Announcing the 2026 Summer Scares Titles

In celebration of National Library Lover’s Day and Friday the 13th, the Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with Booklist, Book Riot, iREAD, and NoveList®, a division of EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO), is delighted to announce the eighth annual Summer Scares reading list, which includes titles selected by a panel of authors and library workers and is designed to promote Horror as a great reading option for all ages, during any time of the year.

This year, Summer Scares welcomes New York Times Bestselling author Jennifer McMahon as the 2026 spokesperson:

"We need horror now more than ever. Stories to unsettle us, to make us question what we think we know, to show us how to confront the darkness and come out the other side,” said McMahon. “Stories that we will put down and feel changed by. This collection of books chosen by the Summer Scares committee perfectly showcases the true diversity of horror today, and is more evidence that we are at the peak of a horror renaissance. These are books to get lost in, books to share with others in your life, books to talk about and ponder over. So come along, take my hand and prepare to step into the darkness with me this summer. Yes, there’s plenty of scary stuff in these books. But there’s also a whole lot of hope. Oh, and don’t close your eyes — you don’t want to miss a thing along the way."

Every year, three titles are selected in each of three categories: Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade. For 2026 those selected titles are:

Adult Selections:

A Botanical Daughter, by Noah Medlock (Titan, 2024) 

Never Whistle at Night, ed. Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst (Vintage, 2023)

Maeve Fly, by CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire, 2023)

Young Adult Selections:

What We Harvest, by Ann Fraistat (Delacorte Press, 2022) 

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces, by Linda Cheng (Roaring Brook Press, 2023) 

Our Shadows Have Claws, ed. Yamile Saied Méndez & Amparo Ortiz (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022)  

Middle Grade Selections:

Garlic and the Vampire, by Bree Paulsen (Harper, 2021) 

It Came from the Trees, by Ally Russell (Delacorte Press, 2023)  

This Appearing House, by Ally Malinenko (Harper, 2022)

Summer Scares aims to introduce Horror titles to school and public library workers so they can start conversations with readers that extend beyond the books on each list and promote reading for years to come. In addition to the annual list of recommended titles, the Summer Scares Programming Guide—free for any library to access—is back with the tools libraries need to connect with their patrons. 

“The 2026 guide, developed and designed by the HWA Libraries team, is the library worker’s roadmap to providing exciting and meaningful experiences for their communities through Summer Scares, whether they’re putting up book displays, leading discussion groups, developing events, or orchestrating an entire Summer Scares program series,” states Konrad Stump, co-creator of the programming guide. “With select titles aligned with iREAD’s 2026 theme (Plant a Seed, Read), the guide makes it easy for libraries across the world to incorporate Summer Scares into their summer reading programs and engage patrons of all ages in the horror genre.”

The guide will be available beginning March 1, 2026 on the Summer Scares Resource page at http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/p/summer-scares.html

Along with the guide, the Summer Scares committee will work with both the recommended list authors and Horror authors from all over the country to provide free programming to libraries. Any library looking to host horror-themed events anytime of year is encouraged to email libraries@horror.org to get started.

Booklist is helping to kick off Summer Scares 2026 in March with a series of three free webinars with this year’s featured authors in conversation with committee members:

• Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 2pm Eastern, featuring our Middle-Grade authors and moderated by Julia Smith. Click here to register.
• Monday, March 23, 2026, at 2pm Eastern, featuring our Young Adult authors and moderated by Kelly Jensen. Click here to register.
• Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 2pm Eastern, featuring our Adult authors and moderated by Jennifer McMahon. Click here to register.

Each webinar lasts one hour. Anyone may register to participate for free at https://www.booklistonline.com/webinars. Recordings will be available for on demand viewing after the live events at https://www.booklistonline.com/webinars-archive.

All are welcome to join the Summer Scares committee and featured authors at the HWA’s Librarians’ Day, taking place in person on Friday, June 5, 2026 in Pittsburg, PA as part of StokerConⓇ. Please visit https://www.stokercon.com/ for more information.

The HWA is a non-profit organization of writers and publishing professionals and the oldest organization dedicated to the Horror/Dark Fiction genre. One of the HWA’s missions is to foster an appreciation of reading through extensive programming and partnerships with libraries, schools, and literacy-based organizations.

The 2026 Summer Scares program committee consists of author Jennifer McMahon, HWA Library Committee Co-Chairs Becky Spratford and Konrad Stump, as well as academic library director and ILA President Carolyn Ciesla, Book Riot Senior Editor and YA specialist Kelly Jensen, Booklist Senior Editor and Middle Grade specialist Julia Smith, and Manager of Reader Content and Services at NoveList Yaika Sabat.

For more information about the Summer Scares reading program, including committee member bios and how to obtain promotional materials and schedule events with the authors/committee members, please visit the Summer Scares Resource Page (http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/p/summer-scares.html) or email HWA Library Committee Co-Chairs Becky Spratford and Konrad Stump at libraries at horror dot org.

Please click here for access to our free folder of graphics including title collages courtesy of Kelly Jensen.

Click on the image to access the
Summer Scares 2026 Graphics folder

#HorrroForLibraries: 2 Awesome Horror Collections and 1 Anthology for 3 Readers

Today on the giveaway I have 3 books full of horror stories to give away to 3 lucky winners. And all three are finished copies, meaning you can add them directly to your library's collections. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Last week's winner was Michael from IL. Now on to this week's giveaway.

Below I will provide information about each title. I will be giving them away in the order they appear. All books are courtesy of the publisher and I highly recommend you add these to your public library collections whether or not you win; however, the winners absolutely can add these as they are all finished copies.

First up, This'll Make Things A Little Easier by Attila Veres. From the book description:

Attila Veres' debut collection, The Black Maybe, was hailed as one of the best horror debuts in years and was named Rue Morgue's best collection of 2022 as well as being a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. Critics likened it to debut collections by writers like Clive Barker and Thomas Ligotti in terms of its sheer originality of style and vision. Now Veres is back with a follow-up collection of unforgettable cosmic horror.

In the opening story, 'a pit full of teeth', an aspiring Hungarian horror writer gets the exciting news that one of his stories will be translated into the obscure language of a reclusive tribe that almost no one knows anything about. But when his copy of the translation arrives, he discovers that it doesn't match what he wrote: instead, the text contains a much more horrific narrative that seems to be playing out in reality. In 'The Designated Contact Individual', a traveling representative for a soft drink company finds his sales territory expanding when he is sent to an alternate reality where they have their own nightmarish use for his cola. 'Damage d10+7' tells of a group of gamers who commit a terrible outrage in the fantasy world of their game and which has a deadly ripple effect in their real lives. The narrator in 'The Summer I Chose to Die' has decided that life is no longer worth living, but his worldview is shaken up when a murderous army of fish-people begins to rise from the oceans. And in the title story, money literally does grow on trees when the Hungarian government tries to alleviate poverty by supplying families with a strange new plant species, but their newfound financial gain will come at a terrible cost.

Like the stories in his first collection, the tales in This'll Make Things a Little Easier are blood-chillingly frightening, often darkly humorous, and always dazzlingly brilliant. Readers who were left wanting more when they finished reading The Black Maybe won't want to miss this new volume.

That link to The Black Maybe in the description above is to my Booklist review of Veres' first collection. Please use the link to read more. I found out about this, his next collection, too late to review it officially, but I can tell you, this is a voice you need in your library. Veres writes his stories in his native Hungarian, and in this case, he also served as the translator. 

This book came out from Valancourt who are not only a trusted indie press (they do the Paperbacks from Hell line) but they are also one of the only horror publishers committed to getting horror not originally written on English out and available to the English speaking world. They have published 2 volumes of Horror stories from all over the world and I have read and reviewed them both. 

The first name I pick will win a finished copy of this title.

Next up, We Should Have Left Well Enough Alone: Twenty Haunting Stories by Ronald Malfi. This is the Titan Books paperback edition courtesy of the publisher. From the book description:

A new mother is pursued by mysterious men in black. A misguided youth learns the dark secrets of the world from an elderly neighbor on Halloween night. A housewarming party where the guests never leave. A caretaker tends to his rusted relic of a god deep in the desert... 

 In his debut short story collection, Bram Stoker Award finalist Ronald Malfi mines the depths and depravities of the human condition, exploring the dark underside of religion, marriage, love, fear, regret, and hunger in a world that spins just slightly askew on its axis. Rich in atmosphere and character, Malfi's debut collection is not to be missed.

Malfi is a name that is not well known in library circles because his books have not been easy to get for our collections. But, he has a lot of fans. With this release, you can easily add this to you carts and get it on the shelf both to show your horror readers, you know about the authors they already like, and to bring new fans to this already popular author.

Thanks to Tian Books for this finished copy. The second name I pick will win a finished copy of this title.

And last but not least, an anthology. Horror Library, Volume 9 edited by Eric Guignard. From the book description:

The +Horror Library+ anthologies are internationally praised as a groundbreaking source of contemporary horror short fiction stories--relevant to the moment and stunning in impact--from leading authors of the macabre and darkly imaginative.  

Filled with Fears and Fantasy. Death and Dark Dreams. Monsters and Mayhem. Literary Vision and Wonder. Each volume of the +Horror Library+ series is packed with heart-pounding thrills and creepy contemplations as to what truly lurks among the shadows of the world(s) we live in.

Containing 30 all-original stories, read Volume 9 in this ongoing anthology series, and then continue with the other volumes.

Shamble no longer through the banal humdrum of normalcy, but ENTER THE HORROR LIBRARY!

Included within Volume 9: - In "Head Over Heels," a sentient unicycle enacts long-sought revenge against those who have wronged it. - In "Eyes Without Their Lids," a couple with no memory of their prior lives, awaken in a doorless room and in full sight of a camera that watches all they do. - In "False Witness," a man whose life was saved by a mysterious voice finds himself in the midst of a worse fate. - . . . and more!  

Also including a special guest-artist's gallery of Michael A. Livolsi!

Guignard is a critically acclaimed horror editor and author. This collection includes original stories   by names you know and already have represented on your shelves such as Bentley Little, Brian Evenson, Tanvir Ahmed, Jo Kaplan, Delilah S. Dawson, Mercedes M Yardley, and more.

Thanks to Dark Moon Books for this finished copy that you can add to your collections. Also please consider visiting their site auto take a look at the previous 8 volumes. It is a cost effective way to get some excellent horror stories into your collections. 

The third name I pull will receive a copy of this book.

There you have it. 3 books of stories for 3 winners. Enter now and you are entered going forward. 

Good luck!

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: The Rise: Tales From The Gulp 3

Today on the giveaway I have a copy of a collection to which I gave a glowing review in the current issue of Booklist. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

The most recent winner was Desiree from TX . Now on to this week's giveaway.

As I mentioned on the general blog today...

The Rise: Tales From The Gulp 3

By Alan Baxter

Feb. 2026. 318p. 13th Dragon, paper, $16.99  (9780645001983); e-book (9798232822330). First published February 1, 2026 (Booklist).

Gulpepper, an isolated harbor town in Australia, known by locals as The Gulp, is not too unlike the small towns horror readers have encountered before (think King’s Castle Rock novels), and yet, in Baxter’s hands the well worn trope is pulsating with terror and life, even as the town itself leads many to their deaths. In this volume of five novellas, the third in a series, Baxter explicitly warns readers that The Gulp is notorious for swallowing people, that there is no hope for these characters which gets readers invested in immediately, and yet, despite that, readers will hold out hope that just this once, it will work out, every single time. “Sunlight on Clear Water,” which follows a young man, new to town, as he meets the girl of his dreams, exemplifies this well. The immersive setting and lingering dread will follow readers off the page and have them asking for more. A great read for the legions of  readers who love to enter sinister small towns full of monsters, both human and supernatural.

Three Words That Describe This Book: strong sense of place, lingering terror, novellas

You can go here to see the full review with more appeal and a ton of readalikes.

This ARC, courtesy of the author, will go to one winner this week. Enter once and you are entered going forward.

Good luck!

The Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ Preliminary Ballot

Over on the general blog I have post with the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot. Click here for more information.

Live Event 1/31/26 in Beverley, MA to Raise Money for the Shirley Jackson Awards, Featuring Paul Tremblay, John Langan, Eric LaRocca, Catherynne Valente, and Me

I am so excited to invite you all to this amazing event in conjunction with the Why I Love Horror Book Tour. We are appearing at Copper Dog Books in Beverly, MA at 7pm on Saturday January 31, 2026 and we are asking for a $5 suggested donation to the Shirley Jackson Awards to enter. You can give less or more, your choice. 

Here is the link to the book store to register.

Click here for a press release from the Shirley Jackson Awards about this event with lots more details.

A huge shout out to the Shirley Jackson Awards Administrator, JoAnn Cox for working to get this all set up.

We are having this event 6 months out from the awards themselves. We feel like it is a great time to remind everyone that while all of us involved with the awards are volunteers, there are costs to administering the awards themselves, let alone our ideas about funding scholarships and travel grants to people in the future. 

That being said, this one off event is part of a grander plan that JoAnn and I envision and have already laid some basic ground work for. Ideally, we take this idea and replicate it at book stores all over America on this same weekend next year (strategically picked as the free weekend between the end of the NFL playoffs  and the Super Bowl). 

We have already talked to a few other people in other cities about hosting this on an annual basis, but first things first, we need to have this first event.

Please go here to learn more about the Shirley Jackson Awards. I am a proud member of the Advisory Board

And here to register for this event on 1/31/26.

And here for a press release from the Shirley Jackson Awards about this event with lots more details.

 

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Final Curtain: Tales Inspired By The Phantom of the Opera

The giveaway a finished copy of an awesome, crowd pleasing anthology of Weird Fiction, featuring authors you already have books by on your shelves and a hook that will draw in many new readers, all from a  trusted small press. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

The most recent winner was Amber from TX . Now on to this week's giveaway.

Steve Berman, editor and owner of Lethe Press is someone who I trust to deliver great books and we he told me about his idea for an anthology of original stories based off of The Phantom of the Opera, I was so excited. He got the ARC to me too late for review, but now I have a hard cover, finished copy in hand and am excited to give it away to one of you to add to your library collection.

But first, here are more details about Final Curtain: Tales Inspired By The Phantom of the Opera, edited by Steve Berman, including the impressive TOC:

A mysterious dirge in human form, Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera is both man and monster, the villain of one of the more famous novels of the early 20th century. Fittingly, the Opera ghost has inspired grandiose movies and an award-winning musical. And now, an impressive anthology of horror and weird fiction, edited by Steve Berman. What has happened to the purloined body of Lon Chaney? Who is convinced that the Phantom is alive after the events of Paris? And contemporary haunting stories of youths drawn to the eerie music of an underground grotto or a pair of devious lovers trying to make it big on Broadway even if it takes a killing.

Featuring 15 brand new stories:

• "Selections from the Memoirs of the Countess of Chagny, Translated" by Nadia Bulkin
•  "La Belle de la Mer" by Jameson Currier
• "The Road of Mirrors" by James Bennett 
• "The Phantom of the Wax Museum" by Orrin Grey 
• "Now We Sing the Killing Song" by Josh Rountree 
• "Two for the Show" by L.A. Fields 
• "Trompe L'oiel" by Tim Newton Anderson 
• "The Music We Became" by Addison Smith 
• "Encore" by Steve Berman 
• "Little Rats" by Theresa DeLucci" 
• "The Lake" by Becky Thacker 
• "Exeunt. Flourish" by Peter Dubé 
• "Figaro's Children" by Jean-Marc Lofficier & Randy Lofficier 
• "The Ghost Singer" by Cara DiGirolamo 
• "Such Broken Souls" by John Linwood Grant

These are all original to this anthology stories, some, by authors for whom you have books and stories already in your collections. And as I said above, the frame is one that will draw in new readers to Weird Fiction in general.

Enter now to win his finished copy for your collection, but also, take a moment to go to Lether Press' site and order a copy as well. Only one of you will win, but all of you can add this book to your collection. There is currently a $5 off discount there as well. Good luck! 

Scheduling Note: due to my travel to New England next week for this event, there will not be a giveaway next week. The giveaway will return on February 5, 2026. But you can still enter anytime because when you enter once, you are entered going forward.

Resource Alert-- Macabre Daily and a Chance to Learn About How The Horror Writers Association's Library Committee Can Help Your Library

 Recently, Konrad Stump (my HWA Libraries Co-Chair) and I each appeared separately on the Macabre Daily's Paper Cuts Interview series to talk about our work with the Horror Writers Association as the co-chairs of the Libraries Committee.

Before I get into the specifics of our library worker focused episodes, I wanted to make sure everyone knew about the wealth of resources available via Macabre Daily for you to use to help readers and horror fans of reading and movies and graphic novels. They have lists of books a movies as well a tons of interviews and review. Please make sure you bookmark it as an essential horror resource across formats. I have added Macabre Daily to my archive of my preferred horror resources.

Okay, now back to our interviews.

In Konrad's appearance he talked about his work organizing Oh, the Horror! for Springfield Greene County Library, how libraries can use Summer Scares at their libraries, and what we offer every year at Librarians' Day on the Friday of StokerCon.

You can click here or on the graphic at the bottom of this post to access the landing page for his interview which is full of links and details as well as providing a place to watch the interview on that page.

In my interview, we talk about my book, the recent podcast I did with Emily Hughes and Robb Olson previewing the horror titles were are excited about coming for the first half of 2026, and more.

You can click here or on the graphic at the bottom of this post to access the landing page for my interview which is full of links and details as well as providing a place to watch the interview on that page.

There is a lot here for you to help your horror readers with new titles, backlist sure bets, and so many resources.

Finally, if you want our help connecting your library with authors and or resources, we are both one email away: libraries at horror dot org.