My Best YA Zombie Books offer more than just blood and gore and dangly limbs and eyeballs. How about thoughts about the meaning of community, of the will to live, and of life itself? Here is my list of the Best YA Zombie Books, updated for 2025!
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The Best YA Zombie Books
I’m making this list chronological, so you can see the progression of YA Zombie Books. 2012 was a BIG year for the undead, perhaps inspired by The Walking Dead, which premiered in 2010.
But since zombies never really die, you can always count on them to make a comeback, am I right? Which they did!
NEW FOR 2025: Make Me a Monster by Kalynn Bayron
The Best YA Zombie Books: The Classics 2009-2012
Zombie books were very popular in the Golden Age of YA. Let’s explore some of my favorites!
Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (2009) = religious cult + zombies
Thoughts from a zombie-phobe: Shout out to some OG early 2000s YA. This book was really interesting – a bit more about a community of people and the ways they control and contain people than actual zombies. Definitely recommend giving it a try. I didn’t like the sequel.
Synopsis: In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.
When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?
Want to read: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion = zombie romance (???)
I’ve always meant to try this, but haven’t. Maybe this is the year? Was the movie better? Tell me in comments!
Synopsis: R is a zombie. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization. And then he meets a girl. First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.
This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers = Breakfast Club with Zombies
Thoughts from a zombie-phobe: Courtney Summers is one of my favorite YA contemporary authors ever, so of course I read her zombie book. Here’s what I said in my review back in 2012:
“This Is Not a Test was so much more than zombies. I’d say this book was about the will to live. What gives us that will, what can take it away, and how it might be reignited. Sloane, the protagonist, is borderline suicidal when the whole zombie thing hits and watches the it play out with a sort of detached interest. She’s amazed at how much people can care — about each other, about life. Outside her school there are rampaging zombies, inside the school there is also a lot going on: conflict, suspense, and nail-biting moments of tension. As the story unfolds, each of six kids comes into sharper focus.”
The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle (2012) = Leaving Amish + zombies
Thoughts from a zombie-phobe: It’s nearly Rumspringa, the time when Amish teens can experience the outside world. But then there’s a zombie outbreak. And then Katie smuggles a gravely injured boy into her family’s barn. Eeeeep – just writing this made me remember how much I enjoyed it.
Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard = historical fiction + zombies
Thoughts from a zombie-phobe: You know Susan Dennard from her Truthwitch series, but I always forget that Something Strange and Deadly was Dennard’s debut. This takes place in 1876 in Philadelphia and has a steampunk feel. It is pretty creepy – about a woman named Eleanor who has to save her brother from zombies and joins forces with the Spirit Hunters.
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (2012) = vampires + zombies
Okay, this is known as a vampire book, but there are also “rabids” which are … zombies.
The Best YA Zombie Books: The Undead Rise Again (2019-2022)
Zombies are BACK! I think the election of 2018 inspired a lot more dystopian and post-apocalyptic books.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (2018): zombies + Civil War History + race in America
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.
When families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies.
And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones (2019): zombies + Fae
Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.
The End of Everything by Christopher Artinian series
Two sisters, one nightmare.
The last thing they wanted to do was spend time with each other. Now their very survival depends on it.
Have you read any of these? Have any favorite zombie books to recommend? Let me know in comments!
Also if you love paranormal YA, please check out these related posts:
The only one I haven’t read is This Is Not a Test. Loved Warm Bodies and the movie too. And Forest of Hands and Teeth too.
So Warm Bodies book or movie? I need advice!!
As someone not afraid of zombies (in books anyway) I think The Hallowed Ones, Forest of Hands and Teeth, This is Not a Test are all pretty creepy. Although, they’re more about human nature than zombies.
Did you ever read the sequel novella for This Is Not a Test? It’s good but really brutal. Even more than the original.
Karen @ For What It’s worth
I haven’t read it!
Warm Bodies is my favorite Romeo and Juliet retelling, hands down.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually read a book with zombies. But I do remember Warm Bodies being hugely popular when it came out. It seemed like everyone was reading that one.
Those are good ones! How about Charlie Higson’s The Enemy series? I really need to get back to finishing that series.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth remains one of my favourite zombie YA series. Warm Bodies is a close second. Also, This is Not A Test. So many good ones!
It’s a classic, but I thin a good one. Glad you like my list!
I don’t like zombies. Can’t even watch The Walking Dead. My husband watches it, and I listen while looking away (it’s so gory!!)
I tried to watch that, but it was just a group of people walking around trying to avoid zombies (I guess the title should have been a giveaway!) My son loves it though!
I love me a good zombie story! I still need to read Warm Bodies. I feel like if you don’t mind being scared, The Rains by Gregg Hurwitz is a good one. If you don’t want to get scared I’d also recommend Dying for a Living by Kory M Shrum.
Rot & Ruin is another epic YA zombie series
Thanks I forgot about that one … from the Y2K YA years!