The Best Books For Summerween 2026

Stephen Graham Jones has been behind some of our favourite horror books of recent years, yet his slasher, My Heart Is A Chainsaw, has got to be our top pick for summerween.

With a rural lake town setting, as is often the case in many of our favourite slasher flicks, protagonist Jade knows her stuff when it comes to all things horror movies, and the slasher genre in particular. So, when tourists start going missing, and she begins to dig more into the town’s history, it’s safe to say that Jade’s on high alert. And this is only exacerbated when the Final Girl, Letha, arrives.

But watching a slasher and surviving one are two very different things. With things ramping up and ultimately coming to a head on July 4th, can she get the Final Girl trained in time? And will it make a difference in the end? This also happens to be the first in a trilogy, with Jade facing even more horrors as her story progresses.

Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne

If vacationing at an Italian villa is more your thing, or you’ve found yourself struggling to endure a family holiday, Diavola should be right up your street. Taking place in a remote Tuscan villa, Anna is preparing herself to reconnect with her family, and even though there’s always some sort of tension between them, surely she can survive this get-together.

However, when strange things start to occur, from baffling noises and rotting food to dreams that somehow feel like she’s experienced them before and in real life at that, she gets the feeling that something isn’t quite right. And when the locals warn them not to open the ominous tower door, doing so unleashes something that threatens to destroy them all.

A family drama blended with a Gothic horror, this is the kind of summerween book best read on a lazy day. Or if you don’t have any trips of your own planned this summer, let this transport you, without having to worry about long security lines, cramped airline seats or differing family dynamics.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Riley Sager is a go-to for us for spooks, scares, and edge-of-your-seat-style stories. Honestly, we could have included any of his addictive stories in our summerween roundup, but there’s something about his take on a haunted house story that works so well at this time of year – and it also happens to be a personal favourite of mine, too.

According to her father, who wrote a bestselling book about their experience, Baneberry Hall – the home that Maggie grew up in – was haunted and led to her family fleeing in the middle of the night, never to return. Now, 25 years later, she finds herself inheriting the house following her father’s death. And given that she was too young to remember exactly what happened during their time living there, and that she doesn’t believe a word of her dad’s writing, she decides to use her skills as a home restorer to renovate the property and get it ready to sell.

Flipping from Maggie's current-day perspective to chapters from her father's book, she begins to realise that maybe, just maybe, his writing was more fact than fiction, after all.

The God Of The Woods by Liz Moore

If you’d prefer to steer clear of proper scares or want more of a psychological mystery, let us introduce you to The God Of The Woods. Set in the 1970s, at a summer camp nestled in the Adirondack Mountains, how unlucky could one family be?

It’s probably not too surprising when a camper goes missing in a story like this. But, given that thirteen-year-old Barbara is the child of the camp owners, this raises eyebrows with the locals and campers alike. This is because, fourteen years earlier, the Van Laars’ other child also vanished into the same wilderness, never to be seen again. Could tragedy strike twice? Or is something more sinister going on? With plenty of secrets ready to unfurl and alternating POVs with each chapter, this is one to read before it hits our screens sometime in the next year or so, with a Netflix adaptation, starring Maya Hawke and Kerry Condon, in the works.

How to Survive Camping series by Bonnie Quinn

Speaking of summer camp, you might be familiar with the r/nosleep stories on Reddit, and Bonnie Quinn’s How to Survive Camping series is based on those very tales. Consisting of two current books, with two more on their way, if you’re in the mood to transport yourself with a campy, cosy, yet spooky series, then look no further.

Details

Given that Kate’s family has owned and looked after Goat Valley Campground for generations now, she’s well-versed in her role as campground manager, with her trusty pamphlet on “How to Survive Your Camping Experience” being handed out each and every year.

However, this isn’t your typical welcome guide – there are actually some very important tips on how to hopefully survive any encounters with the campground’s other inhabitants. As you see, the area has also become home – and a hunting ground – to a slew of monsters, entities and creatures.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Much like with Riley Sager, there were quite a few Grady Hendrix books that I could have chosen as a summerween read, but My Best Friend’s Exorcism should fit the bill for most.

As you might be able to tell from the title, this story follows best friends Abby and Gretchen. High school is tricky enough as it is, and friendships often change and end at this time in our lives. But when Gretchen begins acting strangely – to say the least – it soon becomes clear that she is possessed by a demonic entity who is hell-bent on taking over the teenage girl for good.

We always love the nostalgia that comes with a horror set in the 1980s, and this one has brilliant nods to the era, as well as everything that was going on with the satanic panic of the time. Add in the black comedy of Heathers, Mean Girls and even Jennifer’s Body, and you won’t want to put it down.

FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven

Many of us will likely have been to a Floridian theme park at some point in our lives, but FantasticLand poses the question: what could happen if a hurricane cuts off the park from the rest of humanity, and those left behind go rogue?

Told through a series of first-person interviews with the survivors of what turns out to be a massacre, the mostly teenagers lose sense of reality and societal norms to compete for food, medicine, and, it turns out, their own lives. Expect some serious Lord of the Flies vibes.

Clown In A Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Clowns are always going to be a scary prospect for some of us. But if you can get past that, Clown In A Cornfield by Adam Cesare is a ballsy and fun young adult (YA) take on the classic horror trope.

After Quinn and her father make the move to Kettle Springs – a town where the kids want to be anywhere else and the adults are longing for it to return to its former glory – they’re getting used to their new lives. That is until the town mascot, Frendo the clown, goes on a rampage and begins culling the younger population one by one. And if you enjoy this book, there are three more stories in the series to get your teeth into.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Based on the infamous Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida, where hundreds of boys suffered physical as well as sexual abuse, with many losing their lives, Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory takes us back in time to 1950, when the Jim Crow laws were being enforced in the South.

It follows twelve-year-old Robert, who, after getting into a minor altercation with a white boy, is sent away to The Gracetown School for Boys – better known as The Reformatory. And with Robbie having a special talent for seeing ghosts, or haints, he starts to realise what has been going on at the segregated reform school, and how much danger he could be in. To survive, he’ll need the help of the lingering ghosts, as well as his family who are fighting to get him out, before he ends up with the same fate as many of those who came before him.

The Troop by Nick Cutter

Each year, the scouts of Troop 52 get together for a long weekend of camping, hiking, and survival lessons in the Canadian wilderness. However, this year’s trip takes a different turn. It all starts when an emancipated intruder stumbles across their campsite. What they first thought was hunger quickly presents itself as a sickness that begins to spread amongst them.

Another Lord of the Flies-style story mixed with 28 Days Later, the troop must battle to survive – each other, the elements, and the infected – all while being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Basically, it sounds like our worst nightmare.

Ellis is a freelance journalist, based in the UK, with a love of all things books. She also routinely chairs bookish events up and down the country, getting the scoop from some of the biggest and bestselling authors to keep you in the know.