15 Best Horror Books of Century: A List with Commentary and Changes by Becky

One of my favorite horror review sources is Matt Molgaards Horror Novel Reviews.

In general this is a great place for public libraries to look for a wide range of horror options suitable for most public library collections. Molgaard curates a nice sampling of horror from the obvious best selling choices to the best of the small presses and everything in between.

Often the main stream review sources are not enough for your to develop a robust enough horror collection to meet demand, and provide enough varied choice for your patrons.

Earlier this week, Molgaard posted his list of the 15 Best Horror Novels of this Century-- so far.

Take a look because this is a list of books every public library should own. Overall I like the list for a few reasons, but I also have a few complaints-- specifically from the public library collection development point of view.

First the pros:

1. If I am being honest, I like this list because it validates the books which I have pushed in my book and on my blog.  For example, in my book I talk about Joe Hill and Jonathan Maberry as being the "New Kings of Horror." I wrote that back in 2010 (published in 2012) and both have only produced increasingly better stories and gotten more popular in the meantime. Morgaard includes books by both authors on his list.
2. This list also includes the book I have proclaimed as my absolute favorite 21st Century horror novel in print, online, in newspapers, on public radio, and on podcasts-- The Ruins by Scott Smith.
3. I appreciate how this list looks at the range and types of horror novels that have appeared this century and tires to represent it. For example, comic horror rose to popularity during this time, and Morgaard clearly picked the best book of the bunch-- John Dies at the End by David Wong. That is a great book!
4. House of Leaves!!!!!

Now the cons. And again, I want to stress that my problems with this list have to do with the fact that my readers-- library workers-- need to create as diverse as a collection as possible, representing the best of all types of horror in terms of gore level and writing style, but also from a wide range of authors:

1. There are no minority authors on the list and when I think best books of the 21st Century, two titles come immediately to mind: Zone One by Colson Whitehead or The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle [both by African American writers]. Those are among my personal favorites.
2. There are no female horror authors on the list, and as I just wrote in my new "Trends in Horror" article for NoveList-- women horror writers are on the rise. But even going back to the beginning of this century, Sarah Langan and Sarah Pinborough each wrote some of the best horror novels of the 21st Century. The Missing by Langan is a classic and Breeding Ground by Pinborough is among my favorites of her older works, but her newer stuff is also some of the best horror written by anyone right now.
3. Two other books I loved during the first years of this century which I did not see on the list are Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow  and The Caretaker of Lorne Field by Dave Zeltersman.

Okay Becky, so it is easy to complain about the lists of others but what would you take out?  Well, again my audience for the list would be different than Morgaard's so I would remove Odd Thomas because, well, no one in our world needs a reminder to purchase Dean Koontz and I would also take out 1 Dan Simmons and 1 Stephen King-- they don't need 2 on the list. We get it, they are very good at horror and can write a wide range of scary stories, but put 1 title by each on the list and then mention a runner-up in the annotation.

That leaves me three spots:

1. I would put in the Victor LaValle, and then I would sneak the Colson Whitehead into the annotation for House of Leaves [as a note like "another good literary horror read is..."]
2. I would have to go with The Missing by Langan but since she is not writing as much anymore, I would also mention Pinborough in the annotation.
3. Instead of Kootz, I would pick Sharp Teeth over The Caretaker at Lorne Field only because of the former's amazing style-- told in verse-- and the fact that it is a very urban horror novel, a setting that is becoming more popular.

Take a look through the list for yourself. Many of the books also have reviews here on RA for All: Horror and/or are annotated in my book.

And thanks to Morgaard for making this list, sparking a conversation AND for hosting and editing  Horror Novel Reviews.

And in more horror collection development news, look for my Halfway to Horror annual take over of The Readers' Shelf column in the April 15th issue of Library Journal. When it goes up on the website, I will post it on the blog.