What is the very best horror book (or possibly series?) written by a woman or POC or member of the LGBTQ+ community?This poll is from our Year of Diverse Polls. Please check this page out if you have questions about the narrowed focus.
The world of horror has a lot more voices than Lovecraft, Koontz, Barker, and Stephen King. Today it's time to celebrate the lesser sung crafters of some of the scariest stories around.
The Rules:
- Please note the diversity requirements above.
- As always, I leave the niggling over "Horror" to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you feel like Frankenstein is horror rather than science fiction, I'm not going to argue. (Though you might need to "show your work" to get anyone to second your nomination.) I'll only throw them out if they get super ridiculous.
- You may nominate two (2) books or series. If you nominate three or more my eyes narrow like Fry in Futurama. But more importantly for you, I will NOT take any nominations beyond the second that you suggest. (I will consider a long list to be "seconds" if someone else nominates them as well.)
- You may (and absolutely should) second as many nominations of others as you wish. So stop back in and see if anyone has put up something you want to see go onto the poll.
- Please put your nominations here. I will take nominations only as comments on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+.) If you can't comment here send me a PM as I am not likely to see a comment.
- You are nominating WRITTEN HORROR, not their movie portrayals. And while in most cases with horror books are ALWAYS better because showing the monster always kind of ruins it a little, if you think The Haunting of Hill House was scary because The Haunting had those little CGI cherub heads, leave that out of this poll.
- No more endless elimination rounds. I will take somewhere between 8-20 best performing titles and at MOST run a single semifinal round. So second the titles you want even if they already have one. (Yes, I guess that would make them thirds, fourths, etc...)
Kathe Koja, "The Cipher," and Ki Longfellow, "Houdini Heart."
ReplyDeleteAnita Blake series, by Laurell K Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteAnita is a paranormal romance. Not horror i don't think.
DeleteFrankenstein has to be on here! Also Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.
ReplyDeleteI second Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteGoing with two classics for my nominations:
ReplyDelete1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
2. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Seconding Frankenstein and The Historian.
I second both The Haunting of Hill House and The Woman in Black.
DeleteThis one is a bit of a stretch as to whether it counts as horror, but I think it's certainly graphic enough to make the cut. And it's an incredible book to boot.
ReplyDelete"Beloved" by Toni Morrison
I nominate “The House Next Door” by Anne River Siddons. And I second “The Historian” although I wasn’t scared by it.
ReplyDeleteVampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, specifically Vittorio the Vampire if only one book can be nominated and not the series.
ReplyDeleteThe Yellow Wallpaper. by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
ReplyDeleteSecond this! Soooo creepy
DeleteSecond the Anne Rice suggestions and the Shirley Jackon ones.
ReplyDeleteAlso, The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
I nominate Tanya Huff and the Blood Books. I would also like to nominate Emmi Itäranta and The Weaver, but I don't know if you would consider it horror. I did. Link: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062326195/the-weaver/ I used to like Laurell K Hamilton, but I feel her writing has devolved into sex/violence over storyline.
ReplyDeleteI nominate "The Handmaid’s Tale" by Margaret Atwood. I know it's speculative fiction, but its' plausibility and its' detail of how a totalitarian regime operates makes it horrifying.
ReplyDeleteI nominate "wake" by Elizabeth Knox
ReplyDeleteMy favorites have been nominated already!
ReplyDeleteThe Handmaid's Tale, The Historian, The House Next Door (possibly even scarier since Siddons stepped out of her usual genre). And of course, Jackson, anything by Jackson.
Second Shelley's Frankenstein
ReplyDeletethird would be Jackson's Haunting oof Hill House
I nominate "At What Cost" by Faelan Grimm. A wonderful piece by an excellent LGBT author who excels in horror
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree, nomination for "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.
ReplyDeleteA chilling, yet exquisitely written, tale of haunting and so much more.
Deeply moving and creepy as the spiritial and paranormal veil is lifted. This story will stay with you.
"The Vampire Lestat", "Queen of The Damned", "Lasher", or the entire Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.
The problem with nominating people from the LGBT community is that you want them to be out to the public first. I think more than one writer will not mention their sexuality, for probably a number of reasons. Still like the polls though.
ReplyDeleteAffinity, by Sarah Waters. Or, maybe more on genre point, her book The Little Stranger.
ReplyDeleteAlso second The Little Stranger - that book is so genuinely scary in a slow burning way
Delete(Shared from FB on request)
ReplyDeleteJez Quiney
As I can't seem to post on the website I'd just like to give a shout out to Natsuo Kirino's 'Out'. I think it's generally classified as Crime, but it's as much horror, of the non-supernatural, grisly and disturbingly everyday kind.
I don't think I can second myself, but if I can, I will ;)
DeleteThanks again for this, access seems to be working now.
Michael McDowell's The Elementals is a really good book. Blackwater is good, too.
ReplyDeleteI nominate The House on Hackmans Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon. Children's horror but still bothers me to this day.
ReplyDeleteThe Newsflesh series by Seanan McGuire.
ReplyDeleteRebecca by Daphne du Maurier
ReplyDeleteWild Seed by Octavia Butler
Nocebo Effect by Jaimie Gipson! By far the most terrifying book I've read and recommend it to anyone who loves horror books
ReplyDeleteI would ;like to nominate the book I am currently reading "The School For Good and Evil" by Soman Chainani. Not sure it would traditionally be classified as horror, but there are some pretty horrifying things, such as children being turned into animals if they get low grades at school and forced to live their lives in servitude (one little boy gets murdered just as he is turning back into a human from the gargoyle he has been), two children being kidnapped by a shadow creature every four years in order to attend this school... it's sort of a "The dark truth behind fairy tales" type story.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan. A new and interesting take on Lovecraftian horror.
ReplyDeleteCome Closer by Sara Gran - Excellent book on the descent into possession.
ReplyDeleteFrankenstein is my favorite of all time, so yeah I'll give a nod to that as well.
Side note: Ain't Barker pretty damn gay? I mean last I checked, he kinda fits the latter of your qualifiiers. But yes, he gets a ton of recognition. Either way, rambling!