What to Read After... Lockwood & Co

Published on: 16 April 2023

We love the Lockwood & Co series for its unsettling suspense, the brilliant plotting and the humour between the characters. We’ve been enjoying the TV series as well – it’s so atmospheric and full of amazing action! So, once you’ve read all five books by Jonathan Stroud, where do you turn for more ghosts, banter and amazing fighting skills? Try some of these suggestions.

If you like ghosts and scary scenes

London is plagued by ghostly ‘Visitors’ in Lockwood & Co. Set in another eerie city stalked by spectres, The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman will give you the chills. (It’s the second in a series, though, so read Northern Lights first ideally.)  Similarly, in City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab the city of Edinburgh is teeming with spirits. The main character can interact with the ghosts, and the result is a thrilling read, with a lot of action and humour.

For a more straightforward scare, The Wrong Train by Jeremy De Quidt and The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes are both terrifyingly brilliant. Not for the faint-hearted!

If you enjoy teamwork and humour

The dynamic between Lucy, George and Anthony Lockwood in Lockwood & Co is a welcome relief to the scary scenes. If you enjoy their banter, try Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, where a teenager teams up with a wise-cracking skeleton detective. For more ghost-fighting teamwork, Ghosts of Shanghai by Julian Sedgwick has expat Ruby and her Chinese friends form the Shanghai Ghost Society in 1926. And for a crime caper with a twist, try the Knightley and Son series by Rohan Gavin, where Darkus Knightley and his dad, whose memory is somewhat wonky, try to solve weird mysteries. Finally, for a team who really didn’t choose each other, be deliciously scared by Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick, where a group of teens are forced to work together to defeat a hidden attacker.

 

If you love thrilling action against other-worldly elements

Lucy is excellent with a rapier, and her sword skills often save her life and that of her team. If defending yourself against other-worldly creatures is your bag, try World of Warriors: A New Hero by Curtis Jobling where Trick Hope must fight a Skull Army. Meanwhile in Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda, a wealthy Lord has surrounded himself with shape-shifting demons in India. Ash and his sister must avenge the death of their aunty and uncle.

Peter and Sofia in My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick need to work out why villagers are disappearing – and discover his father’s secrets. This chilling page-turner is inspired by vampire folklore and is set in a bitterly cold Eastern Europe.

Finally, the Young Samurai series by Chris Bradford is packed with action, and is set in seventeenth-century Japan, where there are no supernatural elements, but many ninjas poised to test Jack’s fighting skills. Spine-tinglingly exciting.

Join in!

Those are some of our ideas – but what about you? What are your most-loved scary stories?

Let us know by tweeting us @BookTrust using the hashtag #WhatToReadAfter