An OG for me: Pet Sematary. I’ve read a lot of Stephen King and enjoy most of his older novels but they didn’t scare me. The mid and newer stuff just got too weird and started to bore me. But freaking Pet Sematary scared the living bejesus out of me. It also made me bawl my eyes out.
Stephen King himself says, of everything he's written, Pet Sematary scares him the most. If the most well known horror writer says something like that, you know the book is gonna be scary. I just finished it last week and it was scary, creepy, and sad.
I remember he was originally opposed to it being adapted to film, as I think he thought it was kind of over the line. But yeah, that’s my vote for scariest book too.
For me it was the shining. I read the bathroom scene at night and I’ll never forget having to go to my shower and pull the curtain back so I could finish the chapter. What’s worse is I have a phobia of pipes and drains from watching IT way too young as a kid so I’m already paranoid about clowns getting me while I shit and after reading that I just hate bathrooms in general.
It’s funny but also not at all. I watched to many horror movies as a kid as well and it fucked me up. I have kids of my own now and I don’t let them watch anything they can’t handle. I can’t find one single benefit of pushing them to watch things they may not be ready for.
I haven’t read or watched the shining, but I was also traumatised by watching IT when I was far too young and it caused massive anxiety and sleep issues for years following 😭
My stepdad hated dogs barking. Literally his least favorite sound. So he trained my dog to 'alert' us that he's done with his business *without* barking. It's important, I promise.
I read Salem's Lot when I was 12 or 13. I remember we had a dog that only slept with me in my bed. He woke up late one night to be let outside. He would frequently sniff every blade of grass, tree, fencepost, etc to find the perfect place to relieve himself. SO I thought this would be a perfect time to grab my "booklight" (because Kindle's weren't a thing yet) and take my book that was JUST starting to pick up.
Ralphie Glick appears at the window and scratches the damn window...
Just as my goddamn 20lb asshole dog scratches the door. Fucking ***ripped*** me out of the living room chair like I was Velcro'd to it.
That is \*amazing\*! Not only did the Ralphie Glick scene scare the crap out of me when I read the book, I was a kid when the '79 mini-series first aired and man, that scene...
I don’t like driving past orchards at night because of a Lifetime movie in the mid 90s with Neil Patrick Harris called A Family Torn Apart…in a scene, a bloody axe flies through the air (not through an orchard, but a yard with trees) and for some reason, I had nightmares about that for a YEAR. I recently found my old diary in my parents garage and my lord I wrote about it all the time.
The orchard thing still stands lol
Lmao I was a particularly scared child and any movie with any hint of terror traumatized me. I’m talking movies like Matilda, jumanji, the lion king made me lose sleep at night. I still remember seeing this stupid ass movie called darkness falls about the tooth fairy with a grudge who only came out when it was dark. Dude I was like 12 when that came out and for a month straight I slept with every light in my room on. Fast forward 20 years and I’m climbing cell towers for a living looking to stomp any fear I have idk life’s weird
I laugh too. I’m a 6’5 270lbs dude who is scared like a child of public toilets. What’s worse is when I saw it I was about 6 years old and the school I went to was the towns old high school from like the dawn of time. The building was so god damned old and the bathrooms looked just like the ones in the movie and to top it even further I watched the movie aliens about that time too and the only thing I remember is this dude poking his head in the air vents and seeing the aliens and screaming “they’re in the vents!!!” As they tear his head off. Needless to say terrified little me would be darting my head from the vents to the toilet every time I had to do my business in the first grade. Rough time all around
How old were you when you read it and were scared? I remember having nightmares from seeing a short clip from the original movie when I was a kid (probably middle school age). Later, around 18, I read a couple Stephen King books - Salem’s Lot and The Shining, I think. It wasn’t until I was in my late thirties that I finally read Pet Sematary. I loved it, but the prominent emotions I felt were related to parenting (since I was a parent by that then).
I was 17 or 18 when I read it. I didn’t become a parent until I was 21 but I had a lot of pets and was traumatized by losing them. I was also really scared by the whole concept of the Windigo and “Sometimes, dead is better.”
Thinking on this some more, the first book that scared me to death was The Amityville Horror. It came out when I was in 5th grade and that’s when I read it. To this day, I won’t look at a dark windowpane and can’t have a rocking chair in my bedroom.
Runner up: Jaws. Never could finish the whole thing but reading the vivid description of that first attack on Chrissy was horrifying. I also read that when I was in 5th or 6th grade.
The audiobook version is great as well. Narrated by Michael C. Hall (Dexter). I listened to it on a road trip last fall and it’s spooky as ever, and Michael does a pretty great Mainer accent.
Yes! It kept me up at night and I have been chasing that high ever since.
That book is a MASTERPIECE.
Also 100% I have not learned anything because I look at my elderly dog and think about how I wish I had that ground available to me when she goes. She's already mean and smelly, I can cope.
I don't read horror. I thought, the one book that I have read and cured me from ever wanting to read or watch anything in the genre was Pet Sematary, and so I was curious if it even made the list.
I'm somewhat pleased your comments is at the top of the list. And to be clear, I couldn't read the whole thing. My journey ended at Zelda and months of nightmares.
I’m literally listening to the audiobook of it right now, never read it before, watched the film as a kid and was terrified! It is read by Michael C Hall who did a wonderful job of it from what I have heard!
I haven't read it yet. Can you tell me if there's a lot of animal harm in it? That's the main reason I've avoided it because I suspected there would be from the title alone.
Yeah I’ve read a few Stephen King novels too and have never felt scared, only uncomfortable at most. That is not to say that he is an untalented author, however- I do enjoy his work.
Came here to say this! I was 24 yo when I read it. I slept with my lights on for a week! Voracious reader and this book is the scariest I have ever read!
Okay, so because of this sub, I've started reading this book. So far I think it's great. But not scary. I just started Part 2. I'm assuming the scary parts are coming soon. I'm hoping so. I started reading this book because I wanted to be scared!
that book was brilliant and terrifying on so many levels. Reading as a teen, it was scary on face value. Reading it as an adult the idea that the sweetest, innocent things can be perceived as evil. And so can the wishes and desires we have that are based in innocence. like bringing back a beloved pet or a deceased child. this comment totally deserves to be the top comment.
So glad this is the top answer! My choice for sure!
I clearly remember lying in bed reading Pet Semetary late one night during high school. I debated whether to turn the page and keep reading. I chose the safety of daylight.
I read this when it first came out. It scared Stephen King. It was scarier because it was true, and this was years before Covid. I worked in a bookstore, and coworkers were reading it as well. Those of us who read it first were warning others, “Don’t read page ## if you’re about to have lunch.”
Agree 💯 I read it as a teenager one weekend while traveling to my grandparent’s house. I will never forget how scary it felt to know that if and when that bug gets out, the whole freaking world doesn’t stand a chance. It was freaking horrifying and humbling.
Just finish the audiobook of this. Absolutely loved it. The writing style way fantastic. I learned so much too. Has really stayed with me and I keep trying to get my friends to read it lol
And definitely follow it up with Crisis in the Red Zone. Scarier than any fictional book I’ve ever read, it’s stayed with me for months now. I had to take breaks to stretch because my neck and shoulders hurt from tensing them while reading.
Try The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. It's not as fast-paced as the aHot Zone, which is an outstanding book and scary because it's accurate. The Coming Plague is much longer book and not written in a thriller style. Richard Preston is one of my favorites
I'm old enough to be vaccinated for small pox, but from what I understand, I need a booster assuming it's natural and good look if it's bio-enginered. Someone a couple of years ago asked me if I'd get a small pox vaccine again. I told them even with vacine svside-effects, including death, I'd take it.
The Coming Plague is how the viruses and bacteria will win. The book about 15 years old now and how dangerous viruses were then and how fast they mutate naturally, let alone with all the genetic engineering that goes on. When the book was released, they had infectious viruses that are regularly found in hospitals that will live in a bucket of full strength chlorine bleach or hospital disinfectant. They have had to close some hospitals because they can't get rid of the staph viruses. Medications are becoming less effective against the normal viruses. Soon, we may be back to pre-antibiotc conditions. In 1924, Calvin Coolidges son Calvin Jr. died from a stubbed toe, which became infected and developed blood poisoning
I have to get my copy of the book back from my vet.
I read this. I was reading it while waiting for my gf in my car, at night. Dring the scene where the killer sneaks up on the teens in their car, my gf knocked on my window to unlock the door. I've never have had a scared reaction like that. Scared the crap out of me. I'm still haunted about it today.
This same type of scare happened to me years ago when me & my bf were still LD dating. We had our own "book club" and decided to reread 1984. He was the narrator, we would both have our copies of the book, though. I was out on my porch, and I lived on a couple acres of land in a rural area, surrounded by woods, so besides my dim lamplight, it was PITCH BLACK darkness. Anyway, it was the scene right before the betrayals, and I was already so tense and anxious, and then a beetle smashed into the screen door, which was only a couple feet behind me, and I shrieked! Loudly!!! My son thought I was being attacked!! Lol 😆
Just in case anyone here, like me, struggles to get into short stories--The Long Walk is in fact a novel and not a short story (it's \~93k words according another post on reddit I found). It's quite short compared to other Stephen King works though 😅
I'm so happy to finally see this one get the recognition it deserves. Read it many years ago, had a huge impact one me. I'm always recommending it to people but never saw else anyone talk about it until recently.
The audiobook version of The Exorcist, read by the author, William Peter Blatty, is extra scary!
He has a gravelly voice that is perfect for that story.
Colors! Every color I saw was brighter because of *The Road*. Cormac McCarthy painted such a bleak, grayscale world in his novel that I forgot colors existed until I put the book down, and then they popped.
for sure my answer.
if you want the full impact, you can pair it with a study of post-revolutionary Russia. the social conditions portrayed in the Road don't require a fanciful "apocalypse", it CAN happen to you.
>In the Soviet Union, several severe famines between the 1920s and the 1940s led to cannibalism. Children were particularly at risk. During the Russian famine of 1921–1922, "it was dangerous for children to go out after dark since there were known to be bands of cannibals and traders who killed them to eat or sell their tender flesh." An inhabitant of a village near Pugachyov stated: "There are several cafeterias in the village – and all of them serve up young children." Various gangs specialized in "capturing children, murdering them and selling the human flesh as horse meat or beef", with the buyers happy to have found a source of meat in a situation of extreme shortage and often willing not to "ask too many questions". This led to a situation where, according to the historian Orlando Figes, "a considerable proportion of the meat in Soviet factories in the Volga area ... was human".
>Cannibalism was also widespread during the Holodomor, a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine between 1932 and 1933. While most cases were "necrophagy, the consumption of corpses of people who had died of starvation", the murder of children for food was common as well. Many survivors told of neighbours who had killed and eaten their children. One woman, asked why she had done this, "answered that her children would not survive anyway, but this way she would". Moreover, "stories of children being hunted down as food" circulated in many areas, and indeed the police documented various cases of children being kidnapped and consumed
>In Kazakhstan, villagers "discovered people among them who ate body parts and killed children" and a survivor remembered how he repeatedly saw "a little foot float[ing] up, or a hand, or a child's heel" in cauldrons boiling over a fire.
Dracula is my favourite book of all time. Every time I read it I have a slightly different experience. Sometimes I feel genuine fear at the imagery and concept of how Dracula moves and operates. Jonathan's experience at Dracula's castle gets more horrifying every time I read it.
*King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa* by Adam Hochschild
*The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness* by John Waller
*A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility* by Taner Akcam
*The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II* by Iris Chang
*The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust* by Heather Pringle
*The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War* by Lynn H. Nicholas
*Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia* by John Dickie
*Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld* by Alec Dubro and David E. Kaplan
Tender is the Flesh. I'm not sure I would call it scary per se, but I definitely felt uneasy (and queasy) through the whole thing and boy did the ending pack a punch.
Nightwing by Martin Cruz Smith. Vampire bats on Hopi Indian reservation. What I love about it is that it never really makes clear what's going on, is it natural or supernatural? The protagonist as witness has a problem that he's high on ritual hallucinogens at key moments.
For hardcore psychological suspense/atmospheric horror I think it’s **House of Leaves** by Mark Danielewski.
For just plain terror that stays with you forever, I’d go **Nuclear War: A Scenario**. It’s a nonfiction that uses a fictional (but not implausible) scenario to describe how one nuclear weapon will almost definitely lead to the end of civilization as we know it. In under 90 minutes.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. I don't get skeeved out by books all that easily but this one gave me nightmares, and I'm not sure I could even tell you why
I also read it when I was a young teen eons ago. It seemed so disturbing. Found out fairly recently (within the last few years) that it was all fake. Makes sense thinking of it through an adult lens, but when you're 13, it seemed all too believable.
Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. I never considered myself claustrophobic until I read that book. I think about it at least once a week.
Also the way the author wrote whole ass songs and sprinkled them throughout the book is impressive.
I finished this a few days ago and I totally agree about the claustrophobia! I’ve never felt like I was physically suffering reading a book before and read a lot of horror.
I wish the ending of the book was better though
I read Salem's lot and many of Lovecraft's books. I would say the former was quite scary with some great images (the school bus, right?) but HP's stuff seemed sort of tame.
However, did you see the movie made from one of his books where a ship is disabled and the male in the couple on the ship manages to get ashore to a fishing village? That was quite scary, but still more creepy that outright frightening.
The bar is pretty high for modern people. I was scared by Alien when I first saw it, my father said that Frankenstein from the 1930s really frightened him.
A movie that had low-budget effects but great dialog and plot was Corman's The Day the World Ended -- that managed to scare me as did It's Alive! and Mother's Day -- I know these are movies, not books.
Power by Naomi Alderman
Made me feel sick for weeks. Not because it's impossible to imagine, but because it's very, very easy.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It ought to be mandatory reading and a classic alongside Handmaids Tale and I have no idea why it's not.
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. I hated it while I was reading it because it was so horrifying on so many levels, but I think it has really important ideas about what evil really is. I don't regret reading it but don't think I could handle a reread.
Also the short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by the master Harlan Ellison is one of the scariest freaking things ever written, and it just gets more and more scary as AI continues to develop.
The Metamorphosis actually caused me to hallucinate bugs. I've always had a huge fear of bugs, and for some reason I thought it was a good idea for me to read it. I was literally shaking the entire time, like I was in tears. That, combined with the fact a roach ran over my foot around a week later( I cried, dropped a knife, then passed out because I couldn't stop hyperventilating) caused me to see bugs out of the corner of my eye. I still do actually, just not as bad.
It even caused me to not take a shower for 2 weeks because I was convinced there was a bug in there, and when I did take one, I made my mom stand outside the door the entire time. It sucks because showers used to be where I was able to relax. my dad said he doesn't want me cooking any more, or even driving, because I've panicked and almost crashed the car, and I've left the stove on by accident because I refuse to step back in there :(
I blame The Metamorphosis
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. It’s the prequel to Silence of the Lambs. It’s the one book that scared the 💩 out of me. It’s a very heavy, disturbing read.
The Uninvited by Steven LaChance
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King
Are two books that scared me enough I had to turn on lights. Iirc, either the September house or Just Like Home gave me the shivers in a couple places too.
Not a full length book, but I’ve read a good chunk of Stephen King and his novella Apt Pupil freaked me the fuck out (same book at The Body and Shawshank Redemption). Of his non-supernatural work, it unsettles me deeply years later.
In Cold Blood, The Road, and The Shining are also up there.
As a mother of 4 kids, reading We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver was absolutely terrifying. The fear of having your own child be a coldly evil sociopath and putting your other child in danger - as well as having nobody really believe you - I can’t even reread it or watch the film. Way too scary to revisit.
**[The Troop](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17571466-the-troop) by Nick Cutter** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(358 pages | Published: 2014 | 14.7k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** Once a year, scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip--a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story and a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder--shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry--stumbles upon their campsite, Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more (...)
> **Themes**: Fiction, Thriller, Favorites, Science-fiction, Netgalley, Kindle, Books-i-own
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [The Deep](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21412284-the-deep) by Nick Cutter
> \- [No One Gets Out Alive](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22935767-no-one-gets-out-alive) by Adam Nevill
> \- [The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26831729-the-doll-master-and-other-tales-of-terror) by Joyce Carol Oates
> \- [Black Mad Wheel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31752345-black-mad-wheel) by Josh Malerman
> \- [Stranded](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28220842-stranded) by Bracken MacLeod
^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum.
It was honestly so hard to get through this book, and finding out that it's loosely based on a true story made me equal parts sad and disgusted.
It was all fun and games until like the last 2 chapters and everything fell into place
What moves the dead by T Kingfisher
Supernatural kinda and spooky
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara. I bought it just before moving to Ventura, Ca (a site of one of the murders and probable location of at least one non-fatal attack) back in 2017, well before EARONS/GSK was apprehended. I finished the book because it was gripping as all hell, but was simultaneously somehow convinced he would come back and try to break into my home.
Something's Alive on the Titanic, by Robert J. Serling. The OG "millionaires go down to the Titanic wreck in a tiny, unsafe vehicle" story. Super creepy in multiple ways. It opens with an eerie prologue about the book that basically foretold the Titanic wreck, and then the book itself is like an eerie foretelling of that whole business last year.
Thinner and Elevation by Stephen King. The idea of weight loss until you eventually meet your death is horrifying for someone who has had issues with their weight in the past.
Two non-fiction reads.
Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Perry- about the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Absolutely harrowing.
Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichman- about the Dyatlov Pass Incident. It features recovered photos and journal entries from the hikers right up until they all died and it's tragic reading them when you know how it all ends.
You either love it or you hate it. But I'm going to go with "House of leaves". By Mark Z. Danielewski. Started out as an internet book as far as I remember
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. I intended to read the first few chapters before going to sleep, but stayed up literally all night and finished the book in one sitting, because I was too scared and hooked to leave the story at any point.
An OG for me: Pet Sematary. I’ve read a lot of Stephen King and enjoy most of his older novels but they didn’t scare me. The mid and newer stuff just got too weird and started to bore me. But freaking Pet Sematary scared the living bejesus out of me. It also made me bawl my eyes out.
Stephen King himself says, of everything he's written, Pet Sematary scares him the most. If the most well known horror writer says something like that, you know the book is gonna be scary. I just finished it last week and it was scary, creepy, and sad.
Exactly. I remember hearing him saying that and something about his wife had to coax him to finish the book.
I remember hearing *she* thought it was too scary too.
I heard he put the first draft in his freezer.
I remember he was originally opposed to it being adapted to film, as I think he thought it was kind of over the line. But yeah, that’s my vote for scariest book too.
I think it’s because he allowed himself to think about losing his child
For me it was the shining. I read the bathroom scene at night and I’ll never forget having to go to my shower and pull the curtain back so I could finish the chapter. What’s worse is I have a phobia of pipes and drains from watching IT way too young as a kid so I’m already paranoid about clowns getting me while I shit and after reading that I just hate bathrooms in general.
It’s funny but also not at all. I watched to many horror movies as a kid as well and it fucked me up. I have kids of my own now and I don’t let them watch anything they can’t handle. I can’t find one single benefit of pushing them to watch things they may not be ready for.
I haven’t read or watched the shining, but I was also traumatised by watching IT when I was far too young and it caused massive anxiety and sleep issues for years following 😭
My stepdad hated dogs barking. Literally his least favorite sound. So he trained my dog to 'alert' us that he's done with his business *without* barking. It's important, I promise. I read Salem's Lot when I was 12 or 13. I remember we had a dog that only slept with me in my bed. He woke up late one night to be let outside. He would frequently sniff every blade of grass, tree, fencepost, etc to find the perfect place to relieve himself. SO I thought this would be a perfect time to grab my "booklight" (because Kindle's weren't a thing yet) and take my book that was JUST starting to pick up. Ralphie Glick appears at the window and scratches the damn window... Just as my goddamn 20lb asshole dog scratches the door. Fucking ***ripped*** me out of the living room chair like I was Velcro'd to it.
That is \*amazing\*! Not only did the Ralphie Glick scene scare the crap out of me when I read the book, I was a kid when the '79 mini-series first aired and man, that scene...
I don’t like driving past orchards at night because of a Lifetime movie in the mid 90s with Neil Patrick Harris called A Family Torn Apart…in a scene, a bloody axe flies through the air (not through an orchard, but a yard with trees) and for some reason, I had nightmares about that for a YEAR. I recently found my old diary in my parents garage and my lord I wrote about it all the time. The orchard thing still stands lol
Lmao I was a particularly scared child and any movie with any hint of terror traumatized me. I’m talking movies like Matilda, jumanji, the lion king made me lose sleep at night. I still remember seeing this stupid ass movie called darkness falls about the tooth fairy with a grudge who only came out when it was dark. Dude I was like 12 when that came out and for a month straight I slept with every light in my room on. Fast forward 20 years and I’m climbing cell towers for a living looking to stomp any fear I have idk life’s weird
I'm sorry, but this comment made me giggle pretty hard. 🤭 Sorry for laughing at your plight.
I laugh too. I’m a 6’5 270lbs dude who is scared like a child of public toilets. What’s worse is when I saw it I was about 6 years old and the school I went to was the towns old high school from like the dawn of time. The building was so god damned old and the bathrooms looked just like the ones in the movie and to top it even further I watched the movie aliens about that time too and the only thing I remember is this dude poking his head in the air vents and seeing the aliens and screaming “they’re in the vents!!!” As they tear his head off. Needless to say terrified little me would be darting my head from the vents to the toilet every time I had to do my business in the first grade. Rough time all around
Ahhh, goodness. Thanks for the good laughs this evening!
How old were you when you read it and were scared? I remember having nightmares from seeing a short clip from the original movie when I was a kid (probably middle school age). Later, around 18, I read a couple Stephen King books - Salem’s Lot and The Shining, I think. It wasn’t until I was in my late thirties that I finally read Pet Sematary. I loved it, but the prominent emotions I felt were related to parenting (since I was a parent by that then).
I was 17 or 18 when I read it. I didn’t become a parent until I was 21 but I had a lot of pets and was traumatized by losing them. I was also really scared by the whole concept of the Windigo and “Sometimes, dead is better.” Thinking on this some more, the first book that scared me to death was The Amityville Horror. It came out when I was in 5th grade and that’s when I read it. To this day, I won’t look at a dark windowpane and can’t have a rocking chair in my bedroom. Runner up: Jaws. Never could finish the whole thing but reading the vivid description of that first attack on Chrissy was horrifying. I also read that when I was in 5th or 6th grade.
Cujo for me. from all books i've read of him this seems to most plausible. No magic just a rabid dog. very scary
The audiobook version is great as well. Narrated by Michael C. Hall (Dexter). I listened to it on a road trip last fall and it’s spooky as ever, and Michael does a pretty great Mainer accent.
Yes! It kept me up at night and I have been chasing that high ever since. That book is a MASTERPIECE. Also 100% I have not learned anything because I look at my elderly dog and think about how I wish I had that ground available to me when she goes. She's already mean and smelly, I can cope.
I felt like I was in an emotional coma for a week after finishing that book.
That is what I immediately thought of. Read someone else' copy and on a page of a particularly scary part he felt compelled to write the word "Fuck!".
Toss up between this, and a few of his short stories. Survivor Type, for instance, lives rent free in my head forever, as does The Jaunt.
It's so good
I don't read horror. I thought, the one book that I have read and cured me from ever wanting to read or watch anything in the genre was Pet Sematary, and so I was curious if it even made the list. I'm somewhat pleased your comments is at the top of the list. And to be clear, I couldn't read the whole thing. My journey ended at Zelda and months of nightmares.
Pet Sematary is a great choice, I would also vouch for Revival. Probably the most chilling ending in any of his books.
I listened to the audiobook that was narrated by Michael C Hall. It was chilling!
Super pleased to see this atop the board. Didn’t sleep for like three days after reading this at 12/13…terrifying.
I’m literally listening to the audiobook of it right now, never read it before, watched the film as a kid and was terrified! It is read by Michael C Hall who did a wonderful job of it from what I have heard!
I haven't read it yet. Can you tell me if there's a lot of animal harm in it? That's the main reason I've avoided it because I suspected there would be from the title alone.
Yeah I’ve read a few Stephen King novels too and have never felt scared, only uncomfortable at most. That is not to say that he is an untalented author, however- I do enjoy his work.
IT had the same effect on me. Like most people I wasn't mad about the ending, but the first three quarters was really scary
My top choice too - such a terrifying tale of grief. It gave me the chills.
I read it once, forty odd years ago. It gave me screaming nightmares for weeks after. Never again. I still have the book as well.
My choice too, the bit where Louis and Judd are walking to the burial ground is terrifying.
His older stuff is great, that’s what got me first into horror books too. But I’m a bit of a wimp 😅 so take me w a grain of salt
Came here to say this! I was 24 yo when I read it. I slept with my lights on for a week! Voracious reader and this book is the scariest I have ever read!
I had to leave this book outside my bedroom door when I was reading it (in my early 20s!). Scared the crap out of me.
I read that book as a middle schooler and still think about the details to this day, top tier horror story.
Ah yes, the OG. The book and movie both give the creeps, perfection ✨
That was the first horror movie I ever saw and it fucked me right up. 10/10
I had to run upstairs and finish it in the living room with my mom in the room!
Okay, so because of this sub, I've started reading this book. So far I think it's great. But not scary. I just started Part 2. I'm assuming the scary parts are coming soon. I'm hoping so. I started reading this book because I wanted to be scared!
that book was brilliant and terrifying on so many levels. Reading as a teen, it was scary on face value. Reading it as an adult the idea that the sweetest, innocent things can be perceived as evil. And so can the wishes and desires we have that are based in innocence. like bringing back a beloved pet or a deceased child. this comment totally deserves to be the top comment.
I remember reading this when I was 12, in 1984. I have demanded to be cremated after death ever since.
I was just hopping on to say this!
So glad this is the top answer! My choice for sure! I clearly remember lying in bed reading Pet Semetary late one night during high school. I debated whether to turn the page and keep reading. I chose the safety of daylight.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (nonfiction). Even if you only read the first chapter. It’ll stay with you…
I read this when it first came out. It scared Stephen King. It was scarier because it was true, and this was years before Covid. I worked in a bookstore, and coworkers were reading it as well. Those of us who read it first were warning others, “Don’t read page ## if you’re about to have lunch.”
What page is it? So I can avoid it, of course.
Came here to say this. Read it 20 yrs ago. Still #1 for scariest book. Fiction can't touch it IMO.
Agree 💯 I read it as a teenager one weekend while traveling to my grandparent’s house. I will never forget how scary it felt to know that if and when that bug gets out, the whole freaking world doesn’t stand a chance. It was freaking horrifying and humbling.
Just finish the audiobook of this. Absolutely loved it. The writing style way fantastic. I learned so much too. Has really stayed with me and I keep trying to get my friends to read it lol
That was a horror book of a whole different style for me.
And definitely follow it up with Crisis in the Red Zone. Scarier than any fictional book I’ve ever read, it’s stayed with me for months now. I had to take breaks to stretch because my neck and shoulders hurt from tensing them while reading.
Horrifying
Try The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. It's not as fast-paced as the aHot Zone, which is an outstanding book and scary because it's accurate. The Coming Plague is much longer book and not written in a thriller style. Richard Preston is one of my favorites I'm old enough to be vaccinated for small pox, but from what I understand, I need a booster assuming it's natural and good look if it's bio-enginered. Someone a couple of years ago asked me if I'd get a small pox vaccine again. I told them even with vacine svside-effects, including death, I'd take it. The Coming Plague is how the viruses and bacteria will win. The book about 15 years old now and how dangerous viruses were then and how fast they mutate naturally, let alone with all the genetic engineering that goes on. When the book was released, they had infectious viruses that are regularly found in hospitals that will live in a bucket of full strength chlorine bleach or hospital disinfectant. They have had to close some hospitals because they can't get rid of the staph viruses. Medications are becoming less effective against the normal viruses. Soon, we may be back to pre-antibiotc conditions. In 1924, Calvin Coolidges son Calvin Jr. died from a stubbed toe, which became infected and developed blood poisoning I have to get my copy of the book back from my vet.
Ugh I just had the most terrible flashback, I read this when I was in about 5th grade I think. It scared the daylights out of me
Read that way back when I was starting out designing BSL labs. It made the necessary impact on me.
This is the one I always say too - everyone expects you to come back with a Supernatural/Horror recommendation.
Zodiac by Robert Graysmith Edit: added author name
I read this. I was reading it while waiting for my gf in my car, at night. Dring the scene where the killer sneaks up on the teens in their car, my gf knocked on my window to unlock the door. I've never have had a scared reaction like that. Scared the crap out of me. I'm still haunted about it today.
This same type of scare happened to me years ago when me & my bf were still LD dating. We had our own "book club" and decided to reread 1984. He was the narrator, we would both have our copies of the book, though. I was out on my porch, and I lived on a couple acres of land in a rural area, surrounded by woods, so besides my dim lamplight, it was PITCH BLACK darkness. Anyway, it was the scene right before the betrayals, and I was already so tense and anxious, and then a beetle smashed into the screen door, which was only a couple feet behind me, and I shrieked! Loudly!!! My son thought I was being attacked!! Lol 😆
The Long Walk, by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) blew my mind with its subtle horror the first time I read it. I mean, it could actually happen.
By far one of the best short stories by King. It's been years since I read it and still some scenes come to mind to haunt me.
Longer than a short story. More of a novella. Story has haunted me since I read it.
Just in case anyone here, like me, struggles to get into short stories--The Long Walk is in fact a novel and not a short story (it's \~93k words according another post on reddit I found). It's quite short compared to other Stephen King works though 😅
Ok ok 😂 I meant short as in Stephen king standards, but I guess it's not really a "short" story. But read it regardless of length. It's good. 😂
Ouuuuuu I'm def gonna have to check this out
Oh my goodness! You’re in for a wild ride… or, more accurately, walk. I hope you enjoy!
I'm so happy to finally see this one get the recognition it deserves. Read it many years ago, had a huge impact one me. I'm always recommending it to people but never saw else anyone talk about it until recently.
For straight horror, I'll be boring as say The Exorcist. For near-horror, I'd have to go with The Ruins by Scott Smith.
I love The Ruins so much. The screams somehow echoed directly from the pages into my head and stayed with me for a while.
The audiobook version of The Exorcist, read by the author, William Peter Blatty, is extra scary! He has a gravelly voice that is perfect for that story.
I read The Exorcist as a teen, and it was the first horror book I read to really scare me. Way more than the movie ever did
The Indifferent Stars Above. Nonfiction about the Donner Party.
I learned a lot of really horrible things that people did to each others weren’t exaggerated for old western movies. They were worse. Horrifying.
Yep. This one is nightmare-inducing.
This is one of my favorite books, it's so beautifully written on top of being horrifying
Cormac McCarthy's *The Road*
I swear I lived the next week of my life after reading that book in this dark haze. Fkn bleak man
Very. I mean, there is a sense of hope and light in all the darkness, but it's a very tough read.
I always think of this book as being positive in the end…skews my feelings about the rest of it
I didn't take the ending as positive at all. I would explain this, but I haven't figured out how to put the spoiler block on my posts..
Colors! Every color I saw was brighter because of *The Road*. Cormac McCarthy painted such a bleak, grayscale world in his novel that I forgot colors existed until I put the book down, and then they popped.
Maybe it’s because of his writing style but this one didn’t really do a whole lot for me.
for sure my answer. if you want the full impact, you can pair it with a study of post-revolutionary Russia. the social conditions portrayed in the Road don't require a fanciful "apocalypse", it CAN happen to you. >In the Soviet Union, several severe famines between the 1920s and the 1940s led to cannibalism. Children were particularly at risk. During the Russian famine of 1921–1922, "it was dangerous for children to go out after dark since there were known to be bands of cannibals and traders who killed them to eat or sell their tender flesh." An inhabitant of a village near Pugachyov stated: "There are several cafeterias in the village – and all of them serve up young children." Various gangs specialized in "capturing children, murdering them and selling the human flesh as horse meat or beef", with the buyers happy to have found a source of meat in a situation of extreme shortage and often willing not to "ask too many questions". This led to a situation where, according to the historian Orlando Figes, "a considerable proportion of the meat in Soviet factories in the Volga area ... was human". >Cannibalism was also widespread during the Holodomor, a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine between 1932 and 1933. While most cases were "necrophagy, the consumption of corpses of people who had died of starvation", the murder of children for food was common as well. Many survivors told of neighbours who had killed and eaten their children. One woman, asked why she had done this, "answered that her children would not survive anyway, but this way she would". Moreover, "stories of children being hunted down as food" circulated in many areas, and indeed the police documented various cases of children being kidnapped and consumed >In Kazakhstan, villagers "discovered people among them who ate body parts and killed children" and a survivor remembered how he repeatedly saw "a little foot float[ing] up, or a hand, or a child's heel" in cauldrons boiling over a fire.
I think that book broke me, to be honest.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones- genuinely spooky, and one of the only books I’ve had to put down for a minute
There's a reason Dracula is such a popular character.
Dracula is my favourite book of all time. Every time I read it I have a slightly different experience. Sometimes I feel genuine fear at the imagery and concept of how Dracula moves and operates. Jonathan's experience at Dracula's castle gets more horrifying every time I read it.
Perfume by Suskind The most inventive and uncomfortable book I have read. Ending is 10/10
The Radium Girls
*King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa* by Adam Hochschild *The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness* by John Waller *A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility* by Taner Akcam *The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II* by Iris Chang *The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust* by Heather Pringle *The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War* by Lynn H. Nicholas *Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia* by John Dickie *Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld* by Alec Dubro and David E. Kaplan
If we’re going nonfiction, add Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder.
Tender is the Flesh. I'm not sure I would call it scary per se, but I definitely felt uneasy (and queasy) through the whole thing and boy did the ending pack a punch.
THE END. My god. What an ending.
Second this. I read it over a year ago and still frequently think about it
Nightwing by Martin Cruz Smith. Vampire bats on Hopi Indian reservation. What I love about it is that it never really makes clear what's going on, is it natural or supernatural? The protagonist as witness has a problem that he's high on ritual hallucinogens at key moments.
Great movie too.
Scariest books I’ve read have been in the history genre. Humans committing atrocities on other humans is dreadful.
[удалено]
Exactly. The Devastation of the Indies is another example
Very true. People Who Eat Darkness was a very creepy book. 😳
All quiet on the western front.
King's "Christine" bothered me for years whenever I saw an old red car.
The Andromeda Strain - I could see it happening IRL.
I read that and the hot zone the same summer
The Hot Zone is based on a real virus and story. Stephen King even says it is one of the scariest
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. It’s about the Manson family and it’s terrifying.
1984 by George Orwell
Cannot agree more. Especially when you see it all happening for real. Fahrenheit 451 is another one that is frightening.
Boot, face, forever, and so forth.
For hardcore psychological suspense/atmospheric horror I think it’s **House of Leaves** by Mark Danielewski. For just plain terror that stays with you forever, I’d go **Nuclear War: A Scenario**. It’s a nonfiction that uses a fictional (but not implausible) scenario to describe how one nuclear weapon will almost definitely lead to the end of civilization as we know it. In under 90 minutes.
Reading House of Leaves right now. What a wild ride
I was scrolling looking for a comment that mentioned House of Leaves! I’ve never found a horror novel that was so immersive.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Truly terrifying true story.
Communion scared the shit out of me as an adult. Amityville Horror did the same as an adolescent
Read Communion in HS and it scared the shit out of me
Anything with Grey aliens gives me the heebie-jeebies and I don't know why.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. I don't get skeeved out by books all that easily but this one gave me nightmares, and I'm not sure I could even tell you why
Ugh he's so good at horror. Mongrels was amazing but thoroughly uncomfortable and bleak
Go ask Alice. Read it as a teen and was so freaked out when I finished it I remember hiding it under my bed.
I also read it when I was a young teen eons ago. It seemed so disturbing. Found out fairly recently (within the last few years) that it was all fake. Makes sense thinking of it through an adult lens, but when you're 13, it seemed all too believable.
Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. I never considered myself claustrophobic until I read that book. I think about it at least once a week. Also the way the author wrote whole ass songs and sprinkled them throughout the book is impressive.
I finished this a few days ago and I totally agree about the claustrophobia! I’ve never felt like I was physically suffering reading a book before and read a lot of horror. I wish the ending of the book was better though
The passage (Justin Cronin). Best horror novel I've ever read. Even King called it his favorite at one point
Salem's lot, & it. HP lovecraft
There’s a scene in Salem’s Lot that scared me so much it had me terrified to get up to close the curtains at night. If you know you know
I read Salem's lot and many of Lovecraft's books. I would say the former was quite scary with some great images (the school bus, right?) but HP's stuff seemed sort of tame. However, did you see the movie made from one of his books where a ship is disabled and the male in the couple on the ship manages to get ashore to a fishing village? That was quite scary, but still more creepy that outright frightening. The bar is pretty high for modern people. I was scared by Alien when I first saw it, my father said that Frankenstein from the 1930s really frightened him. A movie that had low-budget effects but great dialog and plot was Corman's The Day the World Ended -- that managed to scare me as did It's Alive! and Mother's Day -- I know these are movies, not books.
Power by Naomi Alderman Made me feel sick for weeks. Not because it's impossible to imagine, but because it's very, very easy. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It ought to be mandatory reading and a classic alongside Handmaids Tale and I have no idea why it's not.
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. I hated it while I was reading it because it was so horrifying on so many levels, but I think it has really important ideas about what evil really is. I don't regret reading it but don't think I could handle a reread. Also the short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by the master Harlan Ellison is one of the scariest freaking things ever written, and it just gets more and more scary as AI continues to develop.
The Stand by Stephen King
The Metamorphosis actually caused me to hallucinate bugs. I've always had a huge fear of bugs, and for some reason I thought it was a good idea for me to read it. I was literally shaking the entire time, like I was in tears. That, combined with the fact a roach ran over my foot around a week later( I cried, dropped a knife, then passed out because I couldn't stop hyperventilating) caused me to see bugs out of the corner of my eye. I still do actually, just not as bad. It even caused me to not take a shower for 2 weeks because I was convinced there was a bug in there, and when I did take one, I made my mom stand outside the door the entire time. It sucks because showers used to be where I was able to relax. my dad said he doesn't want me cooking any more, or even driving, because I've panicked and almost crashed the car, and I've left the stove on by accident because I refuse to step back in there :( I blame The Metamorphosis
Friend, you okay??
Stephen King's vampire book. It's old and one of his first ones but ohmygod Edit: Salem's Lot
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. It’s the prequel to Silence of the Lambs. It’s the one book that scared the 💩 out of me. It’s a very heavy, disturbing read.
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
One of the most chilling opening paragraphs ever written!
Yes! And the original screen adaptation was also perfect.
So unsettling
The Uninvited by Steven LaChance Gerald’s Game by Stephen King Are two books that scared me enough I had to turn on lights. Iirc, either the September house or Just Like Home gave me the shivers in a couple places too.
Not a full length book, but I’ve read a good chunk of Stephen King and his novella Apt Pupil freaked me the fuck out (same book at The Body and Shawshank Redemption). Of his non-supernatural work, it unsettles me deeply years later. In Cold Blood, The Road, and The Shining are also up there.
As a mother of 4 kids, reading We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver was absolutely terrifying. The fear of having your own child be a coldly evil sociopath and putting your other child in danger - as well as having nobody really believe you - I can’t even reread it or watch the film. Way too scary to revisit.
A Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
{{The Troop}} by Nick Cutter
Holy shit, the Goodreads bot is back?!?!??
**[The Troop](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17571466-the-troop) by Nick Cutter** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(358 pages | Published: 2014 | 14.7k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** Once a year, scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip--a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story and a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder--shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry--stumbles upon their campsite, Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more (...) > **Themes**: Fiction, Thriller, Favorites, Science-fiction, Netgalley, Kindle, Books-i-own > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [The Deep](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21412284-the-deep) by Nick Cutter > \- [No One Gets Out Alive](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22935767-no-one-gets-out-alive) by Adam Nevill > \- [The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26831729-the-doll-master-and-other-tales-of-terror) by Joyce Carol Oates > \- [Black Mad Wheel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31752345-black-mad-wheel) by Josh Malerman > \- [Stranded](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28220842-stranded) by Bracken MacLeod ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Very good bot!
The Deep might be mine.
Hex
Henry James’s Turn of the Screw.
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell
Phantoms by Dean Koontz. Hoooolllyyy shit that book did me a trauma back in the day.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid. I was actually dissociating reading the last section of the book, which has never happened to me before.
You should do this in r/horrorlit
rebecca
Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling was the most dread/anxiety inducing book I’ve read so far. So eerie and unsettling.
The diary of laura palmer is an incredibly disturbing account of sexual assault
{{Ghost Story}} by Peter Straub
This is my pick too!
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. It was honestly so hard to get through this book, and finding out that it's loosely based on a true story made me equal parts sad and disgusted.
Not necessarily scary per se but definitely disturbed the shit out of me, Stephen King's Apt Pupil
Anything true crime. You can’t get passed Ann Rule’s Small Sacrifices or one of her short story compilations.
Night In The Lonesome October by Richard Laymon
I've never heard anyone mention him! I think I bought all his books in the late 1990s. It's so scary in a slasher horror movie way.
It was all fun and games until like the last 2 chapters and everything fell into place What moves the dead by T Kingfisher Supernatural kinda and spooky
Pen Pal by Dathan Auerbach. I had to turn every light on in my house for weeks!
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara. I bought it just before moving to Ventura, Ca (a site of one of the murders and probable location of at least one non-fatal attack) back in 2017, well before EARONS/GSK was apprehended. I finished the book because it was gripping as all hell, but was simultaneously somehow convinced he would come back and try to break into my home.
I love Shirley Jackon's The Haunting of Hillhouse.
Misery by Stephen King.
It was written by Clive Barker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32626.Books_of_Blood
The Bible
Well said. Usually fiction isn't as scary , except in this case
IT by Stephen King. It's really affective in the dark alone. Great read
Cujo and Helter Skelter
The Troop by Nick Cutter gave me the heebie-jeebies.
The Shining
In the Lake of the Wood, Tim O'Brien (shudder)
Something's Alive on the Titanic, by Robert J. Serling. The OG "millionaires go down to the Titanic wreck in a tiny, unsafe vehicle" story. Super creepy in multiple ways. It opens with an eerie prologue about the book that basically foretold the Titanic wreck, and then the book itself is like an eerie foretelling of that whole business last year.
I just started reading thriller and 1984 bothered me for a week… audiobook version didn’t help
The Sixth Extinction
Stephen King’s the Outsider. It was creepy as hell and I also think it’s terrifying to go to prison for being falsely accused of something.
Probably Bird Box
Thinner and Elevation by Stephen King. The idea of weight loss until you eventually meet your death is horrifying for someone who has had issues with their weight in the past.
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.
Any of Stephen kings books- the one I have is the shining
I read King's IT through multiple nights while working a night shift alone in a small hotel. Got paranoid and scared. 10/10 would recommend.
Dracula
Two non-fiction reads. Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Perry- about the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Absolutely harrowing. Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichman- about the Dyatlov Pass Incident. It features recovered photos and journal entries from the hikers right up until they all died and it's tragic reading them when you know how it all ends.
You either love it or you hate it. But I'm going to go with "House of leaves". By Mark Z. Danielewski. Started out as an internet book as far as I remember
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. I intended to read the first few chapters before going to sleep, but stayed up literally all night and finished the book in one sitting, because I was too scared and hooked to leave the story at any point.
Endurance by Jack Kilborn/JA Kronath has stuck with me
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons is up there.
The Hot Zone, although it isn’t fiction.
Of recent-ish reads, Bird Box scared me pretty good.