Transcription
What are the scariest books of all time? And can I read all of them this summer? Yes, my spooky spooky people. I am planning myself a summer of fear. I am determined to read some of the scariest books ever written and bring you my verdict on whether or not I think they deserve such a title. Were they truly truly frightening or were they just meh?
Welcome or welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, I'm Sinead and this is my spooky corner of YouTube where I talk about the spooky books that I've read, the spooky films that I've watched, and I share the occasional spooky shenanigan with you. There has been a request that I should change that to spooky shenanigans and I don't know. No, I can't in good conscience inflict that on people.
I'm going to bet a few pennies and maybe a couple of crows that you have at different points in your life Googled the phrase what is the scariest book of all time. For goodness sake, you're here on this video. Maybe you've put that into YouTube looking for a definitive list. I have been reading horror books for years. I've been absorbing horror in all of its formats, but when it comes to novels, there are some absolutely stunning books that I have enjoyed that I recommend to so many people. They are filled with fear and tension, great atmosphere, great world building. But when it comes to the truly truly scary, there's not a lot of books out there that have actually left me with my heart pounding, unable to sleep, asking anyone available if they will come with me to the toilet and hold my hand.
Can a book ever frighten you in the same way that a horror film can? Well, I intend to find out in Sinead's summer of fear where I try to read the scariest books ever written. Every time I search this subject, there are certain books that appear again and again and again and I realized that I had read some of them, not all of them. And I thought, "Screw it. Why not spend the summer absolutely terrifying myself?"
Over the next few weeks, I have decided to read some of the books that consistently show up in these lists, the most frightening, terrifying novels ever written. And you are very welcome to join me to see if any of these books truly scare me to my core or maybe find some that we all agree are overrated. And if at this stage you feel like running to the comments and saying, "Why isn't she just giving us the list? Why is she talking?" The list is going to land in this video, but you are just going to have to be patient. That's the kind of patience you'll need to finish a book.
I spent quite a bit of time going through different lists, different newspaper articles, different blogs, different vlogs, different social media recommendations to compile a short list of books that consistently show up. I decided to include books that were at least 10 years old. I did this because I wanted to include books that have stood the test of time. Trust me, I'm not discounting or discrediting any recent horror books as not being scary enough because we haven't had time to process them. In fact, I've got an entire list of very modern horror books that I'd like to explore in the future.
I created a short list and I shared it with over 150,000 people across my different social media channels. There was some great feedback. Several books consistently everyone came back and said, "Yes, that has to be on the list." There was some debate about which Stephen King novels to include. There were some books that completely split people down the middle to the point where there were serious rows going on. Not nasty, but loads of people saying one book was absolutely terrifying. Loads of other people saying not scary at all. Also, some controversial books that people felt maybe were too dated. And a couple of outsiders that people came back with not on the original short list that I felt I had to include.
So, taking all of those comments and all of that research, I have ended up with a short list of 15 books in total that I think most people would be hard-pressed to deny. Yeah, those books are often called the scariest of all time, but now we need to read them and see do they live up to the title? Some of these I have already read, but there are some brand new ones on there and some big hitters that I have never even dipped into that I am very excited for. I'll be sharing my thoughts on all of the books on their atmosphere, on their dread versus gore, on their originality, on their quality of writing. But most importantly, which ones did I find the most frightening?
And as ever, we acknowledge that horror is subjective. There will be books on this list that will have left some people completely cold. Of course, they will have. I don't know if there was a universally terrifying book out there. It doesn't matter if a million people said this particular book is scary, there will be one person who went, "Nope, didn't think so." What will get one person's heart pounding will leave another person cackling away as they skip down the street. It's a weird reaction to have to a horror book, but maybe it happens. I'm reading scary books all of the time. You guys will have more suggestions. It doesn't mean that we can't revisit this list in the future. The horrors literally will never cease.
So, this is the short list as it stands, people. The order in which the list appears here is based on their popularity first and foremost, then some books that are a little bit contentious and some outsiders. Out of these 15 books, I have read six already, so that leaves me nine more to read over the summer. Let's go through the books and then I'm also going to share with you my rankings on the books that I've read so far, but I am completely prepared for those all to change based on my experience with all the new ones.
The first thing I'm sure everyone is asking, which Stephen King books made the cut? The two books that I originally went out with on my short list were Pet Sematary and The Shining. Those ones seemed the most consistent in all of the articles I'd read. Pet Sematary got near universal support, many people attesting absolutely it deserves to be on a list of the scariest books of all time. They were traumatized by it. Yay, so looking forward to it. But, I was surprised about how many people voted for another book to be on this list, even questioning if The Shining should be removed in favor of 'Salem's Lot'. I really thought it was going to be it. I thought many people were going to come out and vote for that, and certainly people did. But, 'Salem's Lot', hundreds of comments saying 'Salem's Lot' needs to be on here. So, at the moment, all three are on the list: 'Pet Sematary', 'The Shining', and 'Salem's Lot'. I had intended to read The Shining anyway because I want to do a deep dive into the book versus the movie cuz I think that's interesting. So for now, the three are on there.
Other books where the feedback was consistently positive in terms of how terrifying they are, The Exorcist by William Blatty, the original novel, many people saying, "Yep, yep, absolutely terrifying." Ghost Story by Peter Straub, a story of a society that was telling ghost stories and creepy crib things happened. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, I know he's Stephen King's son. Let the man be. Come Closer by Sara Gran and The Ruins by Scott Smith. All of those books people were pretty positive about. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, a few people saying it wasn't for them, but largely positive comments that they agreed it needed to be on the list.
Now we get on to the more contentious ones. All of these books at different times have been called the scariest ever. You knew it had to be on here, the mind-bending, genre-defying, weirdly written tome of madness, House of Leaves. Most of the comments about House of Leaves were along the lines of don't don't do this to yourself. Thankfully, I have already read most of this book, so it's not as big a feat this summer as it could have been. The book that I have been recommended more than any other horror book since starting my YouTube journey, Hell House by Richard Matheson. Many people saying that this is absolutely horrifying and many people saying this is controversial. Its subject matter, its content is dated to give it the nicest way of describing it. I am going to read it and I am happy to bring you back my thoughts, but it kept coming up as people saying absolutely terrifying.
One of Stephen King's favorite books of all time, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. A lot of people weighed in on this one, agreeing that it is a great book, but we're not arguing quality here, we're arguing scares. Is The Haunting of Hill House truly scary? Some people said yes, they did, but a lot of others saying, "No, it was more atmosphere driven." Hmm. Similar feelings were shared about A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, a book that I have seen on the top of so many lists. Many people again fed back that they thought it was a great book. It was atmospheric, but they just didn't find it scary scary. I need to revisit it. And two books that many people said deserved a spot, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin and Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. I'm particularly pleased that so many people commented about Dark Matter by Michelle Paver and it is a little bit of a benchmark for me because that is a book that I consistently say is possibly the scariest book that I have ever read. And now I can go into this list going, "Okay, right. That That's my level, but I want to be challenged by all of these different books and see how I feel about it." So maybe Dark Matter will get knocked right down for me.
Honorable mentions here, maybe a couple will have people going, "No, you must include it." One was The Amityville Horror. It's a classic book. It It's controversial for various reasons because it was proclaimed to be real and it's not. Probably not on this list now. People may feel differently about it. Naomi's Room by Jonathan an outsider. I'd seen it on a few lists and a few people did go out to bat for it in the comments saying that they were really pleased to see it. It felt like more of a niche horror. It just didn't get as many mentions as some of the others on that list and those big hitters out there, but I'm keeping it back here. The Elementals by Michael McDowell. There are some hardcore fans for this book, so it did get a few mentions. Some other books just were more popular on the list, but summer horror and sort of gothic terrifying houses on a beach and crumbling into the sand. I've read the book. It's decent. This felt like a push from UK followers, nothing wrong with that, and also a universally loved author, James Herbert, and The Rats. Quite a few people mentioning that. I feel like I need to get to that story. It's quite a short one, 200 pages, I believe. And And it is famous for being grim.
Trust me when I say I know that there are some great modern recent horror books out there. In fact, people jumped on the comments saying that they found certain books that have been published in the last couple of years the most terrifying that they've ever read. Some of the books that were mentioned, The Troop, Incidents Around the House, Hex, Penpal, and anything by Adam Nevill. He has actually been writing for more than 10 years, but consistently one of the the the horror authors writing now that that absolutely ruins life for people through his books. There will be room for more lists in the future. I will not stop reading horror books. I want new recommendations, things that I can get into in October, in spooky season, when I have finished this mammoth task. So, don't worry if there are books that you want to recommend, please drop them in the comments. I will keep a log of them. It is my mission to find the scariest book ever written and and inflict it on you.
Now, as promised, here is my ranking of the books that I have read on this list so far. And I am willing and you know what, even a little bit hopeful for my opinions on these to change. Your your bottom is not scary. Just it good, maybe a good book, but just not scary at all. Then I go to likely creepy. That's kind of I'm using the pumpkin emoji here for that. Sort of yeah, spooky, woo, creepy, but not really getting to the unsettled part. Then we go up to unsettling. That feeling of discomfort, that disquiet. Not not full on scares, but okay, starting to shift a little in my seat. Level four would be scares achieved. Right, I am frightened. I am frightened reading this book. My heart rate is up. I am feeling not okay. I am noticing shadows and I am looking over my shoulder. The top level that I'm still hunting is nightmare fuel. Is pure, unadulterated terror. Reading it, putting it down, having to sleep with the lights on. This is disquieting to the point where it stays with you for a long, long time.
Of the books that I have read so far and I will be diving into those in the full assessment video later on. The Woman in Black is probably number one because I vividly remember my my heart pounding in my chest reading it. It just It got me. It was just at that time when I read it, I found it truly terrifying, and it is a very unsettling story and great atmosphere. Closely followed by Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. I remember feeling so tense, so frightened reading that, and that was only a few years ago. The next one would be Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. It's not a book that I love love universally. I think that there were some flaws in it. The tension in that book is absolutely outstanding. The way that it is ratcheted up again and again, the hauntings, the horror of the stories behind them. It feels relentless and really is an incredible achievement in that sense. So, yeah, Heart-Shaped Box is is up there. We're kind of on those three, scares achieved, verging into nightmare fuel. They stay with you, those books.
Next, I would put Come Closer. That is scares achieved for me there cuz I think it had some brilliant sort of almost jump scare moments in it. But overall, I found Come Closer quite quite funny. It's It's disturbing, but I liked its dark black humor to it. Very very good book. Next for me would be The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I am inclined to agree with people that I didn't find this book scary scary, like frightening, but I found it very weird and unsettling, and I think it's a brilliant book. In terms of really scary, I am expecting that to get knocked down the list for me, I think. No question of its quality. I'll put House of Leaves fifth at the moment. I think it has an unsettling creepy quality to it. I personally was not very frightened by the book. It's more of a disquieting experience to read it, but I will revisit bits of it over the summer. At the the of the books that I've read already in terms of scares, it's Rosemary's Baby. I love the book Rosemary's Baby. I absolutely adored it. I adored reading it. I love the film adaptation, that's by the by. I find it creepy, not frightening. Many people wrote to me saying that they found it really scary. They really, really were frightened by it. And maybe it is a book of its time because it did have a big impact in terms of satanic panic and so forth. I love it. It is just creepy to me.
Technically, I have read A Head Full of Ghosts but I want to reread it as if from scratch because I think when I first read it, I wasn't in the right head space, was not there to appreciate all the nuance of it. So, I am going to go into it as new. I am prepped, I am poised. I already have four of the books sitting here ready for me to crack on with them. I have The Exorcist, Hell House, Salem's Lot, and The Ruins. My plan is to do short reviews of each book once I finished it. I'll share those on YouTube Shorts, also on Instagram and TikTok. They'll be available on all those channels. And then I will do some check-ins the further along we go. So, every few books, I'm going to revisit the ranking table, let you know how it is looking, if I have changed my opinion on any of the books that I have read based on the new ones that I have discovered.
So, remember to subscribe to my channel, like this video, get notifications of when I have new information out for you. Feel free to leave a comment on the short list on your favorite books on there, the ones that you're most excited for me to get to. If you have other recommendations of truly terrifying books, feel free to leave those as well. And give me warnings if if needed as well. I know that Pet Sematary is not going to be his it's going to It's so God. I hope you will join me for my summer of fear. Stay spooky. Bye-bye.