25 best pieces of Horror Fiction of the 21st century so far
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
The Quietus, 25 Books
This list is The Quietus’s curated chart of the 25 best pieces of horror fiction of the 21st century so far, produced to showcase notable novels, short stories and graphic novels that exemplify the range, influence and strangeness of contemporary horror rather than to reflect sales figures; choices were made by a small panel of experts who each submitted ranked top tens and whose submissions were aggregated to produce the final ranking, with a one-author/one-work rule in place and an explicit note that judges did not vote for their own work. The piece is written for The Quietus (tQ) by Sean Kitching with input from tQ writers and invited genre figures, and the methodology — six judges contributing ranked lists which were combined to form the top 25 — is clearly described in the article.
Who Voted: 6 people voted -- Catriona Ward, Michael Cisco, Greg F. Gifune, Leila Taylor, Mat Colegate, Sean Kitching
This list was originally published in 2025 and was added to this site 8 months ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5618 | Our Share of Night | Mariana Enríquez | 2019 | Argentinian | Spanish | |
| 11922 | The Ritual | Adam Nevill | 2011 | British | English | |
| 14545 | The Black Maybe | Attila Veres | Unknown | Unknown | ||
| 8651 | Victorian Psycho | Virginia Feito | 2025 | Unknown | English | |
| 14334 | Come With Me | Ronald Malfi | 2021 | American | English | |
| 607 | House of Leaves | Mark Z. Danielewski | 2000 | American | English | |
| 6679 | The Imago Sequence And Other Stories | Laird Barron | 2007 | American | English | |
| 14545 | In The Valley Of The Sun | Andy Davidson | American | English | ||
| 9769 | Animal Money | Michael Cisco | 2015 | American | English | |
| 11442 | Teatro Grottesco | Thomas Ligotti | 2006 | American | English | |
| 5758 | Come Closer | Sara Gran | 2003 | American | English | |
| 12863 | The Bleeding Season | Greg F. Gifune | 2003 | American | English | |
| 3541 | Her Body and Other Parties | Carmen Maria Machado | 2017 | American | English | |
| 14071 | Riddance | Shelley Jackson | 2018 | American | English | |
| 8067 | Bunny | Mona Awad | 2019 | Canadian | English | |
| 8191 | The Fisherman | John Langan | 2016 | American | English | |
| 12703 | Cold Skin | Albert Sánchez Piñol | 2002 | Spanish | Catalan | |
| 14427 | How To Sell A Haunted House | Grady Hendrix | 2023 | American | English | |
| 7103 | Get In Trouble | Kelly Link | 2015 | American | English | |
| 13752 | The Furry Trap | Josh Simmons | 2012 | American | English | |
| 12703 | A Winter Haunting | Dan Simmons | 2002 | American | English | |
| 14376 | We Are Here To Hurt Each Other | Paula D. Ashe | 2022 | Unknown | English | |
| 7143 | Black Hole | Charles Burns | 1995 | American | English | |
| 12779 | Tender Is The Flesh | Agustina Bazterrica | 2017 | Argentine | Spanish | |
| 3049 | Fever Dream | Samanta Schweblin | 2014 | Argentinian | Spanish |