I don't mean upset, or distressed- not like Good Night Mr Tom, I mean genuinely scared. For the same reason I disqualify The Amazing Mr Blunden– I was scared by it, but moreso upset, confused, and weirded out.
For me, it was The Whispering Knights.
Even though I had to google the title because I had forgotten it, I still remember the storyline- three English school kids awaken or summon Morgan Le Fay, the powerful witch from ancient England, and mayhem in the sleepy little village ensure.
The scene when one of the kids wakes up, and sees the shadow on her wall. I'll never forget that. It wasn't even the "peak" action scene of the book.
That did it for me. I was- still am- a nervous sleeper, prone to nightmares. My childhood bedroom at the time had a built-in wardrobe which for some reason opened in the back to a large cemented storage cave kind of thing, where my parents used to store piles of spare bedding- ugh. In the best of times, that cave and wardrobe was a weird, unpleasant place (childhood hide and seek with a motley crew of cousins ftw). Post-reading "The Whispering Knights" was not the best of times.
I have to add, it is a very crisply-written, competent sort of book. Nice engaging story, plucky English children from the countryside accidentally awakening ancient evil, wise old mentor feeding them delicate cucumber sandwiches while providing advice on how to fight ancient witchcraft, a decent chase scene. The author scared me so badly but not because she meant to.
Ironically – I remember quite clearly the line from the shadow-on-the-wall scene that got the heroine through the night – "Oh no- I've grown up past this nonsense" she thinks to herself, or words to that effect. "this is not how she's going to get me- shadows on the wall, monsters under the bed, oh no". She flicks on the light, and vanquishes the shadow. But somehow, flicking on the light didn't quite do it for me.
Tell me about your book-caused scaries.
by 1000andonenites
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The Witches by Roald Dahl completely destroyed my sleep for months – those descriptions of real witches hiding behind normal women faces and the kid getting turned into mouse made me check under my bed every night thinking they were coming for me next.
Interestingly enough, someone else asked something similar a few days ago, but was removed by the mods afterwards. I’ll just repost my comment from there, since it’s basically what I’d answer here as well:
I had a soft spot for horror fiction ever since I was younger – I read Poe during elementary school.
The one book I recall scaring me truly, was one called *Ghost Writer* by Edgar J. Hyde. It was part of the Creepers book series for younger kids (and I think Hyde was just a pseudonym for R.L. Stine, but I forget). I read it when I was in the final classes of elementary school.
Anyways, not wanting to spoil the plot a lot, a part of the book was about the MC having these terrifying dreams, somehow linked with a notebook he found. In one of those, >!he witnesses some short of Satanic ceremony, where a cult member is beheaded, and his head is sticked on a spike, still screaming and crying even after being chopped off!<. Yea, that was a series marketed to kids.
I recall reading it while I was out with my parents and uncles in a pizza place, and I got so frightened, I just closed the book and gave it to my cousin. I didn’t even want it anymore. In retrospect, I wouldn’t do that today, but at that point it had really unnerve me. I had a night light in my room for a few weeks afterwards.
I keep reading horror fiction today, from Poe and Lovecraft to King and Barker, but I have never been frightened in the way that stupid kids’ book did back then. I honestly should look around to buy it, I still have some other titles from the same series in my shelves, lol.