Have you ever read a book that scared you?..

[one_voice]

Made you leery of dark rooms, or jump at bumps in the night.

I remember when I read "They Thirst" by Robert McCammon I was afraid to turn off the light or walk into a dark room. It really scared me. Another one was "Salem's Lot".

What about you?

[applegrove]

1. I don't read scarry books. Unless of course you count the odd book by

a conservative I read to keep up with what the enemy is thinking.

[one_voice]

7. Scary/supernatural are my...

guilty pleasure.

[LoveMyCali]

2. I think the Shining

is the scariest book ever. It took years before I could walk into a bathroom with the shower curtain pulled across the tub without my heart racing.

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. I'm not sure about scared... but there were two books that affected...

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Stephen King's "Thinner" -- the description of the pie
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Thomsa Harris' "Hannibal" -- the tableside cooking of the brains near the end
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[one_voice]

8. I didn't read "Thinner"...I did read...

"Hannibal" that was a different kind of scary. You hope no nut job reads the book and gets ideas.

[hifiguy]

53. There's a master's thesis in abnormal psych

waiting to be written about the Lecter/Starling relationship as it was resolved in "Hannibal" (the book - the ending Harris wrote was simply not filmable for commercial reasons and he reluctantly agreed to the rewrite). Frankly, it didn't surprise me - I couldn't see the relationship of those two characters - as they were portrayed in the books - coming to any other conclusion.

[pokerfan]

4. Misery

I don't find the supernatural Steven King stuff do be especially frightening because I have a really hard time suspending my sense of disbelief. But a deranged nurse with an ax? That I can believe in. :scared:

[mwb970]

28. Seconded.

I had to postpone a vacation dinner because I got to a rough patch just when it was time to head out. Wasn't hungry.

[MiddleFingerMom]

56. If you ever write that thesis, I'll be your number one fan.

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See you in your dreams!!!!!
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[pokerfan]

57. The sledge was bad (book spoilers)

but in the book she cuts off his foot with an axe and cauterizes the stump with a blowtorch. The movie wasn't really scary at all compared to the book.

[pacalo]

64. "It's cockadoodie time!"

[annabanana]

5. One of those E.S.T. books back in the 70's.. I couldn't put my finger on EXACTLY

why it creeped me out, but I knew it did.

[blogslut]

6. "The Exorcist"

I was twelve when it came out in paperback. My school had forbidden students to bring copies of it on campus. Kids would tear off the cover and glue on the cover of some innocuous book in order to smuggle it into class. I simply had to read it.

Scared the pee-wallering shit out of me.

The movie cured that. At the time, I found the film laughable in comparison. The possessed child in the book was a yellowing, hollow-eyed fright. That green thing they made out of Linda Blair was just stupid.

I've since learned to appreciate the film despite the shit makeup job they did on the kid.

[one_voice]

9. I didn't read the book...

but I did see it on HBO..I was young when it came out. I had to sneak and watch when my mom was gone, boy did that movie scare me. I also remember watching Beyond the Door--and was terrified to go into my mother's room. LOL!

[blogslut]

11. For me

The book is great. There's a whole side-story involving the detective plus a bunch of clinical explanations for the physical "possession" manifestations the girl was exhibiting. You come out of it not really sure that the girl was possessed or simply very mentally ill. At least, that's the impression that I came away with after reading it.

[pacalo]

61. That's my choice, & I also read it when I was around your age.

I read "In Cold Blood" when I was 14. That's a slight second to "The Exorcist".

[seabeyond]

10. there were some koontz books, i would find myself reading at 2 in the morning

looking into the shadows. lol

[pacalo]

65. I haven't read any of Koontz's books, but I saw his "Intensity" movie & became a fan.

I bet that's a book that would keep me awake at night. Now I'm in the mood for reading a good horror story.

[Lars39]

12. "The Shining" scared me, and I was reading it during the day.

:scared:

[Katarina]

13. Salems Lot

Could not have my curtains open at night for a very long time.

And anything with clowns...:scared:

[Tikki]

23. I believe I threw that book across the room...

a couple times when I got to the real terrifying parts. Still, I went over and
picked the book up and continued reading.

Tikki

[raccoon]

31. Salem's Lot. For a while, I was dreaming about vampires in my apartment. nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

37. Yep.

[rurallib]

14. Due to the time and place and the section of the book

I was reading "Malcolm X" while working my part-time college job in the late'60s.
The gas station was on the interstate and saw little traffic during the winter in those days. So it was really, really quiet - dark outside @8PM
The section was a robbery Malcolm committed in Omaha, very,very tense scene ------
When some customer came in a hollered to see if anyone was there - scared the beejezuz outta me

[Swede]

15. I think the first book that gave me chills was King's The Stand.

MaCammon,King,Koontz all had some really scary books. HP Lovecraft too.

[cherokeeprogressive]

24. The description of Larry and Nadine going through the Lincoln Tunnel gave me total creeps.

CREEPY!

[dimbear]

16. "The Beckoning Fair One" Oliver Onions in the book Widdershins:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14168

A real classic, and deep.........

[XemaSab]

17. "The Haunting of Hill House" and "House of Leaves"

I'm surprised that I am the first person to mention these.

[OhioChick]

18. Stephen King's books....

Thinner, Pet Sematary and The Shining to name a few. :scared:

[GoCubsGo]

40. Yep.

I have only read "The Stand" and "Cujo", the latter of which scared the crap out of me far worse than the former.

[dimbear]

19. "Haunted and the Haunters" Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14195

If you ever wondered what the hubbub was about, why his fiction is so infamous, read this gem.

Nota bene: it's better if you read both these beauties when you're about 12 years old. Stone cold classics nevertheless. :)

[Arugula Latte]

20. I once read a book full of violence, killing, maiming, incest, infant slaying and depravity

It was called "The Bible."

:evilgrin:

[Silver Swan]

21. I haven't been scared by a book in over forty years.

However, I do recall the feeling of not wanting to turn out the lights.

I guess I've just outgrown the ability to be scared by written words. Stephen King never scared me that way--by the time he came along, I was too old to be scared.

[JitterbugPerfume]

22. A Handmaids Tale

by Margaret Atwood

[iris27]

27. That's mine, too.

At least I didn't come across it until after high school, where we sang a "There Is a Balm in Gilead" in chapel every week (parochial school). That would have freaked me right out!

[Arugula Latte]

38. Yeah, that book is terrifying, especially for a young female like I was at the time of the reading.

:scared:

[givemebackmycountry]

25. "Legion" by William Peter Blatty.

It was supposed to be the sequel to the Exorcist, so it's often confused with the movie sequel and it's not.
I read that book when I was locked up in a halfway house in Golden, Colorado in the 80's.
It scared the piss out of me.
When I was done, I immediately read it again and that time was even worse.
Flat out, the scariest book I have ever read.

"The Stand" is a close second.

[azul]

26. Yes indeed.

The Hot Zone was truly frightening.

The scariest fiction story I've read though is Cordwainer Smith's A Planet Named Shayol.

I love dark rooms and I go bump in the night ;)

[mwb970]

29. Well, just skimming any Coulter book can be pretty rough. /nt

[Inchworm]

30. Go Ask Alice

I had to do a book report on it as punishment for.. umm.. a transgression.

It worked for a week or so, I then realized I needed to have my head right before transgressing again :)

:hi:

[raccoon]

32. "The Judge's House," by Bram Stoker. Short story. really scared me when I first read it. nt

[OriginalGeek]

66. wait wut?

he wrote another book?

[raccoon]

70. Stoker did write several other books. I tried one, THE LADY OF THE SHROUD.

It certainly didn't come up to DRACULA.

"The Judge's House" was a short story, but it's worth a read. You can probably find an etext on
the Internet.

[YankeyMCC]

33. "Misery" and just recently "Martin Eden" by Jack London

"Misery" by Steven King, scared me in the sense of filling me with some suspenseful dread of what was to come as I turned the pages. It didn't leave me with lingering fear after the story was done. I'm not sure any book has except maybe my second mention.

"Martin Eden" by Jack London. I read this only just last week and it didn't scare me in the way Misery did. There was little suspenseful dread of horrors to come ("The Sea Wolfe" which I read a few weeks before did have that much like Misery now that I think of it). But the ending, definitely left in me a residual sense of dreaded despair. I suppose a story written about 80 years ago I shouldn't worry about spoilers but I won't describe the ending just in case :)



on Edit: You know I'm forgetting one of my favorites, and maybe because I've read it so many times the dread I talk about as lingering in me after "Martin Eden" doesn't linger so much anymore due to the wealth of other feelings and ideas I find in the book now but "Frankenstein" definitely left me with the same lingering fear when I read it the first few times.

[Kingofalldems]

34. The Exorcist was quite scary

[Rabrrrrrr]

35. Before the 2000 elections was a truthful book about Shrubby that scared the hell out of me.

I can't remember the name, but it pointed all his corporate inability, his AWOLness, ignorance, lack of class, lack of curiosity, lack of insight, intellectual stupidity, and all his other horrible attributes.

Made me very worried in case he got elected. And damn, that book (and my fear) were right; although not right enough about his capacity for destruction.

[MountainLaurel]

60. Was it Molly Ivins' book?

I think it was just called Shrub.

[Rabrrrrrr]

71. Yes - that's the one! Thanks!

[LeftishBrit]

36. Oh yes...

I don't tend to read horror as a genre; but a number of books are scary. I found 'The World According to Garp' really depressing and scary. And on a different sort of level, 'Why Weeps the Brogan?' by Hugh Scott - a really good novel about children in the aftermath of a nuclear war, but by its nature extremely scary.

[Iggo]

39. Yep.

A Stephen King book. I can't remember the name.

Some chick was handcuffed to a bed for some sexytime and her lover died on top of her during the act.

I really really really didn't like where it was going. Immobile and dying is my worst nightmare.

So I put it in the freezer. (Fans of the TV show 'Friends' know what I'm talking about.)

[ceile]

42. Gerald's Game n/t

[Iggo]

47. Yikes!

That's the one.

EDIT: I stuck around for a little while, but that dog was creeping me out big time.

[XemaSab]

73. Oh, that book gets much, much worse

Christ the ending scared the snot out of me. :o

[City Lights]

41. 'Salem's Lot scared the crap out of me.

:scared:

[madmom]

43. The first time I read "Salem's Lot" , I was a young (twenty something)

mom, son was about 2. Hubby worked third shift, we lived way out in the country, closest neighbor was an elderly couple who went to bed with the chickens. We had only one car, hubby took to work and no phone. We lived in a house trailer on a private lot in the middle of a stand of trees. I was in bed reading this particular book late one night and suddenly saw a flash light around the house, not into the windows, just around the property. Since no one was supposed to be there of course this scared the be-jesus out of me. I was up the rest of the night sitting on my son's bed holding a 9mm pistol.
MUCH later we found out that a friend of hubby was out running his coon dogs and decided to check to make sure everything was ok since he knew hubby wasn't there. I described to him how close he came to getting blown away and to this day every time I see him he still apologizes.
Yes I think the book had a TON to do with my fright.

[frogmarch]

44. The Shining and Salem's Lot

both scared me. They are the only books I've ever read that made me cover my eyes in the middle of a sentence.

[valerief]

45. When I read the Stepford Wives, I was sure my husband would do that to me if he could. nt

[mulsh]

46. Taliban by Ahmed Rashid

well written book about the emergence of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Very sad and frightening.

[hack89]

48. "Heart Shaped Box" by Joe Hill - who btw is Stephen King's son. nt

[Avalux]

49. Salem's Lot scared the crap out of me too. So did The Shining.

When I was young I loved Poe and read just about everything he wrote. The Premature Burial freaked me out and I couldn't sleep.

[kayakjohnny]

50. The Bible.

That thing scares the crap out of me.

[Duppers]

69. same here

nt

[hifiguy]

51. A couple of Stephen King's novels unnerved me

more than I thought at first.

"Under the Dome" because its villains were so plausible and real. They were based on Chimpy and Darth, as King has sort of admitted. "The Stand" ("director's cut version) because the scenario he created was so complete and immersive. Randall Flagg was one of the most frightening characters I have encountered anywhere in fiction.

McCammon's "Swan Song" had some very creepy parts. Dan Simmons' "Carrion Comfort" actually sort of freaked me out, and it freaked out everyone I recommended it to.

[livetohike]

52. "The Exorcist". I read it before I saw the movie

and I went and saw the movie anyway :scared:.

[RebelOne]

54. I have read ;most of the Stephen King and Dean Koontz

books mentioned in this thread. They did not scare me at all. They were just good reading. Of course, I have always been a horror book and movie fan.

[tigereye]

55. now? Steven King short stories- creepy as hell, much

creepier than all the books I have read, fiction and non-fiction, about political and cultural horrors that have happened around the globe.

Then, LOTR when I first read them as a teen. And Ursula K LeGuin's books as a tween- both really described evil in a way that was understandable to me at that time.

[msanthrope]

58. I was reading Stephen King's "It" in bed & was utterly terrified. Then my cat jumped up and landed

on my leg.

I nearly 'fraidy peed myself...

[BiggJawn]

59. "The Authoritarians"

By Prof. Bob Altemeyer

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Scared the shit out of me, more than "It Can't Happen HERE".

[KT2000]

62. Ann Rule's book

about Ted Bundy. Too close to home and realized how easily I could have become one of his victims.

[nomorenomore08]

63. 'The End of Alice' by A.M. Homes

I won't say a whole lot about it, but it takes you very, very deep into a mind you'd never want to inhabit. :scared:

[mysuzuki2]

67. the Bible (stolen from a motel room)

I can't decide whether to shelve it with horror or science fiction.

[csziggy]

68. As a kid, a collection of horror stories my sisters owned scared me

Especially the one about the guy who was buried alive and to escape the coffin crawled through tunnels made by rats. That may have been an Edgar Allen Poe story. I had nightmares about rats coming out of tunnels and biting me.

As an adult, "The Handmaid's Tale" still scares me and it has been years since I read it.

[Demoiselle]

72. I was up late all alone reading Marathon Man...

and came to a page where, as I remember (it's fuzzy) our hero is taking a bath and the bad guys burst into his bathroom.
I shrieked quite audibly.

[Scatterheart]

74. The "we are the dead" scene in 1984...

...where *SPOILERS* they get caught. My eyes practically bugged out when I read it, to this day the only time I remember being frightened by a book. My best friend had the EXACT same reaction when she later read it, and gave a small shriek on the bus when she got to that part :P

[Zorra]

75. Salem's Lot. I couldn't read another Stephen King book for a year

after that.

And I think Stephen King is a genius at writing and storytelling.

[1gobluedem]

76. The Michigan Murders

I work on the campus where the killer went to school (as did most of his victims) and drive past the place where the last one was found every day. I couldn't sleep for weeks after reading it.

[jmowreader]

77. I read "Rebuilding America's Defenses" by PNAC

This is the book that called for a "New Pearl Harbor."

If that book won't scare you, you're fucking dead.

[merh]

78. Helter Skelter

That book scared that hell out of me - I was a kid when I read it.