10 Scariest Summer-Based Horror Novels Ever

10. The Scarecrow Walks At Midnight - R.L. Stine

From The Werewolves Of Fever Swamp to Deep Trouble, no other author has cottoned on to the terrors that a summer’s day can yield quite like R. L. Stine. With The Scarecrow Walks At Midnight, the twentieth entry in his mega-selling series of Goosebumps novellas, the author surpasses himself.

Taking a cue from Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’s ‘Harold’, the story starts out serenely as siblings Jodie and Mark go to visit their grandparents’ farm, out in Sticksville, USA, but soon cotton on that the surrounding scarecrows are doing more than just giving birds the heebie jeebies. Like all other ‘Bumps stories, each chapter eases you in and a central mystery starts to unravel, which in this case points to some genetic engineering taking place.

What makes this Stine’s strongest entry is his way of describing these sun-tinged rural surroundings, the subtlety of his scares (scarecrows swaying in the wind, or are they?) and that overall feeling of dread it instils in what should be the most humdrum of surroundings.