Looking for a Scary Book for Teens? 13 Creepy Options

Ever since Andrea’s parents split up and her brother Francis disappeared three years ago, Andrea has been carrying around a lot of heaviness, especially because she believes it’s her fault that her brother disappeared. So when she discovers a strange circus, Reverie, set up in the middle of the woods, offering her a night of escape in exchange for a memory, she jumps at the opportunity.

Free from the memory of the night her brother disappeared, Andrea explores Reverie alongside her new friend Penny. Each dream, wish, memory, or nightmare that a child gave up in order to get into Reverie has its own tent, and visitors are free to explore them all. Andrea soars through the air in one tent, goes treasure hunting with pirates in another, witnesses the creation of the stars, and even tries out a nightmare, enjoying the rush of adrenaline when she gets outside and realizes it wasn’t real.

But through it all, Andrea can’t quite shake the feeling that something tragic has happened in her life, and as she tries to remember, things start to go awry, leading to a growing sense that not all is right or good at Reverie and the mysterious Sandman who runs the circus may not be as good/kind as he seems. The more she presses into those feelings, the more her escape from reality turns into a nightmare from which she can’t awake.

Savaryn’s novel is appropriate for middle and high school students—it’s creepy without being gruesome or horrific. But it also has some depth to it: ultimately, it explores the question of whether we’re better off trying to escape pain and suffering or embracing it as a part of life that must be endured in order to also experience life’s joys, whether it’s the pain of a missing brother, a parent’s divorce, or the loneliness of not yet having found a best friend.

It’s 1893, and Chicago is a city of contradictions. Sure, it’s the White City, full of all the glitz and glam of the World’s Fair. But it’s also full of tenements, stockyards, and miserable living conditions for its poor, immigrant residents.

Alter Rosen is one of those immigrant residents: a Jew from Romania, he is trying to make ends meet in America while saving up enough money to bring his mother and sisters over to join him. When his close friend and roommate Yakov turns up dead, the latest in a string of missing young Jewish men, Alter is devastated. As he helps prepare Yakov’s body for burial, he is possessed by Yakov’s dybbuk, a malevolent spirit that possesses a body until it is exorcized. In this case, Yakov demands that Alter kill the man who killed him.

Alter sets off on an investigation, aided by Raizel, a young woman from the Jewish community who works for an anarchist newspaper, and Frankie, a 19th-century American Fagin (the leader of a gang of pickpockets in Dickens’s Oliver Twist) who heads a ring of poor immigrants that survives by stealing and selling goods. Alter was once part of Frankie’s gang until a robbery went wrong, so there is tension between them, including hidden feelings that Alter must confront and that his Jewish faith tells him are wrong.

As the trio investigates the string of murders in Chicago, they’re drawn into a complicated and messy world of antisemitism, corruption, and exploitation. Their lives are in increasing danger, and Alter is becoming increasingly consumed by Yakov’s dybbuk: can he find Yakov’s killer before the dybbuk consumes him, saving himself and other young Jewish boys from the community?

The book was a compelling read, and we found ourselves Googling frequently as we learned about 1890s Chicago and Jewish culture. The window into the intense poverty and antisemitism immigrants in America experienced (and sadly, often still do) adds a depth to the story that makes this valuable reading for our students. 

For the most part, the novel is creepy and suspenseful without being too heavy on the horror. However, it is absolutely a novel for older students: there is some profanity, the boys’ sexuality plays a key role in the story, and male rape (discussed but not described) is a key plot point.

Aptly described as a “haunted house thriller,” Sambury’s novel alternates between two perspectives, ten years apart.

Daisy can see ghosts, a frustrating ability when you live in the bustling city of Toronto. She and her single mother share an apartment, struggling to survive (or so Daisy thinks), especially after an incident in elementary school where Daisy assaulted a classmate. When Daisy’s mom inherits a summer home in the woods outside Ontario, one where she spent many childhood summers that Daisy knows nothing about, Daisy eagerly encourages her mom to move: they’ll establish an Airbnb, and Daisy will finally be on the path to escaping her mom and her “lessons.” But when they arrive, something is very wrong with the house, and Daisy is determined to figure out what’s going on.

Brittney is a podcaster who desperately wants to tell the stories of forgotten Black girls on her web series Haunted but is working for a company that would prefer she stick to investigating famous haunted houses. The first case she’s investigating in the new season? A house in the woods outside Ontario where something happened ten years ago involving a girl named Daisy and her mother. Increasing her interest in the case is the fact that her own abusive mother declares (falsely) to have been reformed by a stay in the house, now dubbed “Miracle Mansion.” Brittney is determined to figure out what happened to Daisy, disprove her mother’s lies, and get out on her own.

Sambury weaves a compelling story—creepy and suspenseful without being too horrifying. We were eagerly turning pages to find out what really happened at that house in the woods. But the novel also explores themes of generational trauma that give it substance beyond just a good scare.

This is definitely a novel for older teens: it has a lot of profanity in it, and child abuse (physical, mental, sexual) plays a significant role in the plot. The abuse is discussed rather than depicted, but it’s certainly something to keep in mind when recommending the book to students. Sambury begins the novel with a list of content warnings, which you may want to direct your students to when making recommendations.

The Gibbs sisters’ graphic novel is a lot of fun: it’s a little bit spooky, a little bit funny, a little bit of a family story, and a little bit of history.

Chelsea Grant’s dad has a very embarrassing job: he’s a “paranormal removal expert” who advertises all over New Orleans, giving her a reputation as Ghost Girl. But when Chelsea, eager to hang out with the popular kids at school, spends a night out drinking in a cemetery and gets arrested, she’s in a lot of trouble. Her punishment? Working for her dad all summer.

The timing couldn’t be better for Chelsea’s dad: he’s just gotten a job ridding a former plantation of ghosts. What he doesn’t know is that Chelsea can actually see ghosts, and when she meets the ghost of a mysterious young man at the plantation, she eagerly dives into her own investigation into the plantation’s history, one that leads her into danger.

Chelsea and her family are likable, and the ghost antics are fun, but the historical background gives the story a bit of depth that we also enjoyed. This book will appeal to students of a variety of ages, but do be aware of the teen partying scene at the beginning.

Temperance assumes the job of lamplighter in the foggy whaling village of Warbler after her father’s suicide, a job she takes very seriously. The fog that covers the village is deadly: many of the visitors who come for its renowned ship figureheads (and a few villagers) go missing in the fog. Temperance is determined to hold onto her position: not only is it part of her family’s history, but she needs to provide for her grieving mother and sister at a time when employment opportunities for young women are few.

When a young woman from the village goes missing and Temperance fails to report that several lamps had gone out that evening, her job is in danger. That is, until town leader Gideon steps in to give her another chance. But Temperance is suspicious of Gideon: her father warned her to stay away from him, and she had a troubling encounter with him several years ago. But Gideon seems to be her family’s benefactor, he’s well-respected in the village, and now he wants to marry her younger sister.

As Temperance begins investigating the young woman’s disappearance, she discovers shocking evil lurking within her village, an evil that makes her question everything she knows about her family and that places her in danger, especially when no one believes her suspicions.

We really enjoyed this novel—the fog lends the perfect creepy atmosphere to a pretty creepy story—and we think many students will enjoy it as well. It’s probably better suited for high school than middle school students, as it does have a scene of sexual assault, the father commits suicide by hanging, and there is plenty of violence.

Thank you NetGalley, North Star Editions, and Flux for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

This was a fun read that’s appropriate for students of all age levels. It will especially appeal to younger and reluctant readers who are having trouble making the transition away from Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Jack Sullivan is living through a monster apocalypse. Instead of being discouraged, however, he’s created a bucket list to work through, and as a result, he’s getting pretty good at fighting monsters. He’s got weapons, he’s turned his treehouse into a pretty comfortable fort filled with snacks, and he’s using his photography skills to get some great pictures of monsters. His ultimate bucket list goal? To rescue June, his former newspaper editor, like a knight rescuing a damsel in distress.

Over the course of the story, Jack gets reunited with his best friend Quint (who is super smart, which comes in handy when creating inventions to shore up the treehouse) and former school bully Dirk (whose brute strength comes in handy when fighting monsters).

It turns out Jack and his friends are pretty good at surviving a monster apocalypse, and since this is the first in a nine-book series, we’re pretty sure those skills will come in handy.

The book is perfect for a Halloween read that lands on the side of funny rather than scary.

May Bird is born at White Moss Manor in Briery Swamp, West Virginia, a town that’s been pretty much abandoned after losing seventeen people “to mysterious causes.” May doesn’t have a lot of friends; after all, she’d prefer to spend her time pretending to be an Amazonian warrior in the woods with Somber Kitty, her loyal pet cat. This concerns May’s mom, who wants to send her to middle school at Saint Agatha’s in New York, far from her beloved woods.

One day, on an adventure into town, May finds a letter addressed to her in 1951, long before her birth. The letter, from Ms. H. Kari Kagaki, includes a map from the mysterious “Lady of North Farm” who is in great need of May’s help despite the danger it will require her to endure. On the map, May sees a lake that she can’t believe is really there, and when she begins exploring, she also begins seeing a lot of ghosts, including one that looks especially horrifying and has a head like a giant pumpkin.

All the talk of ghosts concerns May’s mother, who is more determined than ever to move May to New York, and when May slips out of the house one night to visit the mysterious lake, she’s sucked into another world, the Ever After, where Live Ones like her are not permitted and she’s in great danger from all sorts of horrible creatures. Thankfully, Pumpkin, the unattractive ghost she’s been seeing at home, is there to whisk her away from a water demon and the Bogeyman, taking her instead to his master, a ghost named Arista.

As Arista and Pumpkin try to help May figure out what to do, a visit to the Undertaker sends her off on a long and dangerous journey to steal the Book of the Dead from the City of Ether (something no one has been able to do) so she can figure out what her future holds—returning home, helping the residents of the Far North who wrote to her, or defeating the evil Bo Cleevil.

We loved the creativity of the Ever After and its collection of spooky creatures, and we were rooting for May to discover her inner strength and bravery to do what needs to be done but that no one else will do. The novel is appropriate for middle school readers, but older readers will enjoy it as well, and it’s more adventurous than truly scary but full of plenty of creepy creatures.

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We were, of course, attracted to this one once we discovered that it’s inspired by Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.

Cade Muñoz loves horror movies. As a closeted gay Latinx teen growing up in rural Texas, his real world is pretty scary. But in a crowded theater surrounded by others who are scared out of their minds, he doesn’t feel so different or alone.

When his mom sends Cade with his stepfather to work at the Tyler family ranch for the summer, Cade is not happy about it. Who wants to spend their summer shoveling horse poop? But he connects with twins Henry and Henrietta, and when a romantic connection develops between him and the handsome Henry, his summer starts to look up.

But there’s something mysterious going on at the Tyler family ranch: there’s a west wing of the lake house he’s not allowed to visit, Henry has a hidden temper and is clearly keeping secrets, and the twins’ mother and grandmother both died under mysterious circumstances. Is Cade in danger, or have all the scary movies sent his imagination into overdrive?

This is an excellent scary story (and we loved the Austen nod), but it’s also an exploration of what it’s like to grow up “different” in a setting full of racism and homophobia (the author mentions a few other triggers in his content warning, but these stood out the most to us). Terciero, writing from his own similar experience, draws an insightful metaphor between Cade’s lonely experience and the tropes of horror movies, and the graphic novel gave us an immense amount of empathy for those who share Cade’s (and the author’s) experiences. 

There are a couple instances of profanity and slurs to be considered before recommending this to students, but overall, this is a book that will appeal to a wide range of students.

This book was so creepy. Probably because of the bugs. So many bugs.

Libby has just been released from the mental hospital after a suicide attempt and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Her mother believes the family needs a fresh start, so she moves with Libby and her younger sister to her own childhood home, one she abandoned after her parents mysteriously disappeared when she was four.

Libby doesn’t want to burden her mom more than she already has, but the house is . . . creepy. It’s covered in dust, none of the windows open, there are horrible sounds coming from the attic and walls, and there are bugs everywhere, including in the unsettling scenes depicted on stained glass windows in each room of the house. When Libby learns about the house’s history of masked seances and mysterious disappearances, she knows something is very, very wrong, but the longer she and her family stay in the house, the more it seems to be pulling them under its spell.

This was a great haunted house horror story: we really wanted to know what happened while also really wanting to put the book aside and turn on a palate-cleansing sitcom to clear our heads. But what we loved most was the connection Fraistat drew between Libby’s mental health struggles and her efforts to avoid falling under the house’s spell. Battling mental illness is hard work, and Fraistat intertwines Libby’s fight to stave off depressive episodes and choose life in a powerful way that will especially resonate with anyone who has fought a similar battle.

There are a few mild instances of profanity, and suicide (including memories of the attempt) plays a significant role in the plot, but the novel is ultimately hopeful (or at least as hopeful as a horror novel can be).

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and Delacorte Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

In the small town of Sorrow, named for its most famous witch, six girls share a birthday. For much of their lives, they were the best of friends, but now they’re barely speaking. All Isabeau has left is Reuel. On their sixteenth birthday, the two girls decide to celebrate with a nighttime picnic in the cemetery, and then they walk home, parting ways at Reuel’s front porch.

But in the morning, Reuel is gone.

As the town gathers a search party, Isabeau and the other four girls are drawn back together in their grief. Weirdly, their mothers are drawn together as well, even though they’ve never been close. When Reuel shows up a few days later, something is very wrong with her. Her symptoms get worse and worse despite the doctors’ best efforts, and then . . . another one of the girls goes missing.

It’s not long before Isabeau and her friends realize that the six of them are being targeted in some way, and their mothers have a secret connection from the past that seems related to the disappearances. Will the girls be able to figure out what’s happening to them before it’s too late?

We were intrigued by the mystery of this one and rooting for the girls to figure it out. While there’s definitely something not human going on, it’s also got enough mystery/suspense vibes to draw in those (like us) who are new to the horror genre. 

We think many students will enjoy the story, but it’s definitely for older teens, especially since it includes a fair amount of profanity and casual teen drinking and smoking.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and Delacorte Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

While this collection isn’t our personal cup of tea, many of our sophomores would have loved this collection of short horror stories. Divided into six sections, the collection of very short stories (each one is about six pages) includes plenty of gore, death, and creepiness, and it feels decidedly modern. 

In fact, each story is followed by a QR code that links to a short video with an additional jump scare. Full disclosure: we only checked out the first video because we quickly realized it was the route to nightmares for us, but it was a few seconds long and portrayed a similar scene to what was described in the story. Duplessie has written for American Horror Story, so he has experience bringing stories like these to life, and students who love the genre will enjoy these bonuses.

It’s a little hard to recommend an appropriate age range for the book: on the one hand, it’s probably appropriate for middle and high school students (there isn’t any profanity or mature content in the sense that we usually consider); however, there are several disturbing stories. But it’s also horror, so disturbing is kind of the point. So, we’d feel comfortable recommending this to a wide range of students as long as they know what they’re getting into!

We love the premise of this one, a collection of short horror stories by well-known YA authors that challenge stereotypes about race, gender, and sexuality. The stories felt very modern, tackling issues we read about in the headlines every day—climate change, privilege, sexual violence—and universal emotions like fear and anger, especially in the face of injustice and oppression. We liked some stories better than others (“The Golden Dragon” and “Docile Girls” were our favorites), but we think there is something here for everyone: the stories present a wide range of situations and voices that will appeal to an equally wide range of students.

For students who like horror, there’s a lot of gore and creepiness (and plenty of supernatural creatures), and the settings include a circus, a hedge maze, a suburban home with no parents for the weekend, a haunted house, a dystopian world covered in water, a high school gymnasium, and a creepy basement (to name a few).

This collection is probably most appropriate for older teens, given the amount of gore (including cannibalism) and profanity, but it’s a little hard to make recommendations about what’s appropriate in the horror genre given that the point of it is to be scared, creeped out, and a little disgusted. Students who watch a lot of horror movies already will find it right in line with what they’re used to; those who are just sampling the genre might want to stick to the options we’ve identified as appropriate for middle school students.

Thank you NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Tor Teen for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Raven lives in a New York that has been decimated and forever changed by a pandemic. Not that one. One that “gradually eroded the infected individuals’ cognitive abilities, leaving them with only two instincts: fight and feed.” Those are the Creeps. Then the vaccine trials started. And for every ten people saved by the vaccine, one was turned into a bloodthirsty monster: a Vamp.

Raven’s parents were the first two recipients of the vaccine to turn into Vamps, and when they tried to attack Raven and her baby sister, Star, Raven grabbed her sister and went on the run. For the past four years, she’s been doing whatever she can to keep them alive amidst the chaos that New York City has become. When an opportunity arises to join a special military unit devoted to taking back New York City from the monsters, Raven enlists under a fake identity: after all, she’s only 16.

She starts training with the other recruits at a special compound (reminiscent of Divergent and Fourth Wing) as the military leaders work out a plan of attack. But before long, it becomes clear that there’s a traitor in their midst who’s feeding intelligence to the nests of Creeps and Vamps they’re trying to destroy.

This one was a lot of fun: we liked Raven and were invested in her story, and we were rooting for her and her ragtag group of recruits to successfully take back their city. The paranormal spin on the all-too-real pandemic was a nice twist, and the high levels of action kept us turning pages quickly. While the vampire craze has died down a bit since the Twilight days, we think this is a good paranormal story that will appeal to many students and touches on the edges of the horror genre without being too scary. 

While appropriate for a wide range of readers, it does include some profanity.

Thank you NetGalley and Sterling & Stone for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.