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The only book that elicited a completely irrational fear in me was Koko by Peter Straub. I forget the scene now, but while reading it I suddenly became convinced that someone was outside the window of my bedroom. This in itself doesn't sound too irrational except that I was on the 1st floor and there was no balcony, so my fear was ridiculous.
After Koko I was convinced that Peter Straub must be one of the greatest suspense/horror writers of all time. However, he's never actually managed to get the same response from me in his other books. Still love his stuff though.
Now - putting abject terror aside for the moment, another book to have wrung an extreme physical response from me was Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner (young adult fantasy). I'm claustraphobic and one chapter that dealt with an underground escape through a narrow crawlspace had me drenched with sweat.
Regards
Caleb
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