Can anyone recommend a good horror or thriller book please.?

Answer 1

read "Hellbent" by Anthony McGowan, it has a bit of comedy and can be slightly rude at times. but only read it if you have a strong stomach - it's not for the faint-hearted!

Answer 2

Any book by Shaun Hutson is really good in the horror category.

So many wonderful thriller writers Gerald Seymour, Jack higgins, Stephen Leather, Harlan Coben, Gordon Stevens

Answer 3

Stephen King, of course. My favorite is Misery, but his older stuff is all good. I'm not a fan of the new ones, but I've heard good things about Bag of Bones and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

John Saul. My fav. is Black Creek Crossing. He has a way to make you cringe in all his books. Other good ones are Midnight Voices and Punish the Sinners.

Dean Koontz is a favorite of many. I avoid him...he isn't exciting enough for me. I have heard good things about Lightning. I say bad things about By the Light of the Moon.

Brian Keene is rather new and often overlooked. He has a bunch of books out, but I've only read one. It sounds terrible (I bought it because I thought it would be), but it was actually very good: The Conqueror Worms. He won a Bram Stoker award for his first novel, The Rising, which I imagine rocks hardcore.

My personal favorite is Roald Dahl, who is normally thought of as a children's writer. Find his adult stories, however, and you will be pleasantly surprised. They aren't exactly monsters or evil people...but there is certainly a lot of funny deaths.

Clive Barker. The Damnation Game was okay, but not the first book to read. Imajica is not very horrific, but beats anything I've read by the previous authors I've mentioned (save Dahl...nobody beats Dahl).

Neil Gaiman, Jack Ketchum, Peter Straub, Michael Laimo, and Joyce Carol Oates are some of the big names seen at the Bram Stoker Awards websites. I haven't read much by these names, and don't care for Gaiman, but clearly they have built a place for themselves in horror.

The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror comes out every year, and is loaded with short stories by new and established horror writers. Very easy to find someone you'll like with this book (and find some you won't like).

Dracula is a must-read if you haven't done so already, as is Edgar Allan Poe. But these are classics and you've probably already done so. If not...get on it.

Answer 4

Any early Stephen King, The Monk (really weird), Lord of the Flies, books by Ramsey Campbell, Richard Matheson (source for the movie Duel). For a rating of authors I suggest that you visit the Fantastic Fiction web site.

Answer 5

The Other by Thomas Tryon
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Th Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

Answer 6

Anything by the author of Mary Higgins Clark. It is a really easy read, although you may not like that. I have probably read atleast 20 of her books and all of them are a wonderful mystery book. Not much of a "thriller"though.

Answer 7

You should try reading anything Edgar Allan Poe
here is a site with his stories he also wrote poems:
http://www.poestories.com/
some of the words he uses are confusing because he wrote these stories in the 1800s and the language was different
but the site also has a word list of the confusing words.

Answer 8

It by Stephen King
Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz

I found them all great horror books.

Hope you get a good read. : )

Answer 9

Another James Herbert one. The Magic Cottage

Answer 10

try Poppy Z Brite.
The Books of Blood; by Clive Barker, pretty much anything by him
Red Dragon; by Thomas Harris
Both Poppy Z Brite & Thomas Harris have made me think "OMG, I don't want to know that someone could do that to someone else", but I still couldn't put them down.

Answer 11

'The Icarus Girl' by Helen Oyeyemi, James's 'The Turn of the Screw' and H. G. Wells's 'The Island of Dr Moreau'. Slightly out of the left field, but compulsive reads, and very scary!