We’re hitting peak summertime here in the United States. The sun is our constant companion, temperatures are spiking, and all people want to do is flock to the beach to relax and cool off. Especially if you live in Minnesota, land of (over) 10,000 lakes.
Elley did a post last week about her favorite beach reads, fun, relaxing reads that are perfect for sitting under a giant umbrella with a delicious drink and whiling away the summer hours.
But what something were to go wrong? What about the things that lurk in the water? What if you want your relaxing summer beach trip to be a little more… scary?
Don’t worry, boo. I got you covered.
Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant.
This was also Elley’s rec for “books to make you run away from the beach” because we both loooooved it, and also there are killer mermaids in here.
Basic premise: Woman joins a reality film crew/research team on a ship to find out what happened to the last crew that went out and violently got muderized by an unknown something out in the ocean trenches. Chaos ensues. Also, queer characters. Also spoiler: they were murderized by killer mermaids. I’m not saying this book made me stay away from water for a long time, but also I haven’t gone to the beach since I read it soooo…
The Meg - Steve Alten
I didn’t care for this one quite as much, but it does have 4 stars on GoodReads, so obviously some people did.
Basic Premise: Hotshot scientist survives an attack by the biggest fucking shark in the whole world (see: Megalodon), and becomes gunshy, but is convinced by his equally hotshot ladyfriend sub pilot that he should join her team to go down and help deal with the shark because it’s gonna start nomming on people soon. I am gonna give this one another go. It’s coming out as a movie this fall staring My Boyfriend Jason Statham. I didn’t make it far enough into the book for the feasting to start, but judging by the movie trailers, A LOT of people are about to become a huge shark buffet.
Beast - Peter Benchley
I immediately added this to my TBR as soon as I found out it existed. It’s by the same guy who did Jaws. (Yes, Jaws WAS a book too.)
Basic Premise: The main character’s name is Whip Darling, which is a romance hero name if ever I heard one. From the (frankly excellent) cover art, I gleaned that a giant squid-type-creature awoke from it’s eternal slumber and is ready for human tar tar. And our Whip Darling is leading the charge to stop it, while being no doubt rugged and also damnably down on his luck. My biggest issue with these books is I so often root for the monster, because the characters are so often twatty and dumb. So Squiddy McSquashson, I shall root for you.
Cujo - Stephen King
We’re diverting a bit here from “things that lurk in the sea” to “things that lurk on land”, and we’re going with the classic Cujo.
Basic Premise: A kid’s two hundred pound Saint Bernard gets rabies and terrorizes a small Maine town. It sounds kinda dumb, but let me tell you a thing. 1) It’s Stephen King, so it’s guaranteed to be creepy as hell and very atmospheric, and 2) I made the mistake of reading this book in a cabin in the middle of the woods (where lake time often occurs in Minnesota!) and I spent the rest of the weekend being terrified that every noise I heard was Cujo coming to eat me.
Grab one of these reads, your drink, your sunscreen, and prepare for a different kind of beach experience.
Thank you for this entry!
ReplyDeleteI loooove horror movies that take place in the sea. But I never heard of a book with that kind of plot (except for Shark). So thank you thank you thank you! I will definetly going to check them out!