More Books From Scary Book Comments

During October's Scary Book Contest readers were invited to comment on the most frightening book they have ever read. Below are four of those mentioned.


The Tell-Tale Heart (Bantam Classics)
by Edgar Allan Poe

"TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story. It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me."

OK, it's not a book but it is one of Poe's classic short, very scary stories. Read the rest of it here.




The Exorcist by Peter Blatty. HarperTorch, February 1, 1994.
"Blatty's novelization of a real case of possession that happened in a Washington Suburb (Mt. Ranier, MD) puts Regan, an adolescent girl, Living with her mother in Georgetown in Washington, into a more and more difficult situation. She exhibits strange symptoms, including levitation and great strength. When all medical possibilities are exhausted, her mother is sent to a priest who is also a psychiatrist. He becomes convinced that Regan is possessed and he and a second priest experienced in exorcism try to drive the spirit from Regan before she dies. Very graphic for its time." Written by John Vogel {jlvogel@comcast.net}




The Chosen (MIRA) by Sharon Sala. Mira, 2005
From the publisher: Journalist January DeLena enlists the aid of homicide detective Benjamin North when she investigates several mysterious disappearances that lead to The Sinner, a twisted homeless man who lures his victims into a dark world of salvation and redemption.







13 Bullets by David Wellington. Three Rivers Press, 2007.
From the publisher: All the official reports say they are dead-extinct since the late ’80s, when a fed named Arkeley nailed the last vampire in a fight that nearly killed him. But the evidence proves otherwise.

When a state trooper named Caxton calls the FBI looking for help in the middle of the night, it is Arkeley who gets the assignment-who else? He’s been expecting such a call to come eventually. Sure, it has been years since any signs of an attack, but Arkeley knows what most people don’t: there is one left. In an abandoned asylum she is rotting, plotting, and biding her time in a way that only the undead can.

Note: I read this book as well the sequel - 99 Coffins: A Historical Vampire Tale. Three Rivers Press, 2007. Both are dark mesmerizing tales. See my reviews.

See Books from Scary Book Comments

See A Look at Scary Books - Stephen King