It doesn’t have to be Halloween to enjoy a frightfully good book! Readers of all ages love horror books, but there’s something about the tween and teen years that makes scary stories particularly appealing. Maybe teenage readers enjoy watching characters battle monsters and save the day. Or, maybe the YA crowd likes the fact that young protagonists in horror novels are powerful and often right; when one of these heroes tells you there’s danger afoot, you'd better listen!
Whatever the reason, middle-grade and YA readers love horror books. Fortunately, there are loads of spooky titles for them to choose from.
Monsters, Ghosts, and Creatures of the Night
How close can you get to a monster before you become one yourself? That’s the question at the heart of The Gravewood. The story follows the adventures of Shea Parker, a young girl forced to make a deal with the leader of a vampire gang.
Grace, the heroine of Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, also struggles with her relationship with a monster — in this case, Sam, a werewolf who is desperately trying to hold onto his human side. But as the winter draws near, Sam finds it harder to resist the call of the wolf.
Does your young reader love ghost stories? Then they’ll appreciate City of Ghosts and Cass, its protagonist, who can pull back the veil and see the unseen.
Magic, Mysteries, and Very Bad Ideas
When a killer is watching, do you stick together, or do you split up? Guess which choice the characters make in Let’s Split Up and what happens next.
Speaking of bad decisions, the hero of Ruin Road makes a big one, but for understandable reasons. Cade Webster struggles to fit in. His problem? Everyone is afraid of him — he’s too big, too fast, and too ambitious. And as a Black student at a predominantly white school, he’s also struggling with racism from his peers. Cade gets a chance to make a seemingly harmless wish: that people will stop being afraid of him. But the consequences are beyond what he could have imagined.
Something’s Wrong Here… and They’re the Only Ones Who See It
Remember being a kid and feeling like no one was listening to you? Well, the heroes of these stories can relate. In each one, the lead characters see what’s going on and figure out how to save themselves and the ones they love… often before their family does.
In The Dead of Summer, Ollie Veltman finds himself held in isolation aboard a military hospital ship in the harbor of his island home. He’s supposedly the only survivor of what happened on Anchor’s Mercy, but he has his suspicions about what’s really going on.
Fans of locked room mysteries should add Beholder to their TBR pile immediately. Athanasios "Athan" Bakirtzis has coasted on his good looks so far. But when finds himself the sole survivor of a mysterious party for the artistic elite, he’ll need to figure out whodunnit… or wind up on the hook for the murders himself.
Ready to find your young reader’s next spooky book? Browse the booklist below or search The Scholastic Store. Plus, check out the best dystopian books for kids.
