Top Ten Tuesday: 2024 Middle Grade Horror

It’s a Halloween Freebie week for Top Ten Tuesday! And today I’m sharing middle grad horror books that have been published this year. Which also means that I haven’t read any of these books because I’m a complete scaredy-cat in terms of reading scary books and watching scary movies. I enjoy thrillers, but don’t give me anything in the horror genre!

But, there are lots of middle grade readers who love to be scared out of their minds as you can see by the fact that this is just ten horror books published this year. And I didn’t even include newly published books in the Goosebumps series or other series that have already had there first book published since I didn’t want to share books in the middle of the series.

So, if you’ve got a reader whose looking for something that will make them want to sleep with the lights on, hand them this new list of books that I bet they haven’t read yet!

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2024 Middle Grade Horror

The Creepening of Dogwood House by Eden Royce

At night, Roddie still dreams of sitting at his mother’s feet while she braids his Afro down. But that’s a memory from before. Before his mom died in a tragic accident. And before he was taken in by an aunt he barely knows. Before his aunt brought him to Dogwood House, the creepiest place Roddie has ever seen. It was his family’s home for over a hundred years. Now the house—abandoned and rotting, draped in Spanish moss that reminds him too much of hair—is his home too.

Aunt Angie has returned to South Carolina to take care of Roddie and reconnect with their family’s hoodoo roots. Roddie, however, can’t help but feel lost. His mom had never told him anything about hoodoo, Dogwood House, or their family. And as they set about fixing the house up, Roddie discovers that there is even more his mother never said. Like why she left home when she was seventeen, never to return. Or why she insisted Aunt Angie always wear her hair in locs. Or what she knew of the strange secrets hidden deep within Dogwood House—secrets that have awoken again, and are reaching out to Roddie…

The Doomsday Archives: The Wandering Hour by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

New Rotterdam is no place for a kid―and that’s what Emrys Houtman likes about it. Emrys obsessively documents his town’s urban legends and cryptid sightings in a Wiki, along with his neighbors and fellow horror fans Hazel and Serena. It’s all in good fun until one day, the trio stumbles upon the Doomsday Archives, a collection of relics with dazzling powers and dangerous consequences.

When a mysterious blood-red hourglass begins appearing around town and children begin to go missing, the trio must band together to stop the horrors plaguing New Rotterdam, or risk losing their home . . . and possibly their lives. Because after all this time hunting monsters, the kids have realized the monsters are now hunting them back.

Exit Nowhere by Juliana Brandt

The creepiest place in Barret Eloise’s small town is the abandoned Raithfield Manor, a decrepit house surrounded by rumors of ghosts and kids going missing. So she certainly never planned on stepping foot inside. But when her history teacher gives her a group project to research a local landmark, the manor is the location her group chooses. Determined to ace the project and fix her awkward first impression on her assigned partners—which include her former friend Helena, smart and confident Wayne, and school basketball star Ridge—Barret Eloise isn’t about to let some tall tales scare her off.

When the kids first enter the house, it seems to be nothing more than an empty building. But when the sun goes down, the doors and windows lock, sealing them inside. Even worse, the room they’re in transforms into an all-too-real game of The Floor is Lava. It doesn’t take long for the group to realize the mansion is a maze of childhood games. Win the game and you keep moving forward, lose and you disappear. And complicating it all is a worrying revelation—they are not alone in the house.

If Barret Eloise wants to make it home, she and her dysfunctional group are going to have to learn to work together quickly.

The Ghosts of Nameless Island by Carly Anne West

After his dad goes missing and his mom is hired to restore an old building called the Rotham Manor, twelve-year-old Gus Greenburg and his mom move to a quaint, secluded island called Nameless. Gus was hoping for a new start on the island (despite throwing up on the boat ride there . . . twice), but a mysterious ghost has another idea. Throw in a mean kid who hides rats in the manor, two new friends, an eclectic island chef who’s competing to be on a reality TV show, and Gus’s power to talk to the dead . . . well, that’s a lot of chaos for one kid!

Gus needs to find out the identity of the mysterious ghost – and fast – or else he might be doomed to the same lethal fate.

That is, if the island’s signature “Heavenly Hash” dish doesn’t get to him first.

Give Me Something Good to Eat by D. W. Gillespie

Welcome to Pearl, a town obsessed with Halloween: the spooky decorations, the costumes, the candy. No one seems to notice that every October 31st, a kid goes missing. Mason Miller does, though. Somehow he’s the only one who has any memory the person existed at all.

When Mason’s sister, Meg, vanishes while they’re trick-or-treating, Mason and his friends are pulled into an underworld where monsters roam the streets. They need to fight the evil taking over Pearl, but none of them know the true danger they’re facing.

Meg has been stolen by a witch who has no plans to let her go. Shadows of death curl around trees and behind doorways as Mason must use every ounce of bravery he has . . . or be haunted forever with the memory of a sister that only he remembers.

Hungry Bones by Louise Hung

Molly Teng sees things no one else can.

By touching the belongings of people who have died, she gets brief glimpses into the lives they lived. Sometimes the “zaps” are funny or random, but often they leave her feeling sad, drained, and lonely.

The last thing Jade remembers from life is dying. That was over one hundred years ago. Ever since then she’s been trapped in the same house watching people move in and out. She’s a ‘hungry ghost’ reliant on the livings’ food scraps to survive. To most people she is only a shadow, a ghost story, a superstition.

Molly is not most people. When she moves into Jade’s house, nothing will ever be the same―for either of them. After over a century alone, Jade might finally have someone who can help her uncover the secrets of her past, and maybe even find a way out of the house―before her hunger destroys them both.

It Came from the Trees by Ally Russell

The wilderness is in Jenna’s blood. Her Pap was the first Black park ranger at Sturbridge Reservation, and she practically knows the Owlet Survival Handbook by heart. But she’s never encountered a creature like the one that took her best friend Reese. Her parents don’t believe her; the police are worthless, following the wrong leads; and the media isn’t connecting the dots between Reese’s disappearance and a string of other attacks. Determined to save her friend, Jenna joins a new local scout troop, and ventures back into the woods.

When the troop stumbles across suspicious signs: huge human-like footprints near the camp, scratch marks on trees, and ominous sounds from the woods, Jenna worries that whatever took Reese is back to take her too. Can she trust her new scout leader? And will her new friend Norrie—who makes her laugh and reminds her so much of Reese—believe her?

After the unthinkable happens, the scouts, armed with their wits and toiletries, band together to fight the monster and survive the night.

Killer Harvest by Christopher Krovatin

At the center of the corn maze lies… secrets and horror.

The Night Train by Lorelei Savaryn

Maddie Maverick likes to win. Whether it’s track team races or one-liners she delivers on her parents’ home renovation show, Maddie knows that if she puts in the work, she’ll always come out on top. But things take a turn when her ghost-hunting nana passes away, and Maddie and her twin sister, Nat, discover that Nana left them an unexpected inheritance: They can now see ghosts just like she did.

While Nat is totally on board to try to help some spirits find peace, a ghostly calling is just not Maddie’s speed. So when history comes back to haunt their town, and the story of a decades-old train crash rears its ugly head, Maddie wants nothing to do with the ghosts of days long gone. But one ghost in particular won’t go away, and Maddie might just be the only one with the power to help her—that is, if she can survive the Night Train herself.

Read At Your Own Risk by Remy Lai

Hannah and her friends were just having a bit of fun when they decided to play a game to communicate with spirits of the dead. Little did they know something would answer their call and crawl its way into the pages of Hannah’s journal. What started out as a game has turned into something much more evil. With dire, horrifying consequences.

Is there any way to escape the curse?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.