#1 - Ghost Story - Peter Straub #2 - Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons #3 - Swan Song - Robert McCammon #4 - The Shining - Stephen King #5 - Last Days of Jack Sparks - Jason Arnopp #6 - The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris #7 - The Damnation Game - Clive Barker #8 - The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll #9 - House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski #10 - The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty #11 - The Ceremonies - T.E.D. Klein
Great list. Pet Sematary is my all time fave book and glad that The Ring showed up on the list too. I don't get scared of horror either even though it is my fave genre. I care more about a good story with a lot of atmosphere.
Yes! I love Clive Barker for his *writing*. The Great and Secret Show, Weaveworld, and Imajica are among my favorite books of all time. Of those, the first is horror with fantasy elements--but the others are fantasy with plenty of horror elements. And Bradbury. Such a master of the craft.
I read Clive Barker’s “The Thief of Always” as a teenager and it chilled me to the bone. I was petrified. Maybe because I was still not far from childhood and understood how a kid thinks but it put me off his books, by my own choice, until I was older and more mature. Ready to dive in again.
This video with the lighting and the library in the background and your choice of books along with your descriptions, makes me want to delve back in to the horror genre. Been a long time away.
I would like to throw out Misery by Stephen King. Just the intense realism in the way she fades in and out of her psychosis and how you see everything from his perspective really unsettled me. Ive been in situations where you are listening for every little sound and you are absolutely powerless. He tries to keep hope but it is shattered over and over by her. Not only that but having a break from his reality to read chapters of his book shook me as well because just like him, its the only true reprieve you get in the book.
Many of SK’s novels are not actually “horror”. I understand horror is relative and subjective, but the media labeled King the “king of horror” decades ago and it stuck. However, the bulk of Kings work can be categorized more in the suspense and sci~fi genres with frightening elements. Misery is one of Kings best novels. But I certainly wouldn’t call it a horror novel.
Misery is kings best book in my eyes. I love other books by him more but misery doesn’t get bogged down with in kings own words “diarrhea of the typewriter”
Pet Sematary is my favorite King novel. I finally read it soon after having my daughter, my first and only child, and found it a devastating examination of parental love and grief. You can’t know until you’re a parent, the fear of loving someone that much… The nightmares where you lose them, where they drown, where they’re diagnosed with a fatal disease, where they are kidnapped or stabbed or burned up and you can’t stop it, waking up in tears, and the shattering knowledge that it COULD happen, has happened many times, is happening to a child like yours and a parent like you at this very moment… Being a parent is damn scary. King really captures the dread, and then the actual crazy-making misery of the worst happening. I grew up in the woods of New England (VT and NH) and I also love how he captures life there, the people and the landscape and the language. I know Judd. He’s a very real, well drawn character. Just a great book.
I'm a horror Instagrammer, and I'm impressed with your list after you said you don't read much horror. There are so many fantastic horror books, and I was delighted to see Uzumaki in your top 10. Definitely check out those books you listed as gaps in your reading, and may I add The Haunting of Hill House as a a must read for any fan of the genre.
In the vein of “Not Horror by Clive Barker” is “The Thief of Always” which is, believe it or not, a children’s book. Not even YA - I’d recommend it for a fourth grader - but it’s brilliant and worth reading even as an adult. It has horror elements, but made to creep out kids more than anything. As you say, Clive Barker is an incredible writer, and this kid’s book is among my favorite books of all time.
I've read the Hellbound Heart. It is almost exactly like the movie. The big difference is that Kristi Cotton is a friend and not a daughter. Otherwise, it's exactly the same. Of course, Clive Barker took his own book and adapted it to the screen, so you shouldn't be surprised.
Glad to have stumbled upon your channel. You have some great entries in your list. I love Clive Barker and The Damnation Game is an incredible debut novel. Weaveworld is my favorite and it has strong horror elements. The Shining is an awesome choice. The movie portrays the father so differently, and this is one of many things that upset King. I absolutely love Ray Bradbury and this would be close to top 5 for me too. His prose is absolutely gorgeous! My favorite novel of all time is Swan Song by Robert McCammon, followed by Weaveworld and The Stand. N
If you want "old" Barker, you need to read The Books of Blood. It's a mixed bag of short stories that ranges from comical to insane to straight out gorefests. This is where Midnight Meat Train, Rawhead Rex, and Harry D'Amour came from. I much prefer his short work (including Cabal and The Hellbound Heart) to his novels.
Great video. Yes, definitely check out more of Clive Barker. I've read them all and Weaveworld is my favourite (though not really horror). I hope you've gotten around to it, and I hope you liked it as much as I did. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these great books. Your #2 also figures very high on my Top 10.
I've read everything Sai King has ever written. I highly recommend Revival, one of the most underrated of his books. It has amazing character development, and it has stuck with me ever since I read it. I don't want to say too much about the plot because I don't want to spoil anything.
I recently read The Exorcist and Between Two Fires (Christopher Buhlman) back to back and needed a break from horror afterward because they were both so intense. Now, I am reading Elfstones of Shannara to cleanse my pallet before reading my next horror 😅.
Between Two Fires is one of the best horror novels I've read in a long, long time. There was just something so Dante's Inferno about the whole experience.
Thank you for having variety that shows your taste.👍🏼 Usually I see a lot of TH-cam algorithm picks for these kind of lists. The Ring book was so effing good. I wish I could experience it all over again.
The exorcist is one of the few books that made me cry, not out of sadness, but out of fear. Not fear of the devil, not fear for myself, but fear for little Regan and her mother.
@paulvoorhies8821 This is subjective opinion. I love the movie but thought the book was better and was miles away from being a slog. To each their own, eh? I found it to be a page turner that I had finished in 3-4 days. Watched the movie again right after and found that I didn't really understand a lot of the movie before I read the book.
Yep definitely agree, just finished my second reading of it and will read it again -its a beautiful book , the descriptive prose, the characters especially Father Karras and his relationship with his mother, the guilt he felt was heartbreaking. The audiobook version read by Blatty himself is outstanding and is on TH-cam free to listen to.
The exorcist is my all time favourite book and film. I love how we got to delve more into the power of suggestion where it was just briefly mentioned in the film. Also Regan’s possession starts off slower and you get to see just how gorgeous and sweet she is before the nightmare starts. I can’t fault the film I love it but the book is still my number one book.
I envy you being at the beginning of your Clive Barker journey; as with many authors, e.g., HP Lovecraft, we can revisit and savour them, but there is nothing quite like the frisson of the first reading. I recently reread Weaveworld and gave myself a long overdue reminder of why I love Barker's writing. While I'm still waiting (im)patiently for the next instalment in his Abarat sequence, I would have to say personal favourites are Cabal (filmed/adapted as Nightbreed), Imajica, and The Thief of Always. The latter is a polished gem of a story, somewhat reminiscent of Ray Bradbury. That is a massive compliment to Barker, by the way. While I love Something Wicked This Way Comes, I think I prefer The Halloween Tree, though both are good. What appeals to me about Bradbury's work is that when he writes from a child's perspective, it is never mawkish or trying to hard to be cute. It's as though he never lost the child's-eye wonder at the world.
Awesome list. We share a lot of the same favorites-LOVE Uzumaki. Ring is next on my TBR so glad to hear some good praise for it. Awesome library by the way.
Nothing wrong with your list but, just some off the cuff recommendations in no particular order 1) James Herbert The Spear 2) Richard Matheson Hell House 3) Robert Bloch Complete Stories 4) R. Chetwynd Hayes The Partaker 5) Graham Masterton, The Manitou 6) Peter Straub Ghost Story 7) Shaun Hutson Relics 8) Shirley Jackson The Haunting 9) Gary Brandner The Howling 10) Edward Buller Lytton The Haunted and the haunter
I would have reversed positions on the two Stephen King books, IMO. For me, The Shining was a book where you can't put it down, you have to keep turning the pages to try to save that little boy. Pet Sematary, OTOH, was so obvious to me from the set up that King was going to rip your heart out over that little boy and then nothing good would happen from there. I dreaded turning each page of PS, whereas, in Shining I started it at 5PM, at 7 PM I got up and locked all the doors and windows, at 9 PM I turned on every light in the house and read the book until I finished. I had no problem laying PS down and coming back later.
"The Shining" the bok is about a man who loves his son but turns into a monster who wants to killhim. "The Shining" the movie is about a man who secretly HATES his wife and son and then is given a Byrne a push but a nudge---to do WHAT HE HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO DO. Stephen King based the character of Jack Torrance ion himself, so it's no wonder that he was greatly offended by Stanley Kubrick's interpretation.
I've played all the Metro games and they all have amazing atmospheres as well. There's nothing else quite like them. I've been meaning to read the books but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood,” which includes the books published as “The Inhuman Condition,” “In the Flesh,” and “Cabal” in America, feature some next-level horror writing. I have never encountered a writer who delivers weird visions with such precision and clarity.
Yup, I read Pet Cemetery when it first came out, so no movie to know the plot. I was a teenager so not even a parent and when it got ‘to that’ scene, I was so gutted I had to put the book down and walk away from it for a week before I could pick it back up. It’s one of the only books that’s ever done that to me.
I know I’m very late to the party but “Paradise 1” by David Wellington has lived in the dark reaches of my mind ever since I read it. For any fans of space horror, you won’t regret it.
I cant recommend The Ring Trilogy enough. I just finished it recently and its become my favourite series of books, with Ring becoming quite possibly my favourite book, period
Thank you for putting "Something Wicked this Way Comes" on your list. I am going to reread it this Oct...Such a great read. Kudos for hitting me out of left field with that choice...Wasn't expecting it but think it belongs...Pet Semetary was great...I read that his son Own was almost hit by a car in Maine, and that idea popped into his head. I'm not sure if he lived next to a Pet Cemetery at that time...Something makes me think he did.
"Aztec" by Gary Jennings, A tremendously intriguing veiw of life, culture & hauntings of ancient Mezzo American fiction. I think about it all the time, to me it was so amazing that it felt like a film.
Honestly, Pet Sematary had me sobbing uncontrollably, and not even for anything supernatural or scary that happened. When Judd’s wife dies, and he’s just left dumbfounded because they’ve been together for decades, I was in SHAMBLES. Had me crying in the car on my drive home, thinking about my own wife who I’ve only been married to for a year and a half, thinking about what might happen decades in the future when we’re as old as Judd is.
I could shred this list, but I suddenly realized I was jealous because the reason this list is flawed is because you have the joy of experiencing better books in front of you. Your Clive Barker admission alone made me cry. But then you get to read those books FOR THE FIRST TIME! Dracula, Frankenstein, House of Leaves, Ghost Story, and Carrie are all great. Plus every book you did list is fun as and wonderful as you said AND you listed two books I haven’t read: The Strain and Uzumaki, so those are on my list now. Thanks a ton 👍
Was really happy to see your number one as my number one. Never had a book ever stayed with me like that one did. I have been a life long Stephen King fan but I find his writing changed AFTER his accident and I have such a difficult time connecting with the books he wrote post injury. I have one that sticks on my brain, 666 by Jay Anson and the book Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist. In my top 10 overall. Ghost Story by Peter Straub is pretty cool too. Enjoyed your list, and agree with the analogy of It and The Shining..It tucked me in on the FIRST page and The Shining tore my soul all the way to the end. Keep turning those pages!!
Dan Simmons' Summer of Night. The cat-and-mouse games between the kids and the monsters are intense. Similar to Stephen King's It, but with kids who actually react like real kids, even when things get horrifying. I love King's books, but when the stress builds, his children characters often behave like short adults who obsess over fart jokes.
I feel you with the second guessing your horror choices. For example my favorite book of all time is “From The Corner of his Eye” by Dean Koontz. The book often leans into horror but is 100% a suspense thriller.
But top 10: 1: Twilight Eyes; Dean Koontz 2: Demonata book one Lord Loss; Darren Shan 3: Cirque Du Freak book 4; Darren Shan 4: Tommyknockers; Stephen King 5: IT; Stephen King 6: By the Light of the Moon; Dean Koontz 7: Odd Thomas; Dean Koontz 8: Intensity; Dean Koontz 9 Gil’s All Fright Diner; A. Lee Martinez 10: Dead Living; Glenn Bullion
Looking for some good Clive Barker horror. I humbly suggest The Great and Secret Show. It's my favorite. Although you are right about The Damnation Game. It's damn near perfect.
Not a big horror reader but the only book I have read that might improve this top 10 would be Jurassic Park. I think most people classify it as horror, goodreads does. Felt like it to me. Nitpicky but sometimes I wonder why people make top 10 lists and don't put the top 10 books on there, haha. If IT and The Shining are the same quality, wouldn't that knock the 10th place book off the list? I get that he's trying to have different authors on the list but that doesn't really make it top 10 of all time then does it? It's also not giving Stephen King his due if you're just not including it to switch things up. Great list regardless and I really do need to go on a Stephen King run sometime soon. Regarding "something wicked this way comes" man, I saw that movie when i was young and it terrified me for years. Same with "It" actually.
It’s actually more sci fi than horror, but this is where genres tend to blend, because there are definitely horror elements in the book. However, it’s more in the vein of sci fi
There is only one sci-fi element in the book, and that's the reconstruction of dinosaurs from DNA, something we seem close to doing in real life. Whereas the whole book is written in a horror/suspense style. so... idk have you read the book?
My favorite Stephen King book is Rose Madder. It's about an abused woman being chased by her cop husband after she escapes from his grasp. It has a horror/fantasy aspect to it, but it's more character-driven. It hits me the way The Shining hits you. It's just OOF. I read the first few pages and put it down. Years later, a co-worker said, go back to it, get past those first few pages, and keep going. I did, and I haven't looked back. (Second favorite: Thinner. SK has a hard time with endings. I don't like a lot of them. This one WORKED.)
Clive Barker is one of my favourite authors and my recommendation is always The Books of Blood. The collection of short stories really demonstrate Barker's range and style on top of being delightfully creepy. Admittedly I'm a sucker for short stories so that may bias me to a degree. My favourite full length Barker novel is Imajica but that's a big ask of anyone getting into Barker's work.
I loved what you said about manga/anime being just another medium for storytelling and that there is nothing stopping that writing to be any less than in any other medium.
Weaveworld is one of the best books I have ever read. It definitely has horrific elements but it is not a “horror book” it is spellbindingly beautiful. Clive Barker is so criminally underrated it’s unreal
Intensity by Dean Koontz. I had trouble reading this one. It is incredibly intense & yes, has the most apt name for the book! I'm extremely happy to see Swansong by Robert McCammon on here.. it's one of my favorites! I'd also like to add "The Tommyknockers" by Stephen King. I do not like his newer works but do enjoy his earlier work. The list you have here is really great works!❤🔥
I can't really rank most of them above one or the other so here is simply my list of 10 that are on a pedestal: 10 - The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito 9 - At The Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft 8 - The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 7 - The Black Abbot of Puthuum by Clark Ashton Smith 6 - The Haunter of the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft 5 - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft 4 - The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft 3 - The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft 2 - The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft 1 - Pigeons from Hell by Robert E. Howard
This is my list, in no particular order. By John Skipp and Craig Spector The Scream The Cleanup The Light at the End By Nicholas Pekearo The Wolfman By Stephen King The Shinning Dr. Sleep Pet Cemetary Insomnia By Owl Goingback Crota Evil Whispers By F Paul Wilson The Keep The Toumb The Touch By Dean Koontz Twilight Eyes The Watchers By Joe R Lansdale The Nightrunners
Great list and I am ready to read some horror new to me. I agree with "Pet Semetery" as number one. Having lost many people I love to death, you do have that fervent wish that they would come back, but this book (and every zombie movie) reminds you that this would be a nightmare, and that you must accept death, no matter how painful it is. I love Ray Bradbury, particularly his short stories, and was glad to see "Something Wicked" included. The fall atmosphere in this is just great. My list would also include Richard Matheson's 'I am Legend" and Robert Bloch's, "Psycho".
Something Wicked and Pet Sematary hit so much harder once I became a parent. The father/son tension and resolve is often overlooked in Something Wicked, but its really what holds the story together, IMO. Also, spot on about Clive Barker. The dude's so poetic in his writing style.
I'm more a short story guy, I really love "Voice in the night" by Hope Hodgson, like it even a bit more than "Rats in the Walls" and "Colour out of Space"
I read Weaveworld in the 90s....its good. But it is slow to get into. But if you like the descriptive writing you'll get lots of it there, but be patient. I recently reread Pet Semitary as an adult and parent. I read it the first time in highschool in the 80s...its a totally different story after you have kids. I love the original movie and hate the remake. The first movie you felt his desperation. You felt his heartbreak. The way you feel about "The Shining" is how I feel about Cujo. In the movie he's a crazed dog bent on killing. In the book you feel so sorry for him bc SK tells you in the dogs words that he doesn't k ow why he's hurting those he loved before. If you watch the mini series of the Shining you'll get the version of the book bc SK and the directer worked hand in hand to makes Jack a redemption arc in the end. His love for one last moment saves his family. Good list. I'll have to check out more of your videos.
Frankenstein has a weird stigma around it - love/hate kind of thing; tons of people hate it, but just as many adore it in my experience - but it is genuinely one of my favorite books of all time. Assuming you haven't read it still in the time since this video, I absolutely recommend reading it. Just go in with the right expectations: it's nothing like the adaptations, firstly, and it's...kinda esoteric in a weird way. I've not read anything like it since, and it was one of the earliest books I read when I came back to reading a few years ago.
---> *_The Damnation game is a bit sophomore-ish. I am not sure, but did Barker re-write it or re-edit this short novel at some point?_* *_Clive Barker's best work is still the short story collections The Books Of Blood Vols. I-VI._* *_The rest of his novels are very good-to-great, but they are more Creepy-Fantasy rather than Horror._* *_Most of Barker's works can really do well on the large and small screen, it's quite odd that not more of his work has been made into at least a TV-series._* *_Disney owns the rights to several of Clive Barker's works, but a decade/two decades ago Barker's former lover ran a slander attack on Barker and Barker was MeToo'd before this even was a thing; and it seems Disney actually did have a problem with him being a Gay Man. Disney bought the rights to Abarat for $8million and had planned a section in their themeparks._* *_With the D in Disney now standing for DEI; maybe they should go back and make all his stories they own?_*
10- the Howling by Gary Brandner 9- Cabal by Clive Barker 8- clown in a cornfield by Adam Cesare 7- Dracula by Bram Stoker 6-the turning of the screw by Henry James 5- the Ritual by Adam Neville 4- viy by Nikolai Gogol 3- It by Stephen King 2- Nos4a2 by Joe Hill 1- Pet Semetary by Stephen King
One of the scariest horror books I've ever read was The Haunted Book by Jeremy Dyson, of The League of Gentlemen fame, which starts out like one of those crazy 70s anthology story collections and then eventually devolves into this weird meta-crisis blind alley that sort of fucks with your mind... Creepy stuff
In Pet Sematary, I have long believed that the page or so when the father is chasing his son, who is racing towards a road with oncoming traffic, is the best thing Stephen King has ever written. It is a perfect and wholly tragic piece of writing. The book belongs at the top of your list for those words alone.
Okay then, I also haven't read loads of horror but I've read a fare bit, so here is my list (I'm about to read The Exorcist so that may move in on the list): #10 - Bird Box - Josh Malerman #9 - The Shining - Stephen King #8 - The Terror - Dan Simmons #7 - It - Stephen King #6 - Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin #5 - Dracula - Bram Stoker #4 - Frankenstein - Mary Shelley #3 - Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia #2 - Let The Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist #1 - Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez
As much as I love the big Stephen King horror classics like The Shining and IT, I find his situational horror to be more effective. Books like Misery, Gerald’s Game, even Cujo really got under my skin in a way the supernatural stuff never did.
The Metro Series was turned in to an excellent Video game series also. 3 main games so far and one VR game on the way. The first one, 2033, was not so great, but Last Light and Exodus are some of the best FPS survival horror games out there.
You need to seek out Clive Barker's Cabal, The Hellbound Heart and The Books of Blood - those are essential Barker horror novels. And maybe The Great and Secret Show and Everville if you want to see Barker take a stab at horror-tinged modern fantasy. And I would have had IT at number 1 with Pet Sematary at number 2 (with The Shining around 5 or so). Personal preference, though. Pet Sematary was the book that made fall in love with horror - it was my first horror novel. But IT just took my head clean off - epic and terrifying. For me, nothing has come close since. It's not just a great horror novel. It's a fantastic piece of legitimate literature. Nice list, though - you've given me some stuff to check out.
Opened your video and first video on the suggestion list is a top 10 horror books published months before yours 😂. Please do better research next time. Liked your video btw.
Christopher Buhlman is a great author. He has written some very good books. Also a book called "The Troop" is horrifying. Your skin will crawl after that one.
I love horror and I’m always glad to see a video on horror novels. However, I think horror works best in shorter formats (short story and novella), which is at odds with the greater respect we place on novels. A list of novels cannot list some of the most respected and greatest works in horror, such as those written by HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E Howard (he didn’t just write Conan), “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, and “Books of Blood” by Clive Barker.
IT was my choice as scariest of King's novels. (I don't read much horror other than his books.) There's a description not far into the book (it happens before Georgie's death) of Bill having to get something out of his basement. It's a long paragraph about him having to reach out in the dark for the light switch. I grew up in a house with a CELLAR, and I FELT that fear of having to reach out into the dark, not knowing if a hand was going to reach up and grab me. I had had surgery on my right hand and it was all bandaged up. I couldn't do anything but turn pages with my left hand. I read this book in a week, in daylight hours only. Scary stuff. Hey! Ho! Let's GO!
I'm not a fan of reading, so I can't give you my top 10, but I am a fan of horror, willing to bite into reading a little more. So I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to use your recommendations as a starting point ;)
Nice list. I've read virtually all of Barkers stuff: The Damnation Game remains my absolute fave simply because it takes everything he's great at and dustills it into one fantastic story....doubt you'll be disappointed by any Barker if you love this one. Huge King fan...neither of your picks would be mine: i definitely cede the top spot to 'Salems Lot and, if narrowing down to just horror, would put The Mist next. Btw.....Ghost Story is a must...
Pet semetary did not scare me because I had already read The Monkey’s Paw. It’s very interesting that this really hits home with fathers. That speaks well for a father’s love.
#1 - Ghost Story - Peter Straub
#2 - Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons
#3 - Swan Song - Robert McCammon
#4 - The Shining - Stephen King
#5 - Last Days of Jack Sparks - Jason Arnopp
#6 - The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
#7 - The Damnation Game - Clive Barker
#8 - The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
#9 - House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski
#10 - The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty
#11 - The Ceremonies - T.E.D. Klein
I just recently read Ghost Story! It was a good one.
My Dan Simmons pick would be Drood. One of the most underrated books imo.
Good list. There are two scary books that I would add Killing Lessons by Saul Black and Adam by Ted Dekker
All males autors...
HOUSE OF LEAVES YESSS
@@luisino20023and?
Great list. Pet Sematary is my all time fave book and glad that The Ring showed up on the list too. I don't get scared of horror either even though it is my fave genre. I care more about a good story with a lot of atmosphere.
Just finished one of the best vampire novels I've read. "Let the Right One In." Terrific!
I just recently started it. Really enjoying it so far
The swedish film is great. Hollywood one is ok too
Decent movie also. Not as good, but, watchable.
It's so good! I loved the book and actually enjoyed both movie adaptations too
I agree! This book was awesome!
Yes! I love Clive Barker for his *writing*. The Great and Secret Show, Weaveworld, and Imajica are among my favorite books of all time. Of those, the first is horror with fantasy elements--but the others are fantasy with plenty of horror elements.
And Bradbury. Such a master of the craft.
The Barker books you mentioned are also some of my favorites as well.
You have a gorgeous home library! ❤
I read Clive Barker’s “The Thief of Always” as a teenager and it chilled me to the bone. I was petrified. Maybe because I was still not far from childhood and understood how a kid thinks but it put me off his books, by my own choice, until I was older and more mature. Ready to dive in again.
The Great and secret show is a masterpiece❤
Coraline (great movie) when it was written seems like they looked to Thief as inspiration.
This was a fantastic video . The background and the microphone 🎤 perfect vibe . I love extreme horror , horror and thrillers .
This video with the lighting and the library in the background and your choice of books along with your descriptions, makes me want to delve back in to the horror genre. Been a long time away.
I would like to throw out Misery by Stephen King. Just the intense realism in the way she fades in and out of her psychosis and how you see everything from his perspective really unsettled me. Ive been in situations where you are listening for every little sound and you are absolutely powerless. He tries to keep hope but it is shattered over and over by her. Not only that but having a break from his reality to read chapters of his book shook me as well because just like him, its the only true reprieve you get in the book.
I concur.
Many of SK’s novels are not actually “horror”. I understand horror is relative and subjective, but the media labeled King the “king of horror” decades ago and it stuck. However, the bulk of Kings work can be categorized more in the suspense and sci~fi genres with frightening elements. Misery is one of Kings best novels. But I certainly wouldn’t call it a horror novel.
Seriously how many King novels can one have on the list😅
Misery is kings best book in my eyes. I love other books by him more but misery doesn’t get bogged down with in kings own words “diarrhea of the typewriter”
Misery was my first novel in the 6th grade and introduction to novels and how awesome a good book can be.
Pet Sematary is my favorite King novel. I finally read it soon after having my daughter, my first and only child, and found it a devastating examination of parental love and grief. You can’t know until you’re a parent, the fear of loving someone that much… The nightmares where you lose them, where they drown, where they’re diagnosed with a fatal disease, where they are kidnapped or stabbed or burned up and you can’t stop it, waking up in tears, and the shattering knowledge that it COULD happen, has happened many times, is happening to a child like yours and a parent like you at this very moment… Being a parent is damn scary. King really captures the dread, and then the actual crazy-making misery of the worst happening.
I grew up in the woods of New England (VT and NH) and I also love how he captures life there, the people and the landscape and the language. I know Judd. He’s a very real, well drawn character.
Just a great book.
Pet Cemetery book was so creepy
I'm a horror Instagrammer, and I'm impressed with your list after you said you don't read much horror. There are so many fantastic horror books, and I was delighted to see Uzumaki in your top 10. Definitely check out those books you listed as gaps in your reading, and may I add The Haunting of Hill House as a a must read for any fan of the genre.
Agreed. Speaking of masterpiece, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" never gets old.
@@drbuckley1 Agreed. Fantastic book.
Ray Bradbury is my all time favorite authors, but heavily for his short stories and essays.
I was thrilled to see Uzumaki on a list!
In the vein of “Not Horror by Clive Barker” is “The Thief of Always” which is, believe it or not, a children’s book. Not even YA - I’d recommend it for a fourth grader - but it’s brilliant and worth reading even as an adult. It has horror elements, but made to creep out kids more than anything. As you say, Clive Barker is an incredible writer, and this kid’s book is among my favorite books of all time.
I've read the Hellbound Heart. It is almost exactly like the movie. The big difference is that Kristi Cotton is a friend and not a daughter. Otherwise, it's exactly the same. Of course, Clive Barker took his own book and adapted it to the screen, so you shouldn't be surprised.
Glad to have stumbled upon your channel. You have some great entries in your list. I love Clive Barker and The Damnation Game is an incredible debut novel. Weaveworld is my favorite and it has strong horror elements. The Shining is an awesome choice. The movie portrays the father so differently, and this is one of many things that upset King. I absolutely love Ray Bradbury and this would be close to top 5 for me too. His prose is absolutely gorgeous! My favorite novel of all time is Swan Song by Robert McCammon, followed by Weaveworld and The Stand. N
Swan Song over Boy's Life?
@@phaedruslive Yip, Boy's Life is definitely in my top 10, amazing novel.
Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" deserves to be on your list.
Damn straight!
Berserk is the undisputed king of manga imo
If you want "old" Barker, you need to read The Books of Blood. It's a mixed bag of short stories that ranges from comical to insane to straight out gorefests. This is where Midnight Meat Train, Rawhead Rex, and Harry D'Amour came from. I much prefer his short work (including Cabal and The Hellbound Heart) to his novels.
Great video. Yes, definitely check out more of Clive Barker. I've read them all and Weaveworld is my favourite (though not really horror). I hope you've gotten around to it, and I hope you liked it as much as I did. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these great books. Your #2 also figures very high on my Top 10.
I would accept the king in yellow as horror but like how you used this to get an 11th choice in a top ten, great work
I've read everything Sai King has ever written. I highly recommend Revival, one of the most underrated of his books. It has amazing character development, and it has stuck with me ever since I read it. I don't want to say too much about the plot because I don't want to spoil anything.
@@waymire01 I hold that book up as a shining example in my mind every time I hear people complain about Kings endings.
I recently read The Exorcist and Between Two Fires (Christopher Buhlman) back to back and needed a break from horror afterward because they were both so intense. Now, I am reading Elfstones of Shannara to cleanse my pallet before reading my next horror 😅.
Between Two Fires is one of the best horror novels I've read in a long, long time. There was just something so Dante's Inferno about the whole experience.
So glad you mentioned it. Jumped straight to mind when I saw the video title.
Glad Between Two Fires got a mention here. Might be my favorite book of the decade! Definitely in my top 10
Really surprised Between Two Fires isn't mentioned. He needs to read it! Also, Elfstones is the best Shannara book!
Thank you for having variety that shows your taste.👍🏼 Usually I see a lot of TH-cam algorithm picks for these kind of lists.
The Ring book was so effing good. I wish I could experience it all over again.
@@civoreb I agree with you about the ring book
The exorcist is one of the few books that made me cry, not out of sadness, but out of fear. Not fear of the devil, not fear for myself, but fear for little Regan and her mother.
Yay, you got the Exrcist right but should be higher on the list. The writing is outstanding. It’s a masterpiece
I think the Exorcist is an overrated book. A bit of a slog. The movie is far better. Also, Rosemary’s Baby is far better written.
@paulvoorhies8821 This is subjective opinion. I love the movie but thought the book was better and was miles away from being a slog. To each their own, eh? I found it to be a page turner that I had finished in 3-4 days. Watched the movie again right after and found that I didn't really understand a lot of the movie before I read the book.
Yep definitely agree, just finished my second reading of it and will read it again -its a beautiful book , the descriptive prose, the characters especially Father Karras and his relationship with his mother, the guilt he felt was heartbreaking. The audiobook version read by Blatty himself is outstanding and is on TH-cam free to listen to.
The exorcist is my all time favourite book and film. I love how we got to delve more into the power of suggestion where it was just briefly mentioned in the film. Also Regan’s possession starts off slower and you get to see just how gorgeous and sweet she is before the nightmare starts. I can’t fault the film I love it but the book is still my number one book.
100% agree. Just bought a new copy on my last bookstore trip.
I envy you being at the beginning of your Clive Barker journey; as with many authors, e.g., HP Lovecraft, we can revisit and savour them, but there is nothing quite like the frisson of the first reading. I recently reread Weaveworld and gave myself a long overdue reminder of why I love Barker's writing. While I'm still waiting (im)patiently for the next instalment in his Abarat sequence, I would have to say personal favourites are Cabal (filmed/adapted as Nightbreed), Imajica, and The Thief of Always. The latter is a polished gem of a story, somewhat reminiscent of Ray Bradbury. That is a massive compliment to Barker, by the way. While I love Something Wicked This Way Comes, I think I prefer The Halloween Tree, though both are good. What appeals to me about Bradbury's work is that when he writes from a child's perspective, it is never mawkish or trying to hard to be cute. It's as though he never lost the child's-eye wonder at the world.
Still holding my breath for the next Abarat book.
this is a great video and i really like your format. also cool to know that you also been covering manga as well
I recommend the 6-book Adversary Cycle series (of which includes 'The Keep') by F. Paul Wilson. And also, the Blood Brothers trilogy by Brian Lumley.
The Keep. Great book. He's got a lot more
Awesome list. We share a lot of the same favorites-LOVE Uzumaki. Ring is next on my TBR so glad to hear some good praise for it. Awesome library by the way.
Thanks, I pretty much built it from scratch. The room not the bookcases. Hope you enjoy the ring I thought it was great
Nothing wrong with your list but, just some off the cuff recommendations in no particular order
1) James Herbert The Spear
2) Richard Matheson Hell House
3) Robert Bloch Complete Stories
4) R. Chetwynd Hayes The Partaker
5) Graham Masterton, The Manitou
6) Peter Straub Ghost Story
7) Shaun Hutson Relics
8) Shirley Jackson The Haunting
9) Gary Brandner The Howling
10) Edward Buller Lytton The Haunted and the haunter
I would have reversed positions on the two Stephen King books, IMO. For me, The Shining was a book where you can't put it down, you have to keep turning the pages to try to save that little boy. Pet Sematary, OTOH, was so obvious to me from the set up that King was going to rip your heart out over that little boy and then nothing good would happen from there. I dreaded turning each page of PS, whereas, in Shining I started it at 5PM, at 7 PM I got up and locked all the doors and windows, at 9 PM I turned on every light in the house and read the book until I finished. I had no problem laying PS down and coming back later.
"The Shining" the bok is about a man who loves his son but turns into a monster who wants to killhim. "The Shining" the movie is about a man who secretly HATES his wife and son and then is given a Byrne a push but a nudge---to do WHAT HE HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO DO.
Stephen King based the character of Jack Torrance ion himself, so it's no wonder that he was greatly offended by Stanley Kubrick's interpretation.
I agree on Something Wicked This way Comes. It less horrifying than darkly spooky. I love it.
thank you for finally filling in this knowledge gap!!!!! i finally have some scary books to read! thank you!
Yes, Pet Sematary is the greatest horror story of all time. The last two pages are the best last two pages of a horror story ever written.
Pet Sematary has always been my favourite King book.
I've played all the Metro games and they all have amazing atmospheres as well. There's nothing else quite like them. I've been meaning to read the books but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Recommended, Koushun Takami's "Battle Royale."
Dracula- Bram Stoker and Frankenstein -Mary Shelly. If you haven't read them you're missing out.
Brian Lumly's "Necroscope" series kept me going for years.
Awesome list! I've read some of these. Some others are on my list. And I learned about a couple new ones. Kudos!
Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood,” which includes the books published as “The Inhuman Condition,” “In the Flesh,” and “Cabal” in America, feature some next-level horror writing. I have never encountered a writer who delivers weird visions with such precision and clarity.
Yup, I read Pet Cemetery when it first came out, so no movie to know the plot. I was a teenager so not even a parent and when it got ‘to that’ scene, I was so gutted I had to put the book down and walk away from it for a week before I could pick it back up. It’s one of the only books that’s ever done that to me.
I know I’m very late to the party but “Paradise 1” by David Wellington has lived in the dark reaches of my mind ever since I read it. For any fans of space horror, you won’t regret it.
Thank you so much for reminding me of "Pet Semetary" and why it is such a unforgettable book, especially once you become a parent!
I cant recommend The Ring Trilogy enough. I just finished it recently and its become my favourite series of books, with Ring becoming quite possibly my favourite book, period
Thank you for putting "Something Wicked this Way Comes" on your list. I am going to reread it this Oct...Such a great read. Kudos for hitting me out of left field with that choice...Wasn't expecting it but think it belongs...Pet Semetary was great...I read that his son Own was almost hit by a car in Maine, and that idea popped into his head. I'm not sure if he lived next to a Pet Cemetery at that time...Something makes me think he did.
I love Something Wicked This Way Comes, and one of my favorite creepy parts was the blind witch in the balloon, hunting for the boys. Crazy imagery!
Saw the berserk collection in the background. Instant sub
"Aztec" by Gary Jennings, A tremendously intriguing veiw of life, culture & hauntings of ancient Mezzo American fiction. I think about it all the time, to me it was so amazing that it felt like a film.
Honestly, Pet Sematary had me sobbing uncontrollably, and not even for anything supernatural or scary that happened. When Judd’s wife dies, and he’s just left dumbfounded because they’ve been together for decades, I was in SHAMBLES. Had me crying in the car on my drive home, thinking about my own wife who I’ve only been married to for a year and a half, thinking about what might happen decades in the future when we’re as old as Judd is.
I could shred this list, but I suddenly realized I was jealous because the reason this list is flawed is because you have the joy of experiencing better books in front of you. Your Clive Barker admission alone made me cry. But then you get to read those books FOR THE FIRST TIME! Dracula, Frankenstein, House of Leaves, Ghost Story, and Carrie are all great.
Plus every book you did list is fun as and wonderful as you said AND you listed two books I haven’t read: The Strain and Uzumaki, so those are on my list now.
Thanks a ton 👍
I bought House of Leaves and I'm so excited to give it a try.. but I'm intimidated.
@@katmancilla5777 it is a challenging read, but so worth it.
Was really happy to see your number one as my number one. Never had a book ever stayed with me like that one did. I have been a life long Stephen King fan but I find his writing changed AFTER his accident and I have such a difficult time connecting with the books he wrote post injury. I have one that sticks on my brain, 666 by Jay Anson and the book Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist. In my top 10 overall. Ghost Story by Peter Straub is pretty cool too. Enjoyed your list, and agree with the analogy of It and The Shining..It tucked me in on the FIRST page and The Shining tore my soul all the way to the end. Keep turning those pages!!
Dan Simmons' Summer of Night. The cat-and-mouse games between the kids and the monsters are intense. Similar to Stephen King's It, but with kids who actually react like real kids, even when things get horrifying. I love King's books, but when the stress builds, his children characters often behave like short adults who obsess over fart jokes.
I feel you with the second guessing your horror choices.
For example my favorite book of all time is “From The Corner of his Eye” by Dean Koontz.
The book often leans into horror but is 100% a suspense thriller.
But top 10:
1: Twilight Eyes; Dean Koontz
2: Demonata book one Lord Loss; Darren Shan
3: Cirque Du Freak book 4; Darren Shan
4: Tommyknockers; Stephen King
5: IT; Stephen King
6: By the Light of the Moon; Dean Koontz
7: Odd Thomas; Dean Koontz
8: Intensity; Dean Koontz
9 Gil’s All Fright Diner; A. Lee Martinez
10: Dead Living; Glenn Bullion
Looking for some good Clive Barker horror. I humbly suggest The Great and Secret Show. It's my favorite. Although you are right about The Damnation Game. It's damn near perfect.
That's my favorite, too. It would make for a great miniseries.
I didn't know the strian was a book! Loved the show. Thank you
Not a big horror reader but the only book I have read that might improve this top 10 would be Jurassic Park. I think most people classify it as horror, goodreads does. Felt like it to me.
Nitpicky but sometimes I wonder why people make top 10 lists and don't put the top 10 books on there, haha. If IT and The Shining are the same quality, wouldn't that knock the 10th place book off the list? I get that he's trying to have different authors on the list but that doesn't really make it top 10 of all time then does it? It's also not giving Stephen King his due if you're just not including it to switch things up. Great list regardless and I really do need to go on a Stephen King run sometime soon.
Regarding "something wicked this way comes" man, I saw that movie when i was young and it terrified me for years. Same with "It" actually.
Just read this a couple of months ago and loved it. Definitely fit in the horror genre a lot more than the film did. Good stuff 👏 👍.
It’s actually more sci fi than horror, but this is where genres tend to blend, because there are definitely horror elements in the book. However, it’s more in the vein of sci fi
There is only one sci-fi element in the book, and that's the reconstruction of dinosaurs from DNA, something we seem close to doing in real life. Whereas the whole book is written in a horror/suspense style. so... idk have you read the book?
The King in Yellow really isn't a horror book. It's more weird fiction, but it did influence the best horror writer of the 20th century, HP Lovecraft.
My favorite Stephen King book is Rose Madder. It's about an abused woman being chased by her cop husband after she escapes from his grasp. It has a horror/fantasy aspect to it, but it's more character-driven. It hits me the way The Shining hits you. It's just OOF. I read the first few pages and put it down. Years later, a co-worker said, go back to it, get past those first few pages, and keep going. I did, and I haven't looked back.
(Second favorite: Thinner. SK has a hard time with endings. I don't like a lot of them. This one WORKED.)
Jack's decent into madness in The Shining is one of the best horror stories ever written! BTW, Clive Barker's other movie/book is Nightbreed!
Clive Barker is one of my favourite authors and my recommendation is always The Books of Blood. The collection of short stories really demonstrate Barker's range and style on top of being delightfully creepy. Admittedly I'm a sucker for short stories so that may bias me to a degree. My favourite full length Barker novel is Imajica but that's a big ask of anyone getting into Barker's work.
I loved what you said about manga/anime being just another medium for storytelling and that there is nothing stopping that writing to be any less than in any other medium.
Weaveworld is one of the best books I have ever read. It definitely has horrific elements but it is not a “horror book” it is spellbindingly beautiful. Clive Barker is so criminally underrated it’s unreal
Intensity by Dean Koontz. I had trouble reading this one. It is incredibly intense & yes, has the most apt name for the book! I'm extremely happy to see Swansong by Robert McCammon on here.. it's one of my favorites! I'd also like to add "The Tommyknockers" by Stephen King. I do not like his newer works but do enjoy his earlier work. The list you have here is really great works!❤🔥
The Shining is for sure one of my favorite books by Stephen King. Might have to give a re-read soon!
I read Pet Sematary as a teenager, sitting in my living room, thinking 'this isn't so scary' Then I turned out the lights to go upstairs...
Killing Lessons, Black. Adam, Ted Dekker. Heart Shaped Box. Girl Next Door
I can't really rank most of them above one or the other so here is simply my list of 10 that are on a pedestal:
10 - The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito
9 - At The Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
8 - The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
7 - The Black Abbot of Puthuum by Clark Ashton Smith
6 - The Haunter of the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft
5 - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
4 - The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
3 - The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
2 - The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft
1 - Pigeons from Hell by Robert E. Howard
This is my list, in no particular order.
By John Skipp and Craig Spector
The Scream
The Cleanup
The Light at the End
By Nicholas Pekearo
The Wolfman
By Stephen King
The Shinning
Dr. Sleep
Pet Cemetary
Insomnia
By Owl Goingback
Crota
Evil Whispers
By F Paul Wilson
The Keep
The Toumb
The Touch
By Dean Koontz
Twilight Eyes
The Watchers
By Joe R Lansdale
The Nightrunners
You surmised my thoughts on the Shining so perfectly! It is the book about the dad for me too.
Great list and I am ready to read some horror new to me. I agree with "Pet Semetery" as number one. Having lost many people I love to death, you do have that fervent wish that they would come back, but this book (and every zombie movie) reminds you that this would be a nightmare, and that you must accept death, no matter how painful it is. I love Ray Bradbury, particularly his short stories, and was glad to see "Something Wicked" included. The fall atmosphere in this is just great. My list would also include Richard Matheson's 'I am Legend" and Robert Bloch's, "Psycho".
Something Wicked and Pet Sematary hit so much harder once I became a parent. The father/son tension and resolve is often overlooked in Something Wicked, but its really what holds the story together, IMO.
Also, spot on about Clive Barker. The dude's so poetic in his writing style.
The Twisted Ones, What Moves the Dead, and the Hollow Places by Ursula Vernon (T Kingfisher) spooky spooky stuff
I'm more a short story guy, I really love "Voice in the night" by Hope Hodgson, like it even a bit more than "Rats in the Walls" and "Colour out of Space"
I read Weaveworld in the 90s....its good. But it is slow to get into. But if you like the descriptive writing you'll get lots of it there, but be patient.
I recently reread Pet Semitary as an adult and parent. I read it the first time in highschool in the 80s...its a totally different story after you have kids.
I love the original movie and hate the remake. The first movie you felt his desperation. You felt his heartbreak.
The way you feel about "The Shining" is how I feel about Cujo. In the movie he's a crazed dog bent on killing. In the book you feel so sorry for him bc SK tells you in the dogs words that he doesn't k ow why he's hurting those he loved before.
If you watch the mini series of the Shining you'll get the version of the book bc SK and the directer worked hand in hand to makes Jack a redemption arc in the end. His love for one last moment saves his family.
Good list. I'll have to check out more of your videos.
Thank You for the List and Video 😀
Frankenstein has a weird stigma around it - love/hate kind of thing; tons of people hate it, but just as many adore it in my experience - but it is genuinely one of my favorite books of all time. Assuming you haven't read it still in the time since this video, I absolutely recommend reading it.
Just go in with the right expectations: it's nothing like the adaptations, firstly, and it's...kinda esoteric in a weird way. I've not read anything like it since, and it was one of the earliest books I read when I came back to reading a few years ago.
---> *_The Damnation game is a bit sophomore-ish. I am not sure, but did Barker re-write it or re-edit this short novel at some point?_*
*_Clive Barker's best work is still the short story collections The Books Of Blood Vols. I-VI._*
*_The rest of his novels are very good-to-great, but they are more Creepy-Fantasy rather than Horror._*
*_Most of Barker's works can really do well on the large and small screen, it's quite odd that not more of his work has been made into at least a TV-series._*
*_Disney owns the rights to several of Clive Barker's works, but a decade/two decades ago Barker's former lover ran a slander attack on Barker and Barker was MeToo'd before this even was a thing; and it seems Disney actually did have a problem with him being a Gay Man. Disney bought the rights to Abarat for $8million and had planned a section in their themeparks._*
*_With the D in Disney now standing for DEI; maybe they should go back and make all his stories they own?_*
10- the Howling by Gary Brandner
9- Cabal by Clive Barker
8- clown in a cornfield by Adam Cesare
7- Dracula by Bram Stoker
6-the turning of the screw by Henry James
5- the Ritual by Adam Neville
4- viy by Nikolai Gogol
3- It by Stephen King
2- Nos4a2 by Joe Hill
1- Pet Semetary by Stephen King
One of the scariest horror books I've ever read was The Haunted Book by Jeremy Dyson, of The League of Gentlemen fame, which starts out like one of those crazy 70s anthology story collections and then eventually devolves into this weird meta-crisis blind alley that sort of fucks with your mind... Creepy stuff
Weaveworld is one of my favorite books. I hope you like it.
In Pet Sematary, I have long believed that the page or so when the father is chasing his son, who is racing towards a road with oncoming traffic, is the best thing Stephen King has ever written. It is a perfect and wholly tragic piece of writing. The book belongs at the top of your list for those words alone.
So glad you gave an honourable mention to The King in Yellow. While not typically horror it did influence so many other horror writers ❤
Okay then, I also haven't read loads of horror but I've read a fare bit, so here is my list (I'm about to read The Exorcist so that may move in on the list):
#10 - Bird Box - Josh Malerman
#9 - The Shining - Stephen King
#8 - The Terror - Dan Simmons
#7 - It - Stephen King
#6 - Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin
#5 - Dracula - Bram Stoker
#4 - Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
#3 - Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
#2 - Let The Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist
#1 - Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez
I cannot recommend The Hellbound Heart enough! It is GLORIOUS!!!
As much as I love the big Stephen King horror classics like The Shining and IT, I find his situational horror to be more effective. Books like Misery, Gerald’s Game, even Cujo really got under my skin in a way the supernatural stuff never did.
Love that you put Lovecraft on there actually.
The Terror by Dan Simmons is my absolute favorite horror novel. I devoured it quicker than the beast devoured those stranded sailors.
The Metro Series was turned in to an excellent Video game series also. 3 main games so far and one VR game on the way. The first one, 2033, was not so great, but Last Light and Exodus are some of the best FPS survival horror games out there.
You need to seek out Clive Barker's Cabal, The Hellbound Heart and The Books of Blood - those are essential Barker horror novels. And maybe The Great and Secret Show and Everville if you want to see Barker take a stab at horror-tinged modern fantasy. And I would have had IT at number 1 with Pet Sematary at number 2 (with The Shining around 5 or so). Personal preference, though. Pet Sematary was the book that made fall in love with horror - it was my first horror novel. But IT just took my head clean off - epic and terrifying. For me, nothing has come close since. It's not just a great horror novel. It's a fantastic piece of legitimate literature. Nice list, though - you've given me some stuff to check out.
Opened your video and first video on the suggestion list is a top 10 horror books published months before yours 😂. Please do better research next time. Liked your video btw.
Christopher Buhlman is a great author. He has written some very good books. Also a book called "The Troop" is horrifying. Your skin will crawl after that one.
Craig Davidson?
I love horror and I’m always glad to see a video on horror novels. However, I think horror works best in shorter formats (short story and novella), which is at odds with the greater respect we place on novels. A list of novels cannot list some of the most respected and greatest works in horror, such as those written by HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E Howard (he didn’t just write Conan), “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, and “Books of Blood” by Clive Barker.
#1 is so good. I read it on vacation every 2 years. Haunts me every time. Makes the time memorable.
People who write and study cosmic horror agree with Lovecraft’s enthusiasm for The King in Yellow. Yes, it’s horror.
Repairer of reputations, with the voluntary euthanasia boothe...*shudders *
Oh my gosh the strain was slightly cheesy but such a DAMN awesome show that I forgot I watched and loved
I love how you put Pet Sematery at number one on your list I would too, since I just bought the hardcover copy of the book myself.
IT was my choice as scariest of King's novels. (I don't read much horror other than his books.) There's a description not far into the book (it happens before Georgie's death) of Bill having to get something out of his basement. It's a long paragraph about him having to reach out in the dark for the light switch. I grew up in a house with a CELLAR, and I FELT that fear of having to reach out into the dark, not knowing if a hand was going to reach up and grab me.
I had had surgery on my right hand and it was all bandaged up. I couldn't do anything but turn pages with my left hand. I read this book in a week, in daylight hours only. Scary stuff.
Hey! Ho! Let's GO!
Necroscope and it's sequels by Brian Lumley. If you know, you know.
I'm not a fan of reading, so I can't give you my top 10, but I am a fan of horror, willing to bite into reading a little more. So I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to use your recommendations as a starting point ;)
Me neither lately but I do recommend Audible. Listening to horror books is great!!
Since you're open to manga, you should check out "Blood on the tracks". It's not supernatural the way Uzumaki is, but much more psychological horror.
Nice list.
I've read virtually all of Barkers stuff: The Damnation Game remains my absolute fave simply because it takes everything he's great at and dustills it into one fantastic story....doubt you'll be disappointed by any Barker if you love this one.
Huge King fan...neither of your picks would be mine: i definitely cede the top spot to 'Salems Lot and, if narrowing down to just horror, would put The Mist next.
Btw.....Ghost Story is a must...
Pet semetary did not scare me because I had already read The Monkey’s Paw. It’s very interesting that this really hits home with fathers. That speaks well for a father’s love.