# Halloween - nominate your scariest ghost stories **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134 "2003-10-28T23:37:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mrsface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/1 "2003-10-28T23:37:31Z")
Here goes - (not in any particular order): \*The Room in the Tower - EF Benson \*The Face - EF Benson \*The House of the Nightmare - Edward Lucas White \*The Dreams in the Witch House - HP Lovecraft And just about anything by MR James, but especially The Ash Tree, and the little known but subtly terrifying “A Neighbour’s Landmark”. ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/2 "2003-10-29T06:51:56Z")
The Shining by Steven King was pretty scary to me when I first read it. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/3 "2003-10-29T13:09:41Z")
Does _The Haunting of Hill House_ count as a story? (And does it contain a ghost? Hmmm…) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/4 "2003-10-29T13:12:36Z")
I just realized some of the stories in the OP also don’t contain ghosts, so I’m nominating Hill House. Do you mean scary stories? ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/5 "2003-10-29T13:48:05Z")
Two that stand out for me- “August Heat” by W.F. Harvey. Brief, absolutely brilliant spooky story; you can find it if you hunt through a few supernatural anthologies. Gives me shivers thinking about it. “Afterward” by Edith Wharton. Son of a bee, this is a chilling one. Can’t understand why someone hasn’t filmed it. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/6 "2003-10-29T16:24:30Z")
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman always gave me a serious case of the creeps. Read it online [here](http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman/The_Yellow_Wallpaper/The_Yellow_Wallpaper_p1.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/7 "2003-10-29T17:48:17Z")
Great one, **Archegal.** I forgot my personal favorite collection of strange tales-- Joyce Carol Oates’ _Haunted._ Wicked, wicked stuff. “The Doll” alone is worth the price of submission. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/8 "2003-10-29T17:56:23Z")
:smack: Sorry. _Archergal._ ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/9 "2003-10-29T22:49:39Z")
Not a ghost story, strictly speaking, but spooky: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s [_Young Goodman Brown_](http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.html) ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/10 "2003-10-30T00:37:37Z")
“The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James. End of thread ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/11 "2003-10-30T00:41:40Z")
Oh wait forget I wrote that. The best ghost story ever is “Pedro Paramo” by Juan Rulfo. That man is one of the best contemporary hispanic-american writers, I don’t know how well known in Anglo-Saxon countries but if you can get it you won’t be dissapointed. It’s creepy, sad and has a very surprising end. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/12 "2003-10-30T01:18:53Z")
Can I nominate 1/2 of a book? If so Voices In The Basement has the best beginning of any ghost story I’ve ever read. (and I really liked one character’s reaction to the ghost he gets the hell out of the house and won’t come back until later. Slowly he goes from being afraid to trying to prove the experience was real. A very human reaction IMO) Unfortunately the last 1/2 of the book is eye rollingly bad. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-nominate-your-scariest-ghost-stories/210134/13 "2003-10-30T01:52:20Z")
[http://www.annexed.net/box/augustheat/](http://www.annexed.net/box/augustheat/) August Heat.