Horror fiction has never been just about jump scares or monsters in the dark (although it is bloody good at that too). The best examples of the genre unsettle us by revealing something essential about human nature — our fears of isolation, power, guilt, and change. From Gothic castles to suburban homes, these stories use terror as a mirror, reflecting the anxieties of their age and the things we’d rather not see in ourselves.
Across two centuries, horror has continually reinvented itself — shifting from the moral dread of Frankenstein and Dracula to the psychological hauntings of Shirley Jackson and the bodily, surreal nightmares of modern writers like Carmen Maria Machado and Han Kang. Whether through ghosts, serial killers, or the simple horrors of love and loss, these novels prove that fear is one of literature’s most enduring languages…
The Shining by Stephen King
In a snowbound hotel, a struggling writer-turned-caretaker succumbs to madness and malevolent spirits. The blend of psychological collapse and supernatural menace turned this into one of King’s best-loved novels.
Hodder, £10.99
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Four researchers enter an old mansion searching for proof of the paranormal. Cue unraveling sanity and slow-burn psychological horror in this novel which transforms the typical haunted house story into a chilling study of loneliness, repression, and the hunger to belong.
Penguin, £9.99
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Stevenson’s brief, elegant novella examines the duality of good and evil through a respectable man’s hidden alter ego. The book’s enduring power lies in its simplicity, not to mention the fact it manages to be as hair-raising as it is a clever moral fable.
Penguin, £6.99
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
When a mysterious carnival arrives in a small town the week before Halloween, two boys can’t resist venturing into its dark heart. Bradbury’s poetic prose perfectly captures the terror of growing up and the seductive danger of getting exactly what you desire.
Gollancz, £10.99
Beloved by Toni Morrison
In this Pulitzer-winning masterpiece, it is the beginning of the end of slavery in mid 19th century America where a mother is being haunted by the ghost of her daughter. Morrison turns the supernatural into a language for trauma, the horrors of history, and the way the past refuses to stay buried.
Vintage, £9.99
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Machado’s collection bends horror, erotica, and surrealism to examine women’s bodies as sites of fear and control. Each story feels like a feminist reinvention of the genre — intimate, unsettling, and deeply political without losing its sense of mystery and dread.
Serpent’s Tail, £9.99
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
A young scientist brings life to dead matter, only to recoil from his creation. Shelley’s novel weaves Gothic tragedy with proto-science fiction, exploring responsibility, alienation, and the monstrous side of human ambition. Its moral complexity still resonates two centuries later.
Penguin, £7.99
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
In one of the finest modern literary chillers, a country doctor becomes entangled with a decaying English estate and its unsettled inhabitants. Waters fuses ghost story with postwar class commentary, leaving readers unsure whether the haunting is supernatural or social.
Virago, £10.99
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Told through letters and journals, this Victorian classic follows a young man who travels to Transylvania to help a count purchase a home in London – only to discover some horrifying truths about his client. Stoker’s examination of identity, science and sexuality created the template for countless vampire stories.
Penguin, £7.99
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
In this surreal study of control and bodily autonomy, a quiet South Korean woman decides to stop eating meat – an unheard of act of subversion from which chaos unspools. Han’s prose is spare, hypnotic and dripping with existential dread.
Granta, £9.99
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
In an apparition-filled country house, a governess believes two children are possessed by evil spirits. This eerie novel’s restraint and psychological complexity have inspired endless debate — and countless reinterpretations of its elusive horrors.
Penguin, £7.99
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Before it was an award-winning play and a horror movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, this was a spine-tingling novel. The story follows a solicitor sent to settle an estate, where he encounters a spectral figure near an isolated marsh, and perfectly channels the atmosphere of Victorian ghost stories.
Vintage, £9.99
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
In a world where seeing mysterious creatures drives people to suicide, a mother navigates survival blindfolded. Malerman’s stripped-down prose and relentless tension make this an instant classic of apocalyptic horror which taps into primal fears.
HarperCollins, £10.99
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
FBI trainee Clarice Starling seeks help from imprisoned killer Hannibal Lecter to catch another murderer. Harris fuses procedural realism with psychological horror, crafting a novel that’s by turns meticulous and utterly terrifying.
Arrow, £9.99
