 Ten teens are blackmailed to meet at an abandoned pier in this Since Karen McManus’s mega-hit One of us is Lying (2017) there has been a major resurgence in YA thrillers and although the American releases are undoubtedly the trendiest, there are some great British novels in the mix which are worthy of a teenager’s attention. Most of these titles play it straight, however, Kathryn Foxfield’s Good Girls Die First adds an ambitious supernatural twist onto her twisty and very entertaining debut. The packaging and blurb places in the same ballpark as popular thrillers such as Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder or Chelsea Pitcher’s This Lie Will Kill You before morphing into horror novel territory as the plot thickens. I hope traditional thriller readers will not disappointed by the way it moves into horror territory as the audiences can be different. Good Girls Die First is a fast paced, eventually supernatural, spin on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None involving a group of ten teenagers who are lured to the derelict carnival on Portgrave Pier. As this is England, refreshingly, there is not a cheerleader or jock in sight! Each are given a flier which implies blackmail, or the revealing of deep and dark secrets, should they fail to turn up at the pier. The novel is told in the third person from sixteen-year-old Ava’s point of view and the ten characters have varying connections to each other and part of the fun of Good Girls Die First is finding out what they are. As those involved are all sixteen expect bitchiness, fallouts, failed relationships, sexual encounters, drunken moments, half-truths, and out-and-out lies. In a nutshell: a bunch of relatively normal teens! All ten characters each have a big secret they are desperate to protect and this was the most convincing aspect of the novel which leads to intense interactions between the characters, name calling and blaming. But what do they all have to hide? Ava is our central character, whose hobby (and potential career) is photography who loves snapping ruined buildings and desolate urban landscapes. After the ten have made their way onto the pier and abandoned amusement arcade disaster strikes and the construction crumbles and their only way back to dry land disappears and they are stranded on the pier. Soon fog rolls in and a storm approaches, they are well and truly stranded, and the fun begins. These sections were very well described and abandoned pier was a terrific setting, especially when the lights and old amusements are mysteriously switched on. The novel was strongest when it hedged bets on whether it was supernatural or not; whispering, weird sounds, and the teenagers unsure exactly about what was going on. Soon, however, there is an unexplained death (the first of many), the discovery of an ancient body and strange connections to the fair, back in its heyday materialise. As a YA mystery or thriller this was an entertaining back and forth between the various teenagers, who all have something to hide and will go to any lengths to protect it, including murder. The author endnotes mention that Kathryn Foxfield was a fan of the Point Horror novels which were most popular in the early 1990s and it shows. Her supernatural entity would have been right at home in that series, a being which feeds on fears and lies. Ultimately though, did not feel that the supernatural element of the story worked as well as in the thriller part. Before I read it myself I gave it to my fourteen-year-old daughter for a test run (who reads both thriller and horror) but she lost interest as soon as she realised it was supernatural and failed to finish the book. But she was still interested enough to find out what the individual ‘secrets’ were once she realised, I had finished it! My concern is that readers who do not like supernatural stories will find this turn of events slightly disappointing and feel cheated out of discovering who the true murderer was. Reworking And Then There Were None is nothing new and although this is a very readable attempt it falls short of another YA novel Gretchen McNeil’s Ten which also spins the same Agatha Christie novel. Why? McNeil plays it straight, my daughter was gagging to uncover the killer, this element of ‘mystery’ disappears as soon as the reader knows it is otherworldly. Of course, traditional horror fans may not feel the same way, with the final third of the book more likely to rock their boat.  Adults reviewing YA novels must attempt to put themselves into the heads of their fourteen-year-old self and in that respect Good Girls Die First has a lot to offer. It was edgy, pacey, and written with convincing dialogue, it was also refreshing to read a thriller set in the UK that does not particularly play to the stereotypes you might find in an American equivalent. Also, the YA market desperately needs more page-turners, there are more than enough books dealing with real life ‘issues’ kicking around, and Good Girls Die First delivers old-fashioned entertainment in spades and it was very easy to get lost in for a few hours. Lots of young teenagers are going to enjoy this novel and even though I have donated my review copy to my school library I have already reserved a second copy as this should be a very easy book to sell to kids. Review by Tony Jones read KATHRYN's guest post on how she discovered horror here  THE HEART ASND SOUL OF YA HORROR FICTION REVIEWS This is our second batches of ten, so stay tuned for further parts. All are outstanding reads, irrespective of what ranking they have, and great recommendations to buy for any teens in your life. The final section will also feature numbers 51-100, but with no reviews. Here are some pointers to bear in mind for this list: a. I need to have read the book for it to be considered. Nobody can read everything. b. I do not care whether a book has 30,000 stars on Goodreads, none or is an international bestseller. c. My fourteen-year-old daughter reads a lot of YA horror and has helped with the selections. d. YA, does not mean books for children, these are ‘teen’ reads not books for younger children. e. Many of my other YA charts featured on Ginger Nuts blend into other genre fiction, this list concentrates on traditional or straight horror f. I am quite liberal with my age ‘rating’, other librarians might raise them by a year or two, especially in America. If you would like to purchase any of these books just click on the titles to be taken to you regional Amazon store  40. VICTORIA DALPE: PARASITE LIFE (2016) When it comes to unsettling and intense debut novels Victoria Dalpe’s Parasite Life is up there with the best of them. The teen market has been saturated with vampire novels, but this unnerving tale sails miles above the pack, partly because the ‘teen-life’ sequences are so painfully believable they exist without any need for horror, an isolated and lonely seventeen-year-old girl with no friends is horror enough. However, when the supernatural angle is filtered into the plot, it is done so cleverly and believably you are going to be sucked into a unique take on the vampire myth. Blend both story strands together, supernatural and teen angst, and you have an intoxicating and very feminine vampire tale. Jane is the novel’s powerful narrator and voice, who spends her time looking after her invalided mother who either cannot or refuses to talk to her and has an undiagnosed wasting illness. She has no friends, they have little money, and she escapes her humdrum life by hiding away in books. However, early in a novel outgoing and vivacious Sabrina arrives at her school and life takes an amazing and exciting upturn. Equally cool is the fact that Dalpe creates her own version of what a vampire is and sets her own rules, for example, the vampires in this story can live in sunlight. It sounds strange, but something about these weird deviations click. The author also tackles tricky subjects such as menstruation, which when you think about it, should play an important role in vampire novels, but never do. There is a budding sexual attraction between the two girls which awakens something hidden in Jane and it takes the girls into some dark places as the novel progresses. These relationship scenes are a combination of sexy, sensual, sleazy and terrifically edgy writing as Jane discovers her hidden talents. They may also raise a few eyebrows in a relatively safe YA world. This is a very mature YA novel which was originally written as an adult novel before being toned down at the request of the publisher ChiTEEN. The problems of ChiZINE have been well documented and I hope this excellent novel eventually finds a new home soon as it truly deserves an audience. An audience it will undoubtedly shock. AGE 14+ 39 ROBIN JARVIS: DANCING JAX Dancing Jax was outstanding return to form for one of the top British fantasy writers of the 1990s. With echoes of the ‘Great Beast’ himself, Alisteir Crowley, low-life thieves are fooling around in an old house looking for stuff to steal and uncover an old book called ‘Dancing Jacks’ written by a (presumed) dead mystic, Austerly Fellows, who had a reputation for dabbling in the occult before his mysterious disappearance. This book has the power to ‘convert’ anybody who reads it, brainwashing them and turning them into a devotee of Ismus, who believe in this other world where Ismus is God. Before long copies of the ‘Dancing Jacks’ books start popping up all over the place and it spreads across town like wildfire. Some of the most entertaining scenes were set in the local secondary school and I thought it was funny that the kids who did not read books, the troublemakers and malcontents, were those who were least to be afflicted. Each new ‘convert’ has a specific role to play, based upon a deck of playing cards connected to the ‘Dancing Jacks’. Therefore, we have the likes of the Jack of Diamonds, the Jill of Clubs, the Queen of Spades as main characters in this alternative world, and the lower numbers become almost-slaves with low-level tasks. And they genuinely all believe that this world exists, to them it does, thanks to the dark magic that permeates from the book, which is soon everywhere including charity shops, corrupting all who read the story. These are chunky books, but for fans of fantasy with a good blend of the supernatural, they are of the highest quality built around a convincing small-town setting, with book one leading directly into a sequel. AGE 12+ 38. JUSTINE IRELAND: DREAD NATION During the American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, the dead begin to walk and suddenly both sides of the bloody conflict realise there is a new enemy to fight and temporarily put their differences aside. This stunning novel picks up the story fifteen years later, with the Civil War effectively abandoned. The word zombie is never used (‘shambler’ is the term used most frequently) and there is little hint of anything supernatural, it is portrayed as a type of infection which science cannot yet explain. When Dread Nation opens many cities in the east of the country of already been lost to the plague and there is now a Thirteenth Amendment that ensures there is still no equality between white and black people who are still severely downtrodden, a key recurring theme throughout the story. Slavery still exists and the world-building around this is incredibly well thought out. On one level Dread Nation is a convincing alternative history zombie horror novel, but it is much more than that, having much to say about race, equality and gender. It also has both a beautiful and memorable voice, being narrated in the first person by fifteen-year-old Jane McKeene who is black (or possibly mixed-race) and is used as a virtual slave as a type of bodyguard (called Attendants) to a white woman. A new law after the uprising, the ‘Negro and Native Re-education Act’ forces young black women to be taught a mixture of fighting skills and house etiquette and are the first line of defence against any shamblers which might attack the walled settlements. Jane is a funny, sassy, proud and terrific character whom you will be rooting for all the way. The sequel Deathless Divide continues the story. AGE 13+ 37. GABRIEL DYLAN: WHITEOUT (2019) My daughter loved this book and insisted it should be featured otherwise she refused to put forward other suggestions! I really enjoyed it too, so was happy to go along with the flow. A huge snowstorm is brewing whilst a group of British sixth form school pupils retire to their hotel after a hard day of skiing, in the remote mountains of Austria. The hotel is weirdly short of staff, the locals have abandoned their shops and there is undiagnosed tension in the air. In the middle of the night one of the girls screams after blood is found and the pupils soon discover some of their teachers have also disappeared. They quickly realise something horrible is outside and once a ski instructor is ripped out of the door they are under attack. This all happens incredibly quickly and soon the kids are attempting to hide, hoping to wait it out, but with the storm raging they quickly realise no help coming anytime soon. They are completely isolated and being hunted. Whiteout is an outstanding addition to the Red Eye series which is very popular with young teens and the flagship for YA horror in the UK. It was a very gripping book that wasted no time introducing the horror elements and was unrelenting once it got going. I say this because the deaths start mounting up as early as page sixty and keep coming at regular intervals. It was astonishingly fast moving. This very violent opening section gives the reader terror, action and humour revolving around the time the enemy makes its first bloody appearance. I would recommend this novel to anyone who reads the Red Eye series or who enjoys action blended with horror and kids will not be able to tear their eyes from the blood soaked pages. Expect to see more of Red Eye in further sections of the list. Overall, it was a great page turner and a quick and undemanding read that will leave you satisfied. AGE 12+  36. MADELEINE ROUX: ASYLUM (2013) 2013 saw the arrival of Madeleine Roux on the American horror scene with Ayslum, which has since spawned two sequels and three novellas, including a prequel. Roux is much better known in the USA than the UK, where this series has flown under the radar somewhat. It follows in the footsteps of the much better known (in the UK anyway) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by using atmospheric black and white photography which adds both tension and ambiguity to a fast-paced thriller set in an old building which was once a mental asylum before being converted for summer college courses. It has not been modernised too much and some of the old trappings of the original hospital are still visible, including vintage photographs which have the habit of turning up in odd places. This was quite a cinematic book, and although it never quite strays into slasher territory, it has many of the hallmarks of the genre. I am surprised it has not become a film yet. Sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford has been accepted for the summer program at the New Hampshire College Prep and is looking forward to spending time with other intellectually minded kids. He quickly makes friends with Abby and Jordan, but a weird photo left in his bedside table throws him off his game and he begins snooping into the history of the asylum. He soon uncovers the startling fact that it was once the last stop for the criminally insane. For the most part the story is quite restrained and slowly they realise that they all have connections to the hospital. It is a relatively easy and undemanding read with Dan and his friends being good company and some decent twists and turns in the final third. AGE 12+ 35. RICHARD FARREN BARBER – CLOSER STILL (2018) Richard Farren Barber’s Closer Still is a ghost story with a seriously good haunting, much of which is very restrained and rarely stretches beyond the bedroom of a deeply troubled teenager. This book was probably was not written with the YA market in mind, but the believable and engaging characters make it a read many teenagers will identify with. Pulling in at a brief 130-pages, with absolutely no flab or a word wasted, it could be the perfect gift for a kid who does not read much or is put off by big books and fancies a very contemporary ghost story within a school setting. I road tested this out with my teenage daughter, who read it in two sittings, I since bought two copies for my school library where it has been very popular with teenage girls whom I’ve encouraged to look beyond the dull cover. It badly needs to be republished with a YA friendly jacket and to be targeted at an age-appropriate market. Fifteen-year-old Rachel is bullied by a group of girls who were once her best friends, with the tormenting often taking place at school. Much of the rest of the novella takes place in Rachel’s bedroom where she sees the ghost of her dead ex-best friend Katie. The ghost is not exactly unpleasant, more unnerving, with the dead girl having an agenda of her own. Before the death all the girls were best-friends and much of the novella is about what happened to the friendship and the circumstances which led to her death. The author expertly shrouds this shocking revelation until late into the story which picks up pace nicely as the ghost grows both more powerful and restless. This was a terrific novella which combines many clever story lines utilising social media, bully, teenage angst, friendship, guilt and the supernatural. AGE 13+ 34. - I HUNT KILLERS (2012) Any older teenager with a passing interest in horror will have heard of the infamous Hannibal Lecter, for those not old enough to read Thomas Harris’s monstrous creation Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers is the next best thing lurking in the world of YA, which has also spawned two sequels and several prequel novellas. The main character is teenager Jazz Dent, who for the most part is a very likable kid but is avoided by many because he is the son of America’s most notorious serial killers. Billy Dent was responsible for the death of over one hundred people, many whilst Jazz was growing up, and possibly Jazz’s mother who vanished a few years earlier. The novel opens with Billy in prison, serving multiple life sentences, and Jazz trying to rebuild his life in the same small town where they lived when his father was actively killing. Not surprisingly, Jazz has a host of personal and emotional problems connected to his damaged upbringing. Jazz might be likable, but he is also troubled with an unhealthy interest in death, crime scenes and is friends with the local sheriff, who took him under his wing after his father was incarcerated. Early in the novel a new body is found, Billy is convinced it is a copycat paying tribute to his father, who he has not seen since his sentencing. Becoming a suspect, he fights to clear his name, but other bodies appear and soon he decides to visit his infamous father in prison. I Hunt Killers was a fine example of blending the serial killer thriller with horror and for the most part you will not realise you are reading a YA novel, much of it being quite mature. Like Hannibal Lecter, Billy Dent is a superb character, and when he makes his first appearance, behind bars, the novel truly lights up. AGE 14+ 33. KIM DERTING – THE BODY FINDER (2010) YA fiction is top heavy with teenagers with weird abilities with Kim Derting’s The Body Finder quartet being one of my favourites, balancing a convincing supernatural story with a likable heroine and a style which is engaging, chatty, and easy to read. Sixteen-year-old Violet Ambrose has the power to sense dead bodies; she specifically feels the echoes the dead leave behind in the world and the imprints which might be attached to their killers, should a murder have been committed. When the story starts the only folks who are aware of this strange ability are Violet’s closest family and her oldest friend Jay Heaton, who she is also secretly in love with. It is an easy ability to keep secret until a teenage girl is murdered and a serial killer is suspected after a second teenager disappears. The Body Finder is also periodically seen from the serial killer’s point of view who is amazed his victim’s bodies are discovered so rapidly and soon realises Violet is helping the investigation, inadvertently making herself the next target. This is one of those novels where you know the killer is going to get their comeuppance, but it is a fun and fresh read which is enhanced by the engaging friendship/romance side story between Violet and Jay. The sequels develop the story by having Violet working with the FBI and eventually a secret unit which tracks killers. AGE 12+  32. KAITLIN WARD – BLEEDING EARTH (2015) Bleeding Earth was a unique read which was a clever mix of apocalyptic, dystopia and an end of the world scenario cleverly played out through the eyes of a very spunky and likable teenage girl, Lea. Near the opening of the novel blood begins to seep from the earth, initially it is thought to be an isolated incident, but it quickly worsens and soon nobody can go outside without welly-boots on. Before long, the water supply is contaminated and the shops are empty of food, this is all very convincingly described, and kept deliberately low key as things go from bad to worse. There is blood everywhere and it is vividly described with many believing it is a Biblical end of the world prophecy. There are some particularly yucky scenes and soon hair and bones start growing out of the earth and the hair really does have a life of its own and can trap those dumb enough to venture far from home in the rivers of blood. Lea is a great lead character who is gay and is just embarking upon her first serious relationship when things all kick off and you’ll root for her all the way as she struggles to survive and hold onto her sanity and those close to her. Since this sparkling debut Ward’s two other novels have effectively mixed strong thriller elements into her fiction, and I am looking forward to reading her fourth novel Lie to Me soon. She is undoubtedly an author which deserves to be more widely known. AGE 13+ 31. JOHN HORNOR JACOBS – THE TWELVE FINGERED BOY (2013) John Hornor Jacobs is an incredibly versatile author who effortlessly moves around the genres, and from YA to adult. He is equally skilled in writing about cosmic horror and zombies, as he is with fantasy, deserving to be much more widely read than he probably is. I first came across him after loving his beguiling adult horror debut about the blues, Southern Gods and followed that with an entertaining zombie novel This Dark Earth and his fantasy series The Incorruptibles which moved more into fantasy and also has a YA feel to it. I reckon this author could turn his hand to just about anything and proves it with The Twelve Fingered Boy series, a superb coming of age tale set in a juvie prison. Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon does not mind being locked up as he sells contraband sweets and treats, and for him anything is better than living with his drunk mother. Soon a new kid, Jack, who freakishly has twelve fingers arrives on the wing, and when he gets angry or triggered develops telekinesis powers which he struggles to control. Soon others, including a sinister doctor, begin to show interest in Jack and it is not because they want to help him. Shreve quickly takes the vulnerable Jack under his wing in this commanding fusion of fantasy, horror and teen coming-of-age drama which kicks off an outstanding trilogy in which Jack’s superpowers really come out to play. An engaging series which has been criminally ignored by the YA world. AGE 12+  THE HEART AND SOUL OF YA HORROR FICTION REVIEWS INTRODUCTION Over the next few weeks, we are running down my favourite fifty YA horror novels of the last decade. Ginger Nuts of Horror has been reviewing YA horror since 2015, I have been a school librarian since 1994 and a regular reader of YA for all those years. This is not at authoritative, be all and end all kind of list, merely my ‘favourite’ fifty as I remember them. We’re going to be releasing them in batches of ten, so stay tuned for upcoming selections. All are outstanding reads and great recommendations to buy for any teens in your life. Here are some pointers to bear in mind: a. I need to have read the book for it to be considered, there are bound to be great books out there I have not come across. b. I do not care whether a book has 30,000 stars on Goodreads or none, If I liked it and feel it can connect with teenagers then that is good enough. c. Many, but not all, of these books have been very popular reads with the kids in my library. d. My fourteen-year-old daughter reads a lot of YA horror and recommends many of these also. e. I have ignored sequels. f. I have included a few, what I call, ‘accessible adult’ titles, these are books that might have been released into the adult market but have picked up teenage readers since then. g. YA, does not mean books for children, so except for a couple of selections, these are ‘teen’ reads not books for younger children or primary school. h. Many of my other YA charts featured on Ginger Nuts blend into other genre fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy, this one does not and is much more concentrated around straight horror and the supernatural. i. I’m quite liberal with my age ‘rating’, other librarians might raise them by a year or two, particularly in America. If you would like to purchase any of these books just click on the titles to be taken to you regional Amazon store  50. DAVE SHELTON: THIRTEEN CHAIRS (2012) We are kicking off with a beautifully crafted collection of thirteen ghost stories which is more of a kid’s book but is also suitable for younger teen readers who do not want something too tough or long. All the stories are cleverly intertwined together by a little boy dared to go into a haunted house and when exploring finds himself drawn into a room with twelve strangers and an empty chair which has obviously been prepared for his arrival. All those sitting in the circle have a story to tell, including young Jack who already wishes he never entered the house in the first place. The thirteen tales are deliciously varied and for younger kids finding their feet in horror and ghost stories this is a wonderful introduction. Along the way we take in spooky goings on at an Arctic substation, a tale of bullying at school and the story of a family’s boat overturning at sea. The flow is pitch perfect, and it has a creaky old-fashioned feel that helps create atmosphere, enticing the readers to read ‘one more story’ before bed. But the younger ones will probably want to keep the lights on! We will have a second single author collection in one of the following sections. AGE 10+ 49. ALEX GORDON SMITH: THE FURY (2012) This novel had an exceptionally neat premise: one day, without warning, everybody violently turns against a few random teenagers who are introduced character by character. Every single person they meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage, hell-bent on killing them (and a few other kids they eventually band together with). You will rarely read a better opening chapter in YA horror fiction: a kid comes downstairs looking for his breakfast, his mother starts acting a bit funny and is distracted from her hoovering and out of the blue jumps over the sofa and viciously attacks him. When the boy is down and being choked, his sister joins in and together, they kill him. Once he is dead the pair start going about their business as if nothing has happened and switch on the telly as he bleeds out behind the sofa. Wow. Beat that. The Fury is a very chunky novel and if you hang in there and get past page 250 it heads of in a surprising, some might say crazy, direction. Initially, when these random teenagers are targeted by this invisible force, it is particularly freaky as the rest of the population turn into psychos ONLY when they are around, as if they were a trigger of some sort. This is a very clever twist on the zombie novel (but no zombies here) and really plays on primeval fears your nearest and dearest will kill you in a heartbeat. This 500-page beast of a novel really deserves to be better known and has also been released with an even longer ‘Director’s Cut’ edition. I also really dug Gordon Smith’s great supernatural prison series Furnace although The Fury is probably aimed at a slightly older audience. AGE 13+ 48. WILLIAM HUSSEY: JEKYLL’S MIRROR (2015) In the first half of the decade the always excellent Willian Hussey wrote a string of horror novels aimed at young teens, in recent years he has been concentrating on adult fiction, he has a new YA novel coming out in 2020, sadly it’s not horror. Jekyll’s Mirror is an outstanding modern twist of RL Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde story, written for the social media generation as users of an experimental website called ‘Project Hyde’ are sucked into something much nastier as they turn against each other, have their fears manipulated and many aspects of the modern online world surface including trolling, cyber bullying and horrific violence collide fusing with dodgy magic. It is very easy to take liberties with the Stevenson masterpiece, but Hussey both updates it for the online generation whilst retains the subtleties of the original. The main character Sam is easy to get behind because of the internal conflicts he struggles with. His father had anger management problems so severe that he is now in prison for killing Sam’s mother. Sam feels some of that same family rage and is fearful that too much of his father lurks inside him, in another clever nod to Jekyll and Hyde. Other great Hussey YA novels to check out include Witchfinder and Haunted. AGE 11+ 47. MATTHEW KIRBY: A TASTE OF MONSTERS (2016) This historical fiction novel which blends horror with mystery is a real one-off, sadly lots of kids are turned off by this subgenre, but A Taste of Monsters fuses history nicely with horror. It has to be the only teen novel ever written which features both Jack the Ripper and John Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man. Set in London 1888, this wonderfully gritty and atmospheric tale has a superb main character, Evelyn Fallows, a young woman horribly disfigured by a sulphur accident in a match factory. To hide herself away, Evelyn gets a job working in a hospital, a job nobody else wants… being the nurse to the Elephant Man who has been horribly deformed since birth but has since been rescued from the streets. Much of this very clever novel is about the friendship which develops between Evelyn and Merrick. Evelyn loves her job and hopes never to return to the streets where she was once shunned, however, a second supernatural strand to the story add a level of mystery which sends her back to the places she hoped never to return to. The Elephant Man is haunted by apparitions, ghosts, whom he thinks are the victims of Jack the Ripper. With every murder, Merrick becomes weaker, but Evelyn will do anything to help him and the stories merge. Make no mistake about it, this was a strange book, but there was a lot going on, with the descriptions of the London streets so vivid you can smell them. Historical fiction is not a big draw for most kids, and I can hardly think of anything less mainstream than A Taste of Monsters, so the author should be applauded for coming up with something genuinely different. AGE 13+  46. GRETCHEN McNEIL: TEN (2013) If you’re after a perfect blend of thriller and trashy horror thriller, top heavy with loud and scared teens then Ten is most definitely a book to check out and one in which my daughter had 150% tunnel vision for. She loved it. With shades of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why ten teenagers are invited to an exclusive island for a three-day party, which they have been told to keep hush hush. This is a very cinematic book, and although there have been rumours of a film, nothing has materialised, but it might be a lot of fun, dancing with slasher horror film territory as the body-count mounts and help is faraway. The story is told in the third person from Meg’s point of view, whose best friend Minnie is also excited to be invited, but after they discover a DVD with the sinister message “vengeance is mine” they realise the party might not be what it is cracked up to be. When one of the other party goers is found hanged, they realise they are in a fight for their lives. From then on in Ten is a beautifully crafted whodunnit rollercoaster of a novel and you’ll struggle to figure out who the murderer is, with numerous clever red herrings. Sometimes YA novels do not have to be deep or emotional and instead there is nothing better than immersing yourself in an old-fashioned page-turner. McNeil seems to be an unknown quantity in the UK, I’ve no idea why, as MurderTrending and MurderFunding are further examples of excellent thrillers, both with convincing horror elements. Check this very cool author out today. AGE 13+ 45. WILL HILL: DEPARTMENT 19 (2011) Department 19 is a government secret agency which has been involved in a never-ending battle against the supernatural, including the spread of vampirism. The novel opens when Jamie Carpenter's mother is kidnapped by strange creatures and as a result, he finds himself dragged into the shadowy agency for protection. Fortunately for Jamie, Department 19 can provide the tools he needs to find his mother, and to kill the vampires who appear to have a personal vendetta against him. But unfortunately for everyone, something much older is stirring, the king of vampires, Dracula himself. The ancient Transylvanian count becomes a recurring these in the five-book series and he really has it in for Jamie when he is recruited fully into the agency. Although these are seriously chunky books, this is high-octane fun top heavy with incredible weapons, outstanding action sequences and a crazy amount of over-the-top gore. Lots of other monsters from folklore are thrown into the mash-up, with even the legendary Frankenstein’s monster joining in the fun. These are very easy to read and great for kids who want action, horror and adventure, without everything getting too serious. Will Hill later made an outstanding change of direction with a novel about a girl escaping a cult, After the Fire, a book I also loved. AGE 11+ 44. MICHAEL THOMAS FORD: LILY (2016) Lily by Michael Thomas Ford was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award and longlisted for the YA Bram Stoker Award and was most likely written as an adult novel, but it is also an engaging experience for fans of strange, bizarre and rather warped fairy-tales. When Lily turns thirteen, she develops a strange ability which she sees as a curse; the ability to tell when someone is going to die, merely by touching them. Upon realising this, and the imminent death of her father, but unable to prevent it, Lily becomes depressed and feels that this curse is another being living within her. Along the way Lily attracts the attention of an ancient witch, Baba Yaga, every fairy-tale requires a witch and Baba Yaga is a terrific character as she stalks Lily, feeling her immense power but is unsure of its meaning. Magic seems to exist in this world (is it ours?) but much remains fuzzy and vague, this is one of the great strengths of the novel, fairy-tales do not need to provide all the answers and spell everything out. As the reader accompanies Lily on her strange odyssey, she stumbles upon a travelling evangelical revival tent where the Preacher Reverend Silas Everyman discovers her gift and wants to exploit it. Lily is a truly off-beat and beguiling story which is perfect for kids who want to read something genuinely different and embark upon the sort of journey Neil Gaiman might lead them on. AGE 13+ 43. RICK YANCEY: THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST: THE TERROR BENEATH (2010) This atmospheric gothic series has it all: monsters, corpses, spooky catacombs, atmosphere and loads of great scares, not to mention three bloody sequels which are top heavy with formidable creatures. Will Henry is an apprentice to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and starts telling his story, in diary format, the darkest secrets of the world’s most famous Monstrumologist and the dodgy experiments and dealings he gets up to in the name of science. The ‘mad scientist’ may well remind you of a crazy version of Sherlock Holmes and although Will does not really like Warthrop, he is loyal and loves the excitement and unpredictability of working with the scientist. Set in the Victorian era, the atmosphere is outstanding, and for a children’s book it really is incredibly gory. Each of the novels in the series are presented as different quests and if monster mashups are your thing, these are hard to beat. In The Terror Beneath (the first book) a group of monsters from any person's worst nightmare begin to wreak havoc on the sleepy New England town of New Jerusalem and Will has to swing into action to save the day. After the conclusion of this series Yancey turned his hand to science fiction with the excellent Fifth Wave trilogy. If I had read this as an eleven-year-old I would have been knocked out, don’t be a prude, let the blood flow red, buy it for a kid today. AGE 11+  42. COURTNEY ALAMEDA: SHUTTER (2015) After firstly reading the brilliant science fiction horror Pitch Black I found Courtney Alameda’s earlier novel Shutter equally impressed and I am looking forward to her third release, due in 2020. As with her other work, the level of intricate supernatural world-building is first rate and there are numerous ghosts built into a first-rate story. Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat, a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum, as in this world supernatural occurrences, ghosts, and much nastier beings are common as mud. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens of the camera. Hence why the book is called Shutter, the analogue SLR camera is her best weapon, with the help of her team Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. Early in the novel a job goes wrong and one of Michelle’s friends is infected with a curse which will lead to death in seven days unless the team figure out how to break it. As a YA horror novel Shutter really delivered in spades, it was fast paced, powerfully drawn characters, loaded with creatively drawn monsters, and Micheline’s team of sidekicks had more than enough whack to kick ensure both the Ghostbusters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchises remain in retirement with their pipes and slippers. AGE 12+ 41. MARCUS SEDGWICK: WHITE CROW (2010) Marcus Sedgwick is one of the finest YA writers in the business who effortlessly glides around the genres and is impossible to pigeonhole. If I had compiled a ‘Top 50’ of the previous decade I would have undoubtedly included his stunning vampire novel My Swordhand is Singing. However, White Crow, an eerie modern gothic thriller, is probably the closest he has come to writing an out-an-out horror novel over the last decade, but like most of his fiction it is not easy to categorise. I love books like that. The theme of what awaits after death, nudges this complicated novel with a split triple narrative into the realms of suggestive and supernatural horror with the setting an isolated village where the local graveyard teeters on a cliff-edge which is slowly eroding and being reclaimed by the sea, with bones being found on the underlying beaches. Sixteen-year-old Rebecca, whose story is told in the third person, is visiting Winterfold for the summer whilst her stressed policeman father faces disciplinary action and hates everything about it. She is a troubled city girl with nothing to do, detached from her city friends. But soon she meets Ferelith, whose voice is presented in the first person, and they become unlikely friends. However, Ferelith is an odd character and together they explore the village, including the ancient graveyard, but she also has her own agenda. The third narrative takes us back to 1798 and bizarre and bloody experiments into the afterlife which took place in the village after the arrival of a French doctor. The character studies of the contrasting teenagers are great, but the 1798 story takes longer getting going, but intertwines with the modern stories nicely towards the end. This is an outstanding and challenging dark thriller for teenagers who might not normally read horror which is packaged more as a thriller. AGE 12+   THE HEART AND SOUL OF YA HORROR FICTION |
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