In the 1990s, Scream, Urban Legend, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and many others took the dying slasher genre and brought it back to life making it stronger than ever. We all know where we were when we saw the first jaw-dropping ten minutes of Scream. Featuring the hottest stars at the time in terrifying situations, 90s slashers defined a generation. If you’re looking for some books that will bring back those memories and make you feel afraid to pick up the phone, here are some great books for your TBR!

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

The “final girl” is a trope in horror movies that describes the last woman standing at the end of a horror movie. Lynne Tarkington is a true-life final girl and has been meeting with a support group for final girls with a therapist for over a decade. When one of the other final girls goes missing, Lynne and the others begin to believe someone with deadly intentions has found out about their support group and is looking to pick them off one by one.

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Zetas Till We Die by Amber and Danielle Brown

Ten years ago, Priscilla and the Zeta Phi Zeta sorority lost their sorority sister, Lupe. Just days before their ten-year reunion, Lupe’s killer is released on a technicality. Regardless of the news, Priscilla and the Zetas have their wild party and reunite, with everything seemingly going off without a hitch. When the next morning comes around, one of the sisters is missing and Priscilla begins to suspect there could be more to Lupe’s murder than anyone ever guessed.

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My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Jade Daniels uses horror movies as an escape from her real life. She is half-Indigenous, her father is abusive, her mother isn’t in the picture, and she’s an outcast. While Jade enjoys horror movies with masked killers and bloodshed, she’s not prepared when she finds herself in a real-life horror movie as bodies start to pile up in Indian Lake.

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Curse of the Reaper by Brian McAuley

Howard Browning used to be a household name known for playing “The Reaper” in the horror movie franchise Night of the Reaper. Now, he barely signs any autographs at horror conventions and his fans have seemingly left him back in the 80s. When the studio announces a reboot of Night of the Reaper, Howard believes things might just turn around for him until it’s announced his role is going to former child-star Trevor Mane. Howard refuses to give up his character and won’t let anyone get in his way of being the star of this franchise again.

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The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

Maddy Washinton has been bullied for most of her life from her fellow classmates. While Maddy has been passing as white this entire time, it is soon revealed that she is biracial. When a video of her classmates bullying her goes viral, the school decides to plan an integrated prom to show unity. While Maddy thinks there is some relief on the horizon, some of her classmates have more tricks up their sleeves and plan on revealing all of Maddy’s secrets, leading everyone to wonder what really happened on prom night when all fingers point to Maddy.

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The Thicket by Noelle W. Ihli

The night Norah’s brother died at a Halloween carnival, they argued, and she left him alone in the woods unaware that a real killer was lurking. When the carnival reopens a few weeks later amid controversy, Norah returns to retrace her brother’s steps and get to the bottom of what really happened the night he was murdered only to realize that this killer may have chosen this location for a very specific reason.

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The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

Being a cheerleader in Sunnybrook is a curse. After two cheerleaders die in a car accident, two other cheerleaders are murdered, and another commits suicide. Monica has always had questions about her sister’s suicide and now, five years later, the students at the high school want to commemorate those they’ve lost. When mysterious things begin to happen, Monica believes that what happened five years ago was only the beginning.

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Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar

In the summer if 1988, teenage girls are being found brutally murdered in a small Maryland town. Recent college graduate, Richard Chizmar, and his friend Caryl begin their investigation into what’s happening as rumors erupt of a serial killer hunting in their small town.

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Summer Rental by Rektok Ross

Riley March and her friends are headed to the posh Palm Key Island for one last weekend of partying before college. What should be a fun getaway turns sinister as everyone on Palm Key Island is hiding something. Riley is hiding her past, her crush, Sebastian Ramos, is hiding his feelings for Riley, and someone knows what happened to a classmate who died under mysterious circumstances the summer before. When one of their friends goes missing and a hurricane hits, a killer starts to stalk the friend group and everyone is forced to expose their secrets in order to stay alive.

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The Inmate by Freida McFadden

Brooke Sullivan just got a job as a nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security prison and she must follow three simple rules: be respectful to the prisoners, don’t reveal any personal information about yourself, and don’t become too friendly with any of the prisoners. What no one knows is Brooke has already broken these rules and Brooke’s hiding the fact that her previous high school sweetheart, Shane Nelson, is one of the prisoners. Shane will never forget Brooke. After all, her testimony is how he ended up in prison after being accused of a series of brutal murders.

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