[tilay]

Just a few, off the top of my head...

Madame Bovary (Flaubert)
The Age of Innocence (Wharton)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (McCullers)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Smith)
My Antonia (Cather)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
Jane Eyre (Bronte)
Little Women(Alcott)
Silas Marner (Eliot)
The Summer of My German Soldier (Greene)
Daddy-Long-Legs (Webster)
Holes (Sachar)
A Single Shard (Park)

[HB]

When I was probably 8, I picked HOUSE OF STAIRS for my Scholastic order because it looks so cool. A house made completely of stairs? Neato! Little did I know what I was getting myself into. I was way too young for the concepts in that book. Disturbed me for ages after I read it. I'm still a little distubed.

[rab Posts: 688 Status: Offline WWW]

HOUSE OF STAIRS! I read that book in high school, was blown away by it, LOVED IT. Now I can't remember a thing about it except the exhilaration of reading it. I can remember exactly where I was (on a long bus ride), who was there (my best friend--don't remember what she was reading, though), when I read it.

[Min]

THE RUNNER by Cynthia Voigt. 

[hairaplenty Posts: 1,754 Status: Online Don't ever quit!]

Such a Pretty Face by Laura Weiss
Dark subject matter and she handles it beautifully.

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga-also dark subject matter.     

[JennaWren Posts: 2,231 Status: Offline WWW]

House of Stairs!  Awesome!  Loved it!  Still have my battered Scholastic book club copy....somewhere in my parents' basement in a box of other titles from middle school I refuse to throw away.

[pixydust]

One's I read as a kid that still haunt me:

THE HIDING PLACE
JACOB HAVE I LOVED
A WRINKLE IN TIME
IT (mostly cause it freaked the boogers out of me)

As an adult:

THE GIVER (x10)
HOLES
SON OF SHADOWS
A GAME OF THRONES
INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE
CRISTY
SWAN SONG

[inluvwithwords Posts: 97 Status: Offline]

Alan and Naomi by Myron Levoy

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Girl in Buckskin by Dorothy Gilman

[Aimee W. Posts: 459 Status: Offline MADNESS WWW]

I'm such a geek.

My grandmother came to visit shortly before she passed away in 1978. I was five and she gave me a copy of "Little Bear's Friend" by Else Holmelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. I read it probably 1000 times, and it will always be my favorite childrens book.

I still have it on the shelf in front of me behind my desk.

[eileenmf Posts: 49 Status: Offline]

When I was about 12, one of the books that I LOVED that has stuck with me ever since was And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine by Stella Pevsner.  I cried and cried at the end.  I went looking for it online last year and bought a used copy (turns out it won the Golden Kite award in 1978, who knew?) and re-reading it as an adult, I still loved it and could appreciate it from a mom's point of view - and I still cried at the end.  I LOVED that book.

As far as haunting as in creepy haunting?  We read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson when I was in 8th grade and I couldn't stop thinking about it for months.   It is still one of the most disturbing stories I've ever read. 

[literaticat Posts: 463 Status: Offline WWW]

JANE-EMILY by Patricia Clapp -- I still remember the little poem about pansies that the creepy dead ghost Emily wrote every time I see a pansy.  AND how the girl Jane almost dies (because of the ghostly Emily trying to kill her so she'll have a "friend" on the dark side) and they put her in an ice-bath to break the fever. Ack!

An adult book WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN by Lionel Shriver still gives me chills and I must have read it seven years ago, before it was even out in hardcover.  A mother thinks her child is evil -- but he can't be, she's just a bad mother, right?  For the first half of the book I hated the mother so much, I didn't even want to keep reading, but for some reason I did...

and then I realized...

OMG HOLY SH**, SHE WAS RIGHT AND HE IS EVIIIIILLLL!!!!  AHHH!  *shiver*

(So I guess my idea of "haunting" means, somebody has to be evil.  Ha!)

[angela Posts: 542 Status: Offline WWW]

From Childhood:
A TASTE OF BLACKBERRIES

GO ASK ALICE

Read as an adult:

A FINE BALANCE by Rohinton Mistry (It took me YEARS to accept the ending...)

I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb

[annastan Posts: 613 Status: Offline WWW]

I think both of these have been said before but The Giver and Z for Zachariah really stuck with me. I read Z for Zachariah when I was young and I remember just being utterly mesmerized by it. Then I read it again last year and it haunted me for days; I'd have reading flashbacks where it felt like I was right back in the story. If you haven't read it (and don't mind having a few nightmares) I highly recommend it.

[Ellen]

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

[ShelliC Posts: 65 Status: Offline WWW]

As an Adult: THOSE WHO SAVE US by Jenna Blum. Beautiful book.

As a Kid: DEENIE by Judy Blume. I was so freaked out that I might have scoliosis, too, even though there was nothing wrong with me -- no changes in posture, no pain, nothing -- that I convinced my mom to refuse to sign the permission slip that would allow the school to do a scoliosis screening on me in junior high. I convinced my mom I was too shy and it would totally freak me out to have it done. I guess it never occurred to her that I changed clothes in front of all of the girls in my gym class every day in that same locker room where the screening was to take place! I guess I thought that even if I really had scoliosis, as long as I could keep them from diagnosing me, it would all be okay. One thing I knew for sure: I was NOT wearing that brace Deenie had to wear. It's so funny the way the adolescent brain works. I look back on it now and can't help but laugh at how terrified I was of finding out if I had scoliosis. I guess I had heard "ignorance is bliss" one too many times.

[Michael Sussman Posts: 209 Status: Offline WWW]

I don't think these have been mentioned:

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Children's:

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Michael

[amaryllis2004]

Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood) - absolutely chilling dystopia
The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues (Ellen Raskin) - Raskin was just a master of pithy, poignant AND humorous insights into human nature
Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay) - several cuts above the normal fantasy novel; has one of the most sympathetic "villains" ever
The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) - the scene at the end with the breastmilk? heartbreaking

And I second:
Speak
Bridge to Terabithia
Old Yeller

[Vijaya Posts: 8,516 Status: Offline LISTEN. Let all mortal flesh keep silence ... WWW]

As a child:
Oliver Twist.

The Diary of Anne Frank ... I read this as a ten-year-old and when I read the very, very end -- my copy had some historical facts, I was shattered. I think it was the first time I became aware of the fact that there is evil in this world. I lost my faith ...

Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C. Douglas -- the first adult novel I read (age 12).
Adventures in Two Worlds by A. J. Cronin -- the first adult memoir I read (age 12). This book probably planted the seed in me to write ...

But it was Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance that probably put me over the edge. I was all grown up now ...
This book lit a fire under me ... but I would not write what was burning inside ... that novel is still is WIP. I owe it to myself to finish it.

A FINE BALANCE by Rohinton Mistry (It took me YEARS to accept the ending...)

Oh, yes. Cry. Laugh.

Some books that haunt me so much that I need to re-read them:
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
Wingwalker by Rosemary Wells
Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock

and I'd better stop before I write an entire page of books.
Vijaya

[Madjack]

Go Ask Alice haunted me for years and years after I read it in high school. Also I had been trying to remember one about these kids in a place with lots of stairs and someone mentioned it above, House of Stairs. I'd like to read it again. Also Diary of Anne Frank left me thinking about it for a long time.

[thunderingelephants Posts: 1,307 Status: Offline]

The Twits by Roald Dahl haunted me for years.  Mainly because my dad had a horrible beard and I had horrible visions of what might be growing inside it.  Thankfully he shaved it off!

[Larissa Posts: 917 Status: Offline Larissa WWW]

I could probably go on and on with this, but I'll try to keep it short-ish.  LOL

THE TAKING by Dean Koontz
HARRY POTTER 1-7
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
A WRINKLE IN TIME
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA - particularly THE LAST BATTLE

and my #1 book that kept me up, made me cry, and had me reading and rereading as a teen: MAGIC'S PAWN by Mercedes Lackey

[thunderingelephants Posts: 1,307 Status: Offline]

Nope, Roald Dahl for me.  He had a great knack of giving me the creeps.  Actually, I think a few characters in my stories reflect some their characteristics and that's creepy.  Loved Charlie and Chocolate Factory though.  Speak of which, gonna dive into my truffles.  Mmmmmm

[SeeShelle]

I love this thread and had to get in on it...

As a child:  "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" - I probably took it out from the library about a million times.
VC Andrews' "Flowers in the Attic" - I think this was the first novel I read - I still remember it!

As an adult:  "The Warrior Heir" by Cinda Williams Chima because of the beginning - it took me by surprise and I re-read it 3 times and then put the book down.  Luckily I picked it back up and finished it and went onto the Wizard Heir which tied things together nicely.

"Harry Potter and The Dealthy Hallows" - when he's in the forest (I'm Open at the Close).... 

Michelle

[Elaine (aka sweetpea) Posts: 1,294 Status: Offline Hope Springs Eternal]

An adult book WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN by Lionel Shriver still gives me chills and I must have read it seven years ago, before it was even out in hardcover.  A mother thinks her child is evil -- but he can't be, she's just a bad mother, right?  For the first half of the book I hated the mother so much, I didn't even want to keep reading, but for some reason I did...

and then I realized...

OMG HOLY SH**, SHE WAS RIGHT AND HE IS EVIIIIILLLL!!!!  AHHH!  *shiver*

(So I guess my idea of "haunting" means, somebody has to be evil.  Ha!)

Wow. That sounds like that movie with the cute Culkin kid, The Good Son. Which totally freaked me out and still haunts me. So, I guess haunting requires an evil element for me, too.

[Aimee W. Posts: 459 Status: Offline MADNESS WWW]

Some books stay with you for all the wrong reasons. In ninth grade I read Clan of the Cave Bear.

And then I read Valley of the Horses. Oh my...

[MargoWest]

Basically all fairy tales and Aesop's Fables (the former I love; the latter I just feel scarred by :p).
The Witches by Roald Dahl (I had to turn it upside down when I slept as a kid... though this may be stretching the definition of "haunted".)
Anything by Shel Silverstein (creeped me out big time; all the stories were so menacing).

[valeriek Posts: 115 Status: Offline WWW]

I agree with so many of these, like Bridge to Teribithia and A Handmaid's Tale.  I've also always been haunted by All The Pretty Horses and Tuck Everlasting.

[Sharif]

Speak, Go Ask Alice, The Diary of Anne Frank, anything Sylvia Plath (her poems and The Bell Jar), anything Anne Sexton (poetry), The Lovely Bones

[valeriek Posts: 115 Status: Offline WWW]

Oh and how can I forget The Time Traveler's Wife?

Go Ask Alice is a great book, I remember another one that really spooked me that was similar called Jay's Journal about a boy that gets involved with satanism, I think?  Also, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden.

[thunderingelephants Posts: 1,307 Status: Offline]

The Twits by Roald Dahl.
I am surrounded by family after a silver anniversary celebration.  Too much of a reminder.  They are driving me potty.