Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion

What is the scariest book you ever read?

Good question. To me, I suppose I'd have to say books that are plausibly realistic, like they could really happen. Ironically, most horror doesn't really scare me, per se.

The Exorcist is one (yeah, I know, this may not be plausibly realistic to some, but the idea scares the hell out of me) and then probably Whitley Streiber's Communion, way back in the late 80's. Again, may not be "realistic" according to what I said--especially if you don't believe Streiber's claims--but I found his accounts of alien abduction to be frighteningly real.

Scary & horror are two different things, yes?

If so, the scariest book I ever read might have been Jaws. My grandparents lived in Amityville & I used to swim all around Long Island, both in the ocean & the Sound. I was scuba diving in the Sound one day & saw a shark - I was later told it was a 6' sand shark - & managed to get into the boat in record time. To hear my cousins tell it, I came up out of the water, ran across it & jumped into the boat like I was running on the beach. And did this while wearing tanks, a weight belt & flippers. I don't really recall. I just know it gets very dark down there, there was a shark & I evacuated the area ASAP. So 'Jaws' really hit me. I read the book well before seeing the movie, but I don't recall if either or both were before my own shark incident or after. Too many beers - I mean 'years' - ago.

I can't remember the name of the most horrible book I read. It was supposed to be a mystery, but it had a very graphic rape/torture scene in it. Serial killer/rapist thing. I didn't finish it. Too close to reality.

Yeah, Jim, I hear ya. Oh...there's a Leisure title by JF Gonzalez (been mentioned before) called Survivor that is very disturbingly real. Add that to my previous list as well.

I grew up in The Keys in the mid to late 70's and EVERYONE raved about that movie. I was too young to see it then but it took me a LONG time to have the guts to watch that movie. I was too terrified of that big Great White popping up out of the water... Not so much now, of course, but I've also spent a fair amount of time on and IN the water...and I've seen sharks IN the water with me (well, okay, a nurse shark, fairly harmless unless you're dumb enough to mess with it) and that infamous John Williams theme music echoes in my mind...

Did you ever read Alive The Story of the Andes Survivors? That was told so matter of factly that it still sends chills down my spine. Was it a guy that had a hole in his belly for a long time?

Yes, horror is more horrible for me when it is very close to reality.

The National Geographic version of the sharks scare me more than Jaws. There are teeth in the ocean, man! I have been having nightmares of being adrifted in the sea with one of these wicked looking trianglar head popping out of the surface looking at me as a midnight snack. Not to mention dozen of other unseen sharks swimming in the wet void.

Salemn's Lot is scary as well, because the townpeople are wicked along with the vampires that came to roast. It was as if the book was a painted bird version of corrupted slaves preparing the house for the arrival of his or her master.

The Painted Bird is also scary with its dreamy prose of vile grotesque wickedness, and that was BEFORE the SSS came calling.

Also recipes for cooking live babies in The Apocalpyse Culture made me furious and frightened.

For a long time after I read King's I scared my self silly (and probably still could) by looking out my vehicle window at night and expecting to see a scary face floating alongside and grinning at me as I drove. I also saw this in an old B horror movie once. For some reason this just scares the holy frack outta me.

Jim wrote: "Scary & horror are two different things, yes?

If so, the scariest book I ever read might have been Jaws. My grandparents lived in Amityville & I used to swim all around Long Island,..."
LOL--I was out in the ocean on my dad's boat--he was fishing off the side and I was getting ready to dive in when he pulled in a shark. It was only a couple of feet long but I changed my mind right quick. It is where they live and they were there first.

Chris wrote: "Yeah, Jim, I hear ya. Oh...there's a Leisure title by JF Gonzalez (been mentioned before) called Survivor that is very disturbingly real. Add that to my previous list as well.

I grew up in The..."

Lucky you growing up in the Keys before they became a trendy suburb of Miami. I loved going to Key West when it was still a wide open party town--no quaint B and Bs or big hotels. Loved it--miss it.

Key West has its share of scary stuff. That strange looking moving doll cames to mind. It is weird.

Well, the whole book wasn't scary, but there's a scene in China Mieville's The Scar that heavily plays on my fear of giant sea monsters. In the scene they call up this huge monster from the deep to tow them along and they have to go down to check on it for one reason or another. The description of it being so big and dark that you can't see even most of it from any one spot is just creepy to me. Of course China's description is better than mine.

Agreed, Jim. That's a horrifying real-life story, for sure. That, and the Donner party...

Jim wrote: "Did you ever read Alive The Story of the Andes Survivors? That was told so matter of factly that it still sends chills down my spine. Was it a guy that had a hole in his belly for ..."

I agree, Twoina. KW will always have a special place in the heart and sadly enough, even though I have not been back to visit since I was about 19 and I miss it terribly, I know it has unfortunately changed forever. Even the water isn't as crystal clear as I remember from a boy. But parts of it--and the attitude of real Conchs--has not and will never change. Hell, one of my most vivid memories of the Keys was waking up on Saturday morning and looking out across the street (we lived in the old Key West Towers condo next to the airport back then) and seeing the hippies in their tye-dyed VW's and minibuses hanging out at Smather's beach. Good times.

Twoina wrote: "Chris wrote: "Yeah, Jim, I hear ya. Oh...there's a Leisure title by JF Gonzalez (been mentioned before) called Survivor that is very disturbingly real. Add that to my previous list as well.

I ..."

Chris wrote: "I agree, Twoina. KW will always have a special place in the heart and sadly enough, even though I have not been back to visit since I was about 19 and I miss it terribly, I know it has unfortunate..."

That would have been me, friends and my painted VW bus. Gawd, I miss it, too.

I always thought that when I got old (not that I ever will--growing older but not up--according to a Key West Bard) I would move to Key West and become an eccentric old lady. Unfortunately these days there's no way I can afford it.

Yeah, I don't know how people can afford to live there unless you make six figures. Nice reference to JB...I got it before you mentioned the "bard" part. ;) On a sidenote, I developed a serious love of Cuban food after being exposed to it at a very young age at such classic joints such as "The Pig Place" (and if you know KW fairly well you'll know the little Cuban restaurant with the big pig statue out front).

Okay, everyone...sorry for the serious OT!

Definitely Rosemary's Baby. I was reading it during a terrible thunderstorm. I was sitting in my living room and had a front door with a diamond-shaped window near the top. The neighbor's goat got loose and had wandered to my front door. I heard a noise, looked up just as a flash of lightening outlining a head with devil eyes staring in at me. I know my heart stopped for a little while. The goat ran away that night. The neighbors never found it.

Oh my! Yes, a goat's head under such circumstances could be quite scary. Their big, wide set eyes can look quite alien.

Especially considering the rectangular (rather than round) pupils those eyes have! :-) That would have been an unnerving experience.

The Road, for fear it's one we're already walking down.

I would have to say The Shining by Stephen King...I bought it when it came out, with the purpose of disproving a claim on the back cover that you would not be able to put the book down. I bought it at a lunch break on second shift where I was working as a spray painter. I could outpaint the day guy like 10 to 1. Needless to say, I pretty much filled my quota quickly and read the whole book in that one entire night... those hedge creatures scared the crap out of me....unfortunately, Kubrick did not have the technology to animate them back when he made the film, and then the made for tv version was just lame...

Scariest? The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. It's very old, and written in the Edgar Allen Poe style. I couldn't finish it when I first bought it: the horde of demonic pigs gave me nightmares. They seriously gave me sleepless nights, worse than those I had after I walked past the Racecourse on my way home from a screening of a 'Frankenstein' & 'Dracula' double late-night feature. I slept with a crucifix under my pillow for weeks afterwards. Well, I was only in my teens. There is no prophylactic for demonic pigs, though. I managed to finish the tale only recently & it still gives me the creeps.

It really depends upon the individual. King's THE SHINING, Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, Hodgson's THE HOUSE BY THE BORDERLAND, and Thomas Ligotti's GRIMSCRIBE rank very high; but the one that still reigns supreme for me is Sheridan Le Fanu's IN A GLASS DARKLY. The overt horrors in the individual novellas are powerful enough, but read as a whole the book implies that you are not safe no matter who you are, what you believe, and where you live. Faith is of no help to the Reverend Jennings in "Green Tea", whose exposure to ancient myths opened him up to outside influences inimical to him. Barton in "The Familiar" is a strong man who believes firmly in reason and justice. He is incapable of falling back on faith, which is just as well, as we have already seen in the preceding story. Justice is revealed as a brutal sham not only in the human world, but also in the supernatural if we are to believe what we see occur to "Mr Justice Harbottle" AND the victims of his justice. The good things of the city are corrupting influences here and in "The Room in the Dragon Volant", where chivalrous good intentions lead the protagonist into the toils of some despicable characters. But even a secluded location and complete innocence offer little protection to Laura in "Carmilla".

I think Camila was easily my favourite from that collection. Green Tea also excellent.

Jaws, Salem's Lot and It - course I read them all when I was a kid (my parents let us read anything) and to this day I can scare myself in the ocean and sometimes jump out of bed so the thing under it can't grab me!

Probably Salem's Lot by Stephen King...I first read it at the age of 12, and was about the same age when the first movie adaptation came out. 1978? Anyways, the movie was relevant/scary to me because of my age and the fact that I often walked home alone from school through a few scary patches of land and past a few haunted-looking homes. To this day, the image of the Vampire Barlow (from the first movie adaptation) still scares the shit out of me!

I wouldn't sleep with my bed next to the window for years after reading Salem's Lot!

I agree Cynthia (lol). I couldn't sleep by the window either for a long, long time after Salem's Lot. I kept expecting to see someone floating outside my window attempting to get my attention..'Let me in!' ....scratch, scratch,scratch,scratch.......

The Haunting of Hill House and Ghost Story were two that creeped me out enough to make it hard to go to sleep. I didn't think Pet Semetary was scary perse but it really got me emotionally.

Yes, Charles, when it comes to the fear factor, both The Haunting of Hill House, which was one of our group's common reads, and Ghost Story (which was another group read) definitely rank right up there! It's hard for me to actually feel fear in reading any kind of fiction --after all, it's strictly a make- believe story! But I've read a few that actually made me feel real fear or apprehension for characters I liked. Ghost Story is my all-time best example of this; the ominous tension Peter Straub creates in places there, for me, was almost unbearable.

Werner wrote: "Yes, Charles, when it comes to the fear factor, both The Haunting of Hill House, which was one of our group's common reads, and Ghost Story (which was another group read) definitely rank right up t..."

I read Ghost story in grad school, staying alone in a big old house with an actual hidden staircase and secret room, so it had added weight

Charles wrote: "I read Ghost story in grad school, staying alone in a big old house with an actual hidden staircase and secret room, so it had added weight"

I can readily imagine the effect that setting would have had! You're braver than I'd probably have been. :-)

I know that this has been done to death, but It by Stephen King was the first horror novel I ever read. And still to this day, I consider it the scariest that I've seen to date. The story itself was very unnerving, but it was the little things that stayed in my mind the most, i.e. when Pennywise was on the float, just casually waving at the kids.

Peter wrote: "I know that this has been done to death, but It by Stephen King was the first horror novel I ever read. And still to this day, I consider it the scariest that I've seen to date. The story itself wa..."

Love this book (and the movie - the original movie)! I think the movie scared me more than the book when I first watched it back in the day. :)

The scariest book I have read - well actually it is a tie as there are two books that I read which were scary - one is fiction and one is non-fiction.

The fiction one is:
Hell: The Possession and Exorcism of Cassie Stevens by Tom Lewis - this book made me keep the lights on - it will scare you right out of your skin!

The non-fiction one is:
The Haunted by Ed Warren - this book did make me keep the lights on.

It's so interesting to me how differently we, as readers, react to the same books, and I love it! Neither Ghost Story or Hell: The Possession and Exorcism of Cassie Stevens scared me at all. For me, though, I think it's because I'm more of a visual person with the scare factor. Meaning, watching horror/ghost movies scares the absolute daylights out of me, but reading those same stories doesn't affect me one bit.

Marie wrote: "The scariest book I have read - well actually it is a tie as there are two books that I read which were scary - one is fiction and one is non-fiction.

The fiction one is:
[book:Hell: The Possessi..."

Marie, your fictional pick does indeed look scary. It has a really great rating on Goodreads, too (and is only $3 on kindle). Sounds worth checking out.

Vickie wrote: "It's so interesting to me how differently we, as readers, react to the same books, and I love it! Neither Ghost Story or [book:Hell: The Possession and Exorcism of Cassie Stevens|42091..."

I'm with you, Vickie. I find movies much scarier than books. I'm also a visual person and an auditory one, too. Sounds can really make me jump and yelp (to the utter embarrassment of my family).

The scariest ghost movie I ever saw was Poltergeist. I think it's because the film didn't follow the usual ordinary world to conflict to rising action to climax. I breathed a sigh of relief after what I thought was the climax only to have all hell break loose!

Deb wrote: "Marie, your fictional pick does indeed look scary. It has a really great rating on Goodreads, too (and is only $3 on kindle). Sounds worth checking out..."

You won't be disappointed either. :) Get your scare on! LOL :)

Vickie wrote: "For me, though, I think it's because I'm more of a visual person with the scare factor. Meaning, watching horror/ghost movies scares the absolute daylights out of me, but reading those same stories doesn't affect me one bit...."

So watching the Conjuring would have you under your bed, Vickie? LOL 😍

It might not be a great work of literature but the book that kept me up the most at night while I was reading it was The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.

14 years after the first post! I'd recommend The Silent Companions . I don't read too much horror - Middle grade horror is about my speed and I just love it, so maybe others who read a lot of horror won't agree, but that book still creeps me out and I read it March of '22!

The scariest story I ever read was Red Dragon by Thomas Harris - which is not supernatural, but realistic fiction. A close second was Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind, which has supernatural elements, sort of.

But I didn't like either of them! I prefer the fear of the mind ...

I would not say I was scared, but the Ghosts of Sleath by James Hebert did have one part that creeped me out a little, I was reading it by bed lamp back in 1996, and there was a bit when the doctor hears voices coming from his sugary below, keep in mind it like one AM in the story, so by rights there should be nobody down there, and you as a reader know there nothing living making those sounds.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚡𝚘𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚜𝚝...

𝙰𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜! 𝙵𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚍𝚍 𝚖𝚎 💟
𝙸'𝚖 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙽𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚗 𝙸𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍, 𝚄𝙺. 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎𝚜, 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚢, 𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚛, 𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎.