As an avid horror reader who’s quick to recommend books to anyone who stays still long enough, I’ve gotten very used to fielding follow-up questions like “But how scary is it really?” and “I can’t watch horror movies at all—should I still read this?” Obviously fear is highly subjective—what slaps my “turn all the lights on, you’re not sleeping tonight” buttons may be entirely snooze-worthy for you—but I’ve come to have a pretty accurate understanding of how people are going to respond to a given book.
While the name of the genre tends to imply a uniformly high scare density, horror is a very broad genre, and there really is something for everybody—whether you’re a horror pro who likes the gore and tension dialed up to 11 or a gentle soul who can’t deal with even a light dismembering.
[A quick note to preempt some comments: there’s no Stephen King on this list because, frankly, nobody needs my help to find Stephen King books. Also, Pet Sematary is his scariest book. BYE.]
Low Tolerance: Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic are about as scary as you’re willing to go.
Read: White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
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White is for Witching
This is the haunted house novel on gentle mode, but that doesn’t make it any less stunning. All the elements are here: a hostile house with fairly definite opinions on who it does and does not like, a girl who eats chalk and seems to be disappearing into the woodwork, a menacing elevator, and, of course, ghosts. It’s unsettling, eerie, and beautiful, but never tips over into being outright terrifying, preferring to dwell in the atmospheric gray area between supernatural and mundane horrors, and in the ways we are and aren’t complicit with our circumstances.
Other recommendations at this level:
- The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Medium-Low Tolerance: Zombieland was about your speed.
Read: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Buy the Book
Lovecraft Country
More a series of linked stories than a traditional novel, Lovecraft Country (soon to be an HBO miniseries produced by J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele) is a remarkable accomplishment. Matt Ruff weaves together lightly fictionalized history (for example, the Safe Negro Travel Guide, this novel’s equivalent of the Green Book), cosmic horror, and the quotidian horrors of midcentury anti-Black racism, and populates his novel with a cast of fully-realized and fascinating characters. There’s something in this novel for everybody – one episode focuses on a haunted hotel, while another sees an astronomer walking through a portal into another world – and while the supernatural elements here can be pretty creepy, the emphasis is always solidly on character and family. And, cosmic horror aside, it’s a chilling depiction of the insidious effects of living in a country that hates you.
Other recommendation at this level:
- In The Woods by Tana French
- The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Medium Tolerance: Get Out? Us? No problem.
Read: Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
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Wylding Hall
This short, engrossing novel is an under-appreciated gem, and the perfect creepy October read. It’s the story of a legendary acid folk band and the summer they spent recording their seminal album in a decaying country house, told through a series of interviews with the surviving members of the band and their manager. Julian, the band’s driving creative force and lead singer, disappeared that summer, a mystery that remains unsolved decades later. But that wasn’t the only strange occurrence at Wylding Hall during those few months—the house, the surrounding woods, and the neighboring town were all more than a little uncanny. And then there was the girl in the white dress who appeared at Julian’s side one night and disappeared when he did…
This book is tense and creepy throughout, but there’s one culminating scare that I still find myself thinking about when I’m staring at the ceiling at 3am.
Other recommendations at this level:
- Zone One by Colson Whitehead
- Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
- Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
- The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
Medium-High Tolerance: You made it through It Follows, even if you’ve been looking over your shoulder ever since.
Read: The Fisherman by John Langan
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The Fisherman
This is a word-of-mouth favorite among the horror fans I know, an unconventionally-structured tale that examines grief, loneliness, and the limits of friendship. Dan and Abe, both widowers, have found companionship through a mutual love of fishing. They’ve heard rumors of a spot where the creek runs clear and deep and the fish are plentiful—where downright magical things can happen—and despite a warning from a fellow fisherman, they’re determined to go find it. But what they find there is well beyond anything they could ever have hoped for, or feared.
A good chunk of the narrative here is set in the colonial past, in a community of immigrant workers building the Ashokan Reservoir in upstate New York who’re plagued by something unspeakably evil. In the hands of a lesser writer, a formal risk like that could bring the story grinding to a dead halt, but Langan writes with a deep understanding of human fallibility and emotion, and it’s a thrill and a terror to go along for the ride.
Other recommendations at this level:
- Occultation by Laird Barron
- Bird Box by Josh Malerman
- The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
High Tolerance: You dozed through Hereditary.
Read: Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Buy the Book
Hex
If you have a strong stomach and you’ve been reading horror for a while, you may find yourself (as I sometimes do) chasing the increasingly elusive high of realizing you’re in the middle of the scariest book you’ve ever read. I do think that this is the most subjective out of all of these levels, because it really does depend on what’s the most scary to you personally. For a lot of people, myself included, that’s hopelessness—the scariest of the scariest for me are the bleak books, the ones where there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Hex sits head and shoulders above the rest on that front.
The residents of Black Spring can’t leave. There’s a curse on the town, and her name is Katherine. She’s been dead since the 1600s, when she was executed for witchcraft, but that doesn’t stop her from appearing around town at random—in the woods, on the streets, and in people’s homes. The town elders have worked very hard to keep Katherine a secret from the rest of the world, but for a group of younger residents, that secrecy is a yoke they’re not willing to bear any longer. Their efforts to expose Katherine will have devastating consequences for their families, and the town as a whole. I’m not willing to tell you much more about the plot, because it’s worth going into this one knowing as little as possible. Just know that this book goes there, in every sense.
Other recommendations at this level:
- The Cipher by Kathe Koja
- House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
- Brother by Ania Ahlborn
- A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Emily Hughes wants to talk to you about scary books. You can find her elsewhere in Electric Literature and Brooklyn Magazine. Formerly the editor of Unbound Worlds, she now writes a newsletter about horror literature and tweets bad puns @emilyhughes.
Cool idea, I’ll start with the low level :)
Well, I’m not high tolerance. I read Hex it was a terrible mistake. I did okay with Cherie Priest’s Family Plot and The Toll. I have T Kingfisher’s The Twisted One’s waiting for a few spare hours but I’m expecting it to be functionally at medium tolerance. It helps that I don’t live anywhere near the Carolinas or Florida.
Love, love, LOVE this article! Thanks for all the good recommendations, Emily.
I’m super high tolerance, and most of my friends are at the low to medium-low level, so it’s hard to get them to watch a good horror movie with me. (Though it’s fun to trick them once in a while, and see them cover their eyes!)*
All Emily’s recommendations I have read are not just good, but really, REALLY good. Particularly The Changeling and Lovecraft Country, which was an uncomfortable read for reasons that had nothing to do with the Old Eldritch Ones and everything to do with the social horrors of racism. As for Victor Lavalle, I have read several of his books and they are all top notch, but The Ballad of Black Tom is still my favorite.
*Alas, I got my comeuppance with a certain scene in Annihilation. (Y’all know which one.) For the first time in ages, I was screaming like a little girl, closing my eyes, and covering my ears…
Guilty pleasures of mine: The song scene in Hocus Pocus (and the inimitable Doug Jones as a sympathetic zombie), and all of Practical Magic. (Plus there is no such thing as too much Stevie Nicks.)
This list is wonderful! I’ve been looking for a new spooky audiobook for October, and I think ‘The Fisherman’ sounds excellent.
@Ashgrove thank you so much for the kind words! I’m also a bigtime Practical Magic fangirl. And I argued with myself for so long about which LaValle title to include here! The Ballad of Black Tom is a masterwork.
@@@@@ 7: A quote for you, Emily!
Pensive woman holding a broom: “I wonder if that would work on my ex husband…”
I think recommending The Changeling was perfect, though, as it goes much deeper into horror territory than The Ballad.
Another good high tolerance read is The Troop by Nick Cutter. It gets very very raw….
@Kelsey Oof yeah, The Troop is a rough one. One of the few horror novels to make me genuinely queasy.
Pet Sematary is one of the few horror novels I’ve ever read that actually inspired dread as I read it. It is King’s scariest, as you said.
Great list!
Ugh, Hereditary still keeps me awake at night…
It’s one of the best movies I have seen in a decade or so, and I do not ever want to see it again, or even be reminded of it’s existence!
King’s scariest book is not Pet Sematary though, but Revival – it just seems that not many people have read that one (Pet Sematary is a good runner-up though)
Why is Meddling Kids on this list? The book is transphobic. The villain uses being trans to trick people, and it includes the outdated term “hermaphrodite” throughout the book besides. Not okay.
Tor is usually good at not including non transphobic or queerphobic books on their lists, and I’m really disappointed to see this.
I wonder where Clive Barker sits on this list. I’m guessing the high end…
@@@@@ 12: “It’s one of the best movies I have seen in a decade or so, and I do not ever want to see it again, or even be reminded of it’s existence!”
This made me both laugh out loud and shake my head in understanding.
This happened to me with Pan’s Labyrinth, still one of my favorite movies of all time. It took me some time to be able to rewatch it. And it didn’t surprise me that Del Toro admitted it was inspired (among other things, obviously) by Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl,” a story that broke my heart back when I still was a kid. Though Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” (not Disney’s buffoonery) is a close second in the heart-breaking league.
Oh, dear Mother of God, and I forgot to mention Wylding Hall! I only recently discovered Elizabeth Hand –one of the many discoveries I owe to Tor.com– and it blew my mind.
Elizabeth Hand is a true treasure. It’s hard to single out a particular novel or story, even after devouring several of them in a short time. I’d say Waking the Moon, my first Hand ever, will always hold a special place in my heart. And “Cleopatra Brimstone” is one of the truest, darkest, most uncomfortable meditations on rape I have ever read.
The recommendations on this list that I’ve read were all great. The Fisherman was very atmospheric to me, and while I really liked The Library at Mount Char, I wouldn’t have considered it horror if I didn’t see it on this list. The Cipher is super creepy, too — I’d compare it to a lot of Adam Nevill’s stuff.
Elizabeth Hand I only know from her Cass Neary books, I am definitely looking forward to Wylding Hall.
Good stuff to add to my list! Reminded me of a good read from many years ago, almost forgotten now, but how quickly the dread returns…Dan Simmons’ Summer of Night. Movie parallel, Stand By Me meets Stranger Things.
For light to moderate readers, most books labeled paranormal suspense should work. The scary is atmospheric and ghostly without the slash and massacre of darker horror.
Just mention how much splatter is involved.I prefer none,like more cerebral,psychological
stories.So yes,would like to see anthologies included,please.
@13: I don’t see Meddling Kids anywhere here. Also if we are not to have villains using any sort of minority status for evil ends fiction will be much less interesting.
So, where would the movie, Us, fall under?!
@21 They updated the list.
Mods, it would be nice to have a note to that effect.
@@@@@ 17, Chuck: “Elizabeth Hand I only know from her Cass Neary books, I am definitely looking forward to Wylding Hall.”
Interesting. I’m coming from the other end, after reading a bunch of her weird fiction, and have yet to read the Cass Neary books. Are they as good as the SFF ones? ‘Cause those are GREAT.
@@@@@ 18, Chris: “Dan Simmons’ Summer of Night. Movie parallel, Stand By Me meets Stranger Things.”
That is a great comparison! It makes me want to reread Summer of Night, which I haven’t in a long time. The one I have revisited the most is Children of the Night.
Thank you for removing the book.
@21 There’s a significant difference between letting marginalized people exist in all types of morality in media vs evoking harmful stereotypes for a minority, who are frequently portrayed that way with little positive counterbalance.
It’s not Gone Girl’s playing with societal expectations, it’s deeply lazy writing that only ever bothers to include them as villains and implies the group conforms to bigoted ideas about it. The fact that I can think of several books that do this exact thing published in the last 5 years is just sad.
Just to confirm, the author elected to update the article yesterday. Sorry for any confusion.
The Fisherman is a very, very special book. Deeply frightening and sad and just…Beautiful. It’s the kind of book I want to buy for people because I want to share it so much!
@12: “King’s scariest book is not Pet Sematary though, but Revival – it just seems that not many people have read that one (Pet Sematary is a good runner-up though)”
I COMPLETELY agree. I am a rabid SK fan, and not a single one of his books affected me quite like Revival. It’s so freaking bleak.
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@11 How true. I’m not a really big horror fan, but I did read most of King’s stuff as it came out (I still have yet to read the “unexpurgated” version of “The Stand”), including “Pet Sematary” That was REALLY creepy! It was one of those, “Do I really want to turn the page to find out what happens next?”
I’ll take Emily’s word on the ranking of what she listed. All good for a ghoulishly good October!
I’m pretty high tolerance and was glad to see Hex listed. Anything by Paul Tremblay and Ania Ahlborn I just gobble up. It’s a pity, really, that horror is such a maligned genre. True, it’s filled with schlock, but it can’t be beat for holding up a mirror to human nature.
Joseph S Pulver Orphan Palace.stunning madness
Joseph S Pulver Blood Will Have It’s Season.
Matt Shaw 9 Month Trilogy,Once Upon A Time, Happy Ever After,A Fresh Start.
The Matt Shaw Peter books listed above read in this order are hideously beautiful
and require a strong stomach and open mind,not as much as the Non More Black collection.
Michael Cisco Divinity Student ,Traitor, Tyrant(the train and the tree).
Angela Slatter Sourdough, Bitterwood Bible.
Margo langan Tender Morsels.
A note about “tolerance” of horror: some of us are OK with a book but can’t deal with a movie that seems to be at the same level. Some of us — like me — can’t deal with the visual images, which engage a different part of the brain.
Know yourself.
Gemma Files Kissing Carrion, Experimental Film.
David Nickle Volk.Eutopia.
Livia Llewellyn Engine’s of Desire,Furnace.
John Shirley A Splendid Chaos, In Extremis.
I think Stephen King’s short story 1922 is the creepiest for me! Awful and creepy and disturbing.
I find somehow that I can’t stand even the lightest of horror movies (I saw Get Out, but nearly couldn’t watch, and during The Woman in Black I turned my head away and was still having a bad time) but I’m more easily able to handle horror in literature. Looking forward to giving these a shot!
Caitlin R Kiernan.
Ramsey Campbell.
Flannery O’Connor Wise Blood.
Try some of my suggestions most are high to extreme.
Good luck.
Nice idea, rating them!
For low tolerance I would add Force of Chaos by Lin Senchaid.
For medium-high tolerance, any book by Austin Crawley.
What if you laughed all the way through Babadook?
Thank you for mentioning The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons. It needs a revival.
Thanks! I love creepy but HATE jump scares — which makes books vastly superior to film for me in the horror genre. Heading straight to the “High Tolerance” end of the list…
@@@@@ 39, George: How can anyone laugh their way through Babadook? It may or may not be scary, depending on your level of tolerance, but it’s a heartbreaking movie.