Chilling Summer Horror Books

When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust … from bestselling author Isabel Cañas.

The last sweet summer before Kit Lamb leaves for college turns into a nightmare when members of her high school’s basketball team begin to die. Could it be possible that their murderer is Daphne, the school’s infamous former basketball player, or rather — her ghost? Though Daphne died a mysterious death several years earlier, her small town has kept the legend alive by fantasizing about the ways she might come back to avenge her death. While Kit’s ghost theory may seem far-fetched, her realization that she’s conjuring Daphne with her own mind sounds twice as outrageous — but this may prove itself to be supernaturally true.

An actress desperate to reclaim her fame must survive the real-life plot of the horror movie that made her famous in this psychologically twisted locked-room thriller.

Suburbia in Winchester, Illinois has tons to offer — that is if you’re interested in PTA meetings, block parties, and frequent trips to Target. Amy Foster can’t find a job in social work, but she has found a group of friends to get her through each monotonous moment. During one of their monthly meet-ups, they christen their new hangout spot — but the devil is in the details when they conjure the spirit of a woman who murdered her family — and finds her way into one of their bodies. It might be a cold day in hell before the women find a way to get back to their quiet suburban lives — and their friend.

A twenty-nine-year-old copywriter realizes that beauty is possible — at a terrible cost — in this surreal, satirical send-up of NYC It-girl culture. E.K. Sathue’s outrageous body horror for the goop generation is as incisive as it is stomach-churning in its portrayal of all-consuming female friendship and the beauty industry’s short attention span. You’ll never moisturize the same way again …

After she loses her father and her home during the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz has no choice but to marry the mysterious Don Rodolfo Solórzano. While rumors fly about the death of his first wife, Beatriz can’t get comfortable in his estate, Hacienda San Isidro. Her fears are amplified by the inexplicable things she sees and hears around the hacienda. When no one else listens to her, she must turn to Padre Andrés, an unconventional priest with a knowledge of witchcraft — and a budding, yet forbidden, attraction to Beatriz. But despite his best efforts, Hacienda San Isidro might take out the second Doña Solórzano, too.

Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night as it can cause evil spirits to appear — and even follow you home. These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.

As a Black woman, Liz Rocher left her predominantly white hometown with good reason and begrudgingly returns solely for her friend Mel’s wedding. But uncomfortable reunions aren’t the worst thing that Liz has coming. When Mel’s young daughter goes missing, a piece of bloodied fabric left in her place, Liz knows she’s seen this all before. A summer party and a girl who disappears without a trace — all reminiscent of several years prior when Keisha Woodson, the only other Black girl in town, was found dead. Liz knows this isn’t the first time a Black girl was targeted in this town, but she knows it will be the last — she’ll make sure of it.

A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Would it even be a summer horror list without Stephen King? Devin Jones looks at the summer of 1973 when he took an unforgettable summer job at Joyland — an amusement park in North Carolina. Hoping that a change of scenery might mend his broken heart, Devin finds far bigger fish to fry when he encounters the legend of the Carny Killer. Four years before, a girl named Linda Gray had been killed in Joyland’s Horror House — where her murderer was never found and her ghost has always stayed. Devin’s goals shift, now looking to discover who the killer is and find the answers that will set Linda free once and for all.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. But what Casey doesn’t realize is that there’s more to the story than meets the eye — and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces …

In this social horror, Farrah Turner is forced to stay with her best friend, Cherish Whitman, when her parents’ home faces foreclosure. As the only two Black girls in their country club community, Farrah feels even more out of place while living with Cherish’s white adoptive parents. In an angered attempt to gain back the control she’s lost, Farrah manipulates her way deeper into the Whitman family’s life, despite her own parents’ concerns. But the Whitmans’ warmth and hospitality comes from a much darker place than Farrah’s manipulative tactics. Will she come to realize this before she overstays her welcome?

A forensic psychiatrist’s investigation into an infamous Louisiana serial killer leads him down a dangerous path of obsession as he discovers they share the same cursed blood.