Frothers Unite! UK

Stephen King's The Shining was very scary. I also found Misery to be pretty terrifying.

I found American Psycho disturbing.
I had to read on to some of the calmer passages before turning out the light at bedtime.
Although, as someone pointed out above, being disturbed is not the same as scared. Actually, that's nit-picking. It is - it adds up to the same thing.

Nope, not books either.

tbh I can't recall actually being scared by a book. Disturbed, yes (usually by some description of depraved human cruelty), but scared, no. I don't particularly read horror though, outside of the classics, and modern stuff like Kim Newman or Anne Rice are more pastiche than horror.

I've been terrified by films though.

Etranger2 wrote:The Collected Ghost Stories of M R James. Old fashioned atmospheric ghost stories, best read in a dark room by an open fire for maximum effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colle ... ._R._James https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/mr/

Same for me. Love those short stories.

Books, rather than book. 'A la recherche du temps perdu'. The page count is fucking scary...

Etranger2 wrote:The Collected Ghost Stories of M R James. Old fashioned atmospheric ghost stories, best read in a dark room by an open fire for maximum effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colle ... ._R._James https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/mr/

Loved M R James stories for years, read 'em all many times. There's a podcast that discusses them. Bit curate's egg TBH http://www.mrjamespodcast.com/episodes/

Can't think of any book that scared me and I've read a lot of horror. The books that have got under my skin are the ones I've read recently by Thomas Ligotti. He's been described as similar to Lovecraft, this is not correct. His stories are dreams/nightmares. Really well written and off kilter enough to make you think of your own sweaty nightmares

The Collected Ghost Stories of M R James. Old fashioned atmospheric ghost stories, best read in a dark room by an open fire for maximum effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colle ... ._R._James https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/mr/

The Bible .

It's coming up to Halloween, so which book scares the crap out of you? It's ok, I'm actually a Catholic priest, you can tell me in total confidence. And I mean, really scares you.

For me it was The Shining. Big surprise if you haven't read the film thread.

I was/am a voracious reader, I'll read a novel in a single sitting, barely taking a loo break. But I recall reading The Shining on a bright summers day and stopping to move from the armchair to the sofa because the sofa was against the wall, and therefore nothing could be behind me. Right? I remember stopping several times reading this book, taking a short walk around the house, just to get my breath back. I remember wiping my sweaty hands on my jeans, I remember a real sense of dread as I laboured through the book. Like the film, I'm not sure why it so affected me, I think it's the predestined story, the idea that the end is inevitable no matter what the protagonists actually do. But more than any other story I've read, it really made me uncomfortable reading it and for some time after.

So what book scared you?