Let’s Talk bookish – Books that Give You Nightmares

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

October 27: Books That Give You Nightmares

Prompts: Have you ever had a nightmare about a book you read? Do you try to avoid scary books? Or do you really enjoy reading them? What are your favorite and least favorite scary books?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! Today’s topic is about books that give you nightmares, and luckily I don’t think I experience too many because of books. It’s a reasonable fear though, has anyone not ever experienced one?

I think I had a nightmare long ago from a Goosebumps book back when I was much younger. Classic, I know. I think it was Welcome to the Dead House, if I’m not mistaken, and I started dreaming about being in a haunted house with disembodied heads, etc., etc. Needless to say that was a little bit too much for me at the time. Not really sure how that led me to continue to like reading mysteries and thrillers now anyway.

I do tend to try and avoid some scary books. I have read a few in the past that didn’t necessarily give me nightmares, but was certainly too graphic and horrifying for me to handle even while awake. I’m sure you know which ones I mean. I would probably qualify it as not liking books that are scary (and gory) for the sake of being scary and horrifying on its own. I don’t mind reading books that are a bit scary if it helps advance the mystery plot or increase the suspense, and I do think well-timed “scary” elements can be used very effectively to do so, without overloading on it.

I enjoy mysteries and thrillers so I definitely can’t say I want nothing scary. But I do want those elements to be used well and to actually enhance the plot. Sometimes, scary elements can really add to a thrilling book, but at other times it can also take away and make me put the book down and detract from the plot. It’s hard to say exactly what it is, but I think for me it’s about the frequency and severity of the scary element (usually violence/gore) that really makes or breaks it for me. Assuming we’re ignoring that and only talking about psychological thrillers being “scary,” then I am actually fully okay with that for the most part.

For example, I really enjoyed Verity which does have a couple of scary elements, but for the most part it was mostly a psychological thriller. That is mostly the same with the Ruth Ware, Shari Lapena, and Lucy Foley books that I read too. On the other hand, I have read two books by Karin Slaughter that both made me feel a bit queasy, even if I did manage to finish them. It all depends what you like reading about!

What about you all? Do you enjoy reading books with scary elements? And if so, what kind of scary elements? Let me know in the comments below!