The Greatest Books of All Time on Fear

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
3049 Fever Dream Samanta Schweblin 2014 Argentinian Spanish
3071 Fearful Pleasures A. E. Coppard 1946 British English
3095 We're Going on a Bear Hunt Michael Rosen 1989 British English
3142 The Shrinking Man Richard Matheson 1956 American English
3257 Goosebumps R. L. Stine 1992 American English
3262 Chronicle In Stone Ismail Kadare 1971 Albanian Albanian
3321 Where Are The Children? Mary Higgins Clark 1975 American English
3388 Bomber Len Deighton 1970 British English
3407 In A Lonely Place Karl Edward Wagner 1977 American English
3431 The Stories of Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury 1980 American English
3440 The House Next Door Anne Rivers Siddons 1978 American English
3466 Murgunstrumm And Others Hugh B. Cave 1977 American English
3497 The Thin Red Line James Jones 1962 American English
3511 Alone With The Horrors Ramsey Campbell 1993 British English
3534 The Birthday Party Harold Pinter 1958 British English
3549 The Wolfen Whitley Strieber 1978 American English
3593 The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson 1999 British English
3618 The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe 1979 American English
3617 The Farthest Shore Ursula K. Le Guin 1972 American English
3635 The Totem David Morrell 1979 American English
3638 The Tunnel Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1952 Swiss German
3855 Breath Tim Winton 2008 Australian English
3883 The Cellar Richard Laymon 1980 American English
3912 The Tiger In The Smoke Margery Allingham 1952 British English
3954 Life In The Tomb Stratis Myrivilis 1924 Greek Greek
4070 The Great Terror Robert Conquest 1968 British English
4106 Wolfskin Hans Lebert 1960 Austrian German
4179 De Kellner En De Levenden Simon Vestdijk 1949 Dutch Dutch
4200 The Elementals Michael McDowell 1981 American English
4269 Sevastopol Sketches Leo Tolstoy 1855 Russian Russian
4273 The Noise Of Time Osip Mandelstam 1925 Russian Russian
4310 The Lurking Fear And Other Stories H. P. Lovecraft 1923 American English
4310 Epitaph For A Spy Eric Ambler 1938 British English
4310 Journey Into Fear Eric Ambler 1940 British English
4411 The Pigeon Patrick Suskind 1987 German German
4511 The Palace Of Dreams Ismail Kadare 1981 Albanian Albanian
4519 When The Wind Blows Raymond Briggs 1982 British English
4656 Coraline Neil Gaiman 2002 British English
4712 Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories John Updike 1962 American English
4712 Umgang Mit Der Angst Horst-Eberhard Richter 1968 German German
4784 Ice Anna Kavan 1967 British English
4819 Cat Of Many Tails Ellery Queen 1949 American English
4934 The Terror Dan Simmons 2007 American English
4951 Aggression Friedrich Hacker 1971 Unknown German
5000 A Nest Of Nightmares Lisa Tuttle 1986 American English
5000 The Pet Charles L. Grant 1986 American English
5013 Zone One Colson Whitehead 2011 American English
5014 The Hungry Moon Ramsey Campbell 1986 British English
5022 The Werewolf Aksel Sandemose 1958 Norwegian Norwegian
5113 The War Of Art Steven Pressfield 2002 American English
5149 Before We Were Free Julia Alvarez 2002 American English
5228 The Green Face Gustav Meyrink 1916 German German
5233 Dark Feasts Ramsey Campbell 1987 British English
5234 Mouth Full Of Earth Branimir Scepanovic 1975 Montenegrin Serbo-croatian
5235 Intensity Dean R. Koontz 1995 American English
5253 Carnacki The Ghost Finder William Hope Hodgson 1913 British English
5314 A General Theory Of Oblivion José Eduardo Agualusa 2012 Angolan Portuguese
5325 If He Hollers Let Him Go Chester Himes 1945 American English
5353 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
5417 The Brodeck Report Philippe Claudel 2007 French French
5429 The Machine Gunners Robert Westall 1975 British English
5448 Imperium Ryszard Kapuscinski 1993 Polish Polish
5466 Child 44 Tom Rob Smith 2008 Russian English
5514 The Shadow Over Innsmouth H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
5519 The Willows Algernon Blackwood 1907 British English
5595 World War Z Max Brooks 2006 American English
5682 The Illustrated Man Ray Bradbury 1951 American English
5683 Frights Kirby McCauley 1980 American English
5898 Caught Henry Green 1943 British English
5908 Death In The Afternoon Ernest Hemingway 1932 American English
5967 Incarnate Ramsey Campbell 1983 British English
6005 The Burrow Franz Kafka 1924 Austrian German
6088 Danse Macabre Stephen King 1981 American English
6232 Shadowland Peter Straub 1980 American English
6247 Skeleton Crew Stephen King 1985 American English
6281 Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Alvin Schwartz 1981 American English
6301 Ecology Of Fear Mike Davis 1998 American English
6314 Every Man Dies Alone Hans Fallada 1947 German German
6330 My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts Amos Tutuola 1954 Nigerian English
6343 In Hitler's Germany Bernt Engelmann 1986 German English
6426 Cape Fear John D. MacDonald 1957 American English
6435 On Immunity Eula Biss 2014 American English
6463 Things We Lost In The Fire Mariana Enríquez 2016 Argentinian Spanish
6481 I'm Not Scared Niccolò Ammaniti 2001 Italian Italian
6482 Year Of Wonders Geraldine Brooks 2001 Australian English
6535 The Fog James Herbert 1975 British English
6547 The Boarded Window Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
6561 The Tortilla Curtain T. Coraghessan Boyle 1995 American English
6637 The Curse Of Lono Hunter S. Thompson 1983 American English
6652 Fail Safe Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler 1962 American English
6675 Uzumaki Junji Ito 1998 Japanese Japanese
6700 It's A Good Life Jerome Bixby 1953 American English
6713 The Land Of Green Plums Herta Müller 1994 German German
6728 The Relic Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child 1995 American English
6730 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
6797 Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad M. R. James 1904 British English
6801 Bird Box Josh Malerman 2014 American English
6846 The Complete Short Stories Of Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Bierce 1970 American English
6933 The Tell Tale Heart And Other Writings Edgar Allan Poe 1843 American English
6936 Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Joyce Carol Oates 1966 American English
6951 Mamy Wata and the Monster Veronique Tadjo 1988 French French
7086 Lajja Taslima Nasrin 1993 Bangladeshi Bengali
7143 Black Hole Charles Burns 1995 American English
7159 Midnight Sun Ramsey Campbell 1990 British English
7206 Animalinside László Krasznahorkai, Max Neumann 2010 Hungarian Hungarian
7214 Prophet Song Paul Lynch 2023 Irish English
7216 Stories And Poems Of Stephen Crane Stephen Crane 1900 American English
7216 Manhood Michel Leiris 1939 French French
7216 The Shadow Of A Gunman Sean O'Casey 1923 Irish English
7216 Lazarus Laughed Eugene O'Neill 1927 American English
7567 Red Scarf Girl Ji-li Jiang 1997 Chinese English
7568 The Puppet Masters Robert A. Heinlein 1951 American English
7606 Les Praticiens De L'infernal Pierre La Police 1993 French French
7692 Opernball Josef Haslinger 1995 Austrian German
7698 The Ruins Scott Smith 2006 American English
7804 Anno Dracula Kim Newman 1992 British English
7894 Communion Whitley Strieber 1987 American English
7915 Spring Flowers, Spring Frost Ismail Kadare 2000 Albanian Albanian
7915 The Devil and Miss Prym Paulo Coelho 2000 Brazilian Portuguese
7984 The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman 2013 British English