If you read horror all year long, or are just looking for a creepy read for the haunting season, here is a selection of teen horror books recently added to the collection:
Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare
A year after the Kettle Springs massacre, Quinn and her friends Rust and Cole become the focus of online conspiracy theories that recast them as villains rather than victims. Sequel to Clown in a Cornfield
The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco
The island of Kisapmata would be the vacation destination...if not for the curse. The Filipino locals speak of it in hushed voices and refuse to step foot on the island. They know the lives it has claimed. They won't be next. A Hollywood film crew won't be dissuaded. Legend claims a Dreamer god sleeps, waiting to grant unimaginable powers in exchange for eight sacrifices. The producers are determined to document the evidence. And they convince Alon, a local teen, to be their guide. Within minutes of their arrival, a giant sinkhole appears, revealing a giant balete tree with a mummified corpse entwined in its gnarled branches. And the crew start seeing strange visions. Alon knows they are falling victim to the island's curse. If Alon can't convince them to leave, there is no telling who will survive.
Go Hunt Me by Kelly deVos
A dream trip to a remote Romanian castle turns into a nightmare for Alex and her horror buff friends when they begin to be killed one by one.
Dead Flip by Sara Farizan
Eighteen-year-olds Cori and Maz, once inseparable best friends, reunite to solve the mystery of what happened to their other friend Sam--who disappeared five years ago and has now returned, not having aged at all.
The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror edited by Tori Bovalino
A cemetery full of the restless dead. A town so wicked it has already burned twice, with the breath of the third fire looming. A rural, isolated bridge with a terrifying monster waiting for the completion of its summoning ritual. A lake that allows the drowned to return, though they have been changed by the claws of death. These are the shadowed, liminal spaces where the curses and monsters lurk, refusing to be forgotten.
The Getaway by Lamar Giles
Jay is living his best life at Karloff Country, one of the world's most famous resorts. He's got his family, his crew, and an incredible after-school job at the property's main theme park. Life isn't so great for the rest of the world, but when people come here to vacation, it's to get away from all that. As things outside get worse, trouble starts seeping into Karloff. First, Jay's friend Connie and her family disappear in the middle of the night and no one will talk about it. Then, the richest and most powerful families start arriving, only... they aren't leaving. Unknown to the employees, the resort has been selling shares in an end-of-the-world oasis. The best of the best at the end of days. And in order to deliver the top-notch customer service the wealthy clientele paid for, the employees will be at their total beck and call. Whether they like it or not. Yet Karloff Country didn't count on Jay and his crew--and just how far they'll go to find out the truth and save themselves. But what's more dangerous: the monster you know in your home or the unknown nightmare outside the walls?
Two Truths and a Lie by April Henry
When a troupe of theater students get stranded in a creepy old motel during a blizzard, they play a foreboding game of truth and lies that leads to real danger when a murderer is discovered in their midst.
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
When Springville residents--at least the ones still alive--are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.
Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne
After dropping out of college, nineteen-year-old Laurel Early returns to her uncle's tobacco farm, where she encounters a monster as well as her mother's ghost, and soon Laurel realizes that she must tap into her own innate magic to save everyone she loves.
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
Mars has always been the lesser twin, the shadow to his sister Caroline's radiance. But when Caroline dies under horrific circumstances, Mars is propelled to learn all he can about his once-inseparable sister, who'd grown tragically distant. Mars's genderfluidity means he's often excluded from the traditions--and expectations--of his politically-connected family. This includes attendance at the prestigious Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy, where his sister poured so much of her time. But with his grief still fresh, he insists on attending in her place. What Mars finds is a bucolic fairy tale not meant for him. Folksy charm and sun-drenched festivities camouflage old-fashioned gender roles and a toxic preparatory rigor. Mars seeks out his sister's old friends: a group of girls dubbed the Honeys, named for the beehives they maintain behind their cabin. They are beautiful and terrifying--and Mars is certain they're connected to Caroline's death. But the longer he stays at Aspen, the more the sweet mountain breezes give way to hints of decay. Mars's memories begin to falter, bleached beneath the relentless summer sun. Something is hunting him in broad daylight, toying with his mind. If Mars can't find it soon, it will eat him alive.
Don’t Go to Sleep by Bryce Moore
In 1918 New Orleans, seventeen-year-old Gianna Crutti's worries about her family's grocery, the Great War, and influenza are overshadowed when a murderer returns to terrorize the city--years after he attacked Gianna's parents and left her with a psychic connection between them.
Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers
Haunting illustrations are woven throughout these horror stories that follow one extended Cherokee family across the centuries and well into the future as they encounter predators of all kinds in each time period.
Primal Animals by Julia Lynn Rubin
While at the college prep Camp Rockaway, sixteen-year-old Arlee Gold is tapped to join a secret society, with deadly consequences.
Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White
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.
Direwood by Catherine Yu
In this velvet-clad 1990s gothic horror, Aja encounters a charming vampire who wants to lure her into the woods--just like her missing sister.