Stephen King‘s The Shining is often touted as one of the greatest horror novels ever written, and it has rightfully earned the title. However, a few books from the horror genre are arguably better than the Stephen King masterpiece. While one’s definition of “better” in literature can always be subjective, the books in question have a few merits that make them more compelling than The Shining.
Even before The Shining was adapted for the big screen, it found its place among the horror genre’s best offerings. However, Stanley Kubrick’s movie adaptation gave the book a more concrete legacy, which seems to have shown no signs of fading away. Stephen King himself had his share of complaints surrounding the Stanley Kubrick movie.
Even so, the film’s cultural impact has played a key role in cementing The Shining as one of the greatest horror stories. Apart from The Shining, though, there are a handful of brilliant horror books that have arguably matched or even surpassed the Stephen King book‘s ability to evoke dread and unease in readers. Not all of these books are as mainstream as Stephen King’s The Shining, but they deserve to be read by all horror fans.
The Fisherman by John Langan
John Langan’s The Fisherman is not as widely popular as Stephen King’s The Shining. It has also not received any major TV or movie adaptations to date. However, what gives it a significant edge over the Stephen King novel is its ability to expand its deeply human tale to a massive cosmic scale. The Shining, for the most part, riffs on existing horror tropes and tells a contained story about the domestic tragedy of a father’s descent into madness.
It remains a ghost story trapped in the confines of a hotel. The Fisherman, in contrast, begins as the story of a man’s grief after his wife’s demise but gradually grows to a terrifying Lovecraftian scale. Since The Shining and The Fisherman belong to significantly different brands of horror, it feels a little unfair to compare them.
However, John Langan’s The Fisherman arguably manages to deliver more surreal imagery and cosmic dread as it turns a meditation on grief into something ancient and unknowable.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dracula and The Shining can both be considered the foundational texts for two distinct brands of horror. While The Shining is easily among the most influential “haunted house” narratives in horror, Bram Stoker’s Dracula practically defined the modern vampire mythos and laid the groundwork for countless gothic horror stories.
What gives Dracula a significant edge over many classic horror stories, though, is its incredibly immersive epistolary format. The book presents its story through a series of journals, letters, telegrams, and ship logs, which gives it a found-footage level of realism. It also cleverly avoids giving readers the direct perspective of the titular figure, which ensures he is perceived less as a character and more as a looming force.
Even in terms of scope, Dracula presents itself as a story of wide invasion, expanding from the castles of Transylvania to the bustling streets of Victorian London. Unlike the Stephen King story, which primarily remains confined to the Overlook Hotel, Dracula presents larger stakes and a far more expansive sense of danger.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s poetic prose, which combines nostalgia with terror, in Something Wicked This Way Comes is enough to elevate the book above most classic literary works in the horror genre. Owing to the book’s philosophical depth and Bradbury’s ability to turn the simplest descriptions into hauntingly beautiful reflections on youth, aging, and desire, it is not an easy-read like The Shining.
However, the creative brilliance with which Bradbury introduces the book’s terrors, like “Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show” and the “Autumn People,” makes it a grim reflection of humanity’s deepest fears and temptations. Owing to how unconventional and poetic its story feels, it is also nearly impossible to adapt Something Wicked This Way Comes for the screen.
The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been one of the biggest influences on Stephen King. King has not only explicitly cited the book as a major influence and praised its brilliant opening line, but traces of the novel’s tropes and story beats can often be found in his works. In fact, even The Shining seems to borrow a lot from The Haunting of Hill House.
Interestingly, The Shining even has a direct meta reference to the titular setting from The Haunting of Hill House:
“There was a little boy to terrorize, a man and a woman to set one against the other, and if it played its cards right they could end up fitting through the Overlook’s hall like insubstantial shades in a Shirley Jackson novel, whatever walked in Hill House walked alone, but you couldn’t be alone in the Overlook, oh no, there would be plenty of company here.”
Like Stephen King’s The Shining, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has also been adapted multiple times for the screen, with the best being Mike Flanagan’s modern TV iteration on Netflix. Stephen King even dedicated his book, Firestarter, to Shirley Jackson with an opening line that said: “In Memory of Shirley Jackson, who never needed to raise her voice.“
Since Shirley Jackson has been such a massive influence on some of Stephen King’s best works, it seems fair to conclude that her greatest novel is better than The Shining in more ways than one.
House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Calling House of Leaves better than The Shining can be a little controversial, given how the Mark Z. Danielewski novel is widely known for being a challenging read. House of Leaves also adopts the haunted house trope like The Shining. However, unlike The Shining, it almost presents a meta-horror story that breaks the fourth wall and makes itself seem haunted.
Stephen King’s The Shining is brilliant. However, compared to House of Leaves, The Shining feels safe and linear because Danielewski’s novel constantly destabilizes the reader with fragmented narration and typographical experiments. The book can even be incredibly draining for a reader, which adds to the terrors it intends to instill.
Owing to the ambiguities in its story and the unconventional narration of its story, House of Leaves is another brilliant horror novel that cannot be adapted for the screens. Even if it manages to get an adaptation, its screen translation would likely struggle to recreate the sense of disorientation the book leaves its readers with.
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Pet Sematary has received multiple adaptations. Unfortunately, unlike The Shining, none of its adaptations have been able to capture the sense of helplessness and unease the original book instills in a reader. The original Pet Sematary book‘s narrative is divided into two parts. While the first part gradually eases readers into the lore surrounding the titular burial ground and its history, the second half raises the stakes to horrifying levels.
Stephen King himself was so terrified while writing Pet Sematary that he had abandoned the novel. He only picked it up and completed it to fulfill contractual obligations (via Ultimate Classic Rock). After reading the novel, one can see why the King of Horror struggled to finish it.
The book presents an almost ancient and cosmic kind of terror when it introduces the central burial ground and brilliantly grounds it in a human story about grief and accepting death.
It also brings a disturbing new spin to the “careful what you wish for” trope by drawing parallels to W.W. Jacob’s The Monkey’s Paw while painting its own disturbing picture of how desperation and grief can push ordinary people toward unimaginable choices. Stephen King‘s The Shining is undoubtedly one of the best horror novels out there, but Pet Sematary arguably ranks higher on the list.
