The most 80s horror novels in the world ever!

[@happyhauntslibrary]

As someone with a graduate degree in American history, I was loving all of your historical context you included in your intro! Half the fun of reading for me is seeing how older books fit within the context of a specific time period. Thank you for some great recommendations!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Narniaru]

Me too! It was the best part 🙂

[@PokhrajRoy.]

4:11 Some people think that the ‘80s was basically a Walkman, Neon Outfits x Aesthetics and Mullets.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I love the mini-history lessons in your videos. It’s very balanced and fun! 9:38 As a waffling on connoisseur, your preamble was substantial which merited its duration.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you! I was surprised when I edited it quite how long I'd preambled for!

[@20DYNAMITE06]

I always watch your videos with my library app open so I can add books to my hold list... I'm looking forward to Necroscope :)

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It’s a lot of fun!

[@tayjones8552]

Can you read books free and if so, what's the name of this app?

[@troytradup]

Nice list -- glad to see Swan Song get some love. The first book I ever read while living in New York City! So a whole lot of wild memories tied up in that crazy little paperback. Hop you feel better soon!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! That's an interesting one to read in NY!

[@lucciola5852]

I read most of your 70s lists and half of your 80s list when those titles were released. I will always be grateful to you for Slugs! I love your intros as they provide context for what follows.

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

Great look at the eighties.

[@amandacampbell4479]

Robert R. McCammon is one of the best, and most underrated writers out there in my opinion.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Agree - he is often excellent

[@PieGuyBill]

Absolutely, I’ve loved everything I’ve read from him.

[@morethanaveragejoe8224]

Hi Olly! I appreciate the historical context you add to your book reviews. Juan from Plagued By Visions highly recommended you and I'm glad to have come by your channel. Take care!!

[@zachreads]

I'd add "Sphere" by Michael Crichton and "I have no mouth and I must scream" by Harlan Ellison... and dozens more

[@michaelrichards669]

3:45 speaking of 80s movies. 1986 Down and out in Beverly Hills. Unlucky and homeless, Dave (Nick Nolte) decides to call it quits, and so sneaks into a stranger's backyard and tries to drown himself in the pool. However, Jerry's plans are stopped by the pool's owner, white-collar businessman Dave (Richard Dreyfuss), who pulls the tramp out of the water and into his home. But Dave's hospitality and his status-obsessed wife, Barbara (Bette Midler), don't impress Jerry, who ignores them and instead pursues the family's maid, Carmen (Elizabeth Peña).

[@michaelrichards669]

I was a kid in the 1980s and a teen in the 1990s. I remember this movie... Basically a Bum eating dog food and then sharing with the dog. But also ignoring the Rich... If i am correct on the movie.

[@UncleMonk23]

IT also taps into the serial killer sub genre as the clown 🤡 in the story was representative of American serial killer John Wayne Gacy who dressed up as a clown at children’s parties and preyed on young boys…

[@Dhampir1987]

Oh Koko is such a good book. One of my best friends gave me this book, and I still highly enjoy it.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Definitely one I want to reread sometime

[@genemcn3579]

As someone who was a teenager in the 80s, I enjoy these. Those were indeed strange times.

[@jordanjohnson8032]

Nice list. I've knocked out 5 of these (so far). Two from your recommendations/review: The Hellbound Heart and Swan Song (which I mentioned finishing a while back in the discord). Besides those: IT, Silence of the Lambs, and Red Dragon. I think your could include Swan Song under the cold war theme. That book really starts getting wild when the bombs drop and the cold war gets hot. Also, with two of the main characters meeting and starting off in Earth House (designed for if/when the bombs drop) I don't think it would be too much of a stretch. But the book did feel very '80s'. The way I described it to my dad was "grimy 80's Robocop into mad max".

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That's a good description of Swan Song!

[@johncollins3156]

FYI: Michael Slade was a pen name for 3 Canadian lawyers. The few Slade novels that have come out in the 2000’s- there hasn’t been many- are now written by one of the original authors and his daughter.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I have so many thoughts on Reagonomics and Thatcherism but you’ve articulated it well and I don’t want to be a loose canon.

[@ahem88]

Olly, have a look at "The Armagedon Rag" by George Martin. I read it a few years ago, 80s, nostalgia, hippies, rock, more hippies, a mistery and a band, also some vietnam reference. From your list I will put in my list "Live Girls", always nice to have a good 80s vampire story. Of topic, did you watch Fright night 2?

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I'll look that one up! I have seen Fright Night 2, but not for decades!

[@stephennootens916]

I am hoping to read Swan Song this summer. I read The Stand years ago as a kid and I want to try Swan Song to see if I have will to through a long bleak post apocalyptic novel.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It's a hard ride at times, but worth it

[@PieGuyBill]

It’s a big book but it’s a page turner. You won’t want to put it down.

[@scottgraham1143]

Nice summation of the 80s. I did less cultural stuff in that decade as I was busy establishing my career, although I was fascinated with serial killers and read a lot of Colin Wilson on the subject. When Mindhunter appeared on Netflix and my kids were fascinated with it, it was like a trip down memory lane.

[@buyahhhhrooo4418]

I think one of the ways to look at nostalgia is also through the marketing of children. When parents are in their 30s looking back at their childhood, they're reflecting that through their own children, so they grow up on contemporary culture and the culture of their parents so it's perfect for marketing that specific nostalgia and as marketing has become more nefarious it becomes difficult to see the line between who starts the trends, the businesses or the nostalgic parents.

[@nathanfoung2347]

Great video Olly. Gordon Gecko, "Greed is good" comes to mind when you started talking about the 80s. One thing people may not be aware of is that the internet was invented in 1981. Great list of books, I'm glad I've got the Easter weekend to indulge in a bit of nostalgic reading. Happy Easter, go well.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Happy Easter, Nathan!

[@thepaperbackfanatic1]

Another super video Olly. Thanks. Difficult to fault any of your choices, and the whole Cold War horror novel was one that I hadn't really thought about. One aspect of the 80s, which always springs to my mind, was the emergence of AIDs which I don't think you mentioned. That might have influenced vampire novels, books which looked at how people were persecuted and possibly the rise of body horror. Although you covered Barker and the vampire genre. I haven't read Koko (or any Straub!) but I think Nightwalker by Thomas Tessier is an outstanding book which could have been a contender, with a Vietnam vet living in punk era London, who may or may not be a werewolf. (I think it's clear that he is...) Thanks again for a brilliant and thought provoking video.

[@heidifogelberg3544]

The Amityville Horror was published in 1977, and I think that 1st book includes the Indian Burial Ground trope. I know it comes into the story at some point... haven't read it in years and I'm not excited at the thought, but it popped to mind.

[@ellagoreyshorrorstories7524]

Great list, as always. As a Canadian, I'm so happy you included Ghoul in your list. I obsessively read many Slade books in the Special X series, and they're the only novels I've read that include a bibliography! I know there are a ton of books you left off because of time limits. But one author conspicuously missing is Dean Koontz. He had many successful horror novels in the 80s, but I'd put Watchers as the most 80s. Medical and animal experimentation, serial killer/assassin character, Vietnam vet, government conspiracy, all set in the Hollywood hills. All the tropes are there! I think it was also a time of the New York vs. Hollywood settings. When I was a kid in the 80s, those seemed to be where people with a lot of money lived, and the horror reflected the underbelly of those settings. Speaking of LA, Robert McCammon's They Thirst is a very 80s LA vampire novel. And The Scream by John Skipp and Craig Spector had rival metal bands, a Vietnam vet (except the math was off, the character would have only been about 16), zombie alien mass unal!ving/cult stuff, even the Weekly World News gets a mention. So much fun. The Vampire Lestat was also a very 80s book. I was trying to think of some horror not just by the cis yt man group, but 80s horror was very much dominated by those dudes. Nothing wrong with it, I love them, but it's probably why we have so many amazing authors today who aren't the cis-yt-man type! Looking forward to more 89s and of course the 90s and further decades!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you! And yes Koontz is a good point! I might add him into my follow up video

[@PieGuyBill]

A book that came out in the eighties and takes place in the eighties by probably the hottest horror writer of that decade…. “The Vampire Lestat” by Anne Rice. Lestat rises from the grave, awakened by the sound of rock music. He goes on to become a superstar of rock ,actually killing people on stage with the audience thinking it’s an act. A great book highlighting the excesses of that era.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I haven't read that one, but it does sound like it fits!

[@StElna]

Lots of great books here. IT is my favourite horror book. By far and away the scariest book I've read, and the most scared I've been after shutting the book, especially at night. Robert McCammon, along with King, was incredibly prolific during the 80s. Swan Song is a great book, second only to Boy's Life, for me. I'll chuck in a few 80s horror books. Carrion Comfort - is not only my favourite Dan Simmons book, but also my favourite vampire book. Some of the scenes will stay with me forever. Fevre Dream - is a great vampire book that tends to get lost due to Martin writing ASOIAF. It's one of the most visual books I've ever read. Phantoms - is the best book I've read, so far, by Dean Koontz. I loved the story and concepts, which are slowly revealed throughout the horror that surrounds the characters. The Delicate Dependency - I've already mentioned The Bog by Michael Talbot, but this vampire book is unlike any other. It's wonderfully written and has a great story to boot.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you - some great ones there!

[@jamesl4857]

You and I are the same age. I celebrated my 50th birthday on March 10. You bring up a lot of things I noticed in the 1980s fiction that I read, be it horror or any other genre. Granted, tend to read the genres you discuss along with science fiction, fantasy, comic books and graphic novels. I've read a few of the titles you mentioned, and I hope I can find the ones I haven't. Thanks for this video and discussing the time I grew up. All The Best, James Heath Lantz Freelance Writer Staff Writer for Back Issue magazine 2021 Eisner Award nominee, 2019 winner, "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

This list is spot on! Necroscope! Glad you included that one.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Cheers, Michael!

[@BobbyHall-eu1xv]

Good shout with Brian Lumley's Necroscope, the entire series is just as fun as the first book.

[@brettrobson5739]

As a person who's twenties were the 80's, I think you missed the most significant thing - AIDS. This is why vampires made a return, sex was dangerous again. The vast majority of people had ZERO chance of catching HIV but they still spoke about it endlessly. It was a "new start" for homophobia, also represented in the culture significantly. The nostalgia element was mostly in the movies (and yes King) but wasn't that prevalent in genre literature to my recollection

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That's a great point, I did think about talking about AIDS but considered it (culturally) more of a 90s thing. You're right though that rise of vampires again in the 1980s was probably linked. Will address in a follow up!

[@morebirdsandroses]

Very good point!

[@lesliepowell-mccarty7067]

Ahh, the 80s. The Me decade. 😒 I graduated from high school in 1984 and I did not think highly of Reagan nor Thatcher. I'm so happy for horror novels; reading was and is my escape.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah, those two were the worst!

[@krisprepolec5616]

I think that sheer number of baby boomers made the 50’s nostalgia in the 80’s even more prevalent. When I think of this I think is Stand By Me and Dirty Dancing in film. I loved IT for the way it gave me a glimpse of my parent’s childhood. I was a metal head in jr. high in the 80’s, so gravitated more towards the gritty and critical. Definitely a King, Thomas Harris and Clive Barker fan. As a Canadian I am not sure why I haven’t read any Michael Slade, but they are on my to be read shelf.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That's a very good point!

[@3wwv]

I also think the 50’s was the start of teenage culture - rock n roll, teeny boppers, drive in movies, TV - think American Graffitti. It’s the first era to really have so much popular media and a carefree generation to embrace it. As you said no one is getting nostalgic for the thirties and forties.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@3wwv great point

[@KenMcGrath_author]

Always wanted to read the Necroscope books as a teenager, loved the look of the covers, but neither my local library nor charity shop growing up ever had the first book in (that I saw anyway). Think it might be time to remedy that situation. Great video as always.

[@DDB168]

Great list, I should read some of them ! Live Girls intrigues me.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

You should give it a try!

[@morebirdsandroses]

What a great selection of books almost all of which I read back then. Some terrific story-telling. Clive Barker was a revelation. 😮

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah he really stood out from the crowd in the 80s

[@LiterateTexan]

Live Girls is such a treat. I really enjoy Ray Garton. I'm a couple of years older than you, but this is just about the same list I would have made for the subject.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah I need to read more Garton!

[@kathleech8044]

I was also born in 73. I am so happy you chose Live Girls - I was obsessed with that book and lent it out many times, sadly 1 too many as the last time it was not returned. As for my favourite author at that time it was 100% Shaun Hutson, I like the excess of his writing ( though looking at it now there are certainly some dodgy ideas about women in there) and I am still a fan of gore now. Victims was my favourite book of his at the time. I am not sure how much I would enjoy his writing if I re read it, I am scared to in case it ruins my memories.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Hutson is so much fun, I've found his work reads up to rereading better than you might expect

[@PokhrajRoy.]

Absolutely shattered we don’t get to see a mullet or a perm. Of course I was forewarned there would be no ‘80s Cosplay :(

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Sorry!

[@FloridasYesteryear]

Not a book, but Poltergeist, the movie is an 80s movie that also involves an Indian burial ground.

[@johnnythepillpopper1974]

You should make a video about vampire books, that are not necessarily vampire books….like unique vampire books. For example Dan Simmons…Carrion Comfort, F. Paul Wilson’s…The Keep, etc.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ohhhh, that's an intriguing idea!

[@Sencman1]

Hello from Trinidad. I read a graphic novel in the 80's that made a great impression on me. Wish you could help me find it. I remember it's about an old west town where people slowly horribly turn into cactus.

[@jackthereader]

You beautiful bastard, you read my mind!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

LOL

[@Paul_Bond.]

Hi Olly, fantastic list but... and you know this is coming! You missed out splatter punk! (although you mentioned it in passing) David J Schow's The kill Riff and Skipp and spectors The light at the End are so 80's they drip it. The anthology Prime Evil, even though it came out in 88 has most of the heavyweights from that period, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell and Dennis Etchison among them. It also has one of the best stories I have ever read, Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity by David Morrell, better known as the author of First Blood. James Herbert, John Farris, Graham Masterton, Charles L Grant and too many to name where all on a roll throughout the 80's as was everyone's favourite Richard Laymon. I was born in 75 so this is right in my comfort zone. Thanks!

[@jamieserrano827]

If you like the book, life girls, there’s a movie from 1986 with Grace Jones called vamp, and she is the head vampire in a vampire strip club, unfortunately stumbled upon by two college students looking for dancers for their party

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Great film! I have seen it, but not since not long after it came out!

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I have read 8 out of 10 on this list. I grew up and went to college in the 80s. I had a copy of Ghouls at one time but never read it. The same goes for Necroscope. I think splatter punk deserves a place on the list. I think the excess of gore was connected to the fear of nuclear annihilation. Maybe Off Season should be added.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That's a great suggestion - thanks Greg!

[@sethball2475]

Yeah, I think that’s a terrific list of what was going on in Horror, in the 1980s. If I were going to mention any other books, I can’t really think of a book that adds a sub genre or trend in Horror that you didn’t cover. I would say there are some Honorable Mentions, in each sub genre… For instance, the vampire novel of the 1980s spread both into urban splatterpunk, with The Light at the End by Skipp and Spector, but also “strange variant” territory, with The Keep by F. Paul Wilson. As far as serial killers go, we have one in at least one novel usually found on the General Fiction shelves but now sought out by Horror fans: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Its controversial “twist” ending also puts it in with any 1980s genre fiction that perhaps can now be viewed as insensitive to the point of even being ripe for cancellation. Your inclusion of Ghoul by Slade means you probably didn’t need to cover any runners-up, but I’ll do that: Slob by Rex Miller gave us the seemingly unstoppable serial killer named Chaingang, but also Detective (or is it Agent) Jack Eichord, along with a police procedural feel to the series.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

The Wasp Factory is an interesting suggestion. I did have Light at the End on my longer list in fact! Love The Keep as well

[@katiecook6006]

I must be an 80s kinda girl. I'm a mellinial and have read most of these...😂

[@CriminOllyBlog]

LOL - well it was the best decade

[@ITCamefromthePage]

I don't really think that King is nostalgic for the 50s...it's when he grew up and the pop culture of the time is referenced but he never really seems to be saying "things were better then". In IT there are still child murders and all of the same horror that recurs in the 80s...Pennywise is almost anti-nostalgic...he comes back every 27 years which is endemic of the nostalgia rates. So the friendships he had back then and the sense of childhood is important but I don't think the 50s are AT ALL portrayed as being 'better'.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

You might be right, or at least IT might not have been a great example of it 😂

[@stephennootens916]

If I remember right most if not all the major characters who are kids in the 50s had horrible childhoods on one way or another. Not to mention that King write the whole history of the town and all the evil that happened in Derry.

[@morebirdsandroses]

I think that's a really good thought. He does demonstrate a certain reserve about the period and how "perfect" it was. Not!

[@ITCamefromthePage]

​@@CriminOllyBlog I finally got a chance to finish this video and these are all great...well...except for Swan Song lololol. Great video Olly! Meant to say that in my first comment but I was interrupted lol.

[@Christian-qu9ml]

Great video. Cheers. 😊

[@wendyvilla2904]

💚🖤 Hope you feel better soon.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you!

[@centy64]

I wonder what will happen in 20-30 years time when the cycle locks up with all the current recycled 80-90s nostalgia our current culture is obsessed with.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! yes it might cause some kind of short circuit

[@paulfillingham2958]

Lots of interesting stuff. ‘American Psycho’ came out in 91 but was a satire on 80’s America. ‘Koko’ is one of my favourite books. Straub and King were obviously friends as they collaborated on some books. King is no doubt a great storyteller but I don’t think he’s a great writer ( in fact he’s a mediocre one) but Straub on the other hand is an excellent writer. His stuff might not be as well received as King’s because it is more serious and far better written. Good to see a mention of ‘Necroscope’ an excellent series of books (which maybe went on a couple of books too long). Anyone interested in H.P. Lovecraft should look up Brian Lumley as he wrote a series of short stories and novellas that tie in with the Cthulhu Mythos. ‘Swan Song’ also a very entertaining book. As for ‘Live Girl’ I believe there was a film based on the book set in Spain by a Spanish director but can’t find it on IMDb. Saw it many years ago and it was very entertaining.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I didn't know that about Live Girls!

[@bigaldoesbooktube1097]

Love this series 👌

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Cheers, Al!

[@theredraven5795]

Have you read The Corspe King by Tim Curran? It would fascinate me to hear what your thoughts are on it.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I haven't heard of that one

[@Mondomeyer]

AP is from 1991

[@ChristopherEvenstar]

Great video, thanks! The eighties remind me of Satan. Back then a friend showed me his new Dio cassette, "Look, his logo says Devil 6 different ways!"

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That's a great point - I didn't even think about the satanic panic!

[@FloridasYesteryear]

A lot of post-apocalyptic YA in the 1980s had nuclear war as the cause of the apocalypse. Z for Zachariah is a good one. I learned this story is also a representation of a woman leaving an abusive relationship. It is a really good read.

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

yes recall reading slade's headhunter very scary and one of first writers to use the two different characters turn out to be the same person device recently read something called I'm thinking of ending things where the author tried something like that but disastrously failed want to check out the clive barker always love it when greed heads get their just dues harris really started off the serial killer craze but none of his imitators even come close to his brilliant originality

[@francesmeyer8478]

I really enjoyed Michael Slade's books. A bit grim but excellent.☕🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🇺🇸

[@CriminOllyBlog]

They are fun!

[@denisadellinger4543]

I don't remember too much about Russia and the cold war, in the eighties. But I do remember definitely there being Russian spy movies. Of course, communism fell in the eighties and now there is another form of it. And there are some that would like nothing better than to throw the world into communism and overthrow it all at this time. I do remember excesses and big shoulder pads and big hair, Dallas and Dynasty. Cop shows were huge in the seventies as well as eighties. and we did go through the huge thing with Viet nam vets and dealing with the war. You were talking about having a nostalgia for times about thiry years in the past. I remember a lot of songs like Putting on the Ritz and Jump and Jive being really popular in the eighties. Those of us who were young adult baby boomers had our best days in the eighties. I graduated from high school in the seventies and went to most of my schooling in the seventies and eighties.

[@sharonginger2997]

Still is on vampire

[@oldsalt4798]

THREADS is outstanding!!!!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I still need to watch it!

[@puekawNEpuyrruh]

I enjoyed Koko

[@exomake_mehorololo]

🎉It is here🎉😊

[@Kikilang60]

Ah, the late sixties and early seventies America faced its ugly past. It was a time of cultural upheaval. Native American culture and its dark history became topical. They eighties were a pushback against the sixties. Greed was good, and activism was seen as a joke. Sure, popular fiction lags history. Popular progressive fiction is often more offensive than actual racist literature. I guess if you're an average American, you don't know.

[@Rraow778]

❤️❤️❤️

[@johnbeeston2473]

love it

[@francesmeyer8478]

Another influence in the 70s and 80s was Ted Bundy. 40, 50 years later he is still hanging around, unfortunately.☕🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🌧🇺🇸🦃