Destination: Horror
Summer Reading About Deadly Destinations
School is out and summer is upon us. Do you know what that means? Time to break out the horror paperbacks and get going on our summer reading list. How else are us fans of everything spooky and macabre going to get primed and ready for Halloween? Fall is only three short months away, so let’s get cracking!
Since it is vacation season and everyone is off to the beach to catch some sun, I thought it would be fun to explore some spine-tingling destinations. In this list you will find five books that prove horror can be found in all four corners of the earth. From the sunniest beaches to the bitter cold artic tundra, there are terrors which go bump in the night.
The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells
After surviving a shipwreck, Edward Prendick finds himself stranded on a mysterious island lorded over by the infamous Doctor Moreau – a disgraced psychologist who fled London after his heinous experiments were exposed to the public. Here on the island, Moreau has been continuing his experiments without the society-imposed shackles of morality and ethics, giving birth to a race of half-human monsters.
This blend of horror and science fiction is a classic must-read for horror fans. Since it’s publication in 1986, it’s spawned a slew of film adaptations and inspired the works of countless contemporary writers. Who doesn’t love a good mad scientist story?
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
On a spit of land on the Alabama Gulf Coast are three Victorian houses owned by the McCray and the Savage families – two old names bound to one another by marriage. One of the three houses has been abandoned for years as it slowly disappears beneath a dune of white sand. An unseen entity resides within the sand and has infested the bones of the old house – and it is ready to kill again.
My summer is never complete unless I can get my hands on a classic gothic horror style ghost story. This book is a slow burn but the dread it instills in its readers will keep you turning the page just to see what happens next.
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Let’s take a trip to the far north where few humans dare to tread. The HMS Terror and her crew have set sail into the artic circle in search of the Legendary Northwest Passage. When the waters around the ship freeze solid, the crew has no choice but to hunker down and wait for a summer thaw that never seems to arrive. But, the crew has more to fear out in the arctic tundra than frost bite. There is something out on the ice ready to pick them off one-by-one.
When I said destination, I didn’t necessarily mean they’d all be warm destinations. This book is (loosely) based on Captain Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition to find the northwest passage in 1845. Though, seeing as none of the crew survived the journey, who’s to say they weren’t all slaughtered by something monstrous out on the ice?
The Troop by Nick Cutter
Scout Leader Tim Triggs takes his troop of young boys on their yearly camping trip to a remote island off the Canadian coast. When a sickly stranger arrives to interrupt the trip, he brings with him a deadly – and absurdly contagious – parasite. What ensues Cronenberg-esque-can’t-look-away body horror that will make your skin crawl off your bones.
There is just something uniquely disturbing about body horror in literary form. With the right words, your mind can fill in the visuals in ways a movie never could. Fair warning though, this is not the book to read if you’re the squeamish type.
The Ruins by Scott B. Smith
Four American tourists decide to explore off the beaten path while vacationing in Mexico. Despite repeated warnings from the locals, the group travels down a hidden path and discovers ancient ruins covered in vines. They discover the hard way the reason why the earth around the ruins has been salted, and why the locals can’t let them leave.
I almost didn’t include this one because of its similar themes to the number four entry on this list, but the vacationing tourist protagonists practically begged to be promoted as a prime summer read. If nothing else, this book serves to cement my argument that everything in nature is actively trying to kill us humans.
These are just a few books to add a bit of doom and gloom to your summer vacation. Are there any destination horror books I have not added to this list? Let me know in the comments!