What is the scariest book you've ever read?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Room. I got it as a prize at a book exchange. I opened it and couldn't get past the first few pages. I don't like dwelling on terrible crimes and don't want to spend downtime on fictional ones. Learned that from watching 1 terrible episode of CSI:SVU and, earlier, a terrible 80s movie about santeria (the one with the spider-filled cursed zit). This kind of content sends me running for chick lit and rom coms.

Oh I loved Room. It was painful to read at times but it was such a fascinating character study of the woman, told through the eyes of her child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn and The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright both terrified me as a child. I still get chills reading those books as an adult!

I reread The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson every October - it’s probably my favorite horror novel. I also like The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White (also published as The Spiral Staircase), and The Woman in Black by Susan James.

The Ghost Wore Grey!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Cold Blood

I've been meaning to read this, was it good? As in- I enjoy well written books and literature, and I enjoy true crime. Is it a good combination of this?

Absolutely,\!

[Anonymous]

Agreed with Blood Meridian - even more chilling that it’s meant to be based on a real gang.

And The Road. That book made me learn how to use a gun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed with Blood Meridian - even more chilling that it’s meant to be based on a real gang.

And The Road. That book made me learn how to use a gun.

My husband DNF'd The Road because he said it was too disturbing to read after a certain point. He said he kept picturing him and our only (at the time) son in the situations the book described. And he is NEVER bothered by violence!!!

[Anonymous]

“The Road” both the book and the movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed with Blood Meridian - even more chilling that it’s meant to be based on a real gang.

And The Road. That book made me learn how to use a gun.

My husband DNF'd The Road because he said it was too disturbing to read after a certain point. He said he kept picturing him and our only (at the time) son in the situations the book described. And he is NEVER bothered by violence!!!

My dad brought a few books to me when my parents came to visit when my first child was born. He advised me to wait a few years to read The Road. I wish I'd listened to him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Cold Blood

I've been meaning to read this, was it good? As in- I enjoy well written books and literature, and I enjoy true crime. Is it a good combination of this?

Not PP.

But it is one of the best books ever written in the English language. It is a masterpiece. It is pretty much the perfect "combination" of "well written" and "true crime." In fact, prose does not get any better than the prose written by Capote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What to Expect When You’re Expecting

It's such a useless and horrible book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Road

This. It was such a difficult read and it stayed with me for far too long.

[Anonymous]

Was thinking of reading The Road.

It sounds rough. If I’ve read the Shining and The Atsnd without problems, do you think I could tolerate the Road?

[Anonymous]

Tana French, Broken Harbor: https://themillions.com/2012/08/unsettled-and-unsolved-tana-frenchs-broken-harbor.html

Creepy, dead kids, super natural etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I also read The Shining in middle school, my first scary book. I think I read Intensity by Dean Koonz not long after. I can't remember if it was really that scary or if it was just because I was 12!

Also, who can forget Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Goosebumps.

Intensity is mine.

[Anonymous]

The Exorcist, with It a close second.

[Anonymous]

The Keeper of Lost Causes