I just can't contain my excitement for Halloween in general, so that means you get to hear more blathering about horror from me!
This time, I'm presenting a list of 31 horror novels, one for each day of the month of October. Maybe I should've done this before October started, but then again, I'm not one of those people who can read a book a day. But if you are, man, you rock, and I'm sorry I didn't post this sooner!
I'm restricting this list to novels since I've already done a scary short stories post, and eventually I'll do a list of novellas and novelettes. So you probably won't see some authors on here that you would expect, and that's simply because they didn't write a novel.
These are all books I've personally read, and they are my top choices in the genre of horror and thriller. Sure, you'll see some books you already know and probably love, but I hope you'll find some new ones here to go read! And of course, I haven't read all the horror books out there--for example, I'm just now starting Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin--so this list could always change!
So let's get started: turn off the lights, pull up your covers, get your flashlight ready, and prepare to be scared in prep for Halloween!
1. Bird Box by Josh Malerman. A woman and two children must survive a trip down a river to sanctuary in a world where you cannot look or you will die. I read this long before it was a film, and it honestly terrified me. A truly scary look an apocalyptical situation.
2. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. A happy family on vacation at a cabin is visited by four people who tell them they must kill one of their own for the rest of the world to survive. This was a claustrophobic and incredibly tense three-day journey that had me on the edge of my seat.
3. The Deep by Nick Cutter. A crew is shuttled down the to bottom of the ocean to fund out why a research station looking for a cure to a global pandemic has lost contact. I got so claustrophobic reading this book, I had top stop every chapter or so to catch my breath. I loved the ending--incredibly bleak and terrifying.
4. Dracula by Bram Stoker. A vampire in Transylvania must be stopped as he quests for his long lost lover and destroys lives in the process. This classic has stuck with me since I read it in high school. It's extremely scary, yet also erotic and sensual. Still the greatest vampire book ever written.
5. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. A young girl is possessed by the devil, and only a young priest losing his faith can help her. There isn't much that hasn't been said about this incredible novel, other than if you aren't scared when reading it, there might be something wrong with you.
6. Fragment by Warren Fahy. An island has been discovered that has evolved differently than our world has, and a scientific expedition along with a film crew are in for a big surprise when they visit it. I found this little gem while looking for something to read in a supermarket. The cover and the back cover copy really drew me in. It's a fast-paced sci-fi thriller with monsters, and it's a lot of fun! The sequel, Pandemonium, is good too!
7. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. A girl is hated by the woman who has taken her in to care for her, and she is violently abused and tortured by the woman's sons and the boys of the neighborhood. An incredible extreme horror novel based on the true story of Sylvia Likens. Ketchum chose to make the novel from the point of view of one of the boys, and the vision is honest, innocent, and absolutely horrifying.
8. The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. Two great armies are forming in a small town in America to battle for the hearts and souls of all within their grasp. My favorite of his novels because it's incredibly rich and full of dark imagination and beautiful prose.
9. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. A former musician is a collector of oddities, so he buys a dead man's suit delivered in a heart-shaped box... with terrifying consequences. I think this is the scariest of Hill's work as it's relentless and just flat out creepy.
10. Hell House by Richard Matheson. When an old man is dying, he wants to pay some experts to find out if there's life after death. Another extreme horror novel, this book grabs the House on Haunted Hill trope and turns it on its head with ghostly and ghastly results.
11. Jaws by Peter Benchley. A giant shark attacks a small coastal town, and the Chief of Police, a fisherman, and a marine biologist must stop its reign of terror. One of the best novels of our time in general, Jaws isn't just a tale of horror but also a study in how small-town characters deal with the stress and fear of both the white shark and its effect on the community.
12. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. An uber-rich entrepreneur has discovered how to clone dinosaurs, and he needs the opinion of various experts before he opens his dinosaur zoo. We all know how popular this novel and the films are, but it's honestly extremely scary, too. I nearly fell out of my seat at the waterfall scene and when the raptors showed they could jump. A true sci-fi horror classic.
13. Misery by Stephen King. An author is in a car accident on a snowy mountainside and is found and cared for by his "number one fan," who decides to keep him prisoner to make him write a new book. They say you should never meet your heroes... maybe our heroes shouldn't meet us. A terrifying look at madness and female serial killers.
14. The Missing by Sarah Langan. A teacher takes her students on a field trip to a neighboring town, which was destroyed by an environmental disaster, and they bring something back with them. Some of the best apocalypse-type storytelling I've read, so much that I had a hard time putting this book down.
15. Natural Selection by Dave Freedman. A strange predatory species is found and it's rapidly evolving, becoming a terrifying threat in adapting to our world. A book I found in the dollar rack at a used bookstore, I was pleasantly surprised by this suspenseful sci-fi thriller. A monster book where you have to suspend your disbelief, but that makes it all the more interesting.
16. Night Film by Marisha Pessl. The daughter of a cult film director is found murdered, and a journalist must to venture into a the director's world to find out what happened. I found this gem in one of those discount book bins in the grocery store. It's honestly a beautiful book, and the story is a lurking kind of terror that is also haunting.
17. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. A man born with an enhanced sense of smell learns how to control the world around him with perfume, which eventually leads him to murder. I actually read this in one of my classes when I was in college, and I recently rediscovered it to my delight. It has always been a novel I remembered because of the unusual story, and I love the way the story builds to an out-of-control climax.
18. Phantom by Susan Kay. Using The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux as a springboard, Phantom follows the life of Erik, the horribly disfigured musical genius, from his birth to his death. I have read this book so many times, I can't even count how many. A beautiful, horrible, and haunting story that gives a background and humanity to a monster we have all grown to love.
19. Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. A missing professor and strange killings at a museum where the victims' hypothalamuses are removed brings in the police and FBI to work with the museum's curator to solve the puzzle. I honestly enjoy all of Preston and Child's novels for their science and their fiction, but this one is definitely their best as a horror novel. The sequel, Reliquary, is also good.
20. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A father and his son are walking across a post-apocalyptic America, not sure what they're looking for other than trying to survive. Written with no quotation marks, as if the niceties of grammar have been forgotten, this book is horror in that it gives us a bleak and sad look at the consequences of leaving too late.
21. The Ruins by Scott Smith. A group of friends venture to find some ancient ruins in Mexico, but become trapped on the pyramid by an improbable menace. I never though plants could be scary, but Smith makes them not only terrifying, but logically so. Of note, this isn't your Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.
22. The Shining by Stephen King. A man agrees to be the wintertime caretaker of The Overlook hotel in Colorado, not knowing he is putting himself and his small family, including his son who has psychic powers, in extreme danger. I believe this is by far the scariest of King's novels, a true masterpiece of horror. If you read any King novel, read this one. It kept me up at night. You won't be disappointed.
23. Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. A young woman in training with the FBI is sent to speak with a jailed cannibal psychologist to get help in finding a serial killer who is murdering young women for their skin. Quite possibly the best blend of mystery and horror ever written, I couldn't sleep without having the lights on for quite a while after reading this terrifying novel.
24. Stallion by Gordon McGill. A family buys a horse farm in England where their daughter is seduced by strange forces that attempt to overrun the farm and the family. I literally read this book because of the cover (see the paperback version via the link), and found it to be a strange extreme horror novel that I couldn't put down. It's creepy and downright disturbing, especially the ending.
25. Shadows by John Saul. A young boy is sent to a school for the gifted after an attempted suicide, and the horrors he discovers are incredibly disturbing. Even though this book is pretty far-fetched, I think it scared me mostly because I was considered a gifted child when I was in school. Being trapped at a school that was supposed to help me would've been truly devastating. This is also my favorite of Saul's novels.
26. The Troop by Nick Cutter. Ever year, a scoutmaster takes his troop on a weekend camping trip... but this year a strange, sickly man shows up in their campsite, and they are exposed to a bioengineered nightmare. This novel deals not only with a zombie-like virus but the boys having to survive against something they don't understand, so the combination makes it all the more frightening.
27. Universal Harvester by John Darnielle. Someone is adding creepy home footage to VHS tapes in a small town during the 90s. The video store clerk, still reeling from the sudden death of his mother, wants to find out who's doing it. This book is a slow burn, but it builds tension and dread extremely well, and the ending fits the atmosphere perfectly.
28. Watchers by Dean Koontz. A man finds a highly intelligent dog that he learns has escaped from a laboratory. But not only are the scientists trying to find the dog, the pooch's nightmarish and violent twin is, too. Absolutely my favorite Koontz novel, mostly because of how the Koontz handles the dog and its twin. It's unusual and clever combined with scares and science, and it all comes together to create a fantastic book.
29. White Death by Christine Morgan. A freak snowstorm in January of 1888 sends the Great Plains of America into a dangerous frozen world. Even worse, something sinister comes with the storm, and it is just as deadly. You may not have heard of this one as Morgan is mostly an independent author, and most of her work is extreme horror. This novel, however, is fantastic historical fiction dealing in both real and imaginary fears and the confusion between the two. Morgan also has a story in our upcoming anthology A Celebration of Storytelling.
30. A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons. A college professor and novelist has sabotaged his career and his marriage, so he moves back to his hometown for peace into an old abandoned farmhouse. I have really only mostly read Simmons's short work, so this novel was the first I've read of his. It is a haunted house story combined with the sadness of loss and despair, and the combination is both scary and dreadful.
31. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. A young lawyer is dispatched to the Eel Marsh House to settle the affairs of a recently deceased mother, and he finds a terrifying truth as the house haunts him. A gothic horror novel, this book in all honestly truly scared me. The ending was absolutely shocking and has really stuck with me. This is the kind of book I wish I could write.
~ Andrea Thomas
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