Sadie Hartmann’s new 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered puts its emphasis on more recent horror novels, mostly those published in the past 15 years. A few classics are included like Joe Lansdale’s The Bottoms from 2000 and The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) by Victor LaValle but the majority of the books recommended are new to me. Check out the Book List and Table of Contents below.
Each book receives a page with information about the author, a picture of the cover artwork, and a summary of the plot with emphasis on why you should read it. I’ve read Christopher Buehlman’s (p. 20-21) The Blacktongue Thief (2021) and Buehlman is featured in an interview here where he mentions books that affected him and his writing career: Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Last Days by Adam Nevill, and William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist audiobook where the author is the narrator.
Many of you might be familiar with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman’s Horror: The 100 Best Books (1993) and Horror: Another 100 Best Books (2005). 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered updates those two volumes and will cause you to order more books in this genre. GRADE: A
101 Horror Books To Read Before You’re Murdered – List
| 1 | The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (Goodreads Author) 3.19 avg rating — 12,414 ratingsscore: 100, and 1 person voted | ||
| 2 | The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig (Goodreads Author) 3.74 avg rating — 22,058 ratingsscore: 99, and 1 person voted | ||
| 3 | Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey (Goodreads Author) 3.37 avg rating — 26,144 ratingsscore: 98, and 1 person voted | ||
| 4 | Kill Creek by Scott Thomas 3.77 avg rating — 19,542 ratingsscore: 97, and 1 person voted | ||
| 5 | The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni (Goodreads Author) 3.37 avg rating — 4,340 ratingsscore: 96, and 1 person voted | ||
| 6 | The Switch House by Tim Meyer (Goodreads Author) 3.57 avg rating — 652 ratingsscore: 95, and 1 person voted | ||
| 7 | Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Goodreads Author) 3.85 avg rating — 135,383 ratingsscore: 94, and 1 person voted | ||
| 8 | NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (Goodreads Author) 4.08 avg rating — 127,717 ratingsscore: 93, and 1 person voted | ||
| 9 | Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1) by Michael Crichton 4.10 avg rating — 950,489 ratingsscore: 92, and 1 person voted | ||
| 10 | Pet Sematary by Stephen King (Goodreads Author) 4.06 avg rating — 583,302 ratingsscore: 91, and 1 person voted | ||
| 11 | Hell Hound by Ken Greenhall 3.93 avg rating — 1,293 ratingsscore: 90, and 1 person voted | ||
| 12 | Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1) by Michael Crichton 4.10 avg rating — 950,489 ratingsscore: 89, and 1 person voted | ||
| 13 | Hearts Strange and Dreadful by Tim McGregor (Goodreads Author) 4.27 avg rating — 189 ratingsscore: 88, and 1 person voted | ||
| 14 | The Return by Rachel Harrison 3.36 avg rating — 14,803 ratingsscore: 87, and 1 person voted | ||
| 15 | Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman (Goodreads Author) 4.27 avg rating — 17,553 ratingsscore: 86, and 1 person voted | ||
| 16 | The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman (Goodreads Author) 4.05 avg rating — 5,752 ratingsscore: 85, and 1 person voted | ||
| 17 | Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman (Goodreads Author) 3.71 avg rating — 12,133 ratingsscore: 84, and 1 person voted | ||
| 18 | The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman (Goodreads Author) 3.93 avg rating — 1,725 ratingsscore: 83, and 1 person voted | ||
| 19 | The Necromancer’s House by Christopher Buehlman (Goodreads Author) 3.75 avg rating — 3,022 ratingsscore: 82, and 1 person voted | ||
| 20 | The Blacktongue Thief (Blacktongue, #1) by Christopher Buehlman (Goodreads Author) 4.23 avg rating — 20,178 ratingsscore: 81, and 1 person voted | ||
| 21 | White Horse by Erika T. Wurth (Goodreads Author) 3.52 avg rating — 10,742 ratingsscore: 80, and 1 person voted | ||
| 22 | When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen 3.72 avg rating — 6,627 ratingsscore: 79, and 1 person voted | ||
| 23 | The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas (Goodreads Author) 3.84 avg rating — 39,688 ratingsscore: 78, and 1 person voted | ||
| 24 | The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories by Tara Moore (Editor) 3.79 avg rating — 717 ratingsscore: 77, and 1 person voted | ||
| 25 | The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume Two by Allen Grove (Editor) 4.01 avg rating — 210 ratingsscore: 76, and 1 person voted | ||
| 26 | The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume Three by Simon Stern (Editor) 3.97 avg rating — 128 ratingsscore: 75, and 1 person voted | ||
| 27 | The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume Four by Christopher Philippo (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 3.85 avg rating — 93 ratingsscore: 74, and 1 person voted | ||
| 28 | The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume Five by Christopher Philippo (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 3.79 avg rating — 86 ratingsscore: 73, and 1 person voted | ||
| 29 | The Shrieking Skull & Other Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories by James Skipp Borlase 3.68 avg rating — 50 ratingsscore: 72, and 1 person voted | ||
| 30 | Hark! the Herald Angels Scream by Christopher Golden (Goodreads Author) (editor) 3.70 avg rating — 1,727 ratingsscore: 71, and 1 person voted | ||
| 31 | Season’s Creepings: Tales of Holiday Horror by Ronald Kelly (Goodreads Author) 4.09 avg rating — 342 ratingsscore: 70, and 1 person voted | ||
| 32 | Wraith by Joe Hill (Goodreads Author) 4.12 avg rating — 4,347 ratingsscore: 69, and 1 person voted | ||
| 33 | Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom (Goodreads Author) 4.11 avg rating — 10,734 ratingsscore: 68, and 1 person voted | ||
| 34 | Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer (Goodreads Author) 3.46 avg rating — 4,358 ratingsscore: 67, and 1 person voted | ||
| 35 | The Visitor by Sergio Gomez (Goodreads Author) 3.35 avg rating — 3,954 ratingsscore: 66, and 1 person voted | ||
| 36 | Dead of Winter by Kealan Patrick Burke 3.95 avg rating — 925 ratingsscore: 65, and 1 person voted | ||
| 37 | Halldark Holidays by Gabino Iglesias (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.28 avg rating — 79 ratingsscore: 64, and 1 person voted | ||
| 38 | Where the Dead Go to Die by Aaron Dries (Goodreads Author) 4.01 avg rating — 517 ratingsscore: 63, and 1 person voted | ||
| 39 | Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 4.21 avg rating — 1,984 ratingsscore: 62, and 1 person voted | ||
| 40 | The Good House by Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 3.99 avg rating — 7,688 ratingsscore: 61, and 1 person voted | ||
| 41 | The Between by Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 4.06 avg rating — 3,756 ratingsscore: 60, and 1 person voted | ||
| 42 | My Soul to Keep (African Immortals, #1) by Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 4.15 avg rating — 6,293 ratingsscore: 59, and 1 person voted | ||
| 43 | The Living Blood (African Immortals, #2) by Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 4.35 avg rating — 2,620 ratingsscore: 58, and 1 person voted | ||
| 44 | Blood Colony (African Immortals, #3) by Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 4.13 avg rating — 1,648 ratingsscore: 57, and 1 person voted | ||
| 45 | My Soul to Take (African Immortals, #4) by Tananarive Due (Goodreads Author) 4.15 avg rating — 1,102 ratingsscore: 56, and 1 person voted | ||
| 46 | Ghoul by Brian Keene (Goodreads Author) 3.86 avg rating — 4,536 ratingsscore: 55, and 1 person voted | ||
| 47 | The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier 4.05 avg rating — 11,989 ratingsscore: 54, and 1 person voted | ||
| 48 | The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory (Goodreads Author) 3.52 avg rating — 904 ratingsscore: 53, and 1 person voted | ||
| 49 | The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters by J.W. Ocker (Goodreads Author) 3.91 avg rating — 1,386 ratingsscore: 52, and 1 person voted | ||
| 50 | In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson (Goodreads Author) 3.86 avg rating — 2,006 ratingsscore: 51, and 1 person voted | ||
| 51 | The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon (Goodreads Author) 3.86 avg rating — 28,003 ratingsscore: 50, and 1 person voted | ||
| 52 | Hairspray and Switchblades by V. Castro (Goodreads Author) 3.76 avg rating — 309 ratingsscore: 49, and 1 person voted | ||
| 53 | Goddess of Filth by V. Castro (Goodreads Author) 3.67 avg rating — 5,409 ratingsscore: 48, and 1 person voted | ||
| 54 | The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro (Goodreads Author) 3.76 avg rating — 1,374 ratingsscore: 47, and 1 person voted | ||
| 55 | Mestiza Blood by V. Castro (Goodreads Author) 3.91 avg rating — 304 ratingsscore: 46, and 1 person voted | ||
| 56 | The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro (Goodreads Author) 3.66 avg rating — 4,845 ratingsscore: 45, and 1 person voted | ||
| 57 | Aliens: Vasquez by V. Castro (Goodreads Author) 3.38 avg rating — 359 ratingsscore: 44, and 1 person voted | ||
| 58 | Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi (Goodreads Author) 4.23 avg rating — 4,363 ratingsscore: 43, and 1 person voted | ||
| 59 | The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper (Goodreads Author) 3.32 avg rating — 9,755 ratingsscore: 42, and 1 person voted | ||
| 60 | The Wicked by James Newman (Goodreads Author) 3.85 avg rating — 732 ratingsscore: 41, and 1 person voted | ||
| 61 | Come Closer by Sara Gran (Goodreads Author) 3.65 avg rating — 27,801 ratingsscore: 40, and 1 person voted | ||
| 62 | My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (Goodreads Author) 3.94 avg rating — 106,611 ratingsscore: 39, and 1 person voted | ||
| 63 | We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix (Goodreads Author) 3.74 avg rating — 23,110 ratingsscore: 38, and 1 person voted | ||
| 64 | Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix (Goodreads Author) 4.27 avg rating — 9,798 ratingsscore: 37, and 1 person voted | ||
| 65 | The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (Goodreads Author) 3.81 avg rating — 210,690 ratingsscore: 36, and 1 person voted | ||
| 66 | How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (Goodreads Author) 3.71 avg rating — 89,847 ratingsscore: 35, and 1 person voted | ||
| 67 | The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (Goodreads Author) 3.53 avg rating — 130,578 ratingsscore: 34, and 1 person voted | ||
| 68 | Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (Goodreads Author) 3.66 avg rating — 89,109 ratingsscore: 33, and 1 person voted | ||
| 69 | The Year of the Witching (Bethel, #1) by Alexis Henderson (Goodreads Author) 3.81 avg rating — 36,557 ratingsscore: 32, and 1 person voted | ||
| 70 | Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Goodreads Author) 3.73 avg rating — 36,368 ratingsscore: 31, and 1 person voted | ||
| 71 | Clown in a Cornfield (Clown in a Cornfield, #1) by Adam Cesare (Goodreads Author) 3.74 avg rating — 23,734 ratingsscore: 30, and 1 person voted | ||
| 72 | The Nightmare Girl by Jonathan Janz (Goodreads Author) 3.98 avg rating — 541 ratingsscore: 29, and 1 person voted | ||
| 73 | Brother by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.94 avg rating — 38,342 ratingsscore: 28, and 1 person voted | ||
| 74 | The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.66 avg rating — 8,712 ratingsscore: 27, and 1 person voted | ||
| 75 | Seed by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.79 avg rating — 22,528 ratingsscore: 26, and 1 person voted | ||
| 76 | The Bird Eater by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.53 avg rating — 10,314 ratingsscore: 25, and 1 person voted | ||
| 77 | Within These Walls by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.63 avg rating — 6,343 ratingsscore: 24, and 1 person voted | ||
| 78 | Dark Across the Bay by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.55 avg rating — 3,400 ratingsscore: 23, and 1 person voted | ||
| 79 | Apart in the Dark: Novellas by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.86 avg rating — 413 ratingsscore: 22, and 1 person voted | ||
| 80 | If You See Her by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.65 avg rating — 2,430 ratingsscore: 21, and 1 person voted | ||
| 81 | The Neighbors by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.29 avg rating — 7,408 ratingsscore: 20, and 1 person voted | ||
| 82 | The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn (Goodreads Author) 3.68 avg rating — 11,840 ratingsscore: 19, and 1 person voted | ||
| 83 | The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle 3.86 avg rating — 27,695 ratingsscore: 18, and 1 person voted | ||
| 84 | The Worm and His Kings (The Worm and His Kings, #1) by Hailey Piper (Goodreads Author) 3.79 avg rating — 1,700 ratingsscore: 17, and 1 person voted | ||
| 85 | The Fisherman by John Langan 3.93 avg rating — 24,710 ratingsscore: 16, and 1 person voted | ||
| 86 | A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by John Hornor Jacobs (Goodreads Author) 3.82 avg rating — 2,574 ratingsscore: 15, and 1 person voted | ||
| 87 | Walk The Darkness Down by John Boden (Goodreads Author) 4.14 avg rating — 147 ratingsscore: 14, and 1 person voted | ||
| 88 | Knock Knock (The Skillute Cycle #1) by S.P. Miskowski (Goodreads Author) 3.83 avg rating — 477 ratingsscore: 13, and 1 person voted | ||
| 89 | The Bottoms by Joe R Lansdale (2010-12-07) by Joe R. Lansdale (Goodreads Author) 4.18 avg rating — 8,492 ratingsscore: 12, and 1 person voted | ||
| 90 | December Park by Ronald Malfi (Goodreads Author) 4.26 avg rating — 2,324 ratingsscore: 11, and 1 person voted | ||
| 91 | Penpal by Dathan Auerbach (Goodreads Author) 3.86 avg rating — 36,185 ratingsscore: 10, and 1 person voted | ||
| 92 | Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke (Goodreads Author) 4.34 avg rating — 1,230 ratingsscore: 9, and 1 person voted | ||
| 93 | The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry (Goodreads Author) 3.83 avg rating — 6,461 ratingsscore: 8, and 1 person voted | ||
| 94 | The Deer Kings by Wendy N. Wagner (Goodreads Author) 4.36 avg rating — 47 ratingsscore: 7, and 1 person voted | ||
| 95 | The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read (Goodreads Author) 3.77 avg rating — 602 ratingsscore: 6, and 1 person voted | ||
| 96 | The Listener by Robert McCammon 4.05 avg rating — 2,475 ratingsscore: 5, and 1 person voted | ||
| 97 | Bird Box (Bird Box, #1) by Josh Malerman (Goodreads Author) 4.04 avg rating — 187,128 ratingsscore: 4, and 1 person voted | ||
| 98 | Pearl by Josh Malerman (Goodreads Author) 3.41 avg rating — 4,012 ratingsscore: 3, and 1 person voted | ||
| 99 | Malorie (Bird Box, #2) by Josh Malerman (Goodreads Author) 3.81 avg rating — 22,675 ratingsscore: 2, and 1 person voted | ||
| 100 | A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman (Goodreads Author) 3.20 avg rating — 16,308 ratings |
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
FORWARD By Josh Malerman — 4
INTRODUCTION By Sadie Hartmann — 7
Paranormal. Haunted houses — 11
Ghosts — 22
I grew up with ghosts / by Cassandra Khaw — 38
Creatures & cryptids — 30
Supernatural. Demons & possession — 41
The occult & witchcraft — 50
Cosmic horror — 56
Make horror gay AF / by Hailey Piper — 62
Human monsters — 65
Coming-of-age — 66
Grief, loss & death — 78
Cults — 88
Slashers & serial killers — 98
Body horror — 105
Creepy kids — 110
Crime & investigation — 116
A secret language only we can speak: the comfort of queer horror / by Eric LaRocca — 122
Natural order horror — 125
Apocalyptic, dystopian & sci-fi — 126
Eco horror — 136
From out of the dark came blackness / by RJ Joseph – 142
Short story collections — 145
The Sharpest stake / by Daniel Kraus — 158
You’re a Horror Junkie! Now What? — 160
Book Checklist — 162
Acknowledgements — 164
About the Author — 164
Index — 165
Not for me! I’m not much of a horror enthusiast! The shape of the world today is scary enough!
Bob, I dapple in Horror from time to time. But, you’re right: the world is a scary place!
I suspect you dapple the lives of all those around you (throwing light it among the shadows)….dabble, or in one trademark Dabl, which was a big-network attempt at ripping off the public-broadcaster Create, has given up on that and has gone all African-American-heavy sitcoms…rather an improvement in that case, given the quality of their faux-Create half-hours.
I’ve read THE BOTTOMS but it isn’t “horror” any more than any of Lansdale’s other picaresque East Texas crime novels. JURASSIC PARK? I suppose I should try the book to further my education, since I haven’t read any of the other titles she includes.
Fred, I’m with you on categorization. 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED includes ghost stories (which may or may not be horror). The same goes for the Paranormal chapter.
Ghost stories which are horrific are definitely horror. And they at least stand at the edge of horror since they deal with extinction, which is the soul of horror.
2 entries for JURASSIC PARK? Three too many (or, if Algis Budrys’s cheerful rave couldn’t get me to read it…). Sort of slighting anything but recent books and throwing some half-assed examples of slightly older books in tends to put me off.
Or, at least, to finish it before it went back to the library back when.
Most of the horror I’ve read is the older stuff and the classics, so I am not likely to read most of these. The authors I have read are Chuck Wendig, Joe Hill (read all his shorter works), Michael Crichton & Stephen King (of course), Daphne du Maurier, Sara Gran, Joe Lansdale (of course) and Robert McCammon. I probably need to check out some of the others. I especially want to look at the short story collections chapter.
Have a safe flight and enjoy your nephew’s wedding.
Jeff, I’m just hoping the weather cooperates on both ends of this trip.
I’ve read and can recommend Piper and Khaw. Though I haven’t read all they have published.
A very good time (and travel) for all at the wedding!
Todd, Khaw and her current writing partner will show up in a post soon.
I’ve read about a quarter of these at best, with a few more on my BOLO list, but most are unfamiliar. I’ll check some of them out. Others? Maybe not. I have a feeling the book might be better titled HORROR BOOKS I’VE STUMBLED UPON AND LIKED.
Jerry, you certainly have a point. However, 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED is a browser’s delight. A first-class production! I hope Sadie Hartmann produces more books like this one.
HORROR BOOKS BY MY BUDDIES AND PEERS WITH A FEW MAKEWEIGHTS THROWN IN THAT WE ALL READ AS KIDS.
If you’re a podcast fan, I strongly recommend seeking out Neil McRobert’s TALKING SCARED podcast, in particular the episode where he talks with Sadie Hartmann about this very book. I’m not a huge horror fan, but oddly enough I enjoy listening to people talking about the horror genre.
OK. Just downloaded a copy from the library.
I like having at least one non fiction book going along with the fiction.
Pretty lame list. No Stephen Graham Jones or Peter Straub or Stephen Gallegher or Ramsay Campbell or Adam Nevill or John Langan?
“Who? Oh, old guys.” No Elizabeth Hand, Kathe Koja, Rachel Pollack, Tanith Lee, Muriel Spark, Margaet St. Clair, Joan Aiken, Nicholas Royle nor others including not so “old guys.”
I skimmed through this in a book store last fall and it looked like it might be a fun, breezy read but the writing seemed like that of a well-read, chatty fan more than that of a more scholarly horror enthusiast. It also focuses pretty much on recent authors including a lot of small press POD stuff and my taste runs more toward classic ghost stories and vintage weird fiction with my interest in horror ending around early sixties Matheson. I guess I’d recommend it to the Book Tok crowd but otherwise I’d stick with Newman and Jones.
Have to agree with Bob:
Enough horror in real life!
Just one example:
Some time ago in England a 15 year old boy helped an also 15 year old girl to murder a 16 year old girl, stabbing her many times – because she was trans?
Slaughter isn’t horror literature. It’s just ugly hatred…which is one of the things horror fiction tends to be about.
Todd, I’m with you on Splatterpunk. Not horror, just messy.
Well, I wasn’t commenting on the Splats per se, so much as the notion that horror fiction/narrative art simply recapitulates actual murder, retail or mass. As for splatterpunk, some of it is pretty brilliant (and Joe Lansdale’s resentment of being lumped in with them as a group is certainly a matter of his choice, but some of his work reaches for similar effects to that of the best practitioners who use/used the label), but for every fairly brilliant story in that mode by Douglas Winter or David Schow or Poppy Z. Brite/Billy Martin or Clive Barker (or, for that matter, Kathe Koja, who was working the vein[s] in a similar manner to Lansdale before the label was launched on the field, most publicly in a TWILIGHT ZONE magazine article), there were and remain a Whole Lot of Ed Lees and even worse. Or, for that matter, King in his laziest gross-outs, another progenitor, such as “The Cat from Hell” (to me, an inexplicably popular story among certain sophisticated horror readers).
Todd, I think Sadie Hartmann tried to touch all the bases in 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED. I tend to stay away from the gory side of horror and prefer anything with a Lovecraft connection.