The Power of Five Books in Order

The Power of Five is Horowitz at his darkest and most apocalyptic for younger readers. The series is built around the idea that five teenagers, scattered across the world, are “gatekeepers” with a job they didn’t ask for: stopping the return of the Old Ones, ancient beings who want to break back into our reality. In some editions, you’ll see the series referred to as The Gatekeepers.

The story begins with Matt Freeman in Raven's Gate. After trouble with the law, Matt is sent into a program that places him in a small village on the Yorkshire moors. Strange dreams and stranger locals make it clear this isn’t a fresh start, it’s a trap, and Matt is at the center of it.

Once the series gets moving, it widens fast. Later books bring in other gatekeepers, including Pedro, and move the action across different countries and cultures. Horowitz mixes modern life with old symbols, stone circles, rituals, and secret groups that have been preparing for this fight for a long time.

The danger keeps escalating.

Each book has its own main crisis, but the series is best read in order because the mythology and the team slowly come into focus. You learn what connects these teenagers, why they have the abilities they do, and what the enemy is willing to do to get through the “gates.” The tone stays tense, and the wins are often messy, because the Old Ones don’t play by human rules.

Even with the big supernatural stakes, the series is grounded in character. Matt, Pedro, and the others are still kids dealing with adults who don’t tell them the whole truth, and with powers that feel like a burden as much as a gift. The books blend horror, fantasy, and thriller pacing, so you get cliffhangers, betrayals, and set pieces that feel like the end of the world.

One reason the series works is the mix of the familiar and the weird. You get schools, foster homes, and friendships, and then you get the moment when the sky changes, the symbols start appearing, and a whole town turns against you. The books are scary in places, but they’re also driven by action and puzzle-solving, so the story keeps moving.

If you want to start, begin with Raven's Gate and then keep going in publication order through Evil Star, Nightrise, Necropolis, and Oblivion. It’s a complete arc, and it’s the sort of series that rewards you for sticking with it.