I have been writing horror stories since I was at least five years old. As of 2022, I now have nine published works out, some with international acclaim. I use every story I read as an influence, and these are highlights of the ones that most helped me mold my own stories into works that hopefully stand the test of time and usher in a new wave of terror throughout the literary world. People are legitimately scared of me, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the words of these fine authors.
I wrote
Separating You: A Self-Help Book for the Lost, Lonely, and Psychotically Obsessed
First up on my list is the book that inspired what would be considered one of the first “slasher” blockbusters. Deviating a bit from the Alfred Hitchcock film, Bloch’s Psycho is much closer to showing what a serial murdering psychopath would actually look like. Where the film was limited in censorship, Bloch threw everything out on the table. In the book, Norman Bates is not some unassuming young man with mother issues; he is an overweight loner whose sexual repression plays a much larger role in the story and its subsequent outcome. Both book and film are classics in their own rights, but I really appreciated how Bloch showed a realistic, timeless look into what the “boy next door” really looks like: a ruthless serial killer, one who never hesitates to dress up in his mother’s bathrobe and come visit you in the shower.
Mary Crane believes she has found shelter from the storm when she checks into the Bates Motel, but the knife-wielding owner, Norman Bates, soon rips her piece of mind to shreds and the nightmare begins.
Going with the theme of famous books-turned-movies, Blatty’s words hauntingly highlight the tale of an unwitting little girl thrown in the battleground of good vs. evil. One of my favorite aspects is that this novel flies in the face of the readers’ individual faiths, being downright unapologetic about it at times. “You don’t believe in the devil? Well, what happens when the devil shows up at your doorstep?” To this day, there is an unsettling dream sequence in the book involving Father Karras that keeps me awake at night and literally forces me to turn the lights on. Make no mistake about it, this story might be supernaturally charged, but it knows how to gnaw at you in a very real, visceral way.
Father Damien Karras: 'Where is Regan?' Regan MacNeil: 'In here. With us.'
The terror begins unobtrusively. Noises in the attic. In the child's room, an odd smell, the displacement of furniture, an icy chill. At first, easy explanations are offered. Then frightening changes begin to appear in eleven-year-old Regan. Medical tests fail to shed any light on her symptoms, but it is as if a different personality has invaded her body.
Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit priest, is called in. Is it possible that a demonic presence has possessed the child? Exorcism seems to be the only answer...
In 2038 a devastating pandemic sweeps across the world. Two decades later, Britain remains the epicenter for the Fornax variant, annexed by a terrified global community.
David Malik is as careful as any man to avoid contact with the virus. But when his sister tests positive as an asymptomatic carrier,…
“Oh, he’s picking another book that was turned into an even bigger hit movie.” You bet your sweet britches I am, and there is a very good reason for that! The story of Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse is downright horrifying, mainly due to Levin’s whimsical way of writing realistic, humorous dialogue, while at the same time getting downright creepy without missing a beat. Is the devil involved again? You betchya, and both book and movie make a great pairing to show how surreally dreadful things can be. Gaslighting, insanity, the eventual revelation of what has been growing in Rosemary’s womb all this time…it makes for an incredibly entertaining, unnerving read.
'The Swiss watchmaker of the suspense novel' Stephen King
Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor-husband, Guy, move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents. Neighbours Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome them; despite Rosemary's reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband starts spending time with them. Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare.
As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to…
C’mon, my little droogies; let’s traipse down to the Korova and have a wee bit of Moloko and maybe some of the old ultraviolence. That’s a real good horrorshow!
Is A Clockwork Orange a horror novel? Most would say no. I would give a big, resounding yes. It shows from a first-person perspective the ins and outs of an adolescent sociopath who cares about nothing but the next big thrill and how he can exert his perceived control over the world. Extreme sensual violence and hedonism are displayed, and yet it somehow digs into our souls and reveals how we can relate to even the worst examples of the human condition. Alex DeLarge lurks behind every dark alley in the world, and we should best listen to his story in order to avoid being the next unfortunate soul beaten to a pulp just for existing.
In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends' intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess's introduction, "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."
In the harrowing aftermath of Chornobyl's meltdown in 1986, the fate of Eastern Europe hangs by a thread.
From Beijing, American radiation scientist Lara, once a thorn in the Russian mob's side, is drawn back into the shadows of the Soviet Union on the Trans-Mongolian Express. She isn't alone. Anton,…
Yeah, you know that cute little mini-series Netflix put out a few years ago? While competently made, that doesn’t hold a candle to the brilliance of Miss Jackson’s original work. I never read this book until I was near thirty years old, and I must say I’d been severely missing out. Being a horror author, I don’t scare easily. Really, I do not. This scares me. The unrelenting sense of unease; the brooding atmosphere; the ever-so-slightly wrong angles of the house. Nelly just wants her own Cup of Stars, her own small sense of belonging and joy in the universe, and Hill House promises to grant her all of that, and then more.
Part of a new six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by Academy Award-winning director of The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro
Filmmaker and longtime horror literature fan Guillermo del Toro serves as the curator for the Penguin Horror series, a new collection of classic tales and poems by masters of the genre. Included here are some of del Toro's favorites, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ray Russell's short story "Sardonicus," considered by Stephen King to be "perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written," to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and stories…
A self-help book written by a serial killer! Do you hurt? Do you hate? Do you want? Good!
If you have ever felt like your entire existence is meaningless, full of random potholes, endless lectures, and constant heartache, then this book is for you! Won't you join me? Won't you challenge your inner essence to dig up some grain of joy in this hell we call day to day "life"? Follow me...buy this book, and follow me. -Dr. Jason Carson
Miranda falls in love with her dream house but soon discovers it's an affair with complications. A lot of them. Rosewood is a centuries old, tumble-down, gambrel roofed charmer located in an isolated, coastal corner of Virginia referred to as "strange". Known for long-standing and antiquated customs, an almost indecipherable…
Fall 2028. Mickey Cooper, an elderly homeless man, receives an incredible proposition from a rogue pharmaceutical company: “Be our secret guinea pig for our new drug, and we’ll pay you life-changing money, which you’ll be able to enjoy because if (cough) when the treatment works, two months from now your…
