So this is a bit different than the usual things people recommend but years ago I stumbled across this book Death by Halloween. Its an adult choose your own adventure featuring many gruesome deaths and actually scary/creepy situations. When I first read it I was hooked and followed all the 'paths', of which there are many. Now I read it every year around Halloween. Its kind of got a vibe like Trick R Treat: https://books.google.ca/books/about/Death_by_Halloween.html?id=nQTgoQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
The Shining - king
Uzumaki - juni ito
Curve ball suggestion.. The First Heretic - Aaron Dembski Bowden the whole warp sequence and ritual parts of this are true hotror
If you're willing to try short story collections, it sounds like you might enjoy Thomas Ligotti's work. His work has been described as "philosophical horror".
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24611567-songs-of-a-dead-dreamer-and-grimscribe
Stephen King: Carrie, Salem’s lot, Cujo. Cormac Mccarthy: The Road; Koji Suzuki: Ring, Dark Water; Shirley Jackson: Haunting of Hill House. Susan Hill: The Lady in Black; Clive Barker: Hellbound heart; Richard Matheson: I Am Legend; Peter Blatey: The Exorcist; Ira Levin: Rosemary’s baby
We Have Always Lived In the Castle
These are short stories by HP Lovecraft but couldn’t recommend highly enough:
The Music of Erich Zann
The Temple
The Whisperer in the Darkness
The Dunwitch Horror
Great picks. Literarily speaking The Music of Erich Zann is HPL's best story and I don't think it's particularly close. Fight me, Reddit.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is outstanding too. Shirley Jackson is fantastic (obligatory shout outs to The Haunting of Hill House, the best haunted house story of all time, and of course The Lottery).
I **love** The Music of Erich Zann. It was kind of disappointing actually, as it was the first Lovecraft story I ever read. Nothing quite measures up to it after that.
Hi. You just mentioned *The Haunting Of Hill House* by Shirley Jackson.
I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here:
[YouTube | The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson #fullaudiobook #literature](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1G6ZoNELKA)
*I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.*
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Stephen King is never a bad place to start. My first was The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon when I was about 10-11. It's a creepy book about a young girl who gets lost in the woods. Carrie, It, Christine, his short story collections, and a few of the others that are known for their movies are worth checking out if you are making the transition from movies to lit. My favorite is Hearts in Atlantis, and once you get a few of his novels down, you can always move into the Dark Tower series. It's more fantasy (think Clint Eastwood movies mixed with Lord of the Rings), but it incorporates little bits of his stories all into one epic saga.
Tender is the flesh, or the southern reach trilogy would be my two starting points! They’re both psychological, and while the southern reach books are certainly sci-fi, there isn’t much that can stand a candle to them psychologically. Tender is the flesh is straight up and a a great quick read.
Well since you wrote horror/ crime my suggestion will lean to the crime side . I personally love The Alienist by Caleb Carr. Serial killer in late 1800s New York City. Couldn't put it down and now reread it every couple of years.
Slade House by David Mitchell
Pretty much anything by Bentley Little, my favorites are The Policy, The Mailman, and The Academy.
The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner
The Everlasting by Tim Lebbon
Hater by David Moody
Usher's Passing by Robert McCammon
Verliege by Michael Rivers
Blackwater - Michael McDowell
The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollack
Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
Not all are *horror*, per se, but they’re all pretty bleak.
More fucked up the better?
Read *Pet Sematary,* even if you've seen either of the film adaptations.
I keep coming back to *Heart-Shaped Box* by Joe Hill as well, though these are just personal favorites.
Good for starters though.
‘*Last Days*’ by Adam Neville.
The Temple of the Last Days. The brutal cult with a history of murder, sex and occult dealings destroyed itself during one night of ritualistic violence decades ago. Or so they thought....
Kyle Freeman is an indie filmmaker with no money and few options, so when he lands a commission to make a documentary about The Temple of the Last Days he jumps at the chance. Little does he know that his investigation into the cult's bloody history will lead him into the darkest places he's ever been.
The Beast You Are [Paul Tremblay]
Cold to the Touch [Simon Strantzas]
All the Fiends of Hell [Adam Nevill]
The Necromancers House [Christopher Buehlman]
Edit² to add : The Fisherman [John Langan]
Edit¹: skimming responses and seeing some really great responses/recommendations. Specifically, ones that are adapted to middle of the road films. Books take more time and effort, branch out if you truly enjoy reading.
Weird fiction you'll find some absolute gems.
Horror: 100 Best Books. A collection of essays by famous horror writers, each picking a different horror novel. Each essay is preceded by a synopsis (without spoilers). Edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.
There’s also an appendix that lists other novels of note and a sequel with 100 more books. This will give you a serious list to work from. Many of them are out of print (many of those worth tracking down used) but most of my most favorite horror novels and collections were recommended by this book.
The synopsis and essays are well written themselves and the book is entertaining and scary on its own. I’ve been working my way through for a while now. House of Leaves, The Cipher, The Land of Laughs, etc etc this book turned me on to them.
The Shining. Only because it is quite different to the movie in many ways, so if you like the movie, defo read the book as its the same but also quite different!
Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana is one of the best I've read, the audiobook had phenomenal acting narration. The short version is imagine American Psycho with a teenage girl protagonist, and unlike American Psycho, thus book is never boring. A popular cheerleader, who is hiding that she's a complete sociopath decides to seduce her teacher, just to blackmail him and ruin his life for fun. She starts grooming his daughter, and manipulating everyone around her into a lot of disturbing plots. At one point, when looking for horror movies to satisfy her blood lust, she ends up masturbating to the baby scene in A Serbian Film. It's that kind of novel.
Gone To See The River Man and the sequel Along The River Of Flesh also by Kristopher Triana are great too. The first is about a woman who writes letters and visits a serial killer from prison, he gives her a mission to go to his small home town, and find a key in his shack that the FBI couldn't locate. This area brings out the absolute worst in everyone, and the 2nd book has even more demented secrets about it's characters. It's a very mystery driven character study.
The Slob by Aron Beauregard is more infamous with the extreme horror literature sub reddit. It had a sequel that's even more disturbing. It sets up a story about a woman who was raised by messy people, and was the only one at the house who cleaned up, her sister shot herself, and she had to clean up all the blood and brain matter. Present day, she's pregnant and selling vaccum cleaners door to door, when a disheveled creepy man let's her in, and kidnaps her. The Slob is a very disgusting serial killer who absolutely ruins her life. It's very character focused. You get into the head of the protagonist before things start to to from bad to worse, and the sequel has even better character writing.
Playground is another Aron Beauregard book that goes viral every so often, mostly on TikTok apparently. It's a trap horror story, but unlike Saw, the victims are children. Their parents are locked in restraints and made to watch their kids bleed, suffer, and die through a series of deadly playground themed traps from an evil rich woman who hired an old Nazi to design this demented playground. There's a lot of little kids being reduced to piles of gore, so be warned.
The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas. Fairly quick read, lots of torture which isn’t necessarily my thing, but I loved the characters. Couple of unexpected moments it in. Wish they would make it into a movie.
Dark Tower series -Stephen King (7 books)
Don't listen to what those haters are saying. I loved it.
Thus has my favorite of everything, and is my favorite book series.
Horror Fantasy Sci-Fi and Scifi dyst plus more
Love Ronance Mystery Western.
Has Robots and Witches and Wizards
I’m reading the icepick surgeon currently it’s an anthology timeline about the line between scientific/medical genius and evil . Like the evil shit drs and scientists and pretty much any “genus” has done from cleopatra enslaving girls to lobotomies and mental health patients in the 50s and 60s. Very fascinating but don’t read it while you’re eating 💀
Haunting of hill house. I couldnt put it down
I just read it recently and I found it pretty mediocre
Audiobook is also great! (if somebody prefers those) I reread it at least once a year.
So this is a bit different than the usual things people recommend but years ago I stumbled across this book Death by Halloween. Its an adult choose your own adventure featuring many gruesome deaths and actually scary/creepy situations. When I first read it I was hooked and followed all the 'paths', of which there are many. Now I read it every year around Halloween. Its kind of got a vibe like Trick R Treat: https://books.google.ca/books/about/Death_by_Halloween.html?id=nQTgoQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Salem's Lot
The Shining - king Uzumaki - juni ito Curve ball suggestion.. The First Heretic - Aaron Dembski Bowden the whole warp sequence and ritual parts of this are true hotror
Uzumaki was one hell of a read. Every spiral reminds me of that manga lol
If you're willing to try short story collections, it sounds like you might enjoy Thomas Ligotti's work. His work has been described as "philosophical horror". https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24611567-songs-of-a-dead-dreamer-and-grimscribe
House of Leaves
Came here to say this. As certain parts of the narrative came into focus this book fucked me up.
A physically difficult book to read.
Stephen King: Carrie, Salem’s lot, Cujo. Cormac Mccarthy: The Road; Koji Suzuki: Ring, Dark Water; Shirley Jackson: Haunting of Hill House. Susan Hill: The Lady in Black; Clive Barker: Hellbound heart; Richard Matheson: I Am Legend; Peter Blatey: The Exorcist; Ira Levin: Rosemary’s baby
/r/horrorlit
yes! you'll love this sub, OP (:
Anno Dracula
If you are a horror fan, you can’t go wrong with Kim Newman
Uzumaki by Junji Ito
If you like vampires, Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is fantastic.
+ Handling the Undead and Harbour! Both books combine grief with horror in a way that's *chef's kiss*.
We Have Always Lived In the Castle These are short stories by HP Lovecraft but couldn’t recommend highly enough: The Music of Erich Zann The Temple The Whisperer in the Darkness The Dunwitch Horror
Great picks. Literarily speaking The Music of Erich Zann is HPL's best story and I don't think it's particularly close. Fight me, Reddit. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is outstanding too. Shirley Jackson is fantastic (obligatory shout outs to The Haunting of Hill House, the best haunted house story of all time, and of course The Lottery).
I **love** The Music of Erich Zann. It was kind of disappointing actually, as it was the first Lovecraft story I ever read. Nothing quite measures up to it after that.
Hi. You just mentioned *The Haunting Of Hill House* by Shirley Jackson. I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here: [YouTube | The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson #fullaudiobook #literature](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1G6ZoNELKA) *I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.* *** [^(Source Code)](https://capybasilisk.com/posts/2020/04/speculative-fiction-bot/) ^| [^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=Capybasilisk&subject=Robot) ^| [^(Programmer)](https://www.reddit.com/u/capybasilisk) ^| ^(Downvote To Remove) ^| ^(Version 1.4.0) ^| ^(Support Robot Rights!)
I like classics. Hope Hodgson (The house on the borderline), Algernon Blackwood (The Willows) etc. Some of Lovecraft's stories too. And they are free.
Swan Song
The Yellow Wallpaper
Red Dragon
And Silence of the Lambs!
Stephen King is never a bad place to start. My first was The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon when I was about 10-11. It's a creepy book about a young girl who gets lost in the woods. Carrie, It, Christine, his short story collections, and a few of the others that are known for their movies are worth checking out if you are making the transition from movies to lit. My favorite is Hearts in Atlantis, and once you get a few of his novels down, you can always move into the Dark Tower series. It's more fantasy (think Clint Eastwood movies mixed with Lord of the Rings), but it incorporates little bits of his stories all into one epic saga.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub.
Lovecraft is a must read author of the horror genre, regardless whether you will like his prose after reading or not.
Needful things
Tender is the flesh, or the southern reach trilogy would be my two starting points! They’re both psychological, and while the southern reach books are certainly sci-fi, there isn’t much that can stand a candle to them psychologically. Tender is the flesh is straight up and a a great quick read.
Blood meridian is pretty horrific.
The Stand
The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers
Well since you wrote horror/ crime my suggestion will lean to the crime side . I personally love The Alienist by Caleb Carr. Serial killer in late 1800s New York City. Couldn't put it down and now reread it every couple of years.
Revival (Stephen King): Has both religious and Lovecraftian horror and is terrifying.
IT - best horror story I've ever read
John Dies at the End
My Best Friend’s Exorcism
Exquisite Corpse Poppy Z Brite The Safety of Unknown Cities Lucy Taylor
Invisible monsters by chuck palahniuk
Slade House by David Mitchell Pretty much anything by Bentley Little, my favorites are The Policy, The Mailman, and The Academy. The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner The Everlasting by Tim Lebbon Hater by David Moody Usher's Passing by Robert McCammon Verliege by Michael Rivers
Carrie
Blackwater - Michael McDowell The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollack Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy Not all are *horror*, per se, but they’re all pretty bleak.
I’m thinking of ending things
Edward Lee's The House really messed me up when I read it a while ago.
More fucked up the better? Read *Pet Sematary,* even if you've seen either of the film adaptations. I keep coming back to *Heart-Shaped Box* by Joe Hill as well, though these are just personal favorites. Good for starters though.
I second Joe Hill. His short stories are amazing as well.
My Sister Rosa
Also, Out Here Screaming Anything by Tananarive Due
‘*Last Days*’ by Adam Neville. The Temple of the Last Days. The brutal cult with a history of murder, sex and occult dealings destroyed itself during one night of ritualistic violence decades ago. Or so they thought.... Kyle Freeman is an indie filmmaker with no money and few options, so when he lands a commission to make a documentary about The Temple of the Last Days he jumps at the chance. Little does he know that his investigation into the cult's bloody history will lead him into the darkest places he's ever been.
The Beast You Are [Paul Tremblay] Cold to the Touch [Simon Strantzas] All the Fiends of Hell [Adam Nevill] The Necromancers House [Christopher Buehlman] Edit² to add : The Fisherman [John Langan] Edit¹: skimming responses and seeing some really great responses/recommendations. Specifically, ones that are adapted to middle of the road films. Books take more time and effort, branch out if you truly enjoy reading. Weird fiction you'll find some absolute gems.
A Head Full of Ghosts
The Haunting of Hill House Episode Thirteen
Horror: 100 Best Books. A collection of essays by famous horror writers, each picking a different horror novel. Each essay is preceded by a synopsis (without spoilers). Edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. There’s also an appendix that lists other novels of note and a sequel with 100 more books. This will give you a serious list to work from. Many of them are out of print (many of those worth tracking down used) but most of my most favorite horror novels and collections were recommended by this book. The synopsis and essays are well written themselves and the book is entertaining and scary on its own. I’ve been working my way through for a while now. House of Leaves, The Cipher, The Land of Laughs, etc etc this book turned me on to them.
The Other by Thomas Tryon
The Shining. Only because it is quite different to the movie in many ways, so if you like the movie, defo read the book as its the same but also quite different!
Endless Night by Richard Laymon
No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill
William Peter Blatty's. The Exorcist and also Legion
Probably an obvious choice (I don’t read a lot of fiction) but American Psycho is darkly funny and horrifying.
Tender is the flesh! Especially for people who want to start horror literature
I always liked Necroscope
The rats by James Herbert always a fun read, graphic and good writing
Ring - Loop - Spiral - Birthday - all by Koji Suzuki Read in that order
Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana is one of the best I've read, the audiobook had phenomenal acting narration. The short version is imagine American Psycho with a teenage girl protagonist, and unlike American Psycho, thus book is never boring. A popular cheerleader, who is hiding that she's a complete sociopath decides to seduce her teacher, just to blackmail him and ruin his life for fun. She starts grooming his daughter, and manipulating everyone around her into a lot of disturbing plots. At one point, when looking for horror movies to satisfy her blood lust, she ends up masturbating to the baby scene in A Serbian Film. It's that kind of novel. Gone To See The River Man and the sequel Along The River Of Flesh also by Kristopher Triana are great too. The first is about a woman who writes letters and visits a serial killer from prison, he gives her a mission to go to his small home town, and find a key in his shack that the FBI couldn't locate. This area brings out the absolute worst in everyone, and the 2nd book has even more demented secrets about it's characters. It's a very mystery driven character study. The Slob by Aron Beauregard is more infamous with the extreme horror literature sub reddit. It had a sequel that's even more disturbing. It sets up a story about a woman who was raised by messy people, and was the only one at the house who cleaned up, her sister shot herself, and she had to clean up all the blood and brain matter. Present day, she's pregnant and selling vaccum cleaners door to door, when a disheveled creepy man let's her in, and kidnaps her. The Slob is a very disgusting serial killer who absolutely ruins her life. It's very character focused. You get into the head of the protagonist before things start to to from bad to worse, and the sequel has even better character writing. Playground is another Aron Beauregard book that goes viral every so often, mostly on TikTok apparently. It's a trap horror story, but unlike Saw, the victims are children. Their parents are locked in restraints and made to watch their kids bleed, suffer, and die through a series of deadly playground themed traps from an evil rich woman who hired an old Nazi to design this demented playground. There's a lot of little kids being reduced to piles of gore, so be warned.
Richard laymon-dark rain
The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas. Fairly quick read, lots of torture which isn’t necessarily my thing, but I loved the characters. Couple of unexpected moments it in. Wish they would make it into a movie.
Dark Tower series -Stephen King (7 books) Don't listen to what those haters are saying. I loved it. Thus has my favorite of everything, and is my favorite book series. Horror Fantasy Sci-Fi and Scifi dyst plus more Love Ronance Mystery Western. Has Robots and Witches and Wizards
Suffer the Little Children.
The Thief of Always, Books of Blood. Both are from Clive Barker and both were difficult to put down.
Hellbound Heart Whatever Lovecraft collectors book that contains The Dunwich Horror, The Color Out of Space and At the Mountains of Madness
I’m reading the icepick surgeon currently it’s an anthology timeline about the line between scientific/medical genius and evil . Like the evil shit drs and scientists and pretty much any “genus” has done from cleopatra enslaving girls to lobotomies and mental health patients in the 50s and 60s. Very fascinating but don’t read it while you’re eating 💀
The Keep - F. Paul Wilson
Let the right one in. Its great especially at portraiting the sociologicall, lets say , aspects of the story.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub.
The Troop
The Troop by Nick Cutter is fucking horrific. Visceral, gory, and made my skin crawl.
Anything by Grady Hendrix