Ten Really Neat Horror Novels

As a young boy I feasted on science fiction. It was my sustenance. I remember the SF section in my town’s library vividly, and going through just about every book over a couple of summers. Fondly do I recall those funky 70s sci-fi book covers, with their overexposed modern-art-ish themes. By high school, however, this changed, and I made a left-turn delving deep into the horror genre. I don’t know why; probably something to do with hormones and angst and the intersection of the two.

Anyway, I spent a good decade reading many, many works of horror. Every single Stephen King and every single Dean Koontz up until ’93 or ’94 or so. Then I made a right turn into Tom Clancy Land for two or three years (those books are long!) before rebounding back to science fiction, particularly focusing on the 50s classics as well as the warmly-remembered nostalgic voyages of my youth. I sprinkled some true classics here and there (I was well into Moby Dick – Melville’s chick magnet! – when I met my wife). Recently, a couple of horror novels crossed my path, through no rhyme or reason, and I decided this would be a an enjoyable topic to post.


Floating Dragon by Peter Straub – Earliest greatest horror novel! Don’t recall too much of the plot since I read it twenty-five years ago, but the eponymous critter is the cloud of noxious gas that escapes from a chemical plant and causes the populace of a nearby upscale town to go hallucinagetically and homicidally bonkers. Much more than that single-sentence summary; it holds some genuinely creepy-crawly images and situations. Begging to be re-read.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – Philosophical-slash-religious horror, with SF thrown in for good measure! The setup requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, but once you accept the Vatican launching a manned space mission to the homeworld of a newly-discovered alien race, things move along nicely. Foreshadowing and flashbacks are very important in this work, and you know very, very bad things are going to happen. You just don’t know when and to who.

A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay – WTF metaphysical-slash-mystical horror! I honestly had no idea what was going on through most of the book. Definitely some queasy moments, but emphasis more on atmospheric and eerie Lovecraftian-type horror. A man takes a dream-like trip to another world and meets all kinds of strange, wonderful, and dreadful characters, and learns something very terrible about himself at the end.

Weaveworld by Clive Barker – Fantasy horror! Another one I read a long time ago, maybe twenty years, but remains anchored in my mind. Barker created such an original, compelling, fantastical awe-inspiring yet dangerous world that coexists just a few steps away from our mundane day-to-day lives. The endgame of this book is one of the best I have ever read.

The Koontzian trio: The Bad Place, Phantoms, and Whispers by Dean R. Koontz. Soap-opera horror! Koontz is an idea-generator supreme, and his ideas keep you on your toes. That’s his genius. All his novels, at least the dozen or so early ones I read, start out with a mystery, a strong but hurting man meeting a strong but hurting woman, creepiness and occasional gore, and by the end of the book you’re amazed by what’s being revealed. These three are his best. The first two contain a bunch of SF themes and motifs, while the last is just downright crazy. Page-turners and well worth any investment.

The Spinner by Doris Piserchia – Monster horror, with SF thrown in for good measure! The best monster novel I’ve ever read. Why is the “monster novel” such a rarity? Every year Hollywood releases a dozen “monster movies,” so isn’t the market there? Anyway, I read this as a kid and re-read it a few years ago. Superb! A monster without reason, without explanation, without mercy. Cunning, always two-steps ahead of the authorities, and very, very ravenous. A heavy sense of despair falls over the unnamed city under siege as the inhabitants come to realize that there is no escaping the Spinner. Or – is there?

Tommyknockers by Stephen King – Flying saucer and all those gross paranoid themes from the 50s and 60s cinema horror! A writer and a drunk unearth an ancient flying saucer buried in the side of a mountain, which somehow causes the townsfolk to slowly mutate into super-intelligent but morally bankrupt creatures (uh-oh!). I found the anti-hero’s ultimate solution and his implementation of it to be quite touching.

It by Stephen King – The greatest (modern) horror story every written! Not to mention my favorite. The titular beast has no equal in the literature of monsters, waking every thirty years from its slumbers to feed on children. Oh, and the more frightened the child, the tastier the meal. So it morphs into whatever scares the little ones the most. Adults can’t see it, and It doesn’t bother with them unless it must. A ragtag group of kids manage to defeat it in 1957, or so they think, until as adults they realize bleakly they have to kill a stronger It three decades later before It gets them. Unforgettable characters, the type you wish really existed and were your friends. Over a thousand pages in length and I wanted it to keep going on and on. King’s magnum opus, par excellence.