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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 — 1,573,460 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 291,122 ratings
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3

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3.80 avg rating — 443,418 ratings
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4

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 138,567 ratings
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5

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3.93 avg rating — 2,036,589 ratings
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6

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4.26 avg rating — 606,372 ratings
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7

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3.91 avg rating — 85,371 ratings
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8

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4.06 avg rating — 170,721 ratings
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9

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4.88 avg rating — 107 ratings
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10

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4.02 avg rating — 584,884 ratings
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11

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3.83 avg rating — 161,907 ratings
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12

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4.07 avg rating — 387,592 ratings
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13

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4.30 avg rating — 79,635 ratings
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14

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4.09 avg rating — 216,831 ratings
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15

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3.83 avg rating — 709,455 ratings
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16

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3.89 avg rating — 163,712 ratings
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17

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4.18 avg rating — 16,939 ratings
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18

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4.40 avg rating — 302,382 ratings
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19

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4.19 avg rating — 30,821 ratings
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20

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3.67 avg rating — 68,033 ratings
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21

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4.03 avg rating — 125,037 ratings
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22

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4.07 avg rating — 152,875 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 61,641 ratings
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24

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3.69 avg rating — 74,143 ratings
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25

by
4.09 avg rating — 80,263 ratings
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26

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4.13 avg rating — 812,417 ratings
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27

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3.82 avg rating — 140,688 ratings
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28

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4.14 avg rating — 74,016 ratings
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29

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4.99 avg rating — 84 ratings
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30

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4.01 avg rating — 84,883 ratings
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31

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4.08 avg rating — 75,216 ratings
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32

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4.05 avg rating — 227,973 ratings
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33

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4.82 avg rating — 51 ratings
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34

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3.90 avg rating — 331,307 ratings
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35

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3.93 avg rating — 123,231 ratings
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36

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4.02 avg rating — 676,671 ratings
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37

by
4.05 avg rating — 118,758 ratings
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38

by
4.41 avg rating — 45,471 ratings
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39

by
4.05 avg rating — 30,797 ratings
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40

by
3.76 avg rating — 88,481 ratings
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41

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3.80 avg rating — 282,574 ratings
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42

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4.13 avg rating — 2,032,168 ratings
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43

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3.95 avg rating — 83,138 ratings
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44

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3.80 avg rating — 91,736 ratings
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45

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4.02 avg rating — 112,925 ratings
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46

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3.74 avg rating — 21,668 ratings
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47

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4.04 avg rating — 593,115 ratings
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48

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3.38 avg rating — 191,385 ratings
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49

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3.91 avg rating — 26,970 ratings
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50

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4.02 avg rating — 20,422 ratings
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51

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4.06 avg rating — 74,795 ratings
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52

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4.30 avg rating — 47,194 ratings
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53

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4.37 avg rating — 198 ratings
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54

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3.43 avg rating — 1,168 ratings
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55

by
3.90 avg rating — 62,995 ratings
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56

by
4.23 avg rating — 133,912 ratings
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57

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,099,902 ratings
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58

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3.97 avg rating — 23,398 ratings
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59

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4.04 avg rating — 71,128 ratings
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60

by
4.02 avg rating — 97,218 ratings
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61

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3.73 avg rating — 141,363 ratings
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62

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4.01 avg rating — 23,051 ratings
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62

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3.85 avg rating — 88,279 ratings
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64

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3.62 avg rating — 9,077 ratings
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65

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4.17 avg rating — 25,010 ratings
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66

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4.17 avg rating — 75,307 ratings
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67

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3.80 avg rating — 11,216 ratings
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68

by
3.86 avg rating — 241,144 ratings
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69

by
3.83 avg rating — 23,470 ratings
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70

by
3.92 avg rating — 14,130 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 15,125 ratings
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72

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3.76 avg rating — 7,651 ratings
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73

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4.06 avg rating — 31,761 ratings
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74

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3.88 avg rating — 51,495 ratings
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75

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3.92 avg rating — 23,262 ratings
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76

by
4.05 avg rating — 219,303 ratings
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77

by
4.15 avg rating — 573,340 ratings
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78

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4.25 avg rating — 25,109 ratings
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79

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4.09 avg rating — 12,598 ratings
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80

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4.05 avg rating — 9,502 ratings
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81

by
3.81 avg rating — 5,137 ratings
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82

by
3.80 avg rating — 9,596 ratings
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83

by
3.81 avg rating — 21,780 ratings
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84

by
4.13 avg rating — 407,574 ratings
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85

by
3.88 avg rating — 13,015 ratings
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86

by
3.72 avg rating — 9,158 ratings
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87

by
3.82 avg rating — 4,434 ratings
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88

by
3.83 avg rating — 19,738 ratings
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89

by
3.84 avg rating — 5,408 ratings
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90

by
3.85 avg rating — 4,892 ratings
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91

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3.90 avg rating — 10,531 ratings
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92

by
3.90 avg rating — 6,165 ratings
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93

by
3.79 avg rating — 12,072 ratings
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94

by
3.86 avg rating — 18,135 ratings
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95

by
4.76 avg rating — 21 ratings
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96

by
3.87 avg rating — 37,474 ratings
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97

by
4.05 avg rating — 49,929 ratings
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97

by
4.19 avg rating — 175,409 ratings
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99

by
3.89 avg rating — 4,639 ratings
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100

by
4.10 avg rating — 24,326 ratings
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1,630 books · 1,660 voters · list created September 24th, 2009 by Eric Blood (votes) .
Tags: fiction, horror
524 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Eric 1833 books
81 friends
Greyweather 2660 books
65 friends
Jo 218 books
5 friends
Jeremy 547 books
55 friends
Dave 491 books
31 friends
David 2860 books
1 friend
Bill 6641 books
390 friends
DJMikeG 787 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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