10 Scariest Summer-Based Horror Novels Ever
1. I.T. - Stephen King
It’s hard to know where to start when dolling out the superlatives for this novel, so it’s worth going back to the beginning of the book itself, where blood and rain run down a sewer drain in broad daylight, a brutal and poetic opening – never matched on film, still s**t scary in print. What follows is a beyond creepy odyssey through Derry, Maine’s heart of darkness as a (Loser) gang of kids face off against an eons old evil.
The template may feel well-worn now – each Loser is introduced and then comes face to face with an unimaginable horror, during what should be their halcyon days of a 1950s summer – but back in ’86 this was something different and worth getting your teeth stuck into.
What makes it so good, is that the book manages, once and for all, to soak a summers day in dread. The moments under the house in Neibolt Street or in the dank sewers play out more as pulsating action sequences than scare pieces, with King unleashing his real dread-inducing moments in broad daylight (Ben seeing Pennywise The Dancing Clown on the canal, Georgie’s picture, that trawl through Mike’s history book), all of which are still sending readers off their sun loungers, or out from under that nice tree, and back into the safety of indoors. These are indelible images that stick with you years after.
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