Brr. Freezing temperatures have meant I’m stuck inside, wearing multiple layers and telling my kids to get their cold feet off of me. Don’t get me wrong, it is beautiful out there, but I am about to go stir crazy. Friends of mine are sharing photos from their holiday vacations in Mexico and the Caribbean, with sunny, bright blue skies, and I so want to soak up some of that warmth.
Alas, I’m in the freezing Midwest, and I’m not going anywhere. And wherever you are, unless you’re in Florida, you”re probably feeling some frosty weather coming your way as well. In the spirit of escaping it all for warmer climes, I thought I’d give you a list of titles that take place in warmer locales. While we’ve reviewed some of the books on this list, I can’t vouch for them all, and as always, not every book is right for every reader. Still, here are some books to add some heat to your TBR pile.
The Lamplighters by Frazer Lee (reviewed here). Working on an island paradise is not all it’s cracked up to be.
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. A classic tale of mad science and genetic manipulation.
Shady Palms by Allen Dusk (reviewed here). Want to vacation in California? You’ll want to avoid staying at Shady Palms.
Amazonas by Allan Peter Ryan (reviewed here). An atmospheric tale of a journey down the Amazon and into supernatural horror.
The Disappearance by Bentley Little (reviewed here). A college student mysteriously disappears while on vacation at the Burning Man festival in Nevada.
Slither by Edward Lee (reviewed here) Lee creates a deadly mix with killer worms, scientists, the military, and a bunch of college students, and plenty of gore and sexual violence, taking place on a tropical island in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropic of Darkness by Tony Richard (reviewed here). Havana, Cuba may be a delightful place to visit, but the music there can be deadly.
Lost Girl of the Lake by Joe McKinney and Michael McCarthy (reviewed here). Mark expected summer vacation in Gaitlinville, Texas to be boring, but it turned out to be a haunting experience.
Red Rain by R.L. Stine (reviewed here). A novel for grown-ups from the master of children’s horror. Travel writer Lea Sutter is trapped on an island in South Carolina during a hurricane, and returns home with two strange children orphaned by the storm.
Tribesmen by Adam Cesare (reviewed here). A producer sends his movie crew to a Caribbean island to film a B-movie horror film, using the natives as extras.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Dinosaurs recreated for an amusement park near Costa Rica behave, well, like dinosaurs, with disastrous results.
The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine by Peter Straub (reviewed here). In this atmospheric tale of subtle horror, Ballard and Sandrine are on a cruise down the Amazon that seems to take place during a time warp, beginning in 1969 and ending in 1997.
Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak by B.M. Hodges. Abigail and Jaime join a reality show that has them racing across the Malaysian Peninsula, which has been overrun by zombies. We have a review of this one coming soon.
The Island by Richard Laymon (reviewed here) Told in diary format, this is the story of Rupert, his girlfriend Connie, and her family, stranded on an island and stalked by a killer. Note, Laymon is not for the faint of heart.
Here’s hoping one of these warms you up, or at least distracts you while you try to stave off the chills. Happy reading!
The Restless Dead: Ten Original Tales of the Supernatural, edited by Deborah Noyes. With authors like Kelly Link and Annette Curtis Klause contributing, you will surely find something here to give you the creeps.
Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror, edited by R.L. Stine. This collection has an interesting collection of writers, including F.Paul Wilson and Heather Graham, who write thrillers for adults, and Peg Kehret, who writes middle grade mysteries and suspense. So it’s not surprising that the collection is somewhat of a mixed bag– but there’s also quite a lot of variety!
All Hallows’ Eve: 13 Stories by Vivian Vande Velde. This is an individual collection, and again, these are stories of the supernatural and spooky rather than the gory. Vivian Vande Velde is a fantastic writer and this could be a good way to see if you like her stuff before trying out a longer work. And, of course, this collection is thematically about Halloween, so how could I leave it out?
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link. One of the stories in this book, “The Wrong Grave”, is also in The Restless Dead, mentioned above. So if you tried that and liked it, definitely pick up Pretty Monsters. These are not typical scary stories, but they’ll definitely creep you out! Kelly Link is a favorite author of mine, and I really recommend this one.
Ghostly Gallery: Eleven Spooky Stories for Young People edited by Alfred Hitchcock. This is just one of a series of short story anthologies that Hitchcock published in the 1970’s and that were available in libraries and through Scholastic book orders in the 1980s as well. It’s really a tragedy that these volumes and others like them are no longer in print, as most of the early exposure I had to scary stories was through these types of books.
Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories edited by Roald Dahl. You may think of Roald Dahl as a children’s author, but he also wrote for adults and really, even in his children’s books, proves that he is a master of the macabre. His choices here include many older, classic, ghost stories, from authors such as Sheridan Le Fanu, Edith Wharton, and Robert Aickman. These are literary horror stories, some quite frightening, so I’d recommend it for older teens.
The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack, illustrated by Brian Pinkney. These stories have the eerie feeling of truth to them, possibly because of McKissack’s introduction, where she describes listening to the stories the adults around her told when she was a child. This is a Caldecott Award winner, and also a Coretta Scott King award winner, but beyond that, it’s just really good storytelling, made even better by the dramatic illustrations. I have this on Kindle, and I’ve got to say, this is one of the books that you really need to hold in your hands and see the artwork complementing the story across a double page spread, to truly appreciate. Don’t let the award for children’s book illustration fool you: this book is often used with and appreciated by middle school aged kids and older.
The Scary Stories Treasury: Three Books to Chill Your Bones, Collected From Folklore, edited by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Make sure you have the books illustrated by Stephen Gammell. I don’t care how old you are, these are still scary. And I’m definitely not the only one to think so– read 
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