The Most Horrific, Scariest, And Down Right Terrifying Books

They can be fiction, non-fiction, whatever, as long as they are worth a good read.

The Mysterious Stranger wasn't exactly terrifying, but in hindsight I think it made me depressed for a while.

I read Dean Koontz' The Taking a couple years ago and that freaked me out, but it was the first time I'd really read horror lit and I was also in a poorly lit snowy mountain cabin at night when I was reading it.

I actually find short stories to be a more effective vehicle for literary horror than full-on books. As far as those go, China Mielville's The Ball Pit and The Familiar come to mind.

House Of Leaves is the only book that has ever left me really creeped out.

The novel Ringu is pretty creepy. The movie's scarier, of course, but the book can hold its own.

^^ Seconding House of Leaves. Just being reminded of it a few days ago kept me up a few extra hours.

Hmm. I liked House Of Leaves, but I didn't think it was all that scary.

Johnny Got His Gun was scarier.

Sort of a lame one, but I thought A Clockwork Orange was a genuinely terrifying book, though only for a line or two. See, the book starts with just all this horrific violence and then you discover that Alex is still in school, still lives with his parents. Man, that freaks me out whenever I think about it.

Also, the kid's book, A Bad Case of the Stripes. I still sorta panic when I see the cover.

I know my examples are lame, but I find those two books just really, really, REALLY freaky.

The War Between The Terrible Teachers And The Splendid Kids was fucked up by the end.

^ That one had the advantage of being spectacularly un-serious. Even the comedic scene where a girl kills and eats one of her teachers doesn't cross the line twice, because it doesn't cross the line once with such details as that the teacher kept talking long after everything but her lips was gone.

I can't remember what it was called, but I was flipping through a comic book at the library and a guy has a dog's disembodied head following him or something. Like everywhere he looks, there it is.

I can't remember the title for the life of me.

The Shining was pretty creepy, more so than Pet Sematary (which people say is King's scariest book but whatevs), which is more so than Misery, but all three are scary.

Oh, and if you want to become paranoid of the dark and your dad, try Gerald's Game.

The Road. In a different kind of scary.

Another one with no title (because I have forgotten it): It was a short story in a book of ghost stories, which I read as a little kid.

Can't recall all the details, but it involved a room that was haunted by a severed hand. A severed hand that still had tendrils of flesh hanging down, and would climb up the wall next to bed when you were sleeping in it, making a scratching sound.

It had pictures.

I had so many nightmares because of that story.

Was it Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark? The series is infamous for the pictures◊...

edited 25th Sep '10 12:31:33 AM by melloncollie

There's an existential dread that follows one like a storm cloud after reading H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time."

I don't know about you guys but The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner was one of the creepiest stories I was required to read in high school.

Lovecraft generally does a pretty good job of creeping me out. So does Frank Belknap Long's "The Hounds of Tindalos."

And yeah, The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is pretty disturbing.

And this is random...but during certain parts of the Indigo series, I swear I could hear either creepy boss-fight music or "The World of the Dead" playing. Which probably made them seem scarier than they actually were.

I need to read House Of Leaves already.

edited 8th Oct '10 5:20:03 AM by FarseerLolotea

The Visitor, by Sheri S. Tepper, was easily the most gruesome book I've ever read. It had some interesting ideas I haven't seen explored elsewhere, but I'd describe reading it for them as being like fishing for quarters in a trough of blood.

The Colour out of Space creeped me out. As did Lord Of The Flies and one or two scenes from Perdido Street Station.

The last few chapters of 1984, on several levels.

Probably biased since I just finished it, but Life of Pi. Holy mother of fridge horror...

Don't know about you guys, but I found Heart of Darkness pretty darn scary.

edited 9th Oct '10 6:58:34 PM by Qmwne235

Oh, wait: Life Of Pi? Yeah, that was a messed-up book. Talk about your Mind Screw.

I need to get my own copy...

edited 10th Oct '10 3:53:29 AM by FarseerLolotea

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. It's not a horror, but it's severely chilling. George Orwell's Animal Farm Shade's Children by Garth Nix