Want to read cosmic horror? Here are 15 deliciously creepy, existentially terrifying books to introduce you to the genre.
If you want to learn how to write Lovecraftian horror, there's no one better to study that its namesake himself. If you want to read it, however, you should know that the genre has evolved immensely since Lovecraft's heyday. Today's cosmic horror writers bring a diversity of experience to crafting novels that are lyrical, thought-provoking, and sometimes funny in addition to being suffused with measureless dread.
To honor their achievements, this post will largely focus on titles other than those written by Lovecraft — not least because we already covered 10 of his must-read works in another post! Without further ado, dip your toes into this wide-ranging list of 15 chilling cosmic horror titles to get you started with the genre.
They are:
What the Hell Did I Just Read by David Wong
Shadows of Carcosa by Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Arthur Machen, Henry James, and more
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
White is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
Cthulhu’s Reign, edited by Darrell Schweitzer
The Croning by Laird Barron
Dreams from the Witch House, edited by Lynne Jamneck
Cthulhu’s Daughters, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula Stiles
I fished around for a good starter list of non-Lovecraft titles and this hit the spot, especially as it mentions David Wong and Meddling Kids (because it's tricky to write cosmic horror comedy and they manage it).