Getaway with 7 Vacation Horror Books
Time off is never a bad thing, is it?
We all need time away from the humdrum and stress of everyday life. What could be more relaxing than a holiday with friends or family in a luxury resort, on a beautiful island, with plenty of sun, sand, alcohol, and party nightlife?
Well, give a horror author a vacation and they’ll be happy to spoil it for you.
Sprinkle some horror elements over a holiday and you might find your relaxing getaway isn’t as relaxing as you’d expected. After reading some of these vacation horror books, you might just want to stay home next time you need to take a breather.
Join us on the trip of a lifetime through 7 vacation horror books and enjoy your break.
- This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Table of Contents
Summer Rental – Rektok Ross
Serial killer vacation horror
Riley March and her friends are headed to ritzy, remote Palm Key Island for one last blow-out party weekend before college. It’s the vacation of a lifetime: beautiful beaches, epic nightlife, and hot guys like Riley’s crush, superstar soccer player Sebastian Ramos.
There’s just one catch. Everyone on this trip is hiding something. Riley is hiding her past in order to fit in. Sebastian is hiding his feelings for Riley. And someone is hiding what really happened to Jordyn Chang, a classmate that mysteriously died last summer.
Things take a dark turn after one of their friends goes missing, and a hurricane cuts the group off from civilization. Trapped inside their rental house, a killer stalks them one by one. No one is safe. Everyone’s a suspect.
As the body count rises, Riley and her friends will have to confront the secrets they’ve been keeping if they want to stay alive.
“They’re going to have a killer summer…”
The Ruins – Scott Smith
Supernatural vacation horror
Two young couples are on a lazy Mexican vacation: sun-drenched days, drunken nights, making friends with fellow tourists.
When the brother of one of those friends disappears, they decide to venture into the jungle to look for him.
What started out as a fun day-trip slowly spirals into a nightmare when they find an ancient ruins site … and the terrifying presence that lurks there.
“He said we shouldn’t go.”
Beach Bodies – Darklit Press
Vacation horror anthology
Beach vacations are meant for relaxing and unwinding away from the drudgery of normal life. The sparkling sun, shimmering on cresting waves. A light breeze as you sit with toes in the sand, a cold drink in one hand. Utopia on an island. But what happens when that paradise suddenly becomes a purgatory of pain?
A family’s vacation is cut short when the dead begin to rise. A strange hotel will do anything to keep its guests from leaving. A series of murders leads a local reporter on the hunt for a werewolf. A distraught man discovers he’s on a vacation from hell. Friends on vacation come face to face with an ancient curse.
What will you do when the beaches fill with bodies and the waters run red with blood? When creatures crawl the coastline and the jungle teems with terror. How will you survive when a tropical respite becomes an arena of peril?
“She moves limply, like a marionette controlled by strings.”
The Forgotten Island – David Sodergren
Supernatural vacation horror
When Ana Logan agrees to go on holiday to Thailand with her estranged sister Rachel, she hopes it will be a way for them to reconnect after years of drifting apart.
But now, stranded on a seemingly deserted island paradise with no radio and no food, reconciliation becomes a desperate fight for survival.
For when night falls on The Forgotten Island, the dark secrets of the jungle reveal themselves. Something is watching them from the trees.
Something ancient.
Something evil.
“The men stared into the pool, at the two frightened workers pressed up against the dirt walls…”
Narcissus – Adam Godfrey
Supernatural vacation horror
If the remainder of your life was only as long as your ability to avoid your own reflection, how long would you last?
An hour? A day? Perhaps a week?
It’s been said that at the core of every legend lies a seed of truth. For four American tourists vacationing in Greece, this is a lesson learned the hard way.
When the group sets out to find a subterranean pool that’s rumored to be the one by which the demi-god Narcissus once wasted away in self-obsession, what started as a fun excursion quickly escalates into a full-blown nightmare.
After looking into the waters of the pool, they come to find their own reflections have become infected by an ancient evil. As they’re picked off one-by-one by a malevolence that resides in the reflective world, those remaining race to find a way to bring the nightmare to an end before it takes them all.
In the meantime, all they’ll have to do is avoid their own reflections.
“The plunging void ahead twists off in to the dripping blackness like a limestone throat.”
Reckless Girls – Rachel Hawkins
Island vacation horror
Beautiful, wild, and strange, Meroe Island is a desolate spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. It’s the perfect destination for the most adventurous traveler to escape everything… except the truth.
Six twenty-somethings are about to embark on a blissful, free-spirited journey, one filled with sun-drenched days and intoxicating nights. But as it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in, sending them on a dangerous spiral of discovery.
When one person goes missing and another turns up dead, the remaining friends wonder what dark currents lie beneath this impenetrable paradise, and who else will be swept under its secluded chaos.
“One island. Six visitors. Countless secrets.”
Burnt Offerings – Robert Marasco
Supernatural vacation horror
Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, it’s an offer that’s too good to refuse.
There’s only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals.
But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house.
As the suspense builds towards a revelation of what really lies behind that locked door, the Rolfes will discover that their cheap vacation rental comes at a terrible cost.
“Just a month, two months away and she was sure she’d come back refreshed…”
Published: 8 June 2024
Subscribe
Horror-themed clothing, notebooks, homewares, and accessories
