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List of scariest and best 100 horror books ever
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BaldJean View Drop Down
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    Posted: October 29 2021 at 13:23
what do you guys think of this list? do you agree? what books are in your opinion missing on it?


I am definitely missing "Melmoth the Wanderer" by Charles Maturin, "The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen, "Der Golem" by Gustav Meyrink, "Nachts unter der steinernen Brücke" ("By Night Under the Stone Bridge") by Leo Perutz and "Malpertuis" by Jean Ray


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Most of the big names are there, as one would expect. I don’t read a great deal of fiction these days, preferring biography and history, but I was surprised to see the absence in the list of any books by my favourite horror writer back in the day, the exceptional James Herbert.

I still regard Fluke as being an exceptional novel about the possibility of an afterlife, but Shrine was also a class chiller.

Populist? Well, yes, he was, but he was darned good as well.
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Well, I don't get scared while reading or watching anything, but Clive Barker deserves better credit. They only included one book of him.

As for the "gothic" stuff, Ludwig Flammenberg's "The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest" is pretty cool. Surprised and glad that they put Sheridan Le Fanu's work within the top 5.

BUT, Algernon Blackwood is missing. This is a blasphemy. Actually he is generally ignored, but he is a top-class writer.
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Originally posted by Shadowyzard Shadowyzard wrote:

Well, I don't get scared while reading or watching anything, but Clive Barker deserves better credit. They only included one book of him.

As for the "gothic" stuff, Ludwig Flammenberg's "The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest" is pretty cool. Surprised and glad that they put Sheridan Le Fanu's work within the top 5.

BUT, Algernon Blackwood is missing. This is a blasphemy. Actually he is generally ignored, but he is a top-class writer.

yes, Blackwood is definitely missing too.

Perutz is sadly little known among English speakers because only very few of his books were translated into English. but his writing is top notch. and "By Night Under the Stone Bridge" is uniquely constructed. it is composed of several short stories that all could be read on their own, with a few recurring characters, and only with the last chapter chapter the puzzle pieces suddenly all fall into place


Edited by BaldJean - October 29 2021 at 14:40


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Points: 5111 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mascodagama Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 29 2021 at 15:25
It's a very odd list that I could spend all day disagreeing with. No Ramsey Campbell and no Thomas Ligotti? That alone renders it a joke in my view.

But to pick up one particular weakness, according to this list 56 of the greatest horror books of all time were written in the last 20 years, and 38 of them in the last ten years. Hardly seems likely, does it? Of the ones written in the last ten years I’ve only read a single one, Laird Barron’s The Croning. Not only is it not one of the 100 greatest horror books of all time, it’s not even one of the top three horror books written by Laird Barron in the last ten years.
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I've read over 70 of those books. Some are very scary. Others, are well written. A few of the modern ones were kind of Meh. That said, I think the list had oodles of great horror novels. 

I keep a list of the scariest horror novels that I have read. These are the scariest of the 800~ horror novels and short stories I've read. I differentiate scary from "well written". Stephen King's "The Stand" is a better novel than "Pet Sematary", but "Pet Sematary" is scarier than The Stand. 

By Stephen King- ( I've read almost every single King novel)
It
The Shining
Pet Sematary


By Clive Barker
Damnation Game
Books of Blood (Series of Barker Short Stories...must have)

by Dan Simmons
Summer of Night
The Terror
Song of Kali

by Bentely Little
The Association
The Store
The Resort

by Peter Staub
Ghost Story
The Floating Dragon

VAMPIRE'S!
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Narrows by Ronald Malfi
The Light at the End by Skipp and Spector
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Live Girls by Ray Garton
The Summoning by Bentley Little
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
They Thirst by Robert McCammon
Afterage by Yvonne Navarro
Blood Kin by Ronald Kelly
Vampirus by Jack Hamlyn

The 1980's
Darklings by Ray Garton
Off Season by Jack Ketchum
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
Stinger by Robert McCammon



Since 2000
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski
Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvitz
The Ritual by Adam Neville
Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry
Risen by Jan Strnad aka- "J. Knight".
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill
Earthworm Gods by Brian Keene
Ghoul by Brian Keene
The Troop by Nick Cutter


60's-70's Haunted Houses
Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco
House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Maynard's House by Herman Raucher
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
Hell House by Richard Matheson

RIP...The Masters
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
H. P. Lovecraft- get a version of his Collected Works
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Bradbury's short story- "Frost and Fire" scared me.


Terrifying classic literature!
1984 by George Orwell
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Lord of the Flies by William Golding


Edited by omphaloskepsis - October 29 2021 at 17:08
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omphaloskepsis View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Mascodagama Mascodagama wrote:

It's a very odd list that I could spend all day disagreeing with. No Ramsey Campbell and no Thomas Ligotti? That alone renders it a joke in my view.

But to pick up one particular weakness, according to this list 56 of the greatest horror books of all time were written in the last 20 years, and 38 of them in the last ten years. Hardly seems likely, does it? Of the ones written in the last ten years I’ve only read a single one, Laird Barron’s The Croning. Not only is it not one of the 100 greatest horror books of all time, it’s not even one of the top three horror books written by Laird Barron in the last ten years.

I agree with you. "The Croning" isn't Barron's best effort. There were several modern novels in the list I'd grade a 3/5. 

 I did not include any Campbell or Ligotti in my scary list because their short stories scare me more than their novels. And as you know, Ligotti doesn't really right novels. That said, Ligotti's short story collections are top tier terror.  I've always been a big fan of Campbell's short stories. Don't get me wrong, I like his novels; however, Campbell's short stories rock!
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A few random thoughts...

I think Anne Rice's The Witching Hour is far more compelling (and scarier) than her Vampire books.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is better than Shelley's Frankenstein as far as 19th century lit. Granted, with nearly a century separating the two.

Speaking of 19th century literature. Edgar Allan Poe was uncannily modern in his takes on horror. So many unsettling stories. So much psychological trauma visited on a kid when I first scared the hell out of myself reading his tales in elementary school. I still vividly recall the last brick laid in The Cask of Amontillado.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is perhaps the bleakest novel I've ever read.

The preface of The Exorcist (with graphic mentions of Dachau, Communist torture of children, and a Mafia meat hook) is actually more terrifying than the rest of the book. 

Henry James' Turn of the Screw is a thought-provoking novella.
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Hi,

Nice listing, and it gave me a bunch of things to get and read.

Ann Rice ... a very enjoyable writer in many ways, but her soft porn/erotica material is better in my estimation, specially as it makes better sense of vampirism than most stories and works around. 

Missing (for me)

Mathew Gregory Lewis, whose book THE MONK, is insane and brutal and the descriptions are not only sick, but they are movie like. 

Ann Radcliffe, Horace Walpole, Lord Polidori probably should be mentioned.

(Polidori was a doctor that was around with Byron, Shelley and all the rest, and is often given credit for helping Mary write her story. He also had a nasty vampire story.) 

Polidori, Sheridan LeFanu were already a part of the aftermath of the blood bath in France, and their work is vastly influenced by the blood flow in their stories. Mary Shelley did not use that, and instead wrote a story that on a wild night in Missolonghi had (spelling?) all of the folks scared senseless ... but the story we "know" from the movies and such, is very different, though not exactly a bloody story like all the others.
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Originally posted by omphaloskepsis omphaloskepsis wrote:

Originally posted by Mascodagama Mascodagama wrote:

It's a very odd list that I could spend all day disagreeing with. No Ramsey Campbell and no Thomas Ligotti? That alone renders it a joke in my view.

But to pick up one particular weakness, according to this list 56 of the greatest horror books of all time were written in the last 20 years, and 38 of them in the last ten years. Hardly seems likely, does it? Of the ones written in the last ten years I’ve only read a single one, Laird Barron’s The Croning. Not only is it not one of the 100 greatest horror books of all time, it’s not even one of the top three horror books written by Laird Barron in the last ten years.


I agree with you. "The Croning" isn't Barron's best effort. There were several modern novels in the list I'd grade a 3/5. 

 I did not include any Campbell or Ligotti in my scary list because their short stories scare me more than their novels. And as you know, Ligotti doesn't really right novels. That said, Ligotti's short story collections are top tier terror.  I've always been a big fan of Campbell's short stories. Don't get me wrong, I like his novels; however, Campbell's short stories rock!
Agree that Campbell and Ligotti are at their best in short story form. But the top 100 list in the OP includes collections of short stories as well as novels, so this doesn’t explain their omission. I get that your list was focused on novels, though.

Edited by Mascodagama - October 30 2021 at 13:44
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This is a list I may come back to!

Agree re James Herbert, the Rats trilogy was my introduction to Horror.

War Of The Worlds and Day Of The Triffids are superb books that may have been overlooked, but maybe not considered Horror-enough?
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