My Top 5 Horror Classics for Newcomers

As a huge fan of horror fiction, I am often asked, "What's a good place to start?" and considering we are now in the month of October, I get asked this a lot. So here are my five top horror classics everyone should read. A big part of why I chose these particular books is that each of them are great starting points in multiple ways (massively influential, very scary and short), so here we go:

5. The Werewolf of Paris, by Guy Endore (1933)
Set in France during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the novel follow Bertrand Caillet, a young man who suffers from a strange family illness and his attempts to escape his family curse. The book is full of dream imagery, sex, and violence. As Betrand falls under the family curse and finds what may be his only chance at true love his outbursts become bigger and more frightening. This book, the only one on the list most people may not have heard of, is a treat for the interested horror fan as it is a very readable book that asks the question right until the end - Is Bertrand actually a werewolf, or simply insane?

4. Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
Many people see this book as the first true werewolf novel, as although Henry Jekyll does not transform into a wolf, the book does focus on a man attempting to escape the actions and consequences of his other self, a creature which leaves murder and destruction in its path. This book was a huge influence on the creation of both The Hulk and the Batman villain Two-Face. The story actually asks a lot of pretty deep questions: If man is a creature of both good and evil, and the evil side could be removed, should we? How much of who we are actually comes from this evil side? The book is quite short (it's a novella) and is totally worth the day or two it would take to read it.

3.Frankenstein or, the modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley (1831)
First thing first - this book, considered by many to be the first Science Fiction novel was written by an eighteen-year-old girl. Any time people suggest to me that horror or SF is for boys, I always remind them that one of the most influential, frightening stories in both those genres the world has ever seen came out of the mind of a young woman. The book follows a story-within-a-story format, wherein an Arctic travelling ship rescues doctor Victor Frankenstein and in that ship, the captain is told the doctor's story. You probably read it in high-school, but this book is completely worth a revisit, as are the two original Universal pictures based on it.

2. Dracula, by Bram Stoker (1897)
What can I say here, the book awesome. Fitted together as diary entries, news clippings, and letters between friends. Acting like a vampire itself, the novel sucks you right in from the beginning and doesn't let you go. There is a reason why Dracula has been adapted for the movies more than any other character from literature and you have to read this book to get it. It's greatest weakness is that its Victorian-era characters tend to go off on little speeches, but it's greatest strength is that the book is a little different than you might remember, especially if all you remember are the movies.

1. The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells (1897)
Why do you ask, does this book beat out both Dracula and Frankenstein for me? Simple, Griffin, our main character, is just about one of the craziest, nastiest people I have ever read about. In the course of the novel he kills more people than any of the monsters in the other four books, and that doesn't even take into account the people he probably killed (for instance, he breaks into an old man's house, beats him nearly to death, ties him up and then throws him down a flight of stairs into an unheated basement - we never hear about the old guy again). Kevin Bacon actually said it best in one of my guilty pleasure horror film "Hollow Man" (2000) when he stated "It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror anymore."

So there you have it, five classic horror stories, none of them over 250 pages that will all do a pretty great job of giving you chills this Halloween season. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Check out my actual blog at http://wisdomofbookmonkey.blogspot.com

Okay, all of your books are are classics and are short, but for newcomers? I think the list should maybe include some more up to date stuff.

If I could break your 'under 250 pages' rule, I'd recommend 'Salem's Lot which is also a classic and slightly more modern.

I'd also add in Ghost Story, The Books of Blood and (if I thought they could handle it) Off Season.

At 480 pages, my copy of Dracula is a bit longer than the others. Not that the length has stopped me from re-reading it several times! 8^}

More modern ones I'd add for newcomers:
Odd Thomas and sequels by Dean Koontz
Duma Key by Stephen King
The Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson

#2 Overall I was focusing on classic monster stories most people would have heard of - I loved Salem's Lot, Ghost Story and Books of Blood. I've been meaning to check out Jack Ketchum's books for years but never seem to get around to them - is off season a good place to start?

#3 The only Dean Koontz book I've read is Watchers, which is one of the best monster books I've ever read, except every time I try to explain the plot to anyone the book sounds really, REALLY stupid - I just can't seem to sell a horror novel about a super-intelligent dog (kind of like Clifford the big red dog) who fights - darn it there I go again. ;)

Well, so far Off Season is the only Jack Ketchum I've read, so I guess it is a good place to start. I liked it quite a bit, but the rest of his stuff seems a little too closely tied to reality for me. I'm afraid it would be too grim and depressing.

I think The Shining would have to be included on that list as well. The book scared the s*** out of me when I read it the first time (and the second, and the third...)

#5 - I see the trailer for the film "Red" which was based of the novel of the same title by Ketchum - you can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI6TZUBW7TA and although it looked horrifying, it did seem pretty closely tied to reality. Still - it might be worth it for me to give one of his books a shot, now I'll just have to see what my local library has.

#6 - Yes, the Shining definitely creeped the heck out of me, both the book and the Jack Nicholson movie. I've only read it once, but yikes - what a freaky read THAT was. :)

Red by Jack Ketchum is far away one of the most emotional books I've ever read. True, it can be grim, but, all told, we're left with a novel just as hopeful as King's Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption was twenty-seven years ago. If you can't take his more brutal works (i.e. The Lost, Off Season, and certainly The Girl Next Door), Red is perfect. A novel both exciting and heartbreaking.

Back on topic - I think bookmonkey's list makes more sense if renamed "My Top 5 for Newcomers to Horror Classics". Not everybody that likes modern horror is going to be interested in the classics of the genre, but if you want to explore those it's a great starting point. I wasn't even aware of The Werewolf of Paris.

Where I thought it would have had more debate is that it left out Lovecraft and Poe, and the classic short story writers. Le Fanu is the oldest writer I've enjoyed and I think a couple of his still stand up.

A starting point to horror in general - now that's another matter. Where would you start? And if you were going to differentiate between classic and modern, at what point did horror fiction become "modern"? I'd have to agree with King in Danse Macabre and say the 70s.

#8 - I will definitely give Red a try, thanks for pointing it out!

#9 - I think you are right; naming posts is actually one of the trickiest parts, but your suggestion would have been more specific. I actually found the book Werewolf of Paris when I was doing a library search for the film "American Werewolf in Paris" and was pleasantly surprised by it (the novel). I'm planning on doing a post pretty soon on short horror fiction, so don't worry, Poe and Lovecraft will be well represented.

Have I mentioned yet how much I love all the responses I get on librarything? This is very cool. :)