Kirkus Best Books of the Year - YA Horror (Awarded by Kirkus)

Awards List

2025

Honeysuckle and Bone
(*)
Trisha Tobias

And the Trees Stare Back
(*)
Gigi Griffis

A Girl Walks into the Forest
(*)
Madeleine Roux

The Others
(*)
Cheryl Isaacs

And the River Drags Her Down
(*)
Jihyun Yun

Beautiful Brutal Bodies
(*)
Linda Cheng

Hazelthorn
(*)
C.G. Drews

2024

In Utero
(*)
Chris Gooch

A Place for Vanishing
(*)
Ann Fraistat

Now, Conjurers
(*)
Freddie Kolsch

The Unfinished
(*)
Cheryl Isaacs

Killer House Party
(*)
Lily Anderson

The Terrifying Tales of Vivian Vance
(*)
Joshua Ulrich

I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call
(*)
Jamison Shea

2023

City Of Nightmares
(*)
Rebecca Schaeffer

She Is a Haunting
(*)
Trang Thanh Tran

This Delicious Death
(*)
Kayla Cottingham

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
(*)
Andrew Joseph White

When Ghosts Call Us Home
(*)
Katya de Becerra

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces
(*)
Linda Cheng

2022

The Last Laugh
(*)
Mindy McGinnis

Hell Followed with Us
(*)
Andrew Joseph White

Our Crooked Hearts
(*)
Melissa Albert

Wake the Bones
(*)
Elizabeth Kilcoyne

The Getaway
(*)
Lamar Giles

The Weight of Blood
(*)
Tiffany D. Jackson

Man Made Monsters
(*)
Andrea L. Rogers

Award Categories

Affirming Picture Books

Bedtime Books

Beginning Readers

Board Books

Book Club Fiction

Books for Beginning Readers

Debut Fiction

Dystopian Fiction

Empowering Picture Books

Environmental Fiction

Fiction

Fiction in Translation

Fictional Families

Fictional Voices

Funniest Picture Books

Historical Fiction

Informational Picture Books

Joyous Picture Books

Middle Grade Exploring Social Themes

Middle-Grade About Speaking Up

Middle-Grade Activist

Middle-Grade Adventures

Middle-Grade Family Stories

Middle-Grade Fantasy and SF

Middle-Grade Fiction

Award Years

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019