I’m not even going to ask if you want to win a box of boo-oriented books from Hachette Book Group, because you’d be dead to turn down that offer. Well, we’ve got five complete sets of all 10 of the following titles up for grabs:
• THE HERETIC’S DAUGHTER by Kathleen Kent
• ISOLATION by Travis Thrasher
• THE 13 BEST HORROR STORIES OF ALL TIME edited by Leslie Pockell
• THE MONSTERS: MARY SHELLEY AND THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
• THE MYRTLES PLANTATION: THE TRUE STORY OF AMERICA’S MOST HAUNTED HOUSE by Frances Kermeen
• GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA’S HAUNTED INNS AND HOTELS by Frances Kermeen
• THE TERROR by Dan Simmons
• DRACULA by Bram Stoker
• WHEN GHOSTS SPEAK: UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD OF EARTHBOUND SPIRITS by Mary Ann Winkowski
• THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova
Here’s what you have to do to be entered in the random drawing:
1. In the comments for this post, let us know the best and worst horror book you’ve ever read, and why.
2. After that, e-mail us your answers, along with your name and mailing address. You must be a resident of the U.S. or Canada; no P.O. boxes.
We’ll announce the winner on Monday, Oct. 27, or you can always just buy them on Amazon.
Related posts:
- Finally! HORROR to get its own BEST OF anthology in ’06
- The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time
- Universal Monsters: Cavalcade of Horror
- The Horror in the Museum
- The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
The best Horror novel I’ve ever read is a tie between Stephen King’s the Stand and Jack Ketchum’s the Girl next Door. The reason for the tie you ask? The overall power of both novels is extraordinary but in exact opposite ways. The Stand, while utterly firghtening and believable as a Post-Apocalyptic novel, is also incredibly life affirming. The Girl Next Door tends to have the opposite effect of the Stand, where it makes you feel a little Nauseous and slightly ashamed because you know there are people out there exactly like the antagonists. Plus, both books are very well written and both established each novelist as masters of their craft at the peak of their powers.
As far as the worst Horror novel, well, there are a ton of canidates for this. But I’m going to have to spotlight Stephen King again and his haunted car epic, Christine. The characters are card board cut-outs, and completely unlikable as people. Not to mention, the book just isn’t that scary. I believe Christen was also the last of King’s “Cocaine” novels, and you can tell the drug is really starting to have a negative effect on his writing.
Great contest Rod (you look fantastic today, I’ll add).
The best horror novel was “The Shining” by Stephen King. The book is delightfully scary, but the reason it had such an impact on me was because I was 14 years old at the time. I read the novel at our Maine cottage — tucked into an isolated hemlock forest on a lake (with the cry of loons filling the twilight). I found it impossible to sleep — every night sound sending terror through me. I used to sleep with my bowie knife under my pillow.
The worst horror novel, unfortunately, was “Bag of Bones” by Stephen King. I had given up on King in my mid-twenties as I thought he had lost his fastball. But “Bag of Bones” got such wonderful reviews — I decided to return. I found the book had its moments — but they were buried. King suffers from “Big Author” Syndrome — where editors are afraid to touch his work. “Bag of Bones” could have been good — there’s a scary novel inside of it — but it needed to lose about 200 pages. In other words, it needed an editor with a red pencil.
Thanks for holding the contest! Hope I bring home the books!
The best horror novel I’ve ever read? It’s a tough call, but I’d go with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. We’re so used to seeing all the movie versions that we tend to think Jekyll is the authentic, real identity and Hyde is just his secret desires that take over. Jekyll is a good guy that we root for. But Stevenson’s novel is really about how how Jekyll is an evil guy and has spent years covering it up. When he finally decides to confront his vileness, it is so powerful that he can’t control it. Hyde takes over because Hyde is his true self. Brutal stuff and I love it.
The worst horror novel I’ve ever read has to be HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, which I would have quit reading at page 10 had I not been dating a girl who said it was her favorite book. Oh, what we do for love. Any novel that features a fight with six-foot penguins has no right to be even called horror. And don’t get me started on Lovecraft’s prose. He has to be the worst stylist in the history of well-known writers. I not only wish I had stopped reading Mountains of Madness at page 10, I wish I had broken up with that girl after page 10, as well.
Glad to see something as vintage as JEKYLL show up here (and no, people, it won’t hurt or help anyone’s chances). That’s a powerful little novel, and I remember reading it for the first time nearly 15 years ago, behind a closed door at work. Don’t tell.
Sorry to disagree I enjoy Lovecraft and At The Mountains of Madness is one of my favorites.
I’m always a little on the fence about Lovecraft. Most of his stuff did usher in a new sense of the supernatural, and he did inspire some truly talented writer’s to begin their careers. But in the same breath, so much of his writing was nothing but Poe Pastiche.
Best novel has to be Stephen King’s the Stand, its the book I go back and revisit the most, I reread it at least once a year. Thecharacters are just so fully realized even the tertiary characters. And the Lincoln Tunnel scene is still the scaries scene in any book I have ever read.
worse book is hands down Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. This book was so boring it took me 5 tries before I could finish it. It’s funny cause I really love the film that probably has more to do with the performances of tom cruise and kirsten dunst. i never even bothered to read another rice book after my experience with that one.
I’ll agree with any of Rice’s books. I think most of her writing is stiff and lifeless, and most of the time I wonder how she attracted such a huge fan base?
I’m terrible at picking Bests–unless I have a stock answer, I tend to go with what I have most loved, most recently. Which would definitely be Joe Hill’s “20th Century Ghosts.” I love the diversity of the stories, the way they each play with different types of horror–and with different types of human emotion in general. And “Best New Horror”–brr, man, it really is.
Worst–ha, well, I guess I’ll go against the grain and say Anne Rivers Siddons’ “The House Next Door.” I know, this book scared Stephen King, but I think it is HILARIOUS. Yeah, okay, the beginning’s kind of creepy, but then it just turns into “The Porn House Next Door.” The house makes people gay! OH NOES!
I read THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR based solely upon King’s recommendation, and found it to be funny as well. Enter its rooms and you’ll wanna sex someone up. There’s nothing scary about that. I was surprised to see this was turned into a cable TV movie recently, but it was neutered (no pun intended, but perfectly appropriate) and mostly unwatchable, as you would expect from any movie starring Lara Flynn Boyle that’s not directed by David Lynch.
The best: ROSEMARY’S BABY by Ira Levin, because it was the first one I ever read — at the age of _eight_, borrowing it from a neighbor’s shelf.
The worst: THE TOMMYKNOCKERS by Stephen King, which King himself says he doesn’t even remember writing.
I always tend to forget Ira Levin when I participate in these kind of best of thingy’s. Tons of dread and claustrophobic atmosphere in Rosemary’s Baby. My favorite of his is Boys from Brazil.
The best: IT by Stephen King – Kids in the ol’ days were awesome. And the contrast of them as adults with the scattered memories left behind is dead-on. Oh yea…and there is this clown…
The Worst: FROM A BUICK 8 by Stephen King – Supernatural tale about a car seemed rehashed and tired…and done better earlier.
I agree with others before me in calling THE SHINING one of the best horror novels I’ve ever read. I also wanted to nominate A DIRTY JOB by Christopher Moore in the horror/comedy catagory.
On the other hand, I hate to throw stones, but I did find HOUSE by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker to completely miss it’s mark. Billed as a christian horror novel (yeah, I know) I found it to be neither christian nor frightening.
I hate to sound repetitive, but Stephen King’s “The Stand” will always hold the #1 spot for me. I first read the book when I was 11, and had to steal it from mom’s bookshelf because I figured she wouldn’t let me read it if I asked. I spent many nights on the floor, in the space between my bed and the wall, with my book and a flashlight, hoping mom wouldn’t catch me! Eventually she did, and instead of getting mad, she went to her room and came back with Robert McCammon’s “Swan Song,” and told me that is was what I should read when I finished. LOL! Mom and I still share our good horror novel finds, and both just finished reading Dan Simmons’ “Song of Kali.” After reading that, all I can say is, Oh my damn, I am NEVER going to Calcutta!
As for the worst, I have to say that King’s “The Dark Half” was just abysmal. Is the killer Thad Beaumont, George Stark or Alexis Machine? About 30 pages in, I couldn’t care less. And THAD? Really? THAD? And a movie adaptation with Timothy Hutton???? Need I say more?
I’ve read some Anne Rice stuff that didn’t floor me, but I think The Witching Hour is one of the best horror novels I’ve ever read. However, I’ll give the nod for my favorite horror novel to ‘Salem’s Lot. That’s the book that made me want to start writing horror. If we sat down and had a beer and I described ‘Salem’s Lot, you’d probably look at me and say, “Oh, Dracula in small town Maine . . . okay?” But King does such a brilliant job of making the little town come to life, and the inclusion of the perfectly creepy Marston House gave the story depth. What a masterpiece.
The worst — damn, that’s tough because if a book is THAT bad I usually toss it aside. Life is too short to be spent reading bad books, but I’ll say William Peter Blatty’s Legion was the worst that I made it all the way through. It is a sequel to the Exorcist, which I liked a lot and spawned what I consider to be the greatest horror movie ever. Legion however, sucked ass.
Chris,
I also choose “Salem’s Lot” as the best horror novel I’ve ever read. I remember reading it at night and being so terrified that I buried my head under the covers and wouldn’t go near the windows.
As for worst horror novel, I have to go with Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire”. I just couldn’t get into it.
Sharon
Best: The Shining. or Pet Semetary. They both creeped me out. (I wouldn’t let my cat in my bedroom for weeks after I read Pet Semetary.) Actually, I think that was the creepier book; The Shining was a scarier movie. (Does everyone remember the Friends episode where Joey put The Shining in the freezer?)
Worst: I don’t know. I don’t finish books if I don’t like them, and that policy has always applied to horror books. I put down a lot of Stephen King, though. I remember not liking The Tommyknockers. And I remember finishing a Peter Straub book–The Keep?–but I only remember the title, nothing of the story. Maybe that’s significant.
I hope its okay to mention a collection of short stories because the best horror book I’ve read is Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King.
As much as I love King’s novels, I’ve always considered him to be better at writing short stories. I’m not a writer myself, but I imagine that it must be a bit of a challenge to successfully develop characters, include enough detail, and weave a tale that’s not too long when you don’t have many pages to work with. King manages to do that, as well as leave room for humor and other extra tidbits.
One reason I chose Everything’s Eventual instead of one of his other collections is because in writing it he did something that I imagine would be difficult to accomplish, as well as something that I always enjoy reading: he took unoriginal concepts and made original stories from them. How many times have you read about the haunted hotel room or the psychotic slasher? Yet you read King’s stories based on those ideas and you get something entirely different than what you’re used to. A good chunk of the stories in Everything’s Eventual are based on original ideas as well, but it’s the ones that are crafted from overused concepts that stick out the most in my mind.
Of course, the collection isn’t perfect, but it kept me up late on many nights reading and trembling in fascination and fear.
As for the worst horror book I’ve read, Interview with the Vampire is the first one that comes to mind. I actually chose to read it for a high school English project in which we had to do a book vs. movie comparison. I expected to like it after hearing so much praise for it, but I never got into it. I kept reading because, well, I had to for the project, but I also figured it would get better. On the contrary, it actually turned out to be a pain to force myself through.
Maybe I just didn’t get it, but I didn’t find the story (or lack thereof) compelling or interesting in the slightest bit. In my opinion, Rice spent too much time on little, overall meaningless details and descriptions, and not enough on developing her story and characters. Plus, the interview concept ended up being pointless. It did nothing but serve to make the title sound more interesting. In the book, Rice constantly pulls the reader away from the story and back to the wholly boring and purposeless interview. It would have been better if she’d just completely left it out.
I liked the movie better, in case you’re wondering, but I think that’s mostly due to the actors’ performances because the story was still sub-par.
The worst horror of a novel I’ve ever read was The Brady Bunch in Return to New York by Jack Matcha. The infections spreads to the Big Apple. Come for the trainwreck of authorized slash, stay for the smoothness of Greg Brady.
The best horror novel experience was Pet Semetary by Stephen King. I was 15 and read it in one sitting. I finished the last half of the novel in the small hours of the morning standing on the sofa with my back to wall an every light in the house on. Respect.
The best novel horror novel, usually anything by Christopher Pike. The worst? The Historian. Not scary. The other titles look fantastic though.
Christopher Pike! Wow, cool to see him get a mention. I was a major fan of his, back in the ’90s when he was churning books out at a fairly rapid rate — I think his earlier titles were better than his last dozen; the later ones felt very rushed.
After a really long break, he’s put out some new material in the last couple years… I wonder why he disappeared for so long?
My favorite horror novel is probably “IT” by Stephen King as well. I loved the book and always have scary dreams when I read it; usually I don’t dream at all! My least favorite horror novel would probably be Imajica by Clive Barker could not get into that book at all.
My favorite horror novel by a huge margin is Dan Simmons’ “Summer of Night.” I find a lot of his writing uneven but when he’s on he’s a terrific storyteller and the scenes in the book, forget about the writing, are enough to keep you up with the lights on, as afraid to put down the book as you are of continuing to read. And the sequel, “A Winter Haunting,” is a very different book but absolutely brilliant.
My least favorite, and again by a wide margin, is Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire.” It’s a fairly rare thing for me to put down a book and I only made it as far as I did because of a good friend’s recommendation. To this day I have no idea what he or anyone, really, finds appealing in her work.
Picking a favorite horror novel is hard, because there are some really good ones, as I’ve been reminded by the frequent mentions of The Shining and The Stand above. I also loved Robert R. McCammon’s Boys’ Life. And Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door deserves a mention. But I think the horror novel I would pick as my all-time favorite is Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort, a truly epic novel about mind-controlling vampires that is as thick as a doorstop, yet never once slows down. It is a great book, with a large cast of characters and a globe-hopping storyline that fires on all cylinders.
As for the worst horror novel I’ve ever read, the one that came immediately to mind was R. Patrick Gates’ Grimm Memorials, a truly reprehensible book that wasn’t all that dissimilar to the Simmons, in that it features an evil character able to control other peoples’ minds and what they think they see and hear. The difference is that the book is full of truly gross sex and horrific scenes of torture-porn and there isn’t any kind of resolution to the whole thing–evil wins the day. After reading this, I realized I want books where the good guys win.
The best horror story I’ve ever read was The Amityville Horror because it scared me for weeks afterwards. That would be because I believe that haunted houses actually do exist. The Shing would run a very close second as the best. I really can’t recall the worst horror story I’ve ever read because it was so bad that it just did not remain in my memory BECAUSE it was so bad. And I’ve read ALOT of horror because it’s my favorite genre.
Rosemary’s Baby is the best! I still think about it and it still scares me! I felt so sorry for Rosemary! I didn’t like It by Stephen King. I was ok with it until the end which I didn’t like at all.
mittens0831 AT aol.com
I agree with a few others that THE STAND is one of my all time favorites. I’m glad King re-issued it in its entirety, it made more sense. I also agree that a lot of Anne Rice stories are not very good. They are a little dull and boring. I also find a lot of Dean Koontz work lacking.
I love all Stephen KIng books (even the “mediocre” ones are quite readable in my opinion)but since I can’t choose between IT, THE STAND, SALEM’S LOT or the TALISMAN easily, I will move towards a different direction. Thus, my favourite horror book would be the first NECROSCOPE book by Brian Lumley. I read it when I was a freshman at universiry, one of the first books I had read in English (I am Greek)and there was something in the writing, the “wamphyri” creatures, the cold war mentality and the pervading threat that no character was safe that make this book unforgettable.
As for the worst, I also had trouble finishing “Interview with a vampire” (i did finish it but I found it quite tedious).Still, the prize goes to “Suffer the Children” by John Saul. Both boring and predictable.
I’m also a Stephen King reader, I like It and Salem’s lot. The worst is the Exorcist, I could not read it and I can’t watch the movie either-I’ve tried, but I can’t
Best would be THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON by Stephen King (not really a horror book, but it still spooked me)
Worst would be GOBLINS by Vincent Courtney
My top ten:
1. It
2. Pet Sematary
3. Salem’s Lot
4. Shining
5. Christine
6. Night Shift
7. Skeleton Crew
8. Ghost Story
9. I am a Legend
10. Almost all Lovecraft stories
The worst many Koontz books, John Saul books…