Horror can mean ghosts, vampires, demons, serial killers or something far more psychological. Goodreads readers have ranked these ten novels among the genre’s most popular, with Stephen King appearing repeatedly across the list. From Gothic classics to modern supernatural nightmares, here are the books that make compelling reading during spooky season.
10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
Mary Shelley began her Gothic masterpiece at just 18. It follows Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who builds living matter from stolen body parts before recoiling from the being he has made. Shelley’s experience of losing her first child, who was born prematurely, informs the novel’s powerful anxiety around birth, creation and failing one’s offspring—ideas often softened by film adaptations.
9. Carrie by Stephen King (1974)
King’s debut novel centres on Carrie White, a bullied 16-year-old whose telekinetic abilities become a weapon against the cruel students at her school. The concise story leaves much unexplained, including Carrie’s powers and her mother’s religious fanaticism, while establishing themes King would explore in greater depth later. Brian De Palma’s 1976 film helped begin King’s run as the most adapted living author, and Mike Flanagan later released a miniseries version for Prime Video.
8. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Shirley Jackson’s unsettling ghost story brings a paranormal investigator and several companions to an isolated mansion in an attempt to prove that supernatural forces exist. As the group grows closer, strange events unfold alongside the house’s grim history. Jackson keeps the phenomena deliberately ambiguous, leaving readers unsure whether the danger is truly supernatural, psychological or both. Mike Flanagan’s Netflix adaptation instead follows a family connected to the house across several decades.
7. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971)
Inspired by a real case of supposed possession, Blatty’s novel follows Regan MacNeil as disturbing and violent behaviour escalates. After medical treatment fails, Regan’s mother seeks help from a Jesuit priest. The attempt to save the girl becomes a crisis of faith for the priest as he confronts his doubts and the devil. Blatty also wrote William Friedkin’s celebrated 1973 film and continued the story with The Ninth Configuration and The Exorcist 3.
6. Misery by Stephen King (1987)
King turns away from the supernatural for a claustrophobic thriller about obsession. Romance novelist Paul Sheldon has ended his successful Misery series and wants to write crime fiction, but a car accident leaves him dependent on Annie Wilkes, an enthusiastic fan who refuses to release him until he creates another Misery book. Rob Reiner’s 1990 film adaptation captured the novel’s terror, with Kathy Bates winning an Oscar for her performance.
5. Pet Sematary by Stephen King (1983)
When Louis Creed’s daughter’s cat, Church, is killed by a car, Louis buries the animal in an ancient Native American burial ground. Church returns, but something is badly wrong, and the reanimation unleashes an evil tied to the town’s dark history. The story has been adapted twice: Mary Lambert directed the 1989 film, followed by the 2019 version from Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer.
4. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
Bram Stoker’s novel helped define the modern vampire story. A Transylvanian count preys on the English town of Whitby, drawing on folklore and earlier horror fiction to establish familiar ideas about vampire powers and weaknesses. Its many memorable elements—including Dracula’s journey on the Demeter, his brides and Professor Abraham Van Helsing—have inspired countless adaptations. Readers who enjoy Anne Rice or Let the Right One In should make time for the original.
3. ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (1975)
Published a year after Carrie, King’s Dracula-inspired novel follows author Ben Mears as he returns to his Maine hometown in search of material for a new book. His investigation into an abandoned mansion and the death of a young boy reveals that residents of Jerusalem’s Lot are becoming vampires. The novel continues King’s interest in Maine as a setting for horror. Gary Dauberman directed a 2024 film adaptation.
2. It by Stephen King (1986)
Moving between the 1950s and 1980s, It follows a group of outsiders in Derry, Maine, who face a shapeshifting evil. Pennywise the Dancing Clown returns every 27 years to hunt new victims, forcing the Losers Club to confront childhood trauma while protecting another generation. Pennywise became one of fiction’s most recognisable monsters through adaptations including Andy Muschietti’s 2017 film and the 2025 HBO series It – Welcome to Derry.
1. The Shining by Stephen King (1977)
King drew on his own struggles with alcoholism for this story of Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic who takes a job at an isolated Colorado hotel and gradually loses his grip on reality. Jack’s son Danny possesses latent psychic abilities that intensify inside the haunted building, where a former caretaker murdered his family. Stanley Kubrick adapted the novel into his acclaimed 1980 film. King later continued Danny’s story in Doctor Sleep, which Mike Flanagan brought to cinemas in 2019.
Why these books remain influential
This ranking covers several distinct horror traditions: Gothic science fiction, haunted-house fiction, possession, psychological suspense, vampire stories and large-scale supernatural evil. Their screen adaptations have also helped carry these novels to new audiences, although the books often provide more room for character, ambiguity and internal fear.
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