Mission Fantastical

I’m on a mission. I ran across the 40 Scariest Books of the Last 200 Years, and the 10 Best Horror Books You’ve Never Read and finally the Top 25 Women Horror Writers You Probably Haven’t Heard Of (But Should Know).  Oh, and 9 Underrated Horror Books to Read Next. I browsed the comments section and was pointed to many more books and authors. From these sources I compiled the following list:

The Light at the End by John Skipp and Craig Spector

The Elementals by Michael McDowell

The Damnation Game by Clive Barker

City Infernal by Edward Lee

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Enter Night by Michael Rowe

Michael Slade

Rod Williams

Those Across the River  Between Two Fires Christopher Buehlman

Graham Masterton

The Cipher Kathy Koja

Nightmare Abbey, by Thomas Love Peacock (1818)

The Vampyre, by John William Polidori (1819)

The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James (1898)

The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell (1924)

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938)

Psycho, by Robert Bloch (1959)

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (1966)

Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967)

Harvest Home, by Thomas Tryon (1973)

Requiem For a Dream, by Hubert Selby Jr. (1978)

Dawn, by Octavia E. Butler (1987)

American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)

Summer of Night, by Dan Simmons (1991)

The Cipher, by Kathe Koja (1991)

House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)

We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver (2003)

Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill (2007)

Penpal, by Dathan Auerbach (2012)

Broken Monsters, by Lauren Beukes (2014)

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Horror Show by Greg Kihn

Spindrift by Jan Bryant Bartell

The Devil in Gray by Graham Masterton

 Kathe Koja –

 Mehitobel Wilson –

 Charlee Jacob – Dread in the Beast (Necro Publications)

Fran Friel –

 Mary Sangiovanni – The Hollower

 Sara Gran –

 Lisa Tuttle –  The Silver Bough (2006).

 Barbara Roden –

 Marly Youmans –

 Catherynne M. Valente – The Labyrinth,

 Margo Lanagan –  Tender Morsels.

 Caitlin R. Kiernan –

 Melanie Tem – In Concert: Tales of the Fantastic, they’re an unstoppable force.

 Kaaron Warren –  All You Can Do is Breathe

 Suzy McKee Charnas – The Vampire Tapestry

 Kit Reed –

 Marjorie Bowen –  The Viper of Milan

 Tananarive Due –

Nalo Hopkinson

 Sandy DeLuca –

 Tina Jens – The Blues Ain’t Nothin’

 Tamara Thorne (aka Chris Curry) –  Candle Bay and Bad Things.

 Amanda Stevens – The Restorer

 Deborah Leblanc –  Family Inheritance and Water Witch .

 Nina Kiriki Hoffman –  The Thread that Binds the Bones

 Dion Fortune – The Demon Lover

 Gemma Files – A Book of Tongues.

I absolutely loved George RR martin’s Dangerous Women so I will check out these anthologies too:

• Women of Darkness I (ed. Kathryn Ptacek)
• Women of Darkness II (ed. Kathryn Ptacek)
• Witches’ Brew: Horror and Supernatural Stories by Women edited by Marcia Muller and Bill Prinzini
• Women Who Run With the Werewolves: Tales of Blood, Lust and Metamorphosis edited by Pam Keesey (all links provided by hellnotes.com)

If a book or author from those sites didn’t make this list it’s because I have already read it or I was able to find it at my library (of those, I was only lucky enough to find 3-4—boo!)

My mission is this: I’m going to locate, purchase, and read as many of these as I can. Join me?

Half Price bookstore, here I come!