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Recommended Thrillers For Teens

Mystery / Suspense

Looking for a spine-tingling story, or an action-filled adventure to keep you on the edge of your seat? Try one of these. Categories below include Mystery/Suspense, Supernatural/Horror, and Adventure.

All fall down by Ally Carter

After being hospitalized for insisting that her mother was murdered, not killed in an accidental fire, Grace goes to live with her grandfather for a fresh start, but when she sees her mother’s murderer again, her past comes back to haunt her.

Tandy Angel is, along with her brothers, a suspect in their parents' murder but having grown up under Malcolm and Maud Angel's perfectionist demands, Tandy decides she must clear the family name no matter what.

Death cloud by Andrew Lane

In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously "unwell," fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.

Disappeared by Francisco X Stork

Four months ago Sara Zapata's best friend, Linda, disappeared from the streets of Juarez, and ever since Sara has been using her job as a reporter to draw attention to the girls who have been kidnapped by the criminals who control the city, but now she and her family are being threatened--meanwhile her younger brother, Emiliano, is being lured into the narcotics business by the promise of big money, and soon the only way for both of them to escape is to risk the dangerous trek across the desert to the United States border.

The girl I used to be by April Henry

"Olivia's parents were killed fourteen years ago. Now, new evidence reopens the case . . . and she finds herself involved"--.

The lost girl of Astor Street by Stephanie Morrill

When her best friend Lydia disappears, Piper Sail goes searching for answers in the dark underbelly of 1924 Chicago, uncovering deep corruption that may lead back to her affluent neighborhood.

The Naturals by Jennifer Barnes

"Seventeen-year-old Cassie, who has a natural ability to read people, joins an elite group of criminal profilers at the FBI in order to help solve cold cases"--.

One of us is lying by Karen M. McManus

"When the creator of a high school gossip app mysteriously dies in front of four high-profile students all four become suspects. It's up to them to solve the case"--.

After Mickey witnesses his father's death and his mother's admission into rehab, he is sent to live with his estranged uncle and change high schools, but when Mickey's new girlfriend, Ashley, suddenly disappears Mickey refuses to let another person walk out of his life and follows clues that reveal truths about both Ashley and Mickey's father.

A study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Jamie Watson has always been intrigued by Charlotte Holmes ; after all, their great-great-great-grandfathers are one of the most infamous pairs in history. But the Holmes family has always been odd, and Charlotte is no exception. She's inherited Sherlock's volatility and some of his vices-- and when Jamie and Charlotte end up at the same Connecticut boarding school, Charlotte makes it clear she's not looking for friends. But when a student they both have a history with dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Danger is mounting and nowhere is safe-and the only people they can trust are each other.

Truly Devious by 1973- Maureen Johnson

When Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, begins her first year at a famous private school in Vermont, she sets a plan to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder's wife and daughter shortly after the school opened.

We were liars by E Lockhart

Spending the summers on her family's private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.

Supernatural / Horror

Bad girls don't die by Katie Alender

When fifteen-year-old Lexi's younger sister Kasey begins behaving strangely and their old Victorian house seems to take on a life of its own, Lexi investigates and discovers some frightening facts about previous occupants of the house, leading her to believe that many lives are in danger.

I hunt killers by Barry Lyga

Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his notorious "Dear Old Dad." Believing he can fight his own urges and right some of his father's wrongs, Jazz helps the police catch the town's newest murderer, "The Impressionist," but, in doing so, he discovers he may have more in common with his father than he thought.

Sixteen-year-old Jacob, having traveled to a remote island after a family tragedy, discovers an abandoned orphanage, and, after some investigating, he learns the children who lived there may have been dangerous and quarantined and may also still be alive.

The replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Sixteen-year-old Mackie Doyle knows that he replaced a human child when he was just an infant, and when a friend's sister disappears he goes against his family's and town's deliberate denial of the problem to confront the beings that dwell under the town, tampering with human lives.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a bounty hunter.

Rules for vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall

When Sara and her friends search the forest for Sara's missing sister Becca, a mysterious road unfurls before them, where the ghost of Lucy Gallows sends horrors and challenges in their path to find Becca

Scowler by Daniel Kraus

In the midst of a 1981 meteor shower in Iowa, a homicidal maniac escapes from prison and returns to the farm where his nineteen-year-old son, Ry, must summon three childhood toys, including one called Scowler,to protect himself, his eleven-year-old sister, Sarah, and their mother.

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Seventeen year old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. Between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

"Ten teens head to a house party at a remote island mansion off the Washington coast only for them to be picked off by a killer one by one"--Provided by publisher.

"Hawaii-born Makani Young's new life in Nebraska is thrown into chaos when a serial killer begins to target her fellow high school students"--.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Three teens embark upon a cross-country journey in order to escape from a society that salvages body parts from children ages thirteen to eighteen.

When I cast your shadow by Sarah Porter

Following his overdose, Dash begins visiting his sister Ruby in her dreams in an attempt to possess her and return to the world of the living, but Ruby's twin Everett is intent on saving Ruby from Dash's clutches

Adventure

The angel experiment by James Patterson

After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the "birdkids," who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose.

The conspiracy of us by Maggie Hall

When sixteen-year-old Avery West learns her family is part of a powerful and dangerous secret society, and that her own life is in danger, she must follow a trail of clues across Europe.

Daughter of the pirate king by Tricia Levenseller

"When her father, the ruthless pirate king, discovers that a legendary treasure map can be found on an enemy ship, his daughter Alosa knows that there's only one pirate for the job herself. Leaving behind her beloved ship and crew, Alosa deliberately facilitates her own kidnapping to ensure her welcome on the ship"--.

The fixer by Jennifer Barnes

When her grandfather develops dementia, sixteen-year-old Tess, who has been keeping his Montana ranch going, is whisked away to Washington, D.C., by a sister she barely knows and thrown into a world of politics, power, wealth, love triangles, and family secrets.

Girl gone viral by Arvin Ahmadi

Seventeen-year-old coding prodigy Opal Hopper enters in a virtual reality contest in order to find answers about her father, who vanished seven years ago, and had close ties to the contest's billionaire founder

Peak by Roland Smith

A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.

Skeleton key by Anthony Horowitz

Reluctant teenage-spy Alex Rider, on a routine mission at the Wimbledon tennis championships, gets caught up in Chinese gangs, illegal nuclear weapons, and the suspect plans of his Russian host, General Sarov.

Stranded by Melinda Braun

"A year after the death of her sister, Emma ventures with a hiking group into the dangerous woods of the Boundary Waters. But after a freak windstorm kills their guide, the group must endure the wrath of Mother Nature--and each other--if they hope to make it out of the woods alive"--.

Uncaged by John Sandford

When an animal rights action at a research lab goes wrong, a terrible secret is exposed, and Shay must find her brother Odin before the researchers at Singular Corp can silence both of them.

Wolf by wolf by Ryan Graudin

"The first book in a duology about an alternate version of 1956 where the Axis powers won WWII, and hold an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents to commemorate their victory"--

Wonder Woman : Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

She will become one of the world's greatest heroes: Wonder Woman. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons, and longs only to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters.

Zero day by Jan Gangsei

Eight years after being kidnapped Addie Webster, now sixteen, resurfaces under mysterious circumstances, significantly changed, and her childhood best friend, Darrow Fergusson, is asked by a national security advisor to spy on her to uncover whether she is a threat to her father's Presidency or the nation.