What’s The Scariest Book You’ve Ever Read?

October marches on,

I’ve been rereading books that scared me in the past. Some of them still give me the willies. Some have lost their edge for me, for now at least.

From Stephen King it was It and Pet Sematary. 

It still has plenty of scary moments–it still holds up for me on almost every level. But it didn’t have the same effect on me as when I was a child. Part of that is probably that when I was a child, I identified so strongly with the terrified, desperate kids in the book, kids who couldn’t get the adults to listen to them.

Pet Sematary is still a perfect horror novel to me. I don’t think that will ever change. 

I reread Summer Of Night by Dan Simmons, which, if you liked It, I’d highly recommend. It isn’t as frightening as it used to be, but it’s still unnerving.

I’ve been rereading HP Lovecraft. The Rats In The Walls still freaks me out.

I just read Gaiman’s Sandman volumes that feature The Corinthian. Still as awful as I remembered. It’s giving me goosebumps just thinking about it.

At this point, if you asked me what the scariest book I’ve ever read was, I wouldn’t have a good answer. I can think of scenes that will always rattle me. I can think of characters that I never want to meet on the page again.

Time to stop babbling. Reader, do you know what the scariest book you’ve ever read is? Do you think it will change for you as you age?