Nearly Halloween....anyone reading a spooky/scary book?

[Inver]

I picked up 'The Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters a good while back and was contemplating starting it. I don't usually do scary books  

 

If you are what will you be reading?

[julie]

Diane

I am reading one called Asylum by Madeleine Roux .

 

 

It's supposed to be compared in a way to Miss Pettigrew's ( the Ransom Riggs book )  ,as far as having photos inside to go along with the story . I don't think the writing compares ,and the photos ( most of them ) , look to be staged . The story I'd guess is a YA type book, as it is about 3 teens in a  haunted summer school that used to be an asylum . I'm halfway done and it's not knocking my socks off, but I'm sticking with it in hopes it'll have a spooky ending .

[julie]

Can I ask, while we are talking spooky Halloween type books, do any of you believe in ghosts ?  I do .

[Inver]

I am open to that Julie...I have way to a vivid an imagination anyway...

[geordie9]

Can I ask, while we are talking spooky Halloween type books, do any of you believe in ghosts ?  I do .

 

Sorry but a definite no from me

[Eleonora]

I'm reading a collection of horror short stories written by a young italian writer. The one with the creepy clown is really scary.

Answering to Julie's question, I add a huge Yes I do. I personally witnessed some odd things happened, that kind od strange things you can't explained with rationality.

Personal story following, maybe a little boring.. I thought to put it in spoiler but it's not working properly today and some functions here are simply blank.

 

For example, some years ago my family and I moved in this house, the one we still live in. It's a huge old farm, with a lot of wide rooms, built for the first time in 1790 or so (during the years it had to go through a lot of changes and re-buildings) surrounded by nothing but acres of country. In the 1950s the house was split in three parts and a large family of farmer lived in each of the part. The last grandsons of that ancient family decided to move to Verona in 1995 and the house stood empty until our house owner bought it and found us as a sort of keepers in 2004. We moved into one of the parts and we were all so busy with the boxes and stuff we didn't mind to have a glance to the other two parts. Every evening during dinner, we used to hear a soft music in the air: a slow sad touching piano song. We thought our neighbours (who live almost 500 m from us) were great players and that's all. One day our neighbours came to visit us and we were all "Oh, who plays the piano so greatfully?" "It's so wounderful to have dinner with your playing as background". The housband looked at his wife and then "None of us can play the piano. We don't have one. What's more we don't like music and we don't even have a radio". My brother went white as a blanket, as we say it in Italy. My best friend and I (she was having dinner with us every evening at that time.. well, no, she still does) decided to have a look at the closed room. And in the living room of the third part of the house, the one in the east, we found a smashed piano laying broken on the floor and a picture on the wall showing a young lady playing. There was a lot of rubbish on the broken piano.. we removed it and tried to fix some of the parts, but the damages were serious and we gave up. When we told the story to my family my brother - who's the bravest in the world - really freaked out and refuse to sleep in his bedroom that was the closest to the other part of the house. I took it. I've been sleeping here for 9 years now and nothing odd ever happened. We never heard the piano playing since that very evening. Not a note. But after all these years I can't still find a rational answer to explain what happened. It's not a Halloween story, believe me. My friend still have a white key of that musical instrument.

[Weave]

I haven't really thought about it, I might re~read 'The Woman in Black' by Susan Hill

[julie]

Eleanora

 

  Thanks for the ghost story . I believe you  100 % .

[Athena]

I'm reading Stephen King - IT. I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts or not. Eleonora, that's a pretty special story!

[Inver]

Eleanora

 

  Thanks for the ghost story . I believe you  100 % .

....and me

[gardengirl]

I don't believe that 'ghosts' are people who have returned from a spirit world to here, so no, My answer would be, I don't believe in ghosts.However, I do think that sometimes we see or hear things that 'have gone before'.Take sounds for instance, all sounds go into the ether, but where exactly do they go? They get fainter, but what if something in our natural world [nothing ghostly] can hold sounds for quite a while?That would account for sounds of somebdy running up a staircase that no longer exists etc.Or indeed a piano being played.Accounts of seeing ghosts can be attributed to all kinds of things, but not all can be lies or miss- seeings or imagination. We simply don't know enough about either our world or any other, but I do think it is connected to the natural [rather than supernatural.] Still, enough to spook us of course.

[gardengirl]

In answer to the original question 'are you reading a scary/spooky book' No Im not, I am reading Kate Atkinson 'Started Early, Took My Dog' which is a mystery, and a great read like all her books. But a while ago I read Sarah Waters 'The Little Stranger' which is very atmospheric and a bit spooky [sort of spooky-lite.] I thought it was an excellent book.

[poppyshake]

Spooky story Eleonora  .. there was something similar in Sarah Miles' (the actress) biography. She was often away filming and used to let her house out to friends etc ... one friend told Sarah that he couldn't sleep one night because there was a lot of clanking noises coming from downstairs .. when he went down to have a look the gas oven had been completely dismantled and was on the floor in the middle of the kitchen .. un-beknown to him another friend of Sarah's had committed suicide there .. about a year earlier .. by gassing himself (a sad case of unrequited love)  he wouldn't stay there after that.

 

I've read The Little Stranger too and loved it .. just the right amount of spooky for me  

 

I am reading a spooky book at present though ... Newes From the Dead  which lovely Claire lent me  The main character has been hung for murder .. only ... she's not quite dead  .. they believe she is though and she's in a coffin and what's worse .. they are preparing to dissect her for medical science      

[julie]

Wow, Pops ! Love the ghost story ! Really interesting . I've always believed in them. It sounds weird, but I can step into a house and tell if someone has died there or still lingering around ( unseeable ) .. I've never SEEN one ,but I heard one ,and can feel one if they are in a house .

 

My cousin moved into an old house about 20 years ago. She was so excited ! Their first house. I went to visit, and she took me to see the house (before they got moved in ) . I stepped in the front door and told her it's haunted . She thought I was just joking. I said NO , IT'S HAUNTED . A baby and an old man both died in this house . 

She didn't believe me til she asked the neighbors, and they said yes, that 2 people had died there. A baby and an old man . It's pretty neat that I can walk in and feel the VIBES from anything lingering in a house ...

 

We moved out in the country when I was 16 .Weird story, but the parents didn't even tell us they were looking to move, so one day we came home from school and they told us to get in the car ,they had something to show us . Turns out, they were SHOWING us our new house . We pulled in the driveway and it had a sold sign in the yard . I said, please tell me WE didn't BUY this house !!!

 

They said ,yes we did ... yada yada ... Long story, I won't go into WHY we moved out there . That part of life is a whole other Pandora's Box of Stupidness .

 

SO, back to the HOUSE . It didn't look scary ,ordinary white house in nice shape . No cobwebs or bats or spiders ,just an ordinary house .

As soon as we pulled in, I had a bad VIBE about it . By the time we unlocked the door, I knew they had bought themselves a haunted house . I stepped in and said again, I hoped it wasn't a done deal .. we should NOT move into that house . My comments were laughed off . They told us to go up and pick out a bedroom and we could paint it ANY COLOR WE WANT !!!

 

Thanks so much. You move us into a Freakin' Haunted House, but we can PAINT our room any color we want . I wanted to paint mine EMPTY .... and go live elsewhere .

 

I told them SOMEONE else lived in that house . We are sharing it with a ghost. They were no-nonsense people and ignored me .

 

So, I painted my room NEON GREEN . The Sister painted hers BLOOD RED ,so we had quite an odd combo going upstairs . My room gave me the creeps. NOT a good feeling in there . It had a crawl-space type attic door that had SOMETHING bad in it. No lie .. I put furniture in front of it and NEVER opened it .

 

One night after the Parents had gone to bed, my sister and I  were sitting in the dining room ,which was at the top of the basement steps . My dad had nailed up thick sheets of TIN underneath the stairs, because they didn't have a bottom ( they had holes between each step. )  He thought maybe someone would be walking on them, their foot slip into one of the holes and we'd break our leg or something .so we had the TIN under them .

 

As said, it was just 2 of us sitting in this room, not making a noise .I ,of course, had my nose in a book as always  ,no clue what the Sister was doing ,but it was DEAD quiet . All at once ,we heard a heavy step on the bottom basement step ,and the tin rattled . We both looked at each other at the same time . Then Another step . And another ... I went over quick and slid the chain-bolt at the top of the steps . We heard ANOTHER step ,each time, with the rattling tin sound .

 

..I went in to wake my dad to tell him SOMEONE was in the basement . He grumbled about being woken up, said no way would anyone be in the basement, they couldn't GET in ,but I insisted he get up and check .

 

He huffed and puffed ,but got up to go SHOW us that no one was down there . He made both of us follow him so he could show us there was NO WAY anyone could get in .

The basement had a door that went outside, but it had a thick metal bolt-lock on the inside . It was latched tight . There were a couple really small windows ,but weren't the type that would open . you'd have to break the glass on them, plus they were too small for anyone to get through .

 

We walked all over the basement . NO ONE .  My dad was angry that we woke him up for nothing . We both heard the steps, one at a time, heavy ,like a man with boots on ..  I will SWEAR on my death bed that we heard it ,something was in that basement .

 

Another time, I was home alone with my sister's SISSY DOG . Fi-Fi .

 

Good grief, what a name for a dog.

 

Get a TOUGH dog and name him BUTCH ,

 

Anyhow, here I am home with FiFi the guard dog . There's no way to describe that night other than pure TERROR . No noises, nothing to SEE. It was the FEELING .. or the ATMOSPHERE .... I KNEW I wasn't the only one there that night . I held FiFi because she was shaking all over ,and she sat on my lap and looked at the basement door and just kept GROWLING at the door .. she didn't take her eyes off it ,just kept growling .

 

Mind you, this was a dog that didn't even BARK ..she just walked around like a little sissy dog  normally ,but that night, she was growling like a killer was in the house waiting to kill us both .

 

I told the parents THAT night. WE are NOT alone in this place . They got so sick of me saying that, they asked the former people that lived there ,and they said that a teen girl (16) had killed herself IN MY BEDROOM several decades previously . The people who lived there right before they did ,ALSO had a teen girl who had MY BEDROOM . She , for reasons unknown , got so FRIGHTENED one night, she attempted jumping out the bedroom window . ( MY WINDOW)  It didn't kill her ,she broke both legs when she fell, but the house was only  2 stories with grass and bushes out front, so I doubt you'd die from jumping out the window, but she was scared SPITLESS enough to JUMP .

 

So, that's my story of that house .

 

I would swear in court it happened and that SOMETHING lived in that house with us .

 

 If people think I'm a fruitcake, it's ok .

 

It happened  .

[Talisman]

I am not reading one at the moment, but if anyone wants a really good and scary one, I would strongly recommend I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Without wishing to give too much away, this is an Icelandic ghost story with a twist, set in an abandoned village in the northwest fjords. It is really creepy stuff - I have read a lot of Icelandic books, but never anything like this, or this good !