The scariest books I've ever read

Added: 2026-05-02

[00:00:00]Hello. It was raining pretty hard earlier. I think we're entering rainy season now. I thought maybe I could talk about some scary books today. I really love horror books and horror movies. I have been a fan for a very very long time. Like I don't even remember the first horror movie I ever watched because they were just always being played in my house um for better or for worse. And I used to be so so scared of horror horror movies. books. I used to be so scared of everything. Like even when I was a kid walking through Blockbuster, if I had to walk through like the horror section, I would just I would have to go like this cuz even like the covers scared me too much. But then something changed when I turned like 12 years old, probably like puberty or something. And I suddenly just wasn't scared anymore. Or maybe I just got so desensitized by that point, but I wasn't scared anymore. and I was actually really fascinated by them and just I loved like the thrill of watching a horror movie. That being said, I watched a lot of horror movies growing up and then I started reading horror novels and what I found was it's it's an entirely different experience watching a horror movie and reading a horror book.

[00:01:14]Personally for me, I usually don't get scared from reading horror books. I'm more often disturbed by horror books, but I never really have that feeling of being scared. Like, I've had that feeling while watching horror movies, but not really when reading. But that being said, there are a few books that I do think are actually scary. So, on this gloomy day, I think it'd be fun to talk about them and recommend them if you're looking for a scary book. So, the scariest books I've ever read, and these are also like my favorite horror books that I've read. I'll start with The Willows by Aldrenon Blackwood. And this was published in 1907. It's a novella.

[00:01:59]It's actually really creepy and I recommend this book a lot to people who are like who want a scary read. And the horror in this book is the only way I can describe it is sublime horror.

[00:02:14]sublime meaning like being awe stricken by nature and just the vastness of it in its mystery and its sheer size like when you look at a mountain when you look at a forest and you're just struck by that wonder that's what this book plays on but rather than wonder it leans more into just the horror of it and I think it does it really well so what is what is this book about this book is about two friends who are on a river they're on a canoe on the river Denube. I think that's how you pronounce it in Europe. And it's just the two of them on this vast river surrounded by forest and nature. And there's a bunch of willow trees surrounding them. And Elon Blackwood throughout this book really personifies nature and makes it a monster, makes it the villain of the story. And it's actually really scary the way he describes nature. like the river is alive. The willows are alive and they're plotting something. They want something from the two men. We don't know what they want. And this is a nolla. It's a short read, so I don't want to give away the whole thing. And I highly recommend everyone reads it. Yeah. It's just the two of us alone on this river.

[00:03:30]It gives like Blair Witch Project vibes almost where something's after them, but they don't know what that thing is or what it wants from them. And I was so much dread throughout this book and it just feels like a hopeless situation.

[00:03:43]Like these two men are so small compared to the willows, the nature that's around them. And it's also fear of the unknown.

[00:03:51]The men don't know what this antagonist is capable of. Much like how like we don't know the mysteries of the universe. We don't know the mysteries of nature. There could be something lurking out there and we just we don't have that knowledge. So this book really is existential. It's a fear of the universe. the fear of being in this world we don't really know anything about. We don't know why we're here. We don't know where it comes from. So yeah, I think it was really effective horror for me. I recommend it. The next book that I'll talk about, The Descent by Jeff Long. If you know the movie The Descent, they're very similar, but apparently they are in no way related to each other. Like they're just two entirely separate works, but they're very similar. So, if you know about the descent in the movie, it's about like descending into a cave system and finding a human ancestor, an evolved species of humans that evolved in the cave system, and they're basically like monsters. The Descent book by Jeff Long is essentially the same, but it's it goes so much deeper. Basically, explores the idea that hell is a real place and the hell that was written about in biblical texts is not allegory. It's not metaphor. It's real. Like the angels that are described, the demons that are described are actually these creatures that evolved underground. So I just I think that premise is so interesting. I I took some anthropology classes in school and I always thought it was really interesting. So I was drawn to this book for that reason. But I also just think that's a really cool premise.

[00:05:26]This book takes place in our world in the future. And there comes a point where humans make the discovery that hell is real and that demons are real and they're not supernatural creatures.

[00:05:36]They are preernnatural creatures as Ann Rice would love to say, creatures of this earth. This book is actually like really creepy and really scary. I think if you read this book, you will be hooked by the first chapter. It's pure horror, but this book goes so much deeper and it gets so complex. I definitely the first half of the book is a lot stronger than where it ends up going, but I thought it was a really fun read and actually scary and actually disturbing. So, this book follows a variety of characters in this world before and after the discovery that hell is real and that demons are real. It's quite a quirky cast of characters. We have like a nun, a spunker, tour guide, a soldier. So, all these characters end up coming together and about this world.

[00:06:25]But this book kind of surprised me because it it jumps very far into the future after the discovery that hell is real and it shows the colonization of said world. So this book very much so is a commentary on colonization and the horrors of humanity like what humans do to other species, what humans do to those that they consider lesser. So I was kind of surprised that it took that turn, but I enjoyed it. But the first chapter, the first part of this book is really scary. It follows this tour guide in I think the Himalayan mountains.

[00:06:58]They're in a cave taking shelter from a storm. I believe they're trapped in this cave and they discover they're not alone. A lot of this book is really creepy. Like they call this species older than old. It's just been around for so long. It's prehistoric, older than old. I won't spoil anything in this video, but I highly recommend giving it a read. I do It's a series. I do want to continue the series, but I've heard that the second one just delves more into action horror, like sci-fi horror. This book was so much more than just a sci-fi horror book. It's so interesting. I think it's really well written and it explores many themes and it's really about the horrors of humanity, colonization.

[00:07:42]I I think it's truly scary. Yeah. Next book I want to talk about is one that's not usually talked about. I think it should be a lot more popular than it is, but it's called Houdini Heart and it's by Kai Long. I really love this book and it was actually creepy. It creeped me out a lot. Um, but this book follows an author who is running away from a mysterious past and she runs to this hotel that I believe she stayed at when she was younger and she takes shelter there. very old hotel as she writes either her next book or her suicide letter. We don't know at the time, but it follows just her descent into insanity and psychological warfare. I love unreliable narrators and morally gray narrators. This book was just so interesting, too. Like reading on and trying to figure out what is she running from, what has she done that has driven her to this point? and we get bits and pieces here and there and it just all adds up to this really terrifying story.

[00:08:47]I love it. It's a weird one. It is a weird one. I read this book and I just never forgot it. There's certain scenes that are just so creepy. Like she sees these things. We don't know if they're real. We don't know if they're ghosts.

[00:09:00]We don't know if they're hallucinations.

[00:09:02]We don't know if they're real. So, it's just really unsettling and really dark.

[00:09:07]But I love the setting too of just this old hotel and all the mysterious people in the hotel that she meets. I love it and I highly recommend it. Next, it's kind of hard to choose books for this list because there's some books that I found scary and there's some books that I found disturbing and I do think they're entirely different things.

[00:09:30]So, I don't know. I do want to make a video about the most disturbing books I've ever read. So that will be coming.

[00:09:38]I'm trying to differentiate between them. Okay, the next the Woman in Black by Susan Hill. I remember watching this movie on my 13th birthday in theaters and I remember liking the movie when I was 13, but I don't know if it holds up.

[00:09:54]I read the book after and this book is just a really classic ghost story. The type of horror movie that scares me the most is like supernaturals and like ghosts and stuff. I don't know why because I don't really believe in ghosts. I believe in anything possible.

[00:10:11]I've never had an experience, but I feel like this book really encapsulates the feeling of watching a horror movie about ghosts. And I think it's like the perfect October read for spooky season.

[00:10:22]Again, Susan Hill does a really good job at creating a really creepy atmosphere.

[00:10:26]This book is really about just isolation. So, this book is about who travels to this town. He's supposed to go to this woman's house, this woman who passed away to settle her estate and her will and stuff like that. And this woman who died was she was a recluse.

[00:10:44]She stayed in her isolated manor until she passed away. And the setting of this book, like the location of where this house is, it's located in the middle of a marsh and it's surrounded by the sea.

[00:10:57]So during high tide, when the tide comes in, you actually can't leave because it covers the road or the only way out. And that's really creepy. So there's just this feeling of entrapment throughout the whole book. Isolation and entrapment. That's what this book is about. So this man ends up traveling to this dead woman's house alone. This house where he can't leave when the tide comes in and ends up being haunted by her ghost. So I just thought this was classic ghost story. Really good, really fun and really scary. Really, really creepy, actually. Okay, next last one I'll talk about today. Kind of blends the lines between disturbing and scary.

[00:11:42]I think this book is a bit of both or a lot of both. It's The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas. And this book is an extreme horror book about a boy and his friend who are taken captive by a madman in the woods. And it's a simple premise very much so gives like Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes. It's just very sad more than anything. I don't know. I went into it thinking it would just be like a fun horror book. Kind of like the equivalent to like a fun slasher movie. This book was not fun. It was just sad and really disturbing. There's not much more to say about the plot. It's just this teenager and his friend struggling to survive and struggling to escape from this mad man.

[00:12:30]It's It is extreme horror, so beware.

[00:12:34]There's a lot of violence. This book shocked me when I read it just how far it was willing to go. And I also want to mention that I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of violence against women.

[00:12:50]Like this author throughout this book is very respectful of women, which in this genre of extreme horror, that's kind of rare. So, I wanted to commend that.

[00:12:59]Yeah, I was kind of surprised at how far he was willing to go with the male characters and how much he held back from the female characters because it's usually the opposite in horror in general. Yeah, this part was really disturbing and scary and sad, but memorable. And if you're looking for something to scare you, I think this one will do the trick. but also it won't be for everyone because it is quite extreme.

[00:13:22]>> Yeah. Um I think that's all I'll talk about for today. Like I said, not many books have scared me like the way a horror movie would. There's plenty of movies that scared me, but I don't know.

[00:13:34]Does anyone else feel that way where it's just a different experience reading a horror book versus watching a horror movie? I really do want to find more books that kind of evoked that same feeling of fear that you get when watching a horror movie. It's kind of rare for me to come across. I will mention my TBR as books that I hope will scare me. I keep seeing people say The Exorcist is a book that genuinely scared them and I think the movie is really scary when I watched it. So, I do want to get to that book. Also, the Amityville horror I would like to read even though I don't think it has aged well. I keep seeing Stolen Tongues by by Felix Blackwell. That one's mentioned a lot for being scary, so I'll give that a shot. Come closer by Sarah Gran I do want to read. Yeah, I know like Stephen King books are often deemed to be very scary. I've read a few of his books and the only one that disturbed me was Misery and I do like that book a lot but I think it's more disturbing than scary but at what point is it necessary to differentiate between the but people say Pet Cemetery The Shining and it are the scariest of his books. I've read Pet Cemetery. I've read I think the only thing scary about those books are the sex scenes to be honest. I do want to give The Shining a chance.

[00:14:51]Yeah, I am curious what other people's scariest books of all time are. Is there a book that actually scared you? I would love to know and I would love to give it a read. I do want to read more scary books. Just a matter of finding. Let me know if you've read any of these. Um and let me know which books scared you the most. So yeah. Um that's all for now.

[00:15:13]Thank you for watching.