What's the scariest fictional book you've read?

a reply to: Skid Mark

Ditto on Straub being under rated - he can be a bit deep for some people that want a "lite" read, but I love books that make me work for the answers. Straub gets DARK, but I enjoy that!

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

Oh, I know that Amityville was probably a bunch of poppycock (always wanted to use the word poppycock - heh), but I read it when I was in Junior High, and boy did we wear that story out at sleepovers!

a reply to: Missmissie173

Yes he does. Lost Boy/ Lost Girl was very dark.

I don't get hugely scared reading anymore.

I did however get scared reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase when I was kid .

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Thecakeisalie

Oh, I hated Desperation and its Bachman counterpart, The Regulators, TOK ! Other King books I found disappointing were Cell and The Tommyknockers.
And I loved the Dark Tower fantasy series but felt cheated by the ending.

Yes, the regulators was probably it for me. I read Desolation first and by the time I got to the regulators I was pretty on edge.

Check out British author Brian Lumley

Necroscope

en.m.wikipedia.org...

1st couple of books in his series are incredible,has everything and is a real page turner

Don't know about 'scary' so much, but my favorite fiction books are the Anne Rice vampire books. OH, how I love those books!

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski was a total mindf***.

The Decent by Jeff Long was great.

Hell House by Richard Matheson is a must read and even better than I Am Legend.

I could probably name 20 more if I had to.

a reply to: AlmostRosey

"The Keep" by F. Paul Wilson

The Christopher Snow books, "Seize the Night" and "Fear Nothing" by Dean Koontz.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski was a total mindf***.

The Decent by Jeff Long was great.

Hell House by Richard Matheson is a must read and even better than I Am Legend.

I could probably name 20 more if I had to.

Oh - I was terrified of "The Decent" so much so that I didn't remember it until you brought it up.

a reply to: AlmostRosey

H.G. Wells. The Island of Doctor Moreau

William Golding. Lord Of The Flies

Daphne Du Maurier. Rebecca

originally posted by: alldaylong
a reply to: AlmostRosey

H.G. Wells. The Island of Doctor Moreau

Oh yeah. Scary because it was prescient. He wrote that at the end of the 19th century and here we are now screwing with DNA. Dude had an amazing look into the future.

originally posted by: alldaylong
a reply to: AlmostRosey

H.G. Wells. The Island of Doctor Moreau

William Golding. Lord Of The Flies

Daphne Du Maurier. Rebecca

And D Du Mauriers "The House on the Strand" not really scary but spooky - so many of her books were spooky.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I loved The Keep. F. Paul Wilson is another underrated author. The Repairman Jack series and Adversary Cycle are great.

a reply to: alldaylong

The Island of Doctor Moreau is a good one. He had a lot of good books.

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: FyreByrd

I loved The Keep. F. Paul Wilson is another underrated author. The Repairman Jack series and Adversary Cycle are great.

Are they "do not read alone on a dark and stormy night; unable to sleep till morning" kind of scary like "The Keep" was??

a reply to: FyreByrd

Some of them are. The Haunted Air was pretty scary. That's one of the Repairman Jack ones. Black Wind was kind of scary. It ties into one of the Repairman Jack novels. A lot of them tie into each other. Same with his short stories, like Pelts. They based an episode of Masters of Horror on that one. Meatloaf's character ended up skinning himself to make a vest.

Some great books have been mentioned here! I especially love the true haunting type of stories.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Yeah was "supposed",to be true but it was all a lie. See my post above yours? I lived in the area. That book caused more traffic jams on Oak ave.
On a side note a weird fact about that house. The lot it is on is narrow but deep. It's on a canal as Amityville is a bay front community. I lived on Bayview ave a few miles to the east also on a canal. Anyway the weird thing is the house which is a Dutch colonial sits sideways on the property. Their front door faces the house next door instead of the street.. So those fan windows shown so much in the movie face the back yard and look out over the Water. Yeah even I rode past it a few times adding to the traffic problem. Oak Ave is just a little side street not a main road .
The house has had a few owners since the Lutz family moved out and they all say that the house is normal. That the supposed red room in the basement doesn't exist and that they've never had any problems there.

a reply to: Missmissie173

It's a story just made for sleepovers . I was already in my late teens early twenties when this went on and I bought the book. Of course. I mean horror in my own back yard. Who could resist? It's only since that I've heard the rest. I did know the DeFeo story. It was in the papers and on tv when it happened and that was true as far as him killing his whole family while they slept. But did the devil make him do it? Doubtful.