ANN Manga and Novel Summer Reading List 2026

Horror

Horror is one of the grandchildren of the 18th-century Gothic novel, and of all of that genre's descendants, it's the closest to literature's folkloric roots. From ghost stories to folk horror to almost cozy tales about the boundary between life and death, horror fiction plays on our emotions in often visceral ways. Below is a selection of five horror tales from various subgenres to keep your skin cold on hot summer nights.

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Box of Light

By Seiko Erisawa
Seven Seas Entertainment
When a young man finds himself on the border of life and death, he ends up in a strange, otherworldly convenience store that draws wandering souls to the last purchase they'll ever make. Each volume of Box of Light follows both the ongoing story of the people who work in the liminal convenience store and the customers who visit it, and these two threads complement each other beautifully. Everyone has their own decisions to make in a series that proves that horror can be cozy.

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About a Place in the Kinki Region

By Sesuji
Yen On
When a magazine writer goes missing, his friend begins compiling information that might lead to finding out what happened and how it all ties into a strange area in the Japanese mountains, in this found-document-style folk-horror novel. Told through magazine excerpts, found images, word-of-mouth, and interviews, the plot has a lot to say about what we know and what we forget about the old beliefs—and what the price for that may be.

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Hinatsugimura

By Aki Shimizu
Yen Press
When people go looking for the lost mountain village of Hinatsugimura, they rarely return, and one college student is about to discover the terrible and tragic reason why. What film scholar Eleanor Johnson might call "reproductive horror," this book explores the cost of both curiosity and maternal love, as well as the damage old beliefs and social systems can cause. Haunting and strange, this is one of the best horror manga I've read in the last year.

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Radio Storm

By Team S&S
Ize Press
In a post-apocalyptic world, Sak must find his Caller, the person who amplifies his seemingly useless powers. But is that the truth, or is someone in power lying to him to use Sak for their own nefarious purposes? With answers doled out slowly and pieces of the world gradually coming into focus, this BL manhwa is more unsettling than frightening—and, in some ways, that makes it scarier than anything else on this list.

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Ghost Dating Simulation

By Dong9
Webtoon
When Doyeon downloads a new mobile dating sim, he suddenly finds himself tasked with helping the twisted spirits of violently murdered young women. This is one of those series that's far better than it has any right to be, and Doyeon quickly becomes a protagonist worthy of the title. His heart is absolutely in the right place, but each ghost demands something different of him, and not all of them can be saved. Poisoned by dating sims and romances, Doyeon must straddle the line between fiction and reality before he runs out of second chances.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. Yen Press, BookWalker Global, and J-Novel Club are subsidiaries of KWE.