Keep Cool While You Read These 8 Hot Horror Novels

Set in a small southern town in Ohio, Fielding is 13 when the devil arrives during a heatwave. Or, at least, that’s who he thinks the new boy Sal is, covered in bruises and looking disheveled. Fielding brings him home to stay with his family, but soon rumors of the devil spread across town and the tensions rise with the temperature.

After a species of tick starts spreading a fatal disease, humanity clusters behind the Salt Line where the Earth was scorched into a barrier. But that doesn’t stop some from leaving the safety zone for thrills or out of curiosity. When one group does just that and winds up diverted by a group of violent rebels, they’re held hostage in Ruby City, an outer-zone city on edge.

After accidentally witnessing the murder of someone at the hands of the Blackwell brothers, 13-year-old Jace becomes a target too. Hiding in a witness protection program that placed him in a summer camp in the mountains, Jace’s pursuers aren’t far behind. Teaming up with a fire ranger, she and Jace must navigate the wilderness with murderers and fire hot on their heels.

It’s summer break and Jay and his friends are looking forward to working at Karloff Country, a refuge from the outside world nestled in the remnants of an amusement park. But when one of his friends goes missing and the world outside the paradise’s gates worsens, Jay and his friends are asked for increasingly worrying things from their increasing number of rich guests.

After her parents participated in a psychology study with The Shop leaving them with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, their daughter Charlie is born with the ability to start fires with her mind. After her mother is killed by The Shop who are desperate to study the family, Charlie and her father go on the run. But there are far more agents of The Shop coming and they won’t let them go easy.

There’s nothing like a ghost story in the summer time and Due’s debut collection is full of them. While not all of the stories are as sweltering as the sun, one set in a Florida small town radiates heat and humidity. With other stories full of zombies, werewolves, and the apocalypse, you’re sure to find a story with your favorite kind of scares.

You can’t have a summer horror list without a summer camp book and Camp Neverland is just the ticket. Set at a Vermont camp, Max is looking forward to a summer without her bully, Chuck. She finds solace with the other campers until, surprise surprise, Chuck’s somehow at Camp Neverland too. Max, though, has found power she didn’t know she had and Chuck just might get what’s coming to him.

Juan can communicate with the dead and The Order, a powerful group dedicated to the Darkness, has used his abilities for years. Now, though, Juan is getting old and sick, so they set their sights on his son, Gaspar, as their next leader. Set in 1980 Argentina sweltering with heat, Gaspar must navigate being the target of a wealthy and unhinged cultish group, a tense relationship with his father, and the military dictatorship of the time while growing up and finding his own way.