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Shop Summerween Books, Films, & More
Summerween is back and bigger than ever! The warm-weather Halloween trend is for anyone who doesn’t want to wait all summer long to get into the Spooky Season spirit – for many, this beloved time kicks off on July 5. Think carving watermelons instead of pumpkins, watching summer camp slashers to suit the season, and sitting by the pool with your favorite scary read.
Check out these perfect spooky summer books that will give you all the thrills and chills, no matter how hot it is outside. From oceanic horror and daylight scares to summer camp secrets and slashers, we have everything you need to celebrate Summerween all season long.
Books You Should Know About
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
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From your OverDrive DCL: Let’s kick it off with a book that checks all the boxes for Summerween reading – You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight. Charity has a summer job working at Camp Mirror Lake, where guests pay to be scared in a full-contact game of horror that recreates scenes from a classic slasher film, The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic they can make it for the guests, the better. It’s the last weekend of the season, and Charity finally gets to play the coveted role of Final Girl. But just as the show begins, Charity’s co-workers start disappearing and menacing figures – not employed by the camp – are spotted around the lake. When one of her co-workers ends up dead, Charity’s role as the Final Girl suddenly becomes a little too real. Charity, her girlfriend Bezi, and the rest of her co-workers will have to fight for their lives over the course of one horrifying night. If they want any chance of survival, they’ll have to unveil the bloody history of the camp and figure out what the killer is after. With all the summer fun, teen dynamics, and campy gore for fans of Fear Street, this meta twist on classic horror films is a must-read for anyone looking to kick off Summerween with a bang.
Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson
From your OverDrive DCL: For readers looking for the perfect beach read with the gore of Saw, the dark comedy of The Menu, and the pulse-pounding chase of Ready or Not, Guillotine is the book for you. Dez is a thrifty fashionista college senior who will do whatever it takes to increase her chances of getting an internship at a prestigious fashion magazine. She’ll even date Patrick Ruskin, the repugnant son of fashion magnate Marie Caulfield-Ruskin, who could help give Dez a foot in the door.
When Patrick invites Dez to his family’s ancestral home on their private island for an Easter weekend reunion, Dez knows this is her chance. But as soon as she arrives, she starts to see red flags – she’s required to sign an NDA, her phone is taken away, her bedroom door doesn’t have a lock, and the family is not what she expected. Once the whole family is on the island and the ferry has left, things take a dark turn. For decades the Ruskins’ servants have been made to sign contracts that have essentially forced them into indentured servitude. With nothing left to lose, the servants begin hunting the Ruskins for sport, exacting revenge for horrors they have experienced at the hands of the wealthy family. Dez will have to decide where her loyalties lie and what she’s willing to do to survive. A fast-paced, bloody family drama that blends affluence and luxury with violence and retribution, Guillotine is a cinematic read, and the daylight-horror makes it a perfect summer pick.
Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
From your OverDrive DCL: For some readers summer also means travel, and there is no better vacation-Gothic read than Jennifer Thorne’s Diavola.
Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive. This year’s family trip is in Italy, and it should be an idyllic escape, but it’s not that simple as Anna has to navigate all the weird family dynamics. Her twin brother Benny is such a go-with-the-flow pushover that he practically disappears, her older sister Nicole is so used to everyone (including her bland husband and two kids) falling in line that Anna can’t even ask a question without getting in trouble, and Mom constantly pokes and prods at all of Anna’s life choices while Dad just wants to be left alone.
The family is staying in a picturesque, remote villa in a tiny town called Monteperso in the Florentine countryside. When Anna starts to hear strange noises at night, gets unsettling warnings from local villagers, and uncovers the dark and violent past of the villa, she’ll have to navigate two different types of horror at once to get through this vacation – dodging hostile family interactions by day and supernatural happenings by night.
With painfully familiar family dynamics and a fun, snarky protagonist, this contemporary twist on the classic haunted house novel is unhinged in the best way possible – think The Haunting of Hill House meets White Lotus. This book is also a great fit for anyone who might not consider themselves horror readers but wants to dip a toe into the genre. With a starred review from Library Journal, this equally funny and cringey read presents an excellent sunny-day gothic escape.
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
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From the publisher: With raucous humor and brilliantly orchestrated mayhem, Meddling Kids subverts teen detective archetypes like the Hardy Boys, the Famous Five, and Scooby-Doo, and delivers an exuberant and wickedly entertaining celebration of horror, love, friendship, and many-tentacled, interdimensional demon spawn.
SUMMER 1977. The Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in Oregon’s Zoinx River Valley) solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster—another low-life fortune hunter trying to get his dirty hands on the legendary riches hidden in Deboën Mansion. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids.
The former detectives have grown up and apart, each haunted by disturbing memories of their final night in the old haunted house. There are too many strange, half-remembered encountersand events that cannot be dismissed or explained away by a guy in a mask. And Andy, the once intrepid tomboy now wanted in two states, is tired of running from her demons. She needs answers. To find them she will need Kerri, the one-time kid genius and budding biologist, now drinking her ghosts away in New York with Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the club. They will also have to get Nate, the horror nerd currently residing in an asylum in Arkham, Massachusetts. Luckily Nate has not lost contact with Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star who was once their team leader . . . which is remarkable, considering Peter has been dead for years.
The time has come to get the team back together, face their fears, and find out what actually happened all those years ago at Sleepy Lake. It’s their only chance to end the nightmares and, perhaps, save the world.
A nostalgic and subversive trip rife with sly nods to H. P. Lovecraft and pop culture, Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids is a strikingly original and dazzling reminder of the fun and adventure we can discover at the heart of our favorite stories, no matter how old we get.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
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From your OverDrive DCL: Leah is a marine biologist who left for a routine expedition, only to have a malfunction cause her submarine to sink to the sea floor, leaving her down there for months. When Leah finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is terribly wrong. Leah barely eats or speaks and leaves the faucets in their apartment running all day and night. Miri becomes increasingly frustrated by these changes, giving up everything to try to understand what went wrong in that vessel, what the crew was studying, and what has transformed Leah.
Our Wives Under the Sea is a darker take on the beach read, and it’s another great pick for patrons who might not think of themselves as horror readers. This is literary fiction that explores the complexity of marriage with subtle horror and fantasy that can draw anyone in. This book earned starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus, and it was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and Goodreads Choice Award.
Camp Lanier by Sylvester Barzey
From the publisher: Taylor Johnson didn’t mean to hurt anyone. When she’s caught shoplifting with her wealthy white friends, she’s the one who takes the fall. Her only way out? Agreeing to work in a community service program that takes at-risk youth and employs them at Camp Lanier for the summer. Taylor’s heard the rumors about Camp Lanier. Everyone has. Urban legends say that an all-Black town was forced out to create the lake, and it has been cursed ever since. Taylor’s too old to believe in ghost stories. But if the ghosts aren’t real, why is she the only one who can hear someone crying at night? Why are kids disappearing? And the whispers of a serial killer named the Atlanta Ripper stalking the woods… that can’t be real, can it? None of it makes sense. Kids have been “running away” from Camp Lanier for the last 52 years, and Taylor wants to find out why – even if it means swimming to the bottom of the lake and finding out what’s really down there.
Camp Lanier is a horror novel from Sylvester Barzey that’s based on the urban legend of Lake Lanier in Georgia. If you like Black heroes, terrifying ghosts, and scares that will keep you up at night, then this is the book for you.
Murder Road by Simone St. James
From your OverDrive DCL: No one writes supernatural mysteries quite like Simone St. James, and Murder Road is no exception. In July 1995, April and Eddie take a wrong turn while on their way to their honeymoon getaway. When they spot a lone female hitchhiker along the deserted Michigan road, they stop to pick her up, but almost as soon as she is in their car, they see she is gravely injured, and a black truck is barreling down the road after them. When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves under suspicion by the local police. Atticus Line has had a string of unexplained murders for years, and now the only two witnesses are the only suspects. As April and Eddie start exploring the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to prove their innocence, they discover something supernatural at work that could tear apart the town, and take April and Eddie down too.
St. James’s supernatural depictions are truly chilling, and this book is sure to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up the next time you find yourself on a summer night’s drive.
The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst
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From the publisher: Claire’s grown up triple-checking locks. Counting her steps. Second-guessing every decision. It’s just how she’s wired—her worst-case scenarios never actually come true. Until she arrives at an off-the-grid summer camp to find a blackened, burned husk instead of a lodge—and no survivors, except her and two other late arrivals: Reyva and Mariana. When the three girls find a dead body in the woods, they realize none of this is an accident. Someone, something, is hunting them. Something that hides in the shadows. Something that refuses to let them leave.
This book is a Junior Library Guild Selection and was on YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list and Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers list. This masterful survival thriller from New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst has been described as Yellowjackets meets One of Us Is Lying.
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
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From your OverDrive DCL: Erin’s brother Bryan has been missing for five years – it’s as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and never came out, and he’s not the only one. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mt. Hood where Bryan was last seen alive. When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unwittingly finds herself up against very powerful forces – both from this world and beyond – determined to keep their secrets buried.
Fungal horror is on the rise, and Girl in the Creek is the latest addition to this eco-horror trend that is perfect for summer reading as we spend more time in the great outdoors. A starred review from Library Journal says that this book features “a compelling true-crime-meets-’sporror’ frame and reads like Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild meets T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead, with a pinch of M.R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts.”
Blood Slaves by Markus Redmond
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From your OverDrive DCL: Vampire stories are hotter than ever, and this debut novel turns the subgenre on its head with a fresh, thought-provoking take. This reimagining of the vampire origin story set during the early days of American slavery blends alternate history with supernatural flair, historical drama, and revenge horror as the last surviving member of an ancient African vampire tribe meets a slave desperate for freedom, and together, they lead an army of enslaved people in a cinematically blood-soaked battle for freedom and revenge. Need I say more?
Blood Slaves asks the question, “What if nobody ever freed the slaves…because they freed themselves – 150 years before the Civil War?” In 1710 on a North Carolina plantation, Willie dreams of freedom for himself, his wife Gertie, and their unborn child, but it seems unattainable. When Rafazi, a Ghanaian slave, reveals that he is an immortal survivor of the Ramanga, an African vampire tribe, he convinces Willie to join him to revolt and claim their freedom. Gertie expresses her fears of Rafazi’s vampirism, but Willie believes that only evil can fight evil and will make an irreversible decision. Blood Slaves is the perfect pick for all those vampire fans looking for their next fix.
If you’re interested in exploring more titles for your Summerween reading, check out some of our complete recommended lists here:
Dive In, If You Dare (Aquatic Horror/Thrillers)
Must-Watch Films
Friday the 13th, 1980
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From your OverDrive DCL: This is truly the ultimate Summerween movie. A classic horror film that inspired so many that came after it, Friday the 13th introduces viewers to Crystal Lake, whose history of murder doesn’t deter counselors from setting up a summer camp. The camp’s new owner and seven young counselors are readying the property for re-opening despite warnings of a death curse by local residents. The curse proves true on Friday the 13th as one by one each of the counselors is stalked by a violent killer in this gory fan favorite.
Summer of 84, 2018
From the studio: It’s the summer of 1984, the perfect time to be 15 years old and free. But when neighborhood conspiracy theorist Davey Armstrong begins to suspect his police officer neighbor might be the serial killer all over the local news, he and his three best friends begin an investigation that soon turns dangerous.
Attack of the Crab Monsters, 1957
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From the studio: In “Attack of the Crab Monsters,” directed by Roger Corman, a group of scientists conducting atomic research on a remote island encounter an unexpected menace: giant mutated crabs. As the monstrous creatures begin to pick off the researchers one by one, the survivors must band together to uncover the source of the mutations and find a way to escape the island alive. With its mix of B-movie thrills and campy horror, “Attack of the Crab Monsters” delivers plenty of suspense and creature-feature fun as the scientists fight for their lives against the deadly crustaceans.
A little Extra something
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Thank you for joining us on this week’s round up of Summerween materials! Reach out to your Digital Content Librarian or Account Manager for more information on how to provide the best content for your community.
About the author: Claire has worked in publicity for the arts, public libraries, and archives. At OverDrive she helps public libraries manage their collections and creates lists of the hottest titles to help her partners shop and promote their collections to their patrons. When she isn’t reading she loves to run, try new recipes (while listening to an audiobook), plan her next road trip, or hang out with her two dogs and cat. Claire is always excited to talk about a good mystery or spooky books!