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Friday, September 6, 2019

Best Horror Genre Book (or Series) NOMINATIONS NEEDED

What is the best Horror genre book (or series)?  

Remember that we're rerunning some of our most popular polls of the past few years, but this time we're doing it with lots more voters (and we'll be keeping the results on display.) It's all part of our new Sticky Polls--the 2019 roll out for polls here at Writing About Writing.

The Rules

(I know this is the fourth round of polls we've done under the new rules, but now that we've done a couple, you can see what I mean by some of this):



  1. I have a special rule for this poll because of how niche the genre is (even though we're talking about hundreds of years). Only TWO BOOKS from a single author will go on to our poll. Whatever the most "seconded" two books are, they'll go on to our poll. I'm not going to oversee a poll that is half Stephen King.
  2. There is a new category of nomination. It is NOT a nomination for the poll. It is an UNDERSUNG HERO nomination. Basically it is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, but maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. I will be listing these books along with the poll results. However, if you nominate a book for our poll it will not be considered for the undersung hero list and if you shout out something for an undersung hero, it will not be counted as a nomination for the poll. (Someone else can nominate it.) Think about if you want to give a book few seem to know about a shout out or if you're tossing your fave into The Hunger Games.
  3. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate John Dies at the End, I'm not going to argue that it's probably less horror than comedy or science fiction, but YOU have to convince others if you're going to get on the poll--nevermind win.
  4. You get to mention two (2) books (or series). That's it. Two. You can do ONE nomination for the poll and ONE UNDERSUNG HERO.  Or you can do TWO nominations. Or you can do TWO undersung heroes. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more I will NOT take any nominations beyond the second that you suggest. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but I compile these polls myself and it's a pain when people drop a megalodon list every decent book they can remember of in the genre. It is up to you how to divy your TWO choices. TWO.
  5. Did I mention two?
  6. You may (and absolutely should) second AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. THEY WILL NOT GET ONTO THE POLL WITHOUT SECONDS. You can agree with or cheer on the undersung heroes, but they won't "transform" into nominations unless someone else nominates that same book as "best" (and then they get a second). Also stop back in and see if anyone has put up something you want to see go onto the poll. 
  7. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
  8. You are nominating WRITTEN genre fiction, not their movie portrayals. If you thought the The Hunger Games movies were the shiznit, but thought the books were not written very well and slow, nominate something else.
  9. This is probably well known by vets of this blog by now, but there will be no more endless elimination rounds. I will take somewhere between 8-20 best performing titles and at MOST run a single semifinal round. By "performing" I mean the seconds. So second the titles you want even if they already have one. (Yes, I guess that would make them "thirds," "fourths," etc...) The competition on this poll might be fierce. You may have to get your friends involved. Buy them a pizza. Make it real. 
  10. TWO!

51 comments:

  1. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

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  2. Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It's a modern classic of gripping, thrilling horror.

    Also Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. Yes it is VERY much and primarily a sci-fi series, but there are definite horror elements. And book 2, Authority, is full of this building dread and tension where you know something is horribly and terribly wrong.

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  3. Into the Drowning Deep by Seanan McGuire

    I had nightmares because it felt so real.

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  4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

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  5. The collected short stories of H. P. Lovecraft

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  6. Kin, by Kealan Patrick Burke. He's an indie author and just brilliant.

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  7. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
    The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

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  8. *Nomination: 'Salem's Lot- Stephen King

    *Unsung Hero: The Carrow Haunt- Darcy Coates

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  9. The Fisherman, John Kagan
    The Thin Air, Michelle Paver

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  10. Nomination: Pet Sematary, by Stephen King.
    Unsung heroe: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson.

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  11. The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

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  12. My dudes. My people. How are there not more noms on this page?

    The first book to give me nightmares:
    The Metamorphosis by Kafka

    The most recent book to give me nightmares:
    Prey, by Michael Crichton

    A list of reminders, in case people need, yanno, suggestions and prompts:
    Dean Koontz
    Anne Rice
    Mary Shelly
    Bram Stoker
    James Herbert
    Dan Simmons
    Ira Levin
    John Steakley
    Poppy Z Brite
    Octavia Butler
    R.L. Stein
    Sarah Langan
    Graham Masterton
    Brian Keene

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  13. Let the Right One In, Ajvide
    The Alienist, Carr

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  14. this is an old one - I'm nominating Peter Straub's Ghost Story.

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  15. Two nominees:
    The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
    House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

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  16. Replies
    1. Seconding IT by King. Sorry for replying in the standalone comment.

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    3. Second both IT and The Shining by King.

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  18. American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis

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  19. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

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    Replies
    1. Seconding Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury.

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