What were some of the best scary scenes in FPW's fiction?

I must champion Reborn, my own personal fave of the AC books. Every scene with Jonah sent ripples of dread through me and Carol's nightmares are vile, particularly when you consider that are basd on actual events. The impalement dream...ugh.

I would be remiss not to mention two scenes from Black Wind: Frank being stuck to the palm tree and the fire-bombing of Tokyo, again made all the more horrific because of the history that inspired them.

Scott

Maybe not scary but certainly horrific: the scene in Reprisal when Bill finds Danny nailed to the wall after being gutted. Very disturbing.
Another scene in Reprisal that I have read and re-read a dozen times is when Bill digs Danny's remains up and without flinching wraps him in his arms - very, very touching. It never fails to bring a lump to my throat

Steve

Sorry, Barry, but you put a big SPOILER WARNING on the Thread Title when YOU started it. It would seem redundant for each post.

Well, if there could be a warning about which particular book might be getting spoiled - also like how I started this. Notice how I said "Conspiracies Spoilers" and "The Keep Spoilers," etc.?

Not so redundant, actually.

Hosts was the scariest book I've read in the RMJ series.

The one scene that really frightened me wasn't a blood bath, unnamed menace lurking in the dark, or a shoot out. The one that frightened me was the alternative world dream that Jack had. Seeing the world changed to the point where people were willing to bleed themselves out in order to spread a thinking disease was God-awful.

In all the other RMJ books I've read, Jack always had a last fallback plan that he could utilize. The chips were down, but he still had the holdout Semmerling in his pocket, or a pocket lighter or Something.

The inevitability of the disease in the dream world, and the helplessness that Jack felt as everyone around him died, was more horrifying than any savage monster, Otherness entity, or hovering Lars Mao anti-Christ wannbe could ever generate.

Hosts was scary because I saw a way that Jack could fail.

Agreed. That was the scene that reeked of failure, failure of slef, of government, of civility. and despair. Also, the scene in in legacies when the secret of alicia's abuse is torn open disturbed me greatly.

I have to clump several scenes into the top -

Reprisal - when Father Ryan pounds into the child's father in the hospital and the chest simply caves in.

Reprisal - how about a kid being buried in the ground for years and not ever dying, only suffering unending, unbearable pain?

Black Wind - the character (whose name escapes me) having lost his mind by getting rid of all his senses.

And finally,

in Nightworld with whats-his-name in the sewer. I remember a specific line in the book about his mind snapping, and that really got to me.

What were some of the best scary scenes in FPW's fiction?

The scariest thing for me, in all FPW's books is when the lights go down in Magda and her father's room and then Rosalom appears. The part where he grabs her arm really had me uptight. If someone rang my doorbell or something at that moment, I probably would have had a heart attack...both times I read the book. That's one of my favorite things about FPW's writing, it's still just as good the second time around. :p

Maybe not scary but certainly horrific: the scene in Reprisal when Bill finds Danny nailed to the wall after being gutted. Very disturbing.
Another scene in Reprisal that I have read and re-read a dozen times is when Bill digs Danny's remains up and without flinching wraps him in his arms - very, very touching. It never fails to bring a lump to my throat

Steve

Anything Reprisal scares the living daylights out of me. I remember when I was reading it I didn't want the book in my bedroom while I slept. The illustrations freaked me out too.

Okay, now I want my Mommy...

Susan

Anything Reprisal scares the living daylights out of me. I remember when I was reading it I didn't want the book in my bedroom while I slept. The illustrations freaked me out too.

Okay, now I want my Mommy...

Susan

The ringing phone still freaks the bejeepers out of me.

The ringing phone still freaks the bejeepers out of me.

The debasement of Lisl ranks as Rasalom's most putrid act as far as I'm concerned. It also spoke volumes about how susceptible the majority of the populace is to corruption when it arrives in the form of flattery. Catch more flies with sugar...

Scott