My favorite books about evil houses

No list about terrifying houses would be complete without this book. Although it’s not the first novel ever written about a haunted house, it’s probably the best known, and it set the bar for all haunted house novels to come. It was the first haunted house book I ever read, back when I was just a boy, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t want to turn the lights off when I was finished! A group of people spends the night in Hill House to see if it’s haunted. And, of course, it is. Not only do ghosts roam the halls, but the house itself is evil. Jackson tells us that Hill House is insane, that it is a place without love or hope, that it is unlivable. And she backs all of that up with scenes that leave you afraid of every creaking floorboard or wall in your own home.

Although not technically a house, the Overlook Hotel has to be one of the most terrifying places to live ever imagined and put on paper. This book has so many iconic characters: Lloyd the bartender, the evil twins, the woman in the bathtub in Room 217. And the hotel itself, which is as much a character as any of the others. Like several books on this list, the Overlook is both haunted and evil in and of itself. It gets into Jack’s head, drives him insane. It is always hungry for more souls, and glad to terrify you before it captures you for good. For the best experience, be sure to read this one on a cold, stormy winter night!

Although this book is only a few years old, it should be considered a classic in the genre of evil houses. A young woman inherits her mother’s childhood home and decides to convert it into a hotel. Only the place comes with some surprises: ghosts, demons, and an ancient evil that has been locked away in the dark basement. Now that evil is loose again, and the bloodshed and death are just beginning. Author Chantal Noordeloos doesn’t hold back with the frights or the blood, as person after person suffers a horrible death while poor Freya discovers her true destiny is not what she planned, and that the place they call Lucifer Falls might never let her go. 

Stephen King once called Hell House the scariest haunted house novel ever written. And it would be hard for me to disagree. The Belasco House, much like Shirley Jackson’s Hill House, is a place of pure evil. Abandoned for decades after a series of terrible incidents, it’s now being opened again so that a group of scientists and mediums can spend the night in order to conduct experiments and prove that life after death really exists. Of course, it does, and in Hell House that means the kinds of things you never should wake up. 

This book isn’t nearly as well known as the others except to real aficionados of the genre. But it’s one of the scariest evil house novels ever written, in part because of the surprising twist at the end. A young couple decides to get out of the city for the summer and rent a house in upstate New York. Right away, there’s something odd: an elderly woman lives in the house, and she stays locked in her room all the time. As the days go by, it becomes obvious that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house, and there’s a reason the couple got it for such a cheap price. And by the time they discover the truth, it might be too late.