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93 Best Horror Books of All Time


Our goal: Find the best Horror books according to the internet (not just one random person's opinion).

    Here's what we did:
  1. Type "best horror books" into our search engine and study the top 8+ pages.
  2. Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
  3. Rank the results neatly for you here! 😊
    (It was a lot of work. But hey! That's why we're here, right?)

(Updated 2023)

As an Amazon Associate, we earn money from purchases made through links in this page.

  1. 1

    Dracula

    Bram Stoker

  2. 2
  3. 3

    House of Leaves

    Mark Z. Danielewski

  4. 4

    Beloved

    Toni Morrison

  5. 5

    Frankenstein

    Mary Shelley

  6. 6

    Rebecca

    Daphne du Maurier

  7. 7

    Bird Box

    A Novel

    Josh Malerman

  8. 8
  9. 9

    The Exorcist

    William Peter Blatty

  10. 10

    Hell House

    Richard Matheson

  11. 11

    The Hunger

    Alma Katsu

  12. 12

    Ghost Story

    Peter Straub

  13. 13

    Rosemary's Baby

    Ira Levin

  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17

    The Shining

    Stephen King

  18. 18

    Coraline

    Neil Gaiman

  19. 19
  20. 21

    Night Film

    A Novel

    Marisha Pessl

  21. 22
  22. 23
  23. 24

    Ring

    Koji Suzuki

  24. 25
  25. 26

    Let the Right One In

    A Novel

    John Ajvide Lindqvist

  26. 27

    Lord of the Flies

    William Golding

  27. 28

    The Stand

    Stephen King

  28. 29
  29. 30
  30. 31

    It

    A Novel

    Stephen King

  31. 32
  32. 33
  33. 34
  34. 35

    Horrorstor

    A Novel

    Grady Hendrix

  35. 36

    Penpal

    Dathan Auerbach

  36. 37
  37. 38

    The Girl Next Door

    Jack Ketchum

  38. 39

    The Ruins

    Scott Smith

  39. 40

    Come Closer

    Sara Gran

  40. 41
  41. 42

    Those Across the River

    Christopher Buehlman

  42. 44
  43. 45

    Broken Monsters

    Lauren Beukes

  44. 46

    The Other

    Thomas Tryon

  45. 47
  46. 48

    Zone One

    A Novel

    Colson Whitehead

  47. MOST RECOMMENDED!
    50

    The Road

    Cormac McCarthy

  48. 51

    The Handmaid's Tale

    Margaret Atwood

  49. 52

    I Am Legend

    Richard Matheson

  50. 53
  51. 54

    Carrie

    Stephen King

  52. 55

    American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis

  53. 56
  54. 57

    Fever Dream

    A Novel

    Samanta Schweblin

  55. 58

    Uzumaki

    Junji Ito

  56. 59

    Swan Song

    Robert R. McCammon

  57. 60

    The Troop

    A Novel

    Nick Cutter

  58. 61
  59. 62

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  60. 63

    Intensity

    A Novel

    Dean Koontz

  61. 64

    Pandemonium

    Lauren Oliver

  62. 65

    Blindness

    Jose Saramago

  63. 66
  64. 67

    Haunted

    A Novel

    Chuck Palahniuk

  65. 68

    The Elementals

    Michael McDowell

  66. 69

    Fledgling

    A Novel

    Octavia E. Butler

  67. 70
  68. 71
  69. 72

    From Hell

    Alan Moore

  70. 74

    The Changeling

    A Novel

    Victor LaValle

  71. 75
  72. 76
  73. 77
  74. 78

    Burnt Offerings

    Robert Marasco

  75. 79
  76. 80

    The Bad Seed

    William March

  77. 81

    The Lesser Dead

    Christopher Buehlman

  78. 82

    The Fifth Child

    Doris Lessing

  79. 83
  80. 84

    Carmilla

    Joseph Sheridan Lefanu

  81. 85

    Drawing Blood

    A Novel

    Poppy Z. Brite

  82. 86

    Parasite Eve

    Hideaki Sena

  83. 87

    Fiend

    A Novel

    Peter Stenson

  84. 88

    Maplecroft

    Cherie Priest

  85. 89

    The Drowning Girl

    Caitlin R. Kiernan

  86. 90
  87. 91

    Gothic Tales

    Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

  88. 92
  89. 93

    The Frangipani Hotel

    Violet Kupersmith

FAQ

  • How was this Horror books list created?

    We searched for 'best Horror books', found the top 5 articles, took every book mentioned in 2+ articles, and averaged their rankings.

  • How many Horror books are in this list?

    There are 93 books in this list.

  • Why did you create this Horror books list?

    We wanted to gather the most accurate list of Horror books on the internet.

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