Ominous YA Reads
Check out this selection of young adult books perfect for the month of Halloween!
And don't look back
Barrow, Rebecca, author
2023
After her mother's death, teen Harlow pieces together the truth of her family's past and what her mom was hiding from.
The bad ones : a novel
Albert, Melissa, author.
2024
Teenage Nora uncovers dangerous secrets and eerie local lore surrounding disappearances in her small town, where a teacher and three high school students, including her best friend, go missing.
The Black girl survives in this one : horror stories
2024
A collection of fifteen horror stories centering on Black girls who battle monsters--both human and supernatural--face down death, and survive.
The city beautiful
Polydoros, Aden, author
2021
Chicago, 1893. For Alter Rosen, this is the land of opportunity, and he dreams of the day he'll have enough money to bring his mother and sisters to America, freeing them from the oppression they face in his native Romania. But when Alter's best friend, Yakov, becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, his dream begins to slip away. While the rest of the city is busy celebrating the World's Fair, Alter is now living a nightmare: possessed by Yakov's dybbuk, he is plunged into a world of corruption and deceit, and thrown back into the arms of a dangerous boy from his past. A boy who means more to Alter than anyone knows. Now, with only days to spare until the dybbuk takes over Alter's body completely, the two boys must race to track down the killer--before the killer claims them next.
The dead and the dark
Gould, Courtney, author
2021
When Logan, the adopted daughter of reality television ghosthunters, teams up with Ashley to search for missing teens in Snakebite, Oregon, they find themselves falling for each other as they uncover a hidden evil.
Dead girls walking
Ellis, Sami, author.
2024
Temple Baker, the daughter of a well-known serial killer, assumes the role of a camp counselor at a camp for true crime enthusiasts while she attempts to unearth the truth surrounding her mother's murder, but becomes embroiled in a disturbing series of events when a girl is found dead in the woods.
The forest demands its due
Jackson, Kosoko, author
2023
When the murder of his classmate at an elite boarding school seems to be forgotten overnight, seventeen-year-old Douglas must confront centuries of secrets in the school's past and a vengeful creature in the forest surrounding the campus.
Harvest house
Smith, Cynthia Leitich, author
2023
Halloween is near, and Hughie Wolfe is volunteering at a new rural attraction: Harvest House. He's excited to take part in the fun, spooky show--until he learns that an actor playing the vengeful spirit of an "Indian maiden," a ghost inspired by local legend, will headline. Folklore aside, unusual things have been happening at night at the crossroads near Harvest House. A creepy man is stalking teenage girls and young women, particularly Indigenous women; dogs are fretful and on edge; and wild animals are behaving strangely. While Hughie weighs how and when to speak up about the bigoted legend, he and his friends begin to investigate the crossroads and whether it might be haunted after all. As Moon rises on All Hallow's Eve, will they be able to protect themselves and their community?
Hell followed with us
White, Andrew Joseph, author
2022
"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. But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC's leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji's darkest secret: the cult's bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all. Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick's terms...until he discovers the ALC's mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own."--Amazon.
Infinity son
Silvera, Adam, 1990- author
2020
In a world where some people are born with powers and some people take them, brothers Emil and Brighton Rey get swept up in a supernatural turf war generations in the making.
The innkeeper chronicles. 1, Clean sweep : the graphic novel
ChrossxXxRodes, author
2024
On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian bed and breakfast in a small Texas town and is a perfect neighbor. But Dina is ... different. Her broom is a deadly weapon and her magic inn is meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors.
A place for vanishing
Fraistat, Ann, author
2024
Looking for a fresh start, sixteen-year-old Libby and her family return to her mother's childhood home only to discover that the house's strange beauty may disguise a sinister past.
Sixteen souls
Talbot, Rosie, author.
2023
"Sixteen-year-old Charlie Frith has problems. His crush is dating someone else, his sisters have glitter-bombed his prosthesis (again), and he's a seer-of-spirits in York, the most haunted city in England, and all his friends are ghosts. To make matters worse, it seems that famous spirits are mysteriously vanishing from York's haunted streets and alleys. Charlie is determined to stay out of it, but Sam, the irritating new seer in town, expects him to track down who -- or what -- is responsible and uncover the dark purpose behind these disappearances. But when one of Charlie's ghostly friends vanishes, he has no choice but to face the shadows -- and his growing feelings for Sam. The boys must be willing to risk it all to save York's spirits, because this adversary will stop at nothing to complete their devastating plan. Afterlives are at stake, and Charlie is running out of time ..."--Amazon.
The spirit bares its teeth
White, Andrew Joseph, author
2023
Set in an alternate Victorian England where mediums control the dead, sixteen-year-old autistic transgender boy Silas must expose a power-hungry secret society while confined to a cruel finishing school designed to turn him into the perfect wife.
The taking of Jake Livingston
Douglass, Ryan, author.
2021
"When a murderous ghost begins to haunt sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston, high school soon becomes a different kind of survival game"-- Provided by publisher.
