This is the reason why I found The Haunting of Hill House to be infinitely scarier than anything Stephen King has ever written, because of the dread factor and because not knowing is somehow scary in and of itself.

What Anne Said.

Mind you, parts of It will still cause me sleepless nights, because clowns freak me out very very badly. The Haunting of Hill House, however, will make me turn on every light in the house and follow Pete around because I don't want to be by myself. Scary damn book.

This is the reason why I found The Haunting of Hill House to be infinitely scarier than anything Stephen King has ever written.

I love the end of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, too. Shirley Jackson does elegantly creepy --and drawing out the suspense -- so very well.

And I really meant "big fat spider" to be white-fonted. What did I do wrong? Hmmm.

Stephen King did publish a reverent review of Haunting of Hill House somewhere or other. I rushed over to my local library and checked out a vintage copy. I still remember the following sleepless night. Yikes.

Merricat and Constance are some of my favorite characters.

Nick Hornby fans need to read "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About" by Mil Millington. So far, I think it's FG. Kind of has the same feel...of course the ending could be crap, but I've laughed out loud a couple times already, and I can never resist a funky title.

Is that the book that's based on the guy's website, where he lists hundreds of things he and his girlfriend have fought about? It's ringing a bell, but I can't recall the guy's name.

Yes, the same Mil Millington.

Oh, that site is stomach crampingly funny. I didn't realise the book was actually a novel, I thought it was a compilation of bits from the website.

I forgot about the kid sex in It...you're right, it was totally squick-worthy. Perhaps I repressed the memory of that passage... *g*

I can think of at least two people I've spoken to who had no memory of this passage and refused to believe it was in there until I brought out my copy and made them read it.

I think the other reason the spider didn't bother me so much was because I seem to remember he qualified it in the description by saying it wasn't actually a spider: that was just the closest thing their brains could come up with when trying to comprehend it.

It is definately one of my favourite Stephen King books. It's a good, sprawling story without being bloated. Scares the hell out of me, breaks my heart and cracks me up. The miniseries wasn't exactly wonderful, but Tim Curry in evil clown makeup? Priceless.

I can think of at least two people I've spoken to who had no memory of this passage and refused to believe it was in there until I brought out my copy and made them read it.

When you read It for the first time at 12 y.o. you can't really forget a scene like that.

It's a good, sprawling story without being bloated.

Yeah, but the flaws won't let me forgive it. My favorite is the first half of The Stand because it freaked me right the hell out. Deadly viruses released by human error are much more terrifying than nameless evil to me.

My favorite is the first half of The Stand because it freaked me right the hell out. Deadly viruses released by human error are much more terrifying than nameless evil to me.

Right there with you, baby. Freaked my shit out. And I read it at the *beach* one year. (I don't think those are related, but I felt compelled to mention it.) The Tommyknockers freaked me out, too, now that I think of it.

And Pet Cemetery was the first King I read, at age 13, and it had me literally looking over my shoulder while I read it. Of course, it didn't help that we had 2 cats at the time, and no proof that they weren't resurrected demon cats.