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 — 1,496,665 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 274,749 ratings
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3

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3.81 avg rating — 402,746 ratings
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4

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 136,843 ratings
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5

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4.26 avg rating — 592,062 ratings
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6

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3.91 avg rating — 1,929,178 ratings
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7

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3.92 avg rating — 83,628 ratings
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8

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4.06 avg rating — 161,337 ratings
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9

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4.02 avg rating — 571,164 ratings
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10

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3.84 avg rating — 155,676 ratings
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11

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4.07 avg rating — 376,558 ratings
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12

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4.30 avg rating — 76,830 ratings
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13

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4.09 avg rating — 204,134 ratings
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14

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3.83 avg rating — 674,588 ratings
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15

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3.89 avg rating — 155,547 ratings
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16

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4.18 avg rating — 16,707 ratings
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17

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4.40 avg rating — 297,631 ratings
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18

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4.19 avg rating — 30,140 ratings
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19

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3.69 avg rating — 64,275 ratings
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20

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4.04 avg rating — 121,786 ratings
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21

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4.07 avg rating — 147,275 ratings
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22

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3.69 avg rating — 68,075 ratings
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23

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3.92 avg rating — 56,724 ratings
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24

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4.09 avg rating — 75,504 ratings
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25

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4.13 avg rating — 788,935 ratings
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26

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3.83 avg rating — 138,559 ratings
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27

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4.14 avg rating — 72,821 ratings
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28

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4.01 avg rating — 85,163 ratings
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29

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4.05 avg rating — 224,383 ratings
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30

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4.08 avg rating — 69,699 ratings
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31

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3.91 avg rating — 302,217 ratings
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32

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3.93 avg rating — 120,998 ratings
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33

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4.02 avg rating — 655,793 ratings
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34

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3.80 avg rating — 277,822 ratings
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35

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3.76 avg rating — 83,298 ratings
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36

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4.41 avg rating — 42,634 ratings
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37

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4.14 avg rating — 1,915,585 ratings
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38

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4.04 avg rating — 29,196 ratings
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39

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4.05 avg rating — 116,366 ratings
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40

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3.80 avg rating — 90,605 ratings
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41

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3.95 avg rating — 81,086 ratings
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42

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4.04 avg rating — 563,493 ratings
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43

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4.01 avg rating — 120,332 ratings
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44

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3.75 avg rating — 20,361 ratings
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45

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3.38 avg rating — 182,531 ratings
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46

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3.91 avg rating — 25,763 ratings
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47

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4.04 avg rating — 17,993 ratings
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48

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4.30 avg rating — 46,815 ratings
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49

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4.06 avg rating — 73,281 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 — 1,165 ratings
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52

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,052,117 ratings
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53

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3.89 avg rating — 57,067 ratings
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54

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4.24 avg rating — 126,717 ratings
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55

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3.97 avg rating — 22,991 ratings
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56

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4.04 avg rating — 70,102 ratings
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57

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4.03 avg rating — 94,247 ratings
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58

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3.80 avg rating — 11,034 ratings
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59

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3.73 avg rating — 136,659 ratings
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60

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3.86 avg rating — 84,990 ratings
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61

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4.01 avg rating — 22,592 ratings
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62

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3.63 avg rating — 8,854 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 74,998 ratings
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64

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3.83 avg rating — 23,008 ratings
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65

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3.89 avg rating — 14,143 ratings
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66

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3.87 avg rating — 207,669 ratings
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67

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4.17 avg rating — 24,558 ratings
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68

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3.89 avg rating — 49,753 ratings
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69

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3.92 avg rating — 22,700 ratings
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70

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3.92 avg rating — 13,806 ratings
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71

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4.05 avg rating — 212,515 ratings
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72

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4.15 avg rating — 567,683 ratings
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73

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4.25 avg rating — 24,916 ratings
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74

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3.76 avg rating — 7,436 ratings
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75

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4.06 avg rating — 31,448 ratings
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76

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3.81 avg rating — 5,029 ratings
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77

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3.81 avg rating — 21,395 ratings
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78

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4.09 avg rating — 12,289 ratings
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79

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3.80 avg rating — 9,368 ratings
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80

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4.14 avg rating — 392,770 ratings
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81

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3.82 avg rating — 4,308 ratings
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82

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3.88 avg rating — 12,791 ratings
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83

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4.05 avg rating — 9,275 ratings
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84

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3.72 avg rating — 8,946 ratings
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85

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3.84 avg rating — 18,433 ratings
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86

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3.85 avg rating — 4,762 ratings
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87

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3.90 avg rating — 10,158 ratings
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88

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3.91 avg rating — 6,045 ratings
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89

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3.84 avg rating — 5,256 ratings
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90

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3.80 avg rating — 11,446 ratings
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91

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3.86 avg rating — 18,022 ratings
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92

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3.86 avg rating — 34,578 ratings
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93

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3.89 avg rating — 4,580 ratings
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94

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3.97 avg rating — 45,348 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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4.05 avg rating — 48,085 ratings
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97

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4.19 avg rating — 172,674 ratings
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98

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3.85 avg rating — 3,908 ratings
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99

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4.11 avg rating — 23,504 ratings
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100

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3.78 avg rating — 96,288 ratings
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1,559 books · 1,511 voters · list created September 24th, 2009 by Eric Blood (votes) .
Tags: fiction, horror
510 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Eric 1729 books
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Greyweather 2660 books
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Jeremy 522 books
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Dave 492 books
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David 2826 books
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Bill 6641 books
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DJMikeG 884 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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