Seven Chilling Horror Novels to Haunt Your Summer Reading List (June 2025)

Most people kick off their summer reading with beach romances or breezy thrillers. Me? I like a little dread in my June.

Because nothing says “relaxation” like ghost-filled mansions, blood-hungry spirits, and mysterious portals to not-quite-paradise.

Lucky for us, the horror gods have blessed June 2025 with a truly unsettling lineup. Whether you’re into gothic vampires, haunted forests, or reunion horror with a meta twist, there’s something here to keep you up reading way too late and triple-checking the locks before bed.

Here are seven new horror novels that’ll inject a delicious dose of terror into your summer:

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Meet Me at the Crossroads by Megan Giddings

Out Now (Amistad)

Seven doors open across the world — portals to what looks like paradise. But when twin sisters Ayanna and Olivia explore what’s beyond, one of them disappears. What follows is part speculative nightmare, part slow-burning psychological unraveling. Think Annihilation meets Everything Everywhere All at Once with a horror twist.

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Strange Houses by Uketsu

Out Now (VIZ Media)

A writer buys a house that… well, doesn’t make sense. The floor plan has gaps. The walls feel off. And the spaces between rooms might not be entirely empty. Uketsu (of Strange Pictures fame) continues their brand of eerie, architectural paranoia — like House of Leaves distilled into a fever dream with sharper teeth.

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Beast by Richard Van Camp

Out Now (HighWater Press)

Set in 1980s Northwest Territories, this Indigenous YA horror story explores a fragile truce between the Dogrib and Chipewyan peoples. But when an evil spirit starts whispering war into the ears of one family, the tension turns deadly. It’s a rare mix of culturally rooted storytelling, supernatural horror, and historical trauma — all wrapped up in a slim but potent package.

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Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

Out June 10 (Tor Books)

Schwab trades in melancholy monsters and beautiful wounds — and this novel is no exception. Across centuries and continents, three women make impossible choices, brush against the divine, and face the cost of power, immortality, and grief. If you liked Addie LaRue but wished it had more blood and biting, here you go.

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A Girl Walks into the Forest by Madeline Roux

Out June 10 (Quill Tree)

Valla agrees to marry the enigmatic Count Leonid, but first she has to survive the Gottyar Wood — a place that chews up travelers and spits out nothing but bones and whispers. This is gothic YA with teeth: a forest full of nightmares, a castle full of secrets, and a protagonist walking straight into her own doom. Classic fairy tale energy, but with a sinister pulse.

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Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda

Out June 17 (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Inspired by The Bacchae, this literary horror gem blends myth, feminism, and psychosexual terror on the beaches of a commune called Agape. Lena, recently widowed and finally free from her gilded cage, is drawn to the strange women living in tents by the sea — and something far older and darker awakens with her. It’s dreamy, vicious, and hallucinatory. Dionysus would approve.

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Smile for the Cameras by Miranda Smith

Out June 24 (Bantam)

Twenty years after starring in a cult slasher, final girl Ella Winters is making a comeback. A reunion doc brings the cast together in the woods — but when they start dying like their characters did, Ella realizes the past didn’t stay buried. Think Scream meets The Blair Witch Project, with a dash of Behind the Music dread.

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Whether you’re looking for psychological unease, supernatural mayhem, or a creeping sense of “oh no, something is definitely wrong here,” these books have your summer scare needs covered.

And if you read one on a stormy night, lit only by flashlight, with the forest wind howling outside… you might just earn extra credit.

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Let me know what you’re reading — and if you end up loving (or hating) any of these terrifying tales.
You can find the rest of my reading lists, geeky thoughts, and education reflections over at mikepaul.com.

Stay curious, stay creeped out,
—Mike

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Last update on 2025-06-09 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API