Best Stephen King books for summer
From Derry to the Deadlights: My summer stack of Stephen King and other scary favorites
If you're looking for the best Stephen King books to read this summer—along with a few other chilling horror favorites—here’s what’s on my reading list.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s no more quintessential Stephen King summer read than IT—his epic 1986 novel about a cannibalistic child-killing clown who haunts the sewers of a small town in Maine and a troupe of seven kids who refer to themselves as "The Losers Club." They are called this not for lack of imagination, but because they don’t quite fit into how the world, the way society thinks, they should. IT is equal parts childhood nostalgia and sheer terror.
In the spirit of full immersion, I recommend following your reading of IT with a viewing of the 1990 two-part miniseries adaptation. Think of it as priming your senses in anticipation of IT: Welcome to Derry coming this fall.🎈🤡
If there are still a few golden days of summer left after you’ve made it through the thousand-plus-page odyssey, then why not linger a little longer in Stephen King’s universe?
Cujo—Published 1981. A young mother and her son are stranded at a remote farmhouse in their broken-down car in sweltering heat and stalked by a once-beloved Saint Bernard transformed by rabies into a killer. Woven through the story are the terrors of domestic violence and a fractured marriage. This is a portrait of everyday horror and rural life by a talented writer with an eye for the ordinary details.
Skeleton Crew—Published 1985. Favorites include “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” “The Raft,” “Nona,” “Uncle Otto’s Truck,” and “Gramma.”
“The Mist”—The novella is available in paperback and in the collection Skeleton Crew. After a wild storm batters their town, a father and son head out for supplies and run into a supernatural mist. What follows is a story about monsters—those outside and inside us, too.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon—Published 1999. Told from the perspective of nine-year-old Trisha McFarland, the story follows her after she becomes lost in the New England woods, having stepped off the trail during a family hike. As fear and isolation set in, she clings to the comforting crackle of Red Sox broadcasts on her Walkman—and to her idol, relief pitcher Tom Gordon, who becomes a guiding presence in her increasingly perilous journey. A truly beautiful and short read.
Fairy Tale—Published 2022. High schooler Charlie Reade is a wonderful hero, but Radar, the aging German Shepherd, is the heart of the book. A universe-hopping quest through a landscape that feels equal parts kaleidoscope and cabinet of curiosities. A gorgeous emotional read about friendship and loyalty, the resilience of ordinary people, and doing the right thing. I LOVED it!! 🐕🏰
You Like It Darker—Published 2024. My favorite bit of this book is his spine-tingling novella “Rattlesnakes.” King reintroduces us to some of the characters from Cujo. This is an up-close-and-personal glimpse at pure horror. King nails the supernatural elements in this one.
If you love Stephen King, read Grady Hendrix next.
After Stephen King, Grady Hendrix is my favorite author. There are plenty of writers I admire—writers whose sentences I could crawl into and live inside, whose imaginations have cracked open whole worlds for me. But Grady… oh, Grady is something else. His books are like roller coasters engineered by a horror-obsessed camp counselor with a PhD in pop culture and home economics. How to explain? It’s not just that I love his stories—it’s that I feel oddly understood by them. He captures my love of the path into the dark woods as much as he does the joy of those childhood summers in a small town in Arkansas.
If you haven’t read him, then I recommend starting with The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and then move on to My Best Friend’s Exorcism before diving headlong into How to Sell A Haunted House, followed by The Final Girls Support Group, and his masterpiece (oh, save your eye-rolling, because it is), Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Then, check out Horrorstör, his 2014 horror comedy novel set in an IKEA in a sort of parallel universe.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires:
According to Grady’s site it is: a spiritual sequel to My Best Friend’s Exorcism. It’s about adult friendships rather than high school friendships, and while it doesn’t feature any of the same characters it takes place in the same neighborhood, about five years later, in the Nineties. It’s the story of a book club who realize that their new neighbor might not just be some yankee from away, he might be a literal monster. But who’s going to take a bunch of housewives seriously? 🥧🩸🍸
What I’m reading this summer:
I’m working on my next Stephen King related book so rereading a lot of his work. Next up—The Stand. I read the first half during the beginning of June and intend to continue on soon. And then there’s Stephen Graham Jones, whom I stumbled upon thanks to Sadie Hartmann—aka Mother Horror—whose Instagram is a glorious rabbit hole of horror lit recommendations. I read I Was A Teenage Slasher last year and it was glorious.
oxo
Top-notch things this June/July 🐝🐈🍓🃏🍻
Fresh local strawberries.
Dinner with a friend.
Game nights.
Bees and fabulously painted bee boxes.
Kitties and books.
A small dog, friends who are also neighbors, and morning coffee on the porch.
Ice cold beer drunk from the can barefoot in the grass.
A ferry ride…just being on the water—or in it.
I debated about including this, but…the princess treatment. Seriously!? I love people opening doors for me as much as the next person, but… Both videos made me LOL! First, the influencer who goes to the extreme being that of feminine/helpless wife. For the love of everything read the comments. Second, this one by Meredith Lynch who gets an A+ from me for a thought-provoking comedic comeback. In all seriousness, it’s entirely possible the woman in the first video is a victim of domestic violence. Everyone deserves a safe relationship.
