50 Scariest Books of All Time: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Halloween is near, and if you’ve been following along I’m reading and reviewing my way down one site’s list of the 50 scariest books of all time. Today I bring to you a classic from my childhood –

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
By – Alvin Schwartz

It seems that people who are really drawn to horror as adults, got into it as young children. I really cannot explain to you what it is about horror that I love so much, but what I can tell you is that I have memories of watching Night of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Pet Semetary, It, The Amityville Horror, etc. for the first time as vividly as I remember what I ate for breakfast today. I was 6 years old and it was New Years Eve, mom let me stay up late and Night of the Living Dead was playing on TV – I remember that but I don’t remember meeting my sister for the first time and I was 6 when she was born…  priorities, right?

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is classic to kids who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s – they scared us to death!

Light, cheerful nighttime reading.

There are three volumes in total, and they are all amazing. The stories are urban legends and folk tales all adapted by the author, and the illustrations that came with these tales are the things of my nightmares to this day. Sadly the publishers have taken the terror out of the artwork for the newer generations. It’s a tragedy!

Original on the left, tame new version on the right.

If you can get a copy of the original version of these three books, do so and don’t let go! If you can only find the newer versions that’s fine too, the stories are all amazing still, it’s just the illustrations that have been changed.

Regardless, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a must have for anyone who loves horror, adults and kids alike!

50 Scariest Books of All Time (3 down, 47 to go)

1. It – Stephen King
2. Piercing – Ryu Murakami
3. The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty
4. Ghost Story – Peter Straub
5. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
6. Hell House – Richard Matheson
7. Dracula – Bram Stoker
8. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
9. The Best of H.P. Lovecraft – H.P. Lovecraft
10. The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
11. House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
12. The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
13. The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris
14. Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin
15. The Amityville Horror – Jay Anson
16. The Trial – Frankz Kafka
17. Books of Blood – Clive Barker
18. Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
19. Heart-Shaped Box – Joe Hill
20. Carrion Comfort – Dan Simmons
21. The Complete Tales and Poems – Edgar Allan Poe
22. Dawn – Octavia Butler
23. We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
24. The Girl Next Door – Jack Ketchum
25. The Painted Bird – Jerzy Kosinski
26. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
27. The Cipher – Kathe Koja
28. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
29. The Ruins – Scott Smith
30. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary – M. R. James
31. Naomi’s Room – Jonathan Aycliffe
32. The Ritual – Adam Nevill
33. Johnny Got His Gun – Dalton Trumbo
34. Incarnate – Ramsey Campbell
35. The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
36. The Great God Pan – Arthur Machen
37. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – Alvin Schwartz
38. The October Country – Ray Bradbury
39. White is for Witching – Helen Oyeyemi
40. Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist
41. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream – Harlan Ellison
42. The Collector – John Fowles
43. The Store – Bently Little
44. Penpal – Dathan Auerbach
45. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
46. Swan Song – Robert R. McCammon
47. The Wolfen – Whitley Strieber
48. The Hot Zone – Richard Preston
49. The Killer Inside Me – Jim Thompson
50. 1984 – George Orwell