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16 Books That Will Give You Nightmares
This Halloween, skip the haunted houses and scare yourself silly with a book. We asked on Facebook and Twitter: What frightening read could give a reader nightmares? If you dare, try out one of the top answers. We suggest finding a dark, dank place and lighting a single candle (or turning on a single book light). Those menacing bumps and whines and scrapes you hear as you crack open your book? Probably nothing. Definitely not a clown crawling toward you or a ghost trapped in the walls. Be careful out there, readers. Something spine-tingling this way comes….
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What book has sent the biggest chill down your spine? Is It really Stephen King's creepiest read? Talk scary books with us in the comments!
(Image credit: Book cover for The Silence of the Lambs.)
Comments Showing 51-100 of 162 (162 new)
message 51:
by
Tanis
(new)
Oct 21, 2016 03:37PM
The Troop by Nick Cutter absolutely terrified me, gave me "the wiggles", you know, when you have to keep reading but you are having a hard time sitting still because it is creeping you out? That's the wiggles...
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Where are the Dean Koontz books?? Seriously... Darkfall, Phantoms, The Funhouse...
The Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. I thought it was terrifying.
Keiry wrote: "Coraline and It <3."Coraline and It... the best books ever <3
HELTER SKELTER. It not only will scare the hell out of you, but unlike the other books, this really happened.
I'm gonna try to read this book, Jim. Sounds cool :D
Kyriakos wrote: "I've read dozens of books marketed as horror but the only one that scared me and gave me goosebumps was The Woman In Black by Susan Hill. Especially the scene with the..."I just stayed up late reading The Woman in Black last night! I saw the movie a while back and liked it but the book really spooked me. I actually had to get up and close my bedroom door and closet because I was afraid I'd see her....
Coraline didn't give me nightmares... probably I read it wrong(?)
Vavita wrote: "
Book and movie are horror pure"
I only saw the movie, with Chris Sarandon, one the most scariest movies I saw. Loved it.
Asagi wrote: "Coraline didn't give me nightmares... probably I read it wrong(?)"Yeah, you're supposed to read it while laying on top of a dead body at a funeral home. I thought everyone knew that.
I love Stephen King and the man gives me the uber creeps with his books(I will NEVER read IT though). The one that really scared me, odd as it may seem to some readers of his, was "from a buick 8" I just keep imangining that fucking buick still sitting in that garage/shed in that police station and what fucking other horrors may come from it and if that man in the coat will ever come back to pick it up. Ugh. I'm getting scared right not. BYE. I'm gonna go read a YA fantasy novel to clear my head.
1) Salem's Lot; and always the part in the Marsten Basement.2) Seed. Definitely a nice, creep factor happening here.
3) House of Leaves. If you commit, you get it; but it is not for everyone.
4) The Exorcist. The Stairs...
5) Something Wicked This Way Comes. Not scary, but poetic and on point.
IAmBroke wrote: "YouTuber books."lol! nothing truer has been said.
The Troop is the only book that truly gave me nightmares; it has some of the most fucked up scenes you'll ever read in any horror novel. The Deep is excellent as well.
The Stand uncut versionSince I read it pregnant, with the flu, to the point I was hospitalized for dehydration. Not a good time to be reading The Stand.
Hell House by Richard Matheson. If short stories are more your speed, check out "Lazarus" by Leonid Andreyev.
I'm surprised the The Shining isn't in this list
No. 'It' was pretty scary, but 'The Shining' is by FAR King's scariest book. Most terrifying thing I've ever read.
IAmBroke wrote: "YouTuber books."what do you mean by YouTuber books? are they famous? or do you mean common? if you have a better list please share.
Cheers.
Duma Key by Stephen King........paintings that change have scared the crap out of me ever since I saw an episode of Night Gallery with Roddy McDowell called The Cemetary when I was a kid. It's fairly underrated for a Stephen King novel but well worth the read. I had trouble reading the last few chapters after dark.
The Stephen King novel "It"! I am terrified of clowns. Always have been. I remember when I was a small child, my parents got tickets to the Ringling Bros circus when it was a big deal. My dad and mom drove over 70 miles to take me and my sister to the circus. We were all very excited because we'd never been to a circus. The minute we walked in a saw a clown. He came up to our family to tell us he hoped we enjoyed the show. His makeup wasn't meant to be scary but to me he was a nightmare. That's where it started and that got worse and worse over the years until now it's a full blown phobia. I read "It" not realizing the villain was a clown. However, I read the entire book and loved it. But, for me, it just confirmed that clowns are terrifying.
Cecilia wrote: "Vavita wrote: "Book and movie are horror pure"
I only saw the movie, with Chris Sarandon, one the most scariest movies I saw. Loved it."
Estoy leyendo el libro otra vez en honor a Halloween
None of them really frightened me. However my Mom coming up behind me while I was engrossed in The Amityville Horror and her grabbing my shoulder to get my attention, that did scare the snot out of me.
Midnight Blue wrote: "Duma Key by Stephen King........paintings that change have scared the crap out of me ever since I saw an episode of Night Gallery with Roddy McDowell called The Cemetary when I was a kid. It's fair..."
Midnight Blue wrote: "Duma Key by Stephen King........paintings that change have scared the crap out of me ever since I saw an episode of Night Gallery with Roddy McDowell called The Cemetary when I was a kid. It's fair..."
I know the episode you're talking about. It terrified me too!
Midnight Blue wrote: "Duma Key by Stephen King........paintings that change have scared the crap out of me ever since I saw an episode of Night Gallery with Roddy McDowell called The Cemetary when I was a kid. It's fair..."
I know the episode you're talking about. It terrified me too!
The Wishing Game, by Patrick Redmond. It's not scary at first, but then it's just territying. First time I read it (finished it in the middle of the night - alone in the house of course) I got so scared, that my subconscious kind of removed it from memory, or at least hid it well. Maybe a year later I stumbled upon the book when looking for something to read. I knew I had not read it but was mystified, I never just buy books and then not read them. Anyway started to read, and it was faintly familiar. I had no clue what was going to happen in the story, but everything I read felt like I did recognize it. And - again - finished it in the middle of the night etc. And then I rembered all, how scared I was last time, and so on. If you are looking for a good scare - read this book. If you want to be able to sleep at night - don't. I didn't remember the title when I started writing this comment. Had to look it up in a mailconversation with a librarian...The Wishing Game
Deja Dead by Kathy Reich. Locked my windows for days after reading it.
Dracula scared the hell out of me!!! Read it with a single candle in my room with no lights. Chilling!
Non of the ones I've read/watched on TV gave nightmares, nor have any other book to be honest
The Haunting of Hill House: The classic "haunted" house story. Couldn't sleep for two days after finishing it....Thérèse Raquin: Creepy in unexpected ways....
And I don't want to sound weird but the last two Harry Potter books are scary too. I'd read them before going to sleep and I didn't sleep well at all.
Louise wrote: "Pet semetary by Stephen king had me too scared to turn the page!"I agree regarding Pet Semetary. It's the scariest Stephen King I've ever read. Many years after reading it, I can still feel the dampness and experience the smells associated with the story.
H. P. Lovecraft always scared me as a young adult. Couldn't read any of his stories after dark. "Ghost Story" had me staying away from windows and walking in the dark for a couple of months. I've read 7 on this list.
I love It and Sharp Objects.I think the scariest book I've ever read is The Exorcist
From this list, I'd have to say Helter Skelter simply because the events really happened. My response could also have something to do with the fact that when I read it our town coincidentally had some jackass running around randomly shooting people.
Book #1 in the Felix Castor series, "The Devil You Know" was all sorts of creepy. The rest of the series is good, but the first book creeped me out in a way the others didn't even come close to. Check it out, especially if you like detective type stories.
Maggie wrote: "I'm gonna try to read this book, Jim. Sounds cool :D"All of the other books are "make believe," LOL. Helter Skelter was real.
The only one i've read is The Exorcist but...Oh my good god 0_0
*shudder*
message 93:
by
Cassie 'The Thinker Go Go Go Go' Mis. Roben Goodfellow'\Isabelle Lightwood
(new)
I've only read out of the one's above. Wait Till Helen Comes, and The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. And even though Wait Till Helen Comes in sold in the child's sections at the book store. I happened to get mine at Barnes and Noble a couple years ago. It really did a number on me. I had to check the house a couple of times when I went to bed and I was 18 almost 19 when I read it. Where as The Haunting of Sunshine Girl was scary to extent it wasn't until like the middle of the book that it really gets supper scary. And one that I saw that wasn't on here that also gave me a fright,a few years ago. was: Bad Girls Don't Die. Creepy as hell. And Scary as shit once you reach like-- chapter 3 or 4. It hits it right off. Bad Girls Dont Die There's the link for it if anyone wants to check it out.
message 94:
by
Cassie 'The Thinker Go Go Go Go' Mis. Roben Goodfellow'\Isabelle Lightwood
(new)
Oh! And also Anna Dressed In Blood. That's a good one too!
It. Read this when I was a teenager. Clowns still freak me out.
I thought the Turn of the Screw was pretty eerie! It isn't particularly scary, but Dracula is a really good read. More recently, I liked Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger.
The Unsettled looks us up on twitter The Unsettled is a supernatural horror comic book that weaves mythology, folklore, religion, fantasy and all things that go bump in the night! I'm currently working on making it into a novel.
It & Christine very creepy gave me chills
"The Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham. Short story "Spider" by Shusaku Endo.
