Need help getting your ghostly read started? These seven ghost novels are perfect and are entertaining for all ages!
Some of the best ghost stories are those that can be read at nearly any stage in a person’s life and can still treat one to a thrill. An interesting main character, a spooky ghost (or few), a horrifying tale—only three persuasive reasons to pick your next spooky read out of those listed here.
1) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Capable of making multiple appearances on lists of this sort, this novel, written by the renowned Neil Gaiman who’s garnered many a loyal follower, is a ghost story all ages are capable of loving and enjoying.
Bod is the only living creature in the graveyard he was raised in from infancy. A human boy surrounded by ghosts, werewolves, and their otherworldly counterparts, Bod has learned a few tricks of his own, including the ability to Fade. However, the world, both its living and dead hemispheres, carry more ghoulish terrors than Bod may know how to handle.
2) Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Gruesome plotlines and fascinating storytelling lead this novel to be one both younger and older readers can enjoy in equal parts.
The story follows a boy named Cas Lowood, destined to continue his deceased father’s line of work: Killing the dead. Caught instead by the ghost he meant to put away, Cas’s father leaves him, his witch mother, and their unusual cat to travel the country finding evil spirits to dispose of. However, he comes across a red-soaked legend about a girl murdered in 1958, a ghost called ‘Anna Dressed in Blood’. Cas’s dangerous adventures become a little more alarming when Anna, who kills everyone who enters her Victorian home, allows Cas to live.
3) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A winter classic that everyone knows in some form, A Christmas Carol is certainly a novel featuring its unique share of ghosts.
Ebenezer Scrooge hates people and he hates Christmas, too. Not one for sharing, Scrooge chooses to ignore the cheer and spirit of giving during the festive time of year. But when he is visited by a familiar ghost of years past and three others who reveal frightening truths, and is warned that he should hasten to change his ways, Scrooge is pressured to pay attention.
4) Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender
A YA novel that is equally capturing to adults who love a good ghost horror story, this book highly likely to be recommended and shared.
High school sucks and Alexis knows it. So does her parent’s marriage and her little sister, Kasey’s, annoying doll craze. Things have always been weird for Alexis, but weird takes a turn for terrifying when the house experiences odd phenomena and Kasey begins acting strange—sometimes seeming old-fashioned or missing blocks of her memory. Her eyes even go from blue to stark green, sometimes. Alexis knows she has to fix things before her life and precious relationships go belly up in Kasey’s storm.
5) The Diviners by Libba Bray
This novel, set in the historic 1920s with flappers, poetry and jazz, and better-left-hidden romances, can enrapture the imaginative minds of readers old and young.
Evie O’Neill can do a little something: read people’s memories with a concentrated hand on one of their possessions. Having gotten in trouble because of her gift, Evie is cast off to live with her uncle Will, who is obsessed with the occult and runs an unsuccessful museum, in New York City. But there’s a ghostly evil lurking in the shadows, murdering people and trying to get his hands on special individuals like Evie. Like the young poet, Memphis, the racy chorus girl, Theta, running from her past, and the student, Jericho, who’s hiding something important—Diviners.
6) Long Way Down by Jacob Reynolds
A compelling novel about a boy with a gun in an elevator to the ground floor, ready to take a life in a deadly cycle of shoot and revenge. Visited by the physical manifestations of people who should now only be memories, Will is confronted about his gun. Who will he use it on and does he know how? Does he know why he’s using it?
Should he use it, even at the risk of hitting someone else?
This book, a lesson on gun violence written in tantalizing narrative verse, is perfect for all ages.
7) Fourteen Days by Steven Jenkins
Thrilling and chilling, this novel is yet another winner for readers of all ages who love a good ghostly plot.
Ordered to a two-week’s at-home rest by the doctor, Richard Gardener is suffering away from work. His house is quiet—but not quiet enough to be at home alone. Something is there with Richard and he knows he can’t have imagined it, not those footsteps and certainly not that woman he shouldn’t have seen. His wife doesn’t believe his torments and Richard realizes that he must figure out how to vanquish the presence himself before everything he’s ever known comes to an end.
Entertaining ghost stories aren’t age-picky, they just wanna scare ya!
Found one that’ll do the trick?
