Scariest book you've ever read

[Tyler]

Hi, I'm new to the genre and really want something that will scare the corn outta my crap 💩

[John]

I recommend most books by Stephen King, but primarily: It, The Stand, Misery, and ‘Salem’s Lot. Max Brook’s World War Z is fantastic zombie stuff, if you like that. Clive Barker’s Thief of Always, The Great and Secret Show and Everville. Everville is probably my favorite Clive Barker book, but it is technically part two after the Great and Secret Show. Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is another one (like Thief of Always) that was meant for younger readers, but still has some good creep to it. Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. Dan Simmons Summer of Night.

[Lena]

Christopher Buehlman is my favorite new voice in horror. Books won't scare you the same way as movies, no jump scares, but they can hurt you for a long time.

"Writing is words that stay."
-The Dark Crystal

[schmorie]

Off Season by Jack Ketchum. I read this at night when I had just moved to a new town. He is pretty graphic in his writing and definitely one of my favorites.

[Adam]

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Personal favorite of mine. Fast paced thrill ride from start to finish. Read around Christmas time for an extra special bonus of scare.

[WendyB]

Trapped by Jack Kilborn aka JA Konrath
Something about this book makes me never want to camp ever again... ever.

[Angel]

These books had that creepy, dreadful feeling you may be craving:

The Bad Box (supernatural)

Ravenous and sequel, Bestial (werewolves)

The Jigsaw Man

Bad Games (psycho/serial killer)

The Printer From Hell (supernatural - fun little morsel of horror).

[sonya]

The shining

[James]

An Exorcist Tells His Story

Not horror horror but a pretty scary read alone.

[Morgan]

Pet Sematary was eerie to read, especially surrounded by wilderness! I read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon when I was nine, and it gave me nightmares.

[Marie]

The only book that really creeped me out and I had to leave the lights on was this true paranormal book. by Douglas Hensley

[Amanda]

I haven't found Clive Barker to be really "scary," but many first- and second-timers love his prose, along with the purist horror vision of the highly unusual inspirations for his stories. (I'm thinking of his short story "In the Hills, the Cities" for that comment. That story is found in Barker's Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three. Grab The Damnation Game or The Hellbound Heart after your "scared the hell outta me book" to experience some horror "fascination."

[[deleted user]]

Sonya wrote: "The shining"

Agreed, "The Shining" has it all: scary setting, scary ghosts, scary protagonist - Stephen King at his very best.

[Terri]

some of Richmond Laymon stuff is scary, real horror, stuff that could really happan.

[Amber]

I read Frankenstein when I was in elementary and it scared me horribly. Although it could have been the pictures that scared me so.

[Lena]

You know after reading a whole lot of PNR then reading Kraken... shiiiiit.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Cyrus would be on my personal top ten list for fucked up villains.

[Allyson]

I really am haunted by The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce. It sounds dumb, but it is amazing. It's a really disturbing coming-of-age novel. Not a lot of gore. I'm not a gore fan.

[Robert]

Allyson wrote: "I really am haunted by The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce. It sounds dumb, but it is amazing. It's a really disturbing coming-of-age novel. Not a lot of gore. I'm not a gore fan."

It IS amazing! I really need to re-read that - is been too long.

[Nami]

I think the only book that ever scared me was . I remember that weird feeling, my heart pounding in my chest while reading it. It made me feel uncomfortable sometimes and disgusted, considering that it was based on a true story. It's also one of the best books I have ever read.

[Michael]

The Loveliest Dead really scared me.

[B.]

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
Pet Semetary by Stephen King
Duma Key by Stephen King
The Exorcist
The Croning by Laird Barron
Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell

[B.]

I saw someone said The Hellbound Heart and Books Of blood-I second these as well...in the books of blood, I particularly found the story Rawhead Rex terrifying-I've read it maybe 10 times total!

[B.]

Sorry one more!!! A Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum-scary, tense, horrible, brutal all wrapped in one little gem of a short story collection

[Coatesj]

Yes, I second NOs4A2... disturbing

[Gareth]

For me, it was probably the first read-through of The Pariah by Masterton. Terrified me as a kid.

[John]

The most creepy scary book for me is Dan Simmon's Song of Kali. Perhaps it damaged my psyche because I was a newish dad when I read it. No jump out of your skin moments, just a constant and growing dread.

[Chara]

Stephen King's short story collections are terrifying. From the "Night Shift" collection, my favourites are: "Children of the Corn", "The Boogeyman", "Graveyard Shift", "Sometimes they come back", "Quitters Inc.", "The Woman in the Room".

From the "Everything is Eventual" collection I like "Riding the Bullet", "1408", "Autopsy Room 4", "The Road virus heads North".

From "Full Dark, No Stars" I really love everything: "1922", "Big Driver", "Fair Extension", "A Good Marriage".

I really hope you like my recommendations :)

[Trashed Panda Brew Co]

For me its gotta be The Woman in Black by Susan Hill and The Last Days Of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnop both great at building tension one old and one quite new ... both have that brilliant payoff that we crave as horror fans!

[Robert]

Nick wrote: "Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
Pet Semetary by Stephen King
Duma Key by Stephen King
The Exorcist
The Croning by Laird Barron
Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Cold Moon Over Babylon by ..."
Nick,

Is Laird Barron very heavily influenced by Lovecraft? Is it very evident in his writing? I believe Mr. Barron also edited a jack The Ripper anthology, have you
read this one?
Bob

[Laura]

I'm a fan of the short story. I think these can sometimes give you a bigger scare, as they tend to be more visceral than longer novels. The only two novels that ever scared me rigid are Pet Semetary and Bird Box. Some highly recommended short stories for a good scare are:

Crouch End
1408
The Boogeyman
Suffer the Little Children - all by King

Best New Horror - Joe Hill (Button Boy narrative is horrifying!)

Sardonicus, Sagittarius and Sanguinarius (the S trilogy) - Ray Russell

Some Children Wander By Mistake - John Connolly. Best avoided if you're scared of clowns; this had me sleeping with the lights on for days!

If you want sad/moving horror, three of the best stories I've ever read are The Lottery - Jackson; Last Rung of the Ladder - King; Silent Snow, Secret Snow - Aiken.

The last one in particular affected me so deeply the first time I read it, and has continued to every time since. Probably the most horrific and upsetting story I've ever read on an emotional level. You can also watch the 20min tv adaptation of it on YouTube.

[Euthimia]

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and The Pariah by Graham Masterton.

[Erin]

The Troop by Nick Cutter. It didn't scare me but there are a lot of creepy moments. The Deep by him is great too.

[Jamie]

Bird Box really got under my skin. It has that relentless, can't-get-away "It Follows" vibe to it.

[Laura]

Jamie wrote: "Bird Box really got under my skin. It has that relentless, can't-get-away "It Follows" vibe to it."

It really scared me too - after one of the chapters, I needed to go outside to hang my washing up, in the middle of the day, but I was too freaked out! #Don'topenyoureyes

[Erin]

Jamie wrote: "Bird Box really got under my skin. It has that relentless, can't-get-away "It Follows" vibe to it."

I've seen a lot of talk about that book on here. I'm adding it to my "to read" list.

[Coatesj]

Bird Box was my most recent very creepy read.

[Mixofsunandcloud]

Erin wrote: "The Troop by Nick Cutter. It didn't scare me but there are a lot of creepy moments. The Deep by him is great too."
I definitely found the Troop disturbing. I'm not sure about scary, but I don't seem to get scared by books like I used to. Except maybe (view spoiler)[ the part where the creepy kid basically talks the other kid into mutilating himself (hide spoiler)]

[Erin]

Mixofsunandcloud wrote: "Erin wrote: "The Troop by Nick Cutter. It didn't scare me but there are a lot of creepy moments. The Deep by him is great too."
I definitely found the Troop disturbing. I'm not sure about scary, bu..."

I am the same way, books can be creepy/disturbing for me but not really scary. I should probably say that I haven't come across a book that has truly scared me....yet.

[Fernando]

WendyB wrote: "Trapped by Jack Kilborn aka JA Konrath
Something about this book makes me never want to camp ever again... ever."

Excellent Choice...I highly suggest the audiobook for Trapped, as well as

[Fernando]

My top 3 would be -

The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed & Lorraine Warren
Origin
Demon Blood: Enlightenment

[Eva]

Definitely The Shining and The Girl Next Door!!

[Rouxmia]

"The Exorcist" had me questioning my own sanity while reading it and did enjoy "The Demonologist" too.

[Isebella]

The Exorcist book and movie always gives me the creeps. I need to read The Girl Next Door. I've heard good things about this one from GR and from my friends.

[Marie]

I want to add this one in as I finished reading it about 2 weeks ago and it is pretty scary if you are into haunted houses.

[Angela]

I guess it depends what scares you, but the books that have scared me the most were usually ones where I had to use my imagination more.

The scariest book for me so far has been Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. It drew me in from the first pages and I could picture everything very easily.

Other books that have scared me were:
Infected by Scott Sigler (it gave me the heebie jeebies like no other)

Ring by Koji Suzuki (I love the Ring/Ringu movies, and this book was pretty good at creeping me out)

Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts, the stories In the Rundown, My Father's Mask, and The Black Phone creeped me out and really made me think about them

Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike (this book really creeped me out and it's really the only one of his books to ever do that to me)

[Chelsey | igniting_the_page]

Rouxmia wrote: ""The Exorcist" had me questioning my own sanity while reading it and did enjoy "The Demonologist" too."

Yes! The Exorcist had me reeling.

[Michael]

Great thread.

Here's a few, just off the top of my head:

The Hungry Moon and The Darkest Part of the Woods by Ramsey Campbell.
Voice of Our Shadow by Jonathan Carroll.
It by Stephen King
The Unblemished by Conrad Williams
The Damnation Game by Clive Barker
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
Darkside by Dennis Etchison
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
The Nestling by Charles L. Grant
Song of Kali and Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
Moon Dance by S.P. Somtow
The Light at the End by John Skipp and Craig Spector

There are lots more. But this is a pretty good start.

[Effie (she-her)]

Great thread with very interesting book recommendations!

Truth be told it's very hard for me to get scared by a book or even a movie, but Pet Sematary gave me the creeps. There were a lot of times where I had to close the book and force myself to stop thinking about it.

[Shay]

I don't scare easily. NOS4A2 was amazing though, very intense and thrilling. The Mist was pretty creepy. The Woman in Black had me creeped out in a couple spots, so did The Shining. Head Full of Ghosts had a few creepy moments. None of it terrified me though.

[Rachel]

I found Hex to be a frightening, stick with you for awhile kind of novel. Pet Semetary was the hardest of King's novels for me. And I have liked Joe Hill's novels, but so far Heart Shaped Box was the scariest for me. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...