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Horror Books for Middle Grade and YA Readers

Spine-tingling books to read if you dare!

Middle Grade Titles

Cover of The Clackity
Lora
Senf

To rescue her aunt from the ghost of a serial killer, twelve-year-old Evie Von Rathe embarks on a journey into a strange world filled with hungry witches, ghosts, and a story thief, all while trying to fulfill her deal with the Clackity.

Cover of Coraline
Neil
Gaiman
Dave McKean

When Coraline steps through the locked doors in her family's new flat, she finds a world which caters to her every whim. But when she wants to leave, things turn unpleasant. 

Cover of Empty Smiles (Small Spaces
Katherine
Arden

When the carnival arrives in town Coco, Brian, and Phil must work together to save Ollie from the smiling man.

Cover of The Girl and the Ghost
Hanna
Alkaf

This retells a Malaysian folk tale in which a lonely girl, Suraya, inherits from her grandmother a pelesit, a ghostly demon, who proves to be a good companion, bringing both danger and hope.

Cover of The Girl and the Glim
India
Swift
India Swift and Michael Doig

Starting out at a new school is tough, and Bridgette isn't having much luck, seeing as, well, she's not great at making a first impression. Or, maybe, any impression. For now the best she can manage is... awkward.
That's when they appear. Creatures dark and scary... Creatures only she can see. But if she can't even face down the school bullies, how is she supposed to overcome literal monsters? Well, Bridgette is going to have to figure it out fast, because she might just be her town's only hope.

Cover of Hide and Don't Seek: And O
Anica Mrose
Rissi

A contemporary collection of original short stories by Anica Mrose Rissi that is sure to elicit chills, laughs, and screams, even from the most devoted fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!

Cover of Living Ghosts and Mischiev
Dan Sasuweh
Jones
Weshoyot Alvitre

Thirty-two short stories chosen from the tradition of ghost stories from American Indian cultures across North America, featuring witches, walking dolls, hungry skeletons, skinwakers, and other supernatural beings.

Cover of The Puppet's Payback and O
Mary Downing
Hahn

From ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn, an assortment of eerie short stories to thrill and chill young readers.

Cover of The Stars Did Wander Darkl
Colin
Meloy

The adults in town are acting strangely. An ancient, long-buried evil has been unleashed upon the community, and it's up to Archie Coomes and his friends to stop it before it's too late.

Cover of Stinetinglers: All New Sto
R.L.
Stine

Laced with Stine's signature humor and a hefty dose of nightmarish fun, Stinetinglers is perfect for fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Stine's own Goosebumps books. 

 

YA Titles

Cover of Dead Flip
Sara
Farizan

Eighteen-year-olds Cori and Maz, once inseparable best friends, reunite to solve the mystery of what happened to their other friend Sam--who disappeared five years ago and has now returned, not having aged at all.

Cover of Gallant
V.E.
Schwab

Olivia Prior has grown up at the grim Merilance School for Girls with no no past except for her one treasure, her mother's journal, so when a letter arrives inviting her to come home to ruinous manor, Gallant, she seizes the chance to find out about her family.

Cover of The Getaway
Lamar
Giles

Jay discovers that mountain resort where he lives and works with his friends and family is also a doomsday oasis for the rich and powerful who expect top-notch customer service even as the world outside the resort's walls disintegrates.

Cover of Hell Followed with Us
Andrew Joseph
White

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him--the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world's population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can't get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.

Cover of The Honeys
Ryan
La Sala

Mars has always been the lesser twin, the shadow to his sister Caroline's radiance. But when Caroline dies under horrific circumstances, Mars is propelled to learn all he can about his once-inseparable sister who'd grown tragically distant.

Cover of Man Made Monsters
Andrea
Rogers
Jeff Edwards

Haunting illustrations are woven throughout these horror stories that follow one extended Cherokee family across the centuries and well into the future as they encounter predators of all kinds in each time period.

Cover of Mirror Girls
Kelly
McWilliams

Biracial twin sisters--one who presents as black and the other as white--are determined to put the ghosts of the past to rest and to uncover the truth behind their parents' murders in the Jim Crow South.

Cover of The Sacrifice
Rin
Chupeco

An island oasis turns deadly when a terrifying legend threatens to kill off visitors one by one.

Cover of Wake the Bones
Elizabeth
Kilcoyne

After dropping out of college, nineteen-year-old Laurel Early returns to her uncle's tobacco farm, where she encounters a monster as well as her mother's ghost, and soon Laureal realizes that she must tap into her own innate magic to save everyone she loves.

Cover of The Weight of Blood
Tiffany D.
Jackson

Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America's history and legacy of racism in this suspenseful novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom.