It happens every summer: without planning to, I end up reading stories that are creepy-crawly, unsettling, sticky, and a little odd.

This year, it happened in July. A few novellas, a classic, some translated vampire stories - before I knew it I had read more horror and gothic tales than anything else that month. I surprisingly had a good time with all of them so here are my recommendations in case your summer hasn't been spooky enough.

But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo

A novella that I wish was novel-length. We are dropped into a mansion with strict rules and deadly consequences for breaking them. It seems something has been stolen from the mansion's mistress and our main character is tasked with finding out who is responsible - or else. This is for fans of dangerous women and arachnids. My only complaint is that it was too short and I wanted to know so much more about our characters and the world they inhabit. Great for a quick atmospheric read though.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

This is my year of Shirley Jackson and I am having a ball. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a book best enjoyed knowing as little as possible going into it in my opinion. We follow two sisters and their uncle who live in a big house on a hill, fenced off from the rest of town. As the outside world closes in on them, secrets and fears are uncovered in ways you'd never expect.

The Haar by David Sodergren

A golf course developer is set on kicking out a group of elderly residents from their coastal Scottish village, but he will soon find it more difficult that he could ever imagine. This was the most graphic and bloody of the books I read this month but oddly enough it was also cozy and laugh out loud funny. I love a stubborn old woman and Muriel is now on my list of favorites.

The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-ran (Translated by Gene Png)

A string of suspicious deaths plague a retirement home and when our lead detective digs a bit deeper, the trail leads, to her utter disbelief, to vampires. Our story has multiple POVs, spans decades, and takes us to the darkest corners of Korea and France. I actually loved this translation and can't wait to read more by this author and translator.

Morbid Curiosities by S. Hati

You really never know what that one AP Bio class is going to come in handy and for Morbid Curiosities I really had to work that science part of my brain that I've left dormant since high school. We're taken to a mysterious research institute in San Francisco where our characters will compete for a position in the lab. But what exactly are they working on in the laboratory? Has whatever it is...escaped?

This was very trippy and fully of hallucinations so there were times where I felt very lost but I enjoyed our characters a lot.

That Which Feeds Us by Keala Kendall

When her twin sister goes missing on an out-of-character trip to Hawaii, Lehua heads back to the islands of her ancestors to find her. This felt like a mixture of White Lotus, Get Out, and something completely original. This was another dream and hallucination-filled story but the great placement of historical and cultural facts about Hawaii kept the story together. Am I totally certain what happened in the end? No. Was it a good spooky summer read? Absolutely.