These books are best read in broad daylight! If your pulse quickens, your skin prickles and you jump at every noise, you might be reading a horror book. Beware... and enjoy!
Small spaces by
After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn't think, she just acts, stealing the book and running away. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with "the smiling man," a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price.
What Lives in the Woods by
Ginny is unhappy when her family moves from Chicago to upstate Michigan for the summer; her father has a job restoring a 1930s mansion, but there are rumors about Woodmoor and the forest next to it: rumors about strange mutant creatures; Ginny, an aspiring mystery writer, is soon half convinced that the rumors are true, because something or someone is haunting the house--and she plans to investigate, with the help of Will, the older boy who lives nearby.
Ophie's Ghosts by
Ophelia Harrison used to live in a small house in the Georgia countryside. But that was before the night in November 1922, and the cruel act that took her home and her father from her. Which was the same night that Ophie learned she can see ghosts.
Ghosted by
Larry's got a few problems. In school, he's one of those kids who easily gets lost in the crowd. And Grimm, Larry's best friend in the whole world, has ghosted him. Literally. One minute Grimm was saving a cat in a tree during a lightning storm, and the next, he's pulling pranks on Larry in his new ghostly form.
Whispering Pines by
When otherworldly forces descend on their town of Whispering Pines, conspiracy theorist Rae, who's searching for her lost father, and Caden, who's haunted by the ghost of his brother, must band together to save their home
Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (a Paola Santiago Novel) by
In Silver Springs, Arizona, her mother's stories of the monstrous La Llorona are thrilling but unbelievable to science-loving Paola until she and her best friends Dante and Emma take a walk through a cactus field near the Gila River.
Within These Wicked Walls by
Andromeda is a debtera -- an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye. She would be hired, that is, if her mentor hadn't thrown her out before she could earn her license. Now her only hope of steady work is to find a patron -- a rich, well-connected individual who will vouch for her abilities.
The Buried by
Ten years ago, disaster struck the remote town of Indigo Falls. A horrific event drove the residents underground, into shelters that keep them safe from the danger on the surface. No one speaks about what happened that fateful day, but even the youngest still remember the fear and, most of all, the searing pain when sunlight touched their skin.
The Mary Shelley Club by
New girl Rachel Chavez turns to horror movies for comfort, preferring stabby serial killers and homicidal dolls to the bored rich kids of Manhattan Prep...and to certain memories she'd preferred to keep buried. Then Rachel is recruited by the Mary Shelley Club, a mysterious society of students who orchestrate Fear Tests, elaborate pranks inspired by urban legends and movie tropes
Wilder Girls by
Friends Hetty, Byatt, and Reece go to extremes trying to uncover the dark truth about the mysterious disease that has had them quarantined at their boarding school on a Maine island.
The Ash House by
When Eleven-year-old Sol arrives at the Ash House, desperate for a cure for his complex pain syndrome, he finds a community of strange children long abandoned by their mysterious Headmaster. The children at the Ash House want the new boy to love their home as much as they do. They give him a name like theirs. They show him the dorms and tell him about the wonderful oasis that the Headmaster has created for them. But the new boy already has a name. Doesn't he? At least he did before he walked through those gates..
How We Fall Apart by
Jamie Ruan is the queen bee of Sinclair Prep. Until one day, she's dead. The Proctor, an anonymous poster on the school media app, points the finger at Jamie's friends. Akil Patel is the school's track star-- and he's running from his secrets. Krystal Choi has a killer sense of fashion, but does that make her a killer? Alexander Lin is always focused on grades, but is hiding a dark secret. Nancy Luo isn't threatening... unless you get between her and the top spot.
Bird Box by
Something is out there . . . Something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it began, only a handful of scattered survivors remain
Reprieve by
On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, "reprieve," they'll win a substantial cash prize... But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants. Those who were present on that fateful night lend their points of view
Lovecraft Country by
The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George -- publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide -- and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey, they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.
Meddling Kids by
SUMMER 1977. The Blyton Summer Detective Club solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster...1990. The former detectives have grown up and apart, each haunted by disturbing memories of their final night in the old haunted house. There are too many strange, half-remembered encounters and events that cannot be dismissed or explained away by a guy in a mask.
Later by
Jamie Conklin, a boy born with an unnatural ability to see and learn things no one else can, is enlisted to help an NYPD detective pursue a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.