25 best horror books of all time

You can’t talk about horror without mentioning Stephen King. Over his nearly five-decade career, he’s brought us killer clowns, murderous fan girls, and, of course, haunted hotels. When Jack Torrance takes a job as the Overlook Hotel’s off-season caretaker, he becomes possessed by the building’s supernatural forces.

You probably know this story. When a demonic spirit possesses an 11-year-old girl, Catholic priests are called to her home to perform an exorcism. The book was so popular that the iconic film adaptation came out just two years after it was published.

What’s more horrible than a creepy monk? After Ambrosio falls in love with a young girl, he abandons his religious values ​​for a life plagued by immorality. Widely considered to be one of the first gothic novels ever written, The monk was condemned when it was published in 1796 and the author even had to make revisions to avoid accusations of blasphemy.

As one of the first novels to initiate the “horror boom” of the 1960s, Rosemary’s baby tells the story of a woman pregnant with the offspring of Satan. For Rosemary, what ensues is debilitating pain, extreme weight loss and an intense craving for raw meat. Read at your own risk.

Who doesn’t like vampires? carmilla is about a female vampire who becomes obsessed with a young woman. The book has an undercurrent of romance and lust, though the relationship is never explicitly named. Supernatural characters and dark castles are key elements of this story, and it even inspired Bram Stoker. Dracula, which was published years later.

There are very few characters as iconic as Count Dracula. In this classic 1897 horror novel, Dracula leaves his home in Transylvania to find fresh blood in England. When it is learned that there is a vampire in town, a small group tracks him down with the intention of killing him.

A key element of any classic horror novel is the enduring ubiquity of its characters in popular culture, and Frankenstein has exactly that. When scientist Victor Frankenstein conducts an experiment to create a sentient being, the creature he makes ends up being more grotesque and sinister than he could have imagined.

Just like the 1818 classic, this new interpretation of Frankenstein is all about the pitfalls of creation. In Baghdad, a scavenger named Hadi collects various body parts and sews them together to create a corpse. But when the corpse becomes sentient and disappears, several mysterious murders begin to invade the city. And just like Victor Frankenstein, Hadi realizes he’s created a monster.

“124 was mean. Filled with the venom of a baby. So begins the novel by Toni Morrison, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. While we wouldn’t easily classify Morrison as a horror writer, she was well versed in ghosts. Beloved follows a once-enslaved woman named Sethe (played by Oprah in the film adaptation) who is haunted by her dead daughter.

If you’ve watched and loved the Netflix series, familiarize yourself with the 1959 gothic horror novel that started it all. When four people, including an occult scholar and a poltergeist specialist, travel to the haunted Hill House, they begin to experience bizarre paranormal activity. Author Shirley Jackson is said to have studied traditional ghost stories to accurately deliver this haunting story.

What could be more horrible than cannibalism? When it is first reported that a virus has made all animal meat poisonous, the government begins the transition to human flesh, making cannibalism completely legal. Marcos takes a job at the meat processing plant in order to support his dying father and now must deal with the madness and horror of his changing world.

Norman Bates and horror go hand in hand. The novel follows him as he works as a caretaker at an isolated motel and deals with the tumultuous and strange relationship he has with his mother.

If you are a fan of short stories, then this is for you. In Japanese ghost stories, princesses turn into frogs, dead brides go on a haunting frenzy, and paintings come to life. There’s also your fair share of goblins and faceless monsters. The author drew on traditional Japanese folklore and even included a few anecdotes about his own bizarre experiences growing up in Ireland.

What happens when a 10 year old girl turns out to be a 53 year old genetically modified vampire? by Octavia Butler Young is the answer. In this blend of sci-fi and horror, Butler explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and vampires, and what happens when the two become closer than ever.

Whereas The other was also part of the “horror boom” of the mid-1900s, it has since gone unnoticed as its film adaptation was not as successful as The Exorcist and Rosemary’s baby. But that doesn’t mean the story isn’t any less gruesome. Two 13-year-old identical twins living on a rural New England farmhouse are the subject of Tryon’s first psychological horror novel. The twist? One of them is a sociopath.

In Coraline’s house there are 14 doors and only 13 of them open and close. One day, as she manages to unlock the last door, she finds a passage to another house that looks like hers, with a mother and father who don’t want to let her go. Other children are there too, and she is tasked with freeing all the lost souls, as well as herself.

Jessica has found the perfect man in David. He is caring, caring and everything she ever wanted in a husband. But one day, he confesses to her that 400 years ago, he traded his humanity to achieve immortality. To keep Jessica and their daughter with him forever, he invokes a forbidden ritual so that they never leave him.

In a long and detailed interview with a reporter, a vampire named Louis tells the story of his life, which is filled with murder and bloodsucking. For an extra scare, check out the film adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

You are probably familiar with this story and its many parodies. A mysterious videotape warns four teenagers that they will die within a week if they do not complete an unspecified task. Soon after, all four die of heart failure. When a journalist learns of the tape’s existence, he watches the video and tries to solve the mystery before it’s too late.

This coming-of-age novel is the love child of support me and stranger things. Jake’s uncle Calvin is a lover of all things occult and weird. When a pair of siblings move to town, Calvin decides to welcome them all to the “Saturday Night Ghost Club”. But what starts out as a fun summer activity quickly turns into close encounters with the supernatural.

For those unfamiliar with the work of Edgar Allan Poe, spooky season is a great time to get acquainted. The 19th century poet infused a level of mystery and strangeness into all of his work. If you were to read “The Raven” in school, then you know exactly what the vibes are.

When Noemí travels to the Mexican countryside to visit her newly married cousin, the seemingly haunted house she is staying in begins to infiltrate her dreams. Dark family secrets, violence and horror are what you’ll find in this modern classic.

While Colson Whitehead is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad, he also dabbled in horror. After a plague takes hold of lower Manhattan, a man named Mark and two other civilians are tasked with ridding Chinatown of all remaining zombies. What could go wrong?

This 1898 horror novel follows a governess who cares for two children in a secluded and haunted estate. She begins to see unknown figures around the grounds and they are later revealed to be former inhabitants of the estate. Chaos and even mysterious deaths ensue.

In this classic gothic short story, jurist Gabriel Utterson investigates a series of unusual incidents between his old friend Dr. Jekyll and a murderous criminal, Mr. Hyde. However, he soon realizes that Jekyll and Hyde are one.