To ask for horror books suitable for my eldest

[callsupernanny]

Hi, my 13 year old dd has recently gotten into watching creepy/horror films and more recently has expressed interest in wanting to read horror books. She's done Neil gaiman type stuff when she was younger and is now moving on to more "grown up" books

At the moment she has read Carrie by Stephen King which she really liked and a book by someone called Grady Hendricks which she said was good.

Obviously it's horror so I don't expect it to be squeaky clean but nothing too insane for a 13 year old please 😂

What sort of horror does she like?

If ghosts, The Woman in Black is brilliant. Daphne DuMaurier's 'Don't Look Now' is also good. It was my favourite when I was thirteen.

Surprisingly, E. Nesbit wrote some wonderful horror.

And if you're going for more modern 'The Orphan Choir' by Sophie Hannah is good. Hope that helps a bit.

I love love LOVE Charlie Higson's The Enemy books. There are about 7 of them, and they focus on different groups of children around the UK in the aftermath of a plague that kills off most of the adults and turns the rest into child eating zombies. They're funny and gripping and gruesome, and they've got some fab characters.

Atm I think she's mostly read supernatural or ghost type horror. I think she liked that Carrie was focused on teenagers but I want to be careful with what Stephen King books she's reading 😂 Both your ideas sound fab thank you!

If she was OK with Carrie and likes ghostly and/or supernatural type horror, I can suggest a few she might like:

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia
The Hiding Place by Amanda Mason
The Sundown Motel by Simone St James
The Woman In Black by Susan Hill - and also Susan Hill's shorter ghost novellas, like The Small Hand, Dolly etc
Dark Matter and Thin Air, both by Michelle Paver
If she likes King and Hendrix she would probably also like Riley Sager and CJ Tudor.
Would echo what a PP said about Daphne Du Maurier too.
Also The Death Of Mrs Westway and The Turn Of The Key by Ruth Ware - they aren't supernatural as such but they're really good, creepy, gothic style mysteries

All of the above are aimed at adults but I don't think would be inappropriate for a smart 13-year-old who has read Stephen King and Grady Hendrix.

More aimed at teens, and with characters closer to your daughter's age, are:

Abigale Hall by Lauren Forry
Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough (there are also sequels to that one)
Hollow Pike, Cruel Summer, Say Her Name and Under My Skin by Juno Dawson

She might also like Helen Grant - she's written a terrifying ghost story for adults called Too Near The Dead but she has also written psychological thrillers for teenagers - The Glass Demon, The Vanishing of Katarina Linden, and the Silent Saturday Trilogy. They're not necessarily supernatural as such, but they are very creepy and atmospheric.

I read a lot of James Herbert when I was 13/14.

Maybe not The Fog though……

Anything by Christopher Pike. The listeners , Witch and Monster are a good start point. They were my absolute favourite as a teen and I still reread them now.

She's just about the right age for the modern vampire novel Let The Right One In by John Arvide Lundqvist. It's about the friendship between a lonely boy and a vampire child. The horror can be strong but if she's okay with Carrie she'd be all right with that. There's a plotline about child abuse but there are no scenes of child abuse and the subject is not treated as titillation. I think a mature 13-year-old would be able to handle it but it's only fair to warn you. It's more about friendship and love between outsiders and acceptance of differences (which again is a bit like Carrie) and the horror is almost incidental to that.

She might enjoy the ghost stories of M R James. Absolute classics.

Michele Paver writes horror for both YA and adult but nothing racy (that I’ve seen) eg Dark Matter is for adults but is fine for a teen and super creepy.

The Five Nights at Freddy's books are aimed at teens. They tend towards psychological horror with some gore. iirc each book is a collection of short stories or novellas. Although they're linked to the game, you don't need to play the game to understand the books.

The Gone series by Michael Grant is good. It's dystopian horror with superheroes. It's starts with all the adults disappearing and a bubble/dome appearing round the area so the teens and DCs inside can't leave. As the books progress the DCs realise the happening has left some of them with powers. There is quite a bit of gore and tbh there are certain scenes I still remember because they shocked me so much at the time but the storytelling is fab and the suggested age is YA.

The Secret of Crickley Hall

I'd recommend The Ragwitch by Garth Nix - that scared the shit out of me and I'm an adult.

Which aspect of Stephen King are you worried about? (I ask this kindly!) I started reading his books around the same age and flew through all of them. I couldn’t get enough!

IT was one of my favourites because of its focus on a group of friends (there is the undertone of Bev being sexually abused but I didn’t really notice that as a teen, only when I reread it later), my other favourite at that age was The Stand - and it still is actually.

Ellie Jordan: Ghost trapper by JL Bryan

Great readable books with just the right amount of creepiness (I'm a lightweight for horror!)

I think there's 14 of them.

At 13 Stephen King is perfect, let her read them. The only thing I objected to at that age was when ds wanted to read 50 Shades of Rubbish and I said he could read a chapter at a time and then we'd discuss it. Funnily enough he went off the idea 🤣

I remember loving James Herbert books at that age. Over 45 years ago, they did seem a bit racy here and there but probably very tame now.
I also loved The Stand. Read it again and again.

I was mainly worried about the sex in Stephen King books @BlackandBlueBird, but I suppose she will have heard a lot of it before
These are all amazing suggestions everyone! Thank you so much

Also Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hilly House; We Have Always Lived in the Castle) might appeal?

*Hill

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

They might be a bit tame for her if she's already reading Carrie!

I loved James Herbert at that age but honestly they haven't aged well. King has though I think. His early stuff like Cujo, Christina and The Shining are much better than some of the bloated later works. I also loved the Ann Rice Vampire novels and Flowers in the Attic which were phenomenally popular at school. Not sure how they've aged though

Flowers in the Attic,oh my,there's a blast from the past!!

Yes I think the sex is probably ok at that age. I was pretty naive about sex as a tween but I don’t remember being shocked or upset or anything by anything in a Stephen King book except the abusive husband in Rose Madder.

Darren Shan.

Sex in a book is far less worrying in my opinion as you can only draw from your own experiences,unlike a film where it's there in graphic detail.