lucas White , 'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant and a Bengali novel on Hindu Tantra practise 'Taranath Tantriker Golpo' (the stories of Taranath Tantriker) by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
 
I wish I could say I have one, but I've never been that scared while reading a horror novel. Someday maybe.
 
eyez0nme said:
I suggest all of you to read, "The Girl Next Door". Not even King can come close to this nightmare.

You won't sleep for days, I guarantee. Five at most.
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You couldn't be any more right. This book will destroy you. I have never had a movie, book, song, poem, anything affect me the way this book did. I couldn't sleep. I felt sick. I felt angry. I was pacing around my house at 2am on a work night not knowing what to do.
 
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