How to Write Suspenseful YA Fiction: Keep Them Turning the Page

Suspense in young adult fiction is a promise a silent agreement between writer and reader that something is coming. And it’s not just about danger. It’s about uncertainty. It’s about questions that go unanswered long enough to matter. If you’re wondering how to create suspense in writing, the answer isn’t just in the plot twists or cliffhangers. It’s in the feeling you create the unease that grows, chapter after chapter until the truth finally lands.

Teen readers are some of the most passionate, perceptive audiences in fiction. They’ve grown up with stories that don’t pull punches. So when you write suspense for them, it has to be earned. They don’t want gimmicks. They want emotion. They want characters who feel real, stakes that matter, and tension that rises not just from external threats but from internal ones.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what makes YA suspense work, how to create tension that sticks, and why authors like Brandon Gardner are redefining what it means to truly grip a reader.

What Makes YA Suspense Different from Adult Thrillers

Writing suspense for teens doesn’t mean watering it down. It often means digging deeper. Adult thrillers may rely on complex plots or high-concept mysteries, but YA suspense is often more character-driven. It’s about emotional immediacy. Everything feels urgent because, in a teen’s world, it is.

Teen protagonists face real danger, yes but also emotional danger. The threat of losing a friend. Being misunderstood. Being silenced. Being seen for who they are. When you write YA suspense, you’re not just building toward a reveal you’re building through the lens of someone still figuring out how the world works, and what it means to survive it.

That’s where authors like Brandon Gardner shine. His stories don’t just feature suspense. They are suspenseful. From the first sentence, his characters are in motion — emotionally, and psychologically — and you feel the pressure rising. His supernatural thrillers, especially his horror fiction, prove that when suspense is rooted in character, every twist hits harder.

It Starts with Questions, Not Answers

The key to suspense is mystery but not the kind that hinges solely on plot twists. The best suspenseful YA stories start with questions that matter. What happened to the missing friend? Why is the new student lying? Why is the main character so sure something’s watching them?

But here’s the trick: you don’t just ask the question. You make the reader need the answer.

To do that, you need emotional stakes. Your protagonist can’t just want to solve a puzzle they have to need to. Their identity, their future, and their safety have to depend on it. Suspense grows when the cost of not knowing becomes too high.

Brandon Gardner’s characters don’t chase mystery for the thrill they chase it because something in them is unravelling. That’s the kind of suspense that keeps readers up at night not because they’re scared, but because they’re invested.

Build Characters Readers Believe In

You can’t have suspense without trust. If your readers don’t care about the characters, they won’t care about what happens to them.

This is especially true in YA fiction. Teen readers are quick to notice when characters feel flat or too convenient. They want complexity. They want flaws. They want characters who reflect their confusion, anger, fear, and hope.

When writing suspense, make sure your protagonist has something to lose and make sure we feel it. Maybe they’re protecting someone. Maybe they’re hiding a secret. Maybe they’re not sure who they are without this one thing they’re trying to protect. Whatever it is, that tension should bleed into every choice they make.

In Brandon Gardner’s supernatural thrillers, his teen protagonists aren’t just haunted by ghosts. They’re haunted by mistakes, guilt, memory. And that’s what makes their stories compelling — because the suspense isn’t just about what’s going to happen. It’s about whether they can survive who they already are. For more on writing authentic teens, see creating relatable teen characters.

Tension Is a Rhythm, not a Scream.

Writing suspenseful YA fiction is like composing music. You need a rhythm moment of quiet, build-up, and release. If you’re always throwing high-intensity scenes at the reader, they’ll stop feeling urgent. What you want is unease. Let the reader feel like something is off, even if they can’t name it.

This means pacing matters. Don’t rush to the big reveal. Don’t dump all the information at once. Let the truth leak out in pieces. Let readers question the narrator, the setting, and the side characters. Every little clue should pull them deeper, not just forward.

Gardner is particularly skilled at this. His scenes linger. The horror builds slowly. The reader starts wondering if maybe it’s not supernatural at all maybe it’s something worse. That slow-burn quality is what suspense is made of.

Let the Setting Speak

In YA suspense, the setting should feel alive. Whether it’s a small town with too many secrets, a prep school with a hidden history, or a quiet house that seems to listen, your setting should add to the unease.

Describe just enough to keep the reader unsettled. Is the light always flickering? Does the forest seem to shift? Is there one hallway that’s always colder? Details like these don’t need to be explained right away. The unexplained is the suspense.

In Brandon Gardner’s The House That Horror Built, for instance, the setting isn’t just where the story takes place — it’s why the story unfolds the way it does. The house has a mood. It presses on the characters. It remembers things they’d rather forget. That kind of immersive atmosphere is what gives suspense its shape. You can read more in The House of Illusions vs The House That Horror Built.

The Supernatural as Metaphor and Threat

While suspense doesn’t require the supernatural, adding it can elevate the tension especially when the supernatural serves a deeper purpose.

A ghost isn’t just a ghost. It’s a symbol. Maybe of guilt. Maybe of trauma. Maybe of the version of yourself, you’re afraid to become.

In YA fiction, this layering works beautifully because teen protagonists are already navigating identity, fear, and transformation. A well-written supernatural element can externalize those internal battles.

Gardner uses this approach throughout his fiction. His ghosts, his eerie twists they all mean something. The real horror isn’t just what’s out there. It’s what’s already inside. That emotional layering is what keeps the suspense alive long after the final page.

Readers Want to Feel Something So Give It to Them

The most suspenseful books aren’t the ones that move the fastest. They’re the ones that matter most to the reader.

When you write suspenseful YA fiction, your job isn’t just to trick your audience. It’s to affect them. To make them care so deeply about your characters and their journey that every chapter feels like a breath held.

Suspense works when the emotional truth of the story is strong enough to carry the fear. The dread. The tension. If readers cry at the end of a thriller, you’ve done something right. Because that means they weren’t just chasing a plot. They were invested in people.

Conclusion

So if you’re wondering how to write suspenseful YA fiction, start with this: make us care. Make us afraid to turn the page but more afraid to stop. Build your tension on questions, not answers. Let emotion drive every moment. And trust that your readers are smart enough to follow you into the dark.

Brandon Gardner’s fiction proves it’s possible to write YA stories that chill and challenge stories that linger not because of what they reveal, but because of what they never quite say. That’s the mark of great suspense. It doesn’t slam doors. It leaves them slightly open.

If you’re ready to write stories that hold your readers’ breath from beginning to end, take inspiration from authors like Gardner who understand that suspense isn’t about what jumps out. It’s about what stays with you.