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 also very much upset, confused, and weirded out.
For me, it was The Whispering Knights.
I actually had to google the title because I had forgotten most things about it- except the scene when one of the kids wakes up, and sees the shadow on her wall. I'll never forget that.
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 an 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.
Tell me about your book-caused scaries.
by 1000andonenites
2 Comments
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark absolutely wrecked me for weeks, especially that one story about the woman with the ribbon around her neck. I kept checking my own neck in mirrors like a weirdo and couldn’t look at anyone wearing scarves without getting the creeps
Your wardrobe cave situation sounds like a horror movie waiting to happen – no wonder that book hit different with that setup in your room
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.