You’ve been there. You’ve stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to read a scary novel. You want to put it down, but you just can’t; it holds you in a cold sweaty grip that just won’t loosen. Halloween is almost here and we would like you to tell us about the books that creeped you out and kept you awake at night. What story lingers in your consciousness like an unpleasant dream?
Scariest Books You Have Read
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15 Responses to Scariest Books You Have Read
Scariest books: Anne Rule books, starting with “The Stranger Beside Me.” I cannot see scary movies or TV shows, but books are a different story…sort of. I got addicted to these real-life sicko murder stories Anne Rule writes about 15 years ago. My husband finally had to put his foot down and ask that I not read them anymore. I was so scared, I’d wake him up at night to reassure me that the house was locked and the kids safe. I was a stay-at-home mom at the time, and I’d call him at work when I would feel freaked out thinking about the sickos from those books. It’s the fact that they are true stories that is so disturbing.
I was addicted to Stephen King as a teenager. I finally stopped reading him after “Pet Semetary”, not because it was too scary, but because it was just distasteful to me (a young boy is killed in an accident and then brought back to life by his grieving father, but the child is evil and spews all sorts of disgusting things to his horrified mother; just something about this poor dead 4-year-old boy saying gross things to his mother was too much for me).
There is plenty of King that has stuck with me because it scared me, but probably nothing so much as a short story he wrote called “The Boogeyman”. I still make sure my closet door is closed before I go to bed.
Oh Jennie – Pet Semetary – wasn’t the kid’s name Gage? Lord! I didn’t read the book, but the movie was awful! Just awful!
I really haven’t read any scary books that I can think of — The DaVinci Code was the closest, I guess. More mysterious than scary.
We just watched the Exorcism of Emily Rose last night. I thought for sure I’d have nightmares — thank goodness I didn’t. Eeery and based on a true story.
Ann,
I have to agree, the Ann Rule books are scary. Especially since they are all true stories. I at one time was addicted to them also.
Mine is the same as Ann’s. Hand’s down, The Stranger Beside Me is the scariest book I have read. It was years ago that I was reading it one night when I had the house to myself. I thought I’d enjoy the evening alone reading in bed. I became so frightened at one of the descriptions of how bold Ted Bundy was that I threw the book across the room. I took me a couple of days to start reading it again. I have never left a window open at night since reading that book. In fact, in a lot of Ann Rules books there’s a sentence that is to the gist of “he came in through a window that was open”.
I love her books but am behind.
I read every Stephen King there was when I was young. I used to love to read true crime stories also but have found the older I get I can’t even watch the news let alone read a true crime book. I think the world is a scary place as it is so I can just imagine the amount of sleep I’d loose if I tried to read a scary book . I never thought I’d become a “fraidy cat” but it just seems the world has gone crazy or the new media can’t find good stories. I’d probably have a heart attack if I even drove up to a haunted house or what not. Ohhh, I just got a heart palpatation just thinking of it.
I also went through a period where I read Ann Rule and other true crime books all the time. I think I stopped because there is so much of that stuff on tv now. You’ve heard all the details by the time they get a book out.
I agree that the true stuff is more frightening than anything you could make up. I remember when I read The Exorcist, even though it was scary, I thought that the stuff people do to each other in real life was worse than anything in the book.
Also a Steven King fan. I think Salem’s Lot was the scariest to me. Nancy, that movie of Pet Cemetary was so bad it was funny. We used to imitate little Gage’s ominous (not so much) line before he started hacking people up, “Now I want to p’ay wif youuu.”
I was going to say Pet Sematary. I’ve only read it once a long time ago and I thought it was pretty scary. But since then I don’t think I have read very many scary books. I will have to read The Stranger Beside Me.
“he came in through a window that was open”.
You’re freking me out, Lily!
I’m aging myself, but HELTER SKELTER was, by far, the scariest book I ever read. I remember reading a part of it at about 2am in my bed, alone, when he described how the Manson girls would break into houses and “creepy crawl” around the houses stealing items with the homeowners asleep in their beds. I was so freaked out I slept with a light on and a baseball bat next to the bed.
The Shining and Salem’s Lot by Stephen King were the scariest. I agree with whoever said The Pet Cemetary turned them off same hear.
I agree with Paula, The Shining is by far the scariest I’ve ever read. I read it first when I was 13 or so, and eventually I got to the point where the book had to be stored away out of sight and out of my room or I had nightmares. That was long before Friends and Joey putting The Shining in the freezer because it is so scary. I have read so much Stephen King, I even wrote my senior thesis on ‘Salem’s Lot, but nothing tops The Shining.
It’s funny because after I posted that about Stephen King, I was thinking about his books and concluded that Salem’s Lot and The Shining were the scariest. I don’t remember them that well (read them a looong time ago), but I think with Salem’s Lot what was so scary was the notion of these people you’d know being turned into vampires, tapping at your window and trying to get you to invite them in. Freaky. With The Shining, I really conflate the movie and the book a lot, but definitely the sense of isolation and the evil that pervades the hotel are what make it really scary. Books of King’s like Cujo or Firestarter weren’t nearly as scary to me, maybe because they didn’t have that sense of there being an inescapable supernatural evil haunting the characters.
ll
Though for my money, King’s best book is still The Stand.
Anyone here a fan of Shirley Jackson? I think I’ve only read The Lottery, which is very chilling. I’ve heard We Have Always Lived in the Castle is very good too, but I’ve never read it.
Jennie, the only Shirley Jackson story I have read is The Lottery. It was good. I used to check out those compilation books of eerie stories (Hitchcock n such) and read through them, it was right up my alley for a Twilight Zone kind of tale.
W/all the Ann Rule fans, I thought I’d mention there’s one of her movies is on Lifetime tonight. I have not read this book. But the movie is new, Too Late To Say Goodbye. I’m going to be watching. Hope it’s good. I liked both the Dead By Sunset and Small Sacrifices movies.
Re: the above. Don’t bother. It’ sooooooo slow. There’s another one next week. I have read that book, Everything She Ever Wanted. I’m going to hope for a better movie, it’s got Mark Harmon.