Horror novels

[lilmonkey]

What is the most frightening book you have ever read?

[andy-hughes]

'Salem's Lot' by Stephen King.

I was on holiday on my own in the U.S. and I finished it at about one in the morning - and I slept with the light on!

[saxy_jag]

I don't read much horror, and I'm not easily scared by books, or even films, for that matter.

However, I read The Amityville Horror a few years ago and I don't mind admitting, it cared the bejesus out of me. I still think about parts of it even now - the flies, the ornamental lion and the red room - and it really does haunt me.

[Clanad]

At age 13 I had the misfortune of becoming an Edgar Allen Poe junky, in the vernacular. Some were just troubling, rather like the burp one has with a bad hot dog some 3 hours after consuming it. Other of Poe's tales have a way of staying with you to re-emerge years later with the same shiver up the spine.

I thought I had put that all behind me until re-reading an anthology of Poe's best. I handled the Cask of Amantilado well and even Murders of the Rue Morgue... but then I made the mistake of reading The Premature Burial late on evening when I was alone in the house.

Poe has the eerie ability to depict unltimate horrors without delving into todays genre' of blood and guts spilled willy-nilly by pubescent teenagers chased by a guy in a bad suit and even worse hair wielding a chainsaw. Naw... none of that; but imagine yourself in a 3 foot wide wodden box with tons of dirt on all sides muffling any sound or movement you could make.... it'd probably take you a week to die, leaving deep scratch marks on the coffin lid, just as Poe so eloquently describes... Don't read this alone with dim lights!

[johntrevor]

the bible

[chelle7272]

American Psycho

[bunkmoreland]

the Shining by stephen King. The intense build up of paranoia and eventual madness was palpable at times. it was a dreadful shame that the film which was excellent in some parts,chose to play the terrifying johnny/wendy bathroom scene for laughs. if you were reading the book,you would definetely not be laughing at that point

[londonlove]

Wetlands

[China Doll]

I don't know about frightening but Irvine Welsh's 'Filth' is absolutely horrifying... The imagery is unfortunately, graphic and stomach turning. Although admittedly it's not scary.

[naomi24]

I'm with Clanad here. Edgar Allen Poe ..... Oo-er .....

[Lysistrata]

I'm with bunkmoreland on The Shining. It was so scary I had to keep reading it because it was even worse when I imagined what might have happened.

Salem's Lot comes a close second though - the first time I read it I jumped a mile when anyone came up behind me. And Pet Sematary.

Currently reading The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, which is also very creepy and unsettling.

[buncrana]

I also have mental scarring from reading The Shining in my 20s. I was so scared of it I hid it in a drawer but then had to get it back out to finish the book because I needed to know how it ended. The film was a disappointment.

Anything by MR James is also pretty scary - I literally jumped out of my chair reading some of his stories.

Recently the most disturbing thing I've read is Under the Skin by Michel Faber. It defies classification - a mix of sci-fi and horror. It is probably the scariest thing I have ever read - deeply deeply terrifying, but beautifully written.