Queer YA Hauntings To Creep You Out This Fall

Logan has spent her life crisscrossing the country with her two dads, Brandon and Alejo, as they film their ghost hunting TV show. When Brandon returns to his and Alejo’s hometown, he says he’s scouting for a filming location, but then he doesn’t leave for months. Alejo and Logan come after him, but they’re soon all drawn into this small town’s mysteries–including missing teenagers–and homophobic attitudes make Brandon a prime suspect. Logan finds herself teaming up with Ashley, who is looking for her missing boyfriend. As they investigate, it becomes obvious that something supernatural is going on, and even Logan is becoming suspicious of her father. Even more unexpected? Logan and Ashley are starting to fall for each other.

This one has an incredibly creepy atmosphere, and we get glimpses into an evil being that is possessing someone and killing teens using their body–but who is being possessed, and why did they make a deal with this dark force?

Dare took this internship to help restore Arrington Estate because it’s rumored to be haunted, and it should make good content for her ghost hunting podcast. The fact that Dare is extremely skeptical about the existence of ghosts is something she keeps under wraps. When she arrives there, she finds assistance in the daughter of the museum’s owner, Quinn. Soon, even Dare has to admit that something weird is happening in this house, with its lake that creeps closer every day, and the face that appears beside hers in the mirror.

I personally love horror stories that have a water focus, and this one is very much about the ominous lake (where at least one girl drowned). No matter how much work they do to restore it, the ceilings are always leaking, mold spreads, and carpets squelch with water underfoot.

This also has disability representation: Dare has Type 1 Diabetes and has to manage it both with medical equipment and a service dog. (The author also has Type 1 Diabetes.)

Unlike the previous two books, Jake doesn’t have to hunt for ghosts, because they’re always with him. He sees the dead acting out their deaths, caught in an endless loop. All except Sawyer, the ghost of a school shooter who’s determined to use Jake to exact vengeance. Soon, instead of seeing ghosts, Jake finds himself controlled by one.

This is a gay paranormal thriller that has a lot of social commentary, especially on anti-Black racism. It also gets very dark, including giving the school shooter’s perspective. If you like your horror with hard-hitting social commentary, this should be on your list.

Casey Plett has won multiple awards for her previous books, including a Lambda Literary Award, and this collection has been long-listed for the Giller prize. These stories are heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. They examine the complexities of being human and the flawed, yearning ways we relate to each other. I finished the first story and had to stare at a wall for a while to process it–and I mean that in the best possible way.

Gio is a bisexual boy who’s fallen for another bi boy on his basketball team, but that’s far from the most complicated thing in his life right now. After eight years, his absent mother has reappeared in his family’s life, asking for forgiveness. Gio isn’t sure he can give it, or if she even deserves a relationship with him at all. This deals with masculinity and vulnerability–and it’s well worth getting for the stunning cover alone.

This is being pitched as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale. Chrysalises are the only way to fight the alien mechas lurking on the other side of the Great Wall, but they require two pilots: a male pilot, and a female concubine-pilot who is often killed by the experience of being drained to power the machine. But Zetian has reversed this dynamic, making her a rare and feared Iron Widow. Everyone wants to find a way to constrain her power, but she’d done being controlled. (Bonus: polyamorous representation!)

Héctor Muñoz finds himself forced back into the closet–literally–at his new school. While being gay was no big deal in San Francisco, it makes him a target at Orangevale, and he seeks refuge in the janitor’s closet. Except one day, the closet gives him access to another room, one that connects him to other middle grade outcasts from different corners of the country. This is a coming of age story about not fitting and finding your community, and it also has non-binary representation.