Rue Morgue's "50 Essential Alternative Horror Books"

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This list of novels, novellas & short story collections was published in Issue #61 (October 2006) of Rue Morgue magazine.

These are books that connoisseurs of horror might have overlooked. The aim of the list is to "avoid the mainstream titles to bring you what [they] feel is a diverse sampling of the best in alternative horror fiction."

If you want to read the write-ups for each book, you can buy back issues of the magazine "here":http://www.rue-morgue.com/countrysel.php.

The list is chronological, by order of publication.

  1. 1.
    The Monk (Penguin Classics)
    by Matthew Lewis

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  2. 2.
    Tales of Hoffmann (Penguin Classics)
    by Ernst Theodor Hoffman

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  3. 3.
    Maldoror
    by Comte de Lautreamont

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  4. 4.
    In a Glass Darkly (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Sheridan Le Fanu

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  5. 5.
    The Great God Pan
    by Arthur Machen

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  6. 6.
    The Damned (La-Bas) (Penguin Classics)
    by Joris-Karl Huysmans

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  7. 7.
    The King In Yellow
    by Robert W. Chambers

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  8. 9.
    The House on the Borderland
    by William Hope Hodgson

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  9. 10.
    The Trial
    by Franz Kafka

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  10. 11.
    The Plague
    by Albert Camus

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  11. 12.
    Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination
    by Edogawa Rampo

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  12. 13.
    Nine Horrors and a Dream
    by Joseph Payne Brennan

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  13. 14.
    A Scent of a New-Mown Hay
    by John Blackburn

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  14. 15.
    The Owl Service
    by Alan Garner

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  15. 16.
    Picnic at Hanging Rock
    by Joan Lindsay

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  16. 17.
    The Green Man
    by Kingsley Amis

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  17. 18.
    Zothique
    by Clark Ashton Smith

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  18. 19.
    Blackbriar
    by William Sleator

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  19. 20.
    All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By
    by John Farris

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  20. 21.
    The Bloody Chamber
    by Angela Carter

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  21. 22.
    San Diego Lightfoot Sue and Other Stories
    by Tom Reamy

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  22. 23.
    The Totem
    by David Morrell

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  23. 24.
    The Nameless
    by Ramsey Campbell

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  24. 25.
    Voice of Our Shadow (Fantasy Masterworks)
    by Jonathan Carroll

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  25. 26.
    The Wasp Factory
    by Iain Banks

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  26. 27.
    Dark Gods
    by T.E.D. Klein

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  27. 28.
    Song of Kali
    by Dan Simmons

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  28. 29.
    Why Not You and I
    by Karl Edward Wagner

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  29. 30.

  30. 31.
    By Bizarre Hands
    by Joe R. Lansdale

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  31. 32.
    Songs of a Dead Dreamer
    by Thomas Ligotti

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  32. 33.
    Vampires
    by John Steakley

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  33. 34.
    Wilding
    by Melanie Tem

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  34. 35.
    Skin
    by Kathe Koja

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  35. 36.
    Throat Sprockets
    by Tim Lucas

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  36. 37.
    The Matrix
    by Jonathan Aycliffe

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  37. 38.
    The Bloody Red Baron
    by Kim Newman

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  38. 39.
    The Elementals
    by Michael McDowell

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  39. 40.
    Black Butterflies
    by John Shirley

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  40. 41.
    Cows
    by Matthew Stokoe

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  41. 42.
    Pontypool Changes Everything: A Novel
    by Tony Burgess

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  42. 43.
    The Collected Strange Stories (2 vols.)
    by Robert Aickman

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  43. 44.
    The Descent
    by Jeff Long

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  44. 45.
    A Life in the Cinema
    by Mick Garris

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  45. 46.
    House of Leaves: The Remastered Full-Color Edition
    by Mark Z. Danielewski

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  46. 47.
    Under the Skin: A Novel
    by Michel Faber

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  47. 48.
    Straw Men
    by Michael Marshall

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  48. 49.
    A Choir of Ill Children
    by Tom Piccirilli

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  49. 50.
    The Fear Report
    by Elizabeth Massie

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Created by The Subjected Reader on Mar 16, 2007.
 

Comments

mark
Randolph

chronogical — 15 weeks ago

are they listed earliest to most recent?


Shannon
Hillsborough

Great list! — 1 year ago

This looks like a great list, one worth tackling. A bit different from the usual run of the mill recommendations.