Paranormal/Supernatural

This list contains books that most likely could be classified as falling into this category.  Why did I pair Paranormal and Supernatural books together?  Well, apparently different people have different views on exactly what those words mean. (Read my post here to see what I'm talking about.)  In this list you will find books that deal with people with special abilities or supernatural powers.  You will also find stories about supernatural beings, like angels, demons, and even ghosts.  (I've also put those ghosts into their own list, for those of you searching specifically for a ghost story.)   I didn't bother to separate out a Paranormal Romance list - most YA novels have a romance element anyway, and if you see 'romance' in the tag for a particular book, you'll know what you're getting.  And I do have a different list specifically for those vampires and werewolves, so you can go straight there if that's what you're looking for or avoid those at all costs if that's not what you're into!  Of course, you'll find most of these books on other genre lists as well, because there is so much cross-over (you know, like a paranormal action-adventure and so on).

Clicking on the book title will take you to the review/mini-review if I have one.  Also, see my note about reading and age appropriate levels at the bottom of the list.


A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
(5.9) (MG) (family secrets, ghosts, England, war, 1600’s)

After the End by Amy Plum (series)
(5.5/5.6) (UG) (family relationships, secrets, supernatural abilities, romance)

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater *
(6.8) (UG) (family, miracles, tall tales)

Banished by Sophie Littlefield
(5.5) (UG) (family relationships & secrets, extraordinary abilities, action)

Behold the Bones by Natalie C. Parker
(/) (UG) (friendship, mystery, family secrets, magic, ghosts)

Berserker by Emmy Laybourne
(/) (MG+) (brothers and sisters, special abilities, wild west, Scandanavian immigrants)

Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker
(5.4) (UG) (brothers & sisters, Louisiana, folklore, magic, spirits, mystery)

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke
(4.5) (UG) (paranormal abilities)

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond
(/) (MG+) (Roanoke, mystery, magic, family secrets, cults)

Beyond: a Ghost Story by Graham McNamee
(5.1) (UG) (paranormal, suicide, friendship)

Blackout by Robison Wells
(5.2) (teenagers, paranormal abilities, terrorism)

Blink Once by Cylin Busby
(4.7) (UG) (comas, mystery)

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
(4.9) (UG) (mystery, supernatural, abductions, family relationships)

Breathe: A Ghost Story by Cliff McNish
(4.8) (MG) (ghosts, secrets, special abilities)

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman
(5.5) (UG) (family, friendship, child abuse, unexplained phenomenon, romance)

Circle of Secrets by Kimberly Griffiths Little
(5.0) (MG+) (Louisiana, family secrets, mystery, mothers and daughters)

Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst
(4.5) (MG+) (paranormal abilities, magic, inter-dimensional travel, serial killers)

Crash by Lisa McMann (series)
(4.9) (MG+) (paranormal abilities, family relationships, romance, thriller/suspense, *)

Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann
(3.9) (UG) (OCD, mystery, secrets, ghosts, disappearances)

Death Watch by Ari Berk (series)
(6.3/5.7/5.6) (UG) (family, secrets, ghosts)

Doll Bones by Holly Black
(5.4) (MG) (friendship, mysteries, magic)

Dull Boy by Sarah Cross
(5.1) (MG+) (special abilities, friendship, good vs evil)

Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen
(5.4) (MG+) (friendship, humor, demons)

Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff
(5.8) (UG) (magic, fiends, friendship, family, secrets)

Flip by Martyn Bedford
(5.3) (MG+) (altered identity/ paranormal happenings)

Flutter by Gina Linko
(MG+) (romance, paranormal/supernatural, mystery, medical conditions)

Ghostlight by Sonia Gensler
(4.6) (MG) (ghosts, family secrets)

Graveminder by Melissa Marr
(UG) (dead & undead, supernatural contracts, mystery)

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
(5.3) (New Zealand, fairies, mythology)


House of Ivy & Sorrow by Natalie Whipple
(/) (MG+) (witches, family bonds, secrets, romance)

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
(MG+) (Salem, family secrets, magic, romance, ghosts)

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
(6.0) (UG) (serial killers, obsessions, paranormal/supernatural)

In Darkness by Nick Lake
(5.6) (UG) (Haiti, slave rebellion, voodoo, gang violence, poverty, family)

Insanity by Susan Vaught
(5.3) (MG+) (asylums, hauntings, supernatural abilities)

Into the Grey by Celine Kiernan
(MG+) (brothers, twins, ghosts, WWI, family relationships)

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer
(4.2) (MG+) (paranormal abilities/magic, family secrets, romance)

Made for You by Melissa Marr
(4.9) (UG) (paranormal abilities, murder, romance)

Mark of the Thief by Jennifer Nielsen
(4.6) (MG) (Roman Empire, magic, slavery, friendship)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
(5.7) (MG) (orphans, paranormal abilities)

Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre (series)
(5.3) (MG+) (paranormal/supernatural, scifi/fantasy, romance)

Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
(4.8) (MG+) (paranormal abilities, invisibility, assassins, action,  romance)

Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin
(5.2) (MG+) (Civil War, mystery)

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
(5.4) (MG+) (Victorian era, prophecies, twins, paranormal/supernatural, good vs. evil)

Pulse by Patrick Carman
(5.9) (MG+) (friendship, dystopian, special abilities)

Reawakened by Colleen Houk
(6.0) (MG+) (ancient Egyptian deities, secret societies, magic, adventure)

Repossessed by A. M. Jenkins
(4.8) (UG) (demon possession, humor)

Servants of the Storm by Delilah S. Dawson *
(/) (UG) (Southern Gothic, New Orleans, ‘zombies’)

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace *
(4.9) (MG+) (death, mystery, cults, supernatural)

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
(4.3) (UG) (dystopian, paranormal abilities, rebellions, romance)

Shutter by Courtney Alameda
(MG+) (ghosts, ghost hunting, paranormal abilities, fathers & daughters)


Sidekicked by John Anderson *
(5.4) (MG) (superhero sidekicks, paranormal abilities, friendship) 

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle *
(/) (UG) (magic, family secrets, family relationships, friendship, *)

Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz
(5.1) (MG) (orphans, mystery, kidnapping, magic)


Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton *
(/) (UG) (magic, bargains, witches, family, friendship, sacrifice, love triangles, secrets, *)

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule
(/) (UG) (supernatural, mystery, music conservatories, romance)

Ten Thousand Charms by Leander Watts
(4.2) (MG) (paranormal, 1800’s, American frontier, Gothic)

Tennyson by Leslie M. M. Blume
(5.1) (MG) (mothers and daughters, family secrets, Great Depression, the                South, paranormal happenings)

The Archived by Victoria Schwab
(4.7/5.2) (UG) (death, ghosts, family, friendship/romance)

The Becoming of Noah Shaw by Michelle Hodkin
(/) (UG) (Mara Dyer series, paranormal abilities, mystery, death, romance, *)

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
(6.8) (UG) (murder, psychic abilities, romance, thriller/suspense)

The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick
(4.7) (MG+) (friendship, mystery, magic)

The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters
(5.6) (MG+) (Victorian era, hypnotism, fathers & daughters, women’s suffrage)

The Dark Between by Sonia Gensler
(5.4) (UG) (ghosts, Victorian era, murder, romance)

The Dark Flight Down by Marcus Sedgwick
(4.9) (MG+) (friendship, mystery, magic)

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (series)
(5.7/5.9/5.9/5.8) (UG) (post-pandemic, friendship, adventure, survival, special abilities)

The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles
(5.3) (UG) (romance, thrillers/suspense, family relationships, caving)

The Fall by Bethany Griffin
(4.8) (UG) (The Fall of the House of Usher, twins, gothic)

The Fetch by Laura Whitcomb
(5.8) (MG+) (Russian Revolution, the afterlife, spirits)


The Girl in Between by Sarah Carroll
(4.0) (MG+) (mothers & daughters, homelessness, ghosts, regret)

The Graces by Laure Eve
(/) (UG) (friendship, magic, siblings, secrets)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman *
(5.1) (MG) (orphans, vampires, family, ghosts, mystery)

The Girl From the Well by Rin Cupeco
(6.3) (UG) (ghosts, possession, revenge, mystery)
(7.1) (mystery, murder, hauntings, evil, Victorian era)


The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie
(5.2) (MG+) (ghosts, possession, mothers & daughters)

The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones
(/) (UG) (paranormal/supernatural/science fiction/urban fantasy, romance)

The House by Christina Lauren
(6.0) (UG) (hauntings, mystery, abandonment, romance)

The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick
(4.5) (MG) (WWI, premonitions)


The Job of the Wasp by Colin Winnette
(MG+) (orphans, mystery, murder, ghosts)

The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth
(/) (UG) (paranormal abilities, murder, family secrets, romance, cults)

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
(4.8) (MG+) (witchcraft, mystery)

The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon
(/) (UG) (family relationships, secrets, paranormal/supernatural, murder mystery)

The Nightmarys by Dan Poblocki
(4.8) (MG) (curses, friendship, supernatural)

The Path of Names by Ari Goelman
(4.5) (MG+) (friendship, Jewish mysticism, mystery)

The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood
(5.1) (UG) (1700’s, England, apothecaries, fathers & daughters, mystery, romance)

The Rattled Bones by S. M. Parker
(/) (MG+) (Maine, grief, paranormal/supernatural, romance)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (series) *
(5.4/5.0/5.1/5.7) (UG) (prophecies, friendship, magic, mystery, *)

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff  *
(5.2) (UG) (Changelings, family, friendship, identity)

The Seer of Shadows by Avi
(5.2) (1800’s, photography, ghosts)

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
(5.1) (UG) (angels and demons, suicide, romance)

The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki
(5.2) (MG) (supernatural creatures, friendship, magic)

The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano
(UG) (magic, cutting, curses, family relationships, romance)


The Twelve-Fingered Boy by John Horner Jacobs
(4.1) (MG+) (juvenile delinquents, superpowers, friendship, survival)

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (series)
(4.3) (UG) (paranormal abilities, mystery, death, romance)


The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
(/) (UG) (witchcraft, murder, romance, mystery)

Thin Space by Jody Casella
(4.0) (UG) (twins, brothers, grief, mystery/secrets, supernatural)

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel (series)
(4.9/5.0) (UG) (Frankenstein, 1700’s, twins, romance, mystery, Gothic)

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab (series)
(5.4/5.8) (MG+) (monsters, identity, family relationships)

Thirteen Days to Midnight by Patrick Carman *
(5.0) (MG+) (immortality, death, mystery, orphans, friendship)

Touched by Cyn Balog *
(MG+) (butterfly effect, spells)

Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer
(4.7) (MG+) (ghosts, secrets, photography)

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia (series)
(4.9) (UG) (malevolent spirits, action/adventure, mystery, secret societies)

V is for Villain by Peter Moore
(4.8) (MG+) (special abilities, heroes & villains, family, friendship, secrets)

Vicious by Victoria Schwab
(/) (UG) (heroes & villians, special abilities, friendship, betrayal)

Wax by Gina Damico
(/) (UG) (humor, drama students, body snatching)

Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
(4.7) (UG) (special abilities, family relationships, secrets, romance)

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan (series)
(?) (UG) (magic, war, orphans, gods, secrets, intrigue)



Note:  Lists are arranged with Title, Author, Reading Level, Age Appropriate Level, and Descriptive Tags.
(Age appropriate level denotes the youngest readers that the book is appropriate for.  That doesn't mean that older readers will not enjoy the book!)

* =  books that I thought were GREAT

UG = upper grades  (contain sex, drugs, and/or very graphic violence; deal with mature subject matter such as rape, prostitution, child abuse, etc. )
MG+ = junior high  (may contain some profanity or sexual references; may deal with subject matter too mature for younger audiences)
MG = 4th through 6th grades (nothing inappropriate for children, but may not keep the interest of younger readers)
MG- = all ages (perfect for bedtime stories or read-alouds, or for precocious readers in the lower grades)

* = LGBTQ themes - characters, situations, or references to same-sex couples

Books included in this list are all ones that I have read myself and given a rating of at least 3 out of 5 Stars (why would I recommend anything less?)  When a book is part of a series, only the first title is listed, but the reading level for all books in the series is shown.  Lists will be updated periodically as I read new books.


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