My Top Ten Horror Novels All-Time, For the Moment, Subject to Change!
Fun fact, but I didn’t have television for five years. I didn’t socialize much in my grade school years. My free time was spent training. I went to singing lessons, improv classes, and Shakespearean method training. I learned how to paint with oils, acrylics, watercolors, and mixed media. I was taught how to sculpt with wax, clay, and epoxy. I learned how to do injection molding and vacuum forming. I taught myself to play the guitar and took lessons for the clarinet and saxophone. Sounds sexy right? It wasn’t. I can hold a conversation about almost everything, but I never had time to focus on any one skill enough to be great. Needless to say, I didn’t have a lot of time to myself. The time I did have was spent reading. Since the age of 5, I have made it a mission to read a minimum of 12 books a year. Most years I end up closer to 20. The below are my Top Ten and, as always, they are subject to change.
10. The Dead Zone - Stephen King
By the age of 6 I had already read Cujo and It. I wasn’t a fan of either of them. Cujo was boring until the 2/3 mark and IT was a convoluted mess of time jumps and child predation. Even as a kid, a child orgy wasn’t cool. Enter The Dead Zone. This is my all-time favorite King book. It has a little bit of everything. A character who is forced to shine after an accident. He uses his powers to hunt a serial killer and to help those in need, but at what cost? It’s a harrowing journey with one of the few satisfying endings in Stephen King’s mythos.
9. Monster - A. Lee Martinez
A. Lee Martinez is the most underrated writer in the last decade. He had an incredible run with hits like the Automatic Detective and Gil’s All Fright Diner, but Monster is my favorite. It’s just such a fun idea. Minimum wage retail jockey fights side by side with a supernatural animal control officer and his paper gnome assistant to save the world. It’s funny as hell and has some of the most original, grounded urban fantasy ideas ever put to page. I can’t recommend it enough.
8. Intensity - Dean Koontz
Dean Koontz is a punchline nowadays. I know that sounds mean, but come on—the guy released a book about how he talks to his psychic dog. I’m as crazy as the next dog person, but that’s a new flippin’’ level. Before he went crazy for bowl-cuts and golden retrievers, he was an edge lord. This book is one of the most graphic and accurate depictions of a psychopath put to page. It delves into the topics of serial murder, spree killing, child grooming, and does it at a breakneck pace. I read this book in a single sitting. It’s like riding on top of bullet train made of depravity. Don’t start this book if you have anything else to do that day.
7. Ghoul - Michael Slade
Michael Slade isn’t a single person. Michael Slade is all of us… just kidding. It’s a corporate pseudonym used by a group of talented Canadian writers and former law enforcement officers. They write graphic, procedurally accurate thrillers with Ghoul being my favorite. Three serial killers are operating at the same time, feeding off each other, and escalating quickly. A Canadian mounty detective is running out of time to stop the trio from destroying London. This book is not for those of a weak stomach. Much like Thomas Harris’ novels, this book is extremely graphic and includes incest and cannibalism as central motifs.
6. Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
The movie doesn’t exist. Just keep repeating it over and over again until it comes true. I’ve read The Secret, I know what’s up. This book is where the Vampire Chronicles should have ended. Interview with a Vampire built the world, The Vampire Lestat set the stage, and Queen of the Damned is the final climactic battle between the old and new blood. It’s an incredible piece of seductive action. You can even skip the previous two books as Rice fills in all the gaps in the initial third of this book. It’s just perfect.
5. John Dies at the End - David Wong
David Wong is real, or he isn’t. It’s not super clear. What is clear is that this book is a lot of fun, or is it? It’s hard to tell as David Wong, if that is his real name, weaves a tale of monsters, inter dimensional travel, and amputee love. It’s the most fun you can have with a stack of pages. The book toys with you and your perception. It’s written sleight of hand. On one page smoke the other mirrors, you never know if what you’re reading is real or just in Dave’s imagination. Who’s Dave? Read the book and find out.
4. Summer of Night - Dan Simmons
Quick summary: It without all the molestation, incest, and general child sex themes.
Here’s the long version. This book is stand by me mixed with a tale of the old gods. An ancient bell makes its way from the ruins of the Roman Empire into the hands of wealthy land owner in a small town. This bell isn’t normal, in fact it might just be alive. When the bell arrives in town, so does misfortune. A group of tight-knit, likable kids have to risk their lives to save their town while their parents sleep. Zombies, ghouls, demons, and body snatchers come for them in the mist. The bell is hungry. The bell must be fed. The stakes in this book escalate as any one can die at any time. It’s a long read, but worth it. Dan Simmons writing is as close to true literature that exists in the horror genre. I highly recommend the audio book on this one as the narrator’s performance is out of this world.
3. The Elementals - Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell was a brilliant writer. His masterpiece, Cold Moon Over Babylon, is one of the most ripped off books of all time. I’m looking at you Twin Peaks! McDowell was also one of the great minds we lost to the AIDS epidemic. Funny how the government rushes for vaccines for every illness except the ones that target our minority brothers and sisters, eh? I’ll leave my outrage for another day. The Elementals is my favorite of McDowell’s works. It’s not gory or edgy. It’s an old Southern Gothic ghost story. Old money families meet on their private Island in the Gulf Coast of Alabama after the death of a family matriarch. Three mansions occupy the isle of Beldame. Two belong to the visiting families, the third isn’t spoken of. It’s occupied, but the presence inside isn’t interested in mint juleps. It has darker appetites.
2. 666 - Jay Anson
I feel like writing The Amityville Horror guaranteed that all other books written by Jay Anson were overlooked. Which is unfortunate, because 666 is a much better story. That’s not to say it isn’t similar to his penultimate work, but its a much more original idea. He tosses aside the “Based on a true story” BS and writes an original work of fiction that has kept me mesmerized since my father first read it to me when I was seven years old. A man finds an ancient Roman coin bearing the head of Nero in his new home. Little does he know that the coin is a bell tolling the end of his happy existence. Its a haunted object story that includes one of the most awe inspiring appearance by the devil I’d ever read. I remember the scene like I just read it. This is a masterpiece of horror and its a shame it has faded into obscurity.
Cabal - Clive Barker
“Everything is true. God’s an astronaut, Oz is over the rainbow, and Midian is where the monsters live… And you came to die.” - Peloquin
Clive Barker is my favorite author and Cabal is his masterpiece. A man seeks redemption for being a serial murderer and thus runs to a city of monsters. The only problem? He’s not a murderer, and the monsters are hungry. This is a horror superhero tale of epic proportions. The film adaptation Nightbreed is fantastic in its own right, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the epic book that inspired it. A serial killer that operates like a white collar terminator leading an army of bigots and racists against a city of fallen gods. It frames our society so well without brow beating you into the ground. Barker weaves a sensual tale of love, loss, and the right for all to live without judgement, may they be monsters or men.
Read this book.
