Challenge: 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

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First off, let me say that this is a fantastic resource for any horror lover. Sadie Hartmann has outdone herself with this guide. She has a fresh engaging rhythm that kept me reading about each book, even in the categories of horror that do not really interest me. I recommend grabbing this book in print, rather than e-book, because it makes such a great addition to my library.

That said, before I read this book, I thought of myself as relatively up to date on horror. Hartmann has completely shattered that illusion. Of the 101 horror books listed here, I have read an embarrassing one of them, with one DNF, and two others sitting in my To-be-read pile. To remedy this shame, I have worked my way through the suggested books and the featured authors to curate a list of 32 horror books that I will be reading over the next year.

I had no intention of reading all 101 because then people would be free to murder me. There are also some categories of horror that do not appeal to me such as cosmic and body horror. Despite my love of horror, I am also a bit squeamish, so a lot of the books labelled brutal or blood-soaked did not make it onto my list. 

I do love things like haunted houses, ghosts, monsters, coming of age, small towns, and witches, so there were still plenty of books that caught my fancy. See below for the list. I will be reviewing each of these books as I go and will update this post with links to those reviews as I complete them.

Read - Updated April 13, 2025:

  1. Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo - Review
  2. The Laws of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois - Review
  3. Number One Fan by Meg Elison - Read, Review forthcoming 

To Read (not in order):

  1.  Daphne by Josh Malerman
  2. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
  3. The Children on the hill by Jennifer McMahon
  4. The Ghost Sequences by A. C. Wise - already owned and in my TBR
  5. The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories by Eric LaRocca
  6. The Deer Kings by Wendy N. Wagner
  7. The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
  8. Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
  9. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
  10. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  11. The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni
  12. The Return by Rachel Harrison
  13. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
  14. Camp Slaughter by Sergio Gomez
  15. Little Eve by Catriona Ward (already owned and in my TBR)
  16. The Switch House by Tim Meyer
  17. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
  18. Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters
  19. Stranded by Bracken MacLeod
  20. The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
  21. Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie
  22. Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
  23. Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman
  24. Knock Knock by S. P. Miskowski
  25. Apartment 16 by Adam L. G. Nevill
  26. Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill
  27. The Good House by Tananarive Due
  28. Tribal Screams by Owl Goingback
And two more that are not part of the 101, but I need to read them:
  1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
  2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

 

 

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