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 — 1,464,532 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 269,942 ratings
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3

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3.81 avg rating — 390,395 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 — 586,451 ratings
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6

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3.90 avg rating — 1,863,577 ratings
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7

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3.92 avg rating — 82,954 ratings
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8

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4.05 avg rating — 158,418 ratings
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9

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4.02 avg rating — 565,023 ratings
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10

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3.84 avg rating — 152,860 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 371,537 ratings
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12

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4.30 avg rating — 75,673 ratings
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13

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3.83 avg rating — 661,333 ratings
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14

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4.09 avg rating — 198,640 ratings
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15

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3.90 avg rating — 153,034 ratings
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16

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4.19 avg rating — 16,580 ratings
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17

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4.40 avg rating — 295,091 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 — 62,864 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 — 143,812 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 — 54,976 ratings
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24

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4.09 avg rating — 73,176 ratings
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25

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4.13 avg rating — 778,282 ratings
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26

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3.83 avg rating — 137,827 ratings
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27

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4.14 avg rating — 72,198 ratings
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28

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4.02 avg rating — 84,294 ratings
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29

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4.05 avg rating — 222,564 ratings
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30

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4.08 avg rating — 68,083 ratings
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31

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3.91 avg rating — 292,306 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 — 646,804 ratings
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34

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3.80 avg rating — 276,072 ratings
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35

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3.76 avg rating — 81,627 ratings
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36

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4.41 avg rating — 41,465 ratings
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37

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4.13 avg rating — 1,856,855 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 — 115,227 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 — 80,117 ratings
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42

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4.02 avg rating — 117,701 ratings
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43

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3.75 avg rating — 19,780 ratings
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44

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4.04 avg rating — 548,498 ratings
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45

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3.38 avg rating — 178,970 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 — 17,261 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 72,710 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 — 1,029,033 ratings
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53

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3.88 avg rating — 54,869 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 — 122,826 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 — 10,960 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 — 134,577 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 — 83,514 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 — 192,308 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 — 22,471 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 — 209,367 ratings
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72

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4.25 avg rating — 24,833 ratings
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73

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4.15 avg rating — 565,354 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 — 12,166 ratings
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79

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4.13 avg rating — 385,825 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 — 17,918 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 — 10,015 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 — 11,297 ratings
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91

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3.86 avg rating — 17,949 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 — 33,424 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 — 171,610 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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