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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4.03 avg rating — 1,509,766 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 276,940 ratings
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3

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3.81 avg rating — 408,545 ratings
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4

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 137,250 ratings
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5

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4.26 avg rating — 594,662 ratings
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6

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3.92 avg rating — 1,951,699 ratings
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7

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3.91 avg rating — 83,967 ratings
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8

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4.06 avg rating — 162,857 ratings
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9

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4.02 avg rating — 574,056 ratings
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10

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3.84 avg rating — 156,985 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 378,823 ratings
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12

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4.30 avg rating — 77,412 ratings
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13

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4.09 avg rating — 206,767 ratings
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14

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3.83 avg rating — 681,208 ratings
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15

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3.89 avg rating — 156,625 ratings
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16

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4.18 avg rating — 16,765 ratings
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17

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4.40 avg rating — 298,638 ratings
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18

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4.19 avg rating — 30,265 ratings
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19

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3.68 avg rating — 64,934 ratings
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20

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4.04 avg rating — 122,450 ratings
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21

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4.07 avg rating — 148,484 ratings
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22

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3.69 avg rating — 69,027 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 57,814 ratings
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24

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4.09 avg rating — 76,662 ratings
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25

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4.13 avg rating — 793,239 ratings
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26

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3.82 avg rating — 138,946 ratings
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27

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4.14 avg rating — 73,054 ratings
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28

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4.02 avg rating — 83,056 ratings
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29

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4.05 avg rating — 225,224 ratings
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30

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4.08 avg rating — 70,514 ratings
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31

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3.91 avg rating — 306,934 ratings
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32

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3.93 avg rating — 121,472 ratings
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33

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4.02 avg rating — 659,783 ratings
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34

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3.80 avg rating — 279,011 ratings
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35

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3.76 avg rating — 84,044 ratings
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36

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4.41 avg rating — 43,204 ratings
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37

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4.13 avg rating — 1,939,943 ratings
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38

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4.05 avg rating — 29,447 ratings
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39

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4.05 avg rating — 116,924 ratings
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40

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3.80 avg rating — 90,810 ratings
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41

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3.95 avg rating — 81,500 ratings
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42

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4.01 avg rating — 121,516 ratings
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43

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3.75 avg rating — 20,650 ratings
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44

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4.04 avg rating — 570,129 ratings
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45

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3.38 avg rating — 184,027 ratings
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46

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3.91 avg rating — 25,981 ratings
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47

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4.04 avg rating — 18,451 ratings
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48

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4.30 avg rating — 46,874 ratings
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49

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4.06 avg rating — 73,554 ratings
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50

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4.34 avg rating — 189 ratings
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51

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3.43 avg rating — 1,167 ratings
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52

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,062,914 ratings
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53

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3.89 avg rating — 58,258 ratings
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54

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4.24 avg rating — 128,234 ratings
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55

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3.97 avg rating — 23,057 ratings
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56

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4.04 avg rating — 70,298 ratings
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57

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4.03 avg rating — 94,841 ratings
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58

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3.80 avg rating — 11,082 ratings
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59

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3.73 avg rating — 137,666 ratings
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60

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3.86 avg rating — 85,724 ratings
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61

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4.01 avg rating — 22,687 ratings
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62

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3.63 avg rating — 8,894 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 75,053 ratings
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64

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3.83 avg rating — 23,125 ratings
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65

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3.89 avg rating — 14,285 ratings
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66

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3.86 avg rating — 213,693 ratings
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67

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4.17 avg rating — 24,667 ratings
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68

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3.89 avg rating — 50,106 ratings
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69

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3.92 avg rating — 22,813 ratings
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70

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3.92 avg rating — 13,870 ratings
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71

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4.05 avg rating — 213,852 ratings
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72

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4.15 avg rating — 568,859 ratings
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73

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4.25 avg rating — 24,948 ratings
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74

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3.76 avg rating — 7,481 ratings
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75

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4.06 avg rating — 31,510 ratings
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76

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3.81 avg rating — 5,059 ratings
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77

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3.81 avg rating — 21,472 ratings
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78

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4.09 avg rating — 12,357 ratings
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79

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3.80 avg rating — 9,408 ratings
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80

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4.13 avg rating — 395,932 ratings
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81

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3.82 avg rating — 4,333 ratings
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82

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3.88 avg rating — 12,831 ratings
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83

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4.05 avg rating — 9,334 ratings
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84

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3.72 avg rating — 9,007 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 18,670 ratings
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86

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3.85 avg rating — 4,789 ratings
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87

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3.90 avg rating — 10,242 ratings
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88

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3.91 avg rating — 6,076 ratings
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89

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3.84 avg rating — 5,278 ratings
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90

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3.80 avg rating — 11,529 ratings
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91

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3.86 avg rating — 18,049 ratings
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92

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3.86 avg rating — 35,084 ratings
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93

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3.89 avg rating — 4,591 ratings
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94

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3.97 avg rating — 45,430 ratings
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95

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4.24 avg rating — 41 ratings
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96

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4.05 avg rating — 48,470 ratings
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97

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4.19 avg rating — 173,295 ratings
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98

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3.85 avg rating — 3,923 ratings
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99

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4.11 avg rating — 23,657 ratings
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100

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3.78 avg rating — 96,668 ratings
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1,612 books · 1,519 voters · list created September 24th, 2009 by Eric Blood (votes) .
Tags: fiction, horror
513 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Eric 1760 books
81 friends
Greyweather 2660 books
65 friends
Jo 217 books
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Jeremy 522 books
55 friends
Dave 492 books
31 friends
David 2838 books
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Bill 6641 books
391 friends
DJMikeG 766 books
130 friends

More voters…


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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