AM I A REAL HORROR READER?

FIVE STAPLE HORROR NOVELS I STILL HAVEN’T READ

I have always been a reader and writer, but it has only been these past few years that I have realised my love of horror literature. So even though I have a good amount of books under my belt there is not nearly enough horror. I may have read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stephen King’s Carrie, but there are so many novels that are seen as staples that I still haven’t got to. The list is long, but here are five that I am ashamed I still haven’t read.

THE SHINING | STEPHEN KING

Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

(synopsis taken from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11588.The_Shining?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=aLr034qAna&rank=1 ) 

The paperback stares at me from my shelf everyday. I randomly got the book years ago just because it was cheap, before I even imagined about reading horror. Now I have read three King books (Carrie, On Writing and 1922), and the ratings have been varied. The Shining is a horror classic, and I love the movie so I have faith in this novel. Every year I say I’ll read it at Christmas yet never do. I just need to get to it. Please this year.

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE | SHIRLEY JACKSON

It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

(synopsis taken from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89717.The_Haunting_of_Hill_House?ref=nav_sb_ss_2_9 )

In the past few months I have decided I will become a Shirley Jackson fan, even though I haven’t read anything but lukewarm short stories from her. While I received We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Jackson for Christmas, I had to include the iconic The Haunting of Hill House. The show is so good, I love the trope of scholars researching a setting, and well it's her biggest novel for a reason.

ANYTHING BY EDGAR ALLEN POE 

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. [...] Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

(synopsis taken from https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4624490.Edgar_Allan_Poe )

The Gothic godfather. I love the Gothic genre and have been writing more and more of it recently. I have a fond spot for Edgar Allen Poe and his macabre mind even though I haven’t read him. His work is so iconic, it has paved the way for so many ideas and his themes even blur into my writing. With his work being so short it really wouldn’t be hard to read something by Poe, so why haven’t I?

AMERICAN PSYCHO | BRET EASTON ELLIS

Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and he works on Wall Street, he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to head-on collision with America's greatest dream—and its worst nightmare—American Psycho is bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognise but do not wish to confront.

(synopsis taken from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28676.American_Psycho?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=WjPDrIn8YE&rank=1 )

Ah, a novel full of violence and psychology and I haven’t read it? I am a fraud. The movie is so good but this is one of the novels that intimidates me. Now that I own the novel it has to be read, the question is just when?

THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET | CATRIONA WARD

This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...

You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think…

(synopsis taken from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54621094-the-last-house-on-needless-street?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=xUuESxXWxL&rank=2 )

This may be a random choice since it only came out in 2021, but it has been so popular. I have gotten it from the library so many times, picked it up at the bookshop and read the first paragraph, but still I haven’t read it. It seems all the horror readers have got to this one and the majority love it, especially the twist. I need to be part of the gang.

These are only a few on a very, very long list, but are definitely the ones I need to get to soon. Still every day more titles are added to the list, and well I’m a sucker for recommendations. I will become a seasoned horror reader. Or at least one that has read the icons.