Summer: the season of sunshine, swimming pools, road trips, cozy beach reads, and…horror?
If you’re a fan of “summerween,” a celebration of Halloween and spookiness, you’ll likely be reading tales of witchery and ghosts with your feet in the sand. At Inglenook, we love celebrating all things dark and mysterious, even if it’s not fall. Here are our favorite spooky books for sunny weather this year:
A Bram Stoker Award Finalist and an NPR “Best Book Of The Year,” The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is not your average witch story. The book’s protagonist Minerva is a graduate student in 1990s Massachusetts, studying the history of horror literature. Her thesis is focused on Beatrice Tremblay, an author of obscure tales who attended the same school during the Great Depression. As Minerva digs deeper into Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, she begins to realize that the events Tremblay wrote about – a roommate gone missing, a mysterious force stalking women, halls that feel haunted by something sinister – were inspired by her real life. Minerva’s own past begins to clash with that of Tremblay’s, as Minerva’s grandmother always told her stories of witches and dark magic. Minerva thought they were just ghost stories to scare her into behaving – but what if they were real? And what if the horrors Tremblay faced decades ago were still hidden within her school, waiting to be discovered? The Bewitching is a witchy twist on the dark academia subgenre of horror fiction, perfect for dark magic lovers and summerween.
In C.N. Vair’s first book, the devil is “polite enough that you might forget yourself, so beautiful that you’d want to, so dangerous if you did” (The Devil Knows Her Name). Just take it from Tess Wynne, a mortal witch who was saved from the brink of death by making a deal with the devil himself: she sold her soul in exchange for eternal youth and tethering to the Appalachian land she almost died on. For years, she thrives in her wildlife sanctuary of a home, tending to the land and its animals in peace – until she rescues a fawn with unnatural appetites and begins to lose the trust of the town’s human residents. Torn between appeasing the nosy town pastor demanding to know her secrets and listening to the devil whispering in her ear again, Tess must decide if her own magic is enough to save her this time.
Mariana Enriquez’s “propulsive and mesmerizing” (The New York Times) short story collection Things We Lost in the Fire is an ode to the beauty and horror of contemporary Argentina. These haunting tales “simmer with the nation’s troubled history, but among the abandoned houses, black magic, superstitions, lost loves and regrets, there is also friendship, compassion, and humor.” Celebrated for her novel Our Share of Night and short story collections A Sunny Place for Shady People and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Enriquez’s 2016 collection is a testimony to her legacy as a writer of global literature a decade after its initial release.
“Drown your ghosts…or die trying.” For Richardson University Assistant Swim Coach Spencer Ward, this sentiment is easier said than done. It’s autumn 2006 when he takes this new job, a decade since tragedy struck during his own college years. Not wanting to dwell on the past, he does his best to ignore old skeletons floating to the surface of his mind by focusing on creating a winning season for his swim team. But when two students are found dead in the pool on the first day of the new season, Spencer knows the ghosts of his past aren’t through with him yet. Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, called Splasher a “cursed whirlpool of horror and heart, some still bleeding, swirling about the page in brilliant arterial character arcs and pathos.” Pools and ghouls: what’s not to love about this summerween horror tale?
If slasher stories aren’t your favorite horror subgenre, check out Grief Eater by Emma Osborne. When Kristina rises from her violent death, she sets off a zombie story as you’ve never seen before. Hungry for the blood of her loved ones, zombified Kristina is the antithesis to the sweet and fragile girl abandoned by her family before her death. Traversing across the scorched Australian bush to reach her hometown, her undead journey splits her body and mind in two. By the time she reaches the family who once abandoned her, she’ll have to ask herself: does she want to forgive, or eat? As written by the publisher Interstellar Flight Press, Grief Eater is a “transgressive, gory examination of queer identity and found family [that] sinks its teeth into trauma and what it means to be devoured by grief.”
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Kee Baker is a USA TODAY Bestseller – and for good reason. Following two people living centuries apart who discover a portal between worlds, this lyrical horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology is the perfect summerween tale for readers who love Stephen King, friendship and family themes, and fresh takes on the haunted house trope. In October 2026, Lee Turner murdered his college roommate. He doesn’t remember how or why. All he knows is he must flee New York to seek refuge in his father’s home in Japan – but when he arrives, something more than just his guilty conscience begins to haunt him. In October 1877, Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from imperial soldiers in the same house as Lee two centuries later. Caught between the violence of her war-torn father and the soldiers waiting for the perfect moment to slaughter her and her family, Sen sees no escape from her inevitable fate. Then a foreign man from a different time appears outside her window, and her horrors become intertwined with his. Sitting at an average rating of 4.8/5 by over 56,000 reviewers on Bookshop.org, Kylie Lee Baker’s latest novel is worth the wait at your local library – or the shipping time online – for you to enjoy this tale for yourself.
Craving something gothic to beat the summer heat? Check out Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher, a gothic horror novel set in 1899 North Carolina. Starring the unemployable scientific illustrator Sonia Wilson, our tale begins right when Sonia is about to lose all hope of a future in North Carolina. The reclusive Dr. Halder offers her the chance to move to his manor in the Carolina woods and illustrate his vast collection of insects. Sonia is thrilled to have work and the chance to escape from the mundanity of her small town – but everything is not what it seems in Dr. Halder’s beautiful home. Sonia begins to ask questions that cannot be answered: what happened to Halder’s wife, her artistic predecessor? Why do the animals act so strangely in the woods? What are the “blood thieves” the townspeople whisper about? With the help of the sole housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia will find the answers she seeks in these dark woods – and the truth behind Dr. Halder’s entomological studies.
This 1,184-page novel about seven teenagers facing off against a murderous “clown” is a summerween classic. The disappearing children in Derry, Maine, have something in common: their last moments were spent with Pennywise, a malignant force of evil taking shape in the form of a child-eating clown. This creature is seemingly unkillable – until The Losers Club tracks It down and destroys It for good. Or so they thought. When The Losers Club returns to Derry as adults, they know that It has returned, and It won’t go away until It hunts them all down. A true horror classic, this book is well worth the many hours you may spend reading it this summer. Just watch out for red balloons.
Whether you are into classic horror or supernatural tales, we’d love to hear what books you believe belong on our summerween list. Let us know what to read next!
Alexandra Rae is a feminist writer, editor, and revisionist from Ohio. She is a submissions reader for Narratively and editorial assistant for Brink Books. Find her on Instagram @theresonationofalexandra.
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