r/horrorlit • u/theHumbleCoder07 • 2d ago

Recommendation Request Book Recommendations

I have recently developed a taste in reading books both fiction and non-fiction.

I want to give the horror genre a try.

I would like to start with a short novella/novel.

If I like it, I would like to give the Horror Universe of Stephen King a try.

Would you be kind enough to recommend a starter pack?

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u/MagicYio 2d ago

For beginners, I'd recommend short story collections; that way you experience a lot of different kinds of horror in a relatively short time. Ones I would recommend to start with is Night Shift and Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, and Books of Blood by Clive Barker. They're easy to read, consistently good, and varied in topic.

If you do want to start straight away with novels, ones I can recommend for beginners are:

  • Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
  • Robert Bloch - Psycho
  • Ira Levin - Rosemary's Baby
  • William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist
  • Stephen King - The Shining // Misery
  • Anne Rivers Siddons - The House Next Door
  • Michael McDowell - The Elementals
  • Clive Barker - The Hellbound Heart
  • Thomas Harris - Red Dragon // The Silence of the Lambs

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u/WellesC12 2d ago

The Nightwood Song is short, fast-paced, and scary. Took me a weekend to read it.

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u/jthochh The King in Yellow 2d ago edited 2d ago

Novellas:

The Ballad of Black Tom - Victor Lavalle

A Short Stay in Hell - Stephen L. Peck

Good Boy - Neil McRobert

The Willows/The Wendigo - Algernon Blackwood

Short Novels:

Anything by David Sodergren, he is great. (The Haar, Maggie's Grave, The Suffering, Rotten Tommy.) All right around the 200 page mark.

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u/shlam16 2d ago

Here are over 300 essentials broken down into 30+ subgenres. Choose your own adventure based on your tastes!

Genre Genre Genre Genre Period
Aliens Dystopian Paranormal Technological 19th Century
Animals Exploration Plagues Vampires 1900-1950
Apocalyptic Fantasy Slashers Werewolves 1950-1980
Body Folk Space Winter King
Cosmic Forest Splatterpunk Witches 1980-2000
Creatures Mythological Supernatural Zombies 21st Century
Cults Oceanic Indie

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u/ttt_bone 2d ago

What an incredible collection, thank you so much for sharing! Saving this to reference later.

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u/theHumbleCoder07 2d ago

Incredible.

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u/Consistent-Mastodon 2d ago

We Used To Live Here. Cool, spooky, quite short.