42 Great Horror Books (That Aren’t King or Koontz)

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, underappreciated 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 a vera 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.

1. Dan Simmons – Carrion Comfort (Drood, Summer of Night or The Terror)
2. Richard Laymon – Savage
3. Ramsey Campbell – The Doll Who Ate His Mother
4. Graham Masterton – Night Warriors
5. Sarah Pinborough – The Death House
6. Edward Lee – The Bighead
7. Lauren Beukes – Broken Monsters (The Shining Girls)
8. Tananarive Due – The Living Blood
9. Rick Hautala – Little Brothers
10. Bentley Little – The Ignored
11. Kathe Koja – The Cipher
12. Douglas Clegg – The Children’s Hour
13. Ray Garton – Lot Lizards
14. Jeff Strand – Pressure
15. Simon Clark – King Blood
16. Stephen Laws – Chasm
17. James Newman – Midnight Rain
18. Jonathan Maberry – Ghost Road Blues
19. Jack Ketchum – Off Season
20. Clive Barker – Weaveworld
21. Tom Piccirilli – Shadow Season
22. F. Paul Wilson – The Tomb
23. Charlee Jacob – Dread in the Beast
24. Peter Straub – Floating Dragon
25. Robert McCammon – Boy’s Life
26. Joe R. Lansdale – The Bottoms
27. Shaun Hutson – Spawn
28. Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire – Parasite
29. Brian Keene – The Conqueror Worms
30. Brian Hodge – Nightlife
31. Bryan Smith – Depraved
32. Mark Morris – Toady
33. 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?