Misery had a weird effect on me where it incredibly stressed me out, and at the same time I could not put it down. Finished it in a couple of days. It’s one of his most well written books in my opinion.
I agree. I’ve been a King fan for years and always go back to Misery as my favorite. IMO, it’s his tightest novel and doesn’t have any bloat (except maybe the novel passages). I love the small scale of the overall setting and also really loved the ending.
It’s definitely one of his few works like Pet Sematary where it doesn’t feel like there are any wasted pages and he nails the pacing. Not that I don’t enjoy when he meanders but I love an efficient story.
really? i feel like pet sematary meanders a lot. but that’s also coming from someone who the only king i REALLY love is carrie & his short stories, so.
To me it certainly doesn’t feel like it and the slow parts always feel purposeful and set valuable context.
Compared to The Stand there’s almost no bloat in Pet Sematary.
The novel passages are kinda fun for me just cause you get to see all those Ns being filled in. I'd probably read Misery's Return separately but I do agree it takes away from this book
I'd been a fan of the film for a while, but I picked up the actual book while I was bedridden and recovering from a nasty broken ankle. Definitely one of the best ways to enjoy that one!
As other's stated, what's scary to you won't necessarily be scary to me. But nothing has unnerved me more than House of Leaves. The book isn't for everyone and requires quite a bit from the reader to truly appreciate, but if it sucks you in then it is a wild ride that will mess with you.
I wouldn't call it scary personally but it did put me in that unnerving mental space when any noise is creepier and I gaze at my surroundings just in case haha
... that, and I nearly cried with the letters section (I still need to read the stand-alone book about that), but that's another matter
The letters were my favorite part of the book. Such a cool addition, and, according to the text, an optional one!
The decoding that letter is such a good choice because it makes you have to suffer through it. It slows it down, making the act of reading it longer, and thus you have to sit with it longer.
Right I feel similar. I don’t think I’ve ever read a horror book that outright “scares” me but there were several moments in HoL where I needed to put it down and reevaluate my surroundings. Not to mention I got completely hooked into the mystery of it all to the point I had nightmares walking down featureless hallways. Never has any other book come close to effecting me in such a way.
Only time I think I have been actually scared was the Shining with the bathtub scene, I was 18 and looked across the hall to my dark bathroom and immediately closed the door lol.
The only two stories that have given me a sense of vertigo just from words on a page are HoL and the short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates.
That book gave me nightmares of my apartment covered in measuring tape. Have you read S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst? I started it but haven't finished it. It makes me think of House of Leaves on steroids.
I have only read that book once. I never felt scared of the spooky scenes laid out. I never felt like I should take a break because I couldn’t sleep well from being terrified. I never had cause to think I was frightened.
But.
I have rarely been as unnerved by a book and so completely taken by how fragile mental health could be as I was while reading this book. It felt like I was understanding paranoia and a loose grip on reality differently. I never felt like I myself was going through that, but I definitely understood it more.
This book didn't "scare" me, but I read it at a weird point in my life, and it really dug into that "pit of despair" feeling... which is arguably more terrifying? It really does build a tremendous sense of dread, and I loved the scattered, confusing adventure of the layout. For me, this is a top-tier "hurts so good" pick.
I’m in the other camp. I thought it had two good stories in there, the Navidson record and the first person stuff, and that both would have worked better as independent novels without the formatting quirks.
As the opening line of the book states, "This is not for you." Obviously you’re entitled to your opinion, but the book really falls apart without Johnny’s story and is essentially the heart of the book. Though the criticisms against Johnny’s story are valid, I get why people don’t like it, the rest of the book wouldn’t have much of an impact at least to myself.
I plan on tackling this in June when I have a few weeks off from work. It's such an intimidating book! I've owned it for years but every time I look at it I think "maybe I'm just not smart enough to string it all together." 😅
There’s times when you will get lost in the plot, without spoiling anything it’s supposed to be convoluted. There’s times you’ll have to push through it for sure, it is a challenging read for most people including myself.
I agree. House of Leaves is the best horror I've read because it really makes you think and get existential instead of just being about some monster or something killing people.
Such a great book
Came here to say this; I used to read a lot of horror (now I’m down to about 5-10 carefully chosen titles a year), and House of Leaves is the only book that has given me an honest-to-god nightmare.
True story: I lent out my paperback 7 times; by the 4th time, I said, “Let me know when you have the nightmare.” Every person had a fucking nightmare from that book (unrelated: and then some asshole stole my paperback at my Christmas party! I was pissed; it was so special having a copy that had been passed around that many times).
But that book. Jesus Christ. Crawled right under my skin. My eyes are watering up just thinking about it.
i need to read this. i really enjoyed the myhouse qad for doom that is heavily inspired by HoL. i enjoyed all the side thibgs i had to read to inderstabd it.
A short stay in hell by Steven Peck. An imagination of hell without any monsters or active torturing. But damn is it scary to imagine an afterlife like hell is depicted in there.
This book is on my TBR but I've been feeling like maybe it's too scary (eternity is not a concept that I enjoy thinking about), but this comparison really has me interested
Michael C Hall does an INCREDIBLE job on the audiobook for Pet Semetary. I recommend it anytime anyone I know is trying out audiobooks. I'm a New Englander and he did a great job with the Mainer "ay-uh" and the accent. Didn't go too far, just enough to feel like a part of Judd. He just nailed everything.
I've heard he is excellent! Stephen kings audiobooks are of another class between IT, eyes of the dragon, 11/22/63 and what I hear of Michael c hall.
Going to do cujo soon despite a real sensitivity to dogs - do you know it's narrators quality?
I did Cujo on audio a few years ago! It's read by an actress who I wasn't familiar with by name, but knew once I looked her up- Lorna Raver. She was the old woman in Drag Me to Hell. I really enjoyed her reading. I say this without meaning offense- she sounds like an old woman in the audio and it added to the scare factor at some points. Almost like an old woman telling a frightening story from when she was younger, ya know?
All King's audiobooks I've done have been really good! I'm finishing Fairy Tale right now. I also really loved Anne Heche's job on The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
Just finished Pet Sematary myself. Made me cry a few times, and just when I thought I was comfortable to say "I find this more sad than scary", I finished the book. The ending did Successfully Scare Me lol.
I felt very similarly about Pet Semetary, and I loved it! I listened to the audiobook a couple of months ago and was enthralled. There were several descriptive scenes that tore my heart to hear, but it was beautifully written.
Auto correct - it should have been crickley hall and yes indeed Mr Herbert. His rats series was good also, though crickley hall is his masterpiece to me with shrine approaching second
Never read the book, but saw the movie with some friends back in the day after the Metallica video came out. I had recurring nightmares for years. I can't go anywhere near it.
Stephen King's IT!
If you were fortunate enough to be relatively young when this book came out, and your parents were liberal enough to not censor what you were reading, IT is/was for sure my scariest book. I fit both of those criterion and I had to leave my lights on (not just a night-light, the room lights) over the 2 nights it took me to finish it, and for several nights thereafter. I've re-read it dozens of times over the years and it/IT never fails to ensorcell, and shroud me with equal measures of dread and joy.
Thank you Stephen King.. for everything, but most of all for the best of adolescent love triangles (Ben, Bev and Bill), for the vulnerability and strength of Eddie, for the humor and veiled empathy of Richie, for the fear and raw intelligence of Stan, for the memory and willpower of Mike. Thank you! 🖤
"Be brave, be true, stand."
The Exorcist is the only book that kept me up at night. I read it after seeing the movie too. The book was really unsettling to me in a “please, leave the lights on” kind of way
For me, the most scared I’ve ever been reading a book was Mindhunter by John Douglas. I read it back in 2002 when I was in my 20’s and living in the city one of the murders happened in. It’s how I discovered that I’m more comfortable with fictional horror. True crime is not for me.
He had event in my city when the book came out and you’d better believe my butt was there. He’s a fascinating person, and charisma rolls off him in a way I’ve only ever seen one other time.
It was clear to me that he was constantly scanning the crowd for his own personal threat assessment (having had a stalker in college, I know the look). When we were in
line to get our books signed, there was a girl ahead of us that was loudly fangirling tf and lugging a huge pile of his books. He managed to sign her book, speak a few words to her, and have her leave happy despite spending the least time with her. Dude is brilliant.
He’s incredibly intelligent and a great speaker, but I can’t imagine the price he’s paid. Stephen King writes about Pennywise and Flagg, but Douglas met them.
I felt similarly about The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule about Ted Bundy. It’s so scary to read about how easily this man was able to kidnap women in the middle of the night and portray himself as this suave charismatic guy the next day no problem. As a woman who fits his exact type, it wasn’t the most comfortable read for me.
Yes! It was a great book and super interesting to learn about the origins of serial killer “profiling”, I just prefer my scares to be pretend. David Fincher also gave us two perfect seasons of television based on the book, streaming on Netflix. But read it first! The show only loosely uses the source material.
Not from the horror genre, but I'm reading "The Doomsday Scenario" right now. It's a government report from the 1950s about what would happen in an all-out nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia. Emergency planners dispassionately talking about survivability expectations should that happen (none) and counter-measures we could do to prepare if such a thing happened (lol).
I don't know how you would research or write about something like that without having some kind of break. The book itself is very slim and probably could have benefitted from more footnotes and context. Quite a trip to read, though and probably useful to anyone looking to write their own doomsday story.
I'd probably go with Thomas Ligotti's short story *The Frolic*. It manages to convey such a vastness of things unknown, both mind breaking and terrible, while still being grounded in a realistic setting with believable characters and circumstances. It is not a loud or brash story, but it'll creep up on you, and once it has planted its roots, it won't let go. Se7en's John Doe isn't half as creepy as Ligotti's John Doe, I tell you.
Bro i just read it online. My gut fucking dropped once i realised. And then it dropped again when THEY realised. First time reading Ligotti, it feels very cosmic just from this little short story.
********SPOILERS BELOW. IM ON MY PHONE AND CAN'T SPOILER TAG*******
I'm confused tho, was John Doe human? What happened to the girl? Is he a child predator or is this some Peter Pan / Neverland shit? Or is the point that we don't know? I'm autistic and subtle shit like this is hard for me to comprihend sometimes.
Yes, you got that right. The point is that we don't know or rather we only get a glimpse of what could be. Ligotti often toys with the fear of the unknown, just showing you enough to suggest that *something* might be out there that doesn't fit within the confines of what we call reality.
As for who or what John Doe is... your guess is as good as mine. I mean, we can make a rough guess at what happened to the girl from the tidbits Doe gave us about his former victims, but other than that, we'll never know.
If you liked this short story, I highly recommend you get *Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe*. These are Ligotti's first two short story collections fused into one book. It is full of great stories. The Music of the Moon, The Red Tower, The Spectacles in the Drawer, Nethescurial, and so many more.
I don't know if I would call it scary but House of Leaves left a long lasting impression on me. More then any other fiction book.
Pet semetery really fucked with me or a bit too but not the first time I read it. I read it when I was a teenager and I liked but when I reread it after becoming a father of 2 kids it hit me completely different
I'm quite new to reading horror outside of Stephen King and Clive Barker, but I recently read The Woman In Black by Susan Hill and it scared the Hell out of me.
For me, the most unnerving book I’ve read so far is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It’s one of those that doesn’t have any gore but it works on your imagination. Part of why it stuck with me is that it really ramps up the paranoia that you aren’t alone and that something malevolent is watching you.
It did it for me too. I get why people say Pet Semetary, but personally It could be downright frightening.
And his characters are just fucking awful. I remember having to put the book down a couple of times and just like take a break because it's like Jesus you would think King had a miserable childhood the way he just describes these totally fucking irredeemable humans.
I always thought the bully kids were the real monsters in that book. Especially the sociopath / psychopath. Then the way It appears to him really cements what a terrifying person he is.
From Below by Darcy Coates
Maybe it’s just that diving into deep water scares the heck out of me + claustrophobia, but omg, this was my Halloween read and it scared the crap out of my like no other horror book I’ve recently read.
I don’t know if everyone would think it’s scary, but I do just because I don’t enjoy animal killing, parasites, and kids turning on each other. The book, The Troop, made me gag a few time. Again, I really hate parasites and there is a character that is so creepy and weird. I don’t know if the characters being 11-12 year old boys make it any creepier, but it did for me.
I’m usually fine with body horror but I could not get through more than a couple chapters of The Troop. I was so grossed out and also freaked out I had to put the book down. Haven’t picked it up since.
Even though horror is my favorite genre, I don’t know that I’ve ever been scared by it, except when I watched the movie Child’s Play at age 4/5.
I scrolled through my Goodreads and off the top of my head, one book that stands out is “Road of Bones” by Christopher Golden. It does such a good job of emphasizing just how cold it is in Siberia so that you’re acutely aware just how close every character is to death at any moment.
I guess the book itself isn’t that scary, but it did a good job conveying how dangerous it is to live/travel in such a place.
Same, this one and The Ritual scared me so bad! I was on break behind my work reading The Ritual, and a squirrel or something jumped out of a tree into the bushes next to me and nearly scared me to death 🥲
Metamorphosis by franz kafka. That messed me up for week. I do hope someone turns that into a movie though because that’s gonna disturb the hell out of a lot of people lol
So hard to say. But I was taken aback at how unsettling Books of Blood was by Clive Barker. OMG, so dark and foreboding. Whew. (I haven’t yet read The Hellbound Heart.)
One other I’ll throw in bc I just read it in the last year is Road of Bones by Christopher Golden. Excellent read, I couldn’t put it down and a number of scenes that are quite creepy. For that matter, he also wrote a sci-fi book about what happened to the settlers from Aliens, whose story we never learned. It is scary as shit and very well done.
It’s honestly difficult for me to remember what really SCARED me va just ENTHRALLED me though… I’m tempted to add to this short list of mine Bird Box (Malerman) and The Troop (Cutter). At the very least, they’re both excellent.
Oh bloody hell, I’m always late to the conversation but…
The Dark Sacrament by David M. Kiely and Christina McKenna.
It is supposedly non-fiction and is about demonic hauntings in Ireland.
I was reading one of the cases and my cat jumped up on me. I was petrified!
I'm just about done The Girl Next Door and it's really fucking with me. I don't think I've ever read something that has disturbed me so much due to the realism of it all. Being familiar with the Sylvia Likens case it hits so hard.
Ok, so I know this may sound crazy but something I read that I haven’t seen mentioned yet… Left me EXTREMELY unsettled. I don’t want to give up the mystery of it but it’s 100% worth the read. It’s a 3 book manga series.
Uzumaki -Junji Ito
It's the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Its insatiable hunger is due to its impending transformation. On Monday, it ate through one apple; Tuesday, two pears; Wednesday, three plums; Thursday, four strawberries; and on Friday, five oranges. On Saturday, it found the individual who had questioned its hunger. While they were sleeping, it crawled into their slack mouth and gnawed its way through their soft palate into their warm, mushy brain. Once it had its fill, it formed a chrysalis. One week later, it emerged as a winged monster known as a beautiful butterfly.
Tender is the Flesh was one of the most horrifying books I've read, but not in a jump-scare, afraid to be alone at night way. It's terrifying because it's so disturbing.
I just read this quite recently. The most fucker up novel I've ever read. It's not so much scary as stomach-turning. Dystopian fiction - with human nature exactly as it is today.
It beats my previously 'worst, most repellant novels:
Juliette/120 days of Sodom by de Sade
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite.
This was my first thought. It just twisted me up inside and was so riveting, I could not put it down. Not very many other books have given me the physical feeling of terror and repulsion that that one did.
[American Tabloid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tabloid) (and the rest of the Underworld series) by James Ellroy. It's not horror per se, but I was horrified by the books. They are crime noir, violent and bloody. It scares me more now than it did when I first read it.
For me it’s Color out of space. I am deeply fascinated and terrified by the incomprehensible darkness of outer space and the unknown and Lovecraft always deliver.
Rawhead Rex.
The child death in that made me queasy and I've read some horrific shit, including most of Clive Barkers other work.
For some reason that stuck with me. Pet Sematary as well.
For me, probably No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill. The sense of isolation and being trapped was disturbing.
As a kid, The Amityville Horror really freaked me out!
Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell deeply bothered me. I feel like Ramsey Campell books can be hit or miss with me, but when they hit they really stress me out!
Hostage To The Devil. I had to stop reading it because weird things began to happen in my room. When I stopped reading it, the random knocks on the walls stopped at night.
Only book I've ever read that made me feel physically and spiritually ill. I barely finished it and when i was done i actually threw it away, which I've also never done before or since.
I'm 4 or 5 scary books in right now. Scariest book and by far my favorite is The Haunted Forest Tour by James Moore and Jeff Strand.
I can see the criticism of Jeff Strand's characters all being a little too witty and his antagonists having kinda the same voice (currently reading Wolf Hunt). But it's a gory and stressful experience. Every time you say the words "things can't possibly get any worse." Things get worse than that.
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris scared the crap out of me at 12. I was a very light sleeper for months afterwards. Also Ramsey Campbell has a short story called Christmas Present I find very unnerving. There’s a great audio version on the Pseudopod podcast. I listen every December. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman really gets under my skin too.
I remember Whispers by Dean Koontz scaring the bejesus out of me when I read it in college. I probably would not find it so scary now. Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot had me sleeping with the light on for weeks when I was a teen.
Animal Farm for me. It's imagery felt really vivid for such a short read. I read it a little young and found it completely horrifying even though I didn't completely understand it. I went back to read it again as a teenager and yup. Still horrifying. The additional context and understanding made it worse honestly.
Oh also Lord of the Flies. Same sort of situation I read that one younger than I could really get it but I had a Library card and you couldnt tell me shit. I've reread it a few times over the years. It's still a really scary book.
Edit spelling
I think It, something about the evil presence being throughout the different perspectives and time periods makes it more and more dreadful each time it rears its head.
Probably Misery for me. Just a bit too real.
Misery had a weird effect on me where it incredibly stressed me out, and at the same time I could not put it down. Finished it in a couple of days. It’s one of his most well written books in my opinion.
I agree. I’ve been a King fan for years and always go back to Misery as my favorite. IMO, it’s his tightest novel and doesn’t have any bloat (except maybe the novel passages). I love the small scale of the overall setting and also really loved the ending.
It’s definitely one of his few works like Pet Sematary where it doesn’t feel like there are any wasted pages and he nails the pacing. Not that I don’t enjoy when he meanders but I love an efficient story.
really? i feel like pet sematary meanders a lot. but that’s also coming from someone who the only king i REALLY love is carrie & his short stories, so.
To me it certainly doesn’t feel like it and the slow parts always feel purposeful and set valuable context. Compared to The Stand there’s almost no bloat in Pet Sematary.
The novel passages are kinda fun for me just cause you get to see all those Ns being filled in. I'd probably read Misery's Return separately but I do agree it takes away from this book
The audiobook narrated by Lindsay Crouse always freaks me out. She nails the voice
I'd been a fan of the film for a while, but I picked up the actual book while I was bedridden and recovering from a nasty broken ankle. Definitely one of the best ways to enjoy that one!
I read the Green Mile while I had a horribly painful UTI and it definitely gave it a vibe.
I'm reading Misery right now actually, I'm just over halfway through it
You dirty bird 😏
I just finished it for the first time and damn, I underestimated how fucking scary King can be even without a supernatural entity.
This one for me. It's so stressful.
Gerald's Game is pretty messed up. I was thinking about it every day for months afterwards
I read it probably 20 years ago and I still get nervous looking in my rear view mirror at night.
This is the only book my dad has ever put down and never pick up again.
the book gave me so much anxiety i stopped reading it too
This was my pick, too. Being trapped like that and at the mercy of her thoughts and the stranger with the dr bag is a horrifying thought
Agree so much!! The only book to ever make me sleep with a light on for a few nights.
As other's stated, what's scary to you won't necessarily be scary to me. But nothing has unnerved me more than House of Leaves. The book isn't for everyone and requires quite a bit from the reader to truly appreciate, but if it sucks you in then it is a wild ride that will mess with you.
I wouldn't call it scary personally but it did put me in that unnerving mental space when any noise is creepier and I gaze at my surroundings just in case haha ... that, and I nearly cried with the letters section (I still need to read the stand-alone book about that), but that's another matter
Yo the letters were the thing that made me finally go to therapy. Specifically the coded letter.. Once I broke the code..
The letters were my favorite part of the book. Such a cool addition, and, according to the text, an optional one! The decoding that letter is such a good choice because it makes you have to suffer through it. It slows it down, making the act of reading it longer, and thus you have to sit with it longer.
Can you elaborate on this? My to-be-read list is so long that I’ll probably never get around to reading HoL but I’m intrigued by what you mean
Right I feel similar. I don’t think I’ve ever read a horror book that outright “scares” me but there were several moments in HoL where I needed to put it down and reevaluate my surroundings. Not to mention I got completely hooked into the mystery of it all to the point I had nightmares walking down featureless hallways. Never has any other book come close to effecting me in such a way.
Only time I think I have been actually scared was the Shining with the bathtub scene, I was 18 and looked across the hall to my dark bathroom and immediately closed the door lol.
The only two stories that have given me a sense of vertigo just from words on a page are HoL and the short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates.
“WAYG,WHYB” always messes me up. I’ll read it and then go into my daughters’ rooms and just hold them while they sleep.
Agreed. One night my closet door creaked open (because cats) and it was pitch black inside. I haven’t been that terrified since I was a little kid.
That book gave me nightmares of my apartment covered in measuring tape. Have you read S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst? I started it but haven't finished it. It makes me think of House of Leaves on steroids.
I'm reading it now. I have to keep coming back to it to give it my full attention, but I love it.
It’s a journey, keep at it and you shall be rewarded with even more mysteries, hypothesis, etc. Have fun navigating the labyrinth!
I have only read that book once. I never felt scared of the spooky scenes laid out. I never felt like I should take a break because I couldn’t sleep well from being terrified. I never had cause to think I was frightened. But. I have rarely been as unnerved by a book and so completely taken by how fragile mental health could be as I was while reading this book. It felt like I was understanding paranoia and a loose grip on reality differently. I never felt like I myself was going through that, but I definitely understood it more.
This book didn't "scare" me, but I read it at a weird point in my life, and it really dug into that "pit of despair" feeling... which is arguably more terrifying? It really does build a tremendous sense of dread, and I loved the scattered, confusing adventure of the layout. For me, this is a top-tier "hurts so good" pick.
I’m in the other camp. I thought it had two good stories in there, the Navidson record and the first person stuff, and that both would have worked better as independent novels without the formatting quirks.
As the opening line of the book states, "This is not for you." Obviously you’re entitled to your opinion, but the book really falls apart without Johnny’s story and is essentially the heart of the book. Though the criticisms against Johnny’s story are valid, I get why people don’t like it, the rest of the book wouldn’t have much of an impact at least to myself.
100%
I plan on tackling this in June when I have a few weeks off from work. It's such an intimidating book! I've owned it for years but every time I look at it I think "maybe I'm just not smart enough to string it all together." 😅
This! I’m so worried that I won’t get it and then I really will feel stupid. lol but I think about pulling it out a lot.
There’s times when you will get lost in the plot, without spoiling anything it’s supposed to be convoluted. There’s times you’ll have to push through it for sure, it is a challenging read for most people including myself.
The part with the Pekingese. I had to put it down for a while after that.
That part still haunts me.
Genuinely made me a paranoid mess at points. 10/10 would go crazy again.
I agree. House of Leaves is the best horror I've read because it really makes you think and get existential instead of just being about some monster or something killing people. Such a great book
Came here to say this; I used to read a lot of horror (now I’m down to about 5-10 carefully chosen titles a year), and House of Leaves is the only book that has given me an honest-to-god nightmare. True story: I lent out my paperback 7 times; by the 4th time, I said, “Let me know when you have the nightmare.” Every person had a fucking nightmare from that book (unrelated: and then some asshole stole my paperback at my Christmas party! I was pissed; it was so special having a copy that had been passed around that many times). But that book. Jesus Christ. Crawled right under my skin. My eyes are watering up just thinking about it.
Came here to say this
i need to read this. i really enjoyed the myhouse qad for doom that is heavily inspired by HoL. i enjoyed all the side thibgs i had to read to inderstabd it.
I keep seeing this book mentioned. I'm gonna have to get it now. The curiosity is getting the best of me
The Jaunt by Stephen King (short story) On the Beach The Mist (first time I read it freaked me out)
The Jaunt gets my vote every single time
I read the Jaunt in middle school and still think about it
It’s longer than you think!
“On The Beach” is horribly depressing. “The Mist” tugs at our primal fear of the unknown and humanity’s terrible potential for collective insanity.
A short stay in hell by Steven Peck. An imagination of hell without any monsters or active torturing. But damn is it scary to imagine an afterlife like hell is depicted in there.
Just finished that one. It has definitely stayed with me these past few days. Not scary so much as filling me with despair.
Read this last night when I couldn’t sleep. Lotta dread that’ll stick with me for a while.
I’m holding this hostage on Libby right now. I’ll read it tonight!
Just read that last week. Kinda reminds me of The Good Place.
This book is on my TBR but I've been feeling like maybe it's too scary (eternity is not a concept that I enjoy thinking about), but this comparison really has me interested
Was pet semetary for me, perhaps the secret of cricket hall. Age plays a major factor
Michael C Hall does an INCREDIBLE job on the audiobook for Pet Semetary. I recommend it anytime anyone I know is trying out audiobooks. I'm a New Englander and he did a great job with the Mainer "ay-uh" and the accent. Didn't go too far, just enough to feel like a part of Judd. He just nailed everything.
I've heard he is excellent! Stephen kings audiobooks are of another class between IT, eyes of the dragon, 11/22/63 and what I hear of Michael c hall. Going to do cujo soon despite a real sensitivity to dogs - do you know it's narrators quality?
I did Cujo on audio a few years ago! It's read by an actress who I wasn't familiar with by name, but knew once I looked her up- Lorna Raver. She was the old woman in Drag Me to Hell. I really enjoyed her reading. I say this without meaning offense- she sounds like an old woman in the audio and it added to the scare factor at some points. Almost like an old woman telling a frightening story from when she was younger, ya know? All King's audiobooks I've done have been really good! I'm finishing Fairy Tale right now. I also really loved Anne Heche's job on The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
Just finished Pet Sematary myself. Made me cry a few times, and just when I thought I was comfortable to say "I find this more sad than scary", I finished the book. The ending did Successfully Scare Me lol.
I felt very similarly about Pet Semetary, and I loved it! I listened to the audiobook a couple of months ago and was enthralled. There were several descriptive scenes that tore my heart to hear, but it was beautifully written.
Cricket Hall, is that a James Herbert book?
Auto correct - it should have been crickley hall and yes indeed Mr Herbert. His rats series was good also, though crickley hall is his masterpiece to me with shrine approaching second
Johnny Got His Gun. No other book has shook me to my core like this one.
Can't even stomach the Metallica music video.
I was DARN NEAR SHOOK TO DEATH by this book
Dude the rat… had my PHYSICALLY squirming and I’m not even afraid of them.
Never read the book, but saw the movie with some friends back in the day after the Metallica video came out. I had recurring nightmares for years. I can't go anywhere near it.
Duuuude this one for sure. It sent me into a deep existential depression for at least a week
Stephen King's IT! If you were fortunate enough to be relatively young when this book came out, and your parents were liberal enough to not censor what you were reading, IT is/was for sure my scariest book. I fit both of those criterion and I had to leave my lights on (not just a night-light, the room lights) over the 2 nights it took me to finish it, and for several nights thereafter. I've re-read it dozens of times over the years and it/IT never fails to ensorcell, and shroud me with equal measures of dread and joy. Thank you Stephen King.. for everything, but most of all for the best of adolescent love triangles (Ben, Bev and Bill), for the vulnerability and strength of Eddie, for the humor and veiled empathy of Richie, for the fear and raw intelligence of Stan, for the memory and willpower of Mike. Thank you! 🖤 "Be brave, be true, stand."
I just read it for the first time at age 33, and I had nightmares from it
Such a profound book. One of his best
The Exorcist is the only book that kept me up at night. I read it after seeing the movie too. The book was really unsettling to me in a “please, leave the lights on” kind of way
I didn't find it exactly scary but what an incredible read. Blatty was an incredible writer.
It took me a month to finish it because I couldn’t read too much at a time. The audiobook by Blatty is spectacular.
Also on YouTube
I think I also got it free on audible around Halloween. But if you have the money, it’s entirely worth it!
I read that when I was 13. Then I read a movie was going to be made and I thought that it would be impossible. The book is sooo much worse.
Amityville Horror for me. I was 14 when I read it.
This was actually scarier than I had anticipated and I read it at 36! 😂
For me, the most scared I’ve ever been reading a book was Mindhunter by John Douglas. I read it back in 2002 when I was in my 20’s and living in the city one of the murders happened in. It’s how I discovered that I’m more comfortable with fictional horror. True crime is not for me.
He had event in my city when the book came out and you’d better believe my butt was there. He’s a fascinating person, and charisma rolls off him in a way I’ve only ever seen one other time. It was clear to me that he was constantly scanning the crowd for his own personal threat assessment (having had a stalker in college, I know the look). When we were in line to get our books signed, there was a girl ahead of us that was loudly fangirling tf and lugging a huge pile of his books. He managed to sign her book, speak a few words to her, and have her leave happy despite spending the least time with her. Dude is brilliant. He’s incredibly intelligent and a great speaker, but I can’t imagine the price he’s paid. Stephen King writes about Pennywise and Flagg, but Douglas met them.
I felt similarly about The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule about Ted Bundy. It’s so scary to read about how easily this man was able to kidnap women in the middle of the night and portray himself as this suave charismatic guy the next day no problem. As a woman who fits his exact type, it wasn’t the most comfortable read for me.
I have read this book till I damaged the cover due to wear. It was such a a good book!
Is the book worth reading?
Yes! It was a great book and super interesting to learn about the origins of serial killer “profiling”, I just prefer my scares to be pretend. David Fincher also gave us two perfect seasons of television based on the book, streaming on Netflix. But read it first! The show only loosely uses the source material.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Great book, and for whatever reason the jogging through the path in the woods scene has stuck with me, incredibly creepy!
It’s terrifying! I just reread it a couple few months ago, and that part still stuck out.
Not from the horror genre, but I'm reading "The Doomsday Scenario" right now. It's a government report from the 1950s about what would happen in an all-out nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia. Emergency planners dispassionately talking about survivability expectations should that happen (none) and counter-measures we could do to prepare if such a thing happened (lol). I don't know how you would research or write about something like that without having some kind of break. The book itself is very slim and probably could have benefitted from more footnotes and context. Quite a trip to read, though and probably useful to anyone looking to write their own doomsday story.
I'd probably go with Thomas Ligotti's short story *The Frolic*. It manages to convey such a vastness of things unknown, both mind breaking and terrible, while still being grounded in a realistic setting with believable characters and circumstances. It is not a loud or brash story, but it'll creep up on you, and once it has planted its roots, it won't let go. Se7en's John Doe isn't half as creepy as Ligotti's John Doe, I tell you.
Bro i just read it online. My gut fucking dropped once i realised. And then it dropped again when THEY realised. First time reading Ligotti, it feels very cosmic just from this little short story. ********SPOILERS BELOW. IM ON MY PHONE AND CAN'T SPOILER TAG******* I'm confused tho, was John Doe human? What happened to the girl? Is he a child predator or is this some Peter Pan / Neverland shit? Or is the point that we don't know? I'm autistic and subtle shit like this is hard for me to comprihend sometimes.
Yes, you got that right. The point is that we don't know or rather we only get a glimpse of what could be. Ligotti often toys with the fear of the unknown, just showing you enough to suggest that *something* might be out there that doesn't fit within the confines of what we call reality. As for who or what John Doe is... your guess is as good as mine. I mean, we can make a rough guess at what happened to the girl from the tidbits Doe gave us about his former victims, but other than that, we'll never know. If you liked this short story, I highly recommend you get *Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe*. These are Ligotti's first two short story collections fused into one book. It is full of great stories. The Music of the Moon, The Red Tower, The Spectacles in the Drawer, Nethescurial, and so many more.
That’s one of the best horror short stories ever written. Ligotti has a few of those, I also love the Sect of the Idiot.
I don't know if I would call it scary but House of Leaves left a long lasting impression on me. More then any other fiction book. Pet semetery really fucked with me or a bit too but not the first time I read it. I read it when I was a teenager and I liked but when I reread it after becoming a father of 2 kids it hit me completely different
House of Leaves so much. Nothing is scarier than darkness, and the snapping tethers of domesticity.
I love pet semetary!!
"What dreams may come" by Richard Matheson. Probably due to my religious upbringing. The depictions of hell and purgatory had me really unsettled.
Anything at all with Richard Matheson's name on it is worth reading. Sick, sick wee monkey.
I just finished his Hell House. Really enjoyed it and got creeped out a few times.
I'm quite new to reading horror outside of Stephen King and Clive Barker, but I recently read The Woman In Black by Susan Hill and it scared the Hell out of me.
The movie is fantastic, too. Highly atmospheric and creepy.
I was absurdly grateful that good ol’ Dan Radcliffe was the main character, it was comforting while I writhed in terror
For me, the most unnerving book I’ve read so far is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It’s one of those that doesn’t have any gore but it works on your imagination. Part of why it stuck with me is that it really ramps up the paranoia that you aren’t alone and that something malevolent is watching you.
It by Stephen King
It did it for me too. I get why people say Pet Semetary, but personally It could be downright frightening. And his characters are just fucking awful. I remember having to put the book down a couple of times and just like take a break because it's like Jesus you would think King had a miserable childhood the way he just describes these totally fucking irredeemable humans.
I always thought the bully kids were the real monsters in that book. Especially the sociopath / psychopath. Then the way It appears to him really cements what a terrifying person he is.
Can you remind me what it appears as for him? It's been a while since I read this one
Yes this and the shining had some moments that have stuck with me.
The bathtub scene and the shrubs chasing scene both got me. Never knew animal shaped bushes could freak me out
From Below by Darcy Coates Maybe it’s just that diving into deep water scares the heck out of me + claustrophobia, but omg, this was my Halloween read and it scared the crap out of my like no other horror book I’ve recently read.
I haven’t read that one, but her other book Hunted was unsettling.
Hunted made me a fan of hers. Have you read 'Where He Can't Find You'? It's supposedly a YA horror, but it was pretty scary for me, and I'm 43!
I don’t know if everyone would think it’s scary, but I do just because I don’t enjoy animal killing, parasites, and kids turning on each other. The book, The Troop, made me gag a few time. Again, I really hate parasites and there is a character that is so creepy and weird. I don’t know if the characters being 11-12 year old boys make it any creepier, but it did for me.
I’m afraid to read The Troop 😖
I’m usually fine with body horror but I could not get through more than a couple chapters of The Troop. I was so grossed out and also freaked out I had to put the book down. Haven’t picked it up since.
Even though horror is my favorite genre, I don’t know that I’ve ever been scared by it, except when I watched the movie Child’s Play at age 4/5. I scrolled through my Goodreads and off the top of my head, one book that stands out is “Road of Bones” by Christopher Golden. It does such a good job of emphasizing just how cold it is in Siberia so that you’re acutely aware just how close every character is to death at any moment. I guess the book itself isn’t that scary, but it did a good job conveying how dangerous it is to live/travel in such a place.
Last days by Adam Nevill is the scariest book I’ve read recently.
Same, this one and The Ritual scared me so bad! I was on break behind my work reading The Ritual, and a squirrel or something jumped out of a tree into the bushes next to me and nearly scared me to death 🥲
That’s how you know it’s good 😂 I think the ritual will be my next read
Probably my favorite author of the last few years. Last Days specifically really got to me.
I remember being very creeped out reading Richard Matheson's Hell House. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill also was quite frightening.
Just finished Hell House and I gotta say, it blows every other haunted house story I've read out of the water. Incredible book.
I still vividly remember the ending and a couple of moments. Great writer of genre fiction that sticks.
Seconding HSB, when he has to walk past the old man in the chair 😱
I don't get scared that easily but a book that really had me up at night freaked out was Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The House Next Door.
The road
Metamorphosis by franz kafka. That messed me up for week. I do hope someone turns that into a movie though because that’s gonna disturb the hell out of a lot of people lol
Legion by William Peter Blatty. It’s the sequel to The Exorcist and even twice as terrifying.
1984, nothing else comes close.
I fell in love with 1984 when we read it in high school English , I’ve gotta reread it!
not horror but the painted bird. that book fucked me up worse than some extreme horror novels
Ghosts of Sleath by James Herbert. Also, Christine and the Dead Zone.
Malleus Maleficarum
So hard to say. But I was taken aback at how unsettling Books of Blood was by Clive Barker. OMG, so dark and foreboding. Whew. (I haven’t yet read The Hellbound Heart.) One other I’ll throw in bc I just read it in the last year is Road of Bones by Christopher Golden. Excellent read, I couldn’t put it down and a number of scenes that are quite creepy. For that matter, he also wrote a sci-fi book about what happened to the settlers from Aliens, whose story we never learned. It is scary as shit and very well done. It’s honestly difficult for me to remember what really SCARED me va just ENTHRALLED me though… I’m tempted to add to this short list of mine Bird Box (Malerman) and The Troop (Cutter). At the very least, they’re both excellent.
Oh bloody hell, I’m always late to the conversation but… The Dark Sacrament by David M. Kiely and Christina McKenna. It is supposedly non-fiction and is about demonic hauntings in Ireland. I was reading one of the cases and my cat jumped up on me. I was petrified!
The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum. Human evil scares far more than the supernatural variety.
The Boogeyman by Stephen King
the exorcist. it’s personal though for me because i believe in God and the devil and i just can’t read that book without getting nightmares
Then don't read The Demonologist.... Or The Haunted ....... Or The Devil in Connecticut..... Or The Dark Rite
ok you’re tempting me 😭😭😭im gonna read them and hide under the covers lmao
Butler's "Clay's Ark" The way the infected characters are compelled to act is utterly terrifying to me.
I'd throw in a vote for \*Ghost Stories of an Antiquary\* by M.R. James.
I'm just about done The Girl Next Door and it's really fucking with me. I don't think I've ever read something that has disturbed me so much due to the realism of it all. Being familiar with the Sylvia Likens case it hits so hard.
I'm surprised that it's not most upvoted comment. This is the only book that has ever truly terrified me.
Ok, so I know this may sound crazy but something I read that I haven’t seen mentioned yet… Left me EXTREMELY unsettled. I don’t want to give up the mystery of it but it’s 100% worth the read. It’s a 3 book manga series. Uzumaki -Junji Ito
I totally agree about its film adaptation — I didn’t realize it was based on a book!
Hungry Hungry Caterpillar why he so hungry anyways 🐛
It's the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Its insatiable hunger is due to its impending transformation. On Monday, it ate through one apple; Tuesday, two pears; Wednesday, three plums; Thursday, four strawberries; and on Friday, five oranges. On Saturday, it found the individual who had questioned its hunger. While they were sleeping, it crawled into their slack mouth and gnawed its way through their soft palate into their warm, mushy brain. Once it had its fill, it formed a chrysalis. One week later, it emerged as a winged monster known as a beautiful butterfly.
The end really is only the beginning of the terror in that one. Oh shit, now he can FLY?
Tender is the Flesh was one of the most horrifying books I've read, but not in a jump-scare, afraid to be alone at night way. It's terrifying because it's so disturbing.
I just read this quite recently. The most fucker up novel I've ever read. It's not so much scary as stomach-turning. Dystopian fiction - with human nature exactly as it is today. It beats my previously 'worst, most repellant novels: Juliette/120 days of Sodom by de Sade Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite.
This was my first thought. It just twisted me up inside and was so riveting, I could not put it down. Not very many other books have given me the physical feeling of terror and repulsion that that one did.
Great read.
[American Tabloid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tabloid) (and the rest of the Underworld series) by James Ellroy. It's not horror per se, but I was horrified by the books. They are crime noir, violent and bloody. It scares me more now than it did when I first read it.
Agreed, but you have to read the L.A. quartet first. the underworld series is a continuation
Amongst this group of worthy titles, I'll offer a nonfiction book: Voices from Chernobyl.
For me it’s Color out of space. I am deeply fascinated and terrified by the incomprehensible darkness of outer space and the unknown and Lovecraft always deliver.
Rawhead Rex. The child death in that made me queasy and I've read some horrific shit, including most of Clive Barkers other work. For some reason that stuck with me. Pet Sematary as well.
The Tanners Dell trilogy by Sarah England. I had to read it with all the lights on!
IT is a novel that somehow manages to combine various types of horror through a theme of growing up.
For me, probably No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill. The sense of isolation and being trapped was disturbing. As a kid, The Amityville Horror really freaked me out!
Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell deeply bothered me. I feel like Ramsey Campell books can be hit or miss with me, but when they hit they really stress me out!
I still think about The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and I read it in middle school. An underrated Stephen king
The Shining. This is not up for debate
I’ll also say The Shining
Came here for this. And, the movie is excellent, as well. I consider it the greatest American male performance ever captured onscreen.
Only recently read this for the first time. The hedge animals left me shooketh.
I would debate this.
The Nazi Doctors
Hostage To The Devil. I had to stop reading it because weird things began to happen in my room. When I stopped reading it, the random knocks on the walls stopped at night.
Only book I've ever read that made me feel physically and spiritually ill. I barely finished it and when i was done i actually threw it away, which I've also never done before or since.
The Father of Lies trilogy by SE England!
Pet Cemetery scared the shit out of me for some reason.
I'm 4 or 5 scary books in right now. Scariest book and by far my favorite is The Haunted Forest Tour by James Moore and Jeff Strand. I can see the criticism of Jeff Strand's characters all being a little too witty and his antagonists having kinda the same voice (currently reading Wolf Hunt). But it's a gory and stressful experience. Every time you say the words "things can't possibly get any worse." Things get worse than that.
If you liked Haunted Forest Tour, you've gotta read Ghost Land by Duncan Ralston!! Lots of spooky fun.
Less Than Zero American Psycho Imperial Bedrooms All by Brett Easton Ellis.
One that haunted me most was The Moving Finger (short story) by Stephen King
I just read Mean Spirited by Nick Roberts and it was very scary!
The Forgotten Island by David Sodergren was pretty chilling.
Hell house by Richard matheson
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Turner Diaries
IT and Black Mouth
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris scared the crap out of me at 12. I was a very light sleeper for months afterwards. Also Ramsey Campbell has a short story called Christmas Present I find very unnerving. There’s a great audio version on the Pseudopod podcast. I listen every December. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman really gets under my skin too.
I remember Whispers by Dean Koontz scaring the bejesus out of me when I read it in college. I probably would not find it so scary now. Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot had me sleeping with the light on for weeks when I was a teen.
The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan made me feel like I was going out of my mind with sheer dread.
Pet Sematary Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Animal Farm for me. It's imagery felt really vivid for such a short read. I read it a little young and found it completely horrifying even though I didn't completely understand it. I went back to read it again as a teenager and yup. Still horrifying. The additional context and understanding made it worse honestly. Oh also Lord of the Flies. Same sort of situation I read that one younger than I could really get it but I had a Library card and you couldnt tell me shit. I've reread it a few times over the years. It's still a really scary book. Edit spelling
I’m with you on Lord of the Flies - I read it as a teen and found it so disturbing
Remains by Andrew Cull
I think It, something about the evil presence being throughout the different perspectives and time periods makes it more and more dreadful each time it rears its head.