Spooky tales of the supernatural intrigue and thrill both adult and teen readers. Teen horror fiction is a growing genre, with vampires, werewolves, and phantasmal protagonists. Below are some spooky ghost stories for teen readers looking for an afternoon of thrills and chills. These young adult novels are entertaining and suspenseful for a spooky and engaging read.
Spooky Ghost Story for Young Adult Readers: Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story
Mary Downing Hahn’s 1997 William Allen White Award Winner, Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story, is a spooky ghost story appropriate for teen readers. This time-traveling ghost story about two boys, one in the present and one in the past, who switch places, is an entertaining, easy read for younger adolescents. The characters are fully developed and believable, the main narrator’s voice being authentic, witty, and relatable for teen readers. The work is also well researched historically. Readers will enjoy experiencing life in Missouri during the turn of the century, along with the suspense.
Mary Downing Hahn’s spooky, supernatural young adult works certainly doesn’t end with Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story. She has written a plethora of well-crafted and page-turning novels for young adult readers. Some of her works include The Old Willis Place, Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story, and All the Lovely Bad Ones. Hahn is an especially good choice for middle school aged readers.
Hahn also received a William Allen White Award for her entertaining, suspenseful work, The Doll in the Garden: A Ghost Story.
Meg Cabot’s Mediator Series are More Paranormal Novels for Teens
Writer of the successful Princess Diaries series, Meg Cabot also produced a series of supernatural thrillers for teens. With a psychic and spunky teenage medium, Suze Simon, this series will engage teens looking for more romance then chills. This light, easy to pick up and put down series consists of six books, Shadowland, followed by Ninth Key, Reunion, Darkest Hour, Haunted, and finishing with Twilight.
More Ghostly Young Adult Fiction Novels
Below are more young adult fiction with a supernatural twist for teen looking for a ghostly read.
- The Ghost and Goth, Stacy Kade
- Ruined: A Ghost Story, by Paula Morris
- Jade Green, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- The Unresolved, by T.K. Welsh
- Breathe: A Ghost Story, by Cliff NcNish
- If I Stay, by Gayle Forman
- Stone Words, A Ghost Story, by Pam Conrad
- Zoe Rising, by Pam Conrad
- Walk of the Spirits, by Richie Tankersley Cusick
- The Presence: A Ghost Story, by Eve Bunting
- The Killer’s Cousin, by Nancy Werlin
Stone Words, A Ghost Story, by Pam Conrad is also a Edgar Allen Poe Award Winner.
More Teen Ghost Stories and Paranormal Novels
With teen horror a quickly growing genre, partly due to the success of the Twilight Series, teen readers can expect more spooky, supernatural works to be haunting book store and library shelves.
Although, you don't have to look into the near future for spooky ghost stories for teens. The past is full of great supernatural works for teen readers. The Turn of the Screw, for example, by Henry James, is a psychological, supernatural thriller suitable for teen readers. Edgar Allen Poe's macabre classics, although dark, are frightfully fun enough to be appealing to young adult readers.
Until then, on some dark and stormy night, enjoy some of these teen ghost stories listed above for a spooky and fun read.
