What was the scariest BOOK you ever read?

[Bubbles]

I'm not trying to hijack the 'scariest film' thread, but I thought it would be interesting to see which books peeps thought to be the scariest....

Here is my list.....

Woman in Black...Susan Hill....old fashioned ghost story with plenty of creepy bits....

Rachels Room....Jonathan Aycliffe....very scary and gross story which is almost at the edge of what I think of as decency....(especially one scene.)

To The Devil A Daughter...Dennis Wheatley...very old one this, my dad's book, read when I was young, but gave me the creeps because of the creature they called a 'homonuncles'

Wire in the Blood....Val McDermid.....crime story, very gory, and creepy too. (In fact, she's a great writer if you like crime)

Red Dragon/Silence of the Lambs.....not creepy in ghostly way, but scary in reality of could get killed way....

Rosemary's Baby....the story itself is good old fashioned scary evil/good stuff.

I'll think of more but would love to hear what the rest of us think....but it will most probably mean I'll rush off to the library once I know and spend my life with my nose stuck in a book..............

[micknlea]

Hi Bubbles
I think there is nothing better than reading a good book and scary ones are such fun...your imagination is so much better than any film if the writing is good.

As I read your post I remembered the time I read The Shining...I was a teenager at home on one of those cold, wet wintry days with the rain falling and wind blowing (no snow as I lived in Melbourne at the time) but it was so dark I sat by the window in a big chair instead of turning a light on...and of course I was all by myself in the house, curled up reading my book.

I was so engrossed in this book that the outside world had totally disappeared. So I knew nothing of what was happening in the room with me...and as I turned the page to find out what was there in the bath as the boy pulled back the hotel bathroom shower curtain the last thing I expected was my cat to land on my chair!!! The result was me throwing the book across the room, a scream that would befit any old B grade horror movie and goosebumps all over.

Then of course I felt totally stupid and was so glad that no one else (except the cat) was there to see me do it and I went of to make dinner...I didn't go back to reading the book either...not until the next day anyway!!!

I've read lots of other books that were pretty scary but none had that reaction since...

[sapphire]

I don't like Stephen King's work, but have read a few books of his. And, 'Thinner' was the scariest for me, mostly 'cause I was very thin back then and the whole book was about this curse of losing weight uncontrollably. Weird book, stupid as well but scared me then.

[seraphim]

I'm quite a fan of Kings earlier works, and read 'It' when I was about 12. When you read about child eating clowns at that age, you scare very easily.

[Bubbles]

Pet Cemetery....or Semetery as they call it in the US by King was gory and creepy.

[Mary Hatch Bailey]

Pet Cemetery....or Semetery as they call it in the US by King was gory and creepy.

We Americans don't spell it 'Semetary' -- the idea is that kids made the cemetary, right?

[Bubbles]

Yes Mary, that's the one, where they buried their pets in a graveyard which was an old American Indian burial site and the pets came back to life, then the little boy dies and his dad buries him there too...and the rest is very creepily described, and evil sounding.

[Bubbles]

What Lies Beneath had some scary moments.....