This summer, Scream Queens fans were devastated by Fox's announcement that the horror-comedy series would not return for a third season. We can all hope for Netflix to revive the Emma Roberts-led show, but until then, there are plenty of great books to read if you miss Scream Queens and need to fill the void.
For those of you who haven't watched this gem, here's a brief rundown. Scream Queens centered on the Chanels, Kappa Kappa Tau sorority sisters commanded by Chanel Oberlin (Roberts). Unfortunately for Chanel and the other sisters, the Kappa Kappa Tau house was once the site of a dreadful death. Twenty years later, a serial killer dressed as the university's Red Devil mascot begins to stalk and murder the KKT sisters.
The Red Devil would claim at least one victim per episode, which meant fans had to tune in every week to see who would make it out alive. At the end of the first season, the Red Devil was unmasked and a new killer — the Green Meanie — encountered, a gimmick that Scream Queens would have likely kept up indefinitely. Sadly, the show was unceremoniously cancelled in May 2017 due to poor ratings, with Fox claiming the was "complete," in spite of Season 2's cliffhanger ending.
And so let us mourn Scream Queens, the little show that barely had a chance to thrill us, chill us, and fulfill us. Wipe your tears and check out the books on the list below, then share your favorite post-Scream Queens reads with me on Twitter!
1'Final Girls' by Riley Sager
Lisa, Sam, and Quincy are Riley Sager's Final Girls: the lone survivors of horrific massacres. Ten years after Quincy escaped her killer, Lisa turns up dead from an apparent suicide, prompting the two remaining Final Girls to meet for the very first time.
2'Slasher Girls and Monster Boys,' edited by April Genevieve Tucholke
This anthology contains horror-drenched retellings of classic stories from your favorite YA authors, including Leigh Bardugo, Carrie Ryan, and Marie Lu.
3'Horrorstör' by Grady Hendrix
When a Scandinavian furniture showroom is plagued by a mysterious, destructive force, three employees volunteer to work a graveyard shift — from closing to opening — to find out what's causing all the commotion.
4'Long Black Veil' by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Twenty years after Wailer disappeared from a party in the abandoned state penitentiary, her remains turn up at the scene, and Casey — her husband at the time, now a prominent member of the culinary elite — is arrested for murder. One person who was there that night knows that Casey is innocent, but to prove it, she'll have to publicly come out as a trans woman.
5'Popular Hits of the Showa Era' by Ryu Murakami
This goofy Japanese satire revolves around two groups of jaded karaoke aficionados divided along age and gender lines. One of the young men, all of whom are in their mid-20s, murders one of the Midoris, a close-knit club of single women in their 30s, setting off a war that quickly escalates to the use of explosives.
6'All the Missing Girls' by Megan Miranda
A decade after her best friend disappeared, Nic finds herself drawn home to Cooley Ridge by another disappearance, and by her dementia-addled father's subsequent statements about missing girls.
7'Three Years with the Rat' by Jay Hosking
When Grace and her boyfriend John, both scientists, vanish into thin air, Grace's younger brother must piece together the chain of events that led up to her departure from this world, beginning with her research into subjective time.
8'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt
A bacchanalia in the forests around their Vermont university turns tragic when a group of classics students kill the unlucky farmer who discovers their revelry, and manage to avoid a murder rap until one among them begins to crack.
9'Ten Dead Comedians' by Fred Van Lente
Inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Fred Van Lente's Ten Dead Comedians begins in a banal kind of way: the titular humorists receive invites to an island estate belonging to a more famous funny-man. But when he dies during a live broadcast of his first message, Dustin leaves his guests trapped in his resort-like abode to be killed off, one by one.
10'The Good Daughter' by Karin Slaughter
Almost 30 years after she escaped the masked assailants who killed her mother, Charlie bears witness to a school shooting, which brings the memories of her childhood terror — and the secrets of that fateful night — floating back to the surface.
11'The Serial Killers Club' by Jeff Povey
Douglas manages to turn the tables on the stranger who tries to murder him, and winds up taking the man's place at an exclusive club for serial killers. When the other club members begin to catch on to Douglas' secret, he offs them in self-preservation, which definitely does not make him a serial killer, guys.
12'Monkeewrench' by P.J. Tracy
One of the 500 playtesters for Monkeewrench Software Development's new Serial Killer Detective game is a copycat, gleefully recreating the game's grisly crime scenes in real life. Two investigators and the five members of the Monkeewrench team take center stage in this novel from mother-daughter duo P.J. Tracy.
13'Kraken' by China Miéville
In this comedic send-up of Lovecraftian horror, a giant squid vanishes from London's Natural History Museum, prompting an investigation that includes a squid-worshiping cult, an incorporeal crime lord, and an ancient Egyptian ghost.
14'The Guineveres' by Sarah Domet
Less horror and more comedy, Sarah Domet's The Guineveres follows four similarly named wards on the cusp of womanhood, who plot their escape from a remote convent and fall in love with comatose men.
15'Rusty Nail' by J.A. Konrath
Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels has taken down her fair share of bad guys, but now people connected to her previous investigations are turning up dead, and she's got video evidence of each and every murder. Who's playing this game with the detective? Someone very, very good at it.
