Best Scary and Ghost Book Series for 11 and 12 year olds

Whether you're on the hunt for a good book to read at Halloween or enjoy reading all things creepy throughout the entire year, we've got some scary and ghost book series recommendations for you.

Strange happenings in small-towns, secrets from the past, ghost hunters, terrifyingly evil parents and worlds populated by monsters of all kind are what you can expect from these books. We've grouped them all in the list below as series: you can just click on whichever description you think will make your skin crawl most...

We recommend these series to readers aged 11+, as some have content that younger children might find disturbing.

If you're looking for more recommendations for this age-group, check out our 50 Best Book Series for 11 and 12 year olds.

Georgina Atwell

Toppsta

2025-10-27

2024-12-18

Best Scary and Ghost Book Series for 11 and 12 year olds

The Night House Files Series

Horror is back on the rise amongst middle-grade readers, and The Night House Files is the perfect series to tuck into all things thriller, scary and spine-tingling! These books are also great if you're after a short read or if you would like to recommend a great series to a reluctant reader you know. It has illustrations throughout by Luke Brookes. The series follows a secret organisation called The Night House, whose members expose terrifying and bone-chilling truths behind disasters and all sorts of mysterious phenomenons, with interviews with smaller-part characters interspersed throughout the stories. Each title blends mystery and suspense with engaging writing that will keep you on the edge of your seat and turning the page, with so many readers claim to get through a book in just one sitting. Master of sci-fi horror Dan Smith is also the author behind the The Crooked Oak Mysteries books.

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Crater Lake Series

In these books, a group of friends join forces to save their classmates and families from strange happenings of their seemingly ordinary town, which have a lot to do with alien sporelings. Reviewers on Toppsta have loved the camaraderie of the friends in these books and all the gasp-worthy moments of suspense and thrilling horror. The books also brilliantly explore the transition children face when moving from primary to secondary school, from getting to know new teachers to making new friends.

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Aveline Jones Series

Aveline Jones loves ghost stories and old books. She also seems to be met with a new mystery to solve wherever she goes. And each book in the series a new case pops up. An aspect we especially love about this series is the friendship between Aveline and Harold, her trusty partner for all things enigma-solving, who she can always count on for help. The books are brimming with secrets from the past, magical forces, supernatural activity and LOTS of sneaking around!

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Lockwood & Co. Series

Lockwood and Co is an exciting supernatural thriller series following psychic investigator Lucy Carlyle’s adventures investigating the spookiest and deadliest hauntings in London. Britain has been haunted by an epidemic of ghosts, who only children have the power to fight. Lucy Carlyle joins London’s smallest ghost-hunter agency, run by Anthony Lockwood and his assistant George Cubbins and, together with their tools of the trade and a thermos of tea, they take on the most terrifying ghosts and ghouls.

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Mortal Engines Series

Mortal Engines is an award-winning YA science fiction series, set in the post-apocalyptic world of the Traction Era where motorised cities fight each other for survival. The Mortal Engines Quartet follows the adventures of young apprentice Tom Natsworthy and the dangerous Hester Shaw, as they flee London for the wastelands fighting off cyborgs, plagues, ghosts and more.

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The Demon Road Trilogy Series

From the author of the award-winning Skulduggery Pleasant books, comes this brilliant supernatural thriller trilogy, perfect for all readers aged 11+.

If you thought your parents were bad, think again. Our young main character Amber Lamont is convinced her life is nothing out of the ordinary, only to discover her parents are real-life monsters, and not in the figurative sense. She is forced to run away from them, and what ensues is incredible adventure involving killer cars, vampires, horned demons and even some new friends. This is a coming-of-age story as well, with Amber becoming bigger, meaner and stronger in each book, as she searches for justice from her murderous parents.

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The Wardstone Chronicles Series

A fantasy adventure series about an apprentice that trains in battling all sorts of evil creatures to protect their county. In a world where ghost and ghouls and witches and ghasts exist, Thomas Ward is the county's last hope. Under the wing of the county's Spook, a master fighter of supernatural creatures, he must learn how to defeat evil and protect the County from darkness. Thomas will have to battle all sorts of deadly enemies, from banes and witches to terrible gods and terrifying mages.

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The Enemy Series

When a plague hits the world contaminating anyone older than fourteen, turning them into blood-thirsty undead horrors children are left to fend for themselves. With intertwining narratives, plenty of likeable(and despicable) characters and most importantly heaps of bloody gore Higson creates a sprawling apocalyptic teen-masterpiece of a horror series. Charlie Higson is the master-mind behind the bestselling Young Bond series of novels for young adults which have made him a household name among teen book lovers, however, what could be argued to be his greater body of work is The Enemy series for its expertly written blend of horror and action. In the series' first instalment we are introduced to the various groups that the series revolves around and to the familiar yet fundamentally different world which children must now learn to survive in. Whether you choose to align yourself with posh-boy David and his Buckingham Palace dwellers, the Morrisons group or the Waitrose group, this is certain to become a personal favourite. The shady morals the children adopt lead asks the question, what would happen if adult supervision desisted? Making the novels fascinating conceptually in addition to being masterful works of teenage-literature. The Enemy books in order:- Book one:...

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MORE TO EXPLORE

Crater Lake by Jennifer Killick (Firefly)

Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes (Usborne)

Lockwood & Co by Jonathan Stroud (Puffin)

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (Scholastic)

The Demon Road Trilogy by Derek Landy (HarperCollins)

The Wardstone Chronicles (Spooks) by Joseph Delaney (Puffin)

The Enemy by Charlie Higson (Puffin)

The Night House Files by Dan Smith (Barrington Stoke)

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab (Scholastic)

Georgina Atwell