Halloween’s a’ comin’, so we want to know: Have you ever read a book that actually scared you? Has a story you read ever left you feeling deeply uneasy, or made you double-check your door locks at night? Let us know!
31 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Your Biggest Scare?”
IT by S. King. I have a problem with clowns. It took me a long time to get through that book, not only because it was huge, but also because I had to keep putting it down. And I wouldn’t read it when I was alone.
Dean Koontz – The Bad Place – I still remember the title. I read Koontz books when I traveled on business and had to take a hiatus after that. Koontz literally had me looking under my hotel bed and in my closet, looking for his murderous boy who could teleport anywhere and kill people. FREAKY! Koontz is devilishly delish!
RED DRAGON by Thomas Harris is hands-down the scariest book I’ve ever read. Even though it was written in 1981 and the technology mentioned is old, it will still make you believe that you are never safe, no matter where you are.
I reread that book after loving the new and stunning Hannibal TV show. Great read.
THE EXORCIST was mine. I read it while on a 747 going across the Atlantic, and I was afraid the demon was going to find me and crash the plane!
That’s on my scary list, too, Kathryn. And don’t forget JAWS.
No way I could read JAWS. Never saw the movie either. *shiver*
Never went back in the ocean again, not once, after JAWS. Enough said!
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. I was familiar with and recognized all the landmarks he described because that’s where I live, and I KNEW I would be next!
Salem’s Lot was the scariest by far!
The Oath by Frank Peretti is the scariest novel I’ve ever read. It oozes evil. Ugh…I’m shivering just writing about it.
Fiction: The Shining
Non-Fiction: Helter Skelter
I read Peretti’s Darkness books at about age 12 and had the worst dang night terrors ever. More recently I read this little book Santuary by Creeden, about an alien invasion where the aliens turn people into zombies. I had to keep looking outside to make sure there were still normal people out there!
I was in my twenties when I read Peretti’s Darkness books and a few others…had nightmares at that age too.
Agatha Christie’s TEN LITTLE INDIANS. I was alone at the time, and stayed up all night reading, because I was afraid to turn off the light.
When I was a kid (13) I read King’s CHRISTINE. Every time I turned off the lights, I saw that ghostly dude in the car with Artie standing at the foot of my bed. Slept with the lights on for like a week afterward.
IT by Stephen King. I was reading it the second time late at night and was just at the point where the refrigerator door opens and my phone rang. I threw the book across the room.
Terri
“The George W. Bush Foreign Policy Reader”
*shiver*
When I was a kid, it was the Amityville Horror. I could have sworn I put the book in my bedside drawer and the next morning it was on top of my bed stand. Cue scary music. As an adult it was Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill. I live alone but I wasn’t so sure every night after reading a couple of chapters.
Ted Dekker – The Bride Collector, Travis Thrasher – Isolation, Frank Perretti – The Oath. All three had me unnerved for weeks!
The place-shifting hedge animals in The Shining really got to me. I’m cooking up a story now, where the images in various paintings change places. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers.
And what ever happened with that ghostly image “thing” that was drinking the pool water down in Florida? Did Kathleen Pickering have anything to do with that?
I was so disappointed that the movie version didn’t use the topiary, Jim! The maze was lame compared to those slowly advancing, shape-shifting hedge creatures.
The Alienist by Caleb Carr. THAT was some scary stuff. 🙁
CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide, 7th Edition
Now that I know what really makes the internet work I sleep with the lights on.
This is why programmers shall inherit–and control–the Earth, Basil! No one else is smart enough to work the levers of a worldwide web of evil, lol.
Stephen King got me both times. An involuntary spasm of fear launched The Shining out of my hands. Pet Sematary banished my cat from sleeping on my bed.
My copy of The Shining had a reflective, silver cover. It startled me several times when it caught the light unexpectedly. That was the first time I grasped the potential power of cover art!
THE HOT ZONE by Richard Preston. This story about real-life Ebola virus is scarier than anything people can make up.
OMG, The Hot Zone was truly frightening, Amy! Just that one true story about the research monkeys infected with Ebola, downwind from a Washington, DC nursery school, was enough to keep me awake at night. I still have a Google alert set to notify me about outbreaks of nasty viruses, because of that book!
Dracula made me very uneasy and seasick during a bus drive, which is usually one of my favorite places to read. I was also tired because of lack of sleep, but I after that incident, I couldn’t pick and read it again. Maybe because I saw a black and white Dracula movie just a month before that. Whatever explanation, that was quite an experience. 🙂
IT by S. King. I have a problem with clowns. It took me a long time to get through that book, not only because it was huge, but also because I had to keep putting it down. And I wouldn’t read it when I was alone.
Dean Koontz – The Bad Place – I still remember the title. I read Koontz books when I traveled on business and had to take a hiatus after that. Koontz literally had me looking under my hotel bed and in my closet, looking for his murderous boy who could teleport anywhere and kill people. FREAKY! Koontz is devilishly delish!
RED DRAGON by Thomas Harris is hands-down the scariest book I’ve ever read. Even though it was written in 1981 and the technology mentioned is old, it will still make you believe that you are never safe, no matter where you are.
I reread that book after loving the new and stunning Hannibal TV show. Great read.
THE EXORCIST was mine. I read it while on a 747 going across the Atlantic, and I was afraid the demon was going to find me and crash the plane!
That’s on my scary list, too, Kathryn. And don’t forget JAWS.
No way I could read JAWS. Never saw the movie either. *shiver*
Never went back in the ocean again, not once, after JAWS. Enough said!
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. I was familiar with and recognized all the landmarks he described because that’s where I live, and I KNEW I would be next!
Salem’s Lot was the scariest by far!
The Oath by Frank Peretti is the scariest novel I’ve ever read. It oozes evil. Ugh…I’m shivering just writing about it.
Fiction: The Shining
Non-Fiction: Helter Skelter
I read Peretti’s Darkness books at about age 12 and had the worst dang night terrors ever. More recently I read this little book Santuary by Creeden, about an alien invasion where the aliens turn people into zombies. I had to keep looking outside to make sure there were still normal people out there!
I was in my twenties when I read Peretti’s Darkness books and a few others…had nightmares at that age too.
Agatha Christie’s TEN LITTLE INDIANS. I was alone at the time, and stayed up all night reading, because I was afraid to turn off the light.
When I was a kid (13) I read King’s CHRISTINE. Every time I turned off the lights, I saw that ghostly dude in the car with Artie standing at the foot of my bed. Slept with the lights on for like a week afterward.
IT by Stephen King. I was reading it the second time late at night and was just at the point where the refrigerator door opens and my phone rang. I threw the book across the room.
Terri
“The George W. Bush Foreign Policy Reader”
*shiver*
When I was a kid, it was the Amityville Horror. I could have sworn I put the book in my bedside drawer and the next morning it was on top of my bed stand. Cue scary music.
As an adult it was Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill. I live alone but I wasn’t so sure every night after reading a couple of chapters.
Ted Dekker – The Bride Collector, Travis Thrasher – Isolation, Frank Perretti – The Oath. All three had me unnerved for weeks!
The place-shifting hedge animals in The Shining really got to me. I’m cooking up a story now, where the images in various paintings change places. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers.
And what ever happened with that ghostly image “thing” that was drinking the pool water down in Florida? Did Kathleen Pickering have anything to do with that?
I was so disappointed that the movie version didn’t use the topiary, Jim! The maze was lame compared to those slowly advancing, shape-shifting hedge creatures.
The Alienist by Caleb Carr. THAT was some scary stuff. 🙁
CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide, 7th Edition
Now that I know what really makes the internet work I sleep with the lights on.
This is why programmers shall inherit–and control–the Earth, Basil! No one else is smart enough to work the levers of a worldwide web of evil, lol.
Stephen King got me both times. An involuntary spasm of fear launched The Shining out of my hands. Pet Sematary banished my cat from sleeping on my bed.
My copy of The Shining had a reflective, silver cover. It startled me several times when it caught the light unexpectedly. That was the first time I grasped the potential power of cover art!
THE HOT ZONE by Richard Preston. This story about real-life Ebola virus is scarier than anything people can make up.
OMG, The Hot Zone was truly frightening, Amy! Just that one true story about the research monkeys infected with Ebola, downwind from a Washington, DC nursery school, was enough to keep me awake at night. I still have a Google alert set to notify me about outbreaks of nasty viruses, because of that book!
Dracula made me very uneasy and seasick during a bus drive, which is usually one of my favorite places to read. I was also tired because of lack of sleep, but I after that incident, I couldn’t pick and read it again. Maybe because I saw a black and white Dracula movie just a month before that. Whatever explanation, that was quite an experience. 🙂