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Okay, so I noticed this forum hasn't had much attention lately and decided to start a new topic. Scary novels!

Have you ever read a truly scary novel/story? I'm not talking one that actually scared you personally while reading it.. (some of us are not easily frightened lol) but a novel/story you were reading that made you stop and think 'that would scary as hell if it happened to me in real life.' Feel free to share your thoughts or opinions...

I think the last story that did this me was Richard Laymon's 'Endless Night.' While I didn't think the story as a whole was scary, those first few chapters had me on the edge of my seat! Check it out, if you want, it will definitely haunt your nightmares if you're not used to horror stories...

Stephen King considered Pet Sematary to be the most horrifying thing he ever wrote and thought he had finally gone too far.

Wow. You actually bring up the only horror story written by Steven King that I can't even bring myself to read, lol. But this is mostly due to the fact that I have a son, and I couldn't keep reading knowing what was about to happen. Smh. (Okay, I admit it... even I have fears lol.)

Novels don't scare me really. I enjoy dark fantasy and horror because they reflect the darker side of human nature, trend toward the cynical and tend to have a more realistic depiction of human emotion and character. So I basically enjoy a story where characters are more real and easier to relate with. I love King's writing, but his stories tend to evoke more sadness than actual horror. No surprise that G.R.R.M. and Joe Abercrombie are two of my favorite novelists. There is no white or black. Only grey and gray.

One of his newer novels, Revival, had an incredibly depressing ending. IT was a super exciting and suspenseful read with a protagonist you can really relate to and empathize with.

Ray Bradbury's October Country has some creepy stuff.

Flan, by Stephen Tunney. Enjoy a joyous demented world where shrooms would make things look normal by comparison. Never really scared me, but it did get a little hard to read when he graphically discussed a charred lady picking an eyeball out of a dead man's pus-encrusted socket....