8 Slasher Books to Bring Some Scare to Your September
I freaking love slasher books. I tried to find a more eloquent way to explain to you how I feel about this subgenre, to wax poetically about its perfect cocktail of nostalgia, adrenaline, fear, and joy. But in the end, the simple fact is this: slashers are, to me, one of the most perfect, fundamental forms of horror, and I love them beyond reason. So many of the greatest villains of the horror genre are slashers. Masked killers wielding knives, machetes, axes, power tools, and more, intent on doing severe bodily harm to an unsuspecting ensemble cast, it’s just 110% a win-win scenario for me. I never get tired of it.
Because no two slasher books are ever really the same! June pool party disaster? August summer camp nightmare? October corn maze catastrophe (someone please write and/or point me towards a corn maze slasher, I beg you)? Be it prom or summer camp, sorority house or Hollywood studio, Halloween bash or small-town carnival, the setting is every bit as important as the killer. And who you cast in your killer’s pool of victims can change the dynamics at play entirely. Are they all run-and-screamers? Or are there a few whose personal histories see them instantly transforming into potential threats in their own right, stalking the killer before he can get to them first? Are there heroes emerging in the face of danger, rising to lead their friends to (hopefully) safety as the sun rises on a night-long bloodbath?
There’s so much room for inventiveness, and I think you’ll agree that the eight authors on this list of YA and adult slashers each put their own delightful spin on the subgenre. So without further ado: Machetes at the ready…make sure your mask is tied on tight…and GO!
The Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington
We all know the main rule of slasher books: it’s stab or be stabbed. You’ve got to get to the killer before the killer gets to you first. But what do you do when your killer isn’t the typical flesh-and-blood villain in coveralls and a mask? What next, when a little stabbing might not be enough to actually stop the creeping, terrifying demon that you and your friends may have accidentally conjured after having a little too much fun with the Ouija board, and you and your friends are suddenly trapped in the stereotypical roles of a slasher film? That’s certainly not how Devon and her twin sister Drew intended their “best summer ever” to end up in Joelle Wellington’s YA slasher The Blonde Dies First. But there’s no denying that now the twins and their friends are in a heap of trouble. For one thing, Devon’s “the blonde” of the group, and everyone knows that when it comes to slashers: the blonde dies first. If Devon wants to make it out of this alive, she’s going to have to decide whether to play by the demon-turned-slasher-killer’s rules or cleave her own path through the subgenre’s usual tropes to save herself and those she loves.
Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning
If you have never read one of Josh Winning’s books before, treat yourself. I’m serious. Winning is an auto-buy author in my household, and though I haven’t had a chance to start his newest slasher yet, I am so looking forward to it. This is Winning’s second venture into Hollywood horror: last year he gave us the excellent Burn the Negative, another slasher (and a bloody, messy good time!) about the remaking of a cursed ’90s slasher film. Now, with Heads Will Roll, Winning gives us washed-up sitcom star Willow, who finds herself courting scandal after she, and I quote, “tweeted herself into infamy.” Shipped off by her agent to a summer camp for adults, Willow finds herself deep in the woods of upstate New York with a host of other minor celebrities in need of a reputation rehab. But Camp Castaway is not as peaceful as it seems at first glance; as campers start to vanish, Willow begins to realize that there might be more at risk here than her acting career.
There’s No Way I’d Die First by Lisa Springer
This is not a complete, successful list of slasher books if I cannot provide you with at least one (optional but highly recommended) killer clown, and wow, does this YA slasher from Lisa Springer deliver. When Noelle Layne uses her horror movie expertise to throw the biggest, most exclusive Halloween bash for her senior class, she expects the night to go down in history as one of the best parties of her high school career—not one of the most deadly. That is, until the knock-off creepy clown that she hired puts an axe in one of her guests, and a serious wrinkle in her party plans. As the night descends into terror, Noelle will have to rely on everything she’s learned from a lifetime of watching horror movies if she wants to be the Final Girl in her own personal slasher film.
Tastes Like Candy by Ivy Tholen
If you’re looking for a super fun high school slasher that will give you all the gore and death your little horror fan heart could ever wish for, you definitely need to read Tastes Like Candy. It takes place after hours at something called a Poison Apple Carnival! How awesome is that? Violet Warren and her friends are this year’s lucky invitees to the Senior Scavenge, a Pritchett High tradition for rising seniors. The eight girls will break into the carnival for one night to conduct their scavenger hunt and celebrate the start of their senior year of high school. But, as you might expect, things do not exactly go according to plan. Inside the carnival they find themselves being stalked by a masked killer who starts picking them off one by one. This book has some delightfully creative kills; it’s a fantastic, wild ride from first kill to vicious end as Violet tries to uncover the killer’s identity and just what he thinks she and her friends did to attract his wrath.
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
Bayron’s YA twist on the traditional summer camp slasher is a must-have for every slasher book reading list. This book had me fixated, especially as the murders escalated and it became clear that this was not just some random axe murderer taking offense at a bunch of kids in a summer camp (not that I don’t love the occasional random axe murderer). Instead of clueless counselors and frightened campers, the cast of You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight is made up of actors who serve as both cast and crew of a live-action horror attraction. Horror fan Charity scored the perfect summer job when she got cast to play the “final girl” in an interactive escape room-eseque experience based on the classic slasher, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. It’s a full-contact experience where guests pay to immerse themselves in scenes from the film. The more frightening, the better. That is until the last weekend of the season when things at Camp Mirror Lake take a deadly turn, leaving Charity and her girlfriend Bezi fighting to survive the unknown killer that’s picking off Charity’s fellow cast members one by one.
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones really has established himself as one of the kings of the modern slasher. His newest book, I Was a Teenage Slasher, is another fantastic homage to the slasher subgenre. Fans currently mourning the end of Jones’ Indian Lake Trilogy will love it, as will anyone who keeps a special place in their heart for slasher books, and loves books with as much heart as horror (something that is definitely another of Jones’ specialties). My favorite aspect of I Was a Teenage Slasher is the fact that Jones offers his audience a twist on the usual subgenre conventions by giving us a slasher from the point of view of the killer himself. He lets us ride along with 17-year-old Tolly for every gut-wrenching, bloody minute of his journey from normal teenager to deadly slasher villain, cursed to kill.
Benny Rose the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper
Hailey Piper is one of my favorite horror authors. If she’s writing it, I want to own it. I want to horrify my eyeballs with her genuinely terrifying imagination. Benny Rose the Cannibal King, which was Piper’s addition to the excellent Rewind or Die novella series, is the perfect Halloween slasher. What’s not to love about a cannibalistic Halloween slasher? Set in 1987 in Blackwood, Vermont, Benny Rose begins with a Halloween prank gone horribly wrong. A vicious storm crashes into the small town on Halloween night, interrupting the prank that high school student Desiree St. Fleur and her friends were trying to play on the new girl at school. What was supposed to be just a bit of seasonal fun involving Blackwood’s resident urban legend, Benny Rose, turns into a nightmare as the teens find themselves trapped in an unfamiliar neighborhood, hunted by none other than the cannibal king himself. It’s gross, gruesome, and flat-out disgusting, which, of course, means that I was glued to every single page.
Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis
A serial killer’s daughter searching for proof of her father’s crimes? A summer camp newly located on what used to be his old hunting grounds? Something dark, sinister, and very likely inhuman lurking in the woods nearby? Sami Ellis’ Dead Girls Walking delivers on all this and more in a YA slasher that will keep you on your toes. Disguised as a counselor, Temple is working at the summer camp while she searches for her mother’s body, which she believes her infamous serial killer father buried somewhere on the grounds or in the surrounding woods. But when campers start turning up dead, Temple has to reckon with the possibility that the North Point Killer’s reign of terror might not yet be over. Is it a “fan” of her father’s, copycatting his violent murders? Or is there something even worse hiding in the woods around the camp that makes her father’s crimes look mild by comparison?
I picked just eight titles for this list and tried to focus on some of the brand-new slasher books published in the last four years or so. But there were so many other slashers I could have added to this list—it was really hard to pick just eight! So if you find yourself in the mood for even more masked killers and blades in the dark, be sure to check out these other slasher lists, guaranteed to be a bloody good time that will leave you begging for more.
