Peter Straub Reading Order

55 books (1982–2023)

Peter Straub edited 51 horror and genre anthologies between 1982 and 2022, with the series likely complete. These collections span multiple genres including horror, fantasy, mystery, and crime fiction, and should be read in publication order beginning with Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King. The anthologies feature curated selections of short fiction and essays exploring various themes within dark and speculative literature.

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 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Cutting Edge 1986Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Horror Factor 7 1988Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Best New Horror 2 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Fourth Annual Collection 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Picador Book of the New Gothic 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Fourth Annual Collection 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear 1992Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	Best New Horror 4 1993Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	Black Thorn, White Rose 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Foundations of Fear: Volume I: Shadows of Fear 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	The Giant Book of Terror 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	Dark Terrors 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1996 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Dark Terrors 2 1996Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Murder on the Run 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 10 1999Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	Dark Terrors 5 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	October Dreams 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
20	The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, #11 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
21	Opening Shots, Vol. II 2001Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
22	Conjunctions #39: The New Wave Fabulists 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
23	The Wavedancer Benefit: A Tribute to Frank Muller 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
24	The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighteenth Annual Collection 2005Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
25	Poe's Children 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
26	The Best of Cemetery Dance II 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
27	American Fantastic Tales 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
28	Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
29	Hint Fiction 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
30	Shivers VI 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
31	The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2010 Edition 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
32	Happily Ever After 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
33	Rage Against the Night 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
34	Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
35	Ghosts: Recent Hauntings 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
36	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
37	Bad Seeds: Evil Progeny 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
38	Hauntings 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
39	Mister October, Volume II 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
40	Turn Down the Lights 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
41	xo Orpheus 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
42	Explosions: Stories of Our Landmined World 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
43	Best New Horror #26 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
44	The Monstrous 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
45	Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
46	Detours 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
47	The Beauty of Death 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
48	New York Fantastic: Fantasy Stories from the City that Never Sleeps 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
49	The Beauty of Death, Vol. 2 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
50	The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
51	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Nine 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
52	Mythic Journeys 2019Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
53	Dark Screams: Volume Three 2021Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
54	Voices in the Dark 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
55	Penumbra No. 4 : A Journal of Weird Fiction and Criticism 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

19 books (2009–2026)

Edited by Peter Straub, the Best Horror of the Year series is an ongoing annual anthology that collects the finest short horror fiction published each year. With 18 volumes released between 2009 and 2025, the series should be read in publication order to follow the chronological progression of selected stories. Readers seeking a decade-spanning overview can jump to The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction, a retrospective collection, before continuing with subsequent volumes.

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 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Seven 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eight 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Nine 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Ten 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven 2019Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	The Best Horror of the Year Volume Thirteen 2021Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen 2024Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen 2024Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Seventeen 2025Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	Best Horror of the Year, Volume Eighteen 2026Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

4 books (1988–2010)

Peter Straub's Blue Rose series comprises four books published between 1988 and 2010, beginning with Koko and continuing through Mystery, The Throat, and concluding with The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories. This complete series blends fantasy, mystery, thriller, and horror elements with literary sophistication and should be read in publication order. The interconnected narrative explores dark mysteries across multiple timelines and perspectives, weaving together seemingly disparate storylines into a complex whole.

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

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

1 book (2000–2000)

#	Title
1	Pork Pie Hat 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

4 books (1992–1994)

The Foundations of Fear Anthology is a four-book horror anthology series edited by Peter Straub and David G. Hartwell, published between 1992 and 1994. Each volume collects short stories and essays from notable authors across multiple genres, including contributions from George R.R. Martin, H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, Clive Barker, Philip K. Dick, and many others, exploring different dimensions of fear and horror fiction. The series is complete and should be read in publication order, beginning with An Exploration of Horror and continuing through the three subsequent volumes. These collections serve as an educational overview of horror literature while showcasing both classic and contemporary voices in the genre.

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 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
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 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
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 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
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 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

2 books (2009–2010)

Peter Straub collaborated with Stephen King and artist Tony Shasteen on this two-book graphic novel series that concluded in 2010. The Talisman: Road of Trials serves as the entry point, followed by The Green Woman, created with writer Michael Easton. These complete works should be read in publication order to experience the full narrative arc.

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 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	The Green Woman(With: Michael Easton) 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

1 book (2007–2007)

#	Title
1	Sides 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

9 books (1990–2017)

Peter Straub's collection of nine short stories and novellas spans from 1990 to 2017 and should be read in publication order, beginning with Mrs. God. The series showcases Straub's versatility across fantasy, mystery, thriller, horror, and literary fiction genres. These standalone tales, which conclude with The Process (is a Process All Its Own), represent a complete collection of the author's shorter works from this period.

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

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

9 books (1972–2016)

Peter Straub's Short Story Collections span from 1972 to 2016 and comprise nine volumes of his finest short fiction. These stories showcase Straub's mastery across horror, fantasy, mystery, and literary fiction, offering readers a complete look at his versatility as a short-form writer. The series should be read in publication order, beginning with Ishmael and concluding with Interior Darkness, to experience the evolution of Straub's craft over four decades.

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

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

14 books (1973–2010)

Peter Straub published fourteen standalone novels between 1973 and 2010, completing this collection of fantasy, mystery, thriller, and horror works that blend literary fiction sensibilities with genre storytelling. Though each novel functions as an independent entry, readers should approach them in publication order, beginning with Marriages and progressing through Ghost Story, Floating Dragon, The Hellfire Club, Mr. X, and concluding with The Skylark. This series showcases Straub's range across supernatural horror, psychological mysteries, and dark fantasy across nearly four decades of writing.

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

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

3 books (1984–2026)

Peter Straub's Talisman series spans four decades with three books published between 1984 and 2026, with the series still ongoing. These fantasy-horror novels should be read in publication order beginning with The Talisman, followed by Black House and Other Worlds Than These. The series blends elements of fantasy, mystery, thriller, and literary fiction into Straub's distinctive dark storytelling style.

Start with The Talisman and read in order.

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

15 books (2010–2024)

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror is an ongoing anthology series edited by Peter Straub that collects the finest short fiction in dark fantasy and horror genres. Spanning 15 volumes published between 2010 and 2024, the series begins with annual editions from 2010 through 2019, then transitions to numbered volumes. Read in publication order starting with the 2010 Edition to experience the evolution of contemporary dark fantasy and horror writing across each successive year.

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