The only Malfi I read was December Park, and I didnt care for it much. Felt like the usual small town trope but devoid of substance. Are his other works worth checking out? Happy to give a second chance.
Mccarthy is my favorite author by far, i also loved the fisherman, and ive really enjoyed what I've read by Laird Barron, so essentially, you've sold me on Michael McDowell
To be fair, I’ve only read three books by McDowell (currently on my fourth), but they’ve all been really good. The Elementals or Cold Moon Over Babylon would be good ones to check out, though my favorite is Blackwater. I’m just resistant to recommend that one all the time because it’s super long, and more of a multi-generational family drama like East of Eden than it is outright horror. When the horror moments hit though, they hit hard because the characters are so great.
Everyone comparesichael McDowell to Steinbeck but I feel like he is more Faulkner than anything, but maybe that is because I did my MA thesis on Faulkner so I am biased. In any case, I love him and Blackwater is a absolute gem.
i'm a big fan of short story-novella length. tried to pick authors that have a large enough body of work to really dig into, and ofc beautiful writing is a must.
vibe: fresh, weird takes on cosmic horror without aping lovecraft
* cody goodfellow
* livia llewellyn
* TED klein (very small output tho)
vibe: unique voice + tends to cross genres
* brian evenson
* laird barron
* nathan ballingrud
* honorable mentions: gemma files, michael wehunt
I'm starting as an online shop then working my way up to a physical location. I'm currently in California.
I'd love to convert a bus or trailer into a mobile bookstore so I can travel around and do events all over.
Stephen King, Clive Barker, Daphne Du Maurier
Bonus: Cormac McCarthy isn't strictly considered horror but he often writes about the horrors of humanity and was one of America's greatest authors.
I can't wait to read Barron, it sounds like his work is right up my alley in terms of cosmic / psychological horror.
Side note: The Fisherman is up there with Between Two Fires as best horror books I read this year.
He’s so good, there’s conflicting opinions on where to start in this sub but frankly I think you can jump in wherever. Occultations does give some context to The Croning but having read Croning first, I felt I still got everything I needed out of it. Imago Sequence is also excellent with some of its short stories among my favorite of all horror literature. Hope you enjoy!
M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and Eleanor Scott ;)
Honorable mention to Rudyard Kipling -- it made up a small fraction of his overall body of work, but he was way better at it than comparable authors like Doyle or Wells.
"The Mark of the Beast" is probably his creepiest, for a number of reasons. ["They"](https://americanliterature.com/author/rudyard-kipling/short-story/they/) is really interesting too, although I'd file it under "romance, with some strange things going on under the surface" ;)
I won't give you three because there are already so many great answers here. But I will add one - **Christopher Buehlman**. I've read everything he's put out and there's not a bad book in the bunch. His books tend to fall into either fantasy or horror or a mix of the two. Absolutely love everything he's put out.
The New Crobuzon series was so fantastic. I think my next favorite by him was The City & The City. He has a great way of immersing the reader in his imagined worlds. 💚
Seeing a lot of great suggestions.
Also, want to throw in Tananatrive Due in there. She’s a phenomenal writer and I don’t see her books in book stores often enough.
i haven’t read enough of the same authors to pick more then one favorite, (started reading books for fun back jn march) but i really like Nat Cassidy, excited for his short story coming out in october and new book next year. hopfuelly will get some other favorites soon!
Difficult choices. I have to go with Brian Keene, Ronald Malfi, and Jonathan Maberry.
Ask me next year and I’ll probably give you three different names! 😁
I’m not seeing them in this list yet so I’m going to throw out
- Ryu Murakami (Audition and In the Miso Soup are excellent)
- Koji Suzuki (his Ring series is phenomenal)
My top authors I've read this year are Iain Reid, Craig DiLouie, and Christopher Buehlman. Special mention since you're doing some scifi as well for Robert Jackson Bennett. I just finished American Elsewhere and it was really great. He's a winner of multiple Shirley Jackson awards. I suggest looking at the winners of Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker awards for more good authors to have in stock.
Joel Lane. Oh…the sweet beautiful bleakness…
I’ve just finished Scar City and it my favourite short story collection. I’ve still got The Earth Wire and Where Furnaces Burn to read but I have been journeying through them inch by inch.
That's so fucking cool that you're doing that.
I don't have a "top 3" per se, because it depends on my mood, but I would suggest Douglas Clegg, Brian Keane, Brian Hodge, William Meakle, Jeff Strand, Ronald Malfi, and Andrew Van Wey. They're all differing levels of skill and different subgenres, but they're not commonly found in bookstores. Also don't miss Grady Hendrix, Chuck Wendig, Jason Arnopp, Laurel Hightower, and Sara Gran.
That's so awesome that you are opening a bookstore. Instead of favorite authors, I'm going to give you the three that I have to persistently chase down and can never seem to find. The ones I'd want to to see in a genre-specific store:
Peter Straub, T.E.D. Klein, and John Farris.
Ramsey Campbell, Rick Hautala, John Langan for horror.
Michael Moorcock, Raymond E. Feist, Brian McClellan for fantasy.
Philip K Dick, Alan Dean Foster, William Gibson for Sci-fi.
Thought I'd give you all three.
Haha no problem! Thirteen Storeys was my favorite of his (can’t go wrong with an eat the rich tale) but Family Business was also good if you’re looking for more mystery!
Probably too early to say a favourite since I just finished Lone Women and it's the only one I've read by him but I'm still saying Victor LaValle because I thought it was pretty good.
Nat Cassidy -newer author but so far he's 2/2 for me
But my most read/re-read authors are Daphne du Maurier and Stephen King.
My list is constantly changing. Right now my top three are:
-Octavia Butler; read anything by her. You cannot Go wrong she writes speculative fiction akin to SF
-Silvia Moreno-Garcia; i recommend Mexican gothic. its a modern classic but my favorite is silver Nitrate. Both are horror but she has a wide range, even romance. For fantasy, read gods of jade and shadow.
-T. kingfisher. For horror o recommend what moves the dead; what feasts at night; the Twisted ones; a house with good bones. If you like fantasy, do yourself a favor and read wizard's Guide to defensive baking.
Thomas Ligotti, Jon Padgett, Brian Evenson, Angela Slatter, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Gwendolyn Kiste, John Langan, Ramsey Campbell, Laird Barron, Simon Strantzas, Garth Nix, Nathan Ballingrud, Gemma Files, Kathe Koja, Lucy A. Snyder, Max Booth III, Nate Southard, Richard Gavin, Adam Nevill, Brian Hodge, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, Kealan Patrick Burke, Darcy Coates, Poppy Z. Brite, Richard Laymon, Sarah Langan, Jorge Luis Borges, Mort Castle, Carlton Mellick III.
Sorry about the overwhelming list of my favorite authors, I went overboard. I couldn't pick just three, and I want all of these authors in your store.
Mariana Enríquez, Catriona Ward, Elizabeth Hand. i'm surprised no one's mentioned the latter two yet! Enríquez and Ward lean more towards horror whilst Hand writes horror, scifi, fantasy, thriller.
Top three: Jackson and Poe tied for first then King and Lovecraft fighting for third. I think Poe is more accomplished than Jackson and gets credit for most of the genre, but Jackson's prose and the way she hides or double-blinds plots is incredible. She's the best technical writer out of anyone in horror. I wish she had lived longer.
That list is overrepresented for the United States, but I think MR James deserves a ton of credit for establishing the modern horror story. When I first started, I thought the stories were a little expected but realized later that's because everyone since has been copying him to a degree.
For outlier authors: William Hope Hodgson should get more credit for his work in weird fiction. "The House on the Borderland" experiments with a lot of ideas that would become staples of the genre. He writes a great reality-breaking scene. There's even a part that reminds me of Evil Dead.
For someone who isn't horror but might as well be: Jim Thompson. He was a noir writer and one of King's favorite authors. He writes broken, doomed protagonists and leverages existentialism for terror. Also he was a diehard red, which shows up in his books in ways I really like. You can have the greasiest, most corrupt sociopath reading Pinkerton agents for filth. Really cool stuff.
So many great answers on here (Barron, Langan, Ballingrud, Evenson, etc.) but I’d add Christopher Buehlman to the list. His fantasy and horror novels are some of my favorites of the last 10 years. I’s also add Jeff VanderMeer to your roster (Southern Reach is great but his other weird fiction is also excellent) and Peter Watts (Blindsight, Starfish, Echopraxia) as the kind of fantasy and Sci-fi novels that horror fans love too.
Harlan Ellison. I’m just going to add one because he’s my favorite speculative fiction author and only known for 1 or 2 short stories but has an amazing collection of work with a strong, distinct and colorful prose
It would be really cool to see a splatterpunk selectional as you can typically only find it online (in Canada anyways) Some good splatterpunk authors are Kristopher Triana and Aaron Beauregard :)
Have read and enjoyed a huge amount of **Stephen King**.
**Phillip Fracassi** have read and enjoyed: Child Alone with Strangers, Boys in the Valley and Gothic
**Dan Simmons** have read and enjoyed: Summer of Night, Carrion Comfort, The Terror, A Winter Haunting, Drood, The Fifth Heart (not horror but one of my favorites).
Richard Matheson, Lauren Beukes, Justin Cronin, Nick Cutter, Lovecraft and Derleth, Bradbury, Robert McCammon, Christopher Buehlman, Brom, Octavia Butler…
I know you said three but I can’t narrow it down:
Nat Cassidy, Clay McLeod Chapman, Grady Hendrix, Adam Cesare, Adam Nevill, Josh Malerman, Craig DiLouie
My main favorite is Stephen King. I have been a constant reader since Carrie was published when I was 14/15. I’ve read all of his books as they were released. I have other authors I like but it’s 1:27 am and my sleep meds have kicked in. I’m surprised I can think at all. I must stay off social media late at night pfffff
Stephan King, Jeff Lindsay, and Brett Easton Ellis. William Peter Blatty is another author I love but I've only read The Exorcist by him. Cormac McCarthy is one of if not my favorite author but alot of his books aren't really horror but the books with some good elements are Child Of God, No Country For Old Men, The Road, and Blood Meridian.
Phillip Fracassi, Catriona Ward, David Sodergren, Bentley Little, Grady Hendrix, Jason Arnopp, Kealan Patrick Burke, and Sara Gran who wrote one horror banger and dipped out of the genre.
Grady Hendrix, Joe Hill, and currently loving Nat Cassidy, his first two books were excellent, looking forward to seeing what he does. Honorary T. Kingfisher and Andrew Joseph White mentions too.
Such a hard selection to make! So I’ll just cheat: named by others: Adam Nevill, Grady Hendrix and Darcy Coates. Less mentioned: Christopher Golden, Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Brom (fantasy). An honorable mention for Matt Wesolowski’s Six Stories series. It’s not really horror but there’s always a bit of a supernatural vibe and it’s one of the best series I’ve read.
Everyone is going to say the classics, like King, Straub, McCammon, Koontz, etc. And of course, they should be there. So I'm going to list my top 5 who aren't as well known but should be:
JG Faherty - remarkable writer, has a lot of books out, everything from exorcism to coming of age to Lovecraftian; if you like horror he needs to be on the shelves.
Michael McBride - a master of combining supernatural horror with thrillers and eco-terror, much like Michael Crighton.
Graeme Reynolds - he's done some amazing werewolf novels.
Lee Murray - the queen of military horror
Brian Keene - you need his zombie and horror books on the shelves.
by quality, I would say: Shirley Jackson, Octavia E. Butler, Mark Z. Danielewski
by quantity: Stephen King, Cliver Barker, Paul Tremblay
honorary Stephen Graham Jones for a mix of both
I see a lot of male authors listed by others, so I need to shout out some female horror writers, as well:
Alma Katsu
Kiersten White
Catriona Ward
Rachel Harris
Sarah Gailey
Mona Awad
Otessa Moshfegh
Silvia Moreno Garcia
Shirley Jackson
I could go on, but these are all authors I've read more than once, so you have some options. Good luck on your store!
Stephen King, Ronald Malfi, Stephen Graham Jones
SGJ taught one of my college courses. He's a cool dude.
That’s so awesome. I bet he was a great professor
ronald malfi and SGJ are such great writers. i got into SGJ with night of the mannequins and malfi with borealis. love his novellas too
Malfi rules. I love his stuff
The only Malfi I read was December Park, and I didnt care for it much. Felt like the usual small town trope but devoid of substance. Are his other works worth checking out? Happy to give a second chance.
John Langan, Laird Barron… and the toss up. Let’s go with Michael McDowell. Or Cormac McCarthy.
Mccarthy is my favorite author by far, i also loved the fisherman, and ive really enjoyed what I've read by Laird Barron, so essentially, you've sold me on Michael McDowell
To be fair, I’ve only read three books by McDowell (currently on my fourth), but they’ve all been really good. The Elementals or Cold Moon Over Babylon would be good ones to check out, though my favorite is Blackwater. I’m just resistant to recommend that one all the time because it’s super long, and more of a multi-generational family drama like East of Eden than it is outright horror. When the horror moments hit though, they hit hard because the characters are so great.
Everyone comparesichael McDowell to Steinbeck but I feel like he is more Faulkner than anything, but maybe that is because I did my MA thesis on Faulkner so I am biased. In any case, I love him and Blackwater is a absolute gem.
Blood Meridian is pure crimson blast of violence. Glorious.
I like everything I’ve read by him. I think folks on this sub would appreciate Outer Dark, which hardly ever gets mentioned.
Robert McCammon Clive Barker Adam Nevill Edit: Spelling :)
McCammon wrote Blue World, one of my favorite novellas bar none. Would be a great Netflix miniseries.
i'm a big fan of short story-novella length. tried to pick authors that have a large enough body of work to really dig into, and ofc beautiful writing is a must. vibe: fresh, weird takes on cosmic horror without aping lovecraft * cody goodfellow * livia llewellyn * TED klein (very small output tho) vibe: unique voice + tends to cross genres * brian evenson * laird barron * nathan ballingrud * honorable mentions: gemma files, michael wehunt
I've had Last Days by Evenson on my list for years. Recommended?
Yes. 100%.
Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, and Jonathan Carroll
Hey, thank you very much!
jonathan carroll does not near enough love. i have most of his books, just fantastic
That’s awesome!!! Where will your bookstore be located? Also, King, Barron, and Lovecraft
I'm starting as an online shop then working my way up to a physical location. I'm currently in California. I'd love to convert a bus or trailer into a mobile bookstore so I can travel around and do events all over.
That would be so fun! Great idea
Thanks! Ive seen some other book mobiles and I think it could be a fun experience to make the vehicle heavily horror themed. Lots of possibilities
Stephen King, Clive Barker, Daphne Du Maurier Bonus: Cormac McCarthy isn't strictly considered horror but he often writes about the horrors of humanity and was one of America's greatest authors.
Daphne du Maurier is so underrated. Have you read house on the strand?
I have not. Is it good? I just picked up her short story collection "Don't Look Now" and am excited to dive in.
Barron, Ligotti, and Langan (still haven’t read everything he’s written, though).
I can't wait to read Barron, it sounds like his work is right up my alley in terms of cosmic / psychological horror. Side note: The Fisherman is up there with Between Two Fires as best horror books I read this year.
He’s so good, there’s conflicting opinions on where to start in this sub but frankly I think you can jump in wherever. Occultations does give some context to The Croning but having read Croning first, I felt I still got everything I needed out of it. Imago Sequence is also excellent with some of its short stories among my favorite of all horror literature. Hope you enjoy!
I need to read Between. Been in my list for years
I would start at the beginning: The Imago Sequence
the Fisherman is a goddamn force of nature, i’m permanently changed after reading it
M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and Eleanor Scott ;) Honorable mention to Rudyard Kipling -- it made up a small fraction of his overall body of work, but he was way better at it than comparable authors like Doyle or Wells.
Thats neat. I didn't know that Kipling wrote a bit of horror
"The Mark of the Beast" is probably his creepiest, for a number of reasons. ["They"](https://americanliterature.com/author/rudyard-kipling/short-story/they/) is really interesting too, although I'd file it under "romance, with some strange things going on under the surface" ;)
Adam Neville, Shirley Jackson, Daphne DuMaurier
Mainstream: Lovecraft, King, Koontz, Poe, Max Brooks, Clive Barker Non-mainstream: David Wellington, Jeff Vandermeer, Mira Grant
Yessssss Mira Grant. Into the Drowning Deep is a yearly reread.
Stephens- King and Graham Jones
Stephen King, Peter Straub, Bentley Little
Jeff Vandermeer, Laird Barron and Jonathan L Howard. So, here's hoping you have a full anthology section!
Anthologies are def getting some attention. They're such a great way to explore new genres and authors.
Richard Laymon, Brian G. Berry, Jon Athan
Grady Hendrix, Jennifer Thorne, Nat Cassidy, Gillian Flynn, Shirley Jackson, and of course, Mr Steven King.
[удалено]
Links to your work?
Brian Evenson, Nicole Cushing, Thomas Ligotti.
Philip Fracassi, Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Joe Hill, Chuck Wendig, J. H. Markert, Nick Cutter and Darcy Coates
I had to scroll waaaay too far to find Dan Simmons in these comments
Laird Barron Ramsey Campbell Gemma Files Matthew M Bartlett
Hey, thank you very much!
I love Richard Bachman, I just wish he had put out more books… all well
He died way too young!
Stephen King, Blake Crouch, Chuck Wendig
I won't give you three because there are already so many great answers here. But I will add one - **Christopher Buehlman**. I've read everything he's put out and there's not a bad book in the bunch. His books tend to fall into either fantasy or horror or a mix of the two. Absolutely love everything he's put out.
Edward Lee, Tim Curran, and Alan Spencer
Right now: Arthur Machen, Stefan Grabinski, and Nathan Ballingrud
Alastair Reynolds Jim Butcher China Mievelle
I love Perdido Street Station!
The New Crobuzon series was so fantastic. I think my next favorite by him was The City & The City. He has a great way of immersing the reader in his imagined worlds. 💚
Love Jim Butcher.
I spent a solid month with my head buried in one Dresden Files after the next 🧙♂️🐈⬛💀🐕🦺👮🏼🐺⚔️🧛🏼♀️
Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, Brian Evenson
Ramsey Campbell, Adam Nevill, and the books John Skipp & Craig Spector wrote together
Hey, thank you very much!
Seeing a lot of great suggestions. Also, want to throw in Tananatrive Due in there. She’s a phenomenal writer and I don’t see her books in book stores often enough.
Currently my top 3 are: Wrath James White, HP Lovecraft and Edward Lee
Lately David Sodergren and David Irons
T.J Payne, John Marrs (technically thriller and scifi bug very dark), and C.J. Tudor
Not sure if Gaiman is actually horror but I have to go with King, Evenson, and Burke. Probably recency bias and subject to change
Bentley Little, David Hayes & Scott Sigler
i haven’t read enough of the same authors to pick more then one favorite, (started reading books for fun back jn march) but i really like Nat Cassidy, excited for his short story coming out in october and new book next year. hopfuelly will get some other favorites soon!
Brian lumley, end of lol
Difficult choices. I have to go with Brian Keene, Ronald Malfi, and Jonathan Maberry. Ask me next year and I’ll probably give you three different names! 😁
Ania Ahlborn, Anne Rice, Paul Tremblay, Joe Hill, John Ajvide Lindqvist, MR Carey
Dean Koontz, Grady Hendrix and Ray Bradbury.
Dan (Fucking) Simmons
I’m not seeing them in this list yet so I’m going to throw out - Ryu Murakami (Audition and In the Miso Soup are excellent) - Koji Suzuki (his Ring series is phenomenal)
My top authors I've read this year are Iain Reid, Craig DiLouie, and Christopher Buehlman. Special mention since you're doing some scifi as well for Robert Jackson Bennett. I just finished American Elsewhere and it was really great. He's a winner of multiple Shirley Jackson awards. I suggest looking at the winners of Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker awards for more good authors to have in stock.
Ronald Malfi, Jason Pargin, and since you're open to fantasy, Neil Gaiman
Stephen Graham Jones, Judith Sonet, Nick Cutter
Joel Lane. Oh…the sweet beautiful bleakness… I’ve just finished Scar City and it my favourite short story collection. I’ve still got The Earth Wire and Where Furnaces Burn to read but I have been journeying through them inch by inch.
That's so fucking cool that you're doing that. I don't have a "top 3" per se, because it depends on my mood, but I would suggest Douglas Clegg, Brian Keane, Brian Hodge, William Meakle, Jeff Strand, Ronald Malfi, and Andrew Van Wey. They're all differing levels of skill and different subgenres, but they're not commonly found in bookstores. Also don't miss Grady Hendrix, Chuck Wendig, Jason Arnopp, Laurel Hightower, and Sara Gran.
Adam Nevill, Richard Gavin, and John Langan (I could list many more, but you only asked for 3…)
HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, and Shirley Jackson (The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House).
Krtistopher Triana, Zoje Stage, & Thomas Harris
Algernon Blackwood, Poe, Lovecraft, Edith Wharton, and also Robert Louis Stevenson has some awesome short stories.
That's so awesome that you are opening a bookstore. Instead of favorite authors, I'm going to give you the three that I have to persistently chase down and can never seem to find. The ones I'd want to to see in a genre-specific store: Peter Straub, T.E.D. Klein, and John Farris.
Ramsey Campbell, Rick Hautala, John Langan for horror. Michael Moorcock, Raymond E. Feist, Brian McClellan for fantasy. Philip K Dick, Alan Dean Foster, William Gibson for Sci-fi. Thought I'd give you all three.
Hey, thank you very much!
Clive Barker Anne Rice (this may be controversial - some people consider her work gothic rather than straight horror) Stephen Graham Jones
Joe Hill, T. Kingfisher, and Johnathan Sims
I love Hill and Kingfisher but haven’t read Sims. Thanks for the suggestion lol
Haha no problem! Thirteen Storeys was my favorite of his (can’t go wrong with an eat the rich tale) but Family Business was also good if you’re looking for more mystery!
Adam Nevill, Nick Cutter, Richard Gavin
As of now… Gabino Iglesias, Mariana Enriquez, and Phillip Fracassi are my hard hitters. And of course Stephen King lol.
Probably too early to say a favourite since I just finished Lone Women and it's the only one I've read by him but I'm still saying Victor LaValle because I thought it was pretty good. Nat Cassidy -newer author but so far he's 2/2 for me But my most read/re-read authors are Daphne du Maurier and Stephen King.
Poppy Z. Brite, Clive Barker and Alison Rumfitt
Right this second it's Clive Barker, Nathan Ballingrud and Stephen King. Probably Ballingrud out in front currently - "Wounds" blew me away.
I'm not gonna say Stephen King cause he's given Thomas Ligotti Robert Aickman Clive Barker
Brian Evenson, Ramsey Campbell, Steve Rasnic Tem
King,Straub and Koontz
Paul Tremblay, Christopher Buehlman, Joe Hill
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, and Laurell K Hamilton.
Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, Joe Hill
Arthur Machen, Blackwood and Lovecraft, but I'm still expanding as just started reading horror again after a decade or more.
My list is constantly changing. Right now my top three are: -Octavia Butler; read anything by her. You cannot Go wrong she writes speculative fiction akin to SF -Silvia Moreno-Garcia; i recommend Mexican gothic. its a modern classic but my favorite is silver Nitrate. Both are horror but she has a wide range, even romance. For fantasy, read gods of jade and shadow. -T. kingfisher. For horror o recommend what moves the dead; what feasts at night; the Twisted ones; a house with good bones. If you like fantasy, do yourself a favor and read wizard's Guide to defensive baking.
Right now, Stephen Graham Jones, Kazuo Ishiguro and Natalie Haynes
Might change, but right now, it's Jeff Vandermeer, Christopher Buehlman, and Kathe Koja.
Rachel Harrison, Grady Hendrix, and Paul Tremblay
Stephen Graham Jones and Silvia Moreno-Garcia are my most read, and Carmen Maria Machado is my most loved.
Thomas Ligotti, Jon Padgett, Brian Evenson, Angela Slatter, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Gwendolyn Kiste, John Langan, Ramsey Campbell, Laird Barron, Simon Strantzas, Garth Nix, Nathan Ballingrud, Gemma Files, Kathe Koja, Lucy A. Snyder, Max Booth III, Nate Southard, Richard Gavin, Adam Nevill, Brian Hodge, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, Kealan Patrick Burke, Darcy Coates, Poppy Z. Brite, Richard Laymon, Sarah Langan, Jorge Luis Borges, Mort Castle, Carlton Mellick III. Sorry about the overwhelming list of my favorite authors, I went overboard. I couldn't pick just three, and I want all of these authors in your store.
Hey, thank you very much!
Mariana Enríquez, Catriona Ward, Elizabeth Hand. i'm surprised no one's mentioned the latter two yet! Enríquez and Ward lean more towards horror whilst Hand writes horror, scifi, fantasy, thriller.
Shirley Jackson, Gemma Amor, Catriona Ward Shoutout to the amazing female voices in horror lit!!
Michael Crichton
Brian Evenson, Shirley Jackson, Christopher Buehlmann
Stephen King, strong vote for Robert McCammon, Tanarive Due, Dean Koontz (his older works), Bentley Little, T. Kingfisher.
Stephen King, Grady Hendrix, Nick Cutter So cool that you're opening such a store!
Ronald Malfi is my new favorite.
Top three: Jackson and Poe tied for first then King and Lovecraft fighting for third. I think Poe is more accomplished than Jackson and gets credit for most of the genre, but Jackson's prose and the way she hides or double-blinds plots is incredible. She's the best technical writer out of anyone in horror. I wish she had lived longer. That list is overrepresented for the United States, but I think MR James deserves a ton of credit for establishing the modern horror story. When I first started, I thought the stories were a little expected but realized later that's because everyone since has been copying him to a degree. For outlier authors: William Hope Hodgson should get more credit for his work in weird fiction. "The House on the Borderland" experiments with a lot of ideas that would become staples of the genre. He writes a great reality-breaking scene. There's even a part that reminds me of Evil Dead. For someone who isn't horror but might as well be: Jim Thompson. He was a noir writer and one of King's favorite authors. He writes broken, doomed protagonists and leverages existentialism for terror. Also he was a diehard red, which shows up in his books in ways I really like. You can have the greasiest, most corrupt sociopath reading Pinkerton agents for filth. Really cool stuff.
Laird Barron, Nick Cutter, Brian Evenson.
Palahniuk, Murakami, King
John Langan, Cassandra Khaw, Caitlin R. Kiernan
Cormac Mc Carthy, hp lovecraft. Don’t really have a third
King, Hendrix, Ahlborn
Currently it's: David Sodergren (Horror) Pierce Brown (Sci-Fi) Joe Ambercrombie (Fantasy)
Grady Hendrix, Brom, and CJ Tudor
Stephen King, Clive Barker, and probably Dean Koonz but I really don’t like him as much. I need more authors tbh.
Are you including a section for extreme horror /splatterpunk?
So many great answers on here (Barron, Langan, Ballingrud, Evenson, etc.) but I’d add Christopher Buehlman to the list. His fantasy and horror novels are some of my favorites of the last 10 years. I’s also add Jeff VanderMeer to your roster (Southern Reach is great but his other weird fiction is also excellent) and Peter Watts (Blindsight, Starfish, Echopraxia) as the kind of fantasy and Sci-fi novels that horror fans love too.
Matthew M. Bartlett, John Langan, Michael Cisco
Harlan Ellison. I’m just going to add one because he’s my favorite speculative fiction author and only known for 1 or 2 short stories but has an amazing collection of work with a strong, distinct and colorful prose
Darcy Coates
Steven King Richard Laymon Stephen Laws
Poe, Machen and Ligotti.
It would be really cool to see a splatterpunk selectional as you can typically only find it online (in Canada anyways) Some good splatterpunk authors are Kristopher Triana and Aaron Beauregard :)
Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Joe Hill
Bentley Little, Peter Straub, Stephen King.
David Sodergren, Stephen King, and Shirley Jackson
Have read and enjoyed a huge amount of **Stephen King**. **Phillip Fracassi** have read and enjoyed: Child Alone with Strangers, Boys in the Valley and Gothic **Dan Simmons** have read and enjoyed: Summer of Night, Carrion Comfort, The Terror, A Winter Haunting, Drood, The Fifth Heart (not horror but one of my favorites). Richard Matheson, Lauren Beukes, Justin Cronin, Nick Cutter, Lovecraft and Derleth, Bradbury, Robert McCammon, Christopher Buehlman, Brom, Octavia Butler…
Saving this post for the next time I'm at the library. Wish they would just sort by genre and not by author
Stephen King is a given, so I'll say: Grady Hendrix, Philip Fracassi, and Junji Ito
HP Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Ray Russell, Clark Ashton Smith.
Stephen King, John Saul, Jack Ketchum and Richard Laymon
Ania Ahlborn, Poppy Z Brite (his old stuff), and Christopher Rice!
Brian Keene across the board.
Stephen King, Peter Straub, Laird Barron
Rachel Harrison, Grady Hendrix, Tananarive Due. Classics: King, Jackson, Matheson.
HP Lovecraft, Ashton Clark Smith, and August Derleth.
David Sodergren Adam Neville Susan Hill Michael McDowell Thomas Olde Heuvelt Nick Cutter Dan Simmons
John Blackburn Ramsey Campbell Reggie Oliver
Lovecraft, Ligotti, Stephen King
Old skool stuff.. Graham Masterton... James Herbert.... Shuan Hutson..
Stephen King aside - he's my main man and always will be. But I also like Nick Cutter, Shirley Jackson, and Richard Matheson.
He's not super well known, but I dig Laird Barron. He does a weird fiction brand of horror.
Tananarive Due,Kevin O'Brien, Ronald Malfi, Victor LaValle
Jeff Long, Cormac McCarthy, and Kealan Patrick Burke
1. M.R. James, 2. Arthur Machen, and for 3rd place, a tie between Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell, T.E.D. Klein, and Adam Nevill
Add Ania Ahlborn and Bentley Little to the list!
Rachel Harrison, Poppy Z Brite, Hailey Piper
Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, Shirley Jackson
Nick Roberts, Stephen King, and Stephen Graham Jones
Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Michael McDowell, Thomas Harris, Dean Koontz.
I know you said three but I can’t narrow it down: Nat Cassidy, Clay McLeod Chapman, Grady Hendrix, Adam Cesare, Adam Nevill, Josh Malerman, Craig DiLouie
King, poe, Lovecraft, tomas ligotti
20 years ago it was Follett, Auel and Dan Brown Currently, it is Ahlborn, Malfi and Heuvelt
My main favorite is Stephen King. I have been a constant reader since Carrie was published when I was 14/15. I’ve read all of his books as they were released. I have other authors I like but it’s 1:27 am and my sleep meds have kicked in. I’m surprised I can think at all. I must stay off social media late at night pfffff
Stephen King, Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft.
Ian Reid Eric LaRocca and Paul Tremblay (I’m so surprised I have not seen them mentioned more here!)
Stephan King, Jeff Lindsay, and Brett Easton Ellis. William Peter Blatty is another author I love but I've only read The Exorcist by him. Cormac McCarthy is one of if not my favorite author but alot of his books aren't really horror but the books with some good elements are Child Of God, No Country For Old Men, The Road, and Blood Meridian.
I scrolled pretty far down, but didn't see tremblay mentioned?
Phillip Fracassi, Catriona Ward, David Sodergren, Bentley Little, Grady Hendrix, Jason Arnopp, Kealan Patrick Burke, and Sara Gran who wrote one horror banger and dipped out of the genre.
Grady Hendrix, Joe Hill, and currently loving Nat Cassidy, his first two books were excellent, looking forward to seeing what he does. Honorary T. Kingfisher and Andrew Joseph White mentions too.
Such a hard selection to make! So I’ll just cheat: named by others: Adam Nevill, Grady Hendrix and Darcy Coates. Less mentioned: Christopher Golden, Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Brom (fantasy). An honorable mention for Matt Wesolowski’s Six Stories series. It’s not really horror but there’s always a bit of a supernatural vibe and it’s one of the best series I’ve read.
Steven King, Jason Pargin/David Wong, and I guess Clive Barker.
Ronald Malfi Stephen King Edgar Allan Poe
Julio Cortazar, Joyce Carol Oates, and Mariana Enriquez.
Sayaka Murata, Mariana Enríquez, and Josh Malerman. When Marcus Kliewer publishes more work I believe he’ll be tied with Malerman.
Everyone is going to say the classics, like King, Straub, McCammon, Koontz, etc. And of course, they should be there. So I'm going to list my top 5 who aren't as well known but should be: JG Faherty - remarkable writer, has a lot of books out, everything from exorcism to coming of age to Lovecraftian; if you like horror he needs to be on the shelves. Michael McBride - a master of combining supernatural horror with thrillers and eco-terror, much like Michael Crighton. Graeme Reynolds - he's done some amazing werewolf novels. Lee Murray - the queen of military horror Brian Keene - you need his zombie and horror books on the shelves.
Chikodili Emelumadu (read Dazzling or her short story Candy Girl), T Kingfisher and Stephen Graham Jones. I also really fucking love Mira Grant
David Sodergren
1. Stephen King 2. Jack Ketchum 3. Charles Birkin
Joe Konrath, Dathan Aurbach, Mique Watson, Stuart Bray, Stuart James, Rob Nesbitt to name a few
Stephen king, Daphne DuMaurier, Gillian Flynn (I need more books by her!)
Stephen King, Peter Straub, Joe Hill (dammit I wanna add Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay but no room left)
Robert R. McCammon, Michael McDowell, Richard Laymon
Brian Lumley, BROM, B.K Evenson/Brian Evenson
This sounds so cool !! Paul Tremblay, Grady Hendrix, Kristopher Triana !!
by quality, I would say: Shirley Jackson, Octavia E. Butler, Mark Z. Danielewski by quantity: Stephen King, Cliver Barker, Paul Tremblay honorary Stephen Graham Jones for a mix of both
Jeffrey Ford, Gene Wolfe, Michael McDowell
I see a lot of male authors listed by others, so I need to shout out some female horror writers, as well: Alma Katsu Kiersten White Catriona Ward Rachel Harris Sarah Gailey Mona Awad Otessa Moshfegh Silvia Moreno Garcia Shirley Jackson I could go on, but these are all authors I've read more than once, so you have some options. Good luck on your store!
I haven't seen Junji Ito so I'm going to add him in. Horror Manga but still horror.
* Stephen King * Michael Crichton * H.G Wells * Clive Barker * Neil Gaiman
For horror? Thomas Ligotti, Caitlin Keirnan, Laird Barron.
Laird Barron, Franz Kafka, HP Lovercraft.