Discussion Question: What's the scariest book you've ever read?
"What's the scariest book you've ever read?"
A friend asked me this the other day while we were talking about Halloween preparations.
"That's easy!" I said - and then, I drew a blank. Surely everyone has a book that scared them senseless as a kid or as an adult, but when the time came to muster up a title, I couldn't do it.
That isn't to say I haven't been scared as a reader. I am one of the biggest wimps I know! Lots of books scare me. There just isn't a single tale that stands towering over the others as the ultimate in frightening.
Stephen King is the master of horror, so he seems like he ought to be a good candidate. But when I think of his books, I always remember them as rather farcical because the ending is always over-the-top ridiculous. It had a slow set-up but a a good chunk of it is perfectly chilling and creepy. Then the third act ruined it. Same with Carrie. Same with Pet Sematary. I assume the rest of his novels follow suit, but after those three I never picked up another one.
Still, there are definitely certain topics that will give me the willies and leave me trembling in the dark for hours. My husband likes to laugh at me about this first one, but anything about uncaught serial killers freaks me the heck out. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in the 1970s a murderer called the Zodiac killer went on a spree here. Even though he went inactive years before I was born, whenever I read a book or see a documentary about him, I get jumpy and can't stand to be alone in the house because I'm convinced the Zodiac will get me. Worse, I get this jumpy about serial killers that were active over a century ago. If I read about the Jack the Ripper cases, I become convinced that I am not safe, even though I am not a prostitute and Jack the Ripper murdered in Whitechapel in the 1880s. It may have been a century ago, but he could still be out there...
It's embarrassing to admit, but there it is.
I'm also a weakling that after reading a "true life!" account of ghosts or hauntings becomes convinced that her home is likewise haunted. Never mind that fictional ghosts don't have this effect on me; get me at your campfire and assure me that the tale you're about to tell happened to your mother's sister's roommate's daughter, and I will believe you. And after that, I may not sleep well for days. I'm pretty sure I don't think ghosts exist, on a rational day, but get me hyped up a half-dozen stories of ghostly sightings in historic hotels, and I will be a mess.
So what's the scariest book YOU'VE ever read?
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2012: The Rebellion of Jane Clarke by Sally Gunning
2011: Persuasion by Jane Austen
2010: The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
2009: Giveaway: The Virgin's Daughters WINNERS
2008: Descartes' Bones by Russell Shorto
A friend asked me this the other day while we were talking about Halloween preparations.
"That's easy!" I said - and then, I drew a blank. Surely everyone has a book that scared them senseless as a kid or as an adult, but when the time came to muster up a title, I couldn't do it.
That isn't to say I haven't been scared as a reader. I am one of the biggest wimps I know! Lots of books scare me. There just isn't a single tale that stands towering over the others as the ultimate in frightening.
Stephen King is the master of horror, so he seems like he ought to be a good candidate. But when I think of his books, I always remember them as rather farcical because the ending is always over-the-top ridiculous. It had a slow set-up but a a good chunk of it is perfectly chilling and creepy. Then the third act ruined it. Same with Carrie. Same with Pet Sematary. I assume the rest of his novels follow suit, but after those three I never picked up another one.
Still, there are definitely certain topics that will give me the willies and leave me trembling in the dark for hours. My husband likes to laugh at me about this first one, but anything about uncaught serial killers freaks me the heck out. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in the 1970s a murderer called the Zodiac killer went on a spree here. Even though he went inactive years before I was born, whenever I read a book or see a documentary about him, I get jumpy and can't stand to be alone in the house because I'm convinced the Zodiac will get me. Worse, I get this jumpy about serial killers that were active over a century ago. If I read about the Jack the Ripper cases, I become convinced that I am not safe, even though I am not a prostitute and Jack the Ripper murdered in Whitechapel in the 1880s. It may have been a century ago, but he could still be out there...
It's embarrassing to admit, but there it is.
I'm also a weakling that after reading a "true life!" account of ghosts or hauntings becomes convinced that her home is likewise haunted. Never mind that fictional ghosts don't have this effect on me; get me at your campfire and assure me that the tale you're about to tell happened to your mother's sister's roommate's daughter, and I will believe you. And after that, I may not sleep well for days. I'm pretty sure I don't think ghosts exist, on a rational day, but get me hyped up a half-dozen stories of ghostly sightings in historic hotels, and I will be a mess.
So what's the scariest book YOU'VE ever read?
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2012: The Rebellion of Jane Clarke by Sally Gunning
2011: Persuasion by Jane Austen
2010: The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
2009: Giveaway: The Virgin's Daughters WINNERS
2008: Descartes' Bones by Russell Shorto