Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Soares' List of Horror

For his list, author L.L. Soares told me that he couldn't keep it down to just 20 books; that's why we get five bonus items this time around. He also mentioned that he doesn't necessarily consider this a "best of genre" list, however he does consider it a list of great horror books. And, in his own words: "I didn't include Poe, Lovecraft, or Robert W. Chambers, because I think they're in a class by themselves."

Books of Blood by Clive Barker
Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber 
I am Legend by Richard Matheson 
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum 
Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein 
By Bizarre Hands by Joe R. Lansdale  
The Dark Country by Dennis Etchison 
The Blackwater Series by Michael McDowell 
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
Abomination by Michael C. Norton 
Grimm Memorials by R. Patrick Gates 
The Night Runners by Joe R. Lansdale 
Live Girls by Ray Garton 
The Scream by Skipp & Spector 
The Safety of Unknown Cities by Lucy Taylor 
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite 
The Stand by Stephen King 
The Cellar by Richard Laymon 
The Kill Riff by David J. Schow 
Tales of Pain and Wonder by Caitlin Kiernan 
The Drive-In by Joe R. Lansdale 
A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli 
The Bighead by Edward Lee 
Skin by Kathe Koja

L.L. Soares is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novel Life Rage. His other books include Rock ‘n’ Roll, Hard, the short story collection In Sickness and the novella Green Tsunami (both with Laura Cooney). His fiction has appeared in magazines like Cemetery Dance, Horror Garage, and Bare Bone and anthologies like Insidious Assassins and Living After Midnight (the latter also features a story by some guy named Wilbanks). His new novella called "Nightmare in Greasepaint" (written with G. Daniel Gunn) is coming out soon from Samhain Publishing.

He co-writes the Stoker-nominated horror movie review column
Cinema Knife Fight, which can be found at: www.cinemaknifefight.com.

For more about his endeavors, go to www.llsoares.com.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Kronfeld's List of Horror

Who is Kronfeld?, you may ask. Well, I'm married to her and she asked--nay, demanded!--that she have her say here on the blog in regards to favorite horror books. She's a big reader and always has been, so why not? Who am I to say "no" to such a loving, caring, beautiful--well, you get the idea. Take a look!

Stephen King - The Stand
Stephen King - 11/22/63
Stephen King - Carrie
Stephen King - 'Salem's Lot
Stephen King - Pet Sematary
Clive Barker - Coldheart Canyon
Clive Barker - The Books of Blood
Poppy Z. Brite - Lost Souls
Poppy Z. Brite - Exquisite Corpse


Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn - Sharp Objects
Gillian Flynn - Dark Places
Shane Stevens - By Reason of Insanity
Joe Hill - NOS482
Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box
Paula Hawkins - The Girl on the Train
Anne Rice - Interview with a Vampire
Bentley Little - The Ignored 
Charlaine Harris - True Blood books
Charlaine Harris - Midnight Crossing 

RozzyKron on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RozzyKron

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Langan's List of Horror

Today, I am pleased to welcome horror author John Langan to the blog, with his generous list(s) of top horror books. Take it away, John: 

My Top Twenty, er, Thirty (three) Horror Novels

I’m a champion of the idea that it’s possible to write great horror stories at novel length. So when I sat down to come up with twenty horror books that have meant a lot to me, I thought it would be fun to focus my list on novels. The list I wound up with, however, was (a lot) longer than I’d anticipated: 

Mary Shelley Frankenstein (1818/1832)
James Hogg The Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
Robert Louis Stevenson Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
Arthur Machen The Great God Pan (1894)
Henry James The Turn of the Screw (1898)
H.P. Lovecraft The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927/1943)
Fritz Leiber Conjure Wife (1943)
Shirley Jackson The Sundial (1958)
--The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
Ray Bradbury Something Wicked This Way Comes (1963)
Philip K. Dick The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1964)
Anne Rice Interview with the Vampire (1976)
Stephen King The Shining (1977)
--Pet Sematary (1983)
Peter Straub Ghost Story (1979)
--Shadowland (1980)
Thomas Tessier The Nightwalker (1979)
Ramsey Campbell Incarnate (1983)
--The Darkest Part of the Woods (2002)
Ian Banks The Wasp Factory (1984)
Clive Barker The Damnation Game (1985)
--Cabal (1988)
John Skipp & Craig Spector The Light at the End (1986)
Jonathan Carroll A Child Across the Sky (1989)
Michael Cisco The Divinity Student (1999)
Jack Cady The Hauntings of Hood Canal (2001)
Sara Gran Come Closer (2003)
Lucius Shepard Floater (2003)
Steve and Melanie Tem The Man on the Ceiling (2008)
Sarah Langan Audrey’s Door (2009)
Colson Whitehead Zone One (2011)
Laird Barron The Croning (2012)
Paul Tremblay A Head Full of Ghosts (2015)

So much for arguments against the horror novel. I also realized that there was another list I should give alongside this one, and that’s of novels I keep meaning to get to but haven’t yet:

Jeremias Gotthelf The Black Spider (1842)
E.H. Visiak Medusa (1929)
Jack Williamson Darker than You Think (1940)
Ray Russell The Case Against Satan (1962)
Roland Torpor The Tenant (1966)
Fred Chappell Dagon (1968)
Ramsey Campbell The Face That Must Die (1979)
--The Grin of the Dark (2007)
Anne Rivers Siddons The House Next Door (1978)
Michael Bishop Who Made Stevie Cry? (1984)
Thomas Tessier Finishing Touches (1987)
Mark Danielewski House of Leaves (2000)
Bennett Sims A Questionable Shape (2013)

Mea culpa. Finally, I felt I should give a few titles that, while not horror novels in the strictest sense of the term, seemed at least cousins of those I’d already listed.

Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre (1847)
Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights (1847)
Charles Dickens Dombey and Son (1848)
--Great Expectations (1861)
Henry James The American (1877)
--The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness (1899)
Nathanael West Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)
William Faulkner Absalom, Absalom (1936)
William Golding Lord of the Flies (1954)
Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian (1985)
Toni Morrison Beloved (1987)
Ian McEwan Black Dogs (1992)

John Langan

John Langan is the author of two collections, The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies (Hippocampus 2013) and Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Prime 2008), and a novel, House of Windows (Night Shade 2009). With Paul Tremblay, he has co-edited Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters (Prime 2011). He lives in upstate New York with his wife, younger son, and many, many animals.

John Langan keeps an irregular blog at https://johnpaullangan.wordpress.com/

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Fryer's List of Horror


I haven't posted a horror book list on this blog in a while, so I'm glad that my old friend, writer Matt Fryer, finally found some time to send me his. Like a lot of my friends, Matt knows a lot about the horror genre, and he has come up with a great list. Check it out!

Matthew Lewis - The Monk (1796)
The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe (1827- 1849)
Bram Stoker – Dracula (1897)
Richard Matheson – I Am Legend (1954)
Shirley Jackson – The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
Susan Hill – I’m the King of the Castle (1970)
Stephen King - The Shining (1977)
Stephen King – Different Seasons (1982)
James Herbert - Domain (1983)
Iain Banks – The Wasp Factory (1984)
Clive Barker – Books of Blood (1984/1985)
Cormac McCarthy – Blood Meridian (1985)
Clive Barker – Weaveworld (1987)
Jack Ketchum – The Girl Next Door (1989)
The Starry Wisdom – A Tribute to HP Lovecraft (1995)
Stephen Laws – Daemonic (1996)
Poppy Z Brite – Exquisite Corpse (1996)
Ramsey Campbell – House on Nazareth Hill (1997)
Mehitobel Wilson – Dangerous Red (2003) 
Stephen Volk – Whitstable (2013)




Matthew Fryer lives with his wife in Sheffield, England, and works in the windowless basement of his local hospital. As well as reading, reviewing and writing dark fiction, he's addicted to loud music, chillies and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. Visit his website - The Hellforge - at www.matthewfryer.com