YA Horror

Love to stay up all night with the Final Survivor? These are for you.

Updated December 1, 2023
Southeastern Ohio Regional Library Chillicothe & Ross County Public Library
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All these bodies
Blake, Kendare
Paper Book
* Indie Next List Pick * Indie Bestseller * Sixteen bloodless bodies. Two teenagers. One impossible explanation. In this edge-of-your-seat mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kendare Blake, the truth is as hard to believe as it is to find. Summer 1958. A...
The book of living secrets
Roux, Madeleine
Paper Book
Perfect for fans of The Hazel Wood and Small Favors, this genre-bending page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux follows two girls who transport themselves into the world of their favorite book only to encounter the sinister alternate reality that awaits them.  ...

Madeleine Roux was one of the first rock stars of YA horror. Anything she has written is pretty creepy.

Clown in a cornfield
Cesare, Adam
Paper Book
Bram Stoker Award Winner for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel In Adam Cesare's terrifying young adult debut, Quinn Maybrook finds herself caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress--that just may cost her life. Quinn Maybrook and her father have...
Dread nation
Ireland, Justina
Paper Book
New York Times bestseller * Six starred reviews At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland's stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar--a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.<...

Perhaps more action than horror, but Dread Nation is an alternate history in which the Civil War dead rise as zombies.

Extasia
Legrand, Claire
Paper Book
**One of BuzzFeed's Great LGBTQ+ YA novels to Warm up Your Winter * A Kid's Feb/March IndieNext pick** From New York Times bestselling author Claire Legrand comes a new, bone-chilling YA horror novel about a girl who joins a coven to root out a vicious evil that's stalking her village....
The getaway
Giles, Lamar
Paper Book
"Timely, thrilling, and gripping from start to finish. An absolute page-turner." --Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying Jay is living his best life at Karloff Country, one of the world's most famous resorts. He's got his family,...
The haunted
Vega, Danielle
Paper Book
Hendricks Becker-O'Malley is new in town, and she's bringing baggage with her. With a dark and wild past, Hendricks doesn't think the small town her parents moved her to has much to offer her in terms of excitement. She plans on laying low, but when she's suddenly welcomed into the popular crowd at...
His hideous heart : thirteen of Edgar Allan Poe's most unsettling tales reimagined
Adler, Dahlia
Paper Book
Thirteen of YA's most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe's most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation. Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young...
Hold me closer, necromancer
McBride, Lish.
Paper Book
Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he's doing all right--until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak. Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash...

This is an old one and therefore hard to find, but it is somehow both firmly horror and hysterically funny.

Horrid
Leno, Katrina
Paper Book
From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie. Following her father's death, Jane North-Robinson and her...
House of furies
Roux, Madeleine
Paper Book
An all-new creepy fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author of Asylum. Featuring stunning interior illustrations from artist Iris Compiet, plus photo-collages that bring the story to chilling life, House of Furies invites readers to a world where the line...
The initial insult
McGinnis, Mindy
Paper Book
In the first book of a suspenseful YA duology, award-winning author Mindy McGinnis draws inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and masterfully delivers a dark, propulsive mystery in alternating points of view that unravels a friendship . . . forevermore. Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and...
A long stretch of bad days
McGinnis, Mindy
Paper Book
2024 Whippoorwill Award Honor Book 2025-2026 MASL Gateway Award Finalist From award-winning author Mindy McGinnis comes a thrilling and gripping YA mystery about a small town's past and the secrets unearthed by way of two teen girls--and a podcast. Perfect for fans of Sadie,...

Ohio author Mindy McGinnis has a special talent for all things gross and stressful. Also check out her Poe rewrites; the first one is titled The Initial Insult.

The Merciless The Merciless Series, Book 1
Vega, Danielle.
Ebook
"The Merciless is chilling. Think Mean Girls meets The Exorcist."--MTV.com  Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page of this thrilling debut novel. Fans of Asylum by Madeleine Roux and Miss...
The river has teeth
Waters, Erica
Paper Book
Lush and chilling, with razor-sharp edges and an iron core of hope, this bewitching, powerhouse novel of two girls fighting back against the violence the world visits on them will stun and enchant readers. Girls have been going missing in the woods... When Natasha's sister...
The taking of Jake Livingston
Douglass, Ryan
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! Get Out meets Holly Jackson in this YA social thriller where survival is not a guarantee. Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can't decide what's worse: being a medium forced...
There's someone inside your house
Perkins, Stephanie
Paper Book
Now a Netflix Feature Film! "A heart-pounding page-turner with an outstanding cast of characters, a deliciously creepy setting, and an absolutely merciless body count." -Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie and The Project A...
This is not a test
Summers, Courtney.
Paper Book
Available now: I'M THE GIRL, the new "brutally captivating" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) queer thriller from Courtney Summers, based loosely on The Epstein case and "not for the faint of heart" (The New York Times) It's the end of the world. Six students...
We have always lived in the castle
Jackson, Shirley
Paper Book
Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly...
The weight of blood
Jackson, Tiffany D.
Paper Book
* AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * INDIE BESTSELLER * JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION * KIDS' INDIE NEXT LIST PICK * NPR BEST PICK * KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America's history and...

This is one of Melissa's all-time favorite YA Horror novels. If you like Jordan Peele's movies with their mix of creepy atmosphere and social commentary, you're going to love anything by Tiffany D. Jackson.


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