Without too many spoilers, this is probably the best haunted house book of the 20th century. (Stephen King agrees too - hail to the King.) The prose is rich and delicate; the polar opposite of most horror hack word. Jackson can make your skin crawl with a knock on the door - no monsters, serial killers or elder gods required. If you have any interest whatsoever in horror, ghost stories or if you just love a brilliant book, this is a must-read. Intense, frightening and genuinely moving. (If you had the misfortune to see the 1999 film based on it, just ignore it: rest assured any resemblance is cosmetic.)