What was the scariest book you've read and why??

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

The Walk is awesome....it's the one where people have to keep a certain pace, and the "last one standing" wins right?

I think I have it as "The Long Walk"

Sorry - it was a typo on my part. "The Long Walk" was the name of the story.

Regards
Caleb

[hedwig]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I've never heard of fear itself I'll have to check it out. I'm reading a nightmare by robin parrish and it seems like it will be creepy.

Its is the second book in the E.L. Pender series by Jonathan Nasaw. They are really thrilling reads and all have their scary moments.

[Figlilly]

What a great thread I don't read scary books anymore so will probably not take up anyone's recommendations here for the sake of my peace of mind. When I was younger though, I loved to scare myself silly. The Shining stands out in my memory as being too frightening not to read further and yet wanting to close my eyes to block out the scenes. I believe I probably cheated a few times and skipped some chapters till everyone was safe again. It was great.

[gmw]

Stephen King should be pleased with the turn-out here

And I'm going to add to it. I'm with RolandD, Gerald's Game by Stephen King, specifically the bit where the spookie-man/monstor turns up in the middle of the night. To my mind this book is King's only real horror novel, but then I didn't read any of them until I was an adult. Regrettably, on the second read of Gerald's Game was a big disappointment, it turned into something very boring and it's strange overlap with Dolores Claiborne seemed completely pointless.

[jhempel24]

LOL yeah he should!

I guess I don't quite understand the thrill of Geralds Game, I thought it was one of his worst books behind Lisey's Story and Delores Claiborne (movie was much much better than the book).

I just finished Nightmare today, and while it was good enough for me to read in a 24 hour period, it went from Horror/Suspense to Hokey Sci-Fi towards the end...I guess I just wanted a better payoff.

[JeremyR]

I've never found Stephen King to be "scary". Unsettling or disturbing, yes. And quite memorable.

(He's kind of like the Simpsons, though, should have quit a long time ago....now he's just tiresome)

About the only book that actually scared me was Legion by William Peter Blatty, the sequel to The Exorcist.

[jhempel24]

Oh I don't know....Under the Dome was fantastic to me, and his latest Full Dark, No Stars was vintage King, and reminded me of his older work.

I'll have to check out Legion, is the Exorcist book any better/worse than the movie? Was the movie based on the book? I really don't know, LOL.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

... I guess I don't quite understand the thrill of Geralds Game, I thought it was one of his worst books behind Lisey's Story and Delores Claiborne (movie was much much better than the book). ...

Not sure "thrill" is the word I would have chosen, RolandD's comment "handcuff escape for biggest gross out" was part of it. It was the closest a book ever came to really scaring me (the first time through), not a roller-coaster-ride thrill but a real feeling of fear. I think the things that hit a chord or horror within people are probably pretty deep down personal; the sort of stuff that a psychologist would have fun with: I probably have a latent childhood fear of the boogie man or something.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Figwit

What a great thread

I agree.

I've always loved the things that have scared the hell out of me. And because I have a pretty vivid imagination, walking down the corridor at night in my own home can become a thrill ride.

I sometimes wish a book could scare me the way I can scare myself.

However, talking about scary, my sister could very effectively scare me. She loves horror books as well and has an imagination much more terrifyingly vivid than my own. She would have dreams that she could remember in incredible detail and some of those used to scare the hell out me.

I remember once when I was living at home I had a friend over and I thought I heard noises outside. We both got rattled and went into her room to ask her if she heard the noises. If she had just agreed that would be scary enough. However, this is what she said (paraphrased):

"It sounds like someone has carefully picked individual twigs of exactly the same size so that they all make exactly the same sound and is slowly and deliberately snapping them one by one outside the window."



That ruined us for the rest of the night.

Regards
Caleb

[drofgnal]

Its not really a book, more of a short story, but I found Edgar Allen Poe's the Pit and the Pendulum to be rather disturbing.

[jhempel24]

Originally Posted by gmw

I probably have a latent childhood fear of the boogie man or something

BOO!! LOL. I think I may have to go back and re-read that, it's been a really really long time, so my memory isn't serving me well, I may have just not been ready for it when I read it as an early teen.


Caleb--I know exactly what you mean. I'm lying in bed at night and sometimes think that I SWEAR the TV is on, but think ok, wife and son is home....but when I get up there is no one home.

I go back to bed....and hear it again....it's just odd, and freaks me the hell out. Also walking to my car at night (work 3rd shift) in my quiet neighborhood (my garage doesn't have a light) kind of freaks me out LOL.

[dmacmart]

It wasn't a book, it was a true detective magazine that somehow found its way into the kids' comic pile. I read it when I was 9 or 10 (my parents would have been horrified), and the thought that people murdered people - in cold blood - scared me far, far more than any ghost, monster, or alien story. I seem to recall a family being slaughtered, with one little girl in bed with 2 or 3 of her sisters left alive as the others were butchered. I also read accounts of the Tate/Labianca murders around this time as well, with lots of photographic detail (Life magazine?) For many years, I was actively afraid of someone breaking into our home to murder our entire family.

To this day my favorite genre is murder/mystery stories, and I have an interest in true life forensics. But I know that people don't just go and kill people for fun. Much.

[Snowman]

For me, it was "The Scent of New Mown Hay" by John Blackburn. I first heard this as a serial play on the BBC when I was an early teen in the mid-sixties. It frightened me then, and it still does. I have the book, but it is not one I can easily read even now, despite the fact that I like military sf as a genre.

The theme music to the radio series was the overture to "The Wasps" by Vaughan-Williams, which I find to be a tense and foreboding piece. It must have been an inspired choice by the producer, since I still shiver when I hear it again, and tend to turn the volume down until it has finished.

So as to why: I think it was because we were in the cold-war period, and I was an impressionable teen at the time, with an interest in the sciences. Along with that theme music...!

Snowman

[BenBanned]

H.P. Lovecraft's The Loved Dead
It's a short story and its a little hard to find, I think Lovecraft Ghostwrote it for someone. Anyway it didn't scare me as much as it did haunt me. I had the story on my mind for a few days after and it is such a grotesque story that it was really bothering me how much thought I was putting into it.
So necrofelia fans.......... check it out.

[GeoffC]

I cannot remember when I read it, but it would definitely have to be The Exorcist by Peter Blatty - I cannot remember which bits (and I'm not going to find out either....)