Oh, what an awesome year it has been for horror fiction and its related sub-genres. I’ve read and reviewed a lot of great books in 2011. Spooky Reads passed its first anniversary back on November 25th, and now I’m launching what will be a yearly nod to those tomes which I deem some of the spookiest reads out there.
Spooky Reads is awarding a main prize, Best Horror Book, and a silver medal to the next strongest book titled Notably Macabre. The Best Horror Book is that which I’ve considered to be the most enjoyable horror read of the past year. Something that grabbed my attention, shook me around and generally gave my synapses a good kicking. General all round horror excellence, and suchlike. Notably Macabre is a nod to another book which though not quite king of the lot, is a title I’ve found to be nonetheless worthy of strong mention and attention.
Nominations, with links to the relevant reviews of the books, are as follows:
Dead Bad Things by Gary McMahon
The Thing on the Shore by Tom Fletcher
House of Fear edited by Jon Oliver
I’ll be announcing the winners of Spooky Reads’ Best Horror Book 2011 and Notably Macabre on December 19th, so stay peeled and pop back then to check out who the winners are.
Either The Ritual or House of Fear would get my vote from these five, but I really would urge you to read Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist before you make your final decision, Will. That is if you can squeeze it in in time. Creepy, clever, brutal… simply brilliant.
Oh, and do give Raising Stony Mayhall a look as well. It’s not exactly a spooky read, per se, but it is marvellous fun, with zombies and God.
Niall, Lindqvist’s ‘Little Star’ is a good book. I got a spooky Murakami-vibe from it though, and it’s not bad. It just didn’t leave the impression that these other nominated books I’ve mentioned left.
As with any ‘opinion’ regarding a best book there’s going to be a certain arbitrary factor coming into play. For myself the element of whim is not inconsiderable.
This site is a one-man-band, after all. It’s going to come down to those books which I’ve read and which I consider to be worthy of the title in my own cloud. I cannot read everything, in the same manner the Booker folks, or Costa folks, couldn’t read everything (and no, I am not comparing myself to such organisations, just giving an example for the sake of the ‘everything’ pronoun). It’s not like I profess this site to be anything else than just little old me: check the ‘about’ page if you doubt my motives
I’ve added Raising Stony Mayhall’s to my Amazon wish-list for next year. I have a reading list that is obscene in its length, but will get around to your suggestion in not too long. See you on twitter, or your blog, soon!