Peter Straub Reading Order

51 books (1982–2022)

Start with Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, the first of 51 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King 1982Buy 🇺🇸
2	Cutting Edge 1986Buy 🇺🇸
3	Horror Factor 7 1988Buy 🇺🇸
4	Best New Horror 2 1991Buy 🇺🇸
5	Fourth Annual Collection 1991Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Picador Book of the New Gothic 1991Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Fourth Annual Collection 1991Buy 🇺🇸
8	An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear 1992Buy 🇺🇸
9	Best New Horror 4 1993Buy 🇺🇸
10	Black Thorn, White Rose 1994Buy 🇺🇸
11	Foundations of Fear: Volume I: Shadows of Fear 1994Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Giant Book of Terror 1994Buy 🇺🇸
13	Dark Terrors 1995Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1996 1995Buy 🇺🇸
15	Dark Terrors 2 1996Buy 🇺🇸
16	Murder on the Run 1998Buy 🇺🇸
17	The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 10 1999Buy 🇺🇸
18	Dark Terrors 5 2000Buy 🇺🇸
19	October Dreams 2000Buy 🇺🇸
20	The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, #11 2000Buy 🇺🇸
21	Opening Shots, Vol. II 2001Buy 🇺🇸
22	Conjunctions #39: The New Wave Fabulists 2002Buy 🇺🇸
23	The Wavedancer Benefit: A Tribute to Frank Muller 2002Buy 🇺🇸
24	Poe's Children 2008Buy 🇺🇸
25	The Best of Cemetery Dance II 2008Buy 🇺🇸
26	American Fantastic Tales 2009Buy 🇺🇸
27	Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror 2010Buy 🇺🇸
28	Hint Fiction 2010Buy 🇺🇸
29	Shivers VI 2010Buy 🇺🇸
30	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2010 Edition 2010Buy 🇺🇸
31	Happily Ever After 2011Buy 🇺🇸
32	Rage Against the Night 2011Buy 🇺🇸
33	Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top 2012Buy 🇺🇸
34	Ghosts: Recent Hauntings 2012Buy 🇺🇸
35	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four 2012Buy 🇺🇸
36	Bad Seeds: Evil Progeny 2013Buy 🇺🇸
37	Hauntings 2013Buy 🇺🇸
38	Mister October, Volume II 2013Buy 🇺🇸
39	Turn Down the Lights 2013Buy 🇺🇸
40	xo Orpheus 2013Buy 🇺🇸
41	Explosions: Stories of Our Landmined World 2014Buy 🇺🇸
42	Best New Horror #26 2015Buy 🇺🇸
43	The Monstrous 2015Buy 🇺🇸
44	Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold 2016Buy 🇺🇸
45	Detours 2016Buy 🇺🇸
46	The Beauty of Death 2016Buy 🇺🇸
47	New York Fantastic: Fantasy Stories from the City that Never Sleeps 2017Buy 🇺🇸
48	The Beauty of Death, Vol. 2 2017Buy 🇺🇸
49	The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 2017Buy 🇺🇸
50	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Nine 2017Buy 🇺🇸
51	Voices in the Dark 2022Buy 🇺🇸

18 books (2009–2025)

Start with The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One, the first of 18 books in the Best Horror of the Year series.

#	Title
1	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One 2009Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two 2010Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three 2011Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four 2012Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five 2013Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six 2014Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Seven 2015Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eight 2016Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Nine 2017Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Ten 2018Buy 🇺🇸
11	The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction 2018Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven 2019Buy 🇺🇸
13	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve 2020Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Best Horror of the Year Volume Thirteen 2021Buy 🇺🇸
15	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen 2022Buy 🇺🇸
16	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen 2024Buy 🇺🇸
17	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen 2024Buy 🇺🇸
18	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Seventeen 2025Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1988–2010)

Start with Koko, the first of 4 books in the Blue Rose Trilogy series.

#	Title
1	Koko 1988Buy 🇺🇸
2	Mystery 1990Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Throat 1993Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories 2010Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (2000–2000)

#	Title
1	Pork Pie Hat 2000Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1992–1994)

Start with An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear(With: George R.R. Martin,Robert A. Heinlein,David G. Hartwell,Richard Matheson,Daphne du Maurier,Clive Barker,Carlos Fuentes,Arthur Machen,Gerald Durrell), the first of 4 books in the Foundations of Fear Anthology series.

#	Title
1	An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear(With: George R.R. Martin,Robert A. Heinlein,David G. Hartwell,Richard Matheson,Daphne du Maurier,Clive Barker,Carlos Fuentes,Arthur Machen,Gerald Durrell) 1992Buy 🇺🇸
2	Foundations of Fear: Volume I: Shadows of Fear(With: Robert A. Heinlein,David G. Hartwell,H.P. Lovecraft,Daphne du Maurier,Arthur Machen,Jean Ray,Harriet Prescott Spofford) 1994Buy 🇺🇸
3	Foundations of Fear: Volume II: Worlds of Fear(By: George R.R. Martin,David G. Hartwell,Thomas Hardy,Gertrude Atherton,Thomas M. Disch,Elizabeth Engstrom,Carlos Fuentes) 1994Buy 🇺🇸
4	Foundations of Fear: Volume III: Visions of Fear(By: David G. Hartwell,E.T.A. Hoffmann,Richard Matheson,Philip K. Dick,Clive Barker,Octavia E. Butler,Gerald Durrell) 1994Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (2009–2010)

Start with The Talisman: Road of Trials(With: Stephen King,Tony Shasteen) and read in order.

#	Title
1	The Talisman: Road of Trials(With: Stephen King,Tony Shasteen) 2009Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Green Woman(With: Michael Easton) 2010Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (2007–2007)

#	Title
1	Sides 2007Buy 🇺🇸

9 books (1990–2017)

Start with Mrs. God, the first of 9 books in the Short Stories/Novellas series.

#	Title
1	Mrs. God 1990Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Ghost Village 1993Buy 🇺🇸
3	Fee 1994Buy 🇺🇸
4	Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff 1998Buy 🇺🇸
5	A Special Place 2009Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine 2011Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Buffalo Hunter 2012Buy 🇺🇸
8	Perdido 2015Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Process (is a Process All Its Own) 2017Buy 🇺🇸

9 books (1972–2016)

Start with Ishmael, the first of 9 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	Ishmael 1972Buy 🇺🇸
2	Open Air 1972Buy 🇺🇸
3	Leeson Park and Belsize Square 1983Buy 🇺🇸
4	Houses Without Doors 1990Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Horror Writers Association Presents Peter Straub's Ghosts 1995Buy 🇺🇸
6	Magic Terror 2000Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Little Blue Book of Rose Stories 2005Buy 🇺🇸
8	5 Stories 2008Buy 🇺🇸
9	Interior Darkness 2016Buy 🇺🇸

14 books (1973–2010)

Start with Marriages, the first of 14 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	Marriages 1973Buy 🇺🇸
2	Julia / Full Circle 1975Buy 🇺🇸
3	If You Could See Me Now 1977Buy 🇺🇸
4	Ghost Story 1979Buy 🇺🇸
5	Shadowland 1980Buy 🇺🇸
6	Floating Dragon 1982Buy 🇺🇸
7	The General's Wife 1982Buy 🇺🇸
8	Under Venus 1985Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Hellfire Club 1996Buy 🇺🇸
10	Mr. X 1999Buy 🇺🇸
11	In The Night Room 2003Buy 🇺🇸
12	Lost Boy Lost Girl 2003Buy 🇺🇸
13	A Dark Matter 2010Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Skylark 2010Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1984–2026)

Start with The Talisman and read in order.

#	Title
1	The Talisman 1984Buy 🇺🇸
2	Black House 2001Buy 🇺🇸
3	Other Worlds Than These 2026Buy 🇺🇸

15 books (2010–2024)

Start with The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2010 Edition, the first of 15 books in the The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror series.

#	Title
1	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2010 Edition 2010Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2011 Edition 2011Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, 2012 Edition 2012Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2013 Edition 2013Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2014 Edition 2014Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2015 Edition 2015Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2016 Edition 2016Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2017 Edition 2017Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2018 Edition 2018Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2019 Edition 2020Buy 🇺🇸
11	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 1 2020Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 2 2021Buy 🇺🇸
13	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Volume 3 2022Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 4 2023Buy 🇺🇸
15	The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 5 2024Buy 🇺🇸