Best spine-chilling horror books for children according to redditors
We found 332 Reddit comments discussing the best spine-chilling horror books for children. We ranked the 144 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Wait wtf this is a real book
I'm promoting my book about Baltimore!
It's about an 11 year-old girl who wakes to discover that her neighborhood of Charles Village has been completely abandoned. Armed only with her journal and a box of cereal, she and her neighbor's cat venture onto the leaf-strewn streets to explore. However, they soon learn that something odd has happened to the town of Baltimore. The people have disappeared, the buildings are empty, and ghosts and ravens haunt their every move.
Anne draws courage from the heroines in the books she reads. Books, she soon finds out, may even be the key to the city's fate. But autumn is here, the days are growing cold and short, and the dark forces controlling the city are quickly making things worse. When Anne finally confronts the ghost in the city clocktower, she may find that there's more to her story that she ever expected.
I was fun to write and it's full of local landmarks and references. My cat says she read the first chapter and now she's bored again.
Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge: A Ghost Story
It might be Creep Show (Eek! Stories to Make You Shriek). Here's a review on Amazon.
>Kids stay away from the old Star Theatre...seems someone died there years ago. Now a boy has a strange desire to go to the deserted theatre alone. Not only is he the only customer in the audience, he is really IN the movies on screen! He has several close calls, appearing in a dangerous surfing movie and a baseball movie. Then, he appears in something really scary..! This is the best Eek book so far; a big hit with 7-9 year old boys, especially. It's easy to read, fast-paced, and has creepy illustrations showing a regular kid in extraordinary situations. Your child will enjoy being scared over and over again.
(oh, and while searching for the book I think I came across you searching for the book on other sites too!)
>The Beast. I read all about it, including the fictional books based on it
You must mean this and this.
https://www.amazon.com/Studios-Employee-Handbook-Bendy-Machine/dp/1338343920
I don't read much historical fantasy, but I have read some and some more alternate history if you are in to that. I haven't read the one you spoke of in your post, so not sure exactly what balance of history and fantasy (or time period) you are looking for. However, I will list here for you many that I have read:
The Shadow of Albion - Andre Norton and Rosemary Edghill Alternate England
Black Ships - Jo Graham This one is about Troy. some romance
His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik Napoleonic War with dragons.
Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier The author says it isn't historical, but it is based somewhat on history/legend. Ireland as it is being exposed to Christianity. Based on The Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale "The Wild Swans" Definitely a good bit of romance in this one.
The Wild Swans - Peg Kerr Another based on the Anderson Fairy Tale. 2 stories in one. One set in the 1800 about a curse, and the other set in the 1980s about AIDS. Not my favorite, but an interesting parallel.
Bright Sword of Ireland - Juliene Osborne-McKnight This one is more mythic and definitely has "romance". It's about Mebd's daughter. Not my personal favorite, but the ending definitely stuck with me. Also deals with interactions with Christianity
Newton's Cannon - Gregory Keyes Okay, haven't read this one yet, but I've been meaning to get around to it.
Young Adult
Sorcery and Cecilia OR The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
A Matter of Magic - Patricia C. Wrede
A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
These above are set in London/England in 1700-1900?. They are all relatively light reading.
The Fetch - Laura Whitcomb This one is set during the Russian Revolution. Teen love.
A Certain Slant of Light - Laura Whitcomb This one is set in the present day, but one of the main characters is a ghost from the late 1800s.
There're also quite a few novels in historical fantasy romance. But most of them are definitely more on the romance side.
*edited for formatting
Was it "Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge"? https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Miss-Honeywells-Revenge-Ghost/dp/0152054715
Someone else mentioned Joe Hill, and I'd wholeheartedly agree. Horns might be best. NOS4A2 is great, but it's a conscious attempt to write in the Stephen King mold, so you may not like it.
Peter Straub is a favorite. Ghost Story seems the most obvious choice for you. I love it, although the book's values, particularly when it comes to sex, are a bit Victorian. A complaint that can't be made about Straub's other books.
When it comes to ghosts, I think short stories are usually the stronger choice. To that end, there's a collection that Roald Dahl put together that is really excellent. Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories.
There's a novel about Baltimore and my cat says she's chewing her way through the middle chapters!
The story is about Anne, a girl who wakes to discover that the city is completely abandoned. Armed only with her journal and a box of cereal, she and her neighbor's cat venture into the cold air to explore. However, they soon learn that something odd has happened to the city. The people have disappeared, the buildings are empty, and ravens watch every row-home and alley.
As they search for answers, Anne thinks back on the heroes in the books she likes to read. Books, she soon finds out, may even be the key to the city's fate. But autumn is here, the days are growing cold and short, and the dark forces controlling the city are quickly making things worse. When Anne finally confronts the ghost in the city clocktower, she may find that there's more to her story that she first expected.
Oh I loved the Deadtime series! Invasion of the Appleheads is probably the one you want :)
See You Later?
http://www.amazon.com/See-You-Later-Christopher-Pike/dp/0671020250/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=DZ1THAIDVQWT&coliid=I264XMKAK6XL52
Besides the characters, the history, and the language, J.S. & Mr N is also the most wonderfully spooky book I have ever read.
Roald Dahl edited a collection of ghost stories which have the same kind of sense, coincidentally or not many of these stories are also written by women:
http://www.amazon.com/Roald-Dahls-Book-Ghost-Stories/dp/0374518688
Lots of the other fantasy and sf books that people mentioned are great, I think, but none of them will scratch the same itch as the one you just finished. Sadly.
The audiobook version of the book was excellent, you can do like me and listen to it after you have read it. You will hear a lot of things you did not read because you were racing to find out what was going to happen.
Oh man, this sent me down memory lane. From my childhood, I remember this book because of the scary stuff and awesome pop ups. A video of the inner pages and someone reading the book can be found here.
I own all the regular books but I only had two of the CYOA books, Tick Tock, You're Dead and The Deadly Experiments of Dr. Eeek. I remember being kind of disappointed with the concept of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
I never really read the choose-your-own-adventure books, but I used to devour the Goosebumps choose your own scares a lot as a kid.
I really want to check out the Choice of Games page that kzielinski posted though. That seems awesome.
Was it the Bruce Coville series?
http://www.amazon.ca/Bruce-Covilles-Book-Monsters-Creeps/dp/0807277657
So, I found this picture showing multiple YA fiction books with dead girls on the cover.
The one that fits your story might be "A Certain Slant of Light" by Laura Whitcomb.
Ah reminds me of this great book that I loved
(http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-House-Jan-Pienkowski/dp/0763628182)
A Very Strange Dollhouse
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Well, if science fiction is your thing, I'm two novels into writing a young adult sci-fi series and could always use some readers. My first one came out last September, and my second one early this January. It's available in ebook format and print, whichever one's to your fancy.
Creepy Pumpkin patch, A fun Halloween children's story is free for the next few days!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XTJ6VXY
Totally jealous of anyone who gets to do this. I live 8 hours away otherwise I would be ON IT. I did get a little excited though because when I first read the title I thought it was implying that you actually get to walk the track. Now THAT would be incredible but obviously they couldn't allow that for liability reasons.
>Nothing compares with a night ride on the Beast.”
Ain't that the truth. I would place that experience at #3 out of my 118 coasters, right behind El Toro and Top Thrill Dragster.
I'm also not ashamed to admit I've read this.
Reminds me of this book, which I used to love despite the fact that it gave me nightmares.
Does the madness never end?
Time Windows & Dreadful Sorry by Kathryn Reiss
That may have been the one called "The Fear Street Saga" trilogy
Book 1 - The Betrayal
Book 2 - The Secret
Book 3 - The Burning
I always liked the stand alone books like The Cheater or The Wrong Number and the Super Chillers because they were extra long. My favorite was probably Silent Night. I also liked the 99 Fear Street Series or all the books in the Fear Street Cheerleaders series.
When I was in 6th grade, one time the Scholastic book order had this monthly club you could sign up for. Every month they would send you 2 Fear Street books and some other Fear Street/R.L. Stine merchandise like stickers, buttons, or bookmarks, things like that. When I first started, it was great. They would send me the latest one that just came out that month and one of the previous older ones. I did this for a really long time, many many months and built up quite a collection of Fear Street books. However, I think they started running out of books to send me because it ended up becoming they would send me the latest Fear Street and then some other "horror" novel, like non-Fear Street R.L. Stine books, a Christopher Pike book or something like Twins by Caroline B. Cooney. I had so many of these books I was like my own library. After awhile though, the books they were sending got shittier and shittier and they were sending me stuff like some Ichabod Crane/Sleepy Hallow type book and I ended up stopping the monthly book club. Then, a few years later, my mother sold most of them at a yard sale. Now I'm really wishing she had kept them, I would have taken them back. Which is why, I bought a bunch of them again! Now I want to go read a Fear Street book...
Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters?
Reminds me of a Scholastic book I had when I was a kid.
Deadtime Stories: Invasion of the Appleheads
Sounds like the three part "99 Fear Street" series by R.L. Stine
[99 Fear Street: The First Horror] (http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Horror-Fear-Street/dp/0671885626/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331483236&sr=1-1)
[99 Fear Street: The Second Horror] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Second-Horror-Fear-Street/dp/0671885634/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331483554&sr=1-2)
[99 Fear Street: The Third Horror] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Third-Horror-Fear-Street/dp/0671885642/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331483236&sr=1-3)
You've totally just made me think of the perfect book to recommend and now I can't remember the name of it. ಠ_ಠ
Edit: Someone on TOMT helped me figure it out! It's called A Certain Slant of Light.
This is close, but I'm not certain:
http://www.amazon.com/Dreadful-Sorry-Time-Travel-Mysteries/dp/0152050876
Removed for violating rule #9: you submitted
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076XKB4Z9/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_bql-zbSJ9AN7Mbut it should behttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B076XKB4Z9/. Please clean up the URL and resubmit. Thank you!Don't know if we're allowed to promote our own works, but my novel, The Beast and the Cricket, features a group of kids trying to survive on an island after shapeshifting monster-people attack them.
A Certain Slant of Light
So it's marketed as a YA romance/horror novel, but it's actually really beautifully written and goes much deeper than that. I would say it truly blurs the line between YA and Adult, seeing as the main characters are in fact both adults and teenagers at the same time.
It has a sequel as well: https://www.amazon.com/Stinky-Steve-Book-Minecraft-Superhero-ebook/dp/B01I44IFIM
If you have a Minecraft kid that likes fart jokes, they will like this.
He wrote two! https://www.amazon.com/Beast-No-2-R-L-Stine/dp/067152951X
Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters was a personal favorite of mine growing up....
Bonechiller by Graham McNamee? The female character Ash doesn't seem to be in the military and online descriptions don't go into the monster's weaknesses.
Maybe "Creep Show (Eek! Stories to Make You Shriek)" by Jennifer Dussling?
https://www.amazon.com/Creep-Show-Stories-Make-Shriek/dp/0448412721
They’re on amazon, you can get both for ~$20
Dreams come to life: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1338343947/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_oyCEDbJ2XDEAT
Handbook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1338343920/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_ZyCEDbQZ5Z85A
This Beast?
Or this one?
Or was this guy?