Summertime Scares: Horror Reads for Summer

Due to a change of circumstances, 10-year old Christina ends up facing the prospect of spending her summer with her cranky uncle rather than her loving grandmother. Determined to make the best of it, she spends most of her day staying out of his way and exploring the Victorian he lives in — and stumbles across the ghost of a boy. From that moment she has a new goal; to find out how he died. This is a staple of children’s literature and still is a fan favorite even all these years later.

After over a year of being missing, Zee shows up much to the joy of his friends and his mother. However, this turns to apprehension when it becomes increasingly apparent that Zee came back different. After a game of hide and seek goes awry, his friends Jake, Nia, and Lyric find themselves pulled to the Nowhere with seemingly no way to get back home. This is a new release and I don’t think enough people are talking about it. This is one I tore through and highly recommend.

Cyndi and her new found friends decide to sneak away from their summer camp in the middle of the night to run away back home. These plans change when they come across a seemingly abandoned but fully functioning water park. As they are kids, they see nothing at all wrong with this until they start disappearing one by one. This is a slasher movie in book form so it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s good campy fun. If you’re a fan of ’80s settings and horror movies, this one is a good one to give a try to. And if you do enjoy it, in traditional slasher story form, it has two sequels.

I mean, just look at that cover. That just screams scary beach read right there. It is also a Point Horror book, which was one of the go-tos for YA horror in the early ’90s. This one is about Kelsey, who gets invited to the famous Beverly Island for a fun-filled summer. Too bad for her that someone appears to have other plans for her…As I mentioned, this is a ’90s horror, so expect a fair amount of cheese. Still, if you’re looking for an entertaining way to pass a couple of hours, this will do it.

If you like Scooby-Doo and Lovecraft, well you’re in luck here with this mash-up homage to both. Bonus points if you were a Velma and Daphne shipper. Even without all that, this is an interesting little book told in a unique storytelling format. It’s got a bit of a bumpy start but once it gets going the twists and turns will have you scrambling to get to the end.

This is a collection of short stories and the title alone should give away why it’s here. Due also puts a paragraph before each story citing her inspiration for the story that follows, which is always nice to see. Plus, I always think of summer when I think of scary ghost stories since I picture reading or listening to them around a campfire. Since if you manage to get me camping it’s only going to be in the summer since I don’t do the cold well.

Sawyer’s final prank of the summer goes terribly wrong when the mannequin he sneaks into a theater to scare a friend comes to life and starts killing people. He has a plan to stop these murders and prevent further deaths, no matter the cost. This is a short and trippy one; but it’s well loved by horror aficionados and just the perfect book for an afternoon sipping the beverage of your choice on your porch.

Casey is fresh out of rehab and lets her friends Aya, Julie, and Shana drag her to an all night-rave called Survive the Night. I mean, personally I would not go to a rave fresh out of rehab, but to each their own. Casey is feeling nervous about going and these feelings are very validated when she finds Julie’s dead body and realizes that they’re being hunted. To me, an all night rave just screams summer or at the very least a school vacation.

Dan arrives at the New Hampshire College prep ready an exciting and promising opportunity that will help him in the long run. It starts off rough when he’s moved to Brookline Dorm, which use to the an asylum for the criminally insane — and the doctor there didn’t exactly follow protocol when “helping” his patients. I don’t care who you are, former asylums are creepy as all get out and this takes place during a college prep week which is fancy talk for summer school.