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 — 1,483,787 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 272,808 ratings
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3

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3.81 avg rating — 397,613 ratings
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4

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 136,535 ratings
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5

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4.26 avg rating — 589,683 ratings
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6

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3.91 avg rating — 1,904,329 ratings
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7

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3.92 avg rating — 83,346 ratings
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8

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4.06 avg rating — 160,037 ratings
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9

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4.02 avg rating — 568,686 ratings
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10

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3.84 avg rating — 154,480 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 374,440 ratings
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12

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4.30 avg rating — 76,287 ratings
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13

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3.83 avg rating — 668,305 ratings
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14

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4.09 avg rating — 201,768 ratings
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15

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3.89 avg rating — 154,498 ratings
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16

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4.19 avg rating — 16,667 ratings
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17

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4.40 avg rating — 296,719 ratings
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18

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4.19 avg rating — 30,026 ratings
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19

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3.69 avg rating — 63,615 ratings
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20

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4.04 avg rating — 121,182 ratings
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21

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4.07 avg rating — 146,031 ratings
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22

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3.69 avg rating — 67,309 ratings
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23

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3.92 avg rating — 55,974 ratings
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24

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4.09 avg rating — 74,460 ratings
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25

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4.13 avg rating — 784,802 ratings
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26

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3.83 avg rating — 138,237 ratings
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27

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4.14 avg rating — 72,564 ratings
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28

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4.02 avg rating — 84,745 ratings
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29

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4.05 avg rating — 223,560 ratings
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30

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4.08 avg rating — 69,020 ratings
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31

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3.91 avg rating — 298,069 ratings
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32

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3.93 avg rating — 120,563 ratings
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33

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4.02 avg rating — 652,295 ratings
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34

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3.80 avg rating — 277,042 ratings
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35

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3.76 avg rating — 82,638 ratings
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36

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4.41 avg rating — 42,113 ratings
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37

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4.14 avg rating — 1,892,776 ratings
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38

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4.04 avg rating — 28,980 ratings
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39

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4.05 avg rating — 115,859 ratings
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40

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3.80 avg rating — 90,433 ratings
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41

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3.95 avg rating — 80,665 ratings
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42

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4.04 avg rating — 557,033 ratings
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43

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4.01 avg rating — 119,245 ratings
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44

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3.75 avg rating — 20,106 ratings
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45

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3.38 avg rating — 181,030 ratings
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46

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3.91 avg rating — 25,578 ratings
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47

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4.04 avg rating — 17,676 ratings
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48

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4.06 avg rating — 73,053 ratings
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49

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4.30 avg rating — 46,745 ratings
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50

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4.34 avg rating — 188 ratings
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51

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3.43 avg rating — 1,165 ratings
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52

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,042,327 ratings
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53

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3.89 avg rating — 56,073 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 22,933 ratings
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55

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4.24 avg rating — 125,243 ratings
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56

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4.03 avg rating — 93,709 ratings
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57

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3.80 avg rating — 10,996 ratings
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58

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4.04 avg rating — 69,954 ratings
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59

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3.73 avg rating — 135,719 ratings
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60

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4.01 avg rating — 22,489 ratings
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61

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3.86 avg rating — 84,411 ratings
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62

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3.63 avg rating — 8,815 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 74,928 ratings
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64

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3.83 avg rating — 22,891 ratings
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65

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3.89 avg rating — 14,020 ratings
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66

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3.87 avg rating — 201,541 ratings
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67

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4.17 avg rating — 24,448 ratings
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68

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3.89 avg rating — 49,393 ratings
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69

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3.92 avg rating — 22,580 ratings
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70

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3.92 avg rating — 13,760 ratings
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71

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4.05 avg rating — 211,158 ratings
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72

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4.25 avg rating — 24,880 ratings
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73

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4.15 avg rating — 566,685 ratings
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74

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3.76 avg rating — 7,406 ratings
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75

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4.06 avg rating — 31,367 ratings
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76

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3.81 avg rating — 5,014 ratings
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77

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3.81 avg rating — 21,330 ratings
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78

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4.09 avg rating — 12,232 ratings
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79

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4.14 avg rating — 389,832 ratings
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80

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3.83 avg rating — 4,292 ratings
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81

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3.81 avg rating — 9,329 ratings
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82

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3.88 avg rating — 12,760 ratings
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83

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4.05 avg rating — 9,233 ratings
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84

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3.72 avg rating — 8,913 ratings
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85

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3.84 avg rating — 18,233 ratings
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86

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3.85 avg rating — 4,746 ratings
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87

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3.91 avg rating — 6,029 ratings
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88

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3.90 avg rating — 10,076 ratings
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89

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3.84 avg rating — 5,242 ratings
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90

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3.81 avg rating — 11,390 ratings
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91

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3.86 avg rating — 17,992 ratings
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92

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3.89 avg rating — 4,575 ratings
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93

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3.86 avg rating — 34,043 ratings
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94

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3.97 avg rating — 45,247 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 — 172,181 ratings
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97

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3.85 avg rating — 3,903 ratings
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98

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3.88 avg rating — 5,613 ratings
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99

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4.11 avg rating — 23,335 ratings
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100

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3.78 avg rating — 95,966 ratings
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1,555 books · 1,507 voters · list created September 24th, 2009 by Eric Blood (votes) .
Tags: fiction, horror
507 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


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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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