Recs if you like The Lifeguard...

Spooky summer fun for all ages, from cute picture books with spooky elements, to creepy middle grade graphic novels, to teen + YA thrills, to adult-level gore and a sprinkling of erotic horror/dark romance. Books on this list have a heavy summer theme, either highlighting the season or taking place in settings like summer camps, fairgrounds, beaches, or water parks, and have some sort of creepy or scary element to them.

🏖️🌊👙🎡🎢🔪🏕️🏞️👻😈🍉

Are you scared of the ocean? You should be.

Books from Chapter 8 from Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix. This chapter focuses on slasher type horror and serial killer horror. In the 70s and 80s serial killers found their way into the popular zeitgeist and news for the first time. As Hendrix notes of the panic that ensued, “… and in a flash the scariest motive for murder was no motive at all.” (205, Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix). After all, nothing is scarier than a killer who kills just for the thrill.

Point horror, point thriller, point fiction