I love horror movies and am very interested in the paranormal but I only ever read IT from Stephen King and it was good but very long and took me quite a while to read.
I discovered that I take much more interest in stories which happened in real life.
Can anybody recommend some good horror books to begin with?
by ju_writes
37 Comments
Recent post on the topic, quite a few good recs here
https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16xjj8w/horror_novels/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Psycho by Robert Bloch is pretty good 👍🏼
I love so many!
Ghosts by Noel Hynd
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Are all good books
Pet Sematary I think
Misery was hard to get through. Truly horrifying because (at least to me) the horror was real. Something that could actually happen. Not a monster I mean.
r/horrorlit is your friend
Did you ever see the movie ‘The Descent’, about those cavers who run into some freaky human monsters? The movie is the first like .. 20ish pages of a much longer horror novel by Jeff Long. The book is a very solid read, going into detail about a whole subterranean ecosystem of these monsters, humans exploiting underground resources, human and monster cultures mixing, underground exploration, etc. Read it!
For a creepy seasonal read, try Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig. Cursed apples in a Pennsylvania fall!
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
If you liked It but don’t want to tackle another Stephen King behemoth, why not try one of his short story collections? Night Shift and Skeleton Crew are both excellent collections if you like short stories, and if you’d rather try something longer, Four Past Midnight and Just After Sunset are also good.
My personal favorites from King are Apt Pupil and The Running Man, in Different Seasons and The Bachman Books respectively. They’re both about 100-ish pages long but grab you by the throat from the first page.
Salems lot
The Stand
If you want some short stories to breeze through, Blood Child by Butler has some excellent sci-fi horror, Roald Dahl wrote some great ones too (I have my 10th graders read The Landlady every October as part of our “horror unit”), and I recently really enjoyed Things We Lost in the Fire by Enriquez.
The Devil Rides out- the movie adaptation is an abomination but the series itself is quite freaky.
Haunted by chuck palahnuik. Most of palahnuiks horror is based in real-life rather than the paranormal. I love this book.
The Troop by Nick Cutter
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, tho it’s debatable if it’s a horror. It’s the only book that has made me jump even tho I was reading it in broad daylight.
The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum
I’m a huge fan of Lovecraft. A lot of his stories are great. Shirley Jackson is nuts , I love her stuff.
Frankenstein
Heart Shaped Box, By Joe Hill. He just happens to be Stephen Kings son.
Stephen King is at his best when he keeps it short, IMO.
Read his earlier novels, like Cujo, Carrie, and especially Salems Lot.
His short story collections are very good as well
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Let the Right One In.
Not many horror authors write about stuff that happened in real life. Usually they are making their own fictional world and events. You might be more into crime type of novels.
The Terror by Dan Simmons is pretty historically accurate, although the story itself is fictional. It is about a man’s expedition to the Arctics in mid 1800s.
The Hunger by Alma Katsu is a reimagining of The Donner Party with supernatural elements added in.
Experimental Film by Gemma Files takes a deep dive into Canadian film history, but again, with supernatural elements added in.
Try some books by John Saul. He hasn’t written anything in ages, but you should be able to find the old ones. They are very scary and not very long.
The Ruins by Scott Smith was fantastic … I found out about the novel by first discovering the movie, which FREAKED ME OUT.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruins_(novel)
Look into Grady Hendrix. I have read two of his books and I loved them both; My Best Friends Exorcism and the Final Girl Support Group. He writes like you’re watching an 80’s Horror Movie, such fun reads.
The Terror – Dan Simmons. Masterwork of horror and historical imagining of Drakes lost expedition. Astounding actually.
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
I liked Dean Koontz’ book “Watchers”.
The Rats James Herbert
The Passage Justin Cronin
Tender Is The Flesh
The Road Cormac McCarthy
We Need To Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver
The Tattooist Of Auschwitz Heather Morris
My Year Of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
These are not all typical horrors but are all on the darker side. They all have scenes which have stayed with me long after I put the book down. I would suggest checking trigger warnings before starting any of them.
Realised after reading your request again that you don’t want anything too long. The Passage is a long book and part of a trilogy. It’s worth it. However it could be daunting. If you only read one I’d recommend Tender Is The flesh.
I absolutely loved Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
I’m shocked no one has said Eric LaRocca yet! Short, sweet, and terrifying! Try Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke & You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood by him.
Other faves: Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Anything by Shirley Jackson
Carmilla but Sheridan LeFau
Anything by Anne Rice
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
Pet Semetary is legit horrifying
The Exorcist. The language is so legitimately beautiful, the story and characters so compelling. Damian Karras is one of the most fascinating literary characters of the second half of the twentieth century. Love it 👏
Swan Song. Not necessarily my favorite, but I didn’t know if I could make it through for a while.