I was a teenager when I saw the movie, then read the book. So I thought I was prepared… not so much. There was one part in the book that wasn’t in the movie (until they added that scene years later in the Director’s Cut) that made me slam the book closed and throw it across the room. Still gives me the creeps.
The human condition is a little bit crazy. Jimmy Buffet, the great American philosopher, said, us humans were taken out of the cosmic oven just a bit too early.
I’ve said this before. Stoker’s Dracula. I read it at 17, full of cynicism. You know the deal: “Who would be scared? There are no such things as vampires.” Half way through I was asking my mom if we had garlic in the house.
I don’t usually read scary stories but several years ago I read this one and remember thinking it was scary: The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red.
Anything by Richard Layman Uck I read them bc my boyfriend’s mom and I only had horror novel reading in common. She borrowed me her collection- every single one is basically a gross rape fantasy. I read a few hoping there would be more but naw. They are horrifying, though not in a good way.
I think I’ve read almost everything mentioned here, but by far and away, for me it was The Exorcist. When I saw the movie, which I thought was great, I was only disappointed with one thing: when Reagan was first possessed and the demon’s voice came out from that angelic face, I was terrified. But as SHE became more demonic looking, the demon’s voice seemed almost natural. A 12 year old girl with a demon’s voice, now that’s scary!! ?
@Julie from Goodreads: Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.
Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it’s time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat–blindfolded–with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
If you all want to read a good true story, read EVIL OBSESSION. Not really scary but you won’t want to put it down. I live near where it to place and know relatives of the ole hag.
None! I want to read a scary one but so far none have scared me… I’ve read almost all that have been listed. Closest I’ve come was house of leaves… not really scary just weird
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. The first page after the title page said “What you’re about to read will scare the hell out of you.” And it certainly did!
I just loved that it was written in the form of journal entries and letters. It captured my imagination. I’ve read it twice and love it so much. Sorry that you didn’t like it.
I’ve been reading horror and true crime since I was 12 and books generally don’t scare me, but Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn, which I read well into my thirties, kept me up at night! Even though it is written for middle school students it is a very well crafted and creepy ghost story. The only book that has gotten to me so far and I’ve read many of the titles mentioned here, some more than once ?
I can remember being scared/disturbed by a couple of scenes in Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” when I read it as a teenager, but the book that has come closest to scaring me as an adult is Brian Keene’s “Urban Gothic”
Yes I have been reading his books since 1990s.. ever since I read his first book The Keep.. Stephen King is chicken stuff in front of Wilson and James Herbert
I’m currently reading The Demonologist and it is pretty creepy. It is more of a non-fiction work about the career of Ed & Lorraine Warren. Other books I’ve read that were scary: Pet Sematary, The Shining, The Exorcist, House of Leaves, Salem’s Lot, and The Grip of It.
That’s so cool! The book is really interesting (even educational). Reading about the experiences of the people they worked with is definitely chilling. Scary in the realest sense possible.
When I was in elementary school I found this anthology in a pile of books in my classroom that we could “take home to read” if we wanted to. I can’t remember the short story that forever scared me and I still feel spooked a great deal by to this day I believe it was a kind of cheesy ghost story called ” The House on Pearl Street (?)) that awoke an archetype in my imagination that still creeps me the hell out! I loved it. Maybe I’ll look for it again soon. 🙂
The shining
The Handmaids Tale
The Exorcist.
I read it when it came out & it scared me enough that I refused to watch the movie.
I was a teenager when I saw the movie, then read the book. So I thought I was prepared… not so much. There was one part in the book that wasn’t in the movie (until they added that scene years later in the Director’s Cut) that made me slam the book closed and throw it across the room. Still gives me the creeps.
@Allen that’s the one. Lol
That book scared me silly. Only read it once and because of that never wanted to see the movie.
I don’t blame you! If I had read the book first, I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to watch the movie either.
Amityville Horror & The Stranger Beside Me
Usually Drake, Jhene Aiko, or Lauren Hill Pandora stations…but that’s usually what i listen to anyway so its great.
Huh?
hahahaha I commented on the wrong post! I was supposed to be commenting on “What music do you listen to while you’re writing” ???
welp…probably wont find that post again ?
LOL
The Bird Box
Yes. That was such a creepy book.
Read it, did nothing for me…
Salem’s Lot
I’m saving this for October I have no idea what it’s about it was a birthday gift ?
It’s so scary and creepy, but really good! Perfect for October. Hope you enjoy it! ?
I loved this scary book. I agree.
Pet Cemetery
Most probably The Holy Bible.
Yep, that’s scary.
Yes indeed it is scary.
Whenever I read the Bible it sends me off the deep end and I get kind of crazy. It’s really strange.
The human condition is a little bit crazy. Jimmy Buffet, the great American philosopher, said, us humans were taken out of the cosmic oven just a bit too early.
It.
I’ve said this before. Stoker’s Dracula. I read it at 17, full of cynicism. You know the deal: “Who would be scared? There are no such things as vampires.” Half way through I was asking my mom if we had garlic in the house.
The Exorcist
The Omen, Apt Pupil
Ooh, Apt Pupil’s a good one.
Intensity
Heart Shaped Box
Joe Hill
The accounts of Jennifer Lewis 2001-2018 ?
I don’t usually read scary stories but several years ago I read this one and remember thinking it was scary: The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red.
This was a great book!
The Bible. Murder, rape, adultery, massacres, crucifixions, genocide, natural catastrophes, hate, intolerance. About the worst of everything.
…..and redemption
@Katina no
Maybe read it all the way through huh ?
… and hope and healing and love and grace. But, it is truly terrifying.
Legit, the Old Testament is not a time I’d ever want to live in
@Hannah yeah, you don’t know what I’ve read.
@Valerie if you only look for the negative that’s all you will ever find.
Anything by Richard Layman
Uck
I read them bc my boyfriend’s mom and I only had horror novel reading in common. She borrowed me her collection- every single one is basically a gross rape fantasy. I read a few hoping there would be more but naw. They are horrifying, though not in a good way.
The Collector. The movie is incredibly creepy too.
Oooh! I didn’t know it was a book! Very creepy movie!!
I forgot about that book. Super creepy.
Amityville
Excorsist when I was 12! Lol
Ghost Story.
Agreed! By Peter Straub.
Clive Barker’s Damnation Game
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
CNN
I think I’ve read almost everything mentioned here, but by far and away, for me it was The Exorcist. When I saw the movie, which I thought was great, I was only disappointed with one thing: when Reagan was first possessed and the demon’s voice came out from that angelic face, I was terrified. But as SHE became more demonic looking, the demon’s voice seemed almost natural. A 12 year old girl with a demon’s voice, now that’s scary!! ?
The Bible!!
Too True!
It’s not meant to be pleasant
Misery but I only read the first half and threw it in the garbage.
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff
Raptured. (End times book…. my dad read it to me when I was 10 or 12. It was downright terrifying).
Either We Need to Talk About Kevin or I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
I just finished ‘ We Need To Talk About Kevin ‘
Red Dragon
Truman Capote’s
In Cold Blood
The Bridge by Preston and Childs. I still get nightmares about this. Mostly because it’s so easy to see how it could happen. ?
Are you sure the title and authors are correct. I’ve read all their stuff I thought and don’t recognize that one.
The exorcist
Cujo
Omg cujo was the last horror book I’ve ever read, no more.
Rosemarys Baby
Silence of the Lambs
Pet Sematary.
Following
This Present Darkness.
The Shining.
Agree!
In Cold Blood
Helter Skelter
Bird Box
In general, what is that book about?
@Julie from Goodreads:
Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.
Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it’s time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat–blindfolded–with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
@Kimberly ???
@Julie it’s so good.
@Kimberly I’d have to read it during the day! ?
Salem’s Lot… I tried reading it at night when I lived alone. Never EVER tried to read Stephen King again.
Red Dragon
Agree!!!!! ?
Thinner
Gulag archipelago, and panzram
Exorcist
Coraline.
Yes or The Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy or In Cold Blood.
Scary because they were all real evel
Panzram is written by a serial rapist and killer. It’s a far scarier book.
Reading The Stranger Beside Me right now!
Stephen King’s The Stand.
Pet Semetary
Yes, Pet Semetary for me too.
IT or misery by stephen king.
Jaws and The Amityville Horror
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I was 16 and babysitting. The part about the murders scared the crap out of me!
Same for me!! I read it while we were on Cape Cod. Scared the hell out of me.
My diary ?
A person, my wife.
Helter Skelter
Oh my gosh, I would agree. Read that at 16. So scary!
Amityville horror and the shining
Those were going to be my two picks!!
Saloms Lot by Stephen King
A Head Full of Ghost by Paul Tremblay
On the Beach by Neville Shute.
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James.
As a young adult read Rosemary’s Baby?
The Handmaids Tale. I could almost see that happening. ?
Lovecraft
The Exorcist
Me too, that book scared the hell out of me.
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
Stepford Wives was enough for me!
I remember thinking “My mom MUST be one of them!” LOL
The Stand
The taking
Salem’s Lot
If you all want to read a good true story, read EVIL OBSESSION. Not really scary but you won’t want to put it down. I live near where it to place and know relatives of the ole hag.
In Cold Blood or The Executioner’s Song.
Pet Semetary
None! I want to read a scary one but so far none have scared me… I’ve read almost all that have been listed. Closest I’ve come was house of leaves… not really scary just weird
Have you read Let the Right One In?
@Holly no should I try that one
It’s a good one. Even if you aren’t scared by it, it’s a little disturbing. Worth a read
@Holly I will put it on hold at the library
It
My sweet wife should write a book titled, ‘We need to Talk’; terrifying!
The scariest phrase in the English language; my boyfriend and I have outlawed it because it freaks us both out!
Amityville Horror
Read it when I was 12, so yeah! Same for me!
@Sheila Same, 12 or 13. Clearly resonated!!
One of the many about Trump.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. The first page after the title page said “What you’re about to read will scare the hell out of you.” And it certainly did!
Yeah. That’s a creepy one. Thank goodness he has finally gone to hell.
How did I not know he had died??? Oh yeah, I stopped watching the news on 9/11.
Hmmmm…The Shining was definitely up there, but I could come up with much worse with thought and time.
“It” by Stephen King. I hate clowns. It gave me nightmares. I didn’t finish it.
You’re smart not to have finished it. I read 800+ pages for a horribly pathetic ending. I was mad, lol.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
I spent my whole life avoiding that book because I’ve been terrified of vampires since I was five or six. When I *had* to read it, I didn’t get it!
I just loved that it was written in the form of journal entries and letters. It captured my imagination. I’ve read it twice and love it so much. Sorry that you didn’t like it.
Pet Semetary. Could not even read it when I was alone at home!
Handmaid’s Tale
Pet Semetary
Pet Sematary by Stephen King (and yes, I spelled that correctly)
I just finished the audiobook narrated by Michael C Hall. It was excellent!!
Push by Sapphire
I read it on a flight from CLE to DEN with my young daughter beside me
It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis…because it is literally fricking happening here!
Handmaid’s Tale
I can see that. I just started the series on Hulu and really affecting me more than I expected. I should check out the novel.
At the time (?1977 or so) The Shining….couldn’t put it down, but scared to death…
The Lottery
Definitely! Read it in college; affected me for days!
My life and it’s not over yet. My life isn’t bad, I just put it because like any book there are always surprises and sometimes they can be scary.
Also, in non-fiction: The Sixth Extinction.
I’ve been reading horror and true crime since I was 12 and books generally don’t scare me, but Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn, which I read well into my thirties, kept me up at night! Even though it is written for middle school students it is a very well crafted and creepy ghost story. The only book that has gotten to me so far and I’ve read many of the titles mentioned here, some more than once ?
Gerald ‘s Game. Could happen
The Bruntland Report
Intensity, but I haven’t read many. Maybe that’s the only one.
I agree – Intensity was scary!
The Art of the Deal.
Exorcist
Pet Sematary
Misery
It
The Shinning.
It
I can remember being scared/disturbed by a couple of scenes in Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” when I read it as a teenager, but the book that has come closest to scaring me as an adult is Brian Keene’s “Urban Gothic”
The woman in black by Susan Hill
Dracula- Stoker
Red Dragon. Couldn’t sleep.
It and The Exorcist.
Jaws and The Exorcist
Naomi’s Room – and it’s very clever: there’s a moment towards the end when it shifts from spooky to downright terrifying. *shudders thinking about it*
Who is the author?
Can’t remember- give it a Google.
@Karen Jonathan Aycliffe
@Danielle That’s the fella. Thanks!
Thx!
I couldn’t even finish IT even though I’ve seen the film 100 times! The book went in the freezer 1/4 of the way through…..
The Shining.
The little stranger, Sarah Waters
Yes! That was so good.
Pet cemetery
50 Shades Of Grey
Joplin’s Ghost by Tananarive Due
Cujo
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Passage by Justin Cronin. The first book in the series kept me up nights. The second & third were good but, not nearly as scary.
Exorcist scared the heck out of me. I had just moved into my own apartment, living alone for first time at age 19
The Road
Hobgoblin by John Coyne
The Dark by James Herbert
The Sleepless by Graham Masterton
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
The Tomb, The Keep and Nightworld by F. Paul Wilson
I am a HUGE F. Paul fan!!! Have you read all the Repairman Jack series?
Yes I have been reading his books since 1990s.. ever since I read his first book The Keep.. Stephen King is chicken stuff in front of Wilson and James Herbert
Famine by Shaun Hutson
Haunting of Hill House, fiction. Daily news about the Trump administration beats it hands down.
No kidding, Ruth. Every morning I hold my breath.
The Shining
The Stand
I haven’t read many, but Christine by Stephen King really made me paranoid of every car I heard coming down the road.
The Exorcist
…not a book, but a short story, Survivor Type by Stephen King. I had to have my Dad read it so I knew I wasn’t alone with that in my brain.?
Amityville Horror
The Shining and The Exorcist
I’m currently reading The Demonologist and it is pretty creepy. It is more of a non-fiction work about the career of Ed & Lorraine Warren. Other books I’ve read that were scary: Pet Sematary, The Shining, The Exorcist, House of Leaves, Salem’s Lot, and The Grip of It.
I stayed with Ed and Lorraine for two summers. 92 and 93. Saw crazy things.
That’s so cool! The book is really interesting (even educational). Reading about the experiences of the people they worked with is definitely chilling. Scary in the realest sense possible.
IT by Stephen King
The Shining
It
The Shining
Cujo
Christine by Stephen King
Shining
Misery and The Shining
Several recommended Bird Box but I didn’t consider it scary.
When I was in elementary school I found this anthology in a pile of books in my classroom that we could “take home to read” if we wanted to. I can’t remember the short story that forever scared me and I still feel spooked a great deal by to this day I believe it was a kind of cheesy ghost story called ” The House on Pearl Street (?)) that awoke an archetype in my imagination that still creeps me the hell out! I loved it. Maybe I’ll look for it again soon. 🙂
A Nancy Drew book, when I was young! ?
Bad Games by Jeff Menapace
1984.