You can’t escape the truth. It runs through your veins. New from Rory Power, author of the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girls comes a feverishly twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery–until she decides to return to her mother’s hometown . . . where history has a tendency to repeat itself. Start reading Burn Our Bodies Down now!
Sounds like a pretty good plan to me! Let’s kick off “Halloween is Everyday Now Because F*ck You 2020” by highlighting some of the amazing YA horror books that have come out in the last few years. Why YA horror? Because, like the horror genre as a whole, YA horror has been experiencing renaissance of new voices and titles in the last few years, and the number of new releases and forthcoming titles just goes up and up (to the eternal woe of my bank account). I grew up reading MG and YA horror when I was young. I thrived on the scary. So to see whole new generations of readers getting to experience and embrace horror from a plethora of talented authors old and new is definitely something worth celebrating!
Sara’s not in pursuit of the unknown, though. She’s looking for her sister Becca, who disappeared a year ago. Since then, life’s pretty much gone back to normal, barring the fact that all her old friends are now terrified of her. When an anonymous text message invites them all to play a dangerous game and find the aforementioned creepy beckoning ghost, Sara knows this is her only chance to find her sister. So she and her estranged friends make their way into the forest in search of what was lost, not knowing if they’ll ever come out again.
Of course Dread Nation isn’t really about zombies anymore than one of George Romero’s films was ever really about zombies. No, Ireland’s book is a tense horror about the very human evil of racism. Jane McKeene, as a young Black woman, is required by the Reeducation Act to attend a combat school and to prepare to put her life on the line defending her country from the zombie horde. But when she runs afoul of a conspiracy her life is upended as she and her friends find themselves facing a danger far greater than that posed by the undead. If you want to read a fantastic analysis of Dread Nation, make sure you check out Alex Brown’s essay for Tor.com.
Just recently published on July 20, Sully’s book is about the titular Jennifer Strange, a Sparrow cursed with the ability to physically embody wandering ghosts and demonic spirits. With just a touch of her hand she can give them flesh in the mortal realm. It’s a powerful gift, and one that brings all the supernatural creatures of Savannah around like the proverbial boys to the milkshake. When her father abandons Jennifer to the care of her older sister Liz and splits, the two sisters are left to lean on each other as they race to decipher their delinquent father’s journal and control Jennifer’s power before it’s too late. Described as a “splattery romp”, you definitely don’t want to miss what promises to be a delightful new YA horror.
Sia, on the other hand, would probably like to be anywhere but the beach. When a routine wreck dive with yet another group of curious tourists goes suddenly awry, and the divers are attacked by an unknown monster, Sia finds herself stranded on the shores of a deserted island. Her boat has been sunk, half her customers are dead, and there’s nowhere to go. The jungle behind them is filled with unpredictable dangers, and the water before them is filled with one large, deadly, very predictable threat. They are trapped on an island where nothing is as it seems. If you like your aquatic horror with a dose of sanity-threatening cosmic horror, you definitely want to add Fractured Tide to your list.
I don’t know for sure, but as I’ve said before, Teeth in the Mist is the epitome of everything I love: big, isolated Gothic houses located in vast, empty, weather-swept landscapes. Evil that seems to rise out of the land itself. Ominous goats. Witches. The possibility of the devil lurking in the background. The novel uses its multimedia format to simultaneously tell the stories of three girls, separated by centuries yet bound together by the haunting presence of Medwyn Mill House. If you are looking for a book that should not be read in a dark room, you want this one.
Lupe Dávila has been sent to Puerto Rico from her home in Vermont to spend the summer with her uncle. He happens to be the Chief of Police, and ends up being in charge of an investigation into the suspicious deaths of two boys. Both boys were killed right before their 18th birthdays, which puts Lupe’s cousin in the sights of a gruesome killer. So she and Javier Utierre—a friend of the deceased boys and on the verge of turning 18 himself—set out to unmask the murderer and put an end to the killings. But their investigation will lead them well past the boundaries of the real world, and leave them chasing not a flesh and blood murderer, but rather the stuff of legends and frightful tales.
Ryn is a gravedigger whose only concern is being able to feed herself and her siblings on the pittance wage she earns burying the dead. Bad enough that in her little village of Colbren the dead sometimes like to get up and have a walkabout. The occurrence of these “bone houses,” as the risen dead are known, only increases when mapmaker’s apprentice Ellis arrives, and the two are left with no choice but to venture deep into a dangerous mountain range that once belonged to the fae in search of the truth about the “bone houses” and the curse that made them.
Lola Nox’s father is the celebrated horror filmmaker who created Mister Jitters, in what turned out to be his most famous movie. He filmed it in the creepy little town of Harrow Lake, where Lola’s never been, and where the grandmother she’s never met lives. And when Lola’s father is attacked in their New York home, it’s off to Harrow Lake she is sent. The locals are obsessed with the film that made Harrow Lake famous, people are disappearing, and Lola herself is being stalked by an unknown something. The more she learns about Harrow Lake, the worse things get.
When Jane’s father dies, she and her mother move from their home in California back to the big, old, falling down house in Maine that her mother grew up in. The plan is to get a fresh start. But North Manor, like most big old houses, is full of history, and what lingers behind its doors only makes things worse for the grief-stricken pair. When Jane discovers that the locked room her mother’s been keeping secret is in fact a little girl’s bedroom, untouched but not empty, she has no choice but to dig into the house’s past, and her mother’s, to find the truth.
Vampires are making a comeback just in time for fall!
