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THE YOUNG BLOOD LIBRARY'S JULY ROUND UP OF YA AND MG HORROR

20/7/2022

In our latest roundup we have eight new books for you, five of which are YA and three MG. On this occasion the Middle Grade titles were strong, with Lindsay Currie’ Scritch Scratch and Lora Senf’s The Clackity both making lasting impressions on me. Currie really caught my eye and was a major find, so much so I already have another of her titles read for my next roundup! A couple of the YA titles featured did not make such an impression on me, but I was a fan of Helene Dunbar’s The Promise of Lost Things and the wild debut Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White.

The books are presented in alphabetically and remember to get in touch should you have something you would like to see reviewed.

Nate Cernosek – The Hiddenseek

Publisher ‏ : ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers (31 Aug. 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1984816764
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1984816764

The Hiddenseek was an entertaining debut pitched as the Goosebumps age group of around eight to ten. It was a quick, relatively short speedy read which should keep kids in mid to top of primary schools busy. However, I thought it was slightly too young for secondary schools but could still be useful as an easy read or for children who struggle with long books. The scares were relatively mild, so it is a very safe book to put in the hands of kids who like spooky stories and ghosts. Behind the supernatural goings on is a nice story about the importance of family, friendship, sibling rivalry and memory. The action opens with Holly and Hector Thorn playing a game of hide and seek, Holly is delighted as she does not have many friends, but she does not realise she is being tricked. Her scheming brother has set her up; as whilst she hides, nobody is looking for her and are having a good laugh at her behind her back. However, this innocent game of hide and seek triggers a supernatural event where they are transported to the land of Hiddenseek, where the game really is a matter of life and death.

Hiddenseek was a great creation, with neither of the siblings initially knowing they are both there in separate locations. They quickly find out there is a never-ending game of hide and seek going on in which if they are caught a shape-shifting witch will turn them into stone. Along the way they meet other children (who might be ghosts) and have a weird connection to their own world, in which they do not exist. There were a lot of clever ideas thrown into the plot as the siblings realise they have to team up if they want to get home and solve the mystery in how to do so. In the end they cracked it pretty easily, but it was a nice blend of fantasy, thriller and spooky goings on. AGE RANGE 8-11

Lindsay Currie – Scritch Scratch

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Young Readers (3 Aug. 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728232422
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728232423

Since 2014 Lindsay Currie has authored seven Middle Grade and YA novels and until I recently stumbled upon Scritch Scratch (2020) I had never heard of her. But what a find she is! I have already bought her subsequent Middle Grade horror What Lives in the Woods (2021) which will feature in my next roundup and I’m already looking forward to The Girl in White, which is released later this year. Simply put, you are just not going to see many better Middle Grade ghost stories which blend a light(ish) supernatural story with friendship issues and a completely wonderful lead character which perfectly portrays the feelings of any normal ten to thirteen-year-old (or there abouts). The setting was also terrific, modern-day Chicago which is vividly brought to life by the fact that Claire’s dad lead’s bus tours of the city’s haunted spots. A clever part of the story is the fact that Claire is embarrassed by her dad’s obsession with the supernatural but is unaware that many others see it as really cool.

Due to staff shortages Claire has to help her dad with the latest tour and as a confirmed scientist and unbeliever in ghosts she is seriously spooked by a little boy who appears on the bus and then vanishes but leaves a weird note and then it seems like the ghost is following her. The supernatural story was perfectly pitched at Middle Grade readers and was not particularly threatening, morphing into an engaging mystery in which Claire’s friends help out. I loved the friendship part of the story, with Claire having anxiety over her best friend Casley hanging out with new girl Emma. This causes her heartache, but there is also a boy on the scene, her older brother also gets involved, all combining to an engaging family drama where Emma has to confront her fears, with the ghost being the least of them. I was hugely impressed by this story and thoroughly recommend it. AGE RANGE 10-13.

Sarah Daniels - The Stranded

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; 1st edition (21 July 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241507960
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241507964

The debut of Sarah Daniels The Stranded has had advance hype with Amazon calling it “The unmissable YA debut of 2022” a quote which is distinctly over the top. However, The Stranded is a perfectly decent dystopian thriller which is reminiscent of many other books published since The Hunger Games first appeared way back when. In the fifteen years since Katniss picked up her bow and arrow YA fiction has suffered from every possible type of dystopia, from plague to nuclear war, via alien invasions and environmental catastrophes. The Stranded mixes a few of the tried and tested story lines, puts them in a 1984 inspired George Orwell blender and sets her dystopia on an ocean liner which has been at sea for years and due to a supposed virus cannot go ashore and the only world every character knows is on the ship. However, how do they know the narrative they are being fed is the truth?

The Arcadia has been at shore for forty years and many have lived and died on the water, following the rules of the regime as it tightens down on freedom whenever there is any sign of rebellion, such as reading in public! As is often the way with these books the two main characters are real contrasts, Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out for a rare chance to live a life on land as she trains as a medic, but is pulled into the dangerous world of the underground. The other is Nik, who is a rebel, intent on liberating the Arcadia once and for all and soon things begin to kick off when an illegal leaflet drop suggests the passengers are being lied to. In some ways this was an interesting refugee story, but it took a long time to get going and as all of the action took place on the boat I found much of it dragged as I counted the hallmarks of dystopian fiction all these books seem to have. It is also the first book in a series and could have done with more resolution, instead of setting up for the second, which I was not engaged enough to bother with. However, it was a solid debut and fans of Suzanne Collins and Malorie Blackman may well enjoy it. AGE RANGE 12/13+

Helene Dunbar – The Promise of Lost Things

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Fire (5 Aug. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1492667404
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1492667407

After finishing The Promise of Lost Things, I realised it continued the story started in Prelude for Lost Souls (2020) but I didn’t feel like I had missed anything which held the story back and the novel read fine as a standalone story. The setting was outstanding, a strange small town called St. Hilaire, where everybody living there are Mediums and make their money contacting the dead for tourists in holiday season. However, the town has its own weird rules, rituals and lives in its own bubble and has an odd relationship with the outside world. Some believe the mediums are authentic, whilst others think they are fake, whilst the town likes to play both sides against each other. But in the background there is a powerful Guild which pulls the strings and early on we are introduced to the ‘Rules of Conduct for Mediums’ and quickly we realise ghosts are indeed real as the main character spends most of his time with one! The Promise of Lost Things obviously provides more depth to a cleverly drawn setting in the previous novel.

Although it was a very entertaining novel and has a very clever plot it lacked scares and considering the number of ghosts in the book it could have had more chills. It also has a convincing LGBTQ+ story which develops as things move on. The story is told from three points of view, Russ, Asher and Willow. Russ is a Medium of average power who sees the ghost of his dead boyfriend Ian (a powerful Medium), Asher an outsider who is trying to understand the truth of the town and Willow a powerful Medium who is a member of the Guild and has her own agenda. In the background the parents of Asher are television personalities who debunk the supernatural and are hoping to dish the dirt on the town of St. Hilaire, should they find a way it. The novel twists around these various plotlines and although it was enjoyable I thought it could still have had a stronger central story than the television thread. Considering the central characters did not spend much time together the friendship of Russ and Asher moved along nicely, with Asher plotting in the background. AGE RANGE 13+

Bryce Moore – Don’t Go To Sleep

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Fire (2 Sept. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728229146
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728229140

Last year we reviewed Bryce Moore’s impressive debut The Perfect Place to Die, a historical thriller set in Chicago in the late Nineteenth Century, which was inspired by a real-life serial killer. Moore tries the same trick in his latest novel Don’t Go To Sleep, but it is much less effective than its predecessor, meanders all over the place and has a weak cop-out ending. Whilst his debut vividly brought to life the era of the Great Exhibition, this novel set in New Orleans in 1918, with the Spanish Flu rampant, did not have the same sense of time and place and the accompanying story failed to ignite. Some years earlier a man with an axe terrorised the family of teenager Gianna, the daughter of Italian shop owners, and when the novel starts it seems the axe killer is back. With the novel revolving around the fact that Gianna seems to have a weird supernatural connection to the killer, experiencing what he feels when he is hunting his prey.

I flagged this same point when I reviewed The Perfect Place to Die and this novel suffers from the same problem, the main character seventeen-year-old Gianna seems to be too old to be starring in a YA novel and behaves pretty much as an adult and I struggle to see how genuine teen readers might connect to her. Not enough happened in the book, with burglaries soon escalating to murder, with the police struggling (and not very interested) in solving the case. Soon Gianna enlists the help of her friend Jake to investigate and they study the crimes looking for common link between the victims and why the killer seems particularly interested in her family. As with Bryce’s previous novel the story is loosely based on a real series of murders in New Orleans, but there were just not enough thrills to keep me interested and teen readers may also find the whole experience rather bland. AGE RANGE 13/14+

Lora Senf - The Clackity

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atheneum Books for Young Readers (28 Jun. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1665902671
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1665902670

Lora Senf’s entertaining debut The Clackity fits perfectly into the ten to thirteen age group and is a terrific gateway read for kids who do not want to be scared too much just yet. Getting the balance of chills and threat at the correct level in a Middle Grade novel is never easy and Lora Senf does an excellent job in delivering an eerie chiller which will double up as a page-turner for its intended audience. Settings are also crucial to the success of Middle Grade novels and the location of Blight Harbor is a super cool place. We are repeatedly told that the town is “the seventh-most haunted town in America” (there is no mention of what the other six are!) and that living with ghosts is routine for most people who inhabit the town. The fact that the supernatural is normalised was presented exceptionally well, helping set the scene nicely for when the main character genuinely comes up against the nasty ghosts she already has experience of how to deal with them. The main character is twelve-year-old (soon to be thirteen) Evie Von Rathe who lives with her aunt Desdemona, who is a local paranormal expert and has a ‘help’ page in one of the local newspapers. Although Evie is very independent, her aunt keeps her close and does not want her messing around with the supernatural unsupervised.

Early in the novel Desdemona investigates a disturbance at the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town and curiosity gets the better of Evie and she follows. After an exorcism style ritual goes wrong Desdemona disappears (or is taken) into the supernatural realms and Evie has to fight to get her back. In doing so she must enter a world of ghosts, witches, and monsters to play a game with deadly consequences and rescue her trapped aunt. The Clackity was an entertaining blend of Coraline crossed with Monster House with one of its major strengths being the fact that the location was a slightly ‘off’ version of our own. Evie was brave, a fighter and has a fantastic relationship with her aunt but was also incredibly relatable in the way that she fought against her own anxiety and continued to grieve for the loss of her parents and the uncertainty around their disappearance. Young children will enjoy the almost gothic fairy-tale vibe of The Clackity and the first-person narrative allows readers to empathise with Evie’s tough predicament. Could this be the start of a new series? Surely Blight Harbor is too good a setting not to return to. AGE RANGE 10+

Joseph White - Hell Followed with Us

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Peachtree Publishers; 1st edition (14 Jun. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1682633241
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1682633243

Hell Followed With Us has to be one of the strangest YA fantasy horror novels I have read in ages and will probably make more sense to American audiences, due to its heavy use of religion, which might pass UK audiences by. It also has terrific LGBTQIA+ representation, with most of the characters falling under that banner due to the complex nature of the story. The main character is a transgender boy called Benji who is on the run from a cult (a type of Evangelical Christians) who unleashed Armageddon through a virus which Benji is connected to, leading to very gruesome body horror as the infection can turn him into a dangerous bioweapon. Whilst looking for a place to hide Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the Acheson LGBTQ+ Centre, known as the ALC (I couldn’t help thinking of the YMCA!) and the wide range of gender representations in the centre and the pronouns they use to identify themselves.

Teens who are interested in gender are sure to get a lot out of this book as it goes out of its way to be inclusive and builds a highly original, and wildly inventive story, around Armageddon. Benji’s sexuality was nicely explained, from his days in the church to how he likes to dress, going into detail about breast binders and menstruation etc. It was heartening to have an autistic character Nick) lead the ALC, who realises the truth about Benji and his inner monster. This was a very gory book, which will have several triggers for readers who might have had similar problems as Benji and Hell Followed With Us is a rage filled blast at conformity, told via a unique story. At times it was not easy to follow but you will rarely see such a large and unapologetically queer collection of characters as in this wild end of the world romp. AGE RANGE 14+