25 of the Best and Scariest Horror Books Ever

A brand-new novel from a cult-favorite author known for his unconventional work. We can’t wait to see where Mark Z. Danielewski (House of Leaves) takes us next.

You’ve never read anything like this book. In fact, to even call it a book feels overly simplified. This is a creepy, curvy, tossy, turny horror story of magnificent effect. One does not simply read House of Leaves, they experience it. Enter if you dare.

Unearthing the depths of Hill’s imagination, this fantastical tale delivers with a villainous dragon steering the ship. It’s a satisfying horror that plays out the pitfalls of the human condition — with a side of romance.

Monsters aren’t the only ones haunting the hills in this total hit from the author of Camp Damascus, where Hollywood glitz and glam collides with brutal horror.

The birth of the monster genre? Yes. The birth of modern science fiction? Also yes. Mary Shelley’s masterpiece is as timeless as it is tantalizing. On its surface the story of a scientist bent on creating life, while underneath a criticism of human nature, this story is required in all minds and on all shelves.

Something sinister is brewing beneath an isolated mansion in the Mexican countryside, and an ancient evil is about to be exposed. With callbacks to classics like Rebecca, Jane Eyre and The Haunting of Hill House, Moreno-Garcia proves that she is just as consumed by stories of haunted houses as we are in this new gothic horror with a twist.

For over sixty years, Shirley Jackson’s unnerving novel has been hailed as one of the best haunted house stories ever written.  On the page or on the screen, this is a riveting tale about four people who arrive at a notoriously hostile house. Don’t miss Elizabeth Hand’s upcoming horror novel A Haunting on the Hill, the first ever authorized work to return to Shirley Jackson’s world.  

Stephen King describes this book as “old-school horror”, and the man’s not kidding. A scout troop encounters an unexpected and horrifying foe deep in the woods of the Canadian wilderness. Will they be able to survive the harrowing trip?  

Chilling horror from the author who blessed the world with The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires, Hendrix dips into a similarly fresh approach, telling the story of a group of final girls who are facing a new threat. Will one of them become a two-time final girl, or will they defy the odds and survive together?

We weren’t sure what to expect with Road of Bones, but we immediately realized it was going to be way more than we bargained for. Travel on a haunted highway across the frozen tundra of Siberia in this atmospheric horror filled with ghost stories, local legends and otherworldly beasts. 

Past traumas and looming threats collide in this fresh spin on your typical deserted island thriller. When a popular social media star and his many loyal followers arrive on an idyllic island to party, things quickly take a bloody turn for the worse.

At the crossroads of horror, poetry, and history sits The Only Good Indians. You will forever hear the stories of these four characters in your mind, and in those stories is a deep history of American Indian culture. Sometimes the true horror in a novel goes beyond the passages that keep you up at night. 

Gothic horror at its finest, this time Kingfisher invites us on a haunted rescue mission cloaked in the eerie decay of American coal mines.

When a book gets adapted into a movie series, a tv show and a manga, you know it’s one people can’t get enough of, and Ring has made all those rounds. Centering a deadly phenomenon involving a mysterious videotape that promises (and delivers) death, this is an eerie story that will keep you hooked from start to finish. 

A Head Full of Ghosts walks the fine line between the supernatural and the psychological, exploring the very nature of evil through one young girl, perhaps schizophrenic, perhaps possessed. It’s scary, it’s poignant and it is sharp — exactly what you’d expect from Paul Tremblay (The Cabin at the End of the World). 

“Redrum,” “the twins,” repeated outbursts from the main character — these are all moments in The Shining that will be forever burned into your frontal lobe. Memory, attention span and emotions will be thrown into turmoil as you read one of King’s most recognizable horror books.

That fantastic and far-too-rare combination of haunted and humorous, Hidden Pictures is a unique and satisfying read on multiple levels. It’s a familiar story (nanny to a boy with strange powers) told in an unfamiliar way that offers all the creepy delights of an unforgettable ghost story.

A dark fairytale for modern audiences, this is Victor LaValle (Lone Women) at his storytelling best. The Changeling pulls you into Apollo and Emma’s world, weaving themes of corruption with ancient folklore, preternatural love and an undercurrent of facing our monsters. Read it before the TV series. Read it after the TV series. Read it if you’ve read it before. It’s a story worth staying lost in. 

In this debut, Gerardo Sámano Córdova pens a creative, visionary and fantastic examination of grief and love; parents and children; friends and lovers. When Santiago passes away, his mother seeks to bring him back to life and creates Monstrilio, a monster who tries to be a man. This terrifyingly tender story is one you won’t be able to put down… we dare you to try.  

Vampire stories might be popular, but you haven’t seen a vampire story like this. Rich with a nightmare-inducing plot that’s saturated with real human emotion, this story of a twelve-year-old hoping for revenge and the new girl in town (who only comes out at night) is one you’ll want to sink your teeth into…  

Read the horror classic that influenced writers like Poe and Hawthorne. This is a twisted story of an abbot giving in to temptation and wandering into the depths of depravity — the kind that that lands a man in a special place in hell. (It may not have been welcomed in 1796, but now this timeless classic is one of the most grisly horror stories on our shelves.) 

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward will keep you pinned to your seat throughout. Both beguiling and horrific, if you can believe it, Ward writes with such deep care and precision, there’s no way to turn down an offer to read more. Each page a perfect layer of plot, character and mystery — we don’t know of any book that makes us fear the basement, the attic, the house next door and the depths of imagination more than this novel. True rewards await the fearless here.

You may have seen the movie, but the novel is rich with its own terrors that have captivated decades of dedicated horror readers. It’s the story of one little girl possessed by evil, and it is raw, shocking and unforgettable.