Person
Every book Victor LaValle recommended on podcasts
Victor LaValle’s most recommended books
- The Shining by Stephen King
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- Danse Macabre by Stephen King
- Different Seasons by Stephen King
- by Unknown
- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
- Night Shift by Stephen King
Victor LaValle is an American author and literary figure. During multiple appearances on The Book Review, LaValle discussed and recommended several notable works of literature and non-fiction. He recommended Shirley Jackson's novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, praising it as Jackson's true masterpiece and highlighting its clear introduction to its unusual main character, Maryat. Additionally, he recommended Stephen King's collection of novellas, Different Seasons, specifically noting its suitability for teenage readers. Beyond these recommendations, LaValle discussed Stephen King's non-fiction book Danse Macabre, explaining how it served as his introduction to the horror genre and acted as a bibliography for his early reading. He also touched upon other influential horror texts, referencing Stephen King's The Shining while discussing haunted house tropes, and mentioning Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves to compare architectural horror concepts involving mutating spaces. Furthermore, LaValle talked about his own writing process, discussing how he borrowed elements from Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House for his novel Lone Women, specifically drawing inspiration from the opening escape scene.
Books recommended by Victor LaValle
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The Shining
The Shining by Stephen King is a classic psychological horror novel that chronicles a struggling writer's descent into madness while caretaking an isolated, snowbound Colorado hotel with a dark past.
Discussed“And then the other thing that she does that to me is even more rarified within the haunted house field, although certainly anyone who's read The Shining will understand it is that a lot of haunted house stories turn out to be that there's an entity there that is the cause.”
Where to get it
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a chilling psychological thriller novel by Shirley Jackson, published in 1962, that follows the isolated and eccentric Blackwood family following a tragic arsenic poisoning.
Discussed“And I also read her the book that came after this. We have always lived in the castle which is as much as I love this book that's her masterpiece I would say.”
Where to get it
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The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is a celebrated classic horror novel about a haunted mansion and psychological isolation.
Discussed“And as a kid who was in love with Stephen King at the time, but who was not supremely well read, I treated that book like, as many people did, I'm sure, like a just a list, a bibliography. Here's everything you got to read. And for better or worse, Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House was one of the”
Where to get it
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Danse Macabre
Danse Macabre is a non-fiction critical overview of the horror genre by Stephen King that surveys horror across literature, film, and television from the mid-twentieth century through the 1970s.
Discussed“It actually begins before Shirley Jackson. It begins with Stephen King and his book Dance Macabra, which was his 80s summary of the horror field in general.”
Where to get it
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Different Seasons
Different Seasons by Stephen King is a celebrated 1982 collection of four distinct novellas that showcases the author's range far beyond traditional horror.
Recommended“well I would say for if it's a teenager there's a book of novelas called different seasons an early one”
Where to get it
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Several distinct books were discussed across various podcast episodes without a single unified theme, highlighting diverse topics from personal trauma recovery and philosophy to secular ideologies and journalism.
Discussed“I came across an amazing book called Montana women homesteaders a field of ones own by Dr Sarah Carter and I picked it up off the shelf entirely just cuz I'd never heard of Lone women homesteaders”
Where to get it
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House of Leaves
House of Leaves is a complex postmodern novel by Mark Z.
Discussed“If you think about books that came decades later, like House of Leaves, which is about a house that keeps mutating, growing bigger on the inside.”
Where to get it
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Lone Women
Lone Women is a historical horror novel by Victor LaValle that follows a woman escaping her past with a heavy trunk in early twentieth-century Montana.
Discussed“Have you ever borrowed anything from this book for your work? A character name, a beat, a motivation, a tone. What have you pulled out of it? Well, actually, I mean, rereading it again just over the weekend, the opening bits, I realized the beginning of Lone Women is Eleanor's escape”
Where to get it
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Night Shift
Night Shift is a celebrated collection of horror short stories by Stephen King that explores profound fears, supernatural phenomena, and the dark corners of the human psyche.
Discussed“I think my first I was probably 10 or 11 and it was his a book of stories night shift and um that sort of segwayed to”
Where to get it
Books Victor LaValle wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Hill's Scary Book Recs and Victor LaValle on "The Haunting of Hill House" (Rerun) | The Book Review | 2025-10-24 | 7 |
| Dinosaurs, the Master of Horror and Philip Roth | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 3 |
| Victor LaValle Talks About Horror and ‘Lone Women’ | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 6 |
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“and so for me I think regardless of if it's deeply historically researched like this or if it's something that might be a little bit Wilder like my novel big machine”
“so my first two books were literary realism and then my third big machine was the beginning of me writing into genre”