Scary Science Fiction

This house is keeping secrets...When 11-year-old Olive and her parents move into the crumbling mansion on Linden Street and find it filled with mysterious paintings, Olive knows the place is creepy - but it isn’t until she encounters its three talking cats that she realizes there’s something darkly magical afoot. Then Olive finds a pair of antique spectacles in a dusty drawer and discovers the most peculiar thing yet: She can travel inside the house’s spooky paintings to a world that’s strangely quiet...and eerily sinister.

Life is tough for twelve-year-old orphan Adia. Her aunt and uncle believe she’s an ogbanje, a demon-possessed child that brings misfortune wherever they go, and Adia can’t disagree—especially when she suddenly manifests mysterious powers that she can’t control, causing an earthquake in her village. So when Adia is offered a kitchen apprenticeship at the faraway Academy of Shamans, she flees with nothing but a pouch of change, her cat Bubbles, and the hope that someone there can figure out what's wrong with her—and fix it.

Twelve-year-old Caroline is a Hurricane Child, born on Water Island during a storm. Coming into this world during a hurricane is unlucky, and Caroline has had her share of bad luck already. She's hated by everyone in her small school, she can see things that no one else can see, and - worst of all - her mother left home one day and never came back. With no friends and days filled with heartache, Caroline is determined to find her mother. When a new student, Kalinda, arrives, Caroline's luck begins to turn around. Kalinda, a solemn girl from Barbados, seems to see the things Caroline sees, too.

Thirteen-year-old Molly doesn't know how she got the short end of the stick - being raised by her neglectful father - while Dustin, the older brother she's never met, got their mother and the keys to the family estate. But now the siblings are both orphaned, she's come home for her inheritance, and if Dustin won't welcome her into the family business, then she'll happily take her half in cash. There's just one problem: The family business is a mortuary for monsters.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Beast Awakens by Joseph Delaney, read by Lee Ingleby. They heard shouting and cries of fear. Crafty looked down the slope and realised what had happened to cause so much panic. Without warning, the dark wall of the Shole had advanced. Crafty can't remember a time before the Shole - the terrifying mist that has engulfed most of Britain, leaving those trapped in it to either die or be transformed into horrifying monsters: the aberrations.

At the end of Maureen Johnson's New York Times bestselling novel, The Madness Underneath, Rory, Callum and Boo are reeling from the sudden and tragic death of their friend and squad leader, Stephen. The Shadow Cabinet picks up where listeners left off, and now Rory is convinced there must be a way to bring Stephen back. Meanwhile, new dangers arise: Rory's classmate Charlotte is missing, and Jane and her nefarious organization are clearly planning something big.

Everyone in Whispering Pines knows their town is full of ghosts, but Helena Novak hasn’t seen a trace of her late grandmother, Babi. Helena and her best friend, Ben, spend most of their free time in the cemetery, yet no amount of gifts on Babi’s grave has lured her spirit out. But someone else has been paying attention. Helena feels she’s being followed, and one day, all Babi’s grave gifts disappear. When Helena and Ben investigate, they find a secret door in a crypt that leads to the underworld itself.

Jo, Melissa, and Jenny, the stars of the school play, are about to discover that being granted everything you wish for has consequences. When the girls come face-to-face with the real witches from the play and a mysterious ghost from the past, the three friends realize they must do whatever they can to stop the witches' evil plan.

Kelly’s been a celebrity ever since she defeated the Boogeyman and his army of nightmares on Halloween. But now all the other monsters want revenge. And if Kelly’s going to survive Babysitter Bootcamp, she’ll have to face the Spider Queen, whose wicked web turns her parents, BFF, and middle-school teachers into mindless minions. All in a night’s work!

Rick Yancey won the Michael L. Printz Award for the stunning first entry in his Monstrumologist saga. In the series’ third entry, Will Henry is left behind as Dr. Warthrop and his eager new assistant Arkwright embark on a quest to find the “Holy Grail of Monstrumology.” But when Arkwright returns with news of the doctor’s demise, Will sets off on his own quest, to the Isle of Blood, to determine the truth.

When Ashley finds a doll in her garden, she's determined to keep it. Little does she know that its previous owner - who's been dead for seven years - wants it back.

Auggie and his magical companions are tending to the Fabled Stables when the building shakes and shudders to make room for a new arrival: the Tattle-Tail. Auggie and friends travel through the portal to a town called Rainbow’s End in search of this mysterious creature. Auggie assumes that the Tattle-Tail is in danger, but he learns that it’s actually the town that needs rescuing...from an infestation of Tattle-Tails!

When a new family moves into a house in Pendle, they discover a witch's bottle filled with curses. Soon the spirits of those accused of witchcraft in the infamous Pendle Witch Trials of 1612 are released, wreaking havoc in the area. Eve, Clovis and Tom are enlisted to investigate in their latest and most challenging mission yet. Together with their mentor, Professor Rufus, they must go up against the ghosts of the Pendle witches. But the ghosts are hellbent on possessing the descendants of those who were responsible for their deadly trials.

When Clovis, Eve and Tom decide to play with a ouija board in an old abandoned house on Halloween, none of them foresees the horrors they’re about to unleash. What starts out as a bit of fun soon transcends into something far more terrifying when a distressed and determined spirit follows them home. Before long, the friends are caught up in a series of events beyond their wildest imaginings and their journey as ghost hunters begins.

The last thing Tasha Washington wants is to move from her home in Savannah to a trailer park in Middle-of-Nowhere, Georgia. But when her mother dies and Tasha is taken in by her father—a man she’s never met, who abandoned her mom when Tasha was just a baby—she doesn’t have much of a choice. At least, she thinks, she won’t have to spend much time with him—something that becomes clear when he dumps Tasha with her grandmother and disappears to be with his new girlfriend.

Cordelia Liu’s first year at Shadow School was a success. She studied hard and made friends. She also sent hundreds of ghosts into the afterlife, because Shadow School isn’t a normal school, and Cordelia Liu isn’t a normal girl. But her second year is already different. Ghosts are refusing to move on, the teachers are acting weird, and Cordelia’s best friends, Benji and Agnes, aren’t as interested in rescuing the ghosts as they used to be.

Everyone thinks that Clark is too old to still play with stuffed animals. He's almost 11! Bullies target him at school while his mother tries increasingly un-subtle ways to wean him off his toys and introduce more "normal" interests. But Clark can't shake the feeling that his stuffed friends are important, even necessary. Sometimes they move around in the night and sometimes in the morning they look a little worse for wear, as if they've engaged in battle. And it turns out...he's right.

The third instalment in this suspenseful and spooky series from New York Times best-selling duo Brendan Reichs and Ally Condie. After the events of Dark Halloween, the town of Timbers is in a full-blown monster panic, making life for the Torchbearers - Opal, Nico, Tyler, Emma and Logan - extremely difficult. Nico is investigating the Rift and the strange natural phenomena that continue to occur, all while worrying about his dad's potential work transfer.

A host of the smartest young adult authors come together in this collection of scary stories and psychological thrillers curated by Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea's April Genevieve Tucholke. Each story draws from a classic tale or two - sometimes of the horror genre, sometimes not - to inspire something new and fresh and terrifying. There are no superficial scares here; these are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat.

Mirabelle is part of a very unusual family. Between Uncle Bertram transforming into a ferocious grizzly bear and Aunt Eliza’s body being made entirely of spiders, it’s safe to say they are an extraordinary lot. To the human residents of Rookhaven Village, the family is a threat. So long ago, a treaty was reached between them - in return for sundries and supplies, the monsters won’t eat the townspeople - and an invisible glamour was set around the perimeter of the Manor to keep strangers out. But it also keeps Mirabelle and her family hidden from those who would do them harm.