What is the freakiest book you have read that has kept you up at night?
What is the freakiest book you have read that has kept you up at night?
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What is the freakiest book you have read that has kept you up at night?
Mine are: I am thinking of Ending things and Pretty Girls.
It was graphic! Of course I finished it a night! I have one of her book downloaded to my kindle.
Karin Slaughter is actually really good! Not everything is so graphic.
I remember reading Cows by Matthew Stokoe and I felt physically ill. Like the closest I’ve ever been to vomiting. And thought about it for a while the night after reading it. It was a vile book
That book was Discusting. I don’t have words for it.
Agreed it was absolutely nasty
Well I know not to read that.
Those I mentioned above were not vile just really put me on edge and I read them before bed so that was a bad choice.
What is that book about (Cows)?
The general plot is a guy who lives with his psychotic mother, and lands a job at a slaughtering factory. He meets some messed up people at this factory and also somehow communicates with some cows. His mother tries to control his life and he grows irate. He also meets a strange woman he falls in love with. But the author incorporates a lot of gruesome and disturbing detail that really makes no sense, it’s really just all over the place. It’s just so random
I think I will have to check it out.
I have to check into this book now! ??
Guys don’t say I didn’t warn you, there’s some really vulgar stuff in there!! I’m not even kidding. Otherwise be careful ??
I won’t be reading it!
Sounds like my kinda book ? going to check it out later! 🙂
“Phantom” by Dean R Koontz, but I was in junior high, no books I have read keep me up at night anymore.
Oh I forgot about Fm dean koontz books. They are certainly freaky
As a teen in the 70’s sometime I read The Exorcist before the movie came to theaters. Kept me up all night!!
That’s my pick too
Flowers in the attic ?
My favorite book of all time! ?
I’m trying to think of a book like that that I’ve read. I avoid horror books like the plague, so I guess the closest I can come would be “Revolt of the Micronauts,” by Gordon Williams, which got ugly and gruesome and kept me from finishing it for a full year. Some science fiction just isn’t any fun at all.
Silence of the Lambs……
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. Shook me to the soul. I still get weirded out by dark corners with shadows and it’s been at least twenty years since I read it.
That is a good book and creepy as hell.
The Exorcist!
Suicide Forest by Jeremy Bates. All of his were scary, but this one really made me scared.
I’m going to have to check this out.
All of his books take place in real locations so ur gives you the “maybe this can be real” vibe. Plus is you look up suicide forest in Japan, it really is a place where people go to commit suicide & officers have specific days in the year to go in & clear or bodies they find. That really helped with the creepiness.
Wow! That’s crazy!
Yep! You get a little history & a whole lot of scary!
Deviant (true crime)
Robert McCammon’s Swan Song
I just bought this from HPB a few weeks ago
I had this on my tbr but then kept hearing how similar it is to The stand so I took it off. Are they really that similar? I loved the Stand.
Intensity by Dean Koontz
Definitely The Haunting, Shirley Jackson.
Psycho messed me up more than I expected.. felt I couldn’t get the character off of me
The Regulators SK
The Stand by Stephen King
Dracula
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
That is on my list. Was it good?
a lot of incest
Just won a copy! ?
I hope that you enjoy it more than i did
If non-fiction counts, then the book Helter Skelter about the Manson murders. I read it first at age 11 and then again in high school – didn’t really faze me either time. Read it again in my thirties – totally freaked me out. Ugh.
I have Helter Skelter and have yet gotten the courage to read it. Lol
If you have a vivid imagination and live alone, then don’t read it before you go to bed. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…. ?
My imagination goes wild lol
I totally forgot Helter Skelter. I read that, it is scary and more so as I remembered the Tate murders being in the news.
That one was written by the prosecutor and not a real picture of what happened. If you’re interested in the Manson case or Manson in general I highly recommend “Manson in His Own Words” it completely changed the way I thought about it all. I had an English professor who was studying Manson for a book and recommend many books for me to read and then we had huge in-depth discussions about it all.
When Rabbit Howles!
Good book
IT by Stephen king
I made my roommate get up and make sure that Pennywise wasn’t on our front porch! ?
I have been trying to finish it for years and I always stop… my fear is the drains… big time…
Go Ask Alice
The Exorcist
Hmm…Ulysses, by James Joyce. The novel took me by surprise. I had to overcome personal bias about my concept of art, my concept of what makes sense. I have come to love this work of art.
The Shining?
Demon in the freezer was by far the scariest shit I’ve ever read I started washing my hands like 20 plus times a day!
Doctor Sleep Stephen King
Behind closed doors made me have a horrible nightmare
Tell me Grace, what color was Millie’s room? Red, it was red! What a great ending but yes-freaky!
Yup ugh made me uncomfortable from beginning to end lol
Wasn’t that one of the best endings- especially since jack got what he deserved!
Yes!! Lol i felt such relief when that happened i felt free!! ???
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens, kept me up because I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep without finishing it. I mean the plot was freaky because it seems like a kind of thing that could actually happen so either way I wasn’t sleeping. Decided to just finish it.
The Mailman by Bently Little
Stephen King It
Helter Skelter ! It was about Manson and the cult he ran !!! Kept me awake for weeks !!!!
I tried to read Stephen King once and I didn’t sleep for two days….never again!!!
I once read that Stephen King actually has his own vivid, horrible nightmares, and that most of his books arise from them. So I’m not sure I envy his success . . .
@Jamie, interesting. That would be awful.
I heard the same thing about HP Lovecraft.
Wow i must be related to stephen king lol cause i have very vivid nightmares every night! 🙁
I love Stephen King, favorite author.
Start writing it down, @Christie! Maybe you’ll hit it big like King!
I’ve actually thought of that! I just might start doing that
Devil’s Laughter.
Laurell K Hamilton but not because I was scared LOL!
I don’t read books that scare me because I’m a wuss. But Odd Thomas scared me, reading it alone, at night, during the bodoch parts.
It by steven king
I am the sissiest of sissies and when I was in middle school for some reason I picked up The Amityville Horror. It scared the crap out of me! Never again!! ?
Let’s us sissies stick together. I never read horror fiction or watch horror films, and I have almost zero serious nightmares. One of the better life-choices I’ve made.
It was creepy tho, sissy I may be. After I finished that I started reading one by Stephen King
Also, Where Are The Children freaked me out at 12!
Such a good book.
Me too!!
Bird Box
That book had me desperate for answers lol
Still desperate for answers…lol
Lucifers Hammer…I read it when I had phnemoia and proceed to have wicked nightmares for weeks about it.. good book 🙂
Midnight Voices-John Saul
None of them have, but I haven’t read any Stephen King, because I’m not sure where to start it’s very overwhelming because he has so many books
The Taking by Dean Koontz.
It seems like Steven king and dean koontz are responsible for many of our scary reads! Anyone read anything by Karin Slaughter? She is pretty freaky too in her writing but I love her anyway!
Im reading the kept woman by her
Let me know what you think. Did you read pretty girls.
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
I read a ghost story when I was in the hospital on an antibiotic that could cause hallucinatios. It was an awful experience and I now read only mild, gentle books.
Ruby Jean Jensen’s Baby Dolly. Scared the crap out of me in the 7th grade!!
helter skelter by vincent bugliosi
Long time ago, Misery
When I was about 13 I read the picture of Dorian Grey. Picture gave me nightmares
Definitely “It” by Stephan King when I read it in high school.
I read it in high school in boarding school. The wing of the dorm I was in was empty except for me. It made it so much scarier but I still have good memories about reading it and being scared.
My aunt was a MAJOR Stephen King fan and she would always encourage me to read him and then sleep with the lights on. ?
Amityville Horror
I always wanted to read that.
Think I was 13 when I read it. It’s still sold in bookstores in mass market for 7.99.
Read anything by Robert Bloch? (Psycho, Night of the Ripper, This Crowded Earth, and more)
Revelation: The Holy Bible
Silence of the Lambs. It was scary as hell!
Into the out of by Alan Dean Foster!
Stephen King’s It
American Psycho
The Butcher’s Theatre I could only read it if my husband was also at home!
by Jonathan Kellerman… oh my God.. i could not be alone in the house for sometime after reading it…
It was terrifying!?
Voice of the Blood by Jemiah Jefferson.
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Pet Sematary – Stephan King
Stephen King’s “Suffer Little Children”
The Shining
Stephen King’s The Shining and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. Both times I had bad nightmares that woke me up in cold sweat, hairs standing on end lol.
Native son by Richard Wright
IT. Red Dragon. and a book about Jeffery Dahmer.
The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver
Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz. I was 12. My love of the crime/horror genres started right there. I had all his published books within 6 months (super supportive parents who let me read whatever I pleased an actively encouraged my love of reading).
OH and Daniel Hecht’s Skull Session. I read it when I was younger too. And Jeffery Deaver’s A Maiden’s Grave.
The hypnotist by lars Kepler
Was a book about a guy a big dog and 3 girlfriends,there was fatal dog attacks;cannabilism.cover was red and black.i destroyed it i was so disturbed by it.cant remember author.anyone read it?
scary tales to chill ur bones by alen edger poe… audio book… i literally scaref my self to death
you died?
yea… for 2 mins
New Girl by R.L Stine but I was a small girl then (6th standard) ??
The Man in the High Castle by PK Dick this book messed with my mind I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it
I ended up having to do a lot of research while reading this book. I knew basically nothing about the I Ching
Silence of the lambs and red dragon.
I read Red Dragon really young and had to give it to my mam at night so it wasn’t in my room. Excellent book though, still a favourite of mine
Was very scary!
I’ve got Red Dragon on my list, need to find it still..
Spangle.
Serge Brussolo’s Le Tombeau du Roi Squelette. One of the stories in the book gave me a nightmare and woke up screaming.
Marisha Pessl’s Night Film
The Rats by James Herbert
I was a teen when i read a book about a vampire who wakes up during ww3 and has both day and night to play,couple parts scared me cant remember the name(day of the vampire?)
This sounds familiar!
It was just a nuclear holocaust not ww3,lol since my last post i’ve been trying to google it with no luck,it’s driving me crazy….
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I mean I know it’s kind of a drama but I really can’t imagine living in a world like that.
I have this book on my shelf but haven’t read it yet.
i want to tell you the story but that would obviously spoil you so i won’t. all i can say is, you really should read it and be ready to cringe at any moment
I do believe I have just moved this up on my tbr list. Thank you!
just… dont read any of his other stuff… trust me..
Amanda, why? Not worth it? Disturbing?
I did not read it, but after the movie I had a total meltdown, this one hit me in a strange way like no other has.
Carrie by Stephen King when I was a teen
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter gave me nightmares so I had to stop reading it.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite. This novel got under my skin something awful. Took weeks for me to feel right again
Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. I read it as an adult. Terrifying.
If that was what the move was based on I would concur
Sharp Objects.
I’ll be starting this book today!
that was a very strange book…I would agree!
I loved it. Finished it in one sitting.
That book was freakin’ awesome!! Have you read Dark Places (also Gillian)? It is equally awesome!! They both blow Gone Girl out of the water :-/ for real!
I never read gone girl or dark places because I watched the movie. ?
The book was excellent! I want to watch the movie, how’d you like it?
I liked gone girl but just thought dark places was “meh”.
We need to talk about Kevin……?❤️?
I read that that was a very good book.
@Barb disturbing!
I will have to check it out. ?
A great book. Disturbing but good.
Oops some one’s in trouble!!
Edgar Allen Poe. All of his shorts stories.
I read so many of them, i actually started dreaming i was the characters in the book
The most spine tinglng I’ve read recently is The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb. Of all time, Helter Skelter
Helter Skelter was mine too, @Amy, That and “Executioner’s Song” Things went bump in the middle of the day and I jumped out of my skin
I was reading a book by Sue Grafton. I can’t remember which one, it was one of her alphabet ones. I got to the part where the girl was sleeping and the killer was sneaking into her bedroom. He was just about to grab her shoulder, when my husband came into our bedroom, my back was to the door, and he touched my shoulder and said my name. Needless to say, I screamed and the book went flying!!
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King and the book Helter Skelter about the Manson family. ???
I can think of two I still think about 30 years later. Both are by Steven King. Salem’s Lot is the first one. I slept with the light on for a year after reading that. Second one is Cojo, at the time rabies shots were less common in the country. I dog sat a Saint Bernard next door, my son was same age as boy in book, and I drive a Ford Pinto at the time. If you have read the book you would know why I was terrified. I highly recommend both this books. Cojo the book is much better and has a different ending than the movie.
A book called Whispers by Dean Koontz I believe. I just barely remember the premise but I remember being pretty spooked.
Naomi’s Room by Jonathan Aycliffe
“The Mermaids Singing” by Val McDermid. It made me so afraid that I had to sit in the sunlight to read it.
Following…im a sicko. Lol!