These five novels, recommended for middle- and/or high-school readers, blur the lines between the ordinary and the supernatural. See also the Guide/Reviews Database subject tag Supernatural.

The Corruption of Hollis Brown
by K. Ancrum
High School    Harper/HarperCollins    384 pp.
4/25    9780063285835    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063285842    $10.99

High school senior Hollis Brown, who is violently bullied at school, believes he will be stuck in his “podunk” rural Midwestern town for his whole adult life. His circumstances change drastically when a random encounter leads to a spirit inhabiting his body. Enter Walt, a young man who once lived in Rose Town, the now-abandoned and haunted area adjacent to Hollis’s hometown. While Walt’s initial possession of Hollis’s body is frightening, the two eventually grow to understand each other, and the experience helps Hollis build confidence and better relate to others around him. They eventually work together to tackle some of the unfinished supernatural business haunting Rose Town, conveyed through convincing, vivid descriptions of the intersection of the physical and metaphysical worlds. Ancrum’s narrative style is distinctive, especially in the depiction of the singular situation of Walt and Hollis inhabiting one body. This engaging thriller explores an unusual LGBTQ+ romance, coming of age, and how the present is rooted in the past. NICHOLAS A. BROWN-CÁCERES

Dead Girls Don’t Dream
by Nino Cipri
High School    Holt    304 pp.
11/24    9781250791405    $19.99
e-book ed.  9781250791412    $11.99

Sisters Riley and Sam help their uncle run his museum of dark folklore and unexplained disappearances next to spooky Voynich Woods. One day, Sam flees into the woods to escape a rude tourist; Riley goes after her and is murdered. But magically endowed Madelyn, who lives in the woods with her abusive Mother, finds Riley’s grave under the creepy “Wishing Tree” and brings her back, albeit with a hole in her chest filled with a “black, half-solid ooze.” While Riley returns home and tries to hide the change death has wrought in her, Madelyn begins to learn what (or who) has been fueling the tree, which gives Mother her power. This compelling novel features many horror staples freshly woven together: a partially decayed, drowned ghost girl who can travel anywhere water flows and who helps Riley and Madelyn; a voracious tree with a hunger for vengeance; a man created by Mother, stuffed with “twisted, rusted nails,” who helps with her grisly business; and a nineteenth-century family tragedy with long coattails in the present. Less common in the horror genre but welcome here are a blossoming romance between Riley and Madelyn and a feminist message of ownership over one’s own body, something Madelyn has never known, so that by the end of this harrowing tale, Cipri — and readers — have earned the hopeful ending. ANITA L. BURKAM

After Life
by Gayle Forman
High School    Quill Tree/HarperCollins    272 pp.
1/25    9780063346147    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063346161    $11.99

Seven years have passed since seventeen-year-old Amber died in a hit-and-run bicycle accident, so it’s a shock when she walks into her house one afternoon and learns about what happened. She finds that everything has changed in ways for which she feels responsible: she believes her death ruined her parents’ marriage, her mother and aunt’s relationship, and her boyfriend’s future. But is Amber really back? Why now? And does she deserve to be back? Despite Amber’s shortcomings in life as a sister and friend, her younger sister, Melissa, is not that surprised by Amber’s return, since she’s been speaking to her all along: “Memory and love and belief can keep a person around long after they’re gone.” Helping Amber’s loved ones have faith in this idea as they continue to grieve their loss becomes Amber’s purpose. Forman’s (If I Stay, rev. 7/09) emotion-filled novel grapples with philosophical and religious questions about life and death, and, while it ultimately doesn’t answer all of them, it’s also full of surprises, twists, and hope that will keep readers engaged. Chapters alternate between Amber’s compelling first-person narration and significant, related flashbacks via secondary characters. Among those are several non–family members whose lives were also profoundly affected by Amber’s death. The story lines converge at the end as the mystery surrounding the hit-and-run is finally resolved and the reunion of those closest to her brings Amber the peace of knowing that, when she moves on, “my whole family is going to be all right.” CYNTHIA K. RITTER

Jasmine Is Haunted
by Mark Oshiro
Middle School    Starscape/Tor    256 pp.
10/24    9781250337290    $18.99
Paper ed.  9781250337313    $8.99
e-book ed.  9781250337306    $11.99

Ever since Papi died four years ago, a ghost haunts Jasmine Garza, but she’s not sure if it’s Papi’s or someone else’s. The ghost follows Jasmine as she moves from one apartment to another, forcing her and Mami to relocate again and again. Their latest move is to East Hollywood, where they settle into a house and Jasmine starts attending a new middle school. She joins the GSA — which she thinks is the Gay Straight Alliance, only to discover that it is the Gay Supernatural Alliance. Jasmine confides in Bea and Jorge, the other two group members, seeking their help to rid herself of the ghost. With the assistance of Jasmine’s tía Selena, her mami, and Bea’s parents, who are paranormal hunters, they discover that Jasmine is a nexus for dead souls, causing the souls to gravitate toward her. Through a seance, they unearth multiple souls and a family secret and bring closure to the spirits and to Jasmine. Though the ghosts are somewhat scary throughout, the final scene is positively chilling. This captivating supernatural story offers a unique perspective on death, dying, and moving on. At its heart is the importance of family, friendship, and believing in oneself. YESICA HURD

They Bloom at Night
by Trang Thanh Tran
High School    Bloomsbury    272 pp.
3/25    9781547611119    $19.99
e-book ed.  9781547611126    $13.99

In the wake of a hurricane, a strange red algal bloom has taken over the waters of Mercy, Louisiana, where Noon ekes out a life capturing mutant sea creatures and trading them to the crooked harbormaster. As people go missing, rumors of a monster emerge, and Noon must hunt down the monster for the harbormaster or risk losing everything. The mission forces Noon to team up with the harbormaster’s daughter to probe the mysteries haunting the town, all the while threatening to expose the monstrous things inside our own protagonist. Tran (She Is a Haunting) makes deft use of horror genre conventions to construct a narrative about how trauma shapes and changes people. The atmospheric, immersive descriptions of the setting underscore the vital symbiotic relationship between human and nature that gets ignored in the pursuit of capitalistic extraction. Noon’s narrative perspective encourages identification with the shadowy Other of the monster. As a child of Vietnamese refugees, a queer person who feels out of place in their body (the occasional pronouns used in the first-person narration shift from she/her to they/them), and a survivor of sexual violence, Noon knows what it means to suffocate under the pressure of oppressive norms that seek to punish their self-expression and neutralize its subversive potential. Freeing the monster in themself means confronting their traumatic past and embracing their own power of unsettling. SHENWEI CHANG

From the May 2025 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.