BOO!

We’ve asked for your recommendations for paranormals, vampire romances, and romantic romps with the undead.

Today I want to know: what book (and if it’s romance-related, even better) scared the ever lovin’ crap out of you?

For me, the romance recently that freaked me out to no end was Nora Roberts’ Blue Smoke. I’m not kidding. Evil fucking insane villain sexually brutalizes and sets fire to one of his victims, and the reader is witness to the whole scene, getting an in-depth glimpse of how well and truly gone-to-hell this guy’s sanity has been. The victim was chosen because of her spouse’s actions, and she had no idea why until the killer told her, and also informed her she was going to die. That scene stayed with me and STILL unnerves me.

There’s not a lot of suspenseful crime stories that I can stomach, because it makes me paranoid and fretful about the random acts of outward evil that people visit on each other. I can be scared by monsters all day long, but the evil of people? *shudder* Thus I have a hard time reading crime novels and books like it – the scariest stuff for me is the things that are so so evil, and yet possible, or even true.

So – in honor of Halloween – what book scared the crap out of you?

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  1. Karla says:

    I have not been scared by any books that I can think of, but there are a couple books that just really unnerved me, and still do when I think about them.

    “The Lover” by Robin Schone because the heroine gets buried alive with bugs and sort of gets off on it.

    “Nightfall” by Anne Stuart is a book I really enjoyed but the hero is just really really scary – even at the very end when he’s turned into somebody you can sort of understand.

  2. Alison Kent says:

    Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” ::shudder::

  3. Miri says:

    “It” by Stephan King…. brrrr very freaked by that one.
    In romance I suppose the scean that skert me was from LK Hamilton Anita Blake series… the one where the zombie crawls in her window and she’s dreaming about the smell and she wakes up and he’s standing over her! Aaaaack!!

  4. megan says:

    The Shining.

    And also this book I read back in junior high about this girl who moves into a new house and there’s a ghost and talking dolls (dolls.  freak.  me. out.)I can’t remember much about it, except I dont think it was intentionally scary (My Friend Sam or something similar?)Or maybe I combined two books in my head…

    Amityville Horror.

    The supernatural stuff like evil spirits, demons, etc scares me more than anything because you can’t see it coming.  How do you fight off something you can’t see?

  5. Rosemary says:

    Cell by Stephen King. Holy sweet mother of Jesus, that freaked me the fuck out.  I’ve been reading him since I was 12, and that one was the first one that made it difficult for me to sleep.  Or answer my phone.

  6. Casey says:

    I’d say mine is “False Memory” by Dean Koontz.

    Brain washing always scares the hell outta me because it’s more likely to happen (in my mind) then ghosts and vampires. And the whole story is disturbing on so many different levels.

  7. misreall says:

    I reread Peter Straub’s Ghost Story almost every Halloween, not so much for the big scares (although the scene where Pete can feel someone staring at him in the dark is skin crawling), but for the overwhelming sense of dread and doom throughout the whole book.

  8. bam says:

    Umm… let’s see…

    “False Memory” by Dean Koontz. God, when that chick was trying to hide the knives in her kitchen because she was afraid that she’d accidentally hurt herself or her husband… very tense.

    “Rose Madder” by Stephen King. The abusive husband was so relentless in pursuing his escaped wife to the point that he reminded me of Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies.

    “Night Fall” by Anne Stuart. That hero is one scary dude. Even when he’s a lot softer in the end, there’s still that feeling that he’ll snap one day and just put a pillow over your head in your sleep.

  9. Victoria says:

    Maybe I just scare easily but Brockmann’s latest, with the serial killer, scared the shit out of me.

  10. Mel-O-Drama says:

    I read Blue Smoke this summer and was totally creeped out by the villian. That is one on my fave “stand alone” Nora books. (Next to Northern Lights—which has the most delicious hero ever, so it will always be my fave Nora non-series book)

    Stephen King always squicked me.

    I never finished Salem’s Lot. Never. I wanted to, but unfortunately, I started reading when I was a teen, at night, home alone, in my room which was all windows, and I just knew that vampire was trying to get in.

    And then there was It. It’s the clown thing. I hate them. Always have. Then I read this book and the damn evil guy is a clown. Who stalks folks from the gutters. So then I hated clowns and gutters.

    *shudder*

  11. Abby says:

    Never having read Stephen King (besides “On Writing”), the book that scared the ever-living-beejeezus out of me was the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The scenes with the giant spider scared me so much I had to put the book down for a while, and when I picked it back up, I only read it during the day.  It dosen’t help that I loathe and detest spiders to begin with …

  12. Jaimi says:

    Swan Song by Robert McCammon

    End of the world as we know it, psychos are loose from a sanitarium taking over a K-mart? One of a thousand horrors and this book hits all of them. So awesome.

  13. racy li says:

    Henry James, Turn of the Screw.  I was assigned to read it in an English class as an undergrad.  I got so frightened that I had to walk out of my dorm room and sit in my hallmate’s room for a bit because I was afraid to be alone.

  14. Gypsy says:

    Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. So terrifying.

  15. Sarah F. says:

    Yeah, Suz Brockmann’s latest.  Not the villain so much, but ending up like his victim, forced to do his actual killing for him.  The thought of her life now that she’s free—fucking terrifying.

  16. Becky says:

    In the beginning of Kiss the Girls, the bad guy is hanging out in his victims’ air ducts, watching them.  Eek!  I read that book with one eye on the page and one eye on the air vent, just to be safe.

  17. KristenMary says:

    I’d have to say that Nora Robert’s Blue Smoke did me in as well. The same scene you described, Sarah, stuck with me for days. Nora’s Divine Evil also squicked me out quite the bit at the beginning. Devil worship and the likes. Ick.

  18. ClunyBrown says:

    I’ll second False Memory by Dean Koontz. The idea that somebody could mess with your mind and you wouldn’t even know it.

    Also, Intensity—Dean Koontz again—the serial killer angle really gets me.

    Mostly anything that can happen IRL that completely takes control of the situation from the hero/heroine.

  19. Shanna says:

    Dream Man by Linda Howard was f-ing scary! This one has a serial killer that chooses his victims where he works at a department store customer service counter. The women who are the biggest bitches get it. Man that scared me off complaining at any store for sure.

    I agree about Blue Smoke as well, that one seriously creeped me out.

  20. Rosario says:

    My two scariest books have been mentioned already.. Blue Smoke and Dean Koontz’s Intensity.

    After the scene Sarah mentions in Blue Smoke, I actually had to stop reading and tell myself “This is fiction, it’s not real”. Excellent book.

    As for Intensity, I read just the first 50 or so pages and had to stop because, though there hadn’t been any really graphic scene (IIRC), what had been suggested had been so disturbing. That book haunted me for weeks.

  21. Colette says:

    Lynn Flewelling’s “The Bone Doll’s Twin” had me pulling my toes in from the edge of the bed for a couple days.

  22. Kaite says:

    So far, “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman has freaked me out the most.

    Probably because when I was very, very little, I used to wonder “How will I know if my mommy is really *my* mommy and not just someone wearing her face?”

    *runs off to call her mother*

  23. D.S. says:

    The Elementals by Michael McDowell.  With very little overt horror he managed to depict a southern family’s vacation from hell on a Gulf coast beach as drifting sand dunes swallowed the empty vacation home next door. 

    He wrote some other gems such as the Amulet, Cold Moon Over Babylon—super scary moment when a bag of water moccasins are dropped in the bottom of a small pirogue—and the Blackwater saga which had a Lovecraftian theme with a Southern twist.

    He also wrote the screenplay for Beetlejuice and collaborated on Nightmare Before Christmas.  He wrote a series of gay mystery novels as Nathan Aldyne (very funny) and several other miscellaneous novels and screen plays.

    He died at the age of 49.

  24. Suisan says:

    Coma by Michael Crichton (spelling?)

    I read it with my eyes closed as much as possible.

  25. Megan says:

    Summer of Night by Dan Simmons.  I’ve always been a little nervous about the undead gaining access to my house (or car—for some reason it took me like a month to get over my zombie-related paranoia about a moonroof), and thanks to this book I’m now completely paranoid about screens.

  26. Lorelie says:

    Man, Stephen King is rocking this list.  And I’m gonna add to it – King’s short story “Night Shift”.  Didn’t help that it was read aloud by my Sophmore English teacher, who looked like he could be Stephen King’s half brother.  Gave me recurring nightmares about rats for like 5 years.

    And I’ll second “Kiss the Girls” as well.

  27. Nora Roberts says:

    The Exorcist—more terrifying than the movie, and somehow more visual. Nightmares for YEARS.

    ‘Salem’s Lot. Kiddie vampires are more terrifying than a psycho IRS agent.

    Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Creeepy.

    The Shining. Redrum.

    Yes, to McCammon’s Swan Song—I’d forgotten that.

    Interview With A Vampire, a brutal and bloody gem.

    Rush Limbaugh’s biography. I don’t know if he has one, and I haven’t read it. But if he did and I had, I’d be scared.

  28. Caryle says:

    I absolutely could not finish Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.  I can’t remember if it was a dream or flash-back, but when the body hanging from the ceiling opens its eyes, I closed the book and didn’t look back.  Yeeeesh!

  29. Rosina Lippi says:

    Stephen King:

    Pet Sematary, because there’s no hope in the ending of it. He has said publically that *he* can’t read it, it’s the darkest book he’s written. And I agree.

    The Shining. I read this when I was what, 21? And I kept dropping it because I was so scared.

    There are a couple of his short stories that had me jumping up in horror, too.

    Also: Red Dragon (Thomas Harris) which is very well written and really gets into the cracks of your mind.

  30. fiveandfour says:

    When I was a kid I read The Omen and that freaked me right out.  But then The Watcher in the Woods and James and the Giant Peach scared me as a kid, too, so maybe I was just a wimpy kid.

    I concur with Nora Roberts on The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson is fabulous.

    And Kaite, I agree that Coraline is scary…and I don’t quite know what to think about the fact that it’s my daughter’s favorite book.  She actually went to a Neil Gaiman signing with me just to ask him some questions about it.

  31. EmmyS says:

    Silence of the Lambs. Especially when read during freshman year finals week, late at night, when most of your dorm has already gone home for winter break.

    I agree with Into the Storm (Brockmann) – I had trouble sleeping after that.

    I seem to recall a lot of books that kept me up at night, but don’t remember the titles of any of them. I think I may be blocking them out. Now that’s a scary book…

  32. fiveandfour says:

    Oh shoot, addendum that I forgot before…Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches books (The Witching Hour, Lasher, Taltos) also got to me.  I can remember reading them late at night, unable to stop both because they had me gripped into the story and because I knew if I stopped I’d be spending the rest of the night looking in closets and under beds to make sure no spooky things were there.

  33. Vicki says:

    I can’t remember the name of the book or who wrote it but I was really freaked out.  It was about this guy who was abducting people and he would keep them in cages and then use them for organ donations.  I finished the book about midnight one night and I knew my Mom was up wallpapering something so I called her on my cell phone so I could go downstairs and use the bathroom.  I was really scared.  I wish I could remember that book…

  34. Nathalie says:

    When someone mentioned “Blue Smoke”, I kept thinking, um, Blue Smoke, Blue Smoke, that rings a bell…so I rushed downstairs…‘lo and behold! It’s the next one on my TBR pile!  And it’s my first La Nora novel.

    Yes, I know, I’ve lived under a rock.

    So, folks, please, yo, stop talking about Blue Smoke, mkay.

    I want to be scared.

  35. Random Ranter says:

    Ceremony in Death by JD Robb – can’t explain it but I had to finish it quickly as it was squicking me out.  (Great read, I squick easily). 

    The Survivors Club by Lisa Gardner.  Realistic and yet super creepy that all these women were being raped in their homes.

  36. Rosemary says:

    Megan!  Thank you so much for remembering Summer of Night!!!!

    In my first post I started to talk about it, but realized that I couldn’t remember the title, or any plot point besides zombies with holes under their beds into underground tunnels and it traumatizing me to the point that I couldn’t get into bed without a light on for fear of a zombie grabbing my feet and dragging me down under the house and EATING MY BRAINS!!!!

    Yeah, obviously I’m still not ok.

  37. DebR says:

    I agree with several who have mentioned “False Memory” by Dean Koontz and another of his that gave me nightmares (literally) was one of his older ones called “Night Chills”, which is also about brainwashing, but deals with it in a different way.

    “Pet Semetary.” I never read another Stephen King book after that, although I’ve been considering relenting after all these years and trying “Cell.”

    “The Silence of the Lambs.” WAY scarier than the movie. I stupidly read it when my husband was out of town and didn’t sleep at all the night I finished it.

    And I agree with you, Sarah, about the villain (and the one scene in particular) in “Blue Smoke.” The book as a whole didn’t scare me, but that scene was chilling. I really liked that book, though. In fact, I really liked all the books I mentioned except “Pet Semetary.” I hated that one.

  38. Sabine says:

    Shadows by John Saul. It’s about a mad scientist who kills gifted children and puts their brains into giant computers.

    And, of course, I read it right before gifted camp, cause I’m real smart.

  39. Tina Lu says:

    What is freaking me out is Davey in Ms Nora’s Circle Triology. 

    Imagine (if you will) a cute blond 6 yr old vampire, who’s greatest pleasure is sucking all of your blood out of your body.

    That my dears is just freaking creepy to me.

  40. Madd says:

    You know, I’ve always considered myself a bit of a wus for being creeped out by Salem’s Lot, but at last I see I am not alone. Everyone else I know is creeped out by It, which doesn’t bother me in the least. I read Salem’s Lot when I was 13 and never picked it up again. Maybe I should give it another shot.

    The only other book that has creeped me out, and does to this day, is true crime book titled “From Cradle to Grave” by Joyce Egginton. Amazon lists the title as “From Cradle to Grave: The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning’s Nine Children”. Ever since that book, also read at age 13, I’ve religiously steered clear of true crime books. It’s one thing for me to read fictional acts of depravity, it doesn’t faze me in the least, but it’s something else entirely to read about factual ones.

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