80s Teen Books: A Comprehensive List
To all the 80s teen paperbacks I loved growing up and for those who are nostalgic for their local library’s collection of bad teen dramas, I’m dedicating the entire month of August (For the past ten years of this blog, August has always been dedicated to nostalgia content) to 80s and 90s teen lit.
I’ve been a horror fan for as long as I can remember. I was reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark when I was in the second grade. Are You Afraid of the Dark was my favorite show growing up and Goosebumps was my favorite book series. Recess and slumber parties were for sharing scary stories and playing Bloody Mary in the bathroom. The macabre, dark folklore, urban legends and campy teen horror have always been my thing, so lets dive into some of my favorite teen horror from the 80s and 90s.
This is the last in the 80s teen series posts.
Take a walk down memory lane and rediscover the good, the bad and even bizarre lit of 80s teen fiction.
The Baby-sitter was originally apart of the Point Horror Teen Anthology Collection but then became it’s own series which lasted four books. The first novel was published in 1989, and it led to establishing Stine as a prominent author in the children's horror genre. The first novel follows a simple premise of a babysitter being stalked. Three sequels were published: The Babysitter II in July 1991, The Babysitter III in October 1993 and The Babysitter IV in June 1995. One of my absolute favorite books/series from when I was a kid. (4books in total)
Christopher Pike is the pen-name for American author Kevin Christopher McFadden. He is most well known for his 1980s and 1990s young adult and children's horror/sci-fi fiction. His first teen novel was the 1985 novel Slumber Party, a book about a group of teenagers who run into bizarre and violent events during a ski weekend. Though their peak popularity reigned at the same time, Pike was commonly heralded as the author R.L. Stine's Goosebumps and Fear Street readers turned to for a more mature novel, sitting as the middle ground with Stephen King.
Dark Forces was a teen horror series that was published by Bantam Books and like other 80s teen series were written by multiple authors. More like an anthology, each book is a stand-alone story and to the best of my knowledge there are no overlaps or crossovers between books. All of them consist of supernatural tales that feature teenage protagonists who go toe-to-toe with ghosts, demons and other magical entities. (15 books in total)
The Point Horror series debuted in 1979 and was re-releasted in the early 90s under Scholastic. Authors who published under the label of Point Horror include R.L. Stine, LJ Smith, Diane Hoh, Richie Tankersley Cusick, Christopher Pike and Caroline B. Cooney. The first book published under the Point Horror was Avalanche by Arthur Roth. The series was notable as Blind Date was one of R.L. Stine's first works and helped launch his career. As of 2019. HBO Max is currently working on a screen adaptation of the Point Horror books. (113 books in total)
Richie Tankersley Cusick is the bestselling young adult author of over 25 titles. Her popularity grew at the height of the horror/YA boom in the late 80's/early 90's, particularly with books like "Lifeguard" , "Trick or Treat" and "Teacher's Pet", just to name a few, allowing her to keep company on the bestseller paperback lists with the likes of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. Her fan base expanded about the time she changed publishers to Archway/Pocket Books with titles like "Vampire" and "Someone at the Door."
The now out of print teen (young adult) horror novel series, Twilight was published between 1982 and 1987. This series was pure gold for occult and horror enthusiasts. There are 26 stand-alone books in the series written by various authors; the most notable being Bruce Covillle and Richie Tankersley Cusick.. The series was published by Dell Publishing and is similar to the Dark Forces teen horror series published by Bantam Books. Each book involves the main character(s) battling supernatural forces of evil. (26 books in total)
