Have you ever read a book that REALLY scared you?
By reinydawn
@reinydawn (11643)
United States
November 11, 2008 7:17am CST
I had started another discussion about books, and the charactes in them. One of the responses got me to thinking about how sometimes the book doesn't leave you once you close it up.
I remember one book I read that REALLY scared me. I mean, I finished reading the book at like 3am (I was so into it I just kept reading until I was done). Then I had to go to the bathroom, which was down the hall, which was dark because it was night! I think the only way I was able to get out of the bed was knowing that nothing could be under it since I had a waterbed. But I RAN down the hall, turning on all the lights as I went. Slammed the bathroom door shut when I got in there and checked behind the shower curtain before sitting on the toilet. Then I was thinking "Oh no, I have to turn the lights off before I'm the whole way down the hallway, and the light from the bedroom wont light it all up". So I RUN back down the hallway, slapping the light off as I go, dash into my room and get back under the covers as soon as I could. I was really freaked out by this and that's so not like me! I still remember this to this day, and that was about 10 years ago!
This book was "The Relic" - I don't remember who wrote it. I read Stephen King books all the time and yeah, they kinda stick with me a bit (the tub stuff in The Shining still gets me sometimes). But nothing's ever happened to me like this before!
What's your "scary book" story?
4 people like this
13 responses
@taface412 (3175)
• United States
12 Nov 08
In high school I began reading Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar until I realized it was one of the most depressing books she ever wrote and it was the one based on her life and I know how she ended her life so I quit reading it.
The I began reading 1984 and again quit it because it was disturbing, but with current events may actually pick that book up again for a read. Even though the part about the tvs watching you and with the new switch to digital in february...I still don't know if I will read it LOL
And the one I actually did finish that was scary was The innoncet man by Girsholm. About a man who went to prison for a crime he never committed and it focused on the injustices of our courts and botched laws. This was based on a true story.
Otherwise no books ever scared me to that extent you said...now movies...oh yeah. Every Halloween when I watch Halloween every light has to be on, every door locked and I always make sure I look in the kitchen when the music is playing...freaks me out.
2 people like this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I started reading 1984 in 1984, but got pretty bored with it, so I've never finished it. I love Grisham and remember that book well. He did a very good job with it, as well as Ann Rule and I think she's the best true-crime out there.
Movies make me jump while I'm watching them if something happens suddenly, but after the movie it doesn't usually stick with me.
@cream97 (29087)
• United States
11 Nov 08
Yes, I read John Saul's, "A Perfect Nightmare." In this book there was this man that would hide in Open Houses at night. He was from an Real Estate Company. And he hid in the closets of young girl's rooms.. It was very scary.. Because after, I would read chapter after chapter, I would go and look inside of my closets to see if anyone is hiding in them. I will do this very often now. Because of what I read in this book has scared me, and now I am thinking that when I leave and come back to my home, that there will be someone waiting and hiding for us in my closets. So when I come back home, I will double check all rooms and closets to make sure that no one is hiding in there. I know that I do lock up good before I leave to go out, but there are many sneaky people that know how to pry their way into your home, when you are gone.. Reading this entire book has made me think twice about whom will come into my house and hide themselves when I am gone..
2 people like this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I used to read John Saul a lot when I was younger, but it seemed like all his stuff was the same. I'll have to try this one though, maybe his style has changed since I last read one of his books.
@cyntrow (8523)
• United States
11 Nov 08
Stephen King's "Pet Semetary" is the only book that ever entered my life. I know it is loosely based on "the Monkey's Claw" and that story scared the crap out of me in my youth. When I read "Pet Semetary" I was a single mother of two young boys and they were my world. The book didn't do much while I was reading, but after the book was done, I would have nightmares of one of my kids dying, like the boy in the book did. My brain says that if something like the pet semetary existed, I might give it a go. Anything to get my son back. I think that thought, and knowing how gage turned out in the book scared me for a while.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I remember that one. Stephen King sure is the master of suspense, but other than The Shining, they didn't really stay with me long. How he can come up with that stuff I will never know!
@cyntrow (8523)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I've read all of King's books and I think he is a master of suspense and horror. He is not my primary author, but his works are one's I look for. Having said that, Pet Semetary is the only one that scared the hell out of me. I think its because it touched on something personal to me at the time I read it. I had dreams of the little shoe filled with blood and in my dream the shoe was that of my own child. I think that fear of a work of literature does have much to do with our personal fears at the time. Or maybe it is just me. LOL
1 person likes this
@hildas (3031)
•
12 Nov 08
I think that, that was one of the best ever stories, I have ever come across in this catergory. How anyone could of thought this story line up baffles me. Stephen King is something else.
Sorry you had nightmares with this book. A lot of people on this discussion have had strange experiences with certain books.
1 person likes this
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I read a Steven King book when I was a teenager, I don't even remember which one it was, but I got really in to it. One night I was reading it in bed before sleeping and I fell asleep and I had a really terrifying nightmare. Other than some Anne Rice books I have not really gotten in to horror books ever since, and I would definately never read one where I could fall asleep while doing so.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I liked Ann Rice's Mayfair witch stories, but haven't been able to get into the vampire ones. I've read almost all Stephen Kings books, I'm his number one fan (heheheh). I read every night before I go to bed, but I've not had problems with nightmares...
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I read that a long time ago, it was pretty good. I've read almost everything by Stephen King, I think he does a very good job. His stuff makes me feel a bit skittish sometimes, but never out and out scared.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
14 Nov 08
Wow, the scarriest? That would be hard... Some of the true-crime books have been pretty scary, just knowing that a real person was capable of something so horrific, and that it wasn't just made up... I'll have to think a bit on this one... I know The Shining scared me, so did The Omen.
1 person likes this
@TnWoman (1895)
• United States
11 Nov 08
hello reinydawn
to answer your question about have i ever read a book before that had me scared like that?, yes, i am currently reading "HeartSick". i am almost finished reading the book as well. a couple of weeks ago, i was reading one afternoon, then i got sleepy from reading and decided to take a nap, well needless to say, while that i was napping, i flung my right hand up in my sleep and it hit the back of my bed, where that the headboard is, or whatever that the back part of the wood is called on the bed there, and oh my gosh!, when i woke up from my nap, i had the biggest ugliest bruise on my right hand that you have ever seen before. lol the book is about a female serial killer, and it goes into details. lol i guess that i have around seventy pages to read on that book now to finish it. i hope that i do not hurt myself in my sleep again. lol
take care and have a beautiful day today!
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
WOW!!! You really musta been thinking about that book in your sleep! I'm glad that's all it was. I have had dreams about books I'm reading too, but luckily I haven't gotten hurt from them. Let us know if the ending was worth it!!!
@esrefeteknik (2)
• Turkey
12 Nov 08
Get well soon I think you are a fear-woman because you harm yourself although sleeping. Too scared, I have started to scare.
1 person likes this
@wayz12 (2059)
• United States
11 Nov 08
Since I'm a scaredy cat myself, I rarely pick up a horror book. However, I did go out on a limb and read Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. The book was well-written with beautiful, beautiful prose, but the subject matter scared me.
I have to admit I was still feeling pretty spook even after I have put the book down. My only regret is that the book was scary, because if it wasn't I would have reread it because of his writing. A pity....
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
Wow, I remember when I read that, it's a great book! It's actually based on true events, pretty close to me actually... I know some people that saw the original movie in the theater right after it came out and they walked by the stairs where the priest fell.
@jessigirl116 (848)
• United States
12 Nov 08
I read "Intensity" by Dean Koontz, and it scared me good. Like, scared me in my psychological place. I read it straight through within 24 hours. I couldn't put it down. There was a nervous place in my head that was afraid to leave "Chyna" alone with that psychopath. Plus the bad guy had a girl in his basement that "Chyna" was trying to rescue, and I couldn't leave her either. It was nuts.
When I was about 15, I read one of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" books, part 5 I think. When it got to the part when the pregnant girl having the nightmares asks her friend if unborn babies dream, my whole body goosebumped up. I shivered.
There are definitely some scary books out there. I'm doing my part to scare the crap out of myself as often as possible!!!
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
Hmmm... I don't recall that book right off the top of my head, but I read a LOT of Dean Koontz. He's pretty good too. I'll have to see if I have that one, I usually keep all this books because I like them.
I never saw the Nightmare movies, and didn't even know there were books about them. I've always wanted to watch them, but never have yet - maybe I'll put them on my blockbuster list.
@cryw0lf (1302)
• United Kingdom
11 Nov 08
I haven't really read a book that's SCARED-SCARED me, however i have read a book that made me feel sick in a scared sort of way. Mainly sick though. It went into detail about how these people were being killed and butchered- and well, with my imagination i was standing right in the room watching it happen basically. So yeah- it's left me feeling really uneasy going out at night... :P
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
Yeah, some authors can be pretty graphic, so I can see that... I like to read a lot of different kinds of books, so I get a variety of things going through my head!
@esrefeteknik (2)
• Turkey
12 Nov 08
I think there is not a scared situation that somebody feels the characters in a deep dark so that he or she had read a scared book also too scared. I think everybody must read a scared book although to be scaring. Because the fear is sometimes good.
1 person likes this
@gemini_rose (16264)
•
12 Nov 08
I have read books over the years that have affected me to the point where I will look behind me a bit more than usual. Mainly they are books from authors such as Stephen King and Dean Koontz, they are writers whose work can have a long lasting impression on me!
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
Both of those writers are great at the suspense novels. I love reading their stuff, even though it does give me the heebie-jeebies sometimes!
@fluffysue (1482)
• United States
24 Nov 08
Well, I pretty much had to stop reading Stephen King books...I like to read in bed and it is hard to go to sleep after that. I remember once taking the book "Four Past Midnight" on vacation with me...of course I had flown there, and the Langoliers story was in that one...naturally I made the mistake of reading that one ON the plane. 
You mentioned true crime stories in another response. I used to like reading them, but then once while I was in college in Florida, I was reading a true crime story about some killings at another college in Florida a few years earlier. (I don't recall the name of the book). The book was full of horrific details I would rather not have known, and as I was reading it, I was picturing it happening in the campus apartment I was living in. Not only that, I would start thinking of it from time to time long after I finished reading it. That pretty much did it for true crime for me! Now I like to read happy things. 
You mentioned true crime stories in another response. I used to like reading them, but then once while I was in college in Florida, I was reading a true crime story about some killings at another college in Florida a few years earlier. (I don't recall the name of the book). The book was full of horrific details I would rather not have known, and as I was reading it, I was picturing it happening in the campus apartment I was living in. Not only that, I would start thinking of it from time to time long after I finished reading it. That pretty much did it for true crime for me! Now I like to read happy things. 1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
24 Nov 08
That would probably freak me out too, reading something that was so close to home like that. I do find that I have to mix in different genres, I can't read just horror all the time.
@moonight (249)
• United States
26 Nov 08
i haven;t really read a book that scared me, i can feel the sadness in books and happeniess but i still haven't came across a book that make me feel scare at all, but i want to because i like ghosts stories or mystery kinda of stuff it would be great if i can still get that feelings
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
26 Nov 08
I do like a book that can make you feel what's going on, but I wasn't real thrilled with being "scared" by a book....
@sweeneyallanburton (65)
• United States
12 Nov 08
Rarely do I get frightened by a book, but sometimes when I am reading something that reminds me of a personal fear I get disturbed when walking down dark hallways or things of that sort. Though I am not afraid of the dark, apparently my other phobias being disturbed, I become fearful of the dark. The only time in recent memory I have had it happen was with a Stephen King book - I can't remember which one for anything though, since I've read most of them. I want to say it was a short story, though.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
12 Nov 08
Stephen King books are pretty creepy, I've read most of them too. He has a creative way of weaving it all together for you.
