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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 2024)

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Last Updated: Monday 1 Jan, 2024

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  1. 1
    Dracula

    Dracula

    Bram Stoker

  2. 2
    The Haunting of Hill House
  3. 3
    House of Leaves

    House of Leaves

    Mark Z. Danielewski

  4. 4
    Beloved

    Beloved

    Toni Morrison

  5. 5
    Frankenstein

    Frankenstein

    Mary Shelley

  6. 6
    Rebecca

    Rebecca

    Daphne du Maurier

  7. 7
    Bird Box

    Bird Box

    A Novel

    Josh Malerman

  8. 8
    Pet Sematary
  9. 9
    The Exorcist

    The Exorcist

    William Peter Blatty

  10. 10
    Hell House

    Hell House

    Richard Matheson

  11. 11
    The Hunger

    The Hunger

    Alma Katsu

  12. 12
    Ghost Story

    Ghost Story

    Peter Straub

  13. 13
    Rosemary's Baby

    Rosemary's Baby

    Ira Levin

  14. 14
    Something Wicked This Way Comes
  15. 15
    The Turn of the Screw
  16. 16
    Carrion Comfort
  17. 17
    The Shining

    The Shining

    Stephen King

  18. 18
    Coraline

    Coraline

    Neil Gaiman

  19. 19
    The Silence of the Lambs
  20. 21
    Night Film

    Night Film

    A Novel

    Marisha Pessl

  21. 22
    At the Mountains of Madness
  22. 23
    The Woman in Black
  23. 24
    Ring

    Ring

    Koji Suzuki

  24. 25
    White is for Witching
  25. 26
    Let the Right One In

    Let the Right One In

    A Novel

    John Ajvide Lindqvist

  26. 27
    Lord of the Flies

    Lord of the Flies

    William Golding

  27. 28
    The Stand

    The Stand

    Stephen King

  28. 29
    A Head Full of Ghosts
  29. 30
    The Bloody Chamber
  30. 31
    It

    It

    A Novel

    Stephen King

  31. 32
    The Passage
  32. 33
    NOS4A2
  33. 34
    Heart-Shaped Box
  34. 35
    Horrorstor

    Horrorstor

    A Novel

    Grady Hendrix

  35. 36
    Penpal

    Penpal

    Dathan Auerbach

  36. 37
    The Silent Companions
  37. 38
    The Girl Next Door

    The Girl Next Door

    Jack Ketchum

  38. 39
    The Ruins

    The Ruins

    Scott Smith

  39. 40
    Come Closer

    Come Closer

    Sara Gran

  40. 41
    Books of Blood
  41. 42
    Those Across the River

    Those Across the River

    Christopher Buehlman

  42. 44
    Things We Lost in the Fire
  43. 45
    Broken Monsters

    Broken Monsters

    Lauren Beukes

  44. 46
    The Other

    The Other

    Thomas Tryon

  45. 47
    The Devil in Silver
  46. 48
    Zone One

    Zone One

    A Novel

    Colson Whitehead

  47. MOST RECOMMENDED!
    50
    The Road

    The Road

    Cormac McCarthy

  48. 51
    The Handmaid's Tale

    The Handmaid's Tale

    Margaret Atwood

  49. 52
    I Am Legend

    I Am Legend

    Richard Matheson

  50. 53
    Blood Meridian
  51. 54
    Carrie

    Carrie

    Stephen King

  52. 55
    American Psycho

    American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis

  53. 56
    The Terror
  54. 57
    Fever Dream

    Fever Dream

    A Novel

    Samanta Schweblin

  55. 58
    Uzumaki

    Uzumaki

    Junji Ito

  56. 59
    Swan Song

    Swan Song

    Robert R. McCammon

  57. 60
    The Troop

    The Troop

    A Novel

    Nick Cutter

  58. 61
    John Dies at the End
  59. 62
    The Yellow Wallpaper

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  60. 63
    Intensity

    Intensity

    A Novel

    Dean Koontz

  61. 64
    Pandemonium

    Pandemonium

    Lauren Oliver

  62. 65
    Blindness

    Blindness

    Jose Saramago

  63. 66
    Her Body and Other Parties
  64. 67
    Haunted

    Haunted

    A Novel

    Chuck Palahniuk

  65. 68
    The Elementals

    The Elementals

    Michael McDowell

  66. 69
    Fledgling

    Fledgling

    A Novel

    Octavia E. Butler

  67. 70
    Meddling Kids
  68. 71
    Feed
  69. 72
    From Hell

    From Hell

    Alan Moore

  70. 74
    The Changeling

    The Changeling

    A Novel

    Victor LaValle

  71. 75
    Whispers
  72. 76
    Exquisite Corpse
  73. 77
    The Call Of Cthulhu And Other Stories
  74. 78
    Burnt Offerings

    Burnt Offerings

    Robert Marasco

  75. 79
    The Last Werewolf
  76. 80
    The Bad Seed

    The Bad Seed

    William March

  77. 81
    The Lesser Dead

    The Lesser Dead

    Christopher Buehlman

  78. 82
    The Fifth Child

    The Fifth Child

    Doris Lessing

  79. 83
    Frankenstein in Baghdad
  80. 84
    Carmilla

    Carmilla

    Joseph Sheridan Lefanu

  81. 85
    Drawing Blood

    Drawing Blood

    A Novel

    Poppy Z. Brite

  82. 86
    Parasite Eve

    Parasite Eve

    Hideaki Sena

  83. 87
    Fiend

    Fiend

    A Novel

    Peter Stenson

  84. 88
    Maplecroft

    Maplecroft

    Cherie Priest

  85. 89
    The Drowning Girl

    The Drowning Girl

    Caitlin R. Kiernan

  86. 90
    Three Moments of an Explosion
  87. 91
    Gothic Tales

    Gothic Tales

    Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

  88. 92
    The Case Against Satan
  89. 93
    The Frangipani Hotel

    The Frangipani Hotel

    Violet Kupersmith

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