Twenty-five of the most terrifying horror books

At B&N Reads Jeff Somers tagged "twenty-five books that might not necessarily be the best horror novels, but are certainly the scariest," including:

Hell House, by Richard Matheson

What Matheson taps into in this classic haunted house story is the universal fear that we are already lost, already broken. Hired to investigate the existence of an afterlife by exploring the notoriously haunted Belasco House, a team moves in and slowly succumbs to the influence of the entity within—an entity that only uses their own weaknesses and secret shames against them. Their descent into the depths of horror is too close for comfort as a result—for everyone reading the book knows all too well that they have weaknesses, and secret shames, as well.

Read about another entry on the list.

Hell House is among Dell Villa's seven best haunted house books in literature and Ashley Brooke Roberts's seven best haunted house books.

--Marshal Zeringue