A few days back, Bloodshoot Books‘ publisher Pete Kahle wrote a post on Facebook where he challenged himself to list his favorite horror books that aren’t by Stephen King or Dean Koontz.
King and Koontz get so much attention (and money) and there are a lot of great, under appreciated books out there.
Pete’s list is below. I haven’t read even close to half of the books on his list but when I have and there’s a book by an author I like more than Pete’s suggestion I add it in parentheses.
Also, because this is such a male-dominated industry, I’ve made the female authors bold and I challenge you to buy a book by a woman from this list.
Pete himself says in a comment under the list:
“I wish I had more female horror authors listed, but as I went through the list I realized that I had only read one or two novels by each one.
Something to remedy in 2018“
The first 33 are Pete’s original list, my extras are below. Please add your suggestions in the comments and I’ll update the list.
- Dan Simmons – Carrion Comfort (Drood, Summer of Night or The Terror)
- Richard Laymon – Savage
- Ramsey Campbell – The Doll Who Ate His Mother
- Graham Masterton – Night Warriors
- Sarah Pinborough – The Death House
- Edward Lee – The Bighead
- Lauren Beukes – Broken Monsters (The Shining Girls)
- Tananarive Due – The Living Blood
- Rick Hautala – Little Brothers
- Bentley Little – The Ignored
- Kathe Koja – The Cipher
- Douglas Clegg – The Children’s Hour
- Ray Garton – Lot Lizards
- Jeff Strand – Pressure
- Simon Clark – King Blood
- Stephen Laws – Chasm
- James Newman – Midnight Rain
- Jonathan Maberry – Ghost Road Blues
- Jack Ketchum – Off Season
- Clive Barker – Weaveworld
- Tom Piccirilli – Shadow Season
- F. Paul Wilson – The Tomb
- Charlee Jacob – Dread in the Beast
- Peter Straub – Floating Dragon
- Robert McCammon – Boy’s Life
- Joe R. Lansdale – The Bottoms
- Shaun Hutson – Spawn
- Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire – Parasite
- Brian Keene – The Conqueror Worms
- Brian Hodge – Nightlife
- Bryan Smith – Depraved
- Mark Morris – Toady
- Christopher Golden
– Of Saints and Shadows
Books I’d add:
34. Michael McDowell – The Elementals
35. John Langan – The Fisherman (one of my all-time favorite horror books)
36. Shirley Jackson – The Haunting of Hill House
37. Richard Matheson – I am Legend
38. Kristi DeMeester – Beneath
39. Justin Cronin – The Passage
40. Mark Z. Danielewski – House of Leaves (Will not work as a Kindle book, trust me)
41. Jeff VanderMeer – Finch
42. Josh Malerman – Bird Box
Now it’s your turn; what have your read and what’s missing from the list?
