If you liked
Books like It
by Stephen King
It is Stephen King's doorstop about a shape-shifting horror that feeds on a small town's children and the seven friends who face it as kids and again as adults. Under the scares it is really about childhood, memory and the things towns bury. If you want more horror with that much heart, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
The Standby Stephen King
“The Stand by Stephen King 1978 (and 1990 Complete & Uncut) review. A weaponized plague kills 99 percent of humanity. The survivors are pulled toward Boulder or toward Las Vegas, and the novel that follows is one of the great American epics of its decade.”
Fairy Taleby Stephen King
“Fairy Tale by Stephen King 2022 review. Charlie Reade inherits a Maine estate and discovers a portal to a fairy-tale world that has gone seriously wrong. Late-career King at his most generously narrative.”
The Ocean at the End of the Laneby Neil Gaiman
“The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman 2013 review. A middle-aged man returns to his Sussex childhood home for a funeral and remembers something he had carefully forgotten. Late Gaiman at his most patient and most personal.”
Heart-Shaped Boxby Joe Hill
“Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill 2007 review. An aging metal star buys a ghost on the internet. The ghost belongs to a former groupie's stepfather, and he is not happy. The debut novel that established Joe Hill as the heir to his father's horror legacy.”
Mexican Gothicby Silvia Moreno-Garcia
“Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 review. Noemi Taboada is summoned to the remote Mexican mountain town of El Triunfo to rescue her cousin from her new husband's family. The canonical contemporary Latin American gothic horror novel and the 2020 Bram Stoker winner.”
The Only Good Indiansby Stephen Graham Jones
“The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 2020 review. Four Blackfeet men who committed a hunting transgression are tracked across the present-day American West by something that wants the moral debt paid. Bram Stoker Award 2020.”
FAQ
Common questions about It read-alikes
- I want more Stephen King.
- The Stand is the other essential doorstop, his apocalyptic good-versus-evil epic, and Fairy Tale is his more recent portal fantasy with plenty of dread. Both share It's mix of enormous scope and deep affection for its characters.
- I want horror that is also about being a kid.
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is the closest match here: a slim, dreamlike novel about childhood terror and forgetting, doing in two hundred pages what It does in a thousand. If the coming-of-age was your favorite part, start there.
- I want the scares from a newer generation of horror.
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones are the modern picks: a haunted-house gothic and a haunting rooted in Blackfeet identity. Both are sharp, atmospheric and genuinely frightening.
- Is Heart-Shaped Box worth it if I liked It?
- Yes. Joe Hill is King's son and writes in a similar vein, and Heart-Shaped Box, about an aging rocker who buys a haunted suit online, is a lean, mean ghost story. A good bridge if you want the family resemblance in a shorter book.
The original