Even though we’re a few months away from Halloween, it’s never too early to start the spooky season. While you’re probably most familiar with scary movies, books are also a reliable scare. Ghosts, haunted houses and murderous vampires are just a few classic horror trope and these books have a lot to offer. From The Shining to The Exorcist, here are the 25 best horror books of all time.
You can’t talk about horror without mentioning Stephen King. Over her nearly five-decade career, she brought us killer clowns, killer fangirls, and, of course, haunted hotels. When Jack Torrance takes a job as an Overlook Hotel caretaker in the off-season, he is possessed by the building’s supernatural powers.
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
You may be familiar with this story. When an evil spirit possessed an 11-year-old girl, Catholic priests were summoned to her home to perform an exorcism. The book was so popular that the iconic film adaptation was released just two years after it was published.
What’s scarier than a scary monk? After Ambrosio finds himself infatuated with a young girl, he abandons religious values for a life full of immorality. Widely considered one of the first Gothic novels ever written, The Monk was condemned at the time of its publication in 1796 and the author even had to make revisions to avoid accusations of blasphemy.
As one of the first novels to kick off the “horror explosion” of the 1960s, Rosemary’s Baby tells the story of a woman who becomes pregnant with Satan’s offspring. For Rosemary, what followed was debilitating pain, extreme weight loss, and an intense craving for raw meat. Read at your own risk.
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Who doesn’t love vampires? Carmilla is about a female vampire who becomes obsessed with a young woman. This book has an undercurrent of romance and lust, although the relationship is never explicitly stated. Supernatural figures and dark castles are key elements in this story, and even inspired Bram Stoker’s 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 word gets out that there is a vampire in town, a small group hunts him down, with the intent to kill.
One of the key elements of any classic horror novel is the character’s enduring presence in popular culture, and Frankenstein has just that. When scientist Victor Frankenstein conducts an experiment to create living things, the creatures he creates become more strange and sinister than he could have imagined.
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
Much like the 1818 classic, this more recent interpretation of Frankenstein is about the trap of creation. In Baghdad, a scavenger named Hadi collects various body parts and sews them together to make corpses. But when the corpse comes alive and goes missing, several mysterious murders begin to take over the city. And just like Victor Frankenstein, Hadi realized he had created a monster.
“124 is envious. Full of baby poison.” Thus begins Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. While we might not immediately classify Morrison as a horror writer, he is well acquainted with ghosts. Beloved follows a previously enslaved woman named Sethe (played by Oprah in the film adaptation) who is haunted by her dead daughter.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
If you watch and love the Netflix series, then get acquainted 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 strange paranormal activity. Writer Shirley Jackson reportedly studied traditional ghost stories to accurately convey this haunting story.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
What’s scarier than cannibalism? When it was first reported that the virus had made all animal flesh poisonous, the government began turning to human flesh, making cannibalism completely legal. Marcos takes a job working at a meat processing factory to support his dying father and must now deal with the madness and horrors of his changing world.
Norman Bates and horror go hand in hand. The novel follows him as he works as a caretaker for a remote motel and deals with the tumultuous and strange relationship he has with his mother.
Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn
If you are a fan of short stories, then this is for you. In Japanese Ghost Stories, princesses turn into frogs, dead brides become ghosts, and paintings come to life. There’s also a fair share of goblins and faceless monsters. The author was inspired by traditional Japanese folklore and even included a few anecdotes about his own terrifying experiences growing up in Ireland.
What happens when a 10 year old girl turns into a genetically modified 53 year old vampire? Fledgling Octavia Butler is the answer. In this fusion of science fiction and horror, Butler explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and vampires, and what happens when the two become closer than ever.
While The Other was also part of the “horror explosion” of the mid-1900s, the film went undetected because its film adaptations were not as successful as The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby. But that doesn’t mean the story is any less terrifying. Two 13-year-old identical twins living on a rural New England farm are the subjects of Tryon’s debut psychological horror novel. The round? One of them is a sociopath.
In Coraline’s house, there are 14 doors and only 13 doors can be opened and closed. One day when he is able to unlock the last door, he finds a passageway to another house that looks like his own, with a mother and father who don’t want to let him go. The other children are there too, and he is tasked with freeing all the lost souls, and himself.
My Soul to be Protected by Tananarive Due
Jessica had found the perfect man in David. He is caring, considerate and everything she wants from a husband. But one day, he confesses to her that 400 years ago, he traded his humanity so that he would attain immortality. In order to keep Jessica and their daughter with him forever, he performs a forbidden ritual so that they never leave his side.
Interview with Vampires by Anne Rice
In a long and detailed interview with a reporter, a vampire named Louis tells the story of his life full of murder and bloodsucking. For additional scares, check out the film adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
You are probably familiar with this story, and its many spoofs. A mysterious videotape warns four teenagers that they will die in one week unless they complete an unspecified task. Shortly thereafter, all four died of heart failure. When a journalist finds out about the footage, he watches the video and tries to solve the mystery before it’s too late.
Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
Today’s novel is a love of Stand by Me and Stranger Things. Jake’s uncle, Calvin, is a lover of all things occult and strange. When a pair of siblings move into town, Calvin decides to welcome them all to the “Saturday Night Ghost Club.” But what starts as a fun summer activity quickly turns into a close encounter with the supernatural.
Edgar Allan Poe Collection
For those unfamiliar with the work of Edgar Allan Poe, spooky season is a great time to get acquainted. The 19th century poet instilled a level of mystery and horror in all of his work. If you had to read “The Raven” in school, then you know exactly what the vibe is.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
When Noemí travels to rural Mexico to visit his newly married cousin, the seemingly haunted house he lives in begins to creep into his dreams. Dark family secrets, violence and horror are what you’ll find in this modern classic.
While Colson Whitehead is mostly known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad, he also dabbled in horror. After the plague takes over Manhattan, a man named Mark and two other civilians are assigned to rid Chinatown of the remaining zombies. What could go wrong?
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
This 1898 horror novel follows a nanny who takes care of two children on a remote and haunted plantation. He began to see unidentified figures around the grounds and they were later revealed to be longtime residents of the estate. Chaos, and even mysterious deaths, ensues.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
In this classic gothic novel, legal practitioner Gabriel Utterson investigates a series of unlikely incidents between his old friend Dr. Jekyll and a criminal killer Mr. Hyde. However, he soon realized that Jekyll and Hyde were one and the same.
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