The Greatest Horror Books of All Time

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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
5290 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5307 The Devil Rides Out Dennis Wheatley 1934 British English
5315 The Vampire Tapestry Suzy McKee Charnas 1980 American English
5326 A Storm Of Wings M. John Harrison 1980 British English
5461 The Animals In That Country Laura Jean McKay 2020 Australian English
5507 Always Come Evening Robert E. Howard 1957 American English
5512 The Shadow Over Innsmouth H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
5513 Hell House Richard Matheson 1971 American English
5516 Dolores Claiborne Stephen King 1992 American English
5519 Lost Worlds Clark Ashton Smith 1944 American English
5519 Sleep No More August Derleth 1944 American English
5525 Not After Midnight Daphne du Maurier 1971 British English
5579 The Opener Of The Way Robert Bloch 1945 American English
5592 World War Z Max Brooks 2006 American English
5616 Our Share of Night Mariana Enríquez 2019 Argentinian Spanish
5654 Soul Eater K. W. Jeter 1983 American English
5663 New Terrors Ramsey Campbell 1980 British English
5679 The Illustrated Man Ray Bradbury 1951 American English
5680 Frights Kirby McCauley 1980 American English
5690 Period Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
5712 Hotel Transylvania Chelsa quinn yarbro 1978 American English
5755 Brown Girl In The Ring Nalo Hopkinson 1998 Canadian English
5767 The Businessman Thomas M. Disch 1984 American English
5808 The Insistence Of Horror Patricia Meyer Spacks 1962 American English
5809 John Dies At The End David Wong 2007 American English
5836 The Grotesque Patrick McGrath 1989 British English
5910 The Third Ghost Book Cynthia Asquith 1955 British English
5963 Incarnate Ramsey Campbell 1983 British English
5987 Bloodchild Octavia E. Butler 1984 American English
5998 The Cipher Kathe Koja 1991 American English
6002 Collected Stories Franz Kafka 1931 Austrian German
6002 The Burrow Franz Kafka 1924 Austrian German
6121 Monster Naoki Urasawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
6138 Cry Horror! H. P. Lovecraft 1963 American English
6144 The Historian Elizabeth Kostova 2005 American English
6154 The God Of The Woods Liz Moore 2024 Unknown English
6228 Shadowland Peter Straub 1980 American English
6243 Skeleton Crew Stephen King 1985 American English
6278 Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Alvin Schwartz 1981 American English
6294 Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs 2011 American English
6402 Dark Prince Christine Feehan 1999 American English
6477 Who Fears The Devil? Manly Wade Wellman 1963 American English
6489 Neither The Sea Nor The Sand Gordon Honeycombe 1969 British English
6513 The Year's Best Fantasy And Horror Ellen Datlow 1988 American English
6525 The Power That Preserves Stephen R. Donaldson 1977 American English
6533 The Fog James Herbert 1975 British English
6545 The Boarded Window Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
6561 A Castle Of Bone Penelope Farmer 1972 British English
6571 Zothique Clark Ashton Smith 1970 American English
6607 Nos4 A2 Joe Hill 2013 American English
6608 The Collected Strange Stories Of Robert Aickman Robert Aickman 1999 British English
6644 Exquisite Corpse Poppy Z. Brite 1996 American English
6660 You Caroline Kepnes 2014 American English
6666 The Gashlycrumb Tinies Edward Gorey 1963 American English
6674 Uzumaki Junji Ito 1998 Japanese Japanese
6678 The Imago Sequence And Other Stories Laird Barron 2007 American English
6691 Night Visitors Julia Briggs 1977 British Unknown
6696 The Tattooist Of Auschwitz Heather Morris 2018 Australian English
6698 The Little Stranger Sarah Waters 2009 British English
6699 It's A Good Life Jerome Bixby 1953 American English
6700 A Touch Of Chill Joan Aiken 1974 American English
6727 The Relic Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child 1995 American English
6793 Elegant Nightmares Jack Sullivan 1978 American English
6796 Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad M. R. James 1904 British English
6800 Getting Into Death Thomas M. Disch 1973 American English
6801 Bird Box Josh Malerman 2014 American English
6808 The Queen Of The Damned Anne Rice 1988 American English
6810 Down A Dark Hall Lois Duncan 1974 American English
6818 Koko Peter Straub 1988 American English
6819 Killing Stella Marlen Haushofer 1958 Austrian German
6846 The Complete Short Stories Of Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Bierce 1970 American English
6859 A Head Full Of Ghosts Paul Tremblay 2015 American English
6889 Frisk Dennis Cooper 1991 American English
6923 The Monkey's Paw W. W. Jacobs 1902 British English
6928 The Repairer Of Reputations Robert W. Chambers 1895 American English
6933 The Tell Tale Heart And Other Writings Edgar Allan Poe 1843 American English
6944 Elizabeth Ken Greenhall 1976 American English
6962 The Stress of Her Regard Tim Powers 1989 American English
7011 Ancestral Shadows Russell Kirk 2004 American English
7011 Green Tea Sheridan Le Fanu 2004 Irish English
7050 The Changeling Victor LaValle 2017 American English
7064 Creep To Death Joseph Payne Brennan 1981 American English
7086 There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbour’s Baby Ludmila Petrushevskaya 2009 Russian Russian
7103 Get In Trouble Kelly Link 2015 American English
7108 The Children Of The Dead Elfriede Jelinek 2024 Austrian German
7112 Blind Voices Tom Reamy 1978 American English
7143 Black Hole Charles Burns 1995 American English
7159 Midnight Sun Ramsey Campbell 1990 British English
7199 The Nightwalker Thomas Tessier 1979 American English
7215 Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio Pu Songling 1740 Chinese Classical chinese
7581 Feed Seanan McGuire 2010 American English
7584 Verity Colleen Hoover 2018 American English
7594 The Reformatory Tananarive Due 2023 American English
7640 Lake Of The Devil Jessica Amanda Salmonson 1980 American English
7670 14 Peter Clines 2012 American English
7690 Dark Gods T. E. D. Klein 1985 American English
7697 The Ruins Scott Smith 2006 American English
7701 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter Stephen Graham Jones 2025 American English
7726 Cast A Cold Eye Alan Ryan 1984 American English
7726 Usher's Passing Robert R. McCammon 1984 American English
7733 Stag Dance Torrey Peters 2025 American English
7744 The Sending Geoffrey Household 1980 British English
7748 The Screwfly Solution Raccoona Sheldon 1977 American English
7756 The Hunger Whitley Strieber 1981 American English
7759 Black Leopard, Red Wolf Marlon James 2019 Jamaican English
7770 The Bad Seed William March 1954 American English
7802 Anno Dracula Kim Newman 1992 British English
7846 The Case Against Satan Ray Russell 1962 American English
7847 The Darkangel Meredith Ann Pierce 1982 American English
7858 Phantom Evil Heather Graham Pozzessere 2011 American English
7882 Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 Mexican English
7887 The Vampire Queen's Servant Joey W. Hill 2007 American English
7931 The Judas Child Carol O'Connell 1998 American English
7929 Winterwood Patrick McCabe 2006 Irish English
7935 Phantoms Dean R. Koontz 1983 American English
7954 The Collected Ghost Stories Of M. R. James M. R. James 1931 British English
7983 The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman 2013 British English
7986 Ash Wednesday Chet Williamson 1987 American English
8045 Masques J. N. Williamson 1984 American English
8053 The Delights Of Terror Terry Heller 1987 American English