19 Scary Summer Horror Books for a Spooky Summerween

There isn’t a single book that SCREAMS spooky summer to me quite like the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. 🧛 These have been a guilty pleasure for me since long before the True Blood HBO series. If you’re a fan of the TV show, you absolutely HAVE to read the Sookie Stackhouse series! 🔥 There’s enough difference between the books and the show to keep you endlessly entertained. And with 13 books in the Sookie Stackhouse series, you’ll be busy for all of Summerween!

Dead Until Dark kicks off the thrilling Sookie Stackhouse series with the perfect blend of mystery, romance, and supernatural adventure. Dive into the charming world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, where telepathic waitress Sookie finds herself engaged in vampire intrigue after they come out of the coffin.

Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this bestselling horror novel about a women’s book club battling a mysterious newcomer in their Southern town.

Patricia Campbell’s life feels small, with a workaholic husband, distant kids, and a senile mother-in-law. Her book club is her only escape, but after a brutal attack by a neighbor, Patricia suspects the neighbor’s charming nephew, James Harris, isn’t what he seems.

As children go missing, Patricia must confront the terrifying truth about James in this gripping, blood-soaked tale.

This book is the embodiment of everything we love about Summerween!

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires comes a thrilling mix of Beaches and The Exorcist, blending teen drama with supernatural chills.

It’s 1988, and high school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. After a skinny-dipping mishap, Gretchen starts acting strangely, with eerie incidents following her. As Abby digs deeper, she uncovers shocking truths. In the end, their friendship faces the ultimate test: can it defeat the devil?

Another perfect Summerween read from Grady Hendrix!

In this twisty, captivating debut, a woman refuses to leave her dream home despite its terrifying hauntings. Margaret and her husband Hal were thrilled to snag a Victorian house at a great price, until they discovered the hauntings: blood-dripping walls and terrified ghostly inhabitants.

Every September, things get spooky, but Margaret is determined to stay. After four years, Hal can’t take it anymore and vanishes, prompting their daughter Katherine to search for him, unaware of the hauntings. With September starting, secrets buried in the house become increasingly harrowing.

Although this book really focuses on September, I think it still makes for an excellent Summerween read!

Best friends and high school seniors Sadie and Logan make a wild choice by ditching their field trip to explore forgotten backroads, stumbling upon a giant, abandoned corn maze. As they venture in, they find something shocking: their own corpses, identical in every way.

Realizing they’ve entered and died in this maze repeatedly, they must uncover what—or who—is hunting them. This time-bending, mind-bending thriller is filled with twists and turns, offering a poignant look at trauma and the healing power of friendship and forgiveness.

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire.

But when an unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. A horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival with no escape from the elements, the infected…or one another.

Ten years ago, six friends went on vacation, and only Quincy Carpenter survived. She joined the “Final Girls” club, a trio of lone survivors from horrific massacres: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters; Sam, who faced the Sack Man at the Nightlight Inn; and Quincy, who fled Pine Cottage.

Now, Quincy’s life seems perfect with her caring almost-fiancé, popular baking blog, and supportive cop Coop. But when Lisa is found dead and Sam shows up at her door, Quincy must confront her buried past to stay alive—because being a dead Final Girl is even worse.

The Black Girl Survives in This One is a YA horror anthology celebrating Black girls who face monsters, both human and supernatural, and survive.

This collection features 15 chilling stories by bestselling and acclaimed Black authors, placing Black girls front and center as they slay monsters, battle spirits, and defy death. Get ready to be terrified and captivated by the heroic tales from writers like Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Justina Ireland, and more, with a foreword by Tananarive Due.

From the popular author of Reverie, Ryan La Sala presents a twisted and tantalizing horror novel set at a secluded summer retreat. Mars has always lived in the shadow of his radiant twin, Caroline. When she dies tragically, Mars, often excluded due to his genderfluidity, insists on attending the prestigious Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy in her place.

There, amidst the sun-drenched festivities and old-fashioned traditions, Mars discovers Caroline’s friends, the Honeys. Beautiful and terrifying, Mars is certain they hold the key to his sister’s mysterious death.

This captivating debut novel seamlessly blends a literary coming-of-age story with dark, unsettling horror. Ren Yu, a dedicated swimmer, dreams of earning a scholarship, pleasing her parents, and securing a bright future. Her life revolves around the pool, her teammates, and her coach.

However, Ren’s true longing lies beneath the surface—she dreams of becoming a mermaid, a powerful creature of the deep. As she battles societal pressures and her own desires, Ren is determined to create a life of freedom, no matter the cost or the blood she must spill.

From beloved internet icon Chuck Tingle, Camp Damascus is a searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down.

Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold.

Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy.

And they’ll scare you straight to hell.

In this haunting novel, a black woman returns to her hometown for a plantation wedding, only to confront the blood-soaked history of the land and the friends she left behind. Mira fled her segregated Southern town years ago, leaving behind best friend Celine, her old neighborhood, and the eerie Woodsman plantation.

Now back for Celine’s wedding, she hopes to reconnect with Jesse, the boy she once loved. But as the wedding weekend unfolds, Mira, Jesse, and Celine must face their shared past and the dark spirits seeking vengeance on the haunted plantation.

The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult they were raised in. For two decades, she’s built a normal life in New York City, keeping everyone at a distance. When Andrea suddenly reappears, Maeve finds her only true friend again.

Spending time at Andrea’s luxurious Catskills estate, Maeve overlooks her cousin’s wealthy friends’ disapproval. Immersed in Andrea’s world, memories of their past resurface, and Maeve realizes confronting her childhood terrors may be the key to overcoming the impending nightmare.

On the surface, this is a story of murder in small-town America, but at its heart, it’s a sharp critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification.

Meet Jade Daniels, an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father and an absent mother, who finds solace in horror movies. Living in her own world, she narrates the quirky history of Proofrock like a slasher film. When real blood spills, Jade’s encyclopedic mind of horror plots takes over, revealing a scared, traumatized girl beneath the mask. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her powerful story of revenge and triumph.

Belle’s obsession with skincare videos takes a dark turn when her estranged mother, Noelle, mysteriously dies. Back in Southern California, Belle faces her mother’s debts and questions about her death. At the funeral, a mysterious woman in red offers a clue, leading Belle to the cult-like spa, La Maison de Méduse.

There, she uncovers the chilling secret behind their mirror obsessions. Rouge is a surreal blend of Snow White and Eyes Wide Shut, exploring beauty, envy, grief, and the complex love between mothers and daughters.

After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, where three Victorian houses loom over the shimmering beach. Two of the houses are habitable, while the third is slowly and mysteriously being buried beneath an enormous dune of blindingly white sand. But though long uninhabited, the third house is not empty.

Inside, something deadly lies in wait. Something that has terrified Dauphin Savage and Luker McCray since they were boys and which still haunts their nightmares. Something horrific that may be responsible for several terrible and unexplained deaths years earlier – and is now ready to kill again …

In June 1993, a team of daring filmmakers shot Horror Movie, a disturbing art-house flick that only released three scenes but gained a cult following.

Now, Hollywood’s reviving it with a big-budget reboot, and the sole surviving cast member, who played “The Thin Kid,” is returning to the chaos of the set. As he dives back into the project, blurring lines between reality and film, he faces a wild world of producers, directors, and fan conventions—confronting demons both past and present. Horror Movie promises a suspenseful, mind-bending ride to a jaw-dropping conclusion!

Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.

But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, “for the algorithm,” in the upcoming season finale.

Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.

Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future―before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.

This book is probably my most highly-anticipated Summerween read!

“Come home,” Vera’s mother said, and despite their strained past, Vera returns to the house of a serial killer—her father’s twisted legacy buried beneath their family home.

Her homecoming is fraught with memories and a new menace: a parasitic artist in the guest house, scavenging her childhood. As eerie notes in her father’s handwriting appear, Vera must uncover the dark secrets hidden in the infamous Crowder House. It’s a thrilling journey into her past where she’ll discover just how deep the darkness runs.