82 Books Like More Tales to Keep You Up at Night

If you really want to be scared, Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon is the book for you.

This story takes the hide and seek game and gives it a creepy twist. The book opens when Justin goes to see his friend Zee, who mysteriously disappeared a year earlier and is now back. But nothing is the same… Anyone who plays the game disappears, one by one, taken by the mysterious Seeker. This book had me sleeping with the light on.

If you have a kid reader who truly loves to be scared, Hide and Seeker is the perfect book.

Whenever someone asks me to recommend a scary book for kids, I instantly think of Lindsay Currie’s books. This author knows just how to write a scary story for kids without making it gory.

In It Found Us, twelve-year-old Hazel loves a good mystery, so when she hears that her brother Den plans to go to the cemetery for a game of hide and seek, she tags along. Only the game ends with her brother’s friend Everett missing, and now Den and Hazel try to find him before it’s too late… I loved Hazel, the girl detective in the book, whose sleuthing takes her to a Chicago cemetery, and exploring history.

Think Scooby Doo meets Goosebumps—your kid will love this scary mystery and will want to check out all of Lindsay Currie’s books.

Graphic novels are seeing a real boom, and Ira Marcks’ Spirit Week is the perfect scary graphic novel middle-grade for visual readers.

Inspired by The Shining (you know, that Stephen King book made into a horror movie with Jack Nicholson), this graphic novel manages to weave horror and cinematic elements to make for a great nod to the horror genre.

Our main kid character Suzy is an aspiring engineer, and she’s at the Underlook Hotel to tutor a famous filmmaker’s son named Danny. But the kids are quickly sucked into solving the mystery of the hotel, alongside a cast of colorful characters. Part mystery, part cinematic horror, Spirit Week will appeal to all readers. I read it in one sitting, it was that good. 

This book starts with a prank gone wrong, when Rafa and his friend steal the school slushy machine and get busted. As punishment, Rafa is sent to Ranch Espanto in New Mexico for the summer.

Rafa makes a friend in Jennie, but his work at the ranch keeps being sabotaged… He has to solve the (supernatural) mystery of the ranch, and in the end the book has a cool plot twist to satisfy mystery readers like myself. Aside from the strong plot, this book also covers tougher topics affecting these kids, giving it depth and heart.

I loved the New Mexico feel of the book, and appreciated how there was a mystery as well as supernatural (and magical realism) elements. The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto is the perfect book for kids who like a blend of genres, not simply another ghost story.

Set in New York City, this novel follows the life of Morris Rabishevsky, a Jewish businessman who finds himself fighting the garment unions and organized crime, but mostly organized crime.

This has a slower pace than the aforementioned novels, but Gross weaves an interesting tale that includes actual historical figures, such as Thomas Dewey and mobster Louis Lepke.

I loved that this book tells the story of him introducing his new baby sister, Margaret, to the reader. It also focuses on how Daniel can be a big helper in the family in an easy and relatable way.

The book also mentions the importance of special time with just Mom and Dad, which assures the older sibling that he or she is not forgotten and still loved. 

I got this book in a subscription book box and was immediately intrigued by the premise. The town of Bone Gap is full of “gaps,” openings to other realities that someone can slip into and disappear. This story is not your usual read. The writer creatively mixes mystery, magic, love, loss, regret, forgiveness, and overcoming. 

The story follows Finn, a teenage boy, who tries to discover why his brother’s girlfriend disappeared, and the girlfriend, who is made a prisoner because she’s beautiful. 

The book made me think about a lot of things: that there is a difference between looking at and seeing someone else; that past trauma may not show on your face, but it’s part of you; that things seem more beautiful when you leave them behind; and that everyone has their reasons to see things differently. This book is character-focused, weird, entertaining, and very cathartic. 

Reading Shotgun Lovesongs years ago is my first adult memory of seeing myself on the page—the kind of thing that probably happens more frequently if you’re from New York or L.A. but isn’t as common for those of us born and raised in so-called flyover states.

I fell hard for Nickolas Butler’s debut—the story of four boyhood friends in a small Wisconsin town, one of whom becomes a famous rock star—from the first chapter. While it became an international bestseller for its universally appealing story, hooky concept, and lyrical prose (not to mention its rumored, real-life inspiration),

I personally was drawn to the intimate portrayal of life-long, small-town friendships, the precise push-pull of life in a fishbowl; the loyalty we feel for each other that isn’t always earned; and the way we tether ourselves to people and place, for better or for worse.

This 2002 novel follows young Harriet Cleve Dufresnes in 1970s Mississippi during the aftermath of the death of her nine-year-old brother, who was killed by hanging in the shadow of unexplained circumstances. I am particularly enamored by the novel’s focus on the customs and dynamics of Harriet’s extended Southern family.

Tartt best describes in her own words why I love this novel: It is “a frightening, scary book about children coming into contact with the world of adults frighteningly.”  

I loved Transcendent Kingdom for Gifty, a neuroscience PhD student navigating grief, faith, and identity.

As a cancer biologist, I appreciated how the book depicted labs and experiments with realism that’s rare in fiction. Beyond science, Gifty’s struggle to reconcile faith and reason, and her search for peace, resonated deeply with me.

The novel also explores belonging—how we seek connection within families, communities, and cultural worlds, and how loss can make us question where we fit. It’s a quietly powerful story about curiosity, grief, and the ways we try to understand the world—and ourselves.