Books like 'Malignant Summer'
Readers who enjoyed Malignant Summer by Tim Meyer also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror small town coming-of-age apocalyptic revenge paranormal dark creepy-children body-horror
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Fallow by Jordan L. Hawk
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Griffin’s past collides with his present, will it cost the lives of everyone he loves?Between the threat of a world-ending invasion from the Outside and unwelcome revelations about his own nature, Percival Endicott Whyborne is under a great deal of strain... -
![Murmuration by T.J. Klune]()
Murmuration by T.J. Klune
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the small mountain town of Amorea, it’s stretching toward autumn of 1954. The memories of a world at war are fading in the face of a prosperous future. Doors are left unlocked at night, and neighbors are always there to give each other a helping hand. The people here know certain things as fact: Amorea is the best little town there is. The only good Commie is a dead Commie... -
![The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale]()
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe narrator of The Bottoms is Harry Collins, an old man obsessively reflecting on certain key experiences of his childhood. In 1933, the year that forms the centerpiece of the narrative, Harry is 11 years old and living with his mother, father, and younger sister on a farm outside of Marvel Creek, Texas, near the Sabine River bottoms... -
![Love vs The Scarecrow! by Cassandra Gannon]()
Love vs The Scarecrow! by Cassandra Gannon
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNevermore County, 2000: Lori Hatake’s future isn’t going how she’d hoped. She’s broke, her boyfriend ran off with her cousin, and she just witnessed a grisly murder. A demonic Scarecrow killed a woman at the annual bonfire party, right in front of Lori’s eyes. The monster needs to be stopped, before it strikes again!Unfortunately, no one believes her wild tale, except for Dashiell Mommet... -
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![Fairydale by Veronica Lancet]()
Fairydale by Veronica Lancet
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 17 ratings𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞?August 1955,When Miss Darcy O’Sullivan, an orphaned English teacher from Boston, receives a letter that her biological father passed away, she is surprised to find herself included in his will.There is only one condition.She must travel to Fairydale to attend his funeral... -
![Blackwater 6: The Rain by Michael McDowell]()
Blackwater 6: The Rain by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsAs the Caskey family and their town of Perdido rode the crest of prosperity in the 60s, matriarch Elinor had good reason to be proud of her domain. But slowly, silently, unimaginable horrors were creeping into their midst.At the height of revelry, at the peak of chaos, in the fearful silence of blackest night, preternatural horror pounced upon the Caskeys... -
![Blackwater III: The House by Michael McDowell]()
Blackwater III: The House by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsThe Depression came hard to most people in Perdido, Alabama, but the town's first family weathered the storm under the guidane of the indomitable Mary-Love Caskey and the increasing influence of her daughter-in-law, Elinor.Strange and malevolent were the ways of Elinor to those who stood in her way. Those she loved would prosper. Those she disliked would die hideously... -
![The Haunting at Hawke's Moor by Camille Oster]()
The Haunting at Hawke's Moor by Camille Oster
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsVictorian London shows little mercy when divorce leaves Anne Kinelly destitute and abandoned by her husband. Her bleak future is avoided when the merciful actions of her solicitor results in a stroke of luck, finding a house forgotten and left in probate by previous generations... -
![The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, Josephine Leslie]()
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, Josephine Leslie
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsBurdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg... -
![Blackwater IV: The War by Michael McDowell]()
Blackwater IV: The War by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsWartime in Perdido jolted the sleepy little Alabama town as new people entered the community. Outsiders would invade the comfort of the wealthy Caskeys and take their daughters.This, though, was the part of the master plan of Elinor Caskey, who would see the fasmily flourish amidst the deatruction and death she administered in a fashion more awesome than the war itself... -
![Litani by Jess Lourey]()
Litani by Jess Lourey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline explores the darkness at the heart of the rural Midwest in a novel inspired by a chilling true crime.In the summer of ’84, fourteen-year-old Frankie Jubilee is shuttled off to Litani, Minnesota, to live with her estranged mother, a county prosecutor she barely knows... -
![The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor]()
The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAn unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor.Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here... -
![Summer of Night by Dan Simmons]()
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIt's the summer of 1960 in Elm Haven, Illinois, and five 12-year old boys are forming the bonds that a lifetime of changes will never erase. But then a dark cloud threatens the bright promise of summer vacation: on the last day of school, their classmate Tubby Cooke vanishes. Soon, the group discovers stories of other children who once disappeared from Elm Haven...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark paranormal 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book cosmic-horror -
![Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite]()
Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late... -
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![Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury]()
Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom internationally bestselling, acclaimed author Melinda Salisbury comes a darkly seductive story of murder, betrayal, love, and family secrets in a small town in the Scottish Highlands.Here are the rules of living with a murderer.One: Do not draw attention to yourself.Of course, when you live with a murderer, this is impossible. Even the subtlest of spectres is bound to be noticed... -
![Blackwater V: The Fortune by Michael McDowell]()
Blackwater V: The Fortune by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsUnder Elinor's guidance, the Caskey family prospered after the war, not knowing that a dark infernal force was growing in their midst. And Frances, Elinor's favorite daughter, never understood her strange yearning for the Perdido River....until the day her babies were born.Elinor presided over the secret birth, the triumph of her life... -
![Nocturnal by Clio Evans]()
Nocturnal by Clio Evans
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsI was his toxic obsession. He was my sadistic monster.Nora:When I took a job at St. Thorns university as a psychology professor, I encountered something—someone—unexplainable. Fascinating. And deadly.Alec Briar had the eyes of a killer.He’s a botanist who would rather rot in his greenhouse alone than deal with students, professors, or me... -
![Fate & Fortune by Maz Maddox]()
Fate & Fortune by Maz Maddox
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Skinwalker named Sky dreams of a dark fate.Marked as a death omen by his tribe, he lives on the fringes of Stallion Ridge, silently guarding the citizens and their lawmen. As his dreams become darker each night, he begins to dread that there is something unstoppable closing in.As darkness surrounds him, Sky becomes captivated by a spark... -
![Deadlight Hall by Sarah Rayne]()
Deadlight Hall by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA long-ago crime continues to menace the present in this spine-chilling tale of supernatural suspense. When Michael Flint is asked by a colleague to investigate a reputedly haunted house, he is intrigued. Leo Rosendale’s childhood was blighted by a macabre tragedy in the grim Deadlight Hall – a tragedy that occurred towards the end of World War II, involving a set of twins who vanished... -
![The Copper Man by Debra Castaneda]()
The Copper Man by Debra Castaneda
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“The horrible figure from the Prestwich Tunnel hovered there. Not a ghost. Something between a badly disfigured man and a monster. There was a limit to what the human mind could comprehend, and the ghastly thing standing before her was beyond that limit.”In 1985, the Copper Man killed Leah Shaw’s twin brother, Liam, in the mining town of Tribulation Gulch... -
![A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan]()
A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet just after the Civil War, A Prayer for the Dying is the story of a small Wisconsin town gripped by a mysterious, deadly epidemic, and one man desperate to save it. Torn between his loyalty to his family, his faith in God, and his terror of this vicious disease, Jacob Hansen struggles to preserve his sanity amid the chaos and violence around him... -
![The Bewitching Hour (A Tara Prequel) by Ashley Poston]()
The Bewitching Hour (A Tara Prequel) by Ashley Poston
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsIn this Buffy the Vampire Slayer prequel, fan-favorite and LGBTQIA+ icon Tara Maclay gets the main character treatment . . . whether she wants it or not. Tara Maclay isn’t thrilled to be in a new town for her senior year of high school. She misses her mom, her garden, her magic—and the way her dad treated her before her mom passed... -
![Cusp of Night by Mae Clair]()
Cusp of Night by Mae Clair
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe truth hides in dark places . . .Recently settled in Hode’s Hill, Pennsylvania, Maya Sinclair is enthralled by the town’s folklore, especially the legend about a centuries-old monster. A devil-like creature with uncanny abilities responsible for several horrific murders, the Fiend has evolved into the stuff of urban myth... -
![The Mortician's Wife (The Mortician Series Book 1) by Maralee Lowder]()
The Mortician's Wife (The Mortician Series Book 1) by Maralee Lowder
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe honeymoon of Ada, a shy and innocent young girl and Horace, a dashingly handsome, charismatic, mortician, gets off to a rough start. The marriage goes down hill from there. Although the marriage continues to be unconsummated, Ada holds out hope that one day the love she has for her husband will destroy the emotional wall that continues to separate them... -
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![The Bell Tower by Sarah Rayne]()
The Bell Tower by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"The haunted-house theme is one of the most venerable in the genre, and Rayne has given it new life in this series, drawing again and again on the secrets contained within structures built originally to keep us safe" Booklist Starred Review A 400-year-old crime continues to menace the present in this spine-chilling tale of supernatural suspense... -
![The Witch House of Persimmon Point by Suzanne Palmieri]()
The Witch House of Persimmon Point by Suzanne Palmieri
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Byrd Whalen returns to her family’s ancestral home to uncover secrets threating to destroy a legacy she holds dear, she gets more than she bargained for. Over the course of one harrowing weekend, the dark haunted histories of the Amore women reveal themselves, leading Byrd to question everything she's ever believed about herself... -
![The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost, María José Díez Pérez]()
The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost, María José Díez Pérez
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the co-creator of the landmark television series Twin Peaks comes a novel that deepens the mysteries of that iconic town in ways that not only enrich the original series but readies fans for the upcoming Showtime episodes... -
![Night Tide by Grace Draven]()
Night Tide by Grace Draven
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSomething hunts the surf at night, luring villagers to their deaths with a lullaby of sorrow and the torture of nightmares. Blessed with the gift of water-sight, Zigana Imre senses the presence of an ancient predator drawn by a hunger for human flesh sweetened by grief... -
![The Caged Graves by Dianne K. Salerni]()
The Caged Graves by Dianne K. Salerni
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe year is 1867, and seventeen-year-old Verity Boone is excited to return to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, the hometown she left when she was just a baby. Now she will finally meet the fiancé she knows only through letters! Soon, however, she discovers two strangely caged graves . . . and learns that one of them is her own mother’s...Categorized as:
coming-of-age paranormal action-adventure arranged-marriage book civil-war death family -
![The Bedmakers by Chad Lutzke, John Boden]()
The Bedmakers by Chad Lutzke, John Boden
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter two elderly men tire of their homelessness in downtown Chicago 1979, they hop a train in search of work out west. But before their last stop, a traumatic event in an empty train car steers their once-hopeful journey into a path of chaos filled with deceit, murder, grave robbing, and dormant secrets... -
![The Storycatcher by Ann Hite]()
The Storycatcher by Ann Hite
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsShelly Parker never much liked Faith Dobbins, the uppity way that girl bossed her around. But they had more in common than she knew. Shelly tried to ignore the haints that warned her Faith’s tyrannical father, Pastor Dobbins, was a devil in disguise. But when Faith started acting strange, Shelly couldn’t avoid the past—not anymore... -
![Eventide by Sarah Goodman]()
Eventide by Sarah Goodman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMADNESS, SECRETS, AND LIES Wheeler, Arkansas, 1907 When their father descends into madness after the death of their mother, Verity Pruitt and her little sister Lilah find themselves on an orphan train to rural Arkansas. In Wheeler, eleven-year-old Lilah is quickly adopted, but seventeen-year-old Verity is not. Desperate to stay close to her sister, Verity indentures herself as a farmhand... -
![The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins]()
The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA boy arrives at a remote village in the dead of night. His name is Ludlow Fitch--and he is running from a most terrible past. What he is about to learn is that in this village is the life he has dreamed of--a safe place to live, and a job, as the assistant to a mysterious pawnbroker who trades people's deepest, darkest secrets for cash...Categorized as:
dark paranormal action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children children-books -
![Cowboys & Vampires by Hank Edwards]()
Cowboys & Vampires by Hank Edwards
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsIn the frontier town of Belkin’s Pass, as a vampire quietly feeds on the local saloon girls and their customers, a tragedy teaches resident Josh Stanton he has the ability to raise the dead. Knowing he is now a wanted man, Josh flees into the arid plains of Venom Valley. Dex Wells, the town deputy and Josh’s best friend, catches up with Josh... -
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![Cast a Cold Eye by Alan Ryan]()
Cast a Cold Eye by Alan Ryan
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJack Quinlan, an American writer, travels to a small village in the remote western part of Ireland to research a book on the Irish Famine. The quiet, picturesque village seems just the place to spend a few months writing, but beneath its placid exterior lurk dark secrets... -
![Lizzie Borden by Elizabeth Engstrom]()
Lizzie Borden by Elizabeth Engstrom
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Lizzie Borden took an axe . . ". Or did she? One hundred years ago, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered. Their youngest daughter Lizzie was arrested and tried for the killings and--shockingly to many--was found innocent... -
![Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey]()
Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsInspired by a terrifying true story from the author’s hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet—or as safe—as it seems.Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class... -
![The Shadow Year: A Novel by Jeffrey Ford]()
The Shadow Year: A Novel by Jeffrey Ford
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy laments the approaching close of summer and the advent of sixth grade... -
![Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia]()
Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRenowned author Silvia Moreno-Garcia's first thriller, UNTAMED SHORE, is a coming-of-age story set in Mexico which quickly turns dark when a young woman meets three enigmatic tourists.Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun...Categorized as:
coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook bildungsroman book crime female-author -
![Spider Light by Sarah Rayne]()
Spider Light by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"The dangerous thing about spider light is that it hides things - things you never knew existed. But once you have seen those things, you can never afterwards forget them..."Antonia Weston has come to the sleepy market town of Amberwood in search of peace and anonymity after a shattering and all-too-public tragedy in her life... -
![Blackwood by Michael Farris Smith]()
Blackwood by Michael Farris Smith
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this timeless, mythical tale of unforgiving justice and elusive grace, rural Mississippi townsfolk shoulder the pain of generations as something dangerous lurks in the enigmatic kudzu of the woods.The town of Red Bluff, Mississippi, has seen better days, though those who've held on have little memory of when that was... -
![Maynard's House by Herman Raucher]()
Maynard's House by Herman Raucher
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAustin Fletcher, a disturbed young Vietnam War vet, is willed a small house deep in the woods of northern Maine. He comes to own it by the generosity of a brother-in-arms—a fellow soldier and confidante, Maynard Whittier, killed in action by a wayward mortar shell. The rugged landscape of Maine is an intoxicating blend of claustrophobic interiors and endless frozen wastelands... -
![Touch by Alexi Zentner, Norman Dietz]()
Touch by Alexi Zentner, Norman Dietz
Rated: 3.64 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn Sawgamet, a north woods boomtown gone bust, the cold of winter breaks the glass of the schoolhouse thermometer, and the dangers of working in the cuts are overshadowed by the mysteries and magic lurking in the woods... -
![Five Mile House by Karen Novak]()
Five Mile House by Karen Novak
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA modern day mystery haunted by a 19th Century ghost.Eleanor Bly haunts Five Mile House, looking for someone to tell her story to. Jumping from a window to her death in 1889, Eleanor's soul is at unrest until the truth is told about her life and death. She finally finds Leslie, one hundred years later... -
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![Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman]()
Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman
Rated: 3.65 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFailed academic Frank Nichols and his wife, Eudora, have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family's old estate-the Savoyard Plantation- and the horrors that occurred there. At first, the quaint, rural ways of their new neighbors seem to be everything they wanted... -
![Triskellion by Will Peterson]()
Triskellion by Will Peterson
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn an unwelcoming English village, two young outsiders are swept up in an archaeological mystery that ends in a startling paranormal twist.A sense of foreboding sets in the moment fourteen-year-old twins Rachel and Adam arrive from New York to visit their English grandmother. The station is empty, village streets are deserted, locals are hostile, and even their frail Granny Root is oddly distant...Categorized as:
coming-of-age paranormal action-adventure aliens archaeology book british-isles children -
![Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy]()
Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the spellbinding and suspenseful Let Me Die in His Footsteps, Edgar Award–winner Lori Roy wrests from a Southern town the secrets of two families touched by an evil that has passed between generations. On a dark Kentucky night in 1952 exactly halfway between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran crosses into forbidden territory... -
![The Vampire of Ropraz by Jacques Chessex]()
The Vampire of Ropraz by Jacques Chessex
Rated: 3.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Silky prose in this harrowing account of crime and punishment.”—Kirkus Reviews“Using spare, effective prose, Chessex brilliantly renders both the inhospitable winter landscape of the mountains and the harshness of a society that makes monsters of its victims... -
![Puerta al Infierno by Stefan Kiesbye]()
Puerta al Infierno by Stefan Kiesbye
Rated: 3.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsShirley Jackson meets The X-Files in this riveting novel of supernatural horrorThe village of Hemmersmoor is a place untouched by time and shrouded in superstition: There is the grand manor house whose occupants despise the villagers, the small pub whose regulars talk of revenants, the old mill no one dares to mention... -
![All These Bodies by Kendare Blake]()
All These Bodies by Kendare Blake
Rated: 3.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSixteen bloodless bodies. Two teenagers. One impossible explanation.It starts with a lone victim, found on his front porch with his throat cut and his body drained of blood. By the time it’s over, the Bloodless Murders leave a trail of sixteen bodies littered across the Midwest, with no suspects and no witnesses...
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