Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hey y'all! I'm new to the group, and I've been browsing around in topics and your 'best' list to get an idea for new horror to read. I am, however, a bit overwhelmed :). So I'm just curious, if you could pick like 5 of your top horror novels (or anthologies) to recommend, what would they be? Besides Stephen King, because I already own and have read literally every novel available written by him :). I'd appreciate the input, so I can narrow down what to look into!

Here are 5 excellent horror books

1. The Little Stranger
2. Come Closer
3. Dead Sea
4. Under the Skin
5. The Ruins

Every single one of these are MUST reads!! IMHO...:)

1. Kin

2. Sharp Objects

3. Skin Medicine

4. When We Join Jesus In Hell

5. Picking the Bones

All of Tressa's are too!

I picked some I don't pimp out as much.

Ghoul
Summer of Night
Blood Games
Off Season
Mr. Hands

Twice as Dark
Ghost Story
Others
The Girl Next Door
The Wicked

Wow thanks y'all :) gonna have a huge to-buy list!! A lot of these look really good. I have read The Ruins and Off Season, and really liked them.
Amanda- Mr. Hands will probably scare the crap outta me. I for some reason have had an unnatural fear of dolls since I was a kid (and clowns!). So it's definitely on my tbr list now :)
Stephanie- the Deadlocked series looks really good. I'm a zombie fan for sure. Thanks for letting me know the first is free, I'll get that one ASAP!

Dead Sea and The Girl Next Door look awesome too!

Cindy wrote: "Wow thanks y'all :) gonna have a huge to-buy list!! A lot of these look really good. I have read The Ruins and Off Season, and really liked them.
Amanda- Mr. Hands will probably scare the crap out..."

Mr Hands is...complicated I don't know else how to put it. Braunbeck's books sort of have a chunk of soul in them. It gives a lot of his work some more meaning than many writers.

Cindy wrote: "Dead Sea and The Girl Next Door look awesome too!"

Make sure you read The Girl Next Door when you're feeling emotionally strong, Cindy! Amazing book, but hard on the heart...

...but light on the kidneys!

Naomi
Rosemary's Baby
Whispers
Just a few off the top of the old noggin!!

I also second Under the Skin and Come Closer!!

When I seen the word 'rec,' I thought this was a music discussion. Foiled again!

Fear Me by Tim Curran

Kinby Kealan Patrick Burke

The Hoardby Alan Ryker

The Bleeding Season by Greg Gifune

When We Join Jesus In Hell by Lee Thompson

I just realized that up until about 1.5 years ago, I didn't know any of these authors. Thanks to Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and HA and Darkfuse for turning me on to these!
(Except for Alan Ryker who I dug up on my own. :))

Jon Recluse wrote: "...but light on the kidneys!"

Lol, Jon! You are be make me laugh !

R.M.F wrote: "When I seen the word 'rec,' I thought this was a music discussion. Foiled again!"

Haha, sorry!!

Thanks everyone!! Keep em coming, my TBR list is growing :)

Charlene, This is the first time I've seen The Hoard or Alan Ryker mentioned, it looks really good. Appreciate it!

If you like it I would HIGHLY recommend Burden Kansas. These are not your dad's vampires, nor do they sparkle. :)

Here's a suggestion: ($60 USD). New subscribers receive five free books when they join. With your five choices, I'd choose among the following:

Novels from DarkFuse
1. Benjamin's Parasite
2. Judas Goat
3. Descent

Novellas from DarkFuse
1. Fear Me
2. Without Purpose, Without Pity
3. Snowblind - top 10 bestseller for last three months
4. The Mourning House - #1 bestseller for last three months
5. The Underdwelling

As part of your DarkFuse subscription, you'll also receive one dark fiction novel and novella every month for 12 months. If you don't like what they send you then you can exchange for an Amazon gift certificate and get something else :) Along the way they will send you additional bonus free books. It's a great deal and a number of others around here are already in the club :)

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Now, if you don't want to buy a DarkFuse subscription yet, then here are a few of my horror favorites, sans Stephen King, in no particular order:

1. Swan Song
2. Carrion Comfort
3. I am Legend and Other Stories
4. Rosemary's Baby
5. The Exorcist
6. The Silence of the Lambs
7. Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
8. Dead Sea

I'm bookmarking this list for reference and adding a title too:

The Passage by Justin Cronin.
This is not your typical vampire story and it's set in a post apocalyptic future.
It's the first part of a trilogy. I haven't read the next two books yet, but I am planning to (the second book has been recently released and the third one is still being written).

Can you people not count? ;-)

Here are a great Top 5, all by Jonathan Maberry:



1. Ghost Road Blues- Bk 1 (Pine Deep)
2. Dead Man's Song- Bk 2 (Pine Deep)
3. Bad Moon Rising - Bk 3 (Pine Deep)
4. Patient Zero
5. Dead of Night

Hey, David!!! It's great to see you here!!

I agree with your list too. Those are all of the Maberry books that I have read so far. :)

Charlene wrote: "If you like it I would HIGHLY recommend Burden Kansas. These are not your dad's vampires, nor do they sparkle. :)"

Wow, added! That looks really interesting, thankya ma'am.

Rita wrote: "I'm bookmarking this list for reference and adding a title too:

The Passage by Justin Cronin.
This is not your typical vampire story and it's set in a post apocalyptic future.
It's the first part..."
That looks really good, thanks for the recommendation. The list keeps growing ;)

David wrote: "Here are a great Top 5, all by Jonathan Maberry:

1. Bad Moon Rising
2. Dead Man's Song - Bk 2 (Pine Deep)
3. Bad Moon Rising - Bk 3 (Pine Deep)
4. Patient Zero
5. Dead of Night"
I've looked at a few of Maberry's books on here and they all looked like something I'd love to read, especially the Pine Deep series. Thanks!

Tressa wrote: "Can you people not count? ;-)"

Haha, it's fine, I wasn't tryin to get all strict on y'all :) I just wanted to know what everyone would recommend if they couldn't give me like 100 books to look into; its overwhelming looking at some of those lists!

Cindy wrote: "Rita wrote: "I'm bookmarking this list for reference and adding a title too:

The Passage by Justin Cronin.
This is not your typical vampire story and it's set in a post apocalyptic future.
It's t..."

Glad you like it, Cindy!

The Haunting of Hill House is my favorite non-King horror.
You can't go wrong with early John Saul. He was another favorite growing up. It's been awhile though.
I'm drawn towards dark-fantasy in my horror. So I like Clive Barker. The Great and Secret Show used to be my all time favorite. And-
I used to read a lot of Anne Rice. The Witching Hour is my favorite. And-
Dean Koontz, my favorite is Strangers.

Cindy wrote: "Tressa wrote: "Can you people not count? ;-)"

Haha, it's fine, I wasn't tryin to get all strict on y'all :) I just wanted to know what everyone would recommend if they couldn't give me like 100 bo..."

I'm just messing with them because it ultimately happens. We just can't stop ourselves from listing everything we love.

Charlene wrote: "Hey, David!!! It's great to see you here!!

I agree with your list too. Those are all of the Maberry books that I have read so far. :)"

I have a couple more group of 5 books to add.

Cindy wrote: "David wrote: "Here are a great Top 5, all by Jonathan Maberry:

1. Bad Moon Rising
2. Dead Man's Song - Bk 2 (Pine Deep)
3. Bad Moon Rising - Bk 3 (Pine Deep)
4. Patient Zero
5. Dead of Night"..."
***
I would have a hard time picking out my favorite of this five: Patient Zero is an action/horror story. Dead of Night is a GREAT zombie thriller. Each Pine Deep Book builds upon the one before it...the ending to Bad Moon Rising is sooooooo good!

Traci L. wrote: "The Haunting of Hill House is my favorite non-King horror.
You can't go wrong with early John Saul. He was another favorite growing up. It's been awhile though.
I'm drawn towards dark-fantasy in my..."

Traci, I loved The Witching Hour as well. :)

Can I add 5 more books to consider?

1. Resurrection: Zombie Epic
2. DRACULAS a funny gory vampire feast!
3. Terror Town
4. Husk
5. Yesterday's Gone: Season One You cannot go wrong with this series. There are 3 seasons out there, and each episode gets better & better as you go along.

David wrote: "Can I add 5 more books to consider?

1. Resurrection: Zombie Epic
2. DRACULAS a funny gory vampire feast!
3. Terror Town
4. Husk
5. Yesterday's Gone: Season One You cannot go wrong with t..."
The Yesterday's Gone series looks awesome! Thanks David.

I've had The Haunting of Hill House on my TBR list for forever and still haven't gotten to it. Better move it up in my to buy list!

Cindy wrote: "David wrote: "Can I add 5 more books to consider?

1. Resurrection: Zombie Epic
2. DRACULAS a funny gory vampire feast!
3. Terror Town
4. Husk
5. Yesterday's Gone: Season One You cannot g..."

I have read the entire first season and 4 of the 6 episodes in the 2nd season. Horror story for sure, with a large cast of characters and many locations. But a well written storyline. They got me hooked!

The zombie lover in me would feel bad if I didn't list at least 5 Zombie books:

1. - Zombies/military * super action gore fest!
2. - very similiar as Tooth & Nail, and just as GOOD!
3. - What a great series of novellas. I felt it was written JUST for me. Special forces action and world wide zombies. Tons of gore/action.
4. - Turns out I love Steampunk! Especially if it involves zombies and WWI action!
5. - This book started my love for military zombie stories. Soon to be a classic in this field.

David wrote: "The zombie lover in me would feel bad if I didn't list at least 5 Zombie books:

1. - Zombies/military * super action gore fest!
2. [bookcover:The Gathering Dea..."

I own the Day by Day Armageddon series; I just got the 3rd one but haven't read it yet. I loved the first 2! I'll have to check out the other ones ya listed.

Not necessarily my top 5 of all time (a couple are, but not the whole list)...

The Joe Pitt series of vampire noir books by Charlie Huston (starts with "Already Dead")

"Penpal" by Dathan Auerbach

"At the Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft

"The Hellbound Heart" by Clive Barker

"Dark Harvest" by Norman Patridge

1. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
2. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
3. Horns by Joe Hill
4. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
5. Dweller by Jeff Strand

Like an earlier poster, I've never heard of half of these books. I don't know if that's good or bad!

Good. More books for us to read. :)

The Pine Deep Series is great!
As far as Summer Of Night, Off Season, The Girl Next Door and I Am Legend I concur

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
The Totem by David Morrell
The Travelling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon
Height of the Scream by Ramsey Campbell
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker

Ever read any of Cantrell's other books, Kyle?

Torments
The Ridge
Boneman

Cindy wrote: "R.M.F wrote: "When I seen the word 'rec,' I thought this was a music discussion. Foiled again!"

Haha, sorry!!"

Slighty off-topic, it is possible to do a music discussion on this site?