If you like a little scare with your fiction fare, check out these six books recommended for intermediate and/or middle-school readers. For a thriller with a sci-fi bent, see our Five Questions interview with Tracey Baptiste about Boy 2.0. And for Halloween recommendations for the younger set, see Horn BOO! 2024.

Once They See You: 13 Stories to Shiver and Shock
by Josh Allen; illus. by Sarah J. Coleman
Middle School    Holiday    192 pp.
8/24    9780823456321    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780823459278    $11.99

In the harrowing world of these thirteen creative short stories, bicycles can be demonic, your classmates might be zombies, and a fortune cookie might contain more than a harmless slip of paper. In a third collection of scary tales, Allen (Out to Get You; Only If You Dare, rev. 9/21) taps into the “what-ifs”: what if, instead of your feeling like the invisible middle child, everyone truly forgot that you existed? What if, instead of your growing out of being afraid of creatures in the dark, those very creatures were just waiting for you to turn out the light and take your time hopping into bed? What if nobody in your new class believed that your old house was haunted by a ghost girl who wanted to chop off your fingers? Coleman’s grayscale illustrations match the mild horror of the narratives, which, while not particularly gory, are not for the faint of heart. (Many of the stories’ endings imply that the child protagonists die horrible deaths.) The dark fates and creepy buildups will appeal strongly to young readers who love to indulge their fears, and the stories are compelling enough to be read in one or two sittings. Fans of Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (rev. 2/82) will have a great time reading this collection—although, maybe, a hard time falling asleep. SARAH BERMAN

Read at Your Own Risk
by Remy Lai; illus. by the author
Intermediate, Middle School    Holt    160 pp.
8/24    9781250323354    $13.99
e-book ed.  9781250323347    $9.99

Though others may call it “an accident…I know the word for someone who goes to science class to dissect earthworms and gets sliced in the forehead by an earthworm-juice-encrusted blade and has to get two stitches: CURSED.” Middle-school protagonist Hannah Lee relates in her journal all the things that have gone supernaturally wrong or been left unexplained over the course of eight days when she is “hexed by ancient evil.” Her nose keeps bleeding, her front tooth falls out (the dentist finds silverfish in her gums, shudder), her brother falls into a coma. She records each occurrence in her diary…and the malevolent spirit begins to write back. Lai’s (Ghost Book, rev. 9/23) visual style — incorporating copious, plot-furthering illustrations within the main text — is here displayed on spiral notebook–looking lined pages with spiky, sketchlike art (“by” Hannah), mostly black and white with some splotches of blood red, capturing the increasingly weird, and sometimes genuinely frightening, goings-on. Allusions to the power of storytelling and an impending author’s visit are threaded throughout, both used as foreshadowing to an attention-grabbingly eerie ending. ELISSA GERSHOWITZ

It Happened to Anna
by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Middle School    Delacorte    224 pp.
8/24    9780593647035    $17.99
Library ed.  9780593647042    $20.99
e-book ed.  9780593647059    $10.99

At her new school, Sadie is determined not to make any friends. She’d like someone to talk to, but her last best friend, Anna, died tragically in an accident Sadie blames on the ghost that has haunted her since childhood. This ghost makes lightbulbs explode and cold winds blow whenever Sadie starts getting close to another person, so she thinks it best to avoid friendly, welcoming Charlotte. When Sadie meets caustic Mal, though, her ghost does not seem to protest. Mal is attentive, funny, and ultimately extremely possessive of Sadie’s affections. She quickly deems them “best friends” and encourages Sadie to play cruel pranks on her classmates as a test of her loyalty. When their relationship grows too stifling for Sadie, Mal reveals herself to be something far more sinister than just an overbearing friend. This is an unnerving and emotionally involving novel. Sadie’s unhealthy internal monologue contrasts beautifully with the concern exhibited by her father and Charlotte, and it is empowering to witness her transformation into someone who believes she deserves to be loved. Mejia has captured the inner workings and outer environment of a middle school student deftly, weaving a taut and compelling supernatural story that will appeal to introspective, inquisitive readers while helping them contemplate what it means to be a true friend. SARAH BERMAN

We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord
by Garth Nix
Middle School    Scholastic    240 pp.
10/24    9781339012209    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781546109723    $18.99

Twelve-year-old Kim and his ten-year-old sister Eila live on an experimental farm where their parents work in an alternative 1975 Australia. One night, on their usual ride to a nearby lake with their friends Bennie and Madir, they find a mysterious glowing orb, which Kim can feel trying to break into his mind but which Eila insists they take home. Eila starts to act strangely, communicating with the orb; ominous clouds appear over the television tower in town; and Kim’s life starts to feel a little too much like his and Bennie’s new favorite game: Dungeons & Dragons. What follows is a classic but gripping save-the-town-on-bikes adventure with an intriguing antagonist. This novel from speculative fiction master Nix features nuanced sibling and friend relationships and a bit of validation for anyone who is convinced that their younger sibling might be an evil genius — though, don’t worry, the real conclusion is more sympathetic than that. Sure to hook role-playing game enthusiasts looking to dabble in sci-fi. MONICA DE LOS REYES

The Creepening of Dogwood House
by Eden Royce
Intermediate    Walden Pond/HarperCollins    272 pp.
7/24    9780063251403    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063251427    $8.99

In this Southern Gothic horror story, a twelve-year-old boy mourning the loss of his mother goes to live with an aunt he barely knows and her new husband. Orphaned Roddie finds that his family’s ancestral home, Dogwood House, is more of a “monster of a place out in the middle of nowhere” than a residence. While there, he learns several things about his mom and her upbringing, including that she grew up adhering to hoodoo, an African American spiritual practice. The plot centers around hoodoo beliefs about the need to burn shed hair to avoid “evil spirits” and the ability to rely on ancestors for help. Roddie rejects these tenets until he discovers the inherent risks of tossing shed hair aside and finds notes left behind by his mom that lead him to shocking discoveries. The tween finds it confusing that his mother never mentioned the house she departed as a teenager, leaving her younger sister behind. Royce (Conjure Island, rev. 7/23) effectively builds suspense around this question and the odd things that happen at Dogwood House while cleverly interweaving facts about hoodoo. She also provides a realistic portrayal of the way grief ebbs and flows amidst a kid-friendly scary story that includes a quest for answers, a confrontation with a monster, and a house that transforms to reveal family secrets after dark. MARVA ANNE HINTON

 Not Quite a Ghost
by Anne Ursu
Intermediate, Middle School    Walden Pond/HarperCollins    288 pp.
1/24    9780062275158    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780062275172    $10.99

The transition to middle school is often a time of tumult, with the upheaval of old elementary school routines and friendships. But for eleven-year-old Violet Hart, the changes are even more far-reaching. Her blended family has just moved into a long-empty, ramshackle house, and her new bedroom is a creepy third-floor attic, wallpapered with twisting vines. After an upsetting sleepover with both old and potential new friends, Vi retires to her room feeling ill. She rides out her virus (she tests negative for COVID-19 and mono) but continues to be plagued by lingering exhaustion and brain fog. Her parents are proactive, but multiple doctors can’t find anything physically wrong and suggest that she is merely seeking attention or is in need of mental health counseling. Vivid nightmares, complete with tendrils from the wallpaper slithering down the wall and across the room, slow her recovery, demanding her attention. Ursu (The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, rev. 9/21) maintains a light but decidedly eerie touch as she weaves her “not quite a ghost” story, in which the house itself becomes a character and slowly reveals its secrets. She simultaneously writes in a compelling way about difficult-to-diagnose, recurring illnesses. And just as with such conditions, there is no neat and facile wrap-up to the haunting narrative. LUANN TOTH

From the October 2024 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.