These Eight Best Horror Books Of All Time Are Guaranteed To Give You Nightmares

In The Lonely Hours is a tale as old as time, which follows a family that inherits a beautiful mansion only to find it haunted.

While it pays homage to the past, it stands out as one of the best modern horror books thanks to Shannon Morgan’s gorgeous writing.

Simultaneously romantic and eerie, this book introduces us to a cast of characters living in the Scottish countryside castle which, of course, is haunted by dozens of ghosts.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is a classic haunted house story. The entire book is permeated by a sense of unease. Best of all, underneath the spooks are the tragic tales of the dead that the living are forced to confront.

This horror book is perfect for fans of haunted houses. Giving the vibes of The Conjuring, Annabelle, and Insidious, The Exorcist’s House is a riveting tale of (you guessed it) an old, creepy house with something evil trapped within. 

The previous owner thought he had sealed away the old evils of his career, but that all changed in 1994, when the Hill family moved in and discovered his handiwork.

Though Nick Roberds nods to classic haunted house tales in this book, The Exorcist’s House contains its own unique twists and turns that will make you check behind your shower curtain whenever you go to use the bathroom after midnight. If you want some demonic insomnia-juice, check this one out.

In a tiny Scottish village, a group of youths come face-to-face with their home’s bloody past when they disturb the grave of Maggie, the so-called witch executed for sorcery in 1657.

If you’re an 80’s horror fan, you’ll be obsessed with this book. David Sodergren wrote Maggie’s Grave in a way that makes it seem more like watching a movie than reading a book. It’s got some funny scenes, but every moment is undercut by unsettling tension.

Though this book may seem campy at first, you'll be shocked by every moment of Maggie’s graphic revenge.

Please note: this book is a major gore-fest. You've been warned.

Whoops! Another rec by David Sodergren. What can I say? The man can write the spooky stuff.

If you’re looking for a modern twist on H. P. Lovecraft’s Leviathan horrors, then this is the book for you.

This heart-pounding creature horror will keep you biting your nails throughout the whole story, with a sprinkle of existential terror to boot. Seriously, this is an insane horror book (and you'll love it)!

The Forgotten Island follows two estranged sisters, Ana and Rachel, who decide to take a vacation to Thailand to reconcile their relationship. 

A disaster occurs when the pair finds themselves stranded on a deserted island with no way to contact the outside world. Bad turns to absolutely awful when the sun sets, and the sisters are faced with the mind-bending terrors in the shadows.

A deep-sea voyage to the Mariana Trench. A mockumentary gone wrong. Flesh-eating mermaids. This horror book has got it all.

Into the Drowning Deep is a hauntingly beautiful yet intense tale about Tory, a marine biologist who joined the messy group of scientists tasked with uncovering the fate of a mockumentary crew that had ventured into the Mariana Trench. 

While that mockumentary would have been a fictional tale of ancient deep-sea creatures, Tory and her crewmates will soon learn that the filmmakers discovered reality in their fantasies.

Amid the deep-sea horror, Mira Grant also writes a cast of complex characters, complete with messy relationships and romance galore.

A Sci-Fi Horror — Arachnophobes beware. 

When scientists do what scientists do and go too far on an experiment, massive clusters of spiders spread across the planet, devouring unsuspecting victims within moments. South America is quickly infested, and China inexplicably drops a nuke on itself. 

In this tense horror-apocalypse, a diverse cast of characters are faced with their impending doom and are forced to answer the question, “Can we survive?”

When I learned about this book, I thought the premise was silly. I’m not usually afraid of spiders, but I’d be hard-pressed to find another book that made my skin absolutely crawl the same way The Hatching did.

Fishing-based folk horror may not have been on your reading bingo card this year, but you need to make an exception for The Fisherman by John Langan.

Celebrated as psychological folk horror, this book explores themes of grief while taking the reader down a creek of cosmic terrors.

The Fisherman is about two widowers, Abe and Dan, who become friends after losing their wives. After ignoring a fisherman’s tale of an unmapped creek that locals avoid, they encounter Der Fisher, an entity that will force them to answer the chilling question: What would you do to get back what you’ve lost?

This is arguably one of the best horror classics of all time. Queen of Horror Shirley Jackson takes us into a world that is imaginative, trippy, and disturbing.

In We Have Always Lived in the Castle, we follow a pair of sisters, Merricat and Constance, who are ostracized from society after most of their family was poisoned to death.

This story is told by Merricat, which makes the tale even more unsettling. Both childlike and sadistic, Merricat is a fascinating character, and forcing the reader to be trapped in her troubled mind gives the book a claustrophobic feel that gives you first-person access to blood-curdling horror.

What I loved most about this book was how the real monsters were people, not ghosts, demons, or eldritch horrors.