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Five Best Horror Novels

Oberon

Oberon

New Member
Doesn't seem like we have a favorites list in this forum, so give us your best representative horror novels:

1. Dracula (Stoker)
2. 'salem's lot (King)
3. The Shining (King)
4. Interview with the Vampire (Rice)
5. The Great and Secret Show (Barker)

Hmmm. Three of them are vampire stories! and if I were to add an Honorable Mention, wouldn't ya know! Fevre Dream by George RR Martin--another vampire novel!
 
The Stand - King
Swan Song - McCammon (is THIS a horror?)
Spanky - Christopher Fowler
Excuisite Corpse - Poppy Z Brite (Wormwood was close to the worst! Ironic!)

Too many fit the fifth ...
 
Not in any particular order.

1. Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror (a collection edited by Paul M. Sammon)
2 & 3. Needful Things/Pet Sematary - Stephen King (Most King novels I find beautiful because of the relationships built between characters; I don't really consider them to be horror. It is my favourite Stephen King though.)

hmm... can't think of 2 others at the moment.
 
Oh my, this is a difficult one.
1- It-Stephen King
2- Pet Sematary-Stephen King
3- Intensity-Dean Koontz
4- The Stand-Stephen King
5- The Shining-Stephen King

Hmm...you can really tell what author I read a lot!
 
Honestly don't read a lot pure horror but Fevre Dream is a absolute must read vampire novel, by epic fantasy master George R.R. Martin. Also Carrion Comfort by Hyperion cantos author Dan Simmons is also exceptional.

fantasybookspot.com
 
The Stand ~ Stephen King
Shadowland ~ Peter Straub
Swan Song ~ Robert R. McCammon
Carrion Comfort ~ Dan Simmons
The Shining ~ Stephen King

Runner ups:

It ~ Stephen King
Floating Dragon ~ Peter Straub
Pet Sematary ~ Stephen King
Summer of Night ~ Dan Simmons
A Winter Haunting ~ Dan Simmons
Salems' Lot ~ Stephen King
Succubi ~ Edward Lee
Skin ~ Kathe Koja
Strange Angels ~ Kathe Koja
The Ignored ~ Bentley Little
The Girl Next Door ~ Jack Ketchum
Off Season ~ Jack Ketchum
 
I'll steer clear of Stephen King since I think he's rotten as a horror writer. While he was good in the seventies as his writing tapped into a new brand of horror he has since become superceded by others around him.

The five best horror novels should not be those written today - that's lack of respect for the genre. The best horror novels are those written in yesteryear by authors that typically weren't associated with the genre or, by tenuous links, were.

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
  • Dracula - Bram Stoker
  • Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  • The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
  • The Turn of the Screw - Henry James

Special note, I suppose, should go to Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto - the first Gothic novel that introduced so many archetypes to the Gothic and horror genres.
 
My list is a mix of classic and modern horror. I dont think one type is better than the other, just different. We owe much gratitude to the early adventurers into this genre, they certainly paved the way. :)

1 Frankenstein - Mary W. Shelley
2 Dracula - Bram Stoker
3 Needful Things - Stephen King
4 The Great and Secret Show - Clive Barker
5 The Shining - Stephen King
 
Another "runner up" and non-vampire-centered story: Peter Straub's Ghost Story and don't let the awful movie that was made from it steer you from the actual book--it's very good!
 
Well. I'm new here. I have 'Salem's Lot. And when I first started reading it, I got a little bored and never finished it. Then I sent it to my brother (he's in the army). So, should I ask him to bring it with him when he visits again? Now, for my list:

1. The Shining - Stephen King
2. Dracula - Bram Stoker
3. IT - Stephen King
4. Pet Sematary - Stephen King

And I can't think of a fifth. Call me a fan boy if you like, but hey, I love King's work.
 
But seriously, like I said in my other post, should I tell my brother to give me back 'Salem's Lot? I finished Pet Sematary last night and now I've got nothing to read. Thanks.
 
Sorry, guys and girls, but I thought that the book was titled "the pet CemEtEry"... Sorry again, which is the right one? Shame on me for my poor English...

Yep, King rules... I remember his short stories - the one about a raft and a hungry thing under it for example... Brrr... And many others...

And I think some of E.A.Poe things were... slightly fearful...

By the way, has anybody read Gogol's "Evenings on a khutor near Deekan'ka"?
I've read them when I've been 7, and was VERY SCARED...
 
JohnnySmakface said:
But seriously, like I said in my other post, should I tell my brother to give me back 'Salem's Lot? I finished Pet Sematary last night and now I've got nothing to read. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I liked it. Though I was much older than 14 at the time...
 
Yeah, it's spelled Pet Sematary. And hey, there's nothing wrong with 14 year olds. Well, there is. I'm the only person I know of at my age who reads for pleasure.
 
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