YOUNG ADULT AND MIDDLE GRADE NOVEMBER ROUNDUP [THE YOUNG BLOOD LIBRARY]

​As the book is seen from Lindy’s point of view the author keeps it nicely shrouded right until the very end for the reader figuring out what was real and what was not. This was a fascinating supernatural drama which deserves to find a teen audience.

Welcome to our final Middle Grade/YA horror roundup of the year, with the exception of the ‘Best of 2021 Christmas Roundup’ which will follow closer to the festivities. Over the course of 2021 Ginger Nuts of Horror has reviewed over sixty horror and dark fiction titles, so check back over the year should you be interested in finding out what else we have covered.
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This November features includes four very strong Middle Grade novels, Katherine Arden’s Small Spaces and sequel Dead Voices which are not new (I just read them recently) but are highly recommended should you not know them. Others featured are Delilah S Dawson’s Mine, a story of a vengeful child ghost, JW Ocker’s The Smashed Man of Dread End which has an excellent boogieman creature which moves between walls and Anica Mrose Rissi’s collection Hide and Don’t Seek and Other Very Scary Stories which is a nice read for younger kids.


The six YA novels include a superb range of styles, plots and scares, The Violent Season by Sara Walters is last (but certainly not least) and is amongst the bleakest YA novels I have read in a while and could easily pass for adult fiction. SM Pope’s The Haunting of Lindy Pennyworth was another favourite, centring upon a teenager with self-harming and mental issues getting sucked into a supernatural family mystery, or is it all in her head?  Mark of the Wicked by Georgia Bowers was an entertaining tale of teenage coming-of-age witchcraft, Hannah Capin’s I Am Margaret Moore is a supernatural mystery set in a girls’ boarding school and Sarah Glenn Marsh’s The Girls Are Never Gone is built around a teenage podcaster investigating a ‘haunted’ house which also throws in a nice romantic element. Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman’s All Of Us Villains is undoubtedly the most hyped and anticipated of these ten novels, a fantasy supernatural thriller with ancient families fighting to control the magic of a city.


The books are presented in alphabetical order. Remember to contact us should you have anything we might want to read for future roundups.

Katherine Arden – Small Spaces & Dead Voices

For some explicably reason I missed Small Spaces when it was first published in 2018, with direct sequel Dead Voices appearing the following year. Although these books are very well known in the USA author Katherine Arden is much better known for the mega selling fantasy series Winternight Night Trilogy, which begins with The Bear and the Nightingale (2017). You really will not many better Middle Grade duologies than Small Spaces and Dead Voices, which has recently become a trilogy with Dark Waters, to be reviewed in a future Young Blood Roundup. Eleven-year-old Ollie (Olivia) finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere with her classmates after the bus breaks down. Soon the teacher disappears, the mist thickens and the huge number of scarecrows in the encroaching corn fields seem closer and more real than ever. Before long Ollie teams up with two other kids (Coco and Brian) to try and figure a way out before a supernatural creature connected to the history of the local area sets his spooky scarecrows on them.

The first real strength of Small Spaces was the wonderfully believable characterisation, with Ollie struggling to get over the loss of her mum, whilst Coco is doing her best to settle in a new school. The scare and creepiness level were perfect for the top end of primary to the lower end of secondary, with a great balance of action, suspense and thrills. The sequel Dead Voices brings the same three characters back (now firm best friends) several months later and on a Christmas trip to a ski resort which is just about to open. Things do not quite go to plan and the kids find themselves stranded in the midst of a haunted resort. Bring on Dark Waters! AGE RANGE 10-13

Georgia Bowers – Mark of the Wicked

Mark of the Wicked, the debut from Georgia Bowers, was an interesting blend of teen drama and the supernatural. (Almost) seventeen-year-old Matilda is a witch in a small town which has a secret community of witches, including many of her family. Much of the drama in the story revolves around the fact that Matilda practices magic independently from a coven, something which can become dangerous when they turn seventeen. The novel starts with a sixteen-day countdown to Halloween and when there is a spate of animal killings in which Matilda is the suspect, mainly because her name is carved onto the bodies of the dead animals. Until now the young witch has been able to hide her supernatural abilities (by using memory spells and other tricks) but wonders whether anybody at school has twigged she is not a normal teenage girl?

Mark of the Wicked was a speedy and easy read but I felt the central plot lacked oomph and real thrust. Also, there are so many novels covering this ground it is hard to come up with something new without sounding cliched or old hat, but the idea of magic being stolen or siphoned to make other witches caught my interest, also the idea that if a witch harms another witch their name is carved on their body was cool. YA dark fiction is drowning in characters who are exactly like sassy and confident Matilda, who at certain times she also came across as petty, selfish, whiny and might test your patience. The story also has a romantic angle, after Oliver notices her casting a spell they get together and he begins to develop magic abilities. Things got more interesting when Matilda’s magical abilities began to spin out of control, but I never felt any genuine sense of threat or true tension and everything wraps up in a relatively predictable way. The classic Worst Witch series is mentioned in passing and this might be pegged as an older version of that, there is little violence, no sex and virtually no swearing, so anybody of secondary school age might enjoy it, but it is aimed more at the female market. AGE RANGE 12+

Hannah Capin -- I Am Margaret Moore

Although I Am Margaret Moore had its moments, ultimately it tested my patience, and I found the vagueness of it to be too frustrating. However, the target readership mid-teenage girls, may well enjoy it considerably more and be intrigued by the many references to "the boy" and the multiple occasions in which Margaret Moore kisses him. I found it went around in circles and although some sequences were very lyrical and moved into paranormal thriller territory, it struggled to hold my attention and was rather wishy-washy. This was a shame, as the same group of girls, Margaret and Rose and Flor and Nisreen, returning to the very strange Marshall Naval School every summer had a lot of potential and when you throw in an unreliable narrator, things should have been much spicier than they ended up.

Some aspects of the plot seemed to go nowhere and the dreamlike story, written vaguely like poetry, failed to captivate like the author intended. It also moved over more than one summer timeline and I struggled to tell them apart (was it two or three summers?) after about fifty pages everything became very similar. For much of the time the reader was following a first-person stream of consciousness, which some teen readers might struggle with, although it is worth hanging around for the ending where it is revealed whether Margaret Moore really was a monster or just an infatuated and deluded teenage girl. AGE RANGE 14+

Delilah S Dawson - Mine

If you are after an entertaining and fast paced Middle Grade horror ghost story then Delilah Dawson’s Mine is well worth a closer look, pulling back on the scares before it heads into more mature YA territory. When Lily and her parents move into a new home in Florida, she is shocked to learn that her family is sharing their new home with the angry ghost of a young girl whom she finds she is able to communicate with. Room by room, Lily and her mother spend weeks cleaning out the house, which is filled with boxes and junk (the previous owner was a hoarder) whilst Lily’s own complex backstory is filled in. Some of the items they uncover help Lily discover who exactly still remains in the house and what they are after and what part she can play in either helping or getting rid of the ghost. Expect secrets and revelations to be uncovered and why the word “mine” is found continually written in odd places.

Mine was a twisty supernatural mystery with a believable and well-drawn twelve-year-old lead character, who also has considerable baggage, which is revealed slowly as we realise Lily was a drama star in her previous school. She starts off very annoying (which kids this age aren’t?) but slowly she grows on you, especially as she begins to interact with the ghost. The increasing supernatural occurrences were very nicely played, as were the dismissive nature of her parents, as they presumed the over-dramatic Lily was playing up again. Along the way the narrative also takes in friendship issues, with new friend Rachel being pushed down the stairs by the ghost. The story, nicely, also humanises the ghost and ‘Britney’ receives proper closure in a nice Middle Grade style happy ending. AGE RANGE 9-12

Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman - All Of Us Villains

Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman’s All of Us Villains arrives with considerable hype and although it has a lot of promise, was ultimately rather underwhelming. On paper this was an eye-catching high-concept story, with a great plot hook, but it was just too slow and it took ages for anything to happen, told via multiple points of view which were so similar I struggled to tell them apart. I have a feeling many readers will be frustrated by the lack of action and a book which was just too talky and the online comparisons to The Hunger Games are misguided as the Suzanne Collins novel did not feature magic. The basic hook of All of Us Villains is that every year one teenager from the seven most powerful/oldest families in the land must fight to the death and winning means that the survivor’s family controls the oldest form of magic for the next twenty years, until the next contest. There is added spice in this latest battle as an anonymous author has written a book about it, meaning that the rest of the world is now aware of the contest which had previously been kept as a city secret.

The story moves between characters are Alistair Lowe, Isobel Macaslan, Gavin Grieve and Briony Thorburn who have all been bred for this moment in their life and like horse-races there are favourites, also-ran families and plotting to obtain the strongest magic, make secret alliances or do the dirty on the weaker families. As three of the families have no POV narratives you can guess they do not have much chance. As I have already said, the book was well past 50% before the contest truly started and when it did it was seriously anti-climactic and it was very obvious which characters we were supposed to get behind and in the end I did not care as they were all too bratty and similar. I found the world building aspect of the novel, particularly the magical elements, to be more interesting than the characters themselves. Having said that I’m sure fans of the likes of Sarah J Maas, Victoria Aveyard, Holly Black, Leigh Bardugo and others who write dark fantasy will enjoy it. AGE RANGE 13+

Sarah Glenn Marsh – The Girls Are Never Gone

Dare Chase is the seventeen-year-old host of a brand-new paranormal investigation podcast called ‘Attachments’ which after some success with a similar You Tube channel hopes will be a hit. She is pinning her aspirations on the fact that she is just about to intern for a month at Arrington Estate, a sprawling property which is rumoured to be haunted, possibly by a teenage girl called  Atheleen who drowned there thirty years earlier. Dare was a very engaging lead character, speaking in the first person, making it clear from the outset that she does not believe in ghosts. However, not long after arriving at the house strange things begin to happen, and although it could have done with more scares, was a very solid read as the teen digs into the history of the house and the podcast begins to pick up interest. Much of the focus of the supernatural element of the story surrounds the late, the previous drowning, and the uncovering of other skeletons in the closet.

Even though I enjoyed The Girls Are Never Gone I did not think the supernatural element was the strongest part of the book and other parts dragged, especially when it dipped into the discovered old letters and origins of the house which for the most part it lacked serious edge or threat. However, Dare Chase made up for this, suffering from Type 1 Diabetes she has to monitor her health constantly and early in the novel connects with another intern, Quinn. Anybody could read this story, there was no sex or swearing and the developing relationship of the two girls was very nicely judged, with Dare accepting that she was bisexual. The book was populated entirely with female characters and the development of the podcast was another interesting facet of the book. The supernatural story develops as the novel progresses and is much more convoluted that you might think from the start. AGE RANGE 12/13+

JW Ocker – The Smashed Man of Dread End

The Smashed Man of Dread Street was another fast paced and entertaining Middle Grade horror for younger kids not quite ready for YA, but absolutely perfect gateway supernatural thriller in the same ballpark as the Goosebump books.  Noe Wiley’s family move to the other side of town and she changes schools so as to give her a fresh start after an unpleasant incident during a slumber party where she attacked one of her best friends whilst asleep. However, on arrival at her new house and eager to make new friends she finds the local girls to be sullen and dismissive. And the last thing she expects is to be told by these girls that, no matter what, do not go in your basement. As this is a horror novel you know exactly what is going to happen, and that’s where the trouble begins and Noe finds herself the latest target for an imaginative and very well drawn creature, The Smashed Man. This terrific creation makes a fine entrance, with Noe spotting him trying to escape from the cement in the basement wall.

What follows is a very well written Middle Grade horror fantasy where a group of girls have to band together to fight of the advances of The Smashed Man and there is just enough creepiness to have kids exploring the cracks on their own walls just in case this great boogieman style character can use it to edge closer out of the darkness into the light! This story blended together all the elements that can make children horror stories hard to shake off and are built around strong protagonists, great family dynamics, developing friendship, and a spooky setup which led to numerous entertaining and thrilling moments, which is also cleverly connected to the night terrors Noe suffered from as a child (and also her little sister). The history behind the Smashed Man was also nicely constructed and that there are “places in between” where evil can exist and sneak into our world. Highly recommended but could have done with a better cover. AGE RANGE 9-12

SM Pope – The Haunting of Lindy Pennyworth

SM Pope impressed me greatly with her debut The Haunting of Lindy Pennyworth which focuses on a girl called Lindy who suffers from Trichotillomania, a condition similar to self-harming which leads to her pulling her hair out. Early in the novel she starts wearing a beanie hat as she is beginning to have large bald patches and her psychological problems begin to heighten as the story moves on. However, Pope cleverly keeps the reigns pulled in as the novel cleverly pitches itself between horror, ghost story, thriller and contemporary teen thriller. The action is set around a sixth form college where Lindy escapes to the toilets to pull hair out, giving her a similar release, to which comes from self-harming. Lindy believes she is being haunted by dead relatives, who believe their family is cursed, which contact her via an object she finds in her house and it is hard to establish what is true as we know from the outset that Lindy has been committed to a psychiatric ward. She is a classic unreliable narrator, but at the same time her voice is so genuine readers will want to believe her.

The story is also populated with heavy family drama, loaded with guilt, with Lindy having a very difficult relationship with her mother after the death of her father. In some ways I found the compelling family and friendship more compelling and emotionally convincing that the supernatural element of the book.  The touch issues of grief, self-harming and mental health are very sensitively handled and Lindy was such a spiky and troubled character I was really rooting for her to see some sunlight at the end of the story. As the book is seen from Lindy’s point of view the author keeps it nicely shrouded right until the very end for the reader figuring out what was real and what was not. This was a fascinating supernatural drama which deserves to find a teen audience. AGE RANGE 14+

Anica Mrose Rissi – Hide and Don’t Seek and Other Very Scary Stories

If you are after a collection of spooky stories aimed at the top end of primary school or the start of secondary then Hide and Don’t Seek has much to admire and a wide variety of tales which come thick and fast. Very few of the twenty inclusions are more than ten pages and so there is plenty to hold the attention and if one fails to hit the mark then there are many others to sample. Considering the shortish length of the stories many would also be ideal for reading aloud or suitable for bedtime stories for older kids. Most of them were not scary and parents need not worry too much about their kids unless they are particularly sensitive. The author explores popular tropes in supernatural stories including the game of hide-and-seek, creepy dolls, talent shows, summer camps, sinister teachers, invisible friends and the chills of moving into a new house. Adult readers will be familiar with this type of content, but the majority will come across as fresh and edgy to your average ten-year-old.

The author also plays around with the format, with a number of the stories presented as poems, which I found to be the least interesting, however, they might work well being read around. Other formats include letters, playscripts and an online text exchange. My favourite story was probably Two Wishes, which was an entertaining spin on the classic Monkey’s Paw (WW Jacobs) with a little boy trying to take a peek at his sister’s diary with horrific consequences, told with a sly sense of humour.  The Friend was another highlight, when Anna Luiza arrives to look after one of her younger cousins she realises her invisible friend is very real. Hide and Don’t Seek crams a lot into 213 pages and for kids who are struggling to finish longer novels, or have short attention spans, the lovingly created bite size terrors in this book might be the perfect antidote. AGE RANGE 8-11

Sara Walters - The Violent Season

There are many bleak YA novels around at the moment and The Violent Season, the debut novel of Sara Walters is as dark as it gets. It starts dark and by the time you reach the end it is pitch-black, potentially too uncompromising so for many teen readers. I often regard the Kevin Brooks masterpiece The Bunker Diary as nihilistic as it comes, but this novel is not far behind and is certainly in the same ballpark. The action is set in a small town called Wolf Ridge where every November there are unexplained acts of horrific violence. Is there something in this or is it merely an urban myth? You’ll have to read it yourself to find out whether this aspect of the story is dealt with adequately, but it did remind me of Moira Fowley-Doyle’s The Accident Season, which has a very similar plot where a family believe they are cursed by accidents every October. However, the context in which this curse (or urge for violence) is framed was a real strength of the story, with a teenage girl trying to come to terms with the unexplained and unsolved murder of her mother by connecting it to this weird phenomenon.

The story picks up the year following the murder with daughter Wyatt Green and much of the action unfolding as a toxic teen drama and eventually an edgy romantic triangle between Wyatt, Cash (who she has a long-term and sometimes unhealthy co-dependent friendship with) and Porter, who has history with Cash, with a combined school project bringing further clashes between the pair. In the background there is the longing to leave or escape the small town and the sadness of Wyatt feeling the ghost of her mother in the house. For a teen novel it was quite explicit, edgy and had a fair bit of drug use in it, with characters who appear to be okay in the outside but are in turmoil on the inside. Social media is playing an increasingly greater part in YA dark fiction as it can lead to horrors which are significantly nastier than the monster which lurks under the bed and is there anything worse than having photos taken (naked) and drunk which are then shared on online? Overall, the book was a fascinating blend of teen drama, with an unspecified supernatural feeling lurking in the background, and a lot of pain. A very challenging, bleak, but ultimately rewarding read. But watch out for that ending. AGE RANGE 14+

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