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 — 1,509,625 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 276,917 ratings
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3

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3.81 avg rating — 408,481 ratings
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4

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 137,244 ratings
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5

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4.26 avg rating — 594,633 ratings
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6

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3.92 avg rating — 1,951,476 ratings
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7

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3.91 avg rating — 83,966 ratings
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8

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4.06 avg rating — 162,840 ratings
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9

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4.02 avg rating — 574,033 ratings
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10

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3.84 avg rating — 156,966 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 378,797 ratings
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12

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4.30 avg rating — 77,405 ratings
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13

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4.09 avg rating — 206,736 ratings
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14

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3.83 avg rating — 681,147 ratings
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15

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3.89 avg rating — 156,609 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 — 298,628 ratings
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18

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4.19 avg rating — 30,263 ratings
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19

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3.68 avg rating — 64,926 ratings
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20

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4.04 avg rating — 122,443 ratings
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21

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4.07 avg rating — 148,474 ratings
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22

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3.69 avg rating — 69,020 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 57,802 ratings
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24

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4.09 avg rating — 76,642 ratings
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25

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4.13 avg rating — 793,197 ratings
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26

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3.82 avg rating — 138,942 ratings
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27

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4.14 avg rating — 73,050 ratings
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28

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4.02 avg rating — 83,050 ratings
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29

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4.05 avg rating — 225,207 ratings
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30

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4.08 avg rating — 70,506 ratings
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31

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3.91 avg rating — 306,891 ratings
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32

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3.93 avg rating — 121,465 ratings
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33

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4.02 avg rating — 659,730 ratings
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34

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3.80 avg rating — 278,997 ratings
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35

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3.76 avg rating — 84,041 ratings
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36

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4.41 avg rating — 43,195 ratings
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37

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4.13 avg rating — 1,939,667 ratings
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38

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4.05 avg rating — 29,442 ratings
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39

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4.05 avg rating — 116,920 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 — 81,497 ratings
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42

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4.01 avg rating — 121,498 ratings
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43

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3.75 avg rating — 20,646 ratings
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44

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4.04 avg rating — 570,061 ratings
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45

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3.38 avg rating — 184,000 ratings
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46

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3.91 avg rating — 25,980 ratings
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47

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4.04 avg rating — 18,448 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 — 73,550 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 — 1,062,763 ratings
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53

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3.89 avg rating — 58,242 ratings
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54

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4.24 avg rating — 128,222 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 — 70,294 ratings
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57

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4.03 avg rating — 94,834 ratings
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58

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3.80 avg rating — 11,081 ratings
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59

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3.73 avg rating — 137,659 ratings
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60

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3.86 avg rating — 85,715 ratings
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61

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4.01 avg rating — 22,685 ratings
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62

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3.63 avg rating — 8,892 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 75,052 ratings
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64

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3.83 avg rating — 23,126 ratings
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65

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3.89 avg rating — 14,284 ratings
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66

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3.86 avg rating — 213,625 ratings
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67

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4.17 avg rating — 24,666 ratings
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68

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3.89 avg rating — 50,102 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 — 13,869 ratings
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71

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4.05 avg rating — 213,831 ratings
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72

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4.15 avg rating — 568,850 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 — 395,891 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 — 12,830 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 — 9,004 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 18,661 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 — 10,241 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 — 11,528 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 — 45,428 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 — 48,466 ratings
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97

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4.19 avg rating — 173,286 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 — 23,655 ratings
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100

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3.78 avg rating — 96,664 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 2837 books
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Bill 6641 books
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DJMikeG 766 books
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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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