Horror: Another 100 Best Books

This book is a collection of essays, in the majority. There is, of course, given the title, an earlier volume. This I have not gotten around to reading yet, but I probably will now. However, in a really well packaged publication, the editors have listed what was chosen in that volume in the back of this one. Very well done, as this is one of the first things a reader will wonder about, especially as some choices are referenced throughout the text. The project has been constructed by asking a lot of writers and editors to choose a book they would like included to write about, and write a short piece about why. Given the essay part is around 400 pages, these are all quite short. I imagine there might have been the odd grumpy argument about who was chosen for particular selections. A wide range of new and older material, and novels, anthologies and collections all feature, which makes this even better, I think, not just being full of novel after novel. The weakest part of the book is the tendency to have somewhat bloated--given the length of the essays--author bibliographic or career summaries, large chunks of some not being relevant to horror. Given they know what a URL is, for those that had bilbliographies, could have given the link. Maybe the promo was part of the deal to get the writing. Also included at the end is a further reading list, in chronological publication order - and for the average type and speed reader of books, this will take a lifetime or two to get through - and also a list of writers, with actual urls to find them on the web. This 'webliography' also includes links to the actual novels, for public domain examples such as William Hope Hodgson, and evinces a very 21st century feel throughout the essays, in general, as far as being aware of what is going on technologically and in the media. Not always the case, it would appear, in books. So, high marks all around for this book. For people looking to start on horror that hadn't read anything, really, this pair of books would be a fantastic find, no doubt.

I think I found this volume to be more helpful than the first one. A lot of obvious choices marked the first volume, and found more inspiration from this second list. Some more recent works are covered here. Nice job.

This is a sequel to Jones and Newman's superb 1988 "Horror: 100 Best Books" and may be even better than the first installment. The editors continue to seek out books that bend the genre, like Orwell's "1984" and Fowles' "The Collector." There's also new evaluations of contemporary classics, like King's "Pet Sematary", Harris' "The Silence of the Lambs", and Levin's "Rosemary's Baby." And of course the most recent best books since '88 are here. The editors also include a massive list of "Further Reading" that mentions a whole boatload of books from in and around the genre. Web resources that detail internet locations for both the authors of the 100 books listed and their reviewers appear as add-ons at the back of the book. The reviewers this time are a mix of familiar names in horror, and some new faces that I didn't know but was happy to meet. This book should take its place alongside the first volume as essential for horror fans.