7 Terrifying Horror Books That Are 10/10 Masterpieces & Will Scare You Senseless

One would think that there’s nothing more that can be thrown at audiences to scare them. Scary stories have been passed around for hundreds of years, if not thousands. Yet we still have people like Stephen King and Grady Hendrix putting out book after book that employ various methods of sending a shiver up readers’ spines. Even if we’ve seen or read about ghosts, werewolves, zombies, vampires, and axe murderers before, there still comes an author every now and then who can make such antagonists feel fresh once more. Even if they only do it once, a truly effective book can make their name a known one, as they’ve crafted a work with a power that will outlive them.

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What follows are seven books that have been frightening readers left and right, usually for decades. There aren’t many who could read these before bed and never have their story beats work their way into their dreams.

7) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Like most of the other entries on this list, Shirley Jackson’s 1959 classic The Haunting of Hill House has been adapted for the screen. In this case, a very successful Netflix series from Mike Flanagan. It also inspired both the excellent The Haunting in 1963 and its horrible 1999 remake.

Jackson’s book is easily one of the best ghost stories ever pinned. It’s less concerned with scenes that would be jump scares on the screen and more concerned with building characters we like and then systematically tearing their minds apart.

6) The Ruins by Scott Smith

The 2008 movie adaptation of The Ruins is underrated. We stand by that. But it’s still not nearly as jarring as Scott Smith’s source material.

They’re actually quite different works, too. The movie is basically body horror, with plants causing the lacerations. The book is more methodical and focused on building suspense. The characters aren’t the most three-dimensional in literary history, but we get to know them enough to want them to last to the final page.

5) The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

Even more than Children of the Corn, The Amityville Horror is the gold standard for horror franchises that just keep going on and on. And it’s somewhat surprising, considering not even the first Amityville movie is particularly good.

But Jay Anson’s book is. There’s no cheese factor here, just dread and terror. Both the book and the movie are quickly paced, but the book does a far better job of actually making the house seem like a threat. And, while Anson’s prose isn’t particularly flashy, it’s just detailed enough to make you want to swat away shudder at imaginary, ominous breezes or hear the words “Get out” in the back of your mind when you’re sitting alone reading.

4) IT by Stephen King

Reading It, one of Stephen King’s most expansive works, it’s surprising that it wasn’t thought of as being his most unfilmable work. Compared to The Long Walk, which got that title for years, it seems impossible. Yet two different adaptations have mostly succeeded in doing so, both as a miniseries and a pair of Andy Muschietti films (which was followed by the world-expanding It: Welcome to Derry).

Naturally, clowns are frightening, especially when the clown is an alien who shapeshifts to prey on its targets’ specific fears. Those transformations are even scarier to imagine than they are to see on the screen. King’s vivid descriptions of drowned zombie kids, mummies and lepers force you to feel like such monstrosities are reaching out of the page toward your throat. The ending is still a letdown and the orgy scene is regrettable, but 90% of It is amazing and terrifying.

3) The Fisherman by John Langan

Here we are at the one book on the list that hasn’t been adapted. But, considering John Langan’s The Fisherman is so atmospheric, never say never. Langan crafts a trio of characters so well-drawn that they could easily translate to the screen, even if the emotional heft of the ghost story itself would be more difficult.

The plot follows Abe and Dan, two widowers who find solace in little else than one another’s company and fishing. They decide to go to Dutchman’s Creek, which supposedly has the power to bring back deceased loved ones. However, they instead find “Der Fisher,” a man hunting a Leviathan, which is a massive sea serpent. At just over 260 pages it’s not an overwhelmingly time-consuming Lovecraftian throwback.

2) The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

As the source material for the scariest movie of all time, it should come as no surprise that William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist is one of the scariest books of all time. Not to mention, his Legion, which served as the source material for The Exorcist III (which Blatty himself directed), is also good for raising hairs.

Thanks to Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells,” Owen Roizman’s shots of hazy fog-coated Georgetown, and practical effects that force the audience to see the effects of the possession on Regan MacNeil, the movie is scarier than the book, but all the bones are right here. We feel Chris MacNeil’s helplessness, we feel the danger posed to her daughter, and we get many of the great moments that ended up working so well in the movie.

1) Pet Sematary by Stephen King

The 1989 Pet Sematary is fun and intermittently creepy, but it’s mostly cheesy. The 2019 remake does away with the cheese factor and features some good acting but is ultimately a bland re-imagining. And, at the end of the day, neither is particularly frightening, especially in comparison to the book, which was and remains King’s most haunting work.

This is a book about grief, and we all grieve. Just about everyone had a pet growing up, and the fear of losing them was unbearable. Then, when it does happen, it’s the type of event that changes a person. Now imagine that beloved pet coming back as a vicious little jerk. That’s not even factoring in the fact that it’s a story that kills a kid and, again, has him come back as a vicious little jerk.

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