Discussion Question: What's the scariest book you've ever read?

[fashion_piranha]

"What's the scariest book you've ever read?"A friend asked me this the other day while we were talking about Halloween preparations

Comments

[katemacetak]

I can't even remember the title...but when I was a kid, I was addicted to these cheap paperback YA horror books. It was like the 1980s teen version of penny dreadfuls, haha. Several of those scared the crap out of me.

eta: After looking it up, I realize that some of the books were in the Point Horror series, and others were horror books written by Caroline B. Cooney.

[fashion_piranha]

I remember Cooney's books. She and Christopher Pike, RL Stine, and VC Andrews had a huge teen pulp section at our library.

[ms_geekette]

Yeah, I tend to not get really scared by fiction, but stories about real-life serial killers are a bit more creepy, since they are (largely) true.

[balatstar]

Haha! I agree with you about Stephen King. His novels start out great, but about halfway through I want to rip them to shreds. Like you, after three books, I was done with him.

I remember getting really scared reading the John Bellairs / Edward Gorey novels, but I don't remember why anymore. Maybe it's more to do with the creepy illustrations than the actual stories.

[fashion_piranha]

Creepy illustrations can make all the difference! I can't think of a better example than the "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" series. The stories themselves range from silly to common urban myths to strange, but good grief, the original illustrations by Stephen Gammell are still some of the creepiest and most haunting things I've ever seen!