Teen Ghost Stories

Next up in spooky lists - YA Ghost Novels!

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab - Ever since her near-fatal drowning, Cassidy has been able to pull back the "Veil" that separates the living from the dead and see ghosts, not that she wants to, and she was really looking forward to a ghost-free summer at the beach; however her parents are going to start filming a TV series about the world's most haunted places, starting with Edinburgh with its graveyards, castles, and restless phantoms--and Cass and her personal ghost companion, Jacob, are about to find out that a city of old ghosts can be a very dangerous place indeed. Book 1 of 2 in the Cassidy Blake series

The Delphi Effect by Rysa Walker -  It's never wise to talk to strangers... and that goes double when they're dead. Unfortunately, seventeen-year-old Anna Morgan has no choice. Resting on a park bench, touching the turnstile at the Metro station--she never knows where she'll encounter a ghost. These mental hitchhikers are the reason Anna has been tossed from one foster home and psychiatric institution to the next for most of her life. When a chance touch leads her to pick up the insistent spirit of a girl who was brutally murdered, Anna is pulled headlong into a deadly conspiracy that extends to the highest levels of government. Facing the forces behind her new hitcher's death will challenge the barriers, both good and bad, that Anna has erected over the years and shed light on her power's origins. And when the covert organization seeking to recruit her crosses the line by kidnapping her friend, it will discover just how far Anna is willing to go to bring it down. Book 1 of 3 in the Delphi Trilogy 

Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell - The haunting starts even before Sophie arrives on the Isle of Skye to spend the summer with her cousins, but when she arrives she finds a house haunted by the ghost of a girl who attended school there a hundred years ago, as well as cousin Rebecca who died young and is never mentioned by her family--and she must somehow solve the mystery of the frozen Charlotte dolls before the whole family is destroyed. Book 1 of 10 in the Red Eye (multiple authors)

Missing, Presumed Dead by Emma Berquist - With a touch, Lexi can sense how and when someone will die. Some say it's a gift. But to Lexi it's a curse--one that keeps her friendless and alone. All that changes when Lexi foresees the violent death of a young woman, Jane, outside a club. Jane doesn't go to the afterlife quietly. Her ghost remains behind, determined to hunt down her murderer, and she needs Lexi's help. In life, Jane was everything Lexi is not--outgoing, happy, popular. But in death, all Jane wants is revenge. Lexi will do anything to help Jane, to make up for the fact that she didn't--couldn't--save Jane's life, and to keep this beautiful ghost of a girl by her side for as long as possible.

The Rattled Bones by S. M. Parker - After her father's death, Rilla Brae puts off thoughts of college to take over his lobstering business. She begins helping Sam, an archaeology student excavating nearby Malaga, an uninhabited island. Sam's work-- and the haunting song of a ghostly girl-- uncover a tragedy kept silent for years... a tragedy that involves Rilla's past.

Shade by Mere Joyce - Fourteen-year-old Callum Silver sees dead people. It's not a gift. His family thinks he's crazy. Sometimes he thinks he's crazy. He has no friends. He's forced to live his life surrounded by nothing but the searing pain, sickening smells and desperate moans that accompany the murdered ghosts who seek him out. When he's offered a place at Camp Wanagi, the ten weeks in the French countryside isn't a vacation, it's a lifeline. A way to meet others like himself and prove his ability can offer more than years of loneliness and expensive therapy bills. Run by a mysterious group known as the Oracle of Senders, Camp Wanagi brings together teens from around the globe who all possess the unique ability to see the dead. While Cal is relieved to find others like him, he learns quickly that not everybody experiences the spirits as he does. Some of the campers revere their abilities and don't understand his hesitation, while others--like quiet bookworm Meander Rhoades--have good reason for wishing they could get rid of their gifts. While researching their final project, Cal and Meander find an unmarked grave which reveals aspects of their abilities neither knew existed, forcing Cal to decide if the torture of seeing ghosts is worthwhile and, more importantly, if being a part of the Oracle of Senders is necessary, dangerous . . . or both. Book 1 of 2 in the Oracle of Senders series 

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge - A Skinful of Shadows is a dark YA historical fantasy set in the early part of the English Civil War. Makepeace is an illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic Fellmotte family, and as such, she shares their unique hereditary gift: the capacity to be possessed by ghosts. Reluctant to accept her appointed destiny as vessel for a coterie of her ancestors, she escapes. As she flees the pursuing Fellmottes across war-torn England, she accumulates a motley crew of her own allies, including outcasts, misfits, criminals, and one extremely angry dead bear.

The Steep & Thorny Way by Cat Winters - 1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee's oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank Denney, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now her father's killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee's father wasn't killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him--who happens to be Hanalee's new stepfather.
 The only way for Hanalee to get the answers she needs is to ask Hank himself, a "haint" wandering the roads at night.

A Taste for Monsters by Matthew J. Kirby - In 1888 seventeen-year-old Evelyn Fallow, herself disfigured by the phosphorus in the match factory where she worked, has been hired as a maid to Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man--but when the Jack the Ripper murders begin she and Merrick find themselves haunted by the ghosts of the slain women, and Evelyn is caught up in the mystery of Jack's identity.

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby - When Frankie's mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That's why she is not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans, two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive. And as the embers of the Great Depression are kindled into the fires of World War II, and the shadows of injustice, poverty, and death walk the streets in broad daylight, Frankie must find something worth holding on to in the ruins of this shattered America - every minute of every day spent wondering if the life she's able to carve out will be enough. I will admit I do not know if it will be. But I will be watching, waiting to find out. That's what ghosts do.