Scariest Book ?

baddley · Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:29 pm

Hi

I currently read Patricia Cornwell, I have read Stephen Kings, Bag of Bones and a couple of James Patterson and Den Koontz books. What is the scariest book out there in your opinion ?

I have been told that

1. House of Leaves
2. Ghost Story by Peter Straub
3. Hell House by Richard Mattheson

are all prety scary but does anybody have any other suggestions or books ?

Also on another note what is a good Stephen King book to read since I was not impressed with Bag of Bones ?

Thanks for the help

Scott

Suzanne · Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:01 pm

Hello baddley and welcome.

I loved "Ghost Story", but I have not read "House of Leaves". I do love really scary books but I am finding it harder and harder to find anything that really does the trick. I tried to read HoL, but found it a little user unfriendly, I should give it another try. I am currently reading "The Dark Tower" series by King. It's a combination of fantasy and horror, but I do have to say I am enjoying it very much. I'll have to check out "Hell House", I do love good horror stories this time of year.

I hope you enjoy yourself here at BookTalk

giselle · Tue Oct 04, 2011 10:13 pm

I found Reincarnation of Peter Proud (Max Ehrlich) quite scary ... just a real creepy story.

martinthebandit · Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:24 am

This one has stuck with me as being pretty close to being very scary :-)

http://www.amazon.com/little-girl-lives ... 069810577X

DamianLake · Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:20 am

Only one book ever gave me the physical whimwhams: "It", by Stephen King. There is a bit of story here, though.

I was in Jr High, and my sister in Highschool. She was reading the book, and it was scarring her, (she's an easy shiver). Somehow or other I found out the evil character in the book was a clown named Pennywise who had a habit of leaving creepy balloons where his future victims could find them. Well, here I come home from a friend's birthday party, and I had brought a balloon because I had the brilliant idea at the party to write "Hello from Pennywise!" on it with magic marker and leave it in my sister's room.

My dad, who owned the book, was really, really pissed at me that night. My sister had come home, screamed, and was beating on me all that day, and dad was telling me I had a really crappy sense of humor since my sister would end up with nightmares. I was wondering what the big deal was, so I pretty much had to read the dumb book myself after that.

At over 1,000 pages, it was my first actual, for real, adult book. It marked a passage for me. I had graduated upward from the YA section of the library. I was up until 3 in the morning on school nights reading it, and who cared about homework? Perhaps it was the extended hours, but at times during the night as I read, I would look up in the dead silence because I swore I'd heard someone's voice far off somewhere. I actually had to shut my closet door for a while because laying in the dark, I would look over and see it open and it would just creep me out.

Over the next few years I devoured all the King novels I could get my hands on, but "It" was the first, and none of the others effected me quite like that one did.

LaraP · Mon Oct 31, 2011 12:12 pm

"House of Leaves," definitely. I wish I'd never read it - THAT is how much it scared me. My best friend read it on my recommendation and she claims it didn't phase her. To each his own, I suppose, but I slept with lights on for days after...

R. LeBeaux · Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:53 pm

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This one is probably a little dated for most of you, but it was one of the scariest books I’d ever read and one of the scariest films I’d ever seen. I read the book in the early 1960s (it was published in 1959), and when the movie came out (titled simply The Haunting) in 1963, I was almost too scared to go see it. It starred Julie Harris in the lead role, and she did an extraordinary job of acting. On the Bravo network television show 100 Scariest Movie Moments, The Haunting was listed at eighteenth on the list. And speaking of scary movie moments, there was one in this movie that literally catapulted my out of my seat (along with a few hundred others in the theater). The movie was remade in 1999, and although they added some fairly interesting special effects, that version does not hold a candle to the original.

Here’s a quote from the book’s Amazon page:

“Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has unnerved readers since its original publication in 1959. A tale of subtle, psychological terror, it has earned its place as one of the significant haunted house stories of the ages.”

http://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Hill-Hou ... 253&sr=1-1

candy2050 · Mon Oct 31, 2011 2:48 pm

I don't like scary, but when I was 13 or so I read Salem's Lot and was scarred to death. I also read, other Stephen King books like Pet Cemetary, Christine and Carrie.

I put The Haunting of Hill House on my Blockbuster list. Thanks for the suggestion. I might read it too, but I have so many books on my list already probably not, especially because I still don't like to be scared

I tired the Dark Tower 1st book but didn't like it at all.

Happy Halloween!!!

Shane1o · Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:50 pm

Stir of Echoes, IT, Pet Cemetery, Bag of Bones off the top of my head.

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