10 New Horror Book Releases for the Summer

With six to be released in June and July, plus four other 2023 mentions

Prepare for your scary camping nights this Summer. As you check your supply list, don’t forget to pack some horror stories to read by the fire.

Besides cooking sausages and burning marshmallows, nothing is more traditional than sharing scary stories by the flickering campfire. Whether you have the most terrifying ghost tales or are just an amateur repeating the same ones heard as a child, here are some new horror book releases to widen your catalog.

The first six are ordered by release date in June and July, and the last four are books available in previous months that you should check. Every title has the release date, a brief description, and a cover image to help you find them at the bookstore or the link to Goodreads and Amazon.

1.- Maeve Fly

Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede Release date: June 6

When we go to the happiest place on earth and see the princesses, we seldom realize that beneath the multicolored dress is a person just playing a character. However, what could happen when a Disney Princess descends into madness?

Maeve Fly works as an ice princess by day, but she loves going to bars on the Sunset Strip at night, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes with a drink in one hand and a book in the other.

When her best friend’s brother moves to L.A., something dangerous emerges within her, and her work shifts. Now she becomes a bolder, bloodier person, something inspired by the pages of American Psycho, where Maeve is the one holding the knife.

2.- Night’s Edge

Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin Release date: June 20

Some people have toxic relationships with their parents. The author presents a different take on this narrative when your mother is not only your abuser but a vampire.

Mia grew up in a world without friends, parties, sleepovers, and, most of all, no boyfriends. Hiding her mother’s hunger, the kind only blood can satisfy.

When Mia grows, she dreams of a new life. One without lies, secrets, and where she doesn’t have to worry that someone will discover her terrible family secret. Meeting a rebellious musician makes her hope to leave her home — and her mom — behind. But can she do it?

3.- The Beast You Are: Stories

The Beast You Are: Stories by Paul Tremblay Release date: July 11

From the author of The Cabin at the End of the World comes a recollection of fifteen horror stories in this brilliant collection. With real and imaginary monsters. Like the middle schooler struggling with her parents’ drug addiction and divorcing. One day, her brother finds a shoebox with a dead thing inside, but he won’t show it to her.

In another story (“The Last Conversation”), someone wakes up in a white room where she receives instructions from a woman to leave the bedroom to complete a task, with shocking and heartbreaking consequences.

However, the homonymous novel “The Beast You Are” tells the story of a monster that returns every thirty years to wreak havoc, but this time, a dog and a cat’s lives are intertwined with the beast.

4.- Silver Nitrate

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Release date: July 18

Montserrat is a talented sound editor in the 90s Mexico City film industry. She is invisible to everybody, including Tristan, a faded soap opera star she has been secretly in love with since childhood.

Horror director Abel Urueta moves to Tristan’s neighborhood, telling the story about how a Nazi magic film he never finished ended his career and cursed him for life, and asking Montserrat and Tristan to help him shoot the last scene.

However, when they start working, they notice dark presences following them and Tristán’s ex-girlfriend’s ghost. At the same time, they’ll have to discover if a Nazi occultist really imbued sorcery into silver nitrate in the films.

5.- Camp Damascus

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle Release date: July 18

From the author of “Straight,” a SciFi-Thriller novel about a virus affecting only cis straight people turning them into zombies that could be prevented with an unpopular and controversial vaccine. Comes this story of a gay conversion camp.

Up in the Montana mountains lies Neverton, a quiet, God-fearing, and uber-conservative community, always willing to help others.

In the nearby forest, you can find Camp Damascus, the “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country, or so they say. When a young autistic woman arrives, she discovers a sinister camp secret that “Will scare you straight to hell.

6.- Her Little Flowers

Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan Release date: July 25

Francine Thwaite loves her family’s ancestral Elizabethan manor in England’s Lake District, and though she lives by herself, she is not alone. There are familiar ghosts with her, especially Bree, the mischievous ghost girl who has been her companion since childhood over 50 years ago.

When her sister, Madeleine, returns to the manor after years away, an old family secret is revealed. Francine’s mood changes as she discovers her role in the past and how knowing the truth could mean losing everything she holds dear.

7.- The Ferryman

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin Release date: May 2

On the Prospera archipelago lives a community of lucky citizens hidden from the outside world. Its inhabitants enjoy long and fulfilling lives until a monitor in their forearms falls below 10 percent of their physical and psychological well-being. When this happens, they embark on a ferry ride to Nursery Island, where their bodies and memories are renewed, and they return to restart life afresh.

Proctor Bennett, the Department of Social Contracts ferryman, has gently transported people through retirement. But this changes when he starts dreaming — which is supposedly impossible in Prospera, and his monitor percentage drops alarmingly fast.

The ferryman starts questioning everything he once believed, the day he has to “retire” his father, who shares a disturbing message, and the Support Staff begin questioning their place in the social order. Meanwhile, rumors of the “Arrivalists” — a revolution group — start to spread.

8.- A House With Good Bones

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher Release date: March 28

Sam Montgomery returns to her mother’s home after her brother tells her, “Mom seems off.” Looking to spend long nights drinking wine and watching murder mystery shows.

However, she soon realizes things are not what they used to be. The warm and charming home is now painted in a sterile white, and her mother constantly looks over her shoulder and jumps at the slightest noise.

One day while visiting the rose bushes, she finds a jar of teeth and vultures circling the garden above. Now Sam must discover why her mom is so frightened in her home.

9.- The Salt Grows Heavy

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw Release date: May 2

The Malaysian video game creator and horror and science fiction writer brings this fairytale about discovering the darkness in the world and within oneself.

Forget about the beautiful mermaid exchanging her voice to follow prince charming. But in The Salt Grows Heavy, mermaids have teeth and devour the kingdom, burning it to ashes.

A mysterious and dark plague doctor joins a mermaid on the run to the forest, where they find bloodthirsty ageless children living in a village with three ‘saints’ who control them. Both travelers must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.

10.- Bad Cree

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns Release date: January 10

Mackenzie panics when she awakens with a decapitated crow’s head in her hands. She had only moments before been battling off swarms of birds in a snow-covered wilderness. When she blinks in bed, the head vanishes.

Mackenzie’s dreams continuously take her back to a period before her sister Sabrina’s sudden death at the family’s lakefront camping. But as time passes, a crow murderer haunts her every move around town. She wakes up from a dream of drowning, throwing up water, and receives threatening text messages from someone pretending to be Sabrina — this is more than she can handle on her own.

When she travels to her origins in Alberta, she discovers her family living in the same misery from which she fled to Vancouver. They welcome her back, but the reunion only strengthens her dreams.

What happened that night at the lake, and how did it relate to Sabrina’s death? Only a Bad Cree would endanger their family, but what if whatever has been beckoning Mackenzie home has already taken up residence?

Take Away

Everyone has a different taste for books. However, if you are a horror book fan, you’ll find something to read here. Whether you like to read by the camp fireplace, with candles in an old dark castle, or inside your tent with a flashlight, they will make you feel goosebumps.

So please mark your calendar or pre-order them by following the links, and get ready to enjoy your horror novels for this Summer.

Different genre releases are coming in the following months, so check my other articles for other choices. If you know a new horror book to be released soon, please share it in the commentaries.

“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” ― Stephen King.