What is the scariest book you've ever read?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dracula. Had nightmares for weeks. Heart was racing at the end.

Yes! The way he was climbing the outer wall and, also, how his eyes opened while he "slept." I had nightmares, too.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if disturbing necessarily counts as scary, but American Psycho is probably the most disturbing book I've ever read.

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra scared the crap out of me because home invasion is one of my biggest fears.

I love that someone mentioned Wait Til Helen Comes. My 4th grade teacher read that out loud to us and I remember being so scared!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if disturbing necessarily counts as scary, but American Psycho is probably the most disturbing book I've ever read.

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra scared the crap out of me because home invasion is one of my biggest fears.

I love that someone mentioned Wait Til Helen Comes. My 4th grade teacher read that out loud to us and I remember being so scared!!

Mary Downing Hahn is my kid's favorite author, and I picked up one of her books (The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall) that was around the house to read so we could chat about it. Y'all have convinced me to make Wait Til Helen Comes the next one I do that with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember that when I was a kid I read The Amityville Horror and it scared me so badly that not only did I throw the book away, I didn't throw it in the trash in the kitchen, I took it into the alley and put it in our big garbage can there.

Yikes! 😱
I can only imagine……

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember that when I was a kid I read The Amityville Horror and it scared me so badly that not only did I throw the book away, I didn't throw it in the trash in the kitchen, I took it into the alley and put it in our big garbage can there.

Yikes! 😱
I can only imagine……

The Amityville Horror scared the crap out of me, too, as a kid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

It's different.

The Road is a 2006 novel by Cormac McCarthy, and it’s one of the bleakest, most stripped‑down post‑apocalyptic books ever written. Since you asked “what book is that,” here’s the clean, direct profile:

The Road — What it is
A father and his young son walk through a burned, ash‑covered America after an unspecified cataclysm. There’s almost no food, no animals, no plants, and almost no surviving humans — and the ones who remain are often dangerous.

It’s a survival story, but really it’s about:

parental love

moral choices when society is gone

the instinct to protect someone even when the world is ending

It’s written in McCarthy’s minimalist style: sparse punctuation, stark imagery, and emotional punches delivered in a single line.

How The Road compares to The Stand
Short version:
The Stand is bleak but expansive, dramatic, mythic, character-driven, and ultimately hopeful.
The Road is bleak but minimalist, intimate, stripped-down, and spiritually annihilating.


I just, before you posted, asked Co-Pilot to figure out if I would like ti based on my reading profile. It basically suggested that I never try reading it.

Hope this helps.

That is why I don't like McCarthy's books.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for The Road and adding

Oregon Scott Card's Lost Boys

and Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find, which I very unfortunately read as a young teen forced on too many family road trips in the rural south.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Road

Blood Meridian is right up there too. I can’t believe it hasn’t been made into a movie.

Blood Meridian. I love Cormac McCarthy. This book… made me not want to read The Road. I knew it would be a nightmare.
He is the best writer - I loved Suttree.
But when Cormac went dark… he went real real real dark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Tell-Tale Heart, Hitchcock short story.

Flowers in the Attic, VC Andrews.

Poe, you ignorant slut.

lol. dp, who loves Poe and noted Premature Burial as one of my top scariest stories read.

Yes, I read Premature Burial as a kid and it’s stayed with me all these years and I’m old!

[Anonymous]

In addition to the shining and pet cemetery, IT scared the crap out of me. It happened to mesh well with some of my biggest phobias and i remember lying in bed at night wanting to get up to pee and too scared to get out of my bed for months afterwards…

Also his short story The Raft

Lovecraft dreams in the witch house

[Anonymous]

I don't really read scary books but I love scary movies.

I was terrified of this book I took out from the school library as a kid: In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories. And the story "The Green Ribbon" just stuck with me.

[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.

Oh wow I forgot about Wait Til Helen Comes, that book was absolutely terrifying when I was a kid.

[Anonymous]

Silence of the Lambs. I had to stay up all night and finish it bc I was too afraid to go to sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In addition to the shining and pet cemetery, IT scared the crap out of me. It happened to mesh well with some of my biggest phobias and i remember lying in bed at night wanting to get up to pee and too scared to get out of my bed for months afterwards…

Also his short story The Raft

Lovecraft dreams in the witch house

I hadn’t thought about The Radt in years and agree with how scary it was! Those mesmerizing, hypnotic lights…

[Anonymous]

The Raft— sorry