My Top 5 Horror Books

I love horror books. I started reading horror books around the age of 15 and I remember quite vividly the day I picked my first one. It was by an author known as Richard Laymon, who sadly passed away now a good few years ago. This also means, no new books from him! However, the collection of books he did write and publish? Are all in my collection and have been read several times over.

After finishing that book in record time, I was hooked and needed more. Richard Laymon was my first and is still to this day {some 25 years later} one of my favourite authors. I read book after book that he wrote and dove into amazing tales of ghosts, murderous rain, midnight tours, beasts in cellars and even tales of Jack the Ripper himself.

After a while, I found other horror authors that I enjoyed as much as the horror books by Richard Laymon. Such as Dean Koontz and Graham Masterton. Books of scientific oddities, faceless killers and creatures who stalked children as prey. However, the first horror book I ever read was called Darkness Tell Us. Which, looking back on it, had Final Destination vibes with the addition of a Ouiji Board. But it isn’t one of my top 5 horror reads. Because that first love lies with Savage, by Richard Laymon.

Savage By Richard Laymon

Whitechapel, November 1888: Jack the Ripper is committing his last known murder and beneath the bed on which he’s butchering his victim cowers a fifteen-year-old boy. So begin the adventures of Trevor Bentley: a boy who embarked on an errand of mercy and ended up on a quest for vengeance, a boy who will bring the horrors of the Ripper to the New World.

This book is one of my ultimate favourites. And not just because I am a bit of a fangirl when it comes to anything surrounding the tales, whether fact or fiction, around Jack the Ripper. Ok, perhaps fangirl wasn’t the best choice of word, but he is a fascinating subject! And this book brings him to life a little, beyond the anonymity of the man who killed those five women in Whitechapel, so long ago.

If you are a horror fan, I cannot recommend this book enough. There is a line in the book, that I still remember to this day because that moment hit me so deeply. “Ironic, that she who died under my knife, should save me from the bullets of the chap she loved most.”

Prey by Graham Masteron

There’s something in the attic of Fortyfoot House. Something that rustles. An unknown that scampers and scratches. Something with fur, far more terrifying than a rat. — Recently divorced, David Williams takes a job restoring Fortyfoot House, a dilapidated 19th-century orphanage, hoping to find peace of mind and get to know his young son, Danny. But then he hears the scratching noises in the attic. And he sees long-dead people walking across the lawn.

Does Fortyfoot House exist in today, yesterday, or tomorrow- or all three at once? Only one thing is certain- it is a house with a dark unthinkable secret that threatens to send David’s world hurling into a living nightmare. A nightmare that only David himself can prevent- if he can escape the thing in the attic.

The synopsis for this book does not do the overall story any justice. Because this book is quite dark and scary. After reading it, Graham Masteron swiftly became a top horror author for me because his tales hit deep in the land of things that go bump in the night.

There is a particular spooky poem at the beginning of this book and it goes like this:

Little boy ate a plum, 
Cholera bad, kingdom come.

Bigger boy, Seagulls nest,
broken rope, eternal rest.

Little girl, box of paints,
licked the brush and joined the saints.

All the children, hear them squeal,
taken off for Jenkins meal. 

Is Jenkins the thing in the attic? Who knows…

Watchers by Dean Koontz

From a top-secret government laboratory come two genetically altered life forms. One is a magnificent dog of astonishing intelligence. The other, a hybrid monster of a brutally violent nature. And both are on the loose…Bestselling author Dean Koontz presents his most terrifying, dramatic and moving novel: The explosive story of a man and a woman, caught in a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation…

This book deserves a place in my top 5 horror novels because it really is an amazing read! So much so, the spine of my own copy shows the signs of being read over and over again. I love a book spine with wrinkles! It shows how much it is loved, I think.

Any time my pals and I take about our favourite horror books, this one comes up every time as a recommendation and I will recommend the same to you. An amazing read, no question.

Walkers by Graham Masteron

Another epic read by this author. This book hits deep, which is a true gift from Graham Masteron. The words on his pages make you hear noises that should only remain in the pages of his books. After reading Walkers? I stayed clear of forests, levels in car parks for a long time. This book spooked me and I loved every single moment of it.

The Oaks is an idyllic, up-market country club – but behind its ornately carved walls is a horrific past. Sixty years ago the house was an asylum, home to crazed psychopaths, all of whom disappeared one night, never to be seen again.

If I was ever going to recommend a high-end horror book to anyone, it would hands down be Walkers by Graham Masterton. As I said, his horror books hit different and it will make you look at statues a little differently after finishing it.

Island by Richard Laymon

When Rupert Conway set out on a cruise with seven other people, he planned to swim a little, get some sun and relax. He certainly didn’t plan to get shipwrecked. But after the yacht blew up, that’s what happened – he and his shipmates were stranded on a deserted island. Luckily for them, the island has plenty of fresh water and enough food to last until they get rescued. And luckily for Rupert, most of his fellow castaways are attractive women.

But that’s where his luck ran out – because the castaways aren’t alone on the island. In the dense jungle beyond the beach, there’s a maniac on the loose, a killer with a murderous heart, a clever mind and a taste for blood. He doesn’t like his new neighbours and he plans to slaughter them all…one by one.

I have read this book, easily, 12 times and I have loved each time like it was my first. This book is such a great read with moments of shock, intrigue, fear, humour and it grips you from that first few pages. What more do you need!

Links to the horror books mentioned above:

Savage by Richard Laymon
Prey by Graham Masteron
Watchers by Dean Koontz
Walkers by Graham Masteron
Island by Richard Laymon

Are you a horror book fan? Comment below on your favourite horror book/author! I would love to know!