Cool your skin and haunt your heart with these eerie stories to escape the heat.

The sun is relentless, the air is thick with heat but inside, the pages turn cold. If you’re longing for haunted manors, snowbound thrillers, and ghost stories that chill more than just your spine, you’re in the right place. These chilling reads are perfect for cozy horror lovers, dark cottagecore daydreamers, and anyone seeking a little shadow in the summer light.

🌨 1. The Winter People – Jennifer McMahon

A wintry, ghost-soaked tale set in rural Vermont where grief and the supernatural blur in the snow. Cold, quiet, and perfect for reading with the blinds drawn and a fan humming.

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🏔️ 2. The Retreat – Elisabeth de Mariaffi

A dancer’s mountain retreat turns sinister when a snowstorm hits and people begin to vanish. Tense and beautifully isolated — like being snowed in while the world forgets you.

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❄️ 3. Shiver – Allie Reynolds

A reunion of snowboarders in an abandoned ski lodge becomes a deadly game in a blizzard. A fast-paced thriller dripping in frost and buried secrets.

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🕯️ 4. Boys in the Valley – Philip Fracassi

Set in a remote orphanage during a snowstorm, this is a possession horror story full of dread, isolation, and a chilling sense of helplessness. Brutal but atmospheric.

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🌫️ 5. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley

Friends gather at a Scottish lodge to celebrate New Year’s — and someone won’t make it home. Cold weather + colder secrets = classic cozy murder thriller with bite.

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🪓 6. The Shining – Stephen King

You already know. The most iconic snowbound horror story of all time. A haunted hotel. A family unraveling. Winter never felt so terrifying.

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🌲 7. The Nesting – C.J. Cooke

Set in Norway, a nanny discovers the cliffs and forest around her host family’s home may not be as still as they seem. Chilling both in weather and mood, with folklore laced through it.

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🕰️ 8. The Book of Cold Cases – Simone St. James

A dual-timeline thriller featuring a reclusive murder suspect and ghostly visitations. Misty, moody, and perfect for reading under a soft blanket with iced tea.

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💧 9. The Drowning Kind – Jennifer McMahon

A cold, cursed spring that grants wishes at a cost. Ghosts of the drowned and a family legacy rise to the surface. Eerie, humid, and deeply unsettling in a strangely soothing way.

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🧊 10. The Bear and the Nightingale – Katherine Arden

Set in a frostbitten version of medieval Russia where old gods and forest spirits live, this is a fairytale for dark hearts. It reads like firelight and snowflakes.