I’m not entirely sure if “Fountain Dead” is being marketed as a YA novel, but it sure read as one. Mark and his family relocate due to work reasons and he finds himself friendless and lonely in a big old house which right from the start gives him the creeps, he is also becoming aware that he is gay. The sexual awakening part of the story is handled very well and is convincingly woven into the supernatural plot which spirals back to the inhabitants of the house in the 1860s. Mark also has a dominating mother, and a little sister, both of which play an important part of creating a convincing family dynamic. Although “Fountain Dead” is not a long book, I doubt teen readers will find the 1860s storyline set in the Civil War period and concerning American Indians as interesting as the present-day sequence which takes place in 1988. A few more scares might not have gone amiss either, but the way in which the paranormal activity escalated and morphed into a creature story was entertaining enough. Often in haunted house novels it is the location which dominates proceedings, but on this occasion I thought the central character Mark was the real strength of the story and that’s key to a successful YA novel. A thoughtful and entertaining ghost story aimed at teens aged 14+. ​

Before you go out running to buy “Skullface Boy” for your favourite 12-year-old nephew, read this review! This is a truly amazing short read, it’s also aimed at adults, but it has very strong YA leanings and I feel that if it finds its way into older teenage hands it could really move them. It has a weird special quality which is hard to explain in literature; compassion and soul perhaps best describe it. Teens will easily tap into the problems of sixteen-year-old orphan Levi, who runs away from his Denver orphanage to try and find his father, who in his dreams, he believes still lives in California. So, the whole novel is a road trip of Levi trying to hike and hitch to California and the characters he meets along the way. This is tough for Levi, because he has a facial deformity and the bones on his face are outside his skin. Much of the beauty of this simple novel is how this brilliant character gets by, he does not expect your sympathy and just tries to get on with his life. There is a lot of swearing in this novel, so be careful who you give it to. But for the right teen it is truly a perfect introduction to the world of weird fiction. YA needs brilliant characters we believe in, and few are better than the Skullface Boy. Perfect for teenage malcontents aged 14+ across the world over.  ​

I thoroughly enjoyed “Dream Fall” which was published in 2017 and already has a direct sequel “Never Wake”. Sequels are a curse in YA literature and this novel would have benefited from an ending which provided more closure, instead of a cliff-hanger. That’s a minor gripe though, as this was an outstanding page-turner which hit the ground running and kept up the pace all the way. Seven teenagers which have various types of serious sleep disorders are the test cases in a new technology called ‘Dream Fall’ in which the kids are put into a deep sleep and the technology is supposed to eradicate their nightmares and problems over the next few hours. However, something goes wrong and all seven teens, who spend virtually the whole novel asleep, start sharing each other’s nightmares. This was pretty cool, as the group then have to stick together to beat the nasty stuff which starts stalking them. Of course, to an adult reader this is straight out of “A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors” but it worked well. The story is told from the point of view of a couple of the teens and an intern helping with the experiment. This was terrific stuff, with all sorts of monsters, nightmares and nasty stuff going on, however, it could have benefited from a central ‘Big Bad’ Freddie Kreuger type character to hold it all together, but perhaps this awaits in book two. Highly recommended for kids 12+.  ​

“Not Even Monsters” was a very clever and original debut which had me hooked from the beginning with an intoxicating blend of fantasy and horror. Nita is a teenage girl who acts as a mortician for her psychopathic mother and dissects the bodies of supernatural beings she has caught and killed. In this fantasy version of our world there are all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures, some of which are protected by certain laws, but on the black-market are fair game and can be worth a fortune. Nita’s mother auctions bits and pieces of her kills on the internet with her daughter helping. However, in the opening stages of the novel the mother brings home a live boy and expects Nita to cut his ear off so she can auction it. After that she intends to sell his eyes. This is too much for Nita who helps him escape, leading to a whole load of new problems, her mother only being one of them.  This was a fairly gruesome book, with some very explicit scenes, however the world the author creates is incredibly well drawn, especially when you realise Nita has her own supernatural powers. Truly superb fun for kids aged 13+ and a top-notch blend of fantasy, world building and the supernatural.  ​

“Brain Damage” is not known at all, but I was mightily impressed by this engaging and original tale which successfully blends a variety of genres. A troubled teen is struggling to get over the death of his elder brother three years earlier and there is a certain amount of survivor’s guilt as Desmond was in the car with his brother when he died. He almost died himself and is still receiving long-term treatment for a serious brain injury which has had serious psychological side-effects. Desmond is also gay, and the issue of sexuality is cleverly and realistically threaded through the novel. After a drunken party Desmond believes he sees the ghost of a teenage girl, which is impossible because he saw the same girl at the drunken party. From that moment on we have a clever and very well written horror/thriller story, as we're never quite sure how damaged Desmond is. The story flips back to when his brother was still alive and other friends are thrown into the mix in what was ultimately a very satisfying teen horror novel for kids 13+.  Excellent stuff.

Christmas will soon be with us and you may well be looking to buy a literary gift for your favourite niece, nephew, or any kid who might appreciate a book as an alternative to a box of chocolates or a pair of novelty socks. As usual we feature books which cover the broad areas of ‘dark fiction’ rather than straight horror which always seems to be in short supply. Not all the books are necessarily brand new, a few are titles which recently crossed my path.

This year we are providing you with two lists, of which this is the first. Check back at Ginger Nuts in a few days for the second. My favourite books are included on the next list. That is not to say the novels included on this list are not without their merits, but personally I prefer the others and those are my top recommendations. There are also a few included here I did not get on with.

However, prepare yourself for a Christmas mash-up of haunted houses, zombies, campfire stories Frankenstein revisited and the occasional serial killer. There’s a lot of great fiction on offer.

They are presented alphabetically, by author.  

With some hype as a ‘feminist’ horror novel, and with some excellent reviews to back it up, I found “Sawkill Girls” to be slightly disappointing. Weighing it at 460 pages it was way too long and not enough happened, having said that teenage readers will most certainly engage with the three leading teenage ladies more than I did. Set on an American island, Sawkill Rock, teenage girls routinely disappear, killed by an ancient creature which gets stronger as the novel progresses and after each meal. Three teenage girls, who are not exactly friends, have to fight to survive and along the way develop strange powers which they can use against the creature. The teenage issues part of the novel worked successfully enough, tackling issues such as friendship, self-harming and sexuality, however, the creature itself was pretty dull. It’s obviously aimed at teenage girls, but I wonder whether they will have the patience to last the course? and if they do whether the pay-off at the end is worth it? I did not think so. Buffy Summers was doing this kind of stuff twenty years ago.  Aimed at teenagers aged 14+.
​

“A Room Away from the Wolves” is another inclusion which has picked up very positive reviews in the USA, however, I found it tedious and highly unlikely to engage teenage readers. I’ve a feeling the author felt she was being intelligent, but with a teenage audience, a certain amount of questions have to be answered and by the end of this haunted house novel I was scratching my head by the lack of closure. Due to a whole host of family and personal problems Bina finds herself abandoned by her family and a resident at Catherine House, a home for teenagers with problems, which has its own dark history. Written in a dreamy uninvolving style, by an unreliable narrator, strange things begin to happen in the house, and many of the other residents want to leave. The plot moves at a snail’s pace and any potential teenage readers will have given up the ghost (quite literally) long before the end. Perhaps teenage girls with identify with the issues of the main character, but as a supernatural story it failed to engage. ​

Sidney lives on an island off the coast of the USA with her dog, Snowy, and is preparing to head to university on the mainland in this fast-faced b-movie style horror thriller. At the same time savage storms batter the neighbouring islands and some unseen force turns all animals against the human inhabitants. Due to the terrible weather this starts off as isolated incidents, with a few mysterious deaths, before beginning to pick up momentum and the first for survival soon begins.  There were some pretty good scenes when once trusted dogs turn upon their masters and island descends into chaos. The story only spanned over one day or so and moved incredibly quickly with an impressive pace but you could argue not enough questions were answered as the book ended with a cliff-hanger and the inevitable sequel “Monstrous” when the storm hits the mainland. Engaging trashy fun for kids 12+. ​

“The Bargaining” has been around a while, but this ghost story set in a remote forest was new to me.  Penny is forced to spend the summer with her stepmother in the remote woods of Washington, renovating an old house, someone she does not get on with. Carver House has abandoned antique furniture, rich architectural details, and its own chilling past as is revealed in the prologue and the revelation of children disappearing. The only hope Penny can find is Miller, the young man who runs the local general store who has his own secret connections to the house. Although it was probably too long and slow I was attracted to Penny and the baggage she brought to the house and the flashbacks to the friend she left behind under a cloud. It takes a long time for the supernatural angle to kick off and I’m not sure whether kids will think it worth the bother in the end. I could predict where it was heading but still found it an entertaining enough read. Solid YA for ages 14+.

​