When formulating this list, there were many runners up which failed to be either internalized into my character or to be truly great. However, each of these I would heartily recommend to anyone.
Shirley Jackson
I am currently studying this author with high enthusiasm. However, I don’t feel that I can yet add any of her works here; her tone and style are extraordinary, but I have yet to incorporate these qualities into my personal makeup, a connection I feel I have with the other entries listed. That being said, she is by far my favorite writer of horror. I have never read someone who can so perfectly submerge me into a narrative before. I am plunged into such a perfect empathy with her insane narrators that I feel their insanity as if my own.
Tale Told 