[Gabriella]

A boy called it. I blubbed for an hr after reading it.

[evesapples131]

Shrine by James Herbert -

I had to sleep with the lights on, I don't usually get creeped out by books, but this one was very scary!! ,

[Cellar_Door]

Deadhead by Shaun Hutson really turned my stomach but there is a particularly gruesome scene near the end of the book. It made me feel genuinely nauseous, so much so I actually ripped the book to shreds (literally)

[sadmuppet]

Originally Posted by lemonbun

'It' by Stephen King.

.

This one for me - tried to tackle it as a teenager, scared myself witless and have never been able to go back to it! Probably isn't as scary as it felt then...

[d0lphin]

Originally Posted by Gabriella

A boy called it. I blubbed for an hr after reading it.

It's actually called A Child Called It. I read it one Saturday evening and literally started crying at the first page and didn't stop till the end, much to the amusement of my (then) teenage sons - swines!

Originally Posted by lemonbun

'It' by Stephen King.

Stephen King's earlier work does have a knack for being very disturbing, 'The Stand' is another.

Is it really that disturbing? I am intending to read it soon but the length of it puts me off. If it's disturbing too then I might not bother

I can't remember the name of the book but I used to read a lot of Dean R. Koontz books (before he dropped the R and became plain Dean Koontz) but one was so gruesome that I gave up after about 10 pages and I rarely give up on books. He was one of my favourite authors but I have never read any of his books since.

[Enfant Terrible]

Originally Posted by allthatyouwant

No spoilers please! Just looking for a hard to read, horror book that I can scare myself stupid with!

Scare yourself stupid with "It" - Stephen King at his utmost best.

Edgar Allan Poe. No comment needed.

M.R. James. His Collected Ghost Stories are a classic for a very good reason. Lock your doors before you start reading.

More recent, but not horror in a purely literary sense - David Peace: Red Riding Quartet. I must have finished reading those about three years now, but they still play on my mind every now and then. Extremely powerful writing about some truly brutal, horrific stuff (semi-spoiler: it's all based on real life events).

[johnF1971]

American Psycho is probably the most disturbing thing I've read.

[Miss Hyde]

The final truth by serial killer pee wee gaskin

[Muffintop]

James Herbert..the rat trilogy of books...I read them many years ago and i could imagine it happening in real life..I find it terrifying to know there are rats near me now lol .Also Fluke..although this book wasn't scary i often look at animals and pets in a different light now,,especially my cat when she stares at me, i wonder to myself at what she is thinking.

[purplelinus]

Anything by Richard Laymon is quite disturbing.....also another fan of IT and The Stand by Stephen King. Also - Walkers by Graham Masterton - read that as a teenager and could hear sounds in the walls for a few days....!!

Shame Laymon is no longer with us

[Voynich]

Pet Sematary is the only King book I've read only once. It doesn't make for good reading before bed. It's obsessed with death of course and the death of Gage is horrific and I remember something about a sister called 'Zelda' which was upsetting too.

[theARE]

Not really into horror books - but I read Dan Simmons "The Terror" about a year ago and it still gives me chills now.

Something about the bleakness of the setting I think - coupled with it being partially based on real world events.

Excellent book. Like I said, not a horror fan per say, so couldn't compare it with other horror books, but it's a damn good read.

[Cannonball Stan]

There's an extended passage in Haruki Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" where a Japanese spy is caught in China and slowly skinned alive in front of his colleague for information he doesn't possess. I must have read this 10 years ago, and it still bothers me now.

[kira nerys]

Originally Posted by meechyemoo

This and the Treatment, especially the very end, very very sad

I have just finished The Treatment,I was actually open mouthed and close to tears at the end,I couldn't believe it

I have Tokyo on my shelf,yet to read it,as I am currently reading Ritual,but I will definately read it soon.

[Tizzy]

Originally Posted by dtcdtcdtc

The Exorcist. Read it when I was at school 'cos everyone else was reading it'

Wish I hadn't

Couldn't sleep properly for ages.

My experience exactly. *shudder* Took years to get over it.

[kira nerys]

Originally Posted by wiseguy100

the last 20 pages of Tokyo/The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder.

Agreed.I have just finished this book,and these last pages are indeed disturbing,moreso when reading the acknowledgments at the back and realising that the final twist was not entirely fictional.

[Hogzilla]

I made the mistake of reading 'Pet Semetary' around the time one of my own kids was the same age as the little boy in the book. As a result it was very disturbing, and dark.