Top 10 Scariest Books of All Time

The Top Ten

1 It (Stephen King) It (Stephen King) Product Image

This is the most brilliant book I've ever had the pleasure to read! It's amazing how much character development there is here, Stephen King is a genius! You really start caring and rooting for the characters, I though the Shining was the most horrifying book ever, till I read IT, thank you for the creeps and goosebumps King!

An amazing mixture of terrifying scenes with bouts of brilliant description and writing, characterization, and pure genius in the flow of the plot itself. It will forever haunt my dreams from time to time, a good souvenir from this massive journey.

It is fear. It is pure fear. Everything in this book revolves around fear. The reason this book was even made is to scare people. Also there is a sewer orgy.

Amazing book! It keeps you up all night!

2 The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty) The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty) Product Image

This is absolutely terrifying!

Hated reading it but just couldn't stop

3 The Shining (Stephen King) The Shining (Stephen King) Product Image

Redrum...Redrum...Redrum... Stephen King's third novel was definitely a true tale of horror, from the psychotic Jack Torrance as the tangible threat, hunting down his family with a croquet mallet, to the spirits of the Overlook Hotel as the hidden, yet frighteningly present threat, slowly driving the Torrances into madness.

Classic but horryfing

The scariest scene is here’s Johnny!

4 The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) Product Image

AMAZING

5 The Turn of the Screw (Henry James) The Turn of the Screw (Henry James) Product Image
6 Ghost Story (Peter Straub) Ghost Story (Peter Straub) Product Image
7 Pet Sematary (Stephen King) Pet Sematary (Stephen King) Product Image

Says bad words... don't like it

Sometime dead is better

Chilling

8 Afraid (Jack Kilborn) Afraid (Jack Kilborn) Product Image
9 Books of Blood (Clive Barker) Books of Blood (Clive Barker) Product Image

Chilling and very original collection of short stories
Everyone's a book of blood

10 The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris) The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris) Product Image

While the present tense may take a while to get used to ('Sterling looked down the empty corridor'), Thomas Harris' thriller is amazing and surprisingly terrifying, beautifully made into a suspenseful movie.

The Contenders

11 Salem's Lot (Stephen King) Salem's Lot (Stephen King) Product Image
12 Misery (Stephen King) Misery (Stephen King) Product Image
13 Carrie (Stephen King) Carrie (Stephen King) Product Image
14 Psycho (Robert Bloch) Psycho (Robert Bloch) Product Image

It is the most scary horror book I have ever read

15 Jaws (Peter Benchley) Jaws (Peter Benchley) Product Image

You’re gonna need a bigger boat.

16 Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) Product Image
17 At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft) At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft) Product Image
18 Cujo (Stephen King) Cujo (Stephen King) Product Image
19 Christine (Stephen King) Christine (Stephen King) Product Image
20 The Veldt (Ray Bradbury) The Veldt (Ray Bradbury) Product Image

It made me creeped out, something no story has EVER done before!

21 Power of 5: Raven's Gate (Anthony Horowitz) Power of 5: Raven's Gate (Anthony Horowitz) Product Image
22 Revival (Stephen King) Revival (Stephen King) Product Image

I read a lot of Stephen King books, and this is the only one that actually terrified me. I'm not going to tell you what happens, but I'll tell you it is completely unlike any other Stephen King book.

23 I Am Legend (Richard Matheson) I Am Legend (Richard Matheson) Product Image

Not quite as terrifying as It, but this book (and the movie for that matter) are some of the most terrifying things that I have ever read.

24 Dracula (Bram Stoker) Dracula (Bram Stoker) Product Image
25 Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) Product Image
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