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Sean Bean in the "epic" Game of Thrones. Photograph: Sky
Sean Bean in the "epic" Game of Thrones. Photograph: Sky

CJ Daugherty's top 10 secret society books

This article is more than 11 years old
From The Guild of the Faceless Men of Braavos in The Game of Thrones to Dumbledore's Army in Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, thriller writer CJ Daugherty picks her favourite 'secret society' novels for teens

"There is nothing like a good secret society to draw you into a novel. The dark shadows of mystery, the veiled threat of it all, the unseen attacker – it sets a spinechilling stage for any thriller.

This is not just true of adult books but of books for young adults as well. For years now, writers for all ages have been cheerfully exploring the most evil of intents from the most secretive of groups.

One of the reasons it works so well is that secret societies really do exist. Our world is full of them. From the Bilderberg Group to the Bullingdon Club, the activities of these secret groups take place well below our radar. Some of them are made up of the world's elite – billionaires, prime ministers and kings. And some of them, such as the Bilderberg Group, may well impact our lives directly. How would we ever know?

Wondering what goes on in those well-hidden meetings and thinking about what they might be planning really gets a writer's mind working. And so there are some very good secret society books out there for all ages."

Former crime reporter CJ Daugherty is the author of the Night School series (Night School, Night School: Legacy). Set in an English boarding school, the series centres on an elite, secret society spinning out of control, threatening to take everyone down with it. Find out more at www.cjdaugherty.com

1. The Game of Thrones series by George RR Martin

The Guild of the Faceless Men of Braavos is one of the most beautifully drawn groups in this epic series of fantasy books set in world not unlike our own in a time not unlike the past. This secret organisation of assassins is highly trained and magically able to change their appearance at will. They can kill anyone, anywhere, but they prefer to have a good reason. On more than one occasion, the guild helps young Arya Stark in her struggle to survive and find her family. But she has no idea what her connection is to them. Skilled swordsman, powerful fighters, ruthless in their work and sworn to absolute secrecy, they are amazing characters from their ever-changing appearance to their slogan - "valar morghulis" - which translates from Martin's invented Valerian language as "All men must die".

2. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

This complex and absorbing book follows 16-year-old Gemma Doyle from her home in India to a boarding school in Victorian England after the suicide of her mother. Gemma saw something – something horrible – threaten her mother just before she took her own life. She soon discovers that a secret group, known as The Order, was once based at the boarding school. Its members have the power to enter a parallel world filled with beauty and danger and they have access to powers that could change human lives. When Gemma finds out she has natural powers of her own, she must decide what to do. The Order lives in hiding and she has no idea who they are. But she must find them if she is to avenge her mother's death and stay alive.

3. Watership Down by Richard Adams

This classic allegorical book follows the lives and suffering of a group of English rabbits with an elaborate, human-like lifestyle. When their warren is destroyed by people, they must start over. However, to do that they first have to find a safe place to live. Their journey is epic and their lives are constantly threatened. They are led by members of the Owsla, a secret police organisation made up of the strongest and the most intelligent of the rabbits. In the old warren, the Owsla kept the population safe. But in the new lands, they have become despotic and act as dictators, getting what they want through thuggery and intimidation. When these dangerous Owsla try to destroy the rabbits' new warren, a battle for survival begins.

4. The Witch in Winter series by Ruth Warburton

This three-book series, which centres around a girl named Anna, weaves a fabulous spell. Anna has no idea she's a witch until she accidentally casts a spell forcing a boy to love her. Horrified, she tries to undo it, but she doesn't know how. Even as she's struggling to deal with this stunning revelation, she finds herself on the wrong side of a secret organisation of witches called the Ealdwitan. Threatened by her untapped power, they are determined to either control her or stop her altogether. With no idea how to control her natural magical skills, Anna must decide who to trust, how she came to be a witch in the first place, and how to stand up for herself. And she needs to do it fast.

5. Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Nora, a bookish girl from a damaged family, is the kind of teen who's thrilled when she receives a Latin dictionary for her birthday. She's trying to make a normal life for herself at a new school when suddenly everything she cares about is destroyed – two of her friends are murdered and her boyfriend is implicated. Determined to learn the truth about what happened, she sets out to find the culprit. Her journey takes her to the ancient streets of Prague where she finds herself in a shadowy world of secret religious societies and assassins who will stop at nothing.

6. The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

This disturbing and extraordinary book follows the experiences of Alex, a teenager at the elite Themis Academy. The private school is known for its modern approach to education in which teachers and students are essentially equals. But when Alex is date-raped by another student, nobody will help her. The incident is brushed under the carpet. Desperate, she turns to The Mockingbirds, a secret society of students who act as a sort of vigilante group, providing the discipline and justice the adults at the school fail to offer. Shocking and eye-opening, this book is hard to put down.

7. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

There are actually several secret societies in the much-loved Harry Potter series including The Order of the Phoenix itself, but my favourite is Dumbledore's Army (DA). It is formed by the main characters – Harry, Ron and Hermione – when they decide they need to learn complex and dangerous witchcraft known as Defence Against the Dark Arts, but their teacher refuses to teach them. In order to protect the school, its headmaster and each other, they decide to teach themselves. Students are recruited to join a witch army of sorts and the lengths to which they go to hide their training are fanciful and brave.

8. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Shadowhunters are a secret group who look very much like ordinary humans but who are only really a little human. Technically nephilim – or half-human, half-angels – they have superior strength and natural skills that allow them to see and fight the demons that threaten the world. The story of 16-year-old Clary Fray, an ordinary girl who finds out one day, when her mother disappears, that she is not an ordinary girl at all but one of the shadowhunters, is consistently thrilling. Clare writes amazing battle scenes, and spins hugely suspenseful story lines. The impossible becomes possible when she is writing. These are among my favourite YA books available at the moment.

9. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Chimaera are a kind of demon who take on the form of fantastical monsters and exist secretly in a universe parallel to our own. You find them by passing through ordinary looking doors, in perfectly normal buildings, in real cities around the world. 17-year-old Karou, an art student in Prague, was raised by Chimaera but doesn't really understand their world. Nothing has ever been explained to her. She is not a monster – she's just an art student. When she falls in love with an angel and a war begins between angels and chimaera, she begins to find out at last what's really going on, and who she really is.

10. Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld

Midnighters are people born precisely at midnight – not a minute before, not a minute after. Within the otherwise boring Oklahoma town of Bixby, these people are the only humans functional during the Blue Time, which begins at midnight every night. During that hour, all other human life is suspended. These teens find each other wandering the silent streets where even the rain has stopped in mid-air. They are not friends, really, but more like allies because are threatened by darklings – alien creatures that can move very quickly and seem determined to kill the Midnighters. The darklings are building something far out in the desert and the Midnighters' efforts to find out just what that is, without ever being found out by non-Midnighters, is at the heart of the story.

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