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
  2. 2.
    Tales of Hoffmann (Penguin Classics)
    by Ernst Theodor Hoffman
  3. 3.
    Maldoror (Les Chants de Maldoror)
    by Comte de Lautreamont
  4. 4.
    In a Glass Darkly (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Sheridan Le Fanu
  5. 5.
    The Great God Pan
    by Arthur Machen
  6. 6.
    The Damned (La-Bas) (Penguin Classics)
    by Joris-Karl Huysmans
  7. 7.
    The King in Yellow
    by Robert W. Chambers
  9. 9.
    The House on the Borderland
    by William Hope Hodgson
  10. 10.
    The Trial
    by Franz Kafka
  11. 11.
    The Plague
    by Albert Camus
  12. 12.
    Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination (Tuttle Classics)
    by Edogawa Rampo
  13. 13.
    ?
    Nine Horrors and a Dream
    by Joseph Payne Brennan
  14. 14.
    ?
    A Scent of a New-Mown Hay
    by John Blackburn
  15. 15.
    ?
    The Owl Service
    by Alan Garner
  16. 16.
    Picnic at Hanging Rock
    by Joan Lindsay
  17. 17.
    The Green Man
    by Kingsley Amis
  18. 18.
    Zothique
    by Clark Ashton Smith
  19. 19.
    ?
    Blackbriar
    by William Sleator
  20. 20.
    ?
    All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By
    by John Farris
  21. 21.
    The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories
    by Angela Carter
  22. 22.
    San Diego Lightfoot
    by Tom Reamy
  23. 23.
    The Totem
    by David Morrell
  24. 24.
    ?
    The Nameless
    by Ramsey Campbell
  25. 25.
    Voice of Our Shadow (Fantasy Masterworks 25)
    by Jonathan Carroll
  26. 26.
    The Wasp Factory
    by Iain Banks
  27. 27.
    Dark Gods
    by T.E.D. Klein
  28. 28.
    Song of Kali
    by Dan Simmons
  29. 29.
    ?
    Why Not You and I
    by Karl Edward Wagner
  30. 30.
    ?
  31. 31.
    ?
    By Bizarre Hands
    by Joe R. Lansdale
  32. 32.
    ?
    Songs of a Dead Dreamer
    by Thomas Ligotti
  33. 33.
    Vampires
    by John Steakley
  34. 34.
    ?
    Wilding
    by Melanie Tem
  35. 35.
    Skin
    by Kathe Koja
  36. 36.
    ?
    Throat Sprockets
    by Tim Lucas
  37. 37.
    The Matrix
    by Jonathan Aycliffe
  38. 38.
    The Bloody Red Baron
    by Kim Newman
  39. 39.
    ?
    The Elementals
    by Michael McDowell
  40. 40.
    Black Butterflies
    by John Shirley
  41. 41.
    Cows
    by Matthew Stokoe
  42. 42.
    Pontypool Changes Everything
    by Tony Burgess
  43. 43.
    ?
    The Collected Strange Stories (2 vols.)
    by Robert Aickman
  44. 44.
    The Descent
    by Jeff Long
  45. 45.
    A Life in the Cinema
    by Mick Garris
  46. 46.
    House of Leaves
    by Mark Z. Danielewski
  47. 47.
    Under the Skin: A Novel
    by Michel Faber
  48. 48.
    Straw Men
    by Michael Marshall
  49. 49.
    A Choir of Ill Children
    by Tom Piccirilli
  50. 50.
    ?
    The Fear Report
    by Elizabeth Massie
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Created by bah on Mar 16, 2007.
 

Comments

MARK

chronogical — 3 years ago

are they listed earliest to most recent?

Jun 25, 09:07PM | 2 comments | Reply to this

Shannon

Great list! — 4 years ago

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

Jun 23, 06:01AM | 1 comment | Reply to this



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