Twelve modern classic horror books

Drew Broussard is a writer, podcaster, bookseller, and producer of creative events. He spent nearly a decade at The Public Theater before decamping to the woods of upstate New York, where he lives with his wife and dog.

At Lit Hub he shared a spooky season starter kit for readers curious about horror. One title on the list:

Anne Rice, Interview With The Vampire

Maybe you’re watching the surprisingly-great series on AMC, maybe you remember the pretty-good film, maybe you’re just a goth kid at heart who also wants love—maybe you’re even just a romance reader who wonders if you might be able to jump from The Ex Hex to something a little more pulse-pounding (in every way). Let me assure you: Anne Rice’s vampires will both frighten and seduce you. Interview is not the best book in the series (for my money, that’s Queen of the Damned) and the series loses its way several times over the decades (CW: religion and lots of it) but when Rice really gets cooking, nobody can top her. There’s plenty of bloodsucking violence but also a ton of homoerotic passion: Rice doesn’t get as spicy in these books as she did in her erotica, but not by much. This book and its first few sequels helped humanize horror for me, showing that fear and arousal (and laughter!) all live quite close to one another in the body.

Read about another entry on the list.

Interview With The Vampire is among Mark Skinner's top ten vampire books, Craig DiLouie’s top ten fantasy books steeped in the Southern Gothic, Tara Sonin's five sexy novels to unleash your wanderlust, Jeff Somers's eight good, bad, and weird dad/child pairs in science fiction and fantasy, Jonathan Hatfull's ten best vampire novels, Ryan Menezes' top five movies that improved the book, Will Hill's top ten vampires in fiction and popular culture, and Lynda Resnick's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue