I'm looking for a book to read that'll stay with you and actually scare you, something that perhaps you read it once and you're like. I'll never read that again, or something that actually impacted you and you're like. This is an amazing book. Looking forward to some exciting recommendations 🫡
by RallyVincentGT500
14 Comments
They’re not scary per se but Simone St. James books stick with me. And then **Abandon** by Blake Crouch lives in my head rent free to this day.
Heart Shaped Box – Joe Hill
I read a lot of Stephen King, Preston and Child, used to read Koontz a lot. Point is, I’m no newbie to this genre of horror.
That being said, I’ve never been actually scared from a novel until this book. I had to put it down multiple times and even had nightmares. Not sure why it got to me in the way it did, but did the same to my wife. Read it and let me know what you think.
*Tender is the Flesh* isn’t necessarily horror, but it has stayed with me and the premise is pretty believable for a dystopian fiction. it’s by Agustina Bazterrica.
Pet sematary by Stephen King. That book haunted me in a way no other book ever did. About 5 years ago, I picked it up for reading during the month of November. Halfway through the book I was so scared to even continue reading it. I took a break of two months and then I mustered the courage to continue. Finally I finished reading the book. It was a solid 5 star read but one that I would never pick up ever again.
I had to put Misery down for a few **months** because the tension and suffering and agony was kept at such a terrifyingly intense pitch for so long that I had to tap out for a while.
It’s kind of a master class in the “people are the most frightening things out there” genre of horror, and it’s still the scariest thing I’ve ever read. It’s also in my Top 20. It’s really, really good.
It’s not quite accurate to say it scared me, but The Reformatory by Tananarive Due has definitely stuck with me. It got to me enough that I had to take a break in the middle to read something lighter.
Lord of the Flies
Blindness by Jose saramago
A recent release, Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman, was super creepy.
Pet Sematary by King is probably the scariest I’ve ever read. TW if you have children…
It’s not fictional horror per say,but a story that has never left me was McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone In the Dark. Scary because it truly happened and there are people like that out there. I read true crime constantly and that still haunts me.
Maybe it was just me but the one that got me was Unrelenting Terror by P S Power. As far as I know, it still isn’t available for purchase in the US because it really messes with your head. I lucked out because I had bought it right after it was first written. I couldn’t even read it all the way through. I skipped around after it started messing with my head. This is the only book to ever have this effect on me and I read all the time.
The Exorcist – I was paralyzed reading this book.
Harlan Ellison’s and Clive Barker’s short stories really get under my skin.
Pet Cemetery