New Reviews

We Want Your Votes for Best Horror Novel of 2016!

Joe Hill The Fireman

We’ve seen a handful of amazing horror novels released this year. But the number of books hitting shelves is so sizable that it becomes a near impossibility to keep up with every standout effort to land in our laps.

That’s where you, the readers, and you, the contributors come into play.

We want your votes for the finest novel to be released in 2016.

The only stipulation here is that the novel was officially released in 2016. Not December of 2015, or a re-release of a novel years old. We want your votes for the new books. You can vote for up to three titles.

What was your favorite of the year?

Was it Hunter Shea’s The Jersey Devil?

Was it Joe Hill’s The Fireman?

Maybe it was Bracken MacLeod’s Stranded?

Was it Joe R. Lansdale’s Honky Tonk Samurai?

Let us know, as you’ll be helping us to compile a list of the absolute must-read novels of 2016! That means other fans are relying on you to lead them down a thrilling path!

Drop us a comment below with your vote, and if you’re really torn on two novels, don’t be shy: list them both!

Try to have your votes in by December 10th, so that we have a chance to go through nominations, discuss those nominations and reach a conclusion that will be unanimously respected!

The 2016 Best Novels Award is in your hands, so fill up the comment section below!

About The Overseer (1669 Articles)
Author of Say No to Drugs, writer for Blumhouse, Dread Central, Horror Novel Reviews and Addicted to Horror Movies.

43 Comments on We Want Your Votes for Best Horror Novel of 2016!

  1. The Eighth Day Vol. 1 By M. M. Dos Santos deserves my vote.
    The author comes at you in so many different ways. I’m a huge horror fan, and to find something – for me – that stuck with me for so long afterwards was a real treat.
    I’m glad i’m not the only one to have felt like that!

    Like

  2. The Eighth Day by MMdos Santos

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  3. The Eighth Day Vol. 1 by MM Dos Santos

    Worst nightmares of my life…
    Such detailed gut wrenching descriptions, had anxiety just turning to the next page! I was amazing!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Maria philipp // October 28, 2016 at 8:32 pm // Reply

    The Eighth Day Vol. 1
    By M.M. Dos Santos

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  5. This book was extremely twisted gory and down right f’d and I loved it. M.M. Dos santos did a great job of making me feel uncomfortable with what I was reading but literally unable to put it down and I Can’t wait for the next one!

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  6. The Eighth Day – M.M. Dos Santos

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  7. The Eighth Day by m.m. dos Santos. Top read of the year for me! So unpredictable.

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  8. The Eighth Day by M.M. Dos Santos

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  9. The Eighth Day – M.M. Dos Santos

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  10. M.M Dos Santos- THE EIGTH DAY

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  11. The Eighth Day vol. 1 by M.M. Dos Santos

    One badass read!

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  12. The Eighth Day by M.M. Dos Santos – thumbs up!!

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  13. The Eighth Day by M.M Dos Santos

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  14. Hey, Matt, Maybe you should get people to enter their top three choices. And then figure out the top ten accordingly. Just a suggestion.

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    • Matt Molgaard // November 3, 2016 at 5:47 pm // Reply

      I’ll tell you what, whoever it was thinking they were funny voting for Eighth Day 100 times screwed Dos Santos out of a chance of winning. Half the damn time they forgot to mask their IPs while cheating, so I can’t even begin to guess how many of those votes are actually legit and how many are a funny guy using a proxy to vote over and over again. It sucks that someone would do that and completely axe Dos Santos’ chances of winning.

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      • Renee Gifford // November 3, 2016 at 7:35 pm //

        Hey Matt. LET me tell you I’m a real person. I beta read m.m.’s novel and reread it in its entirety and was blown away. my husband read it aND voted as well voted as well. which means we have the same ip address. I scrolled the many comments voting for the eighth day and know most of them being real people. so if someone got over zealous in voting like a moron it’s not m.m. dos santos fault. I’m curious why someone would punish a new author for this. I challenge you to read the book and tell your followers it’s undeserving. I bet you can’t.

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      • Rebecca Harvey // November 8, 2016 at 3:27 am //

        I am a real person who really enjoyed the author! Maybe you are just frigginf amazed at how many people bought the book and voted….probably a landslide win!!!

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      • You need to understand something, Rebecca: I have no dog in the fight and I’m only interested in an honest win. When I can SEE the same person voting multiple times, I can’t sit back and let that slide. The contest has to be FAIR. Put yourself in Dos Santos’ shoes, and then imagine some other author having a crazed fan boy come along and vote 20 times for that author, essentially bumping Dos Santos from the chance of winning. How do you think Dos Santos would feel, especially if he/she (not sure!) could see pretty clearly that something sketchy was going on with the votes? You think Dos Santos would be happy about that?

        I’ve got ZERO reason to bash or belittle Dos Santos. I’ve got ZERO reason to prevent him/her from winning. I gain NOTHING by rigging the contest.

        I’ll say it again: If you want to be displeased with someone, find the person who did all the bogus voting and share a piece of your mind with them. THEY are the reason I can’t in good conscious acknowledge Dos Santos’ votes, NOT ME. I won’t cheat other authors out of acknowledgement because one dumb ass fan decided they’d attempt to rig the votes in order to ensure a Dos Santos “win.”

        I’m not happy about how it’s played out, and I’d REALLY rather NOT have to poke my head in and disrupt the voting process. The other authors don’t deserve to see it go down this way, and Dos Santos doesn’t deserve to see it go down this way, either.

        Liked by 1 person

  15. I think it is pretty unreasonable to discount everyone’s votes because someone may have voted more than once. I know most of the voters for MM as well and they are legit.
    He is a local author that is gaining lots of traction.

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    • No, they’re not legit. I run the site. I see the back end. I can see when the same IP is voting with different names. It’s a shame to be forced to eliminate Dos Santos from serious consideration, but there are a LOT of proxy hides in the voting – it’s the same person voting repeatedly. I’m not happy about that, but I get to see what site visitors don’t.

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  16. Accepted or not, my vote is for:
    M.M. Dos Santos
    The Eighth Day Vol.1

    It is obvious that these votes M.M. recieved are from real people, including myself, just take a look at his FB page.

    These people are fans and it is not possible that they were from the same IP address as some are my family who live 500 km away.

    That comment alone has discredited the owner of this blog.

    I am disappointed that this amazing book will not get the credit it deserves.

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    • I’ll say this again, since a few of you are apparently having trouble understanding computer basics: I CAN SEE THE IP ADDRESSES OF EVERYONE THAT VOTES!!! A good number of the votes for Dos Santos’ book are FROM THE SAME PERSON – SO CONGRATULATIONS, WHOEVER YOU ARE – YOU SCREWED DOS SANTOS OUT OF A POTENTIAL WIN BY CHEATING!

      I’ve got absolutely NOTHING against Dos Santos. I don’t want to sabotage ANY writer’s chances of winning. Apparently there’s someone out there who loves Dos Santos’ work enough to voluntarily sabotage Dos Santos by cheating. That sucks, and I feel bad for Dos Santos, who probably had nothing to do with that, but it’s impossible for me to tell precisely how many votes are legit and how many aren’t (there are a number of proxy votes, with just a single digit of the IP address changed; this anomaly isn’t common in the least bit, and in about four years I’ve never seen it on HNR until now). I’m trying to keep things as fair as possible. If you want to sit back and hurl mud at someone, find out who did the bogus voting and hurl mud in their direction – THEY DID THIS, NOT ANYONE INVOLVED WITH HNR!

      Liked by 1 person

  17. Rebecca Harvey // November 8, 2016 at 4:04 am // Reply

    If I work in an office with 15 computers and all my staff read the book and vote, the IP will be off by 1 number 15 times because each employee has their own computer. I DOES NOT MEAN that it is the same person voting from different IP addresses…think about that!!!!

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  18. I am a real person, I voted for this amazing author. I think what your doing is petty and crude for not recognizing this author regardless of a stupid IP address… Take away that person that voted a 100 times and MM Dos Santos probably still won by a landslide.

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    • Just stop it. Francesca already admitted to being one of the posters cheating. AGAIN (seriously, are some of you challenged in regards to reading comprehension?!?! WTF!?), I DON’T HAVE A REASON TO SCREW DOS SANTOS OVER!!!! Good lord, it’s like talking to a wall with some of you.

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  19. Whom ever runs this blog should be aghast at their misconduct. I’m a huge MM DOS SANTOS fan and alas, I did vote three times. We’re all my votes counted? NO! We’re there any stipulations stating a fan couldn’t vote twice? Or repeatedly? No! By you discounting MM DOS SANTOS, you are clearly inauthentic and a blog not even worthy to promote such a literary Genious!

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    • I have to agree with you. No “contest rules” saying one vote per person. It would be a much more fair situation if your extra votes were simply not counted, but say all votes are duplicate is just bullshit.

      He should be thankfull for the traffic MM directed to his site.

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  20. Can you release the supposed duplicate IPs? Just post as a reply to each coment you think are from the same person. You have to agree that from everyone else this sounds fishy. Help us take you serious.

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    • I don’t give a damn if you take me seriously. I’ve got ZERO reason to try and rig the competition. I don’t have a dog in the fight, I just run the site. And if you think you need proof, then look at this poster, Francesca – she just admitted to being one of the fans who screwed Dos Santos over by attempting to cheat. I don’t even know Dos Santos – could be an AWESOMe person – I have no idea. I certainly have no motivation to plot against the author.

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  21. I personal know 18 of the people that voted for m.m. dos santos’ book the eighth day on your blog. SO unless these 100 proxy votest you claim exist weren’t posted to be seen, I don’t see them. Although it looks like we as fans ( not the same person) are getting crazed ;). I personal won’t poke you any more. Peace

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    • there are 11 unapproved votes. I didn’t start paying too much attention to the IPs until a few authors pointed out the fact that the book itself doesn’t seem to be selling much based on amazon (the leading book retailer) chart position and a lack of reviews/ratings (haven’t checked since the other day, but it only had a single rating/review posted). When I got a look at that, and the conflicting trend on the site (there’s little doubt that if EVERYBODY really wanted to support Dos SAntos with such dedication, at lest a few of those individuals would have extended Dos Santos the courtesy of reviewing the novel on Amazon, which can help influence others to buy the book), I had no choice but to go back in and get a look at those votes. I’ve kept a bunch of them visible to the naked eye, along with my own comments in the hope that anyone compelled to cheat in the future will see all of that and understand we won’t tolerate that junk, and it won’t help the author in the long run. Those of you who are legit individual Dos Santos fans that voted need to understand I have ZERO reason to screw Dos Santos over. Those of you who chose to cheat did that, not myself, or anyone else. So look in the mirror and understand that it isn’t ME who eliminated Dos Santos, it was one – or some – of YOU.

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  22. Im disappointed in this site personally, and how its being run. Its a shame you cant just write off the multiple votes. Seems like simple math to me. You are in fact hindering the author as this is a great way to get their name out there and reach a bigger audience. So Matt, I challenge you to some simple math, and being a decent person! Thanks.

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    • Rena, it reached a point where I CANNOT DETERMINE WHAT IS A LEGIT VOTE AND WHAT ISN’T. I can ONLY identify the votes that are unsuccessful proxy votes, or the ones that didn’t even bother to mask their IP addresses while voting, thus leaving identical IP addresses. Jesus god – how are all of you this dense? I’m close to ignoring all of you, and I don’t give a damn if you’re disappointed that I’m putting an end to cheating or not. I don’t care. If you’re in favor of cheating, I don’t want your asses on my site ever again, so take a hike and don’t look back. Only scumbags try to screw authors out of winning legitimately. It’s unfortunate that so many of you are completely content being scumbags.

      I’ll tell you right now, Dos Santos is probably a bit displeased that you “fans” wanted to be dirty to ensure a win. That obviously came back for a bite in the ass.

      BTW, again, where were you great and dedicated fans when the book hit Amazon? I just looked, it now has 2 reviews. Why aren’t you all over there posting reviews to help Dos Santos sell more books instead of whining because I won’t let you cheat?

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  23. You should go fuck yourself, you are the dense dumbfuck. Why the fuck would someone go through the trouble of masking IPs and voting multiple times for a no name website like yours. We were just showing support for MM.
    I’m sure if MM was a paid advertiser like some other the story would be other.

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  24. Renee Gifford // November 8, 2016 at 4:41 pm // Reply

    Most of the people purchased their copy of m.m’s book from chapters/indigo in person at book signings or off the shelf. I’m sure he has had close to 200 sales since last convo. I personally did not think to review on amazon, I reviewed on good reads. Will remedy that from your advice. THNX 🙂

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  25. So we should go vote 100 times on every other author so they’re all disqualified and you an get back to jerking off in your dark basement? That will probably free up some of your time..wouldn’t want to waste your time doing your job where you read a number and the bigger one wins. Its a hard thing that reading.. or math
    .. or social skills it seems !

    Like

    • Apparently it’s also a hard thing for you to act like a grown, mature individual. Do me a favor don’t ever come back to the site. We wont miss you, i promise.

      You seem to have the issues with comprehending how a fair contest is run, and quite frankly, your post only makes you sound like a total and complete douche bag. Maybe that is your thing, since assessing a situation without letting your pretty little feelings get in the way isn’t possible. But hey, glad to determine you’re another immature goon who would rather see an unjust win as opposed to an honest victory. My advice: grow up. These childish rants are only hurting dos santos. Hopefully he can seperate himself from you corrupt, snarky cancers. Now, bye falicia. Don’t come back to our site. It’s long been dedicated to respectable authors and fans. You are just flat out disrespectful and incapable of looking at the situation with an open mind and an understanding that contests should be FAIR to ALL AUTHORS.

      Now, again – do the entire community a favor and disappear from hnr forever.

      Btw i’m a grown man with a wife and 3 kids. I dont even have time to jerk off in a basement… not that that holds any allure… it’s just another childish insult.

      I sincerely hope dos santos can steer clear of cancers like you. You’re not helping dos santos – youre killing any chance at promotion for his book. So keep being a child, i am sure dos santos is really happy knowing you losers are extremely close to ensuring we never provide a shred of promotion for the book. Way to go “fan”!

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  26. matt – stop responding to these people. don’t let this awesome blog turn into a nonsense site where people troll everything.

    I read eighth day……….and it’s a terrible book. let them have their insults. it doesn’t change anything.

    Liked by 2 people

    • yeah, after that mature individual started chucking countless F-bombs my way, I said screw it. If people like that have problems understanding that it’s not cool to cheat, then I sure as don’t want them here, and I’m done responding to that stuff

      Although I admit I – for a split second – was compelled to reach out to all of my author friends to drop a line and ensure those people understand that there are a hell of a lot of NY Times Bestsellers and Bram Stoker award winners supporting the site (for years now), and a few salty cheaters won’t have any effect on what we’ve been doing at HNR for a half decade.

      Nothing like obscene, cheating, losers being put in their place by highly successful authors.

      Alas, I decided against that, as these goons don’t deserve to be even recognized by some of the greats who’ve been actively involved in HNR.

      Liked by 1 person

  27. 1. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
    2. The Fisherman by John Langan
    3. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

    Like

  28. Mike Wallace // January 12, 2017 at 2:32 pm // Reply

    City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

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