This list is for the best horror books out there that have not been written by Stephen King! Now this is not meant to be an offense to Mr. King, who has some great books, and I am a fan of - but there are many other great horror authors out there that often get overshadowed... until now!
1

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4.02 avg rating — 1,464,448 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 269,931 ratings
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3

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3.81 avg rating — 390,361 ratings
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4

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 136,157 ratings
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5

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4.26 avg rating — 586,438 ratings
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6

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3.90 avg rating — 1,863,415 ratings
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7

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3.92 avg rating — 82,952 ratings
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8

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4.05 avg rating — 158,413 ratings
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9

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4.02 avg rating — 565,012 ratings
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10

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3.84 avg rating — 152,857 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 371,524 ratings
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12

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4.30 avg rating — 75,669 ratings
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13

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3.83 avg rating — 661,299 ratings
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14

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4.09 avg rating — 198,633 ratings
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15

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3.90 avg rating — 153,029 ratings
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16

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4.19 avg rating — 16,581 ratings
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17

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4.40 avg rating — 295,084 ratings
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18

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4.19 avg rating — 29,870 ratings
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19

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3.69 avg rating — 62,861 ratings
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20

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4.04 avg rating — 120,430 ratings
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21

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4.07 avg rating — 143,803 ratings
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22

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3.69 avg rating — 66,278 ratings
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23

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3.92 avg rating — 54,972 ratings
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24

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4.09 avg rating — 73,174 ratings
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25

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4.13 avg rating — 778,256 ratings
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26

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3.83 avg rating — 137,824 ratings
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27

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4.14 avg rating — 72,196 ratings
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28

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4.02 avg rating — 84,290 ratings
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29

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4.05 avg rating — 222,560 ratings
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30

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4.08 avg rating — 68,081 ratings
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31

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3.91 avg rating — 292,289 ratings
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32

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3.93 avg rating — 119,991 ratings
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33

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4.02 avg rating — 646,794 ratings
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34

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3.80 avg rating — 276,068 ratings
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35

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3.76 avg rating — 81,624 ratings
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36

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4.41 avg rating — 41,464 ratings
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37

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4.13 avg rating — 1,856,742 ratings
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38

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4.04 avg rating — 28,700 ratings
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39

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4.05 avg rating — 115,226 ratings
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40

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3.80 avg rating — 90,175 ratings
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41

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3.95 avg rating — 80,115 ratings
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42

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4.02 avg rating — 117,695 ratings
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43

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3.75 avg rating — 19,778 ratings
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44

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4.04 avg rating — 548,457 ratings
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45

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3.38 avg rating — 178,953 ratings
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46

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3.91 avg rating — 25,378 ratings
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47

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4.05 avg rating — 17,260 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 72,709 ratings
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49

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4.30 avg rating — 46,633 ratings
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50

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4.34 avg rating — 187 ratings
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51

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3.43 avg rating — 1,163 ratings
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52

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,028,996 ratings
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53

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3.88 avg rating — 54,864 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 22,880 ratings
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55

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4.24 avg rating — 122,818 ratings
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56

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4.03 avg rating — 93,054 ratings
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57

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3.80 avg rating — 10,959 ratings
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58

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4.04 avg rating — 69,763 ratings
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59

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3.73 avg rating — 134,575 ratings
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60

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4.01 avg rating — 22,376 ratings
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61

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3.87 avg rating — 83,513 ratings
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62

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3.63 avg rating — 8,762 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 74,848 ratings
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64

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3.83 avg rating — 22,798 ratings
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65

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3.89 avg rating — 13,847 ratings
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66

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3.87 avg rating — 192,272 ratings
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67

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4.17 avg rating — 24,327 ratings
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68

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3.89 avg rating — 48,838 ratings
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69

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3.92 avg rating — 22,470 ratings
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70

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3.91 avg rating — 13,717 ratings
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71

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4.04 avg rating — 209,364 ratings
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72

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4.25 avg rating — 24,834 ratings
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73

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4.15 avg rating — 565,350 ratings
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74

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3.77 avg rating — 7,361 ratings
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75

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4.06 avg rating — 31,314 ratings
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76

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3.81 avg rating — 4,993 ratings
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77

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3.81 avg rating — 21,233 ratings
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78

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4.09 avg rating — 12,163 ratings
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79

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4.13 avg rating — 385,808 ratings
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80

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3.83 avg rating — 4,268 ratings
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81

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3.80 avg rating — 9,270 ratings
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82

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3.88 avg rating — 12,730 ratings
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83

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4.05 avg rating — 9,197 ratings
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84

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3.72 avg rating — 8,864 ratings
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85

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3.84 avg rating — 17,917 ratings
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86

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3.85 avg rating — 4,717 ratings
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87

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3.91 avg rating — 6,001 ratings
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88

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3.90 avg rating — 10,014 ratings
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89

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3.84 avg rating — 5,216 ratings
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90

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3.81 avg rating — 11,296 ratings
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91

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3.86 avg rating — 17,948 ratings
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92

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3.89 avg rating — 4,564 ratings
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93

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3.86 avg rating — 33,422 ratings
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94

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3.97 avg rating — 45,132 ratings
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95

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4.25 avg rating — 40 ratings
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96

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4.19 avg rating — 171,609 ratings
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97

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3.85 avg rating — 3,890 ratings
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98

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3.88 avg rating — 5,571 ratings
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99

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4.11 avg rating — 23,122 ratings
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100

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3.78 avg rating — 95,551 ratings
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1,550 books · 1,502 voters · list created September 24th, 2009 by Eric Blood (votes) .
Tags: fiction, horror
507 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Eric 1687 books
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Greyweather 2660 books
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Jo 217 books
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Jeremy 515 books
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Dave 492 books
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David 2801 books
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Bill 6641 books
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DJMikeG 879 books
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Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Jeff (new)

Jeff French Great idea for a list. I love Stephen King, but so many of the top books on the best horror lists belong to him . This list gives some other great horror authors a time to shine. I wish people would stop voting for collections because it's difficult to compare a collection of short stories to a novel.


message 2: by Kevin (last edited Jul 18, 2013 10:38AM) (new)

Kevin Cryonic: A Zombie Novel ? REALLY!
Who The Fu*k rigged this poll?


message 3: by [deleted user] (new)

Jeff wrote: "Great idea for a list. I love Stephen King, but so many of the top books on the best horror lists belong to him . This list gives some other great horror authors a time to shine. I wish people wou..."

But this list isn't for novels only, is it? Personally, I love short story collections. I was going to add several of my favourite horror story collections when I saw your comment. Now I wonder if I shouldn't have.

I mean, if this list is not supposed to contain story collections, this will exclude most of my favourite horror books.


message 4: by Kevin (new)

Kevin Frost Fun list. But is Hannibal Lector horror? An evil genius, serial killer, cannibal yes. And great books. But isn't there supposed to be some supernatural involved?


message 5: by Kevin (new)

Kevin Kevin wrote: "Fun list. But is Hannibal Lector horror? An evil genius, serial killer, cannibal yes. And great books. But isn't there supposed to be some supernatural involved?"

Yes, the Lector books fit just fine in the horror genre. Supernatural elements make up much of what is horror.


message 6: by Ann (new)

Ann Swann Great list. So many to choose from...I would've also added WATCHERS by Dean Koontz. Loved that book!


message 7: by Deborah (new)

Deborah Mitton Loved the list. Some seem tame now by today's standards.


message 8: by [deleted user] (new)

Apparently people can't read and still added King to the list.


message 9: by Paul (new)

Paul Bowes Checked for duplicates: 15 books removed.


message 10: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Please check out The Most Popular Horror on Goodreads and add what I missed. Thanks.


Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* Jonathan wrote: "Apparently people can't read and still added King to the list."

I figured that would happen


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Erin ☕ *I figured that would happen"

No Stephen King books there at the moment though, unless I'm mistaken.


message 13: by Ciorchinele (new)

Ciorchinele Suprem I highly recommend any book written by Serge Brussolo. I don t know what kind of drugs he s on but the dude is insane. Absolutely insane.


message 14: by Tib (new)

Tib Why is Jane Eyre on this list? I haven't read it, but I was under the impression that this was a historical fiction similar to Austin's books.


message 15: by Jon (new)

Jon Thank goodness - there are other horror authors than SK and some of them do a much better job too. . .


message 16: by Fiona (new)

Fiona Hurley Checked for duplicates: 27 books removed


message 17: by Jezzy (last edited Feb 03, 2025 08:29PM) (new)

Jezzy Gone Girl is not horror. Can someone please delete this? It's at #150, page2. Beowulf also needs to be removed at #215, page3.


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