Which book installed a new fear in you?

Submitted by confrita t3_z3xx5a in books

For me it was 'Red Dragon'' by Thomas Harris. I read it when I was pretty young and I clearly remember that the scenes describing the murderer breaking into the house of those families gave me hard shivers. I actually had to limit the reading to daytime, because it was impossible for me to read that book in the silent of the night...

Until that point in my life I haven't thought of the possibility of some mad murderer actually breaking into my house, but after that I had some nightamers for a week

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Amazing-Panda-5323 t1_ixotlzy wrote

I read 1984, in 1984 when I was 13. It made me fearful of losing my free will. I had nightmares that the mall food court was taken over by the government and served "healthy" gross-tasting food.

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RomanRiesen t1_ixpundj wrote

> It made me fearful of losing my free will

Neuroscience be like: welp, you can't loose what you don't have.

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TanaFey t1_ixo71vv wrote

Stephen King's "It". I was probably too young to read it at the time.

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confrita OP t1_ixo79cm wrote

That's definitely not a book for a kid!

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TanaFey t1_ixo7r1r wrote

Lol, nope.

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confrita OP t1_ixo93wu wrote

I remember seeing the mini series at a very young age... and my god, Tim Curry's Pennywise gave me a good couple of nightmares!

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lazyprettyart t1_ixoatbu wrote

Ubik by Phillip K. Dick managed to make me afraid of metaphysics

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RomanRiesen t1_ixpuhl1 wrote

I don't know why exactly but this made me laugh out loud

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Coffee-Annual t1_ixo98hb wrote

Joe Abercrombies 'The blade itself' has made me keenly aware of how absolutely horrible torture can be, my friend said he had to quit reading after a 'dentistry' session happened in the book, it was just too much

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confrita OP t1_ixo9hvm wrote

I've never read that, but torture is actually a terrifying thing.

Is the rest of the story worth checking it out?

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Coffee-Annual t1_ixoadqp wrote

I loved the story, can't really tell that much without spoiling, but it's set in a dark fantasy setting, and very gritty. It also only follows a few characters, so you don't need to memorize a huge cast like in a song of ice and fire. If you're into that kinda stuff I'd say go for it

Taste is always subjective though, so you should probably see what others have to say about it as well

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PM_ME_WHAT_YOU_WOULD t1_ixp1pgw wrote

I didn't find the dentistry scenes too bad, FWIW.

As for The First Law book series, I'd recommend it. In the fantasy space, it's grittier than WoT or Mistborn, but less so than GoT. You definitely have to approach it as a trilogy though because a lot of the plots and themes don't pay off until the third book.

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Least_Requirement_54 t1_ixogdlm wrote

“A Stolen life”memoir of Jaycee Dugard. Made me forever paranoid. I found it so hard to not worry about my kids at all times when they were not with me.

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Future-Ad-1347 t1_ixodvjc wrote

Salem’s Lot. I don’t like basements at night…

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Umm_is_this_thing_on t1_ixprfj9 wrote

And I was never really comfortable around second story windows after that one either. I had both, a basement and upper windows. The thought of Danny Glick just floating out there nearly did me in. I wanted to sleep with my parents but that meant exposing my feet to the creature under the bed.

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momohatch t1_ixoglnq wrote

The Collector by John Fowles. Couldn’t walk through a dark parking lot without being extra paranoid for weeks after reading it.

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_ixpb1yr wrote

Coma made me more afraid of doctors and health care providers.

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confrita OP t1_ixrl851 wrote

Oh god I've forgotten about that one! I have to re read it!

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MarzannaMorena t1_ixpjjx5 wrote

Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. First book that confronted me with the idea of military drafting and posibility of losing a sibling.

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unlovelyladybartleby t1_ixqko7d wrote

That scared me too.

I was also slightly uncomfortable around soup tureens/unattended babies ;)

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RodrickM t1_ixq2wl4 wrote

My bank book.

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pearliewolf t1_ixp7251 wrote

The Shining by Stephen King and The Amityville Horror. I read both as a 13 year old and nope. Scared to death.

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unlovelyladybartleby t1_ixqkkc2 wrote

Rosemary's Baby

It wasn't the "evil" that scared me, it was how she was lied to and betrayed by everyone she counted on. That one still gives me the shivers

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sirbinchicken t1_ixod29e wrote

Exact same book for me but for some reason it was the scene of him eating the painting that got to me. I was already uneasy reading about the murders and then he eats that painting and suddenly I had to turn the light on and couldn’t get to sleep.

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confrita OP t1_ixof5ra wrote

Oh yes that scene just keeps adding to the creepiness of his character

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carbondrewtonium t1_ixohxlk wrote

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Being a fearful/thinking person, sci-fi can set my mind down a path of how things are likely to get worse

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Franz_Pistos t1_ixoufkl wrote

There is only one: mayonnaise and raw bacon. A character in "Dreamcatcher" eats this combinations and his stomach goes in kamikaze mode.

Other than that, maybe Solaris is going to give me some fears, but I am not so sure.

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midnight_7877 t1_ixpax8q wrote

Stephen King's Insomia gave me a fear of going to sleep late

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Head-Kiwi-9601 t1_ixqsv7k wrote

The guy who slaughtered a family because he had the wrong address. I used to leave my doors unlocked. No more.

Edit: In Cold Blood. I knew I would remember as soon as I posted.

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confrita OP t1_ixrlpp3 wrote

God that sounds terrifying!

I'll put that title on my list right now

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lilythefrogphd t1_ixraiol wrote

When I was younger, I read a young adult book called Elsewhere which followed a 15-year old girl who died, went to heaven, but in heaven (called Elsewhere) you age backwards until you are a newborn and then you are sent back to Earth to be reincarnated. When I was like 13 reading that book, it gave me this fear of dying and then not being able to reconnect with my friends/family afterwards (not spoiling the book by saying this, but that is a big thing the protagonist grapples with)

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confrita OP t1_ixrlgon wrote

Wow I didn't knew that one, it's sounds like a good but sad story!

I'll put it on my list immediately, thanks!

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FiliaSecunda t1_ixrl2o0 wrote

I don't think it started the fear, just solidified it, but reading The Mysterious Benedict Society as a kid had me afraid of losing free will and being forced, not just to act happy, but to feel happy when it wasn't appropriate.

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confrita OP t1_ixwyjz7 wrote

Ok that's another one for my list then! Thanks!

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FiliaSecunda t1_iy3jgns wrote

Just so you know, The Mysterious Benedict Society is a kids' book that I read in my childhood, so I don't know how it will be to an adult reader. I think it was one of those smart kids' books though.

Just remembered another story that solidified a fear for me: the short story The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain. It's sort of a bleak anti-religion (or at least anti-Christian) story - there was probably dark humor in it too, since it's Mark Twain, but I read this as a child so I didn't catch it. Anyway the ending had me obsessively afraid that the world around me (and God and logic and the people I loved) might turn out to be an illusion.

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Send-help_3854 t1_ixtjb8p wrote

The Perfect Predator by Steffanie A. Strathdee. I had no real concept of antibiotic resistant bacteria until reading this brutal book where it feels like the first three quarters of the book, the author is basically watching her husband getting worse and slowly dying.

I love a good horror or crime novel, but nonfiction will always find a way to be scarier.

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Autarch_Kade t1_ixpryup wrote

XX instilled a new fear in me of my brain being hijacked/used as a reproduction organ for ideas that then spread to other people and continue to reproduce.

It makes it deeply uncomfortable to recommend that amazing book, because you have a fear that you're doing exactly what it wants you to do so it can propagate.

The book itself is meta enough that it already breaches the wall between story and the real world. So it feels like a more real phenomenon than it otherwise would if it was strictly self-contained.

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