When it comes to spooky small-town settings, spine-tingling villains, and all-around unsettling imagery, there’s no doubt that iconic author Stephen King offers plenty of titles to choose from. From the terrifying clown Pennywise featured in It to the escalating horrors found within the walls of The Shining’s Overlook hotel, there’s no shortage of the nightmarish or strange in King’s books.
If you’re looking to dive into a read that’s just as eerie and mysterious as the ones found in King’s catalog, we’ve got you covered. Ahead, check out some YA titles that are guaranteed to creep into your dreams, make you ponder the existence of other worlds, and stay with you long after the final page.
Stephen King Book Recs
If you like Carrie, try reading The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
If the prom scene from Carrie lives rent-free in your head, you’ll love Maddy Washington, the protagonist of Jackson’s The Weight of Blood.
As an outcast at her high school in a small Georgia town, Maddy has been hiding the fact that she is biracial at the demands of her fanatical white father. But when her secret is revealed, and a viral video uncovers the deeply-rooted racism at her school, student leadership decides to host a prom to demonstrate the school’s “unity.” The class president, a popular white girl, encourages her Black football star boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his prom date, leading her to believe that perhaps it is possible to fit in at school after all.
But the other students don’t know that Maddy has another secret—one that could put all of their lives in danger.
If you like It, try reading Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare
Like the setting of It, which takes place in Derry, Maine, Cesare’s novel will take you to the small town of Kettle Springs.
The area is essentially divided between an older generation who wants to return the town to its glory days, and a younger one intent on moving away as soon as they possibly can—without ever looking back. Of course, there’s more to Kettle Springs than meets the eye…like the creepy clown school mascot who is harboring a sinister plan of his own.
And when this particularly nightmarish clown gets his sights set on recruiting the “bad” kids of Kettle Springs to do his bidding, the small town goes from boring and dull to anything but.
If you like The Shining, try reading Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren
Still thinking about The Overlook hotel from The Shining?
Horror Hotel follows the YouTube-famous “Ghost Gang,” composed of Chrissy, Chase, Emma, and Kiki, as they visit a notoriously haunted Los Angeles hotel.
They anticipate that it will be as harmless as their past paranormal investigations.
But when they find themselves staying in the former room of a grizzly serial killer, their visit takes a dark—and murderous—turn.
If you like The Mist, try reading What We Harvest by Ann Fraistat
For fans of small towns with creepy secrets, look no further than What We Harvest, which follows a girl named Wren as she tries to figure out what’s behind the quicksilver mercury blight that’s plaguing her small town of Hollow’s End.
It started by poisoning crops, and then animals, and eventually—humans. Now, Wren must team up with the last person she wants to see: her ex-boyfriend, Derek. Together, they race against time to figure out what’s causing the blight, while uncovering a pile of sinister, small-town secrets in the process.
If you like Pet Sematary, try reading Burden Falls by Kat Ellis
The children in Pet Sematary don’t necessarily intend to awaken ancient evils when they bury their beloved animals in a makeshift graveyard, but the small town’s history has other plans.
Likewise, Burden Falls is a place with sinister secrets—like its supposed cursed waterfall, and the terrifying ghost known as Dead-Eyed Sadie. When Ava Thorn’s parents are killed in a horrific accident, she starts to become plagued by horrific dreams where Sadie visits her in her sleep.
And when another person close to Ava is killed, she becomes the primary suspect, leading her to wonder if the stories about Burden Falls might be more than stories…and if Sadie isn’t just a nightmare, but horrifyingly real.
If you like Bag of Bones, try reading Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe
King’s characters often find themselves isolated, like the protagonist in Bag of Bones who retreats to a (very haunted) lake house to combat grief-related writer’s block.
Dark Room Etiquette’s Sayers Wayte is also isolated, but not by choice: he’s kidnapped by a man who tells him that his privileged life is all a web of lies. Sayers finds himself trapped in a room without windows, forced to play the role outlined by his captor, while questioning everything he ever knew.
But when he begins to blur the lines between reality and fiction, Sayers realizes that escape is essential, before he loses what’s left of himself.
If you like Insomnia, try reading The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
Like the protagonist of King’s Insomnia, Delaney Meyers-Petrov of The Whispering Dark has a unique tether to other worlds.
Tired of being seen as fragile just because she’s Deaf, Delaney is excited for a chance to prove her talents when she’s accepted into a highly-regarded program at Godbole University that trains students to travel between parallel worlds. But her academic year gets off to an unexpected start when she crosses paths with upperclassman Colton Price, who just so happens to have a connection to Delaney’s past, as well as a sinister connection to the afterlife himself. When a Godbole student turns up dead, Delaney and Colton are forced to team up, unraveling a collection of deeply buried campus secrets—and stirring up some electricity between them as well.
But as they continue opening the doors between worlds, they realize that they just might wake something ancient and evil in the process.
If you like Dreamcatcher, try reading When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry
On its surface, Dreamcatcher is an alien book, but it’s also a lot more than that—just like Henry’s YA sci-fi novel centered around a small town picking up the pieces after a tragedy.
Five years ago, the local steel mill exploded in Splendor, Ohio, leaving behind a rampage of death and destruction. 17-year-old Franny is still waiting for her brother to wake up from a coma, and has found comfort in a group of friends with similar experiences. Together, they call themselves The Ordinary, and they keep busy by running a YouTube channel where they investigate ghosts and other paranormal legends. But one day, they film something strange: a bright light cascading toward them from the sky.
And as they investigate, everything they once knew turns completely upside down.
If you like Salem’s Lot, try reading The Restless Dark by Erica Waters
King is known for his nightmarish settings, like the buried secrets within the town of Salem’s Lot.
In The Restless Dark, Cloudkiss Canyon is said to be cursed—and Lucy experienced its darkness firsthand when she nearly became the next victim of the Cloudkiss Killer. Instead, she watched the killer vanish into the depths of the canyon, his body never recovered. Now, Lucy is entering a contest hosted by a true crime podcast in hopes of locating the killer once and for all.
Teaming up with two other girls with dark pasts of their own, Lucy must return to the canyon—where something evil waits in the shadows, making it difficult to ever leave.
If you like The Stand, try reading The Final Six by Alexandra Monir
First published in 1978, The Stand is an apocalyptic novel that immerses readers in a virus-laden world where most of the population is soon wiped out.
The Final Six follows Leo and Naomi, two of the 24 teens who are drafted into the International Space Training Camp where they will compete for the “final six” slots. Climate change has made much of Earth too dangerous for living, and those final six will be tasked with scouting for a new planet.
But as they continue their training, Leo and Naomi learn that the ISTC has secrets of its own—and the competition is a lot deadlier than they ever thought possible.
If you like Misery, try reading Creep: A Love Story by Lygia Day Peñaflor
If tales of obsession are your thing, look no further than Creep, which is described as a mashup of Netflix’s You and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
The novel follows Rafi, who is endlessly fixated on the perfect couple at her school: Laney Villanueva and Nico Fiore. Determined to become their friend, Rafi finds little ways to infiltrate their lives until she starts gaining invites to parties and hangouts. But once she starts digging, she can’t stop, uncovering—and obsessing over—their deepest secrets.
But when tragedy sets in, Rafi’s infatuation turns desperate, willing to do whatever it takes to save both Laney and Nico…and keep them together at all costs.