Horror & Creepy Fiction
YA FICALE Alender, Katie Bad Girls Don’t Die
Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her ownanti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude. When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger.Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green sometimes; she uses old-fashioned language;and sheeven loses track of chunks of time, claimingto know nothing about her strange behavior. Their old house is changing, too. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in. Alexis wants to think that it's all in her head, but soon, what she liked to think of as silly parlor tricks are becoming life-threatening—to her, her family, and to her budding relationship with the class president. Alexis knows she's the only person who can stopKasey — but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?
YA SF AND Anderson, M.T. Feed
For Titus and his teenaged friends, having transmitters implanted in their heads is as normal as going to the moon or Mars on vacation or as common as the lesions that have begun to appear on their bodies. Everyone's "feed" tells them everything they need to know - there's no need to read or write. All purchases are deducted from the credit account that's part of the feed. Talking out loud is rare because everyone "chats" over the feednets. Then Titus and his friends meet a girl named Violet at a party on the moon, and a hacker attacks them and damages their feeds. Everyone is OK except for Violet, who is told in secret that hers is so damaged that she is going to die. Unlike other teens, she is homeschooled and cares about world events. She's not afraid to question things and is determined to fight the feed.
YA FICARM Armstrong, Kelley The Summoning (Darkest Powers v 1)
After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home. At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behavior. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…
YA FICARM Armstrong, Kelley The Awakening (Darkest Powers v. 2)
If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever. Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends—a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch—and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.
YA FICASH Ashby, Amanda Zombie Queen of Newbury High
When Mia's dream-come-true plans for the prom begin to look questionable, her best friend, Candice, steps in to help. The problem is that Candice's help involves bad magic, a love spell that is not really a love spell. The spell actually is a Viral Zombaticus that begins to turn everyone at the senior class awards ceremony - students and teachers alike - into flesh-eating zombies, including Mia's dreamy prom date, Rob, and Candice. Fortunately the transformation comes in stages, which gives Mia and Chase - the new guy in school who just happens to be a zombie hunter for the Department of Paranormal Containment - a chance to reverse the spell and save the senior class from extermination.
Tween & YA MYSAVI Avi Midnight Magic
Just after the Tarot cards forecast death in this ghostly fantasy adventure, conniving Count Scarazoni summons Fabrizio and his magician master to the castello to spirit away the specter that haunts Princess Teresina.
Tween & YA FICBAC Bacigalupi, Paolo Zombie Baseball Beatdown
The apocalypse begins on the day Rabi, Miguel and Joe are practicing baseball near their town's local meatpacking plant and nearly get knocked out by a really big stink. Little do they know the plant's toxic cattle feed is turning cows into flesh-craving monsters...ZOMBIES!!! The boys decide to launch a stealth investigation into the plant's dangerous practices, unknowingly discovering a greedy corporation's plot to look the other way as tainted meat is sold to thousands all over the country. With no grownups left they can trust, Rabi and his friends will have to grab their bats to protect themselves (and a few of their enemies) if they want to stay alive...and maybe even save the world.
YA SF BAR Barker, Clive Abarat
Candy Quackenbush leaves her home in Chickentown, Minnesota and enters the magical world of Abarat, where she is pursued by the wicked Lord Carrion.
YA SF BAR Barker, Clive Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War
Candy Quackenbush’s adventures in the Abarat are getting stranger by the hour. Why has the Lord of Midnight sent his henchman after her? Why can she suddenly speak words of magic? Why is the world familiar? Candy and her companions must solve the mystery of her past before the forces of Night and Day clash and Absolute Midnight descends upon the islands.
A final war is about to begin. . . .
YA SF BAR Barker, Clive Absolute Midnight (Abarat v 3)
“I know that many of you here have waited years for this Hour,” Mater Motley said, using that voice that, though it was barely conversational in volume, was somehow heard everywhere. “The waiting is over. Tomorrow there will be no dawn. Only midnight, absolute and eternal.” And so begins a new chapter in the epic story of sixteen-year-old Candy Quackenbush and her journeys through the world of the Abarat, where every hour is an island in one eternal day, and nothing is as it seems. Candy travels through the Abarat from island to island and across the sea with an unlikely band of friends: the escaped prisoner Malingo the Geshrat, the quarrelsome John Brothers, who all share the same body but never the same opinion, and the many other colorful characters they meet along the way. The problem is that trouble finds Candy wherever she goes. And soon she discovers a secret plot, masterminded by the diabolical Mater Motley, who is obsessed with becoming Empress of the Islands. Her method is simple. She will darken the skies, putting out the suns, moons, and stars. She will bring absolute midnight.
YA SF BAR Barnes, Steven Charisma
An experiment in imprinting high-risk children with the attitudes and strategies of achievers produces unexpected and potentially deadly results when the model used for the procedure proves less than admirable. After reporter Renny Sand uncovers the dark secrets harbored by the late Alexander Marcus, he must decide whether the children can be saved before they become serial killers like Marcus.
YA FIC BAR Barraclough, Lindsey Long Lankin
When Cora and her younger sister, Mimi, are sent to stay with their elderly aunt in the isolated village of Byers Guerdon, they receive a less-than-warm welcome. Auntie Ida is eccentric and rigid, and the girls are desperate to go back to London. But what they don’t know is that their aunt’s life was devastated the last time two young sisters were at Guerdon Hall, and she is determined to protect her nieces from an evil that has lain hidden for years. Along with Roger and Peter, two village boys, Cora must uncover the horrifying truth that has held Bryers Guerdon in its dark grip for centuries — before it’s too late for little Mimi.
YA FIC BEA Beaudoin, Sean The Infects
Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of other juvenile delinquents on an "Inward Trek." As if that weren’t bad enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. As in any classic monster flick worth its salted popcorn, plentiful carnage sends survivors rabbiting into the woods while the mindless horde of "infects" shambles, moans, and drools behind. Of course, these kids have seen zombie movies. They generate "Zombie Rules" almost as quickly as cheeky remarks, but attitude alone can’t keep the biters back.
YA MYSBEC Becker, Tom Darkside (Darkside series v. 1)
Jonathan Starling's home has been attacked, his dad is in an asylum, he's running for his life, and there's nowhere to hide. Jonathan has stumbled upon London's greatest secret: Darkside. Incredibly dangerous and unimaginably exciting, Darkside is the creepiest place Jonathan has ever seen. It's a world of nightmares and secrets, where fear and evil rule, and Jonathan has to find a way out....
YA MYS BEC Becker, Tom Lifeblood (Darkside v 2)
A series of unexplained murders on the Darkside of London has Jonathan tangled up in another dangerous mystery. With the help of his ally, private detective (and werewolf) Elias Carnegie, the pair discover that Jonathan's mother was investigating similar murders before she vanished. Jonathan becomes obsessed with solving the crimes and finding his mother. Meanwhile, the Ripper family is involved in a deadly scandal that goes right to the heart of Darkside society and they're watching Jonathan. In his desperation, can Jonathan solve the murders and find his mother before the Rippers find him?
YA FIC BEL Bell, Cathleen Dalitt Slipping
Michael Kimmel was never close to his grandfather, but when he hears about his grandfather's death something strange starts happening. Michael seems to know things he couldn't know, but things that his grandfather would know. He startles his father by speaking rudely to him, rudely in the way that his grandfather had spoken to him years before. Michael upsets a young classmate, Ewan, who has recently lost his own father. Then something really odd happens to Michael; he slips out of his reality and into the world of his grandfather's past. A basketball game puts Michael into the trenches of the World War with abilities that Michael never realized he had. Finally unable to keep these occurrences to himself, Michael confides in Ewan, who already knows about the phenomenon of "slipping," of entering into the river of the dead. But this is not a place the living can remain for long and it starts to feel to Michael as though he might not be able to return to his own life. With the help of his friends and his older sister, Michael seeks to help his grandfather find the peace that keeps them both slipping through time.
YA FIC BIL Billingsley, Franny Chime
Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know.
YA SF BLA Black, Holly White Cat (Curse Workers series v 1)
Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago. Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.
YA FIC BLA Blake, Kendare Anna Dressed in Blood
Cas Lowoodhas inheritedan unusual vocation: He kills the dead. So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered bya ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. When they arrive in a new town in search ofa ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping withblood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.
YA FIC BLA Blake, Kendare Girl of Nightmares
It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with. Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears. Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.
YA FIC BLA Blakely-Cartwright, Sarah Red Riding Hood
Red Riding Hoodis a gothic and frightening reimagining of this classic tale.
Tween & YA SF BOW Bow, Erin Plain Kate
Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. As the wood-carver’s daughter, Kate held a carving knife before a spoon, and her wooden charms are so fine that some even call her “witch-blade” — a dangerous nickname in a town where witches are hunted and burned in the square. For Kate and her village have fallen on hard times. Kate’s father has died, leaving her alone in the world. And a mysterious fog now covers the countryside, ruining crops and spreading fear of hunger and sickness. The townspeople are looking for someone to blame, and their eyes have fallen on Kate. Enter Linay, a stranger with a proposition: In exchange for her shadow, he’ll give Kate the means to escape the town that seems set to burn her, and what’s more, he’ll grant her heart’s wish. It’s a chance for her to start over, to find a home, a family, a place to belong. But Kate soon realizes that she can’t live shadowless forever — and that Linay’s designs are darker than she ever dreamed.