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The 50 Best Horror Books of All Time (Esquire, 2022) - NEW VERSION
89 participants (50 books)
Overview
Horror is a broad church. Definitions abound.
For some, horror is a genre founded on trope and convention: a checklist of blighted houses and monstrous secrets, men in masks and women in white nightgowns. For others it hinges on atmosphere and tone.
This is before we even attempt a historical context. Scholars trace the legacy of literary horror back to the British Gothic fictions of the eighteenth century, when castles were haunted, monks were evil, and anywhere beyond the edges of Protestant England was tinged sinister. Others locate the genre’s origins in a slate of late-Victorian novels and their roster of horror icons. Dracula, Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyll–these figures emerged from a culture in crisis, when twin anxieties about masculinity and modernity birthed urban nightmares. Contemporary readers may look no further than the horror ‘boom’ of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. It was an era dominated by brand-name authors, with epic sales and matching page-lengths.
With such a weight of contention, any attempt at a list of ‘best’ horror novels is doomed to disagreement. That’s fine. All lists are subjective. We have, however, tried to celebrate the breadth of horror—to highlight those books that establish something about the genre or push it forward into new realms. It’s worth noting that we have confined our choices to novels. Short horror fiction has a parallel but distinct history that would require a survey all of its own.
You will see some unexpected inclusions in this list, and some surprising absences. Certain big names are missing because their greatest contributions are in short form, or because their books tread ground better travelled by others. Equally, some of these choices may cause horror fans’ eyes to wrinkle in confusion. But perhaps, in the end, that’s the secret of horror: it’s personal. It’s about how it makes you feel.
Here, then, is our ranking of the best horror novels of all time.
All notes on the books come from the article:
All notes on the books come from the article:
The 50 Best Horror Books of All Time (Esquire, 2022) - NEW VERSION
89 participants (50 books)
Overview
Horror is a broad church. Definitions abound.
For some, horror is a genre founded on trope and convention: a checklist of blighted houses and monstrous secrets, men in masks and women in white nightgowns. For others it hinges on atmosphere and tone.
This is before we even attempt a historical context. Scholars trace the legacy of literary horror back to the British Gothic fictions of the eighteenth century, when castles were haunted, monks were evil, and anywhere beyond the edges of Protestant England was tinged sinister. Others locate the genre’s origins in a slate of late-Victorian novels and their roster of horror icons. Dracula, Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyll–these figures emerged from a culture in crisis, when twin anxieties about masculinity and modernity birthed urban nightmares. Contemporary readers may look no further than the horror ‘boom’ of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. It was an era dominated by brand-name authors, with epic sales and matching page-lengths.
With such a weight of contention, any attempt at a list of ‘best’ horror novels is doomed to disagreement. That’s fine. All lists are subjective. We have, however, tried to celebrate the breadth of horror—to highlight those books that establish something about the genre or push it forward into new realms. It’s worth noting that we have confined our choices to novels. Short horror fiction has a parallel but distinct history that would require a survey all of its own.
You will see some unexpected inclusions in this list, and some surprising absences. Certain big names are missing because their greatest contributions are in short form, or because their books tread ground better travelled by others. Equally, some of these choices may cause horror fans’ eyes to wrinkle in confusion. But perhaps, in the end, that’s the secret of horror: it’s personal. It’s about how it makes you feel.
Here, then, is our ranking of the best horror novels of all time.
All notes on the books come from the article:
All notes on the books come from the article:
Challenge Books
The Ballad of Black Tom
Victor LaValle
38. H.P. Lovecraft’s imagination endures in countless derivations of his Cthulhu Mythos, but his bigotry remains a cancer at the heart of it all. Most imitators borrow the lore, but ignore the ideology. In The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle takes a different approach, choosing to explore the events of Lovecraft’s notoriously racist “The Horror at Red Hook” from the Black point-of-view of Lavalle’s own protagonist, Tommy Tester. Though there are ‘Old Ones’ aplenty, LaValle’s retelling suggests that cosmic peril is of less consequence to the Black community than the threat of white power. After all, the book asks, “What was indifference compared to malice?”
Bird Box
Josh Malerman
37. Some books have a conceit that makes other authors seethe for not thinking of it themselves. Birdbox, you would imagine, is such a book. There are monsters, and if you see them, you kill yourself. It’s a riff on the Lovecraftian notion that the human mind can only withstand a certain degree of otherness. Yet Malerman has none of Lovecraft’s pomposity. Instead, he examines everyday humanity under extreme, inexplicable pressure. Trapped in a house with strangers, our protagonist Malorie gradually hardens into a pitiless survivor. Her journey to possible refuge is a masterclass in sustained tension and sensory storytelling.
Apartment 16
Adam L.G. Nevill
36. Each of Adam Nevill’s novels is imbued with an unclean disquiet, a grimly British social-realist horror stripped of all romance. It’s never more effective than this story of an exclusive London residence haunted by a fascist, occult-obsessed artist. Apryl Beckford quickly discovers the supernatural menace within Apartment 16, but the real nightmares belong to a secondary character, addled security guard Seth. His repeated failures to escape the building lead to a chokingly claustrophobic breakdown. People will tell you to read The Ritual, but Apartment 16 is the Nevill book that’ll have you looking at the corners of rooms to make sure the shadows are still where they should be.
Lost Souls
Poppy Z. Brite
35. There is no more ‘90s novel on this list than Lost Souls. I’m not sure a more ‘90s novel exists. Poppy Z. Brite’s lament for misspent youth is as pitch black as the kohl around the characters’ eyes, and saturated with the angsty existentialism that typified the decade. The teens of Missing Mile, North Carolina are damaged—by substances, by hard living, and abuse—and that’s before the vampires arrive. When they do, the novel explodes in a debauch of violence and sex. It’s a road trip, a love story, and a brutal horror odyssey in which a vampire taking his own son as his lover remains one of the less transgressive elements of the plot.
Interview with the Vampire
Anne Rice
34. Anne Rice died in late 2021, leaving behind a legacy that few modern horror authors can match. Her Vampire Chronicles spans over a dozen novels, with numerous offshoots. Everyone has their favorite, but Interview is where the intricate, baroque tapestry of her alternative vampiric history begins. The interview in question is with Louis, an 1800s plantation owner turned into a creature of the night by the vampire Lestat. Over the course of the novel, Louis relates the history of their immortal companionship, including the perverse family they form with child vampire Claudia. The later series develops in outlandish directions (Atlantis!), but Interview anchors itself in the romantic tragedy of eternal life.
The House Next Door
Anne Rivers Siddons
33. Haunted houses don’t need to be old. That’s the revolutionary premise that makes Siddon’s novel so freshly disquieting. Through Colquitt Kennedy’s polite, hyper-observant narration, we watch as a sequence of families move into the newly-built property next door, only for tragedy to unravel their lives. There isn’t a history of murder to taint the land, nor a single disturbed grave—just a random malignancy that suggests modern walls are no guarantee of safety. It’s a souring of the American Dream that Stephen King called one of the best horror novels of the 20th Century.
The Wasp Factory
Iain Banks
32. Frank Cauldhame wanders the beaches of his isolated island home, killing small animals. He has built an elaborate mechanism to ritualistically kill wasps. We are told he has killed three children before he entered his own teens. Oh, and he is the hero of this story. The Wasp Factory was Banks’ first novel, and it has the provocativeness of all great debuts. It was acclaimed for its mixture of horror and the blackest of comedy, just as it was pilloried for its depravity. Both sound like good reasons to read it. Be warned, though, this one contains some truly disgusting scenes.
Tender Is the Flesh
Agustina Bazterrica
31. In Bazterrica’s brutal dystopia, a lack of animal meat has resulted in state-sanctioned cannibalism. Marcos works in a slaughterhouse, where human cattle (or ‘heads’) are bred for slaughter, and where he tussles with his inner morality within the industrial normalization of the universal taboo. The plot focuses on Marcos’ relationship with a head named Jasmine; what ensues is as disturbing as expected, though it’s the wider world-building that makes Tender is the Flesh a truly dispiriting read. Through both gorgeous metaphor and blunt statement, Bazterrica drives home the realization that we are all either meat or butcher in capitalism’s grinder.
The Good House
Tananarive Due
30. American fiction has all too often represented African religious practices as signs of malice, barbarism, or dark talent. The Good House is a bold attempt to correct those assumptions from within the all-American framework of a haunted house story. The plot is pure American Gothic: a family moves into an old home, where Angie Toussaint is forced into battle with an entity her grandmother confronted decades before. Due replaces a traditionally Christian idea of good versus evil with the more complex theology of Baka demons and Iwas spirits. It also redeems Vodou as a font of inter-generational strength as much as a source of danger. The Good House is a key text in horror’s 21st century diversification.
The Hellbound Heart
Clive Barker
29. After ten movies and a whole array of multimedia merchandise, it’s odd to think that the entire Hellraiser phenomenon began with this slight novella. If you’ve missed out on any iteration of the story, it’s about sadomasochists from hell (a working title for the movie) who claim the soul of anyone unlucky enough to open a particular puzzle box. If you’ve seen the film but not read the book, you need to correct that. The Hellbound Heart is a far richer exploration of the central themes. It delves deeper into Barker’s perverse theology to ask the key question: are demons and angels the same thing, depending on your perspective? The movie gave us Pinhead, but Barker’s novella gives us bona fide horror philosophy.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks
28. Those who have only seen the action-packed film adaptation of World War Z will be surprised to find that in Max Brooks’ novel, the war is already over. Humanity has prevailed. All that's left is to gather the survivors’ stories. Dozens of them, from all over the world, which together form a collage of personal and cultural responses to the undead. It’s an ingenious approach to an over-saturated genre; a pseudo-documentary that takes us from repurposed castles in Scotland to a heroic last stand on an Indian highway. This absurdly clever book stretches the zombie’s elasticity of meaning to the extreme, with the monster reflecting so many things depending on where in the world you are.
The Return
Rachel Harrison
27. There are plenty of male bonds in horror, but The Return is a rare take on the architecture of female friendship. It’s also the best. When Julie returns from an unexplained two-year absence, her friends gather at a remote inn to celebrate. It’s soon obvious that something is wrong, and that Julie may have brought something dark back from wherever she’s been. There are scary scenes aplenty—and a brilliantly bizarre resolution—but the real tension stems from the shifting allegiances and resentments. In light of this and her follow-up, Cackle, Rachel Harrison may be horror’s new chronicler of the contemporary female experience.