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
5291 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5308 The Devil Rides Out Dennis Wheatley 1934 British English
5316 The Vampire Tapestry Suzy McKee Charnas 1980 American English
5327 A Storm Of Wings M. John Harrison 1980 British English
5463 The Animals In That Country Laura Jean McKay 2020 Australian English
5509 Always Come Evening Robert E. Howard 1957 American English
5514 The Shadow Over Innsmouth H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
5515 Hell House Richard Matheson 1971 American English
5518 Dolores Claiborne Stephen King 1992 American English
5521 Lost Worlds Clark Ashton Smith 1944 American English
5521 Sleep No More August Derleth 1944 American English
5527 Not After Midnight Daphne du Maurier 1971 British English
5581 The Opener Of The Way Robert Bloch 1945 American English
5595 World War Z Max Brooks 2006 American English
5619 Our Share of Night Mariana Enríquez 2019 Argentinian Spanish
5657 Soul Eater K. W. Jeter 1983 American English
5666 New Terrors Ramsey Campbell 1980 British English
5682 The Illustrated Man Ray Bradbury 1951 American English
5683 Frights Kirby McCauley 1980 American English
5693 Period Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
5715 Hotel Transylvania Chelsa quinn yarbro 1978 American English
5758 Brown Girl In The Ring Nalo Hopkinson 1998 Canadian English
5770 The Businessman Thomas M. Disch 1984 American English
5811 The Insistence Of Horror Patricia Meyer Spacks 1962 American English
5812 John Dies At The End David Wong 2007 American English
5840 The Grotesque Patrick McGrath 1989 British English
5912 The Third Ghost Book Cynthia Asquith 1955 British English
5967 Incarnate Ramsey Campbell 1983 British English
5991 Bloodchild Octavia E. Butler 1984 American English
6001 The Cipher Kathe Koja 1991 American English
6005 Collected Stories Franz Kafka 1931 Austrian German
6005 The Burrow Franz Kafka 1924 Austrian German
6124 Monster Naoki Urasawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
6141 Cry Horror! H. P. Lovecraft 1963 American English
6147 The Historian Elizabeth Kostova 2005 American English
6157 The God Of The Woods Liz Moore 2024 Unknown 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
6297 Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs 2011 American English
6405 Dark Prince Christine Feehan 1999 American English
6479 Who Fears The Devil? Manly Wade Wellman 1963 American English
6491 Neither The Sea Nor The Sand Gordon Honeycombe 1969 British English
6515 The Year's Best Fantasy And Horror Ellen Datlow 1988 American English
6527 The Power That Preserves Stephen R. Donaldson 1977 American English
6535 The Fog James Herbert 1975 British English
6547 The Boarded Window Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
6563 A Castle Of Bone Penelope Farmer 1972 British English
6573 Zothique Clark Ashton Smith 1970 American English
6609 Nos4 A2 Joe Hill 2013 American English
6610 The Collected Strange Stories Of Robert Aickman Robert Aickman 1999 British English
6646 Exquisite Corpse Poppy Z. Brite 1996 American English
6662 You Caroline Kepnes 2014 American English
6666 The Gashlycrumb Tinies Edward Gorey 1963 American English
6675 Uzumaki Junji Ito 1998 Japanese Japanese
6679 The Imago Sequence And Other Stories Laird Barron 2007 American English
6692 Night Visitors Julia Briggs 1977 British Unknown
6697 The Tattooist Of Auschwitz Heather Morris 2018 Australian English
6699 The Little Stranger Sarah Waters 2009 British English
6700 It's A Good Life Jerome Bixby 1953 American English
6701 A Touch Of Chill Joan Aiken 1974 American English
6728 The Relic Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child 1995 American English
6794 Elegant Nightmares Jack Sullivan 1978 American English
6797 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
7200 The Nightwalker Thomas Tessier 1979 American English
7216 Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio Pu Songling 1740 Chinese Classical chinese
7582 Feed Seanan McGuire 2010 American English
7585 Verity Colleen Hoover 2018 American English
7595 The Reformatory Tananarive Due 2023 American English
7641 Lake Of The Devil Jessica Amanda Salmonson 1980 American English
7672 14 Peter Clines 2012 American English
7691 Dark Gods T. E. D. Klein 1985 American English
7698 The Ruins Scott Smith 2006 American English
7702 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter Stephen Graham Jones 2025 American English
7728 Cast A Cold Eye Alan Ryan 1984 American English
7728 Usher's Passing Robert R. McCammon 1984 American English
7735 Stag Dance Torrey Peters 2025 American English
7746 The Sending Geoffrey Household 1980 British English
7750 The Screwfly Solution Raccoona Sheldon 1977 American English
7758 The Hunger Whitley Strieber 1981 American English
7761 Black Leopard, Red Wolf Marlon James 2019 Jamaican English
7772 The Bad Seed William March 1954 American English
7804 Anno Dracula Kim Newman 1992 British English
7847 The Case Against Satan Ray Russell 1962 American English
7848 The Darkangel Meredith Ann Pierce 1982 American English
7859 Phantom Evil Heather Graham Pozzessere 2011 American English
7883 Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 Mexican English
7888 The Vampire Queen's Servant Joey W. Hill 2007 American English
7932 The Judas Child Carol O'Connell 1998 American English
7930 Winterwood Patrick McCabe 2006 Irish English
7936 Phantoms Dean R. Koontz 1983 American English
7955 The Collected Ghost Stories Of M. R. James M. R. James 1931 British English
7984 The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman 2013 British English
7987 Ash Wednesday Chet Williamson 1987 American English
8046 Masques J. N. Williamson 1984 American English
8054 The Delights Of Terror Terry Heller 1987 American English