Best Audiobooks for Teens UK 2026: 10 Picks from £4.52

Quick picks

• Best overall: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, £15.08 to buy.
• Best budget: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, read by Stephen Mangan (abridged), £4.52 to buy.
• Best for families: Stormbreaker, read by Oliver Chris, £8.70 to buy.

The 10 audiobooks in more detail

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, read by Luke Poli, Kristin Atherton and others. Listening length 12 hours and 56 minutes, unabridged. £15.08 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. Five years ago schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered, and everyone in her small town believes Sal Singh did it. Pippa Fitz-Amobi is not so sure, so she picks the case for her final school project and starts to uncover secrets that someone in town wants kept hidden. Several narrators share this recording, including Luke Poli and Kristin Atherton, and the listing notes the story is now a BBC series.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend, read by Stephen Mangan. Listening length 3 hours and 6 minutes, abridged. £4.52 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. Adrian Mole is a hapless teenager whose painfully honest diary covers his parents' marriage troubles, the dog, and his life as a self-declared misunderstood intellectual and tortured poet. Penguin re-released this recording to mark the book's 30th anniversary, and the publisher notes that Stephen Mangan played Adrian Mole on television in The Cappuccino Years. This is the abridged edition; an unabridged version read by Nicholas Barnes (5 hours 16 minutes) was £9.79 on the same day.

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz, read by Oliver Chris. Listening length 4 hours and 52 minutes, unabridged. £8.70 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is forced to work for MI6 and sent, armed with secret gadgets, to investigate Herod Sayle, a man offering his Stormbreaker computers to every school in the country. The teenage spy soon finds himself in serious danger. It is the first Alex Rider book (Book 1 of 14 on the listing), and at under five hours it is one of the shortest listens here.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, read by Tatiana Maslany. Listening length 10 hours and 35 minutes, unabridged. £12.99 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. In Panem, built on the ruins of North America, the Capitol forces each of its twelve districts to send one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 into a televised fight to the death. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her sister's place. This Special Edition, read by Tatiana Maslany, adds an interview with Suzanne Collins and a behind-the-scenes look at the series, and a PDF comes with the audio in your Audible library.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus, read by Kim Mai Guest, MacLeod Andrews, Shannon McManus and Robbie Daymond. Listening length 10 hours and 43 minutes, unabridged. £8.30 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. Five students go into detention at Bayview High and only four come out alive. Simon, who runs the school's gossip app, dies 24 hours before he was due to post their secrets online, and investigators decide it was no accident, which makes the other four suspects. Four narrators share the story, and the listing shows it as Book 1 of 3.

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman, read by Paul Chequer and Syan Blake. Listening length 10 hours and 39 minutes, unabridged. £8.30 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. Sephy is a Cross, part of the ruling class, and Callum is a Nought, from the underclass whose people were once enslaved by the Crosses. They have been friends since early childhood, but as prejudice and violence grow around them, the romance that builds between them puts them both in danger. The listing shows it as Book 1 of 6 in the series, read by Paul Chequer and Syan Blake.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, read by Jay Snyder, Brandon Rubin and others. Listening length 15 hours and 4 minutes, unabridged. £14.57 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. In the trading city of Ketterdam, criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a deadly heist that could make him rich, but he cannot pull it off alone. He gathers six dangerous outcasts, including a sharpshooter, a spy known as the Wraith and a Heartrender who uses magic to survive the slums. A group of narrators voices the crew, and at just over 15 hours it is the longest listen in this guide.

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, read by Rupert Degas. Listening length 7 hours and 9 minutes, unabridged. £12.06 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. When Stephanie's uncle Gordon, a horror writer, dies and leaves her his estate, she learns that the horror he wrote was not fiction. Chased by evil forces hunting a mysterious key, she teams up with Skulduggery Pleasant, the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard. Rupert Degas reads it, and the listing shows it as Book 1 of 19, so there is a long series to follow.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, read by Allan Corduner. Listening length 13 hours and 55 minutes, unabridged. £9.05 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. Told in the voice of Death, the story follows Liesel, who is nine when she arrives at her foster parents' house on Himmel Street in Nazi Germany and begins stealing books, including some taken from book-burning piles. Her foster family later hides a Jewish boxer, Max, who reads with Liesel in the basement as the bombs start to fall. Allan Corduner reads it, and it runs to almost 14 hours.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, read by Ben Tibber. Listening length 5 hours and 59 minutes, unabridged. £9.05 to buy outright on 20 October 2026. Christopher Boone is fifteen, knows a great deal about maths and very little about people, and has never gone further than the end of his road on his own. When he finds a neighbour's dog killed with a garden fork, he sets out to investigate, and the journey turns his whole world upside down. The publisher notes the novel was published at the same time for adults and for younger readers.

How to choose an audiobook for a teenager

• Start with what they already like. A teen who enjoys crime dramas may take to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder or One of Us Is Lying, while fans of fantasy films may prefer Six of Crows or Skulduggery Pleasant. Someone who likes funny books could start with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.
• Check the themes first. Several of these stories deal with murder, war, prejudice or violence, which is part of why teens enjoy them. If you are buying for a younger teen, read the publisher's description on the Amazon UK listing before you buy.
• Match the length to how they listen. Every Amazon UK audiobook listing shows the listening length. The picks here run from 3 hours 6 minutes (Adrian Mole) to 15 hours 4 minutes (Six of Crows), so a short title suits a week of school journeys and a long one can last a whole holiday.
• Think about the series. Seven of the picks are listed as the first book in a series, from Book 1 of 2 (Six of Crows) to Book 1 of 19 (Skulduggery Pleasant), so if a teen enjoys one there is plenty more to follow.
• One narrator or several. Some recordings use a single voice, such as Tatiana Maslany for The Hunger Games or Rupert Degas for Skulduggery Pleasant. Others, like A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, One of Us Is Lying and Six of Crows, share the story between several narrators, which can help listeners keep track of different characters.
• Unabridged or abridged. Nine of the 10 picks are marked unabridged on their listings. The cheaper Adrian Mole recording is abridged, so if you want the full text, the unabridged edition read by Nicholas Barnes is also on Amazon UK.
• Who holds the account. Audible's UK Conditions of Use say it sells to adults and that anyone under 18 may use the service only with the involvement of a parent or guardian, so a parent usually buys the audiobook and sets up the app.

Buy outright or use a membership?

Each title above can be bought outright on Amazon UK, and you keep it. Prefer a membership? At the time of writing, eligible new Audible members can get Audible Standard for £0.99 a month for 3 months, then it renews at the standard monthly price shown on Amazon. Offer ends 17 December 2026; terms apply, cancel anytime. See the Audible offer box near the top of this page for the details.

Prices were checked on Amazon UK on 20 October 2026 and can change at any time. Check the current price on Amazon before you buy.