Demons of the Deep: 9 Underwater Horror Books to Drown In

President Roberts announces a new plan to build a deep-sea station that will rival the ISS, and with a budget of six billion dollars, it isn’t long before the station is a reality and seven crew members board the Challenger to spend one year studying the deep.

But one crew member has his own agenda. Ted Bell believes the bacteria that keeps sea creatures alive in extreme conditions is the key to living on Mars. And if it means sacrificing a few of the crew, so be it.

Only, Ted quickly loses control of his experiment, forcing the remaining crew to fight for their lives miles below the surface.

Travis Glasgow is elated when he and his wife buy their first house. It’s near his older brother and Travis is looking forward to mending the rift in their relationship.

But when watery footprints in his basement lead him to a nearby lake with a staircase emerging from the water, he learns of the tragedy that reminds him of his own childhood tragedy.

A ten-year-old boy was drowned in the lake and Travis becomes obsessed with learning the truth. Ignoring both his wife and brother, Travis unravels the secrets of the house even as they take him to the staircase and the depths of insanity.

It starts as the perfect first date.

Teens Amelia and James load a canoe with beer and sandwiches, ready to paddle across a chain of lakes. But when they discover a house beneath the surface, they can’t resist exploring.

It has two stories, a garden, and the front door welcomes them in.

Only, they forgot an important truth: An empty house doesn’t mean no one is there.

The summer of 1988 was when ten-year-old Kris Barlow said goodbye to her mother. She hasn’t been back to the lake house since. 

Not until her husband dies. Grieving, Kris returns home.

It may be the last place she felt such deep pain, but she hopes the crystal-clear water of Lost Lake will help her and her eight-year-old daughter heal.

But the small town and the lake have harbored an evil presence, one that’s grown since Kris has been gone.

And inside the house, an old friend is waiting.

The final installment in the Indian Lake Trilogy follows Jade Daniels into the horrors of Proofrock, Idaho one last time.

It’s been four years since she stepped foot in the town. That’s a lot of time for things to change. And for things to stay exactly the same.

Because there’s a dark history lingering under the water.

One that began with violence and endured thanks to a history written in blood. One that can only end with the same.

A century ago, a town in upstate New York was destroyed for the greater good.

The millions of people downriver needed the water. But not all the families wanted to relocate.

Now, a state inspector is assigned to the dam and what he finds is unsettling. There’s a dark prophecy surrounding the village submerged deep in the Chill.

Sacrifices were made when the dam was built, and sacrifices must be made again.

As the waters rise, everyone surrounding the water is forced to ask themselves: Who will be next?

After a massive object crashes into the ocean off the coast of Lagos, a wave crashes into Bar Beach and takes three strangers with it. The object was an alien ship.

And beneath the surface of the waves, it is changing marine life in unfathomable ways.

But when the ocean sends the strangers back, there’s a fourth person with them.

As chaos descends on Lagos, with the military, governments, and religious leaders all vying to control or destroy the power residing beneath the waves, these four individuals race against time to save their city and the world.

Sixty years after the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace, the wreckage has been found. It’s more than three hundred miles from her intended course, waiting in the dark depths of the ocean.

Cove and her dive team are sent to examine the wreckage. They have to record everything, hoping to discover the reason why the Arcadia sank in the first place.

But something is waiting for them. Something hungry.

As their oxygen dwindles and the ship closes in around them, Cove and her team have to fight an unspeakable horror that’s trying to snare them. Because once they’re trapped, there’s no escape.

When the slavers brutally threw enslaved Africans overboard, they never expected some of them to survive. Only, did they?

The descendants of the pregnant women now live beneath the water.

To keep their sanity, only one remembers the trauma of their history. Yetu is the historian.

But the memories of their collective past is too much for her, so she abandons her post and her duties by escaping to the surface. There she learns about the past and the future of her people.

If they want to survive, they have to do more than remember. They have to reclaim who they truly are.