At the Mountains of Madness is a science fiction-horror novel written by American author H. P. Lovecraft in February/March 1931 and rejected the same year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright due to its length. It was first serialized in Astounding Stories in February, March, and April 1936. It has been reprinted in a number of compilations.

The plot follows the events of a catastrophic voyage to Antarctica in September 1930, and what a party of explorers led by the narrator, Dr. William Dyer of Miskatonic University, discovers there. Dyer recounts a succession of previously unreported occurrences throughout the novel in the hopes of discouraging another set of explorers from returning to the continent. Among these occurrences are the discovery of an ancient civilisation older than the human species, as well as the realization of Earth's past as told via numerous sculptures and paintings.

Lovecraft's interest in the Antarctic expedition inspired the narrative; the continent was still unexplored in the 1930s. Lovecraft directly references Edgar Allan Poe's classic The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and he may have drawn influence from other works. Many tale motifs, like the formless "shoggoth", appear again and again throughout Lovecraft's works. The plot has been adapted into graphic novels, video games, and musical compositions.

Detailed information:

Author: H. P. Lovecraft

Language: English
Genre: Science fiction, Horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/103768/at-the-mountains-of-madness-by-h-p-lovecraft/

The Bad Seed is the final major book written by American writer William March before his death in 1954. The Bad Seed, nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1955, relates the story of a mother's discovery that her little daughter is a killer. Its immense critical and financial success was fully realized following March's death just one month after publication. Maxwell Anderson adapted the story into a popular and long-running Broadway play in 1954, and Mervyn LeRoy directed an Academy Award-nominated picture in 1956.

The Bad Seed was an instant success and a National Book Award nominee when it was first published in 1954. It's an unsettling depiction of an apparently innocent little girl named Rhoda who always appears to be at the center of horrific tragedies. The novel's problematic and unnerving heart is her mother's awareness that Rhoda may be the cause of the so-called accidents, and her own probable role in that. The Bad Seed relentlessly builds to its stunning finale in a way that few other comparable novels can match.

Detailed information:

Author: William March
Language: English
Genre: Psychological horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/107485/the-bad-seed-by-william-march/

Toni Morrison's novel Beloved was published in 1987. It depicts the story of a family of previously enslaved people whose Cincinnati house is haunted by an evil spirit after the American Civil War. Beloved is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman from Kentucky who escaped and went to the free state of Ohio in 1856. She was subject to capture under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850; when U.S. marshals burst into the cabin where Garner and her husband had barricaded themselves, she was attempting to kill her children and had already killed her two-year-old daughter, in order to keep them from being returned to slavery.

The overwhelming emotional weight and deep-seated sense of dread that comes with each page of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winner is impossible to bear. Beloved is, at its core, a traditional ghost story about a former slave who is plagued by otherworldly torments linked to a long-buried and horrible secret. In a broader sense, it examines guilt, the extent to which desperation may drive an individual, and the psychological pain of slavery. Beloved is a novel with a unique and deadly force.

Detailed information:

Author: Toni Morrison
Language: English
Genre: Horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/117647/beloved-by-toni-morrison/

Books of Blood is a collection of six horror story anthologies created by British author, dramatist, and director Clive Barker in 1984 and 1985. Previously known mostly for creating theatrical plays, Barker got a larger audience and popularity with this anthology series, which led to a successful career as a writer. Originally published in six volumes, the anthologies were later republished in two omnibus versions of three volumes each. Each book has four or five stories. Ramsey Campbell, a fellow Liverpudlian horror writer, wrote a preface to the Volume 1–3 omnibus.

Clive Barker's own style of completely grim horror established him as one of the most prominent voices in contemporary horror. It all started with the Books of Blood, a six-volume anthology of short fiction. The first book won a World Fantasy Award and established the pattern for Barker's tales of ordinary people caught up in terrifying and unabashedly disgusting events well beyond their control. If you've never heard of Clive Barker, here is the place to begin.

Detailed information:

Author: Clive Barker
Language: English
Genre: Horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/338960/clive-barkers-books-of-blood-1-3-by-clive-barker/

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories is Penguin Classics' first omnibus collection of works by H. P. Lovecraft, a key 20th-century American novelist. It was published in October 1999 and is still available. The book is named after H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu".

This version has a new preface and explanatory comments on individual tales by prominent Lovecraft researcher S. T. Joshi and is the first new paperback publishing of Lovecraft's writings since the Del-Rey editions. The tales' texts are mostly the same corrected versions seen in earlier Arkham House editions of Lovecraft's writings, also edited by Joshi, with a few more errors rectified for the current editions.

"The Call of Cthulhu", a detective narrative turned horror thriller, follows an investigator who is unintentionally drawn into an underworld of banned cults, lunacy, and monsters at sea. This narrative, a snapshot of a planet on the verge of destruction, portrays the pan-psychic terror of Lovecraft's old gods better than any other Lovecraft story and provides the reader a taste of what is to come when The Stars Are Right.

Detailed information:

Author: H. P. Lovecraft
Language: English
Genre: Science fiction, fantasy, horror

Link to buy: https://bit.ly/3tui4WM

Stephen King's novel Carrie is a gothic horror novel. It was his debut novel, published on April 5, 1974, with a print run of 30,000 copies. It centers around the titular Carrie White, a friendless, harassed high-school girl from an abusive religious family who utilizes her newly found telekinetic skills to seek revenge on those who mistreat her. In the process, she creates one of the town's biggest local disasters. King has stated that the piece is "raw" and "has a remarkable capacity to pain and horrify".

Much of the novel is told through newspaper clippings, magazine articles, letters, and book excerpts about how Carrie ruined the imaginary town of Chamberlain, Maine, while getting revenge on her abusive classmates and her own mother, Margaret. Because of its brutality, swearing, underage sex, and poor perspective of religion, Carrie was one of the most often banned books in US schools in the 1990s.

Detailed information:

Author: Stephen King
Language: English
Genre: Horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/92955/carrie-by-stephen-king/

Come Closer, a horrifying novella written by Sara Gran and first published in 2003, can be consumed in a single sitting. Gran nails it in Come Closer — eerie and unsettling, the fear builds up steadily, and you may find yourself flipping through the pages with bated breath to see out what will happen.

You've probably done something and then forgotten about it at some time in your life. Come Closer, Sara Gran's strange and creepy tale opens with her being summoned to her boss's office to explain a series of highly unpleasant remarks scribbled on a report she gave to him. Later that night, a steady yet faint tapping can be heard throughout her and her husband's home. What follows is a series of events that will keep you up at night, flipping page after page as fear seeps into your bones.

Detailed information:

Author: Sara Gran
Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/210941/come-closer-by-sara-gran/

Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was released in 1897. The plot of this epistolary novel is told through letters, journal entries, and newspaper articles. It does not have a single protagonist, although it begins with attorney Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of Count Dracula, a Transylvanian nobleman. After finding that Dracula is a vampire, Harker flees the castle, and the Count relocates to England, where he plagues the coastal town of Whitby. Dracula is hunted and eventually killed by a small squad commanded by Abraham Van Helsing.

The majority of Dracula was written in the 1890s. Stoker wrote almost a hundred pages of notes for the work, relying heavily on Transylvanian tradition and history. Some academics believe that Dracula was influenced by historical people such as the Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler or the countess Elizabeth Báthory, but this is widely debated. Stoker's notes make no mention of either individual. While on vacation in Whitby, he came across the name Dracula in the public library and chose it because he assumed it meant "demon" in Romanian.

Detailed information:

Author: Bram Stoker
Language: English
Genre: Horror, Gothic

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/595378/dracula-by-bram-stoker/

Drawing Blood is a 1993 horror novel by American writer Poppy Z. Brite. Something of a haunted house tale, the novel was originally titled Birdland but the publisher retitled it to make a thin connection to Brite's first novel, Lost Souls, a vampire tale.

Trevor McGee, a comic book artist and the lone survivor of a family murder-suicide, and Zachary Bosch, a bisexual hacker, arrive at McGee's old family house in Missing Mile, North Carolina, a fictional hamlet featured in Brite's earlier novel, Lost Souls. Trevor McGee, 25, is tormented by a memory from his childhood in which his underground artist father, Bobby, ruthlessly murdered Trevor's mother and younger brother with a hammer before dying himself and leaving Trevor alive. Trevor was placed in an unpleasant state home, where he found his own gift for art but stayed alone, preoccupied with why he was permitted to exist.

Detailed information:

Author: Poppy Z. Brite
Language: English
Genre: Horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/18485/drawing-blood-by-poppy-z-brite/

Doris Lessing's modern gothic horror novel, focusing on the birth of a newborn who appears to be less than human, explores society's refusal to acknowledge its own violence. Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have built an ideal of household bliss in spite of late 1960s England's societal trends.

While violence and discontent rage around them, the Lovatts are confident that their old-fashioned serenity will shield them from the outside world—until the birth of their fifth child. Ben is gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably ravenous, extremely powerful and ferocious, and has no resemblance to an innocent or newborn. Harriet finds herself unable to love him as he becomes older and more terrible, David finds himself unable to touch him, and their four older children are terrified of him. Harriet and David are divided between their instincts as parents and their astonished reaction to this furious and unlovable kid whose presence shatters their trust in a benign universe.

Detailed information:

Author: Doris Lessing
Language: English

Genre: Horror
Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/100297/the-fifth-child-by-doris-lessing/

Daryl Gregory's debut novel offers a unique spin on the possession subgenre by proposing an alternate reality in which random possessions have occurred on a regular basis since the 1950s. A swarm of devils takes possession of a person, wreaks havoc, and then jumps to a new host. Del Pierce was possessed as a child and thought he had been exorcised. Years later, he finds the devil is still present and is desperate for control. Pandemonium is a horrific page-turner that's equal parts pop culture and tragedy; it's one of the more unique horror books in recent memory.

Del Pierce was possessed as a youngster by the Hellion, a mischievous demon whose pranks may be lethal. He was finally cured, but Del discovers years later, during a period of personal sorrow, that the exorcism was less effective than he thought... and that the Hellion may never have departed.

With the demon's presence in his brain threatening to take over, Del embarks on a journey to seek aid from anyone and everyone he can find, including neuroscientists, Jungian psychologists, a female Catholic priest, fantasy authors, and others. But there's more to Del's situation than everyone realized, and he might have to dive into the nature of possession itself to save himself and his loved ones.

Detailed information:

Author: Daryl Gregory
Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror

Link to buy: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/71694/pandemonium-by-daryl-gregory/

Stephen King's horror book 'Salem's Lot was published in 1975. It was his second novel to be published. The plot revolves around a writer called Ben Mears, who returns to the village of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he grew up from the ages of five to nine, only to discover that the people are turning into vampires. The village is revisited in King's story collection Night Shift in the short pieces "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road" (1978). In 1976, the novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and in 1987, it was nominated for the Locus Award for the All-Time Best Fantasy Novel.

In two different interviews in the 1980s, King stated that 'Salem's Lot' was his favorite of all his works. The interviewer mentioned in his June 1983 Playboy interview that King was planning a sequel because it was his favorite, but King has stated on his website that because The Dark Tower series already continued the narrative in Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah, he felt there was no longer a need for a sequel.

Detailed information:

Author: Stephen King
Language: English
Genre: Horror

Link to read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11590

NOS4A2 (called Nosferatu) is the third novel by Joe Hill, the son of Stephen and Tabitha King. The novel was released by William Morrow and Company on April 30, 2013, and has subsequently been converted into a television series. NOS4A2 is a horror story about a mother attempting to save her son from a ruthless otherworldly killer.

Both Victoria McQueen and Charlie Manx in NOS4A2 may travel across time and space by riding the correct vehicle: Vic can locate missing items on her decrepit cycle, and Manx can travel to "Christmasland" on his vintage Rolls-Royce Wraith. Manx's Christmasland is the last place nice young boys and girls want to end up, and Vic is the only child who avoids a trip on the Wraith. Manx, like Santa, never forgets a child, and when Vic is too old for his tastes, Vic's son will suffice.

NOS4A2 represented a turning point for Hill, as his own career was established enough that he loosened up about his parentage, resulting in a novel that blends the best of Hill’s distinct style with his father’s influence—and the most quintessentially frightening take on Christmas in modern memory.

Detailed information:

Author: Joe Hill
Language: English
Genre: Horror; Dark Fantasy

Link to buy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15729539

House of Leaves is the debut novel of American novelist Mark Z. Danielewski, released by Pantheon Books in March 2000. It is a best-seller that has been translated into several languages, and it is followed by The Whalestoe Letters, a companion work.

The narrative revolves around a (perhaps fictitious) documentary about a family whose house is impossibly bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. House of Leaves has a distinctive format and structure, as well as an uncommon page layout and aesthetic, making it a classic example of ergodic literature. It is densely packed with footnotes, many of which are footnotes in and of themselves, including references to imaginary books, films, or articles. Some pages, on the other hand, feature only a few words or lines of text, organized in unexpected ways to match the events in the tale, frequently creating an agoraphobic and claustrophobic feel. The book must be turned at times in order to be read. The work is particularly notable for its numerous narrators, who interact in intricate and bewildering ways.

Detailed information:

Author: Mark Z. Danielewski
Country: United States
Genre: Horror, Romance

Link to read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24800

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus was published in 1818. The narrative of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who produces a sapient creature in an unconventional scientific experiment, is told in the film Frankenstein. When Shelley was 18, she began writing the narrative, and the first version was published anonymously in London on January 1, 1818, when she was 20. Her name appears for the first time in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821.

Shelley traveled around Europe in 1815, arriving in Gernsheim, Germany, 17 kilometers (11 miles) near Frankenstein Castle, where an alchemist had conducted experiments two centuries previously. She then traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the action takes place. Her associates, notably her boyfriend and eventual husband Percy B. Shelley, were interested in Galvanism and esoteric concepts. Mary, Percy, and Lord Byron competed in 1816 to see who could produce the finest horror story. Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein by envisioning a scientist who created life and was terrified by what he had produced after contemplating for days.

Detailed information:

Author: Mary Shelley
Language: English
Genre: Gothic novel, horror fiction

Link to read: readfrom.net/mary-shelley/446585-frankenstein_or_the_modern_prometheus.html