I grew up in a small town full of ghosts. They broke plates in a doctorās office-turned-restaurant, feuded in a house built by twins, emerged from cornfields to stand in our headlights, and turned headstones blue in a cemetery where tombstones protruded from the ground like jagged teeth. The stories that surrounded me while I was a teen still bleed into my writing. And as reader, I gravitate toward books that are atmospheric, rich in moments of magic or the unreal, and riddled with stories of the past and long-forgotten.
I love books where the dead are part of the storylineāwhere they reveal something about or to the living. In The Taking of Jake Livingston, Jake is a medium who witnesses ghosts caught in death loops, all while navigating life as one of the few Black kids at his private school. One particular ghostāa boy who shot and killed kids at his high school before taking his own lifeāstarts to haunt Jake and try to take over his body. Buckle up for hair-crawling scenes as Jake comes to better understand himself and his power.
Get Out meets Holly Jackson in this YA social thriller where survival is not a guarantee.
Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can't decide what's worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments on a loop or being at the mercy of racist teachers as one of the few Black students at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from. But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black studentāthe handsome Allisterāand forā¦
As one of four sisters, I appreciate a good sister story because thereās always something going on under the surface. House of Hollow is no different. Thereās the complicated dynamic of the three sistersāthe model and fashion designer, the grunge musician, and the loner high school studentārevealed when the eldest goes missing and the two younger sisters search for her. And then thereās the twist of something otherworldlyāthe fact that the girls disappeared for a month as children, reappearing with black eyes, white hair, mysterious scars, and the ability to entrance others with their scent and touch. I couldnāt stop turning the pages.
'A gorgeous, grisly modern fairy tale.' - THE GUARDIAN
'Dark and delicious. House of Hollow hums with malice and mystery. I devoured it whole.' - KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE
** SHORTLISTED FOR THE YA BOOK PRIZE 2022 **
The Hollow sisters - Vivi, Grey and Iris - are as seductively glamorous as they are mysterious. They have black eyes and hair as white as milk. The Hollow sisters don't have friends - they don't need them. They move through the corridors like sharks, the other little fish parting around them, whispering behind their backs.
Everything you know about Santa Claus is a lie.Ā And thatās just the way she likes it.
She remembers nothing of her real parents. She was abducted by fairies who taught her all she knows. Everyone calls her Key, but no one can tell her why.
I get chills from some dystopian novels as easily as I do from books about the dead. In The Marrow Thieves, Native people are hunted by the Canadian government for their marrow, which contains the ability to dreamāan ability that has faded as the human population has died off and the land has become uninhabitable in a not-too-distant future. The protagonist, Frenchie survives in the woods with a group of Indigenous people, learning some of his history and language from its members. Here, the at-the-edge-of-my-seat fear comes from the Recruitersāalways just steps behind Frenchie, lurking in the trees or disguised as friends.Ā
Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden-but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.
Iām cheating a tad here because this novel is not labeled YA, but it features teenagers and young adults, significant queer representation, and a plot that teen-me would have devoured as quickly as adult-me did. In the past timeline, two students at the Brookhants School for Girls fall in love, create a secret club based on Mary MacLaneās memoir, and are stung to death by yellow jackets. The present timeline follows actresses, Harper Harper and Audrey Wells, as they film a movie based on the story of the girlsāas well as the deaths that came afterāat the site of the abandoned and supposedly cursed school. I was haunted by the hum of yellow jackets even after I closed the book.
Cygna is the kingās fairy get, born with a swan wing in place of an arm. Something monstrous to hide away. But when a monster from the Underworld appears, theyāre all too happy to sacrifice her life for theirs. The kingdom is withering into a wasteland, and the Lindworm isā¦
I love a twist on the magical school story, and A Deadly Educationdelivers just that. The Scholomance in A Deadly Education is infested by grotesque monsters called mals that aim to kill the young wizards and witches within its walls and eat their magic. To graduate, the students have to hone their skills and alliancesāwithout the aid of kindly professorsāand survive. Completing the anti-Hogwarts premise, the protagonist is a prickly loner named El, whose great-great-grandmother prophesized would become an evil sorceress. Sheās saved from mals by the hero of the school, Orion Lake, who she loathes. If that set-up is as delicious to you as it is to me, then youāre in for a ride.Ā
Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered.
There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you're inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die.
El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school's many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions - never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school.
Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. So El is tryingā¦
The night little Madison disappears from her crib, Luce sees a pair of eyes deep in the forest behind her house and feels certain they belong to a wolf. She tracks the wolf into the woods and uncovers a dark secret about her town: magical animal women who have taken children for centuries and have no intention of giving her cousin back. The Wolves Are Watching is a chilling mystery about one teen's bravery as she confronts her town's past to save the future.
The Time of Terror: An action-packed maritime adventure of battle and bloodshed during the French Revolution (Nathan Peake Book 1).
The first gripping naval thriller in Seth Hunter's historical adventure series is sure to enthral fans of Julian Stockwin and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels.
Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring noblesāuntil they are hired to pilfer a famed sword. What appears to be just a simple job finds them framed for the murder of the king and trapped inā¦
