The 15 Horror Books We Can’t Wait to Read In Summer 2023

Summer is here, and that means it’s time to kick back at the pool, on the beach, or on a comfy couch in an air-conditioned room (hey, we’re not all built for the heat) with a good book. If you’re like me, you like a little darkness with the brightness of summer, and you don’t have to wait until Halloween to break out the great horror reads. 

Over the next few months, some of horror’s biggest names and most promising rising stars are putting out scary reads well worth devouring. So, to prep your summer reading list, here are 15 horror books we can’t wait to get our claws on.

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

Release Date: June 6 from Tor Nightfire

Why We’re Excited: I have read a lot of new horror already this year, including some truly great books, but so far CJ Leede’s Maeve Fly is the one that replays the most when I close my eyes. This astonishing, brutal, beautifully realized book follows the title character – theme park princess by day, self-professed misanthrope by night – as she descends into a psychosexual darkness that will test even her appetite for destruction. It’s haunting, it’s violent, and it goes places that will leave your heart racing.

Publisher’s Description: By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.

By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.

But when Gideon Green – her best friend’s brother – moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.

Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

Release Date: June 13 from CLASH Books

Why We’re Excited: After blowing horror readers away with novellas like Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and They Were Here Before Us, rising horror sensation Eric LaRocca launches his debut novel this summer, marking what’s easily one of the most-anticipated releases of the year. The story of a New England town plagued by mysterious disappearances and a rising tide of savage bigotry, it promises a lush, mesmeric experience that only LaRocca could deliver.

Publisher’s Description: After a recent string of disappearances in a small Connecticut town, a grieving widower with a grim secret is drawn into a dangerous ritual of dark magic by a powerful and mysterious older gentleman named Heart Crowley. Meanwhile, a member of local law enforcement tasked with uncovering the culprit responsible for the bizarre disappearances soon begins to learn of a current of unbridled hatred simmering beneath the guise of the town’s idyllic community—a hatred that will eventually burst and forever change the lives of those who once found peace in the quiet town of Henley’s Edge.

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Release Date: June 20 from Dutton

Why We’re Excited: Perennial thriller favorite Riley Sager is back with another page-turner this summer, this one riffing on one of America’s most famous and most notorious true crime cases. Set in 1983, the book follows a caregiver as she heads to the cliffside home of a legendary, aging woman who may or may not have killed her family Lizzie Borden-style in the 1920s. What starts as an offer to learn the truth about the gruesome murders decades earlier soon turns into a much darker game than simply storytelling. It all sounds like the makings of another hit from Sager, and the kind of book you’ll stay up late into the night trying to finish.

Publisher’s Description: At seventeen, Lenora Hope // Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

The Inconsolables by Michael Wehunt

Release Date: June 20 from Bad Hand Books

Why We’re Excited: Shirley Jackson Award nominee Michael Wehunt returns with a new collection after the success of his first batch of short stories, Greener Pastures, revealed him as a voice to always listen for in the realm of horror and dark fantasy. Brimming with new darkness that explores subgenres ranging from vampire horror to science fiction to found footage, The Inconsolables arrives as one of the year’s most promising single-author horror collections.

Publisher’s Description: In his first collection, Greener Pastures, Michael Wehunt introduced the world to his singular voice–a poetic, resonant force of darkness and unique terrors. He returns with The Inconsolables, a chilling selection of stories sure to brighten this star of literary horror.

Inside, meet masterfully rendered characters who grapple with desires as powerful and personal as the monsters that stalk them from the edges of perception. A man revisits a childhood game of pretend in “Vampire Fiction.” A found-footage collaboration turns nightmarish in “The Pine Arch Collection,” which links to “October Film Haunt: Under the House” from Greener Pastures. In “An Ending (Ascent),” Wehunt steps beyond horror in a devastating near-future elegy for living and dying in a changing world.

The Beast You Are: Stories by Paul Tremblay

Release Date: July 11 from William Morrow

Why We’re Excited: Paul Tremblay is not only one of our finest working horror novelists. He’s also one of our finest and most ambitious crafters of horror short fiction, and we’ll see that again this summer when his second collection, The Beast You Are, hits the bookstore. Named for the title story about a dog, a cat, and a mythic monster, Beast promises to deliver more of Tremblay’s knack for conceptual experimentation, point-of-view, and pure visceral terror through several tales at once.

Publisher’s Description: Paul Tremblay has won widespread acclaim for illuminating the dark horrors of the mind in novels and stories that push the boundaries of storytelling itself. The fifteen pieces in this brilliant collection, The Beast You Are, are all monsters of a kind, ready to loudly (and lovingly) smash through your head and into your heart.

In “The Dead Thing,” a middle-schooler struggles to deal with the aftermath of her parents’ substance addictions and split. One day, her little brother claims he found a shoebox with “the dead thing” inside. He won’t show it to her and he won’t let the box out of his sight. In “The Last Conversation,” a person wakes in a sterile, white room and begins to receive instructions via intercom from a woman named Anne. When they are finally allowed to leave the room to complete a task, what they find is as shocking as it is heartbreaking.

The title novella, “The Beast You Are,” is a mini epic in which the destinies and secrets of a village, a dog, and a cat are intertwined with a giant monster that returns to wreak havoc every thirty years.

Whisperwood by Alex Woodroe

Release Date: July 11 from Flame Tree Press

Why We’re Excited: Sometimes a book just reaches out and grabs you with its premise, and when I read the plot teasers for Alex Woodroe’s Whisperwood, I knew it was a book I had to have. The story follows a woman named Anna as she heads to the titular locale, a place that’s apparently hidden from all maps that might be a perfect escape from a dangerous ex. What she finds when she gets there is folk-horror darkness that just might be one of the year’s most spellbinding dark fantasies.

Publisher’s Description: When curious nomad Anna hears about Whisperwood, a town that’s not on any maps, that nobody goes to, and nobody comes from, she sees an opportunity to hide from her violent witch-hunting ex.

But not everything is peaceful in the isolated community. A vanishing town, a gruesome funeral rite, an emergency field surgery—these surprises and more test Anna’s resolve.

Prevented from leaving the frontier settlement by folk magic she doesn’t understand, Anna lends helping hands everywhere she can, but quickly finds that investigating the forest too closely could end up being the last thing she does.

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

Release Date: July 11 from Gillian Flynn Books

Why We’re Excited: Another promising genre debut this year, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s The Centre follows a young woman who dreams of the kind of linguistic power that will allow her to translate any work of literature, and make a career out of language. Frustrated by her boyfriend’s ability to seemingly learn languages overnight, she inquires about what’s behind his strange gift, and learns about The Centre, a program that requires you to give up everything in order to attain complete understanding…but at what cost? This has all the makings of a high-concept thriller for the ages, and I can’t wait to read it.

Publisher’s Description: Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of “great works of literature,” but mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies and living off her parents’ generous allowance. Adding to her growing sense of inadequacy, her mediocre white boyfriend, Adam, has successfully leveraged his savant-level aptitude for languages into an enviable career. But when Adam learns to speak Urdu practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret. 

Adam begrudgingly tells her about The Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees complete fluency in any language, in just ten days. This sounds, to Anisa, like a step toward the life she’s always wanted. Stripped of her belongings and all contact with the outside world, she enrolls and undergoes The Centre’s strange and rigorous processes. But as Anisa enmeshes herself further within the organization, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the hidden cost of its services.

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Release Date: July 18 from Del Rey

Why We’re Excited: Any new release from Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a must-read for horror fans at this point, even when she’s venturing outside the genre, and Silver Nitrate is no exception. This time around, Moreno-Garcia takes us back to Mexico City in the 1990s, where a sound editor and her actor best friend have a life-changing chance encounter with a legendary horror director trying to finish his last, legendary incomplete film. But it’s not just any film. 

Printed on that old silver nitrate stock is the stuff of nightmares, complete with ties to a Nazi occultist, a dark ritual, and long-buried secrets that are slowly coming to light. I’ve been lucky enough to read this one already, and can tell you that it ranks among Moreno-Garcia’s best.

Publisher’s Description: Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Release Date: July 18 from Tor Nightfire

Why We’re Excited: The legendary Chuck Tingle, who became one of the internet’s favorite personalities through his exuberant presence and lightning fast romance writing, turns to horror this summer with a novel that just might make him an icon in an entirely new genre. Set at the tile camp, a conversion therapy facility in Montana, Camp Damascus follows what happens to those unlucky enough to arrive at the location, and the horrifying secret to the “success” of the facility in the first place. Whether you’re a longtime Tingle Buckaroo or you’ve just been waiting for the right work to come along to read his prose, you won’t want to miss it.

Publisher’s Description: 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.

Cruel Angels Past Sundown by Hailey Piper

Release Date: July 25 from Death’s Head Press

Why We’re Excited: Hailey Piper has quickly and impressively built herself into one of horror’s must-read authors, in part because of her ability to juggle genres, themes, and pure nightmare fuel between works (and sometimes all in the span of one work). Dubbed a “Splatter Western,” Cruel Angels Past Sundown sounds like another exercise in Piper’s genre-crossing gifts, the story of a woman who must let go of her peaceful ways if she has any hope of surviving a monstrous journey through the darkness of the American West. You had me at “Splatter Western.”

Publisher’s Description: New Mexico Territory, 1882: She comes to the Klein ranch at sunset, a strange naked pregnant woman dragging a cavalry saber. Annette Klein and her husband have built peace between their marriage and secret relations beyond, but their serenity dies in bloodshed tonight through a cannibalistic demon and a mad preacher.

Annette barely escapes the bloodbath to the nearby town of Low’ s Bend, where she might find safety with a shotgun-toting barkeep, two no-nonsense boarding room ladies, and the gunslinging bounty hunter who’ s captured Annette’ s heart.

But hell is at her heels. If she’ s going to survive until dawn, she’ ll have to forget everything she knows about peace and mercy, and face a hollow malevolence more ancient and ruthless than she’ s ever imagined.

101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered by Sadie Hartmann

Release Date: August 8 from Page Street Publishing

Why We’re Excited: It might sound weird to include a reading list within a reading list, but if you want some horror nonfiction, and you’re eager to keep adding new books to your horror knowledge, 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered sounds like a must-have. Written by author, editor, and all-around horror tastemaker Sadie Hartmann (aka “Mother Horror”), it’s a guide to the horror essentials, from things you’ve heard of to things that will surprise you, complete with an introduction by Josh Malerman (Bird Box) and essays from rising horror stars. If you want to keep advancing as a student of the genre, pick this up.

Publisher’s Description: Curious readers and fans of monsters and the macabre, get ready to bulk up your TBR piles! Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann has curated the best selection of modern horror books, including plenty of deep cuts. Indulge your heart’s darkest desires to be terrified, unsettled, disgusted, and heartbroken with stories that span everything from paranormal hauntings and creepy death cults to small-town terrors and apocalyptic disasters. Each recommendation includes a full synopsis as well as a quick overview of the book’s themes, style, and tone so you can narrow down your next read at a glance. Featuring a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Josh Malerman and five brand-new essays from rising voices in the genre, this illustrated reader’s guide is perfect for anyone who dares to delve into the dark.

Mister Magic by Kiersten White

Release Date: August 8 from Del Rey

Why We’re Excited: Hot on the heels of her 2022 horror debut Hide, Kiersten White is back with another new chiller that just might prove irresistible with its blend of nostalgia and terror. Set 30 years after a mysterious accident shut down the title children’s TV show, Mister Magic follows the cast of the enigmatic series as they struggle to remember what happened all those years ago, and fall into an unlikely reunion that will reveal shocking truths about what really happened, and what forces are really behind Mister Magic. The blend of cult children’s TV, ’90s nostalgia, and character in search of secrets tied to beloved media makes this a must-read for me, and probably for you too.

Publisher’s Description: Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.

But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who—or what—the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.

Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it’s been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven’t seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they’re the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Release Date: August 8 from MTV Books

Why We’re Excited: The author of The Living Dead, The Ghost That Ate Us, and much more delivers a high-concept new thriller this summer that blends the deeply emotional with the ambitiously terrifying. As the title suggests, Whalefall follows an encounter with a whale from the perspective of a lone scuba diver, who set out to recover his dead father’s remains from the deep, and instead finds himself in the belly of the beast. With limited oxygen and limited options, he’ll have to journey through his own internal darkness if he has any hope of getting out alive. I was lucky enough to get an advance peek at this one, and believe me when I tell you that you won’t want to miss how Kraus pulls this off.

Publsher’s Description: Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.

The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

Release Date: August 8 from Tor Nightfire

Why We’re Excited: Even the most realistic fiction feels like a portal to a magical dark realm in the hands of Catriona Ward, and now the author of Little Eve and The House on Needless Street is back with what might be her most ambitious, magical read yet. Billed as a gripping story that’s also an exploration of the nature of fiction, Looking Glass Sound follows a novelist whose memory, creativity, and perceptions are all blurring together in amazing, horrifying ways. If you love Ward’s work, you won’t want to miss it.

Publisher’s Description:  In a lonely cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood summer companions and the killer that stalked the small New England town. Of the body they found, and the horror of that discovery echoing down the decades. And of Sky, Wilder’s one-time best friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, Looking Glass Sound.

But as Wilder writes, the lines between memory and fiction blur. He fears he’s losing his grip on reality when he finds notes hidden around the cottage written in Sky’s signature green ink.

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Release Date: August 29 from Berkley

Why We’re Excited: With The Hacienda, Isabel Cañas launched herself into the imaginations of readers as one of horror’s most exciting new voices. Now, she’s back with a novel that sounds even more ambitious and gripping, the story of a struggle between vampires and vaqueros amid the rising tensions of the Mexican-American War in the mid-19th century. If the title doesn’t grip you right away, the promise of Cañas’ powerful blend of historical fiction and horror definitely should.

Publisher’s Description: As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead.