This time we’re looking at my 50 Must-Read horror books picks. Another list, you ask? Yes! I have a few of these lying around, the titles just waiting to be ticked off … Reading, I daresay, is one of my favorite pastimes, and making lists is another hobby, so it keeps me out of trouble. Believe me, I need all the help I can get in staying out of trouble. *wink*
Anywho, so technically my horror list changes often, and you’ll notice some titles are also on my “classic books” list, but currently I think these are the must-reads for those who are looking to have a comprehensive knowledge about the genre.
It should be noted that I tried not to add a single author twice (I think I succeeded), otherwise authors like Stephen King and Clive Barker would’ve dominated the list. I also didn’t add too many recent titles (apart from those I think have changed the genre for the better). In the future, I may make another must-read horror list that sports current titles, just in case. Like I said, it keeps me out of trouble. 🙂 For now, though, this one is keeping me pretty busy.
50 Must-Read Horror Books
|
TITLE |
AUTHOR |
|
| 1. | IT | Stephen King |
| 2. | The Turn of the Screw | James Henry |
| 3. | Ghost Story | Peter Straub |
| 4. | The King in Yellow | Robert W. Chambers |
| 5. | Bird Box | Josh Malerman |
| 6. | Broken Monsters | Lauren Beukes |
| 7. | NOS4A2 | Joe Hill |
| 8. | World War Z | Max Brooks |
| 9. | The Complete Works | H.P. Lovecraft |
| 10. | Carmilla | Joseph Sheridan le Fanu |
| 11. | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde |
| 12. | I Am Legend | Richard Matheson |
| 13. | The Great God Pan | Arthur Machen |
| 14. | Jago | Kim Newman |
| 15. | Frankenstein | Mary Shelley |
| 16. | Let the Right One In | John Ajvide Lindqvist |
| 17. | The Haunting of Hill House | Shirley Jackson |
| 18. | Dracula | Bram Stoker |
| 19. | The Girl Next Door | Jack Ketchum |
| 20. | Interview with the Vampire | Anne Rice |
| 21. | The Complete Works | Edgar Allan Poe |
| 22. | House of Leaves | Mark Z. Danielewski |
| 23. | A Head Full of Ghosts | Paul G. Tremblay |
| 24. | The Woman in Black | Susan Hill |
| 25. | Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier |
| 26. | The Willows | Algernon Blackwood |
| 27. | Exquisite Corpse | Poppy Z. Brite |
| 28. | Lord of the Flies | William Golding |
| 29. | Books of Blood | Clive Barker |
| 30. | Something Wicked This Way Comes | Ray Bradbury |
| 31. | Rosemary’s Baby | Ira Levin |
| 32. | The Exorcist | William Peter Blatty |
| 33. | Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark | Alvin Schwartz & Stephen Gammell |
| 34. | Audition | Ryu Murakami |
| 35. | Psycho | Robert Bloch |
| 36. | The Silence of the Lambs | Thomas Harris |
| 37. | Haunted | Chuck Palahnuik |
| 38. | The Bad Seed | William March |
| 39. | Coraline | Neil Gaiman |
| 40. | American Psycho | Bret Easton Ellis |
| 41. | Carrion Comfort | Dan Simmons |
| 42. | The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| 43. | Jaws | Peter Benchley |
| 44. | The Castle of Otranto | Horace Walpole |
| 45. | Sphere | Michael Crichton |
| 46. | Incarnate | Ramsey Campbell |
| 47. | The Ritual | Adam Nevill |
| 48. | Perfume | Patrick Süskind |
| 49. | Out of the Deep | Walter de la Mare |
| 50. | The Amityville Horror | Jay Anson |
Of course, I could have turned my 50 Must-Read Horror Books list into something much longer, because there are so many great works out there, but for now this is perfect. Maybe when I’ve finished reading all of these, I’ll add on. We’ll see. 🙂
