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The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells

A book of rejection letters titled Rotten Rejections claimed that one publisher who declined The War of the Worlds said it was “an endless nightmare. I do not believe it would take….I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book.'” The Martian-themed classic would find a home though, first serialized in Pearson’s Magazine in 1897 before taking on a cultural life of its own. When Orson Welles read it over the radio in 1938, he caused a nationwide panic. Some speculate that nearly one million people freaked out and jammed highways to escape the alien invaders! Check out the best thrillers to read now.