Almost every adult horror fan I know remembers reading a terrifying novel or watching a frightening movie far too young—and suffering intensely vivid nightmares (think Pennywise the clown emerging from the sewer in Stephen King’s IT or Regan MacNeil’s head spinning around in The Exorcist). But tweens needn’t read above their age level this spooky season. Below are some recommendations aimed at readers ages 8 to 14, grouped by trope or subgenre; kids eager to explore what their parents or older siblings are enjoying will find plenty of satisfying read-alikes.
Techno-horror. Erin Entrada Kelly and Eliot Schrefer’s Fatal Glitch is a Black Mirror–esque anthology series from Stonefruit/Sourcebooks, with illustrations by Jeannette Arroyo. Camp Zero (July 21) centers on a self-centered gamer sent to a camp with ties to a popular online gaming world; attendees must participate in a competition with dire stakes. In Let’s Play a Game (Sept. 29), AI takes the form of an adorable plush panda hellbent on getting his owner to take part in a series of increasingly vicious pranks. Kelly and Schrefer ramp up the chills while inviting readers to ponder the role of technology in their own lives.
Be careful what you wish for. There’s plenty that Peter, the protagonist of Jack Mackay’s The Haunting of Old Splinter (Viking, July 21), would change about his life. Money troubles plague his family as his stepfather works on renovating their new home, a lavish manor now in ruins, at the behest of Peter’s wealthy Uncle Lawrence, who recently purchased the house. When Peter and his half brother, Adrian, discover a mummified hand capable of granting wishes, they’re sure it’s the key to their happiness, but it just may be their undoing. With echoes of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, this eerie novel features grotesque imagery—an unearthed corpse, a boy coughing up a spider—but the real horrors are rooted in familial conflict, secrets, and loss.
Haunted houses. D.W. Gillespie’s The Doll House (Delacorte, July 28) opens with Garrett Weathers and his mother learning they’ll inherit his estranged grandfather’s estate after they spend a week in his mansion. The catch? With doll parts dangling from the roof, the house makes the Bates Motel look cozy; Grandpa Weathers was a celebrated writer, but making marionettes was his hobby. He also left unfinished business—and the house appears to be urging Garrett, an aspiring writer himself, to carry out the old man’s plans. Reminiscent of King’s The Shining, this tale is at its most unnerving when those around Garrett see in him echoes of his cruel grandfather.
Creature features. In Darcie Little Badger’s Tales From Cabin 23: The Sinking House (Clarion/HarperCollins, Aug. 4), Sean enters an abandoned cliffside home that collapses and begins filling with water. He’s trapped with a new friend named Jenny…and an aquatic creature who promises a way out if they can guess his name. Sean’s Lipan Apache heritage is crucial to this tale, a thought-provoking counternarrative to typical monster stories: No mindless brute, this antagonist persuasively argues that humans are the true monsters, given the destruction they’ve wrought upon the planet.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
