10/26/2026
Welcome back to Question of the Week! This week's question is...
Has a book ever scared you or given you nightmares?
Kendrick: "To the best of my recollection, no book has ever scared me, exactly, much less left me with nightmares. It could be due in part to my fascination with the macabre, which tends to drown out most, if not all, feelings of fear and disgust I may have. There have been plenty of books which left me unsettled or upset upon completion, but not many have gone beyond that. The only example that comes to mind of a title that did more than just unsettle me was Stephen King’s Revival (I know, I know, I’m sure I sound like a broken record by now). While the majority of the plot was simply unsettling, the ending was particularly horrifying and it has stuck in my mind for the six or so years since reading it (I’ll give a fair warning for spoilers now). The plot follows a well-loved minister (though he is not the main character) who has a strange obsession with what happens after death and healing through electricity. He is able to successfully heal others of myriad ailments, and by the end of the book he believes that, through the power of this electricity, he can bring someone back from the dead in order to figure out what the afterlife may look like. The scene in which he does this is bleak and exceedingly dark, and, on top of the already distressing concept of this revival, we discover that the reality waiting beyond death is a horrifying wasteland in which souls are endlessly tormented by unimaginable, ant-like monstrosities that serve unfathomable eldritch beings. The once-minister is so shocked and horrified that he, himself, dies. The main character, who was a witness to this, flees and spends the rest of his life knowing exactly what is waiting for him at the end. Trying to imagine what that would be like is what was particularly distressing to me, enough so that I will remember the vivid imagery long into the future, I’m sure."
Now it's your turn! We look forward to hearing from you!