From modern era to Victorian and even further back, what are your favorite horror novels?

I personally enjoy classics like "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley or "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. There's nothing scary about them, but they're great stories. I'd say Frankenstein is my favorite novel.

I'd like to read more of Edgar Allen Poe, as cliché as that is and H.P. Lovecraft is of interest.

Somehow I've yet to read any Stephen King, even though he's supposed to be this big horror icon.

And, though it was more teen or young adult, I found this book/series "The Devouring" to be an oddly well-written and good read.

I love Vampire stories & V.C. Andrews!

I have Every book Stephen King has written...incl.the nonfiction. He is my Fave author for getting the goosies....you really need to read one..then you'll be hooked, :)...just finished his novel about JFK...lots of little tidbits that as a Canadian, i didnt know about the time leading up to his death...definately a different point of view when your reading oswalds story. Cheers, Tara

Some of Steve King's stuff is really good. If you are into vampires, you can't go wrong with Salem's Lot.

Some of Steve King's stuff is really bad. Steve King has trouble with endings...

I'm a huge fan of Frankenstein- I have an edition from the 1930's, and a newer one illustrated by Bernie Wrightson(who has illustrated a few of Stephen King's books)

I also like Bram Stoker's Dracula.

HP Lovecraft is excellent, two of my favorite stories of his- The Rats In The Walls, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Algernon Blackwood is really good(Lovecraft was a big fan of his work), also MR James.

Other favorites-

Psycho - Robert Bloch
I Am Legend, Hell House - Richard Matheson
Phantoms - Dean Koontz
Ghost Story - Peter Straub
Haunting Of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Elementals - Michael McDowell
Off Season - Jack Ketchum
The Other, Harvest Home - Tom Tryon
Slugs, Breeding Ground, Spawn- Shaun Hutson
The Dark, The Fog, The Rats, The Survivor - James Herbert(he has a lot more)

Robert R McCammon has written some excellent genre books, most of them aren't straight horror but blends multiple genres- The Wolf's Hour is set during WWII about a British secret agent sent in to stop the German's from launching a weapon, the agent also happens to be a werewolf.


If you don't mind explicit gore, violence, and sex- Richard Laymon is great, all of his books are fun quick reads, like B-movie books-
The Traveling Vampire Show, The Stake, Body Rides, Come Out Tonight, Island, Night In The Lonesome October, Blood Games, In The Dark.
His book Savage is an interesting blend of horror and western- a British teen witnesses one of Jack The Ripper's killings, and ends up chasing Jack to the American West.

For Stephen King, only one of his books I disliked The Tommyknockers. For straight horror: The Shining, Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, Desperation, It, Cell, Christine.
His more thriller type- Carrie, Firestarter, The Dead Zone, Misery, Delores Claiborne.

Also his fantasy- The Talisman, and his Dark Tower series.

Others- The Stand, The Long Walk, Duma Key, Under The Dome, short story collections Night Shift, and Skeleton Crew.

The vampire series from Anne Rice was pretty awesome.

In my mind....its hard to top Lestat.

My favorite Stephen King book was The Stand. Not really horror, but one of my favorites anyway.

I agree, Rice's vampire series is excellent. Lestat is one of the best Vampire characters.

"I'm so very bad about being good, and so very good about being bad"

Lestat

aww, to me, tommyknockers was one of his best... the movie sucked tho...

"IT" had to be one of the best books I ever read. Peter Straub and Robert McCammon can also give you the willies. I remember reading a long stream of horror novels when I was growing up. I guess you can get hooked on the adrenalin the really good ones can build.
As for vampire novels I really enjoyed the Necroscope series by Brian Lumley. The vampires in it were unique.

One of my favorite vampire novels is The Light At The End by John Skipp & Craig Spector. It's about a vampire that starts terrorizing NY, so a group of bike messengers decide to take him on.

Most King stuff. He has a lot of creative ideas even today.

Most Lumley stuff. He rethinking about vampires always interested me. I know plans are in the works for a movie supposedly, so would be psyched about that.

Koontz is hit and miss with me. Same with Saul.

I will echo how awesome Lovecraft is, virtually all his stuff. Same with Poe.

Several other great books of the top of my head I enjoyed.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Turn of The Screw
The Haunting of Hill House
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Books of Blood 1-3

There are a great number of bonks and authors I have enjoyed over the years.

I saw some of those illustrations. They were utterly amazing.
Been wanting to read Dracula, but never got to it.

A decent read in the way of werewolf stories was Werewolf Of Paris by Guy Endore. Kinda' odd at times though (mainly due to an incest scene).
It was the basis for the Hammer Horror film Curse Of The Werewolf with Oliver Reed.

Nice to know we all Read lol!

I like collecting horror novelizations, I especially like the ones that are based on the original screenplay, so you get to see what the film would have been like before the changes.

One of the best examples of this is the novelization for the 1981 horror flick The Pit, the book goes under the films original title Teddy.

I also have the one for the early 80's slasher The Funhouse written by Dean Koontz under the name Owen West.

Squirm, Alien, Aliens, Prophecy, and a bunch of others.


And, there's some of the books that became horror flicks-

The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty
Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Ring - Koji Suzuki(the source for the Ringu films, and the American The Ring)
The Keep - F Paul Wilson
Pin - Andrew Neiderman

Pretty much any Stephen King (especially his short story collections).

His son Joe Hill also has an amazing short story collection called "20th Century Ghost".

Ramsey Campbell has some good stuff.

Pretty much anything written by Clive Barker.

Joe R. Lansdale has some good stories.

Whitley Strieber

The old school masters Poe & Lovecraft of course.

Peter Straub