13 Must-Read New Horror Books To Devour This Summer

By: Fernanda Trías

Originally published in South America a few years ago, this book is finally getting an English translation and stateside release! 

Summary: In a city ravaged by a mysterious plague, a woman tries to understand why her world is falling apart. An algae bloom has poisoned the previously pristine air that blows in from the sea. Inland, a secretive corporation churns out the only food anyone can afford—a revolting pink paste, made of an unknown substance.

In the short, desperate breaks between deadly windstorms, our narrator stubbornly tends to her few remaining relationships: with her difficult but vulnerable mother; with the ex-husband for whom she still harbors feelings; with the boy she nannies, whose parents sent him away even as terrible threats loomed. Yet as conditions outside deteriorate further, her commitment to remaining in place only grows—even if staying means being left behind.

By: Paul Tremblay

We will read anything by master horror author Paul Tremblay, and this new one is awesome! 

Summary: In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. Only three of the film's scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase.

Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot. The only surviving cast member remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. But he's going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions—demons of the past be damned.

By: Johanna van Veen

This one has been getting great reviews and is a super scary gothic tale. 

Summary: Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection. 

Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable.  Then, someone is murdered. Poor, alone, and with a history of ‘hysterics‘, Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to prove who—or what—is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.

By: Ananda Lima

Fun new horror anthology with some twisted, surreal tales! 

Details: Lima lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil where they'll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of people who are not dead. Once there, she speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences–of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging—and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.

By: Cherie Priest

I loved this one! A wildly unique approach to trauma horror. 

Details: A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers—but decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all. 

Now they'll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place—and on the way they'll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he's bringing back to Marrowstone Island. 

By: Stephen Graham Jones

Another great slasher take from the author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw.

Details: 1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else's business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, the unfairness of being on the outside, through the slasher horror he lives but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. 

By: Stephen King

A new short story collection from the ultimate horror writer Stephen King! 

Details: A magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. 

By: Chuck Tingle

I loved his prior YA horror book, Camp Damascus, so I can't wait to read this new one. Summary: 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.

By: Monkia Kim

A great twist on serial killer tropes.

Summary: Ji-won's life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa's extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing. In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George's, who is Umma's obnoxious new boyfriend. 

George has already overstayed his welcome in her family's claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma's fawning adoration. No, George doesn't deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

By: Nathan Ballingrud

Ballingrud is an absolute master of horror short stories, and he shines in this unusual and surreal novella. 

Details: Years ago, in a cave beneath the dense forests and streams on the surface of the moon, a gargantuan spider once lived. Its silk granted its first worshippers immense faculties of power and awe. It's now 1923 and Veronica Brinkley is touching down on the moon for her intake at the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy. Dr. Barrington Cull's successful treatments have been lauded by many. 

All it takes is a little spider silk in the amygdala, maybe a strand or two in the prefrontal cortex, and perhaps an inch in the hippocampus for near evisceration of those troublesome thoughts and ideas. But although the spider's been dead for years, its denizens are not. Someone or something is up to no good, and Veronica just might be the cause.

By: Multiple authors, anthology

Another wonderful horror anthology. This one is YA, but still packs a hard horror punch. 

Details: A YA anthology of horror stories centering Black girls who battle monsters, both human and supernatural, and who survive to the end. Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one. The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L.L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maika & Maritza Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado. The foreword is by Tananarive Due.

By: Ronald Malfi

I've found myself binging several of Malfi's prior books including Come With Me and Mouth Black. Can't wait to see what he has in store in this one. 

Details: Andrew Larimer thought he left the past behind. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he finds he has no choice but to return home, and to confront the memories—and the horror—of a night, years ago, that changed everything.

For Andrew and his friends, the past is not dead, and the curse that has befallen them now threatens to destroy all that they've become.

One dark secret…

One small-town horror…

By: Laurel Hightower

Hightower blew me away with her prior novella Crossroads. And the fact that brilliant monster-artist Trevor Henderson created the art for The Day of the Door makes it all the more tantalizing. 

Details: Once there were four Lasco siblings banded together against a world that failed to protect them. But on a hellish night that marked the end of their childhood, eldest brother Shawn died violently after being dragged behind closed doors.

Though the official finding was accidental death, Nathan Lasco knows better, and has never forgiven their mother, Stella. Now two decades later, Stella promises to finally reveal the truth of what happened on The Day of the Door. Accompanied by a paranormal investigative team, the Lasco family comes together one final time, but no one is prepared for the revelations waiting for them on the third floor.