Hey bookworm friends. I’m a big fan of open ended TTTopics like this week’s and I decided that I could combine it with Tammy’s Summer of Horror. So I searched my TBR for horror words for inspiration; I tried ‘ghost’, ‘haunt’, ‘blood’, but I either didn’t have enough or they were leaning towards fantasy more than actual horror books. I then realized there are a lot of books with the word ‘Dead’ in the title so that’s what I’m going with! Here are my Top 10 ‘Dead’ books for Summer of Horror (they can arguably be considered horror in some way).
Link-ups
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
Summer of Horror is hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones, & Buffy
‘Dead’ Books for Summer of Horror
1. Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead by K. J. Parker
2. Once & Future, Vol. 1: The King is Undead by Kieron Gillen with Dan Mora
3. The Briar Book of the Dead by A. G. Slatter
4. Dead Things Are Closer than They Appear by Robin Wasley
5. The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould
6. Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K. J. Parker
7. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
8. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
9. Over My Dead Body by Sweeney Boo
10. Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Let’s chat in the comments!
Have you read any of these books yet? Or, If you participated in TTT this week feel free to share your link with me 🖤
Dead clever 😉
Thanks for sharing your #TTT
hehe, I see what you did there 😉 and thank you! 🙂 !
And I thought I was the deviant one, trying to think of books with “cold” in the title!
hahah I’m glad that I could make you feel less deviant, if that helps lol 😂
A few bloggers have picked murder this week. Your theme matches theirs! 🙂
Ahaha clearly we’re on the same wavelength! 😉
These all look super scary!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
They kind of do!! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
These all look very macabre for sure! I personally have about three books in my TBR with death in the title. Nice prompt!
My Post:
https://thegentlechapter.blog/2026/07/07/top-ten-tuesday-hot-books/
Thank you for stopping by my post, Ashley! And 3 titles may not be that many but I feel like that word shows up in a lot of different genre’s titles, haha.
Only heard of the A.G. Slatter book, but haven’t read it.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2026/07/07/top-ten-tuesday-books-with-the-word-summer-in-the-title/
Ah nice, I hope you enjoy it if you ever give it a try! 😀
Excellent picks! I loved Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear. 😁
Thanks so much, Lauren 😀 I’m glad you loved that one, it really sounds great :D!!
I’ve only read “Over My Dead Body,” which I didn’t like unfortunately, but I loved the illustrations.
Ah, sorry to hear you didn’t love the story itself but at least you enjoyed the art :).
The perfect word for a horror list! I loved Dead Silence, and you’ve reminded me I need to read The Briar Book of the Dead.
Glad you think it’s fitting as well! 🙂 I hope you enjoy The Briar Book of the Dead, the premise sounds quite unique. And Dead Silence also sounds great!
Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear is such an underrated book. I freakin’ love that one. Dead Silence is probably my favorite by S.A. Barnes so far. Great list!
That’s so funny, I just saw you mentioning it on ‘ALWAYS ME’ since we shared the same word 😂 I’m really glad to hear that book has fans and that it’s great! I haven’t read any S.A. Barnes yet but I really want to!
How delightfully terrifying! Great word choice.
haha thank you, Olivia :D!
Ooh, good one! I’m looking forward to reading Dead Silence (and hopefully with Charlotte this summer). Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear also sounds really good so I might just yoink that onto my TBR radar. Great picks 🙂
Thanks :)! Oh that’s so fun I hope you both enjoy Dead Silence if you make it into a buddy read! Ahaha, yoink away! 😜
Ahh, good pick for the word!
Gotta love T. Kingfisher’s work…
Thanks! & I’ve only read Kingfisher’s fantasy stuff, not any of her horror yet even though I want to! 🙂
I have a lot of “dead” books on my bookshelves, too, although they’re mystery/thriller novels not horror (too much of a wimp).
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Yeahh lots of that word in the mystery/thriller realm. I’ve only recently really started getting into horror and I consider myself a wimp too but I find Thrillers too stressful so that’s kind of funny hehe.
Ohh, this is cool! I have heard of only one book, What Moves the Dead! Unfortunately, I don’t really read horror, I am very picky when it comes to it, but I will definitely check some of these books. Happy reading <3
Thanks, Lin :)! I totally get that, I’m fairly new to horror and I’m kind of finding which ones I like and which ones are way too scary to even try haha. I hope you find something you enjoy and happy reading right back :D!!
Nice word choice! I don’t know any of these, but I have never been that much of horror reader, so that’s probably not too surprising.
Thanks, Cat! Fair enough, that makes sense😄.
Ooooh I love this word for this topic! And all these books look so intriguing too. I haven’t read any of them, but I now have some new ones on my TBR!
Thanks, Nikki! Glad to have new offerings for your TBR hehe 😜, I hope you enjoy any that you might try!
I’m hopefully getting to Dead Silence and What Moves The Dead over the summer 🤞 I also should be reading my first Slatter book this month but I’m checking them out in chronological order as I’ve heard that some of her books have Easter egg type cameos that way within the Sourdough Universe. Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear and The Dead And The Dark are both somewhere on my unowned TBR list although I forgot all about them and definitely appreciate the reminder 😂 The others are new to me with Saevus Corax especially catching my eye.
I got curious and looked at my horror list to see if anything fits and besides the Kingfisher sequel to what you’ve shared here I only have ‘Dead Of Winter’. And if I’m remembering rightly thats not actually horror as such, I just stuck it on that list as I’d rather read it around Halloween than Christmas 🙈 I do have titles with ‘death’, ‘undying’ and ‘died’ in their titles though, so close
Oh I hope you enjoy both of those! Looking forward to your thoughts on them 🙂 Interesting, thanks for letting me know as I had not heard about that little detail! I suppose I’ll want to read them in order too. Hehe happy to be of service 😉
Yeah, Saevus Corax sounds really good to me!
Ah that’s funny I love that you checked hehe and Dead of Winter by who? I don’t think I know of that one. Very close, they count as well as far as I’m concerned 🙂 !
Great list. I particularly love seeing Slatter on here I really enjoy her books.
Lynn 😀