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65 of Your Favorite Horror Novels

S. Zainab Williams

Executive Director, Content

S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.

This Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Only the Dead Know Burbank by Bradford Tatum. onlythedead-pb_bookriotWith Lon Cheney and Boris Karloff among its characters, this sweeping and stylish love letter to the golden age of horror cinema tells the wonderful, tragic story of Maddy Ulm, taking readers through her rise from the complicated shadows of Berlin’s first experiments with expressionist cinema to the glamorous deserts of Hollywood, where she insinuates herself as the genius secretly behind The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula and Frankenstein. Nick Seeley, author of Cambodia Noir, says Only the Dead Know Burbank is “a dreamy, mysterious waltz with the famous monsters of filmland. . . a must-read for the modern monster.”
It’s a scientific fact that October is the best time for horror and leaving the lights on at night. Whether you’re into monsters, haunted houses, gothic or psychological themes–there’s a book out there for every chill-seeker. We asked you to share your favorite horror novels, and you responded. Here are 65 of your favorites! Bird Box by Josh Malerman House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke The Devourers by Indra Das The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older The Shining by Stephen King Doctor Sleep by Stephen King Christine by Stephen King The Langoliers by Stephen King It by Stephen King Pet Sematary by Stephen King The Tommyknockers by Stephen King Misery by Stephen King Cell by Stephen King Carrie by Stephen King Salem’s Lot by Stephen King The Stand by Stephen King The Cipher by Kathe Koja We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Coraline by Neil Gailman Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Hannibal by Thomas Harris Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft The Colour Out of Space by H. P. Lovecraft Mountain Man series by Keith C. Blackmore Will Trent  series by Karin Slaughter The Adversary Cycle by F. Paul Wilson Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain Halloween by Curtis Richards Dracula by Bram Stoker Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul G. Tremblay The Troop by Craig Davidson The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum The Road by Cormac McCarthy Wytches by Scott Snyder The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker The Wolf’s Hour by Robert R. McCammon Stinger by Robert R. McCammon They Thirst by Robert R. McCammon The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe In the Dark by Richard Laymon The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey The Insect God by Edward Gorey The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce Ghost Story by Peter Straub The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson Ticktock by Dean Koontz Red Dragon by Thomas Harris The Deep by Nick Cutter The Ruins by Scott Smith The Omen by David Seltzer Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill Midnight by Dean Koontz Harvest Home by Tom Tryon Imajica by Clive Barker World War Z by Max Brooks Jake’s Wake by Cody Goodfellow and John Skipp