While many of these diverse YA horror books have popped up on numerous YA horror books compilations in the past, I thought it worthwhile to break them out and expand upon them. As always: horror is a mood and not a genre. It can be part of any genre, allowing it deep flexibility and definition—some of these books might not seem like what you’d anticipate for horror, but if it’s a book that in some capacity brings about fear, chills, disgust, or anguish to the reader, then it’s horror. Many of these authors have published numerous horror books, so poke around in their catalogs to discover even more great thrilling reads.
Diverse YA Horror Books
Itching for more? You’re in luck! Dig into a wide array of YA horror, and don’t forget to dip your toe into YA horror short stories, too.
Told over the course of one night, this is the story of Win, sent to a remote boarding school after family tragedy, where he finds himself shunned by his peers. Win also happens to be Drew, an angry, violent teen with a monstrous secret.
What happens when he can no longer control the monster inside?
Turns out that renter is a vampire and he’s returning to his tribal home after a jaunt in Europe that spanned many centuries.
But before long, the girls can no longer suppress their own desire to kill. They’re only going after their enemies, though, and they’ve learned from the mistakes made by their father.
Then, Fancy discovers a portal to a whole new world and reality.
Death and blood are horrifying, but perhaps what Kyle finds scariest is isolation and loneliness.
Beth has died, and her father, who is grieving deeply, is the only person who is able to see and hear her. There is one another person, though, who seems to be able to communicate with Beth, and now Beth needs to set her detective father on the case to figure out who she is and what role she may have in a mysterious and gruesome fire at a troubled youth home.
A story of dark secrets, small towns, and innocent lives that don’t get to rest.
Together, they return to their home and discover White Fox, the last screenplay by their mother, thought long lost. Once they open it, suddenly the sisters find themselves amid a dark fairy tale with clues that might help solve the mystery of what happened to their mother. Dark, twisty, and eerie, this one is another excellent example of horror overlaying genres like thriller and mystery.
Luke and his family have moved a lot, thanks to his father’s job as a black ops infiltrator, but now they’re settling into a new home and Luke’s hopeful to be able to have a “normal” experience.
Then his father goes missing and Luke must avoid being captured by kidnappers who are out for him (leverage for his father, of course), must avoid a weird clique of kids at school, and, well, understand what it means to have a whole paranormal identity to boot.
