10 Best Horror and Thriller Books of the Last 130 Years, According to Stephen King
These come as personal recommendations from the King of Horror, so open them at your discretion.
10. The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (1894)
A golden fantasy horror classic, The Great God Pan almost ruined its author’s reputation at the time: his tale of pagan woodland rituals, freaky crimes, and supernatural encounters was denounced by critics. But it influenced iconic writers like Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King himself who described it as “the best horror story in the English language.”
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (1955)
Tapping into quite the opposite subgenre, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a timeless sci-fi horror following a doctor’s investigation into his patients' reports. As more and more people are seemingly losing their emotions and personalities, he uncovers an alien conspiracy for replacing humans with identical copies. A story to be “read and savored,” King says.
8. The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson (1956)
The Shrinking Man is, in turn, a psychological horror, and an amazing one, at that. This novel tells a story of a man who keeps shrinking down in size after having been affected by radiation and loses his mind as he loses all connection to the world he knew and descends into the microcosm. Stephen King claimed that Matheson “influenced him the most as a writer.”
7. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Fascinated by real-life reports of her contemporary “supernatural investigators,” Shirley Jackson decided to write a Gothic novel of her own. Through extensive research, she created The Haunting of Hill House which, many decades later, would be described by the King of Horror as one of “the greatest supernatural novels in the last hundred years.”
6. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (2006)
“An admirably nasty piece of work,” according to Stephen King, Sharp Objects was Gillian Flynn’s debut novel — and yet, it contained all the right ingredients to captivate one of the most celebrated horror writers in history. The suspense and tension in this mystery thriller following a journalist investigating a series of gruesome murders are top-notch.
5. The Strangler by William Landay (2007)
Another mystery thriller, The Strangler follows three brothers from an Irish-American family — a thief, a lawyer, and a policeman — who fall under suspicion when a serial killer starts terrorizing their town. Having crafted a complex web of intrigue, haunting revelations, and difficult relationships, William Landay deserved a “so good he makes my teeth hurt” from King.
4. Life or Death by Michael Robotham (2014)
This particular crime thriller earned the highest praise from the King of Horror, who claimed that he “couldn’t stop reading” and “didn’t want the story to end.” Life or Death follows an inmate who, after having endured terrifying abuse in prison for the entirety of his sentence but escapes one day before his release for reasons mysterious to his pursuers.
3. You by Caroline Kepnes (2014)
Starting as a romance, You quickly descends into pure thriller when a charming young man becomes obsessive with a woman and it becomes clear that he’ll go to any length to possess her. Widely known thanks to Netflix ’s TV show adaptation, Caroline Kepnes’ original book was praised by Stephen King even before that as “hypnotic, scary, and totally original.”
2. Vision by Deon Meyer (2016)
As a prophetic vision, Deon Meyer’s Vision explored the topic of a deadly pandemic in South Africa only a couple of years before the COVID pandemic began. Meyer tells his borderline post-apocalyptic tale from a small boy’s perspective, bringing a unique twist to the genre. King positively compared Vision to his own works, saying it was “reminiscent of The Stand and The Passage.”
1. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2021)
A unique mystery thriller about writers and writing, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot follows a once-brilliant author who fell on hard times. After his talented student dies, the author adapts his best idea and successfully sells it as his own book, but soon, he starts receiving threats and blackmails from seemingly beyond the grave. “The suspense quotient is through the roof,” Stephen King said about this novel.