THIRTEEN CHRISTMAS TREATS:OUR TOP YA AND MIDDLE GRADE HORROR NOVELS OF 2021

The Book of the Baku was one of the bravest and most impressive horror novels I have read in a good while and deserves to be read incredibly widely. RL Boyle should now be on the radar of anybody with an interest in YA horror. 

This year has been another stellar year for YA and Middle Grade horror fiction with some outstanding releases. It has been so tough to come up with a ‘top ten’ I finally decided to expand the list to an outstanding thirteen. However, please note there have been many other great books, some of which are listed after the main body of reviews, and it is worth clicking back through our numerous roundups for further tips from across the year.
​
I rarely rank by recommendations, however, have decided to provide you with a top three for 2021, although ultimately I enjoyed everything namechecked on this page a great deal:

1st. RL Boyle – The Book of the Baku
2nd. Erica Waters – The River has Teeth
3rd. Tori Bovalino​ – The Devil Makes Three

In recent times there has been a major lack of narratives from a male perspective which I have found troubling, however, The Book of the Baku has a brilliant boy lead and The Devil Makes Three is told from an equally engaging dual male/female point of view. The River has Teeth is not only an outstanding horror novel, but is equally strong for diversity, featuring two teenage girls who are gay or bisexual.

I am not going to regurgitate the plots here, but you can expect a broad canvas of final girl thrillers, witches, serial killers, cursed towns, devils, dodgy books, spooky libraries, earthy magic, hauntings, ghosts and a few monsters. There is also an excellent range of books from the less threatening Middle Grade age group (The Clearing and Thirteen) to much more mature reads (What Big Teeth, The Book of the Baku and The Violent Season) which adults might read and not realise they are the target audience. Along the way real issues are tackled, such as self-harming in The Haunting of Lindy Pennyworth and there is plenty of humour in Hexed and Raising Hell. Arguably the most original (or at least the wackiest) is Josh Willer’s Bright Shining World, which was an absolute delight, topped with a brilliant male narrative, this was a very late discovery and is reviewed for the first time in this feature.

The books are presented alphabetically, with my other tips at the end of the main feature.

 Tori Bovalino - The Devil Makes Three
​
If you’re after a terrific YA novel which is set in a haunted school library then look no further than Tori Bovalino’s fantastic debut The Devil Makes Three. I seriously loved the vibe of the book and the fact that both main characters were big library users, was such a positive message to put across in a YA horror novel. The creaking and atmospheric Jessop Library was such a cool location, the home of a large collection of grimoires (spell) books which teen library assistant Tess gets mixed up in, developing a love/hate relationship with Eliot who borrows 147 books on his dad’s (the unpleasant Headmaster) library ticket. No wonder Tess gets p-ed off, the staff have to retrieve the books from the closed stacks which give no direct access to pupils. The developing relationship between the two main characters, told via a split chapter narrative, was highly entertaining as Tess and Eliot were chalk and cheese, coming from very different backgrounds. Tess, a cello prodigy, holds down two jobs which trying to keep one step ahead of her financial problems whilst looking out for her troubled little sister Nat, in contrast Eliot is given everything he wants except the love of his dominating and unpleasant father.


This was a great horror novel and has so much geeky library stuff in it I smiled a lot with much of the action set in the spooky old building. After discovering a strange book in a secret tunnel which looks like it might have been made out of skin, it begins to excerpt influence over both characters via visions and there are some great scenes when they believe they have killed friends or the way in which the being influences them via the cursed ink within the pages of the book. It would be easy to play to the standard demon stereotypes you often see in teen fiction, but The Devil Makes Three cleverly swerves them and builds its supernatural story upon solid and grounded characterisation. Before long there is a very entertaining battle between the creature in the book and the two teenagers, which develops into a very believable and cute romance, whilst retaining a strong gothic feel. The book is the perfect blend of dark humour with the sass of Tess, supernatural suspense with the backstory of Eliot, with rich and compelling characters, with the final result being an outstanding page-turner. AGE RANGE 13+


RL Boyle – The Book of the Baku

RL Boyle’s The Book of the Baku is one of the novels of the year (any category!) but even after finishing this amazing book I’m still not 100% certain it is aimed at a YA audience? It was truly and beautifully ambiguous. For the most part it was astonishingly bleak for a kid’s novel and although the blurb calls it “A Monster Calls meets The Shining” I would disagree and amend that to “A Monster Calls meets The Babadook” which suits it slightly better. This highly unsettling debut novel is very much its own beast and does not lean on anything, except for the pain of broken families, isolation, guilt and tragedy. If you think this sounds too heavy, do not let that put you off, Sean is a brilliant leading character who deserves your empathy and support. It was also fantastic to read a horror novel with a boy as a central character, these are few and far between, and one who struggles bravely with a disability, whose cause is revealed in tragic flashback.

The Book of the Baku plays out in two ‘before’ and ‘after’ narratives, but it is enticing unclear what happened to Sean’s mother when he arrives at his estranged grandfather’s house. A family tragedy has led to him developing a Conversion Order, which means he cannot talk, but he also has a serious leg disability which hampers his mobility and has been bullied because of it. In the past his grandad was a writer who wrote a collection of short stories about a mythical creature, called the ‘Baku’, which feeds on the dreams of children. As Sean reads the terrifying collection, he begins to lose touch with reality and the stories from the book blend into his every-day world, with some real Bababook style moments. This was one of those books where you just will the main character to confront their internal demons, and I was quite literally cheering out loud when some glimmers of light appeared in the darkness of the tunnel. In many ways the life Sean left behind was considerably more harrowing than anything the Baku could do to him and it was brilliantly written into the big reveals which come later in the plot. The Book of the Baku was one of the bravest and most impressive horror novels I have read in a good while and deserves to be read incredibly widely. RL Boyle should now be on the radar of anybody with an interest in YA horror. AGE RANGE 12+ to ADULT

Tom Deady – The Clearing

If you’re after a gateway horror novel for kids aged ten plus, then look no further than Tom Deady’s outstanding The Clearing which is perfect for the top end of primary to the early secondary years. This engrossing read had everything to get keen kids turning the pages; engaging characters, great pace, threat (but not too scary), a taste of early romance, and friendship which is all cleverly built around a snappy mystery, which develops supernatural overtones and conspiracy in the local community. Set in a small and sleepy New Hampshire town, two young girls find themselves in danger after deciding to do a Nancy Drew and carry out their own investigation, instead of going to the police. It was the summer holidays, and they were bored, so who can blame them?

The Clearing has a super cool opening hook which is guaranteed to reel any young horror hound in right from the kick-off. Hannah Green is out walking her dog when the pooch makes a grisly find, a decomposing foot. Instead of going to the police she calls her best friend Ashley, and they begin to snoop, which leads them into a decades old mystery which they connect to the disappearance of a local girl. As they begin to join the dots, other characters are introduced and suspicion falls on a reclusive old woman, Mama Bayole. There were not too many suspects, but this mystery was great fun, with the supernatural story convincingly backed by the friendship story between Hannah and Ashley. Another story strands involves Hannah and her father, who is struggling to cope (as is Hannah) with the disappearance of her mother the previous year. The crisp pace, kidnappings and red herrings ensure the intensity keeps up right to the end, which finishes satisfyingly for a potential sequel. As with most Middle Grade horror, it was very clear who were the ‘good’ and who were the ‘bad’ guys, but it was great fun accompanying Hannah and Ashley on their adventure. AGE RANGE 10-13.

Kate Alice Marshall – Thirteen

When a book is plugged as “Coraline meets Stranger Things” I would normally think “yeah, yeah, no chance” but Kate Alice Marshall’s Middle Grade debut Thirteen just about pulls it off and works hard to justify that cool quote. I was also impressed by Marshall’s YA novel Rules For Vanishing (2019) and if this author keeps up this incredibly high standard, she is surely a star in the making. Thirteen is such an engaging gateway supernatural novel I would happily recommend it to strong readers from the age of ten and up. The story involves a sleepy town which has a dark secret, every thirteen years in Eden Eld three thirteen-year-olds disappear, which is part of an ancient pact going back to the 1850s. This is a really peculiar place and the way in which the supernatural is integrated into the story is cleverly done, doubling up with a terrifically well-paced plot which is guaranteed to have young readers turning the pages at speed. This novel also has a great villain, kids are going to love the dastardly ‘Mr January’ and the powerful hold he has over the town.

Another major strength of Thirteen are the lovely engaging three main characters, Eleanor, Pip and Otto. These terrific children show the difference between Middle Grade and YA as the three youngsters become fast friends, without teen stuff or love interests getting in the way of their friendship or the plot. Eleanor is returning to the town after many years away and has a difficult relationship with her mother, who also comes from Eden Eld. On her first day at school Eleanor meets Pip and Otto and together they get sucked into a supernatural mystery which was very cleverly structured and top loaded with great ideas, such as the colour being sucked out of the town or pretending not to see ghosts. Thirteen was a winner from start to finish. AGE 10-13

Goldy Moldavsky - The Last Girl (AKA ‘The Mary Shelley Club’ in the USA)

If Riley Sager were to write a YA novel it might turn out something like The Last Girl, the latest release from Goldy Moldavsky, who has several other entertaining YA thrillers, including the funny Kill the Boy Band (2016). The blurb sells the book story as “Scream meets Gossip Girl with a dash of One of Us is Lying” which is an eye-catching way of selling what is a very clever and twisting thriller. Who knows whether the average teen reader of today will pick up on the multiple horror film references which populate this novel, but I certainly had fun with them? Whether any seventeen-year-old girl would truly go to the cinema (on her own) to watch Evil Dead 2 I’m not sure, but if true she would be a dream date for most male horror fans! The novel kicks off a year after Rachel Chavez survives a knife attack in her own home and in the aftermath has emotional problems which result in her changing schools for a fresh start. Once in the new school she struggles to make friends and becomes an easy target for the cool school bullies. However, whilst trying to start a new life she never quite escapes her past, which is a key part of the story.

For much of the story The Last Girl reads like a teen drama with Rachel doing her best to negotiate high school, which is populated with unlikable, spoilt and unpleasant teenager characters which just get worse as the story progresses. At a certain point she gets recruited into the Mary Shelley Club, who are fanatics obsessed with horror films and scaring people. Membership is very select, and they do not fraternise with each other whist at school and carry out Fear Tests, which are comparable to complex dares or pranks which aim to scare the living daylights out of whichever sucker is the target. However, as things escalate Rachel begins to be reminded of her assault the previous year. It was not a deep book, was a light read and has a neat twist at the end. I would not be surprised at all to see The Last Girl make it to the screens, after all everybody loves a Final Girl. AGE RANGE 13+

 Bryony Pearce – Raising Hell
​
Since 2011 Bryony Pearce has written a number of dark fiction titles for both children and adults and when it comes to YA horror is probably best known for the excellent Savage Island. The latest effort Raising Hell was a highly entertaining and very fast paced hoot which could be read in a couple of sittings, with the frenetic action taking place over a very short period of time. Detailed characterisation was side-lined in favour of pace, but the central character Ivy Elisabeth Mann was more than enough to jog the book along. Ivy was far from your stereotypical heroine and I found myself warming to her as the book progressed.

Raising Hell had a terrific opening with nineteen-year-old Ivy working as a security guard in the school she attended not long before as a pupil. Why do Birmingham schools need security guards you might ask? A couple of years earlier there was a weird supernatural occurrence (which Ivy was involved in) which resulted in black matter being released into the world and as a result, teenagers can cast spells. Her job is to ensure nobody brings magic or dodgy books into the school, but in the opening stages somebody calls a hell dog and soon things quickly spiral as there are more creatures and a potential zombie apocalypse which Ivy is sucked into. Along the way characters are raised from the dead, Ivy’s grandmother possesses her cat, and she even loses her job. However, this girl is a real fighter and even though she is partially responsible for the pending apocalypse she was sassy, cool and engaging enough to get behind. The dynamics behind how the magic worked was really clever, and how it was connected to Birmingham was neat, and it was a perfect read for Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Sabrina fans everywhere. AGE RANGE 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 tug at her hair, giving her a similar release, to which comes from self-harming. Lindy also believes she is being haunted by dead relatives and that their family is cursed, who 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 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+

Josh Swiller – Bright Shining World

What a wild ride! I started Bright Shining World expecting a novel about a weird pandemic and ended up with so much more. If ever a story promises to head in one direction and then glorious missteps the reader into another mindset, there is no finer example than this strange and beguiling beast which reveals its secrets juicily slowly after giving a few early hints. It was also fantastic to read a novel with a realistic, believable and down-to-earth male narrative, which opens with Wallace Cole leaving his home in the middle to the night to head for upstate New York. His dad is some sort of engineer or ‘fixer’ (Wallace does not exactly know what he does) and has changed schools many times, with his father having little sympathy for repeatedly ruining his personal life. Wallace was a terrific lead character and even before anything weird happened I enjoyed spending time with him and the ways in which he coped with the loss of his mother, friends and being constantly on the move. However, what awaits Wallace in his new town and school is part mystery, thriller, horror and highly original. Teenage readers are going to have fun getting their head around the plot-shift in the second half of the novel.

Upon arrival in the town Wallace’s dad tells him that the school has been the centre of an epidemic of hysterics where students laugh uncontrollably and go mental often attacking others. The school plays it down, students disappear, and Wallace realise there is something much deeper and sinister going on. On one level Bright Shining World plays out as a convincing school teen drama with Wallace trying to make friends, particularly with a hot girl called Megan Rose, whilst also crossing the school bully. He is a very likable outsider but realises lots of students are seeing things or hallucinating (is this connected to the hysterics?) and believe the trees are talking to them. Before long he begins to be experiencing the same thing and from then enjoy the ride Josh Swiller has come up with a truly original and quirky novel. I’m not sure if I understood the ending, but it was certainly in tune with the overall wacky style of the book. This was a real one-off and the strangest end of the world novel I have come across in a while. Highly recommended. AGE RANGE 13+

Rose Szabo - What Big Teeth

Billed as “Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children meets The Addams Family” What Big Teeth was a very strange, beguiling and very difficult to categorise dark fantasy. The American Amazon site lists it for ages 14-18, which I would agree with, however, adults could read this without ever realising it was a teen novel. It is most definitely aimed at older and capable readers, as it is very slow, atmospheric and lacks many of the traditional features of a YA teen novel, such as friendship, romance or a particularly big finish to resolve all. We are presented with one girl’s attempt to reconnect with her monstrous family after years in the wilderness. What type of creatures are Eleanor Zarrin’s family? Hints and slights are dropped here and there, but it is never truly clarified, and the novel admirably refuses to tread any of the tropes connected to Paranormal Romance or popular authors such as Sarah J Maas or Leigh Bardugo. Also, the word ‘werewolf’ is never used and there is nothing in the family history to say this is what they are, but they are ‘wolfish’ in some way, vividly drawn and altogether unpleasant.

Eleanor has been at boarding school for years, abandoned by her family, What Big Teeth begins when she returns to the remote New England family home, and it becomes quickly clear her family members can turn into monsters. It is initially vague whether Eleanor is the same as the rest of the family, an incident from years earlier is referred to, as is a confrontation at school where she bit another girl. Eleanor is more like her Grandmere than she realises, a figure who dominates the family, and a strange relationship is formed between the pair. As the novel develops, we realise everybody is even less human than we thought. I loved the vagueness of the setting, the time period and Eleanor’s search into what and who she exactly she is. Some of the imagery in the final third was really wild and blew me away. In some ways What Big Teeth a very dark coming of age with Eleanor an outcast in her tight-knit family searching for answers to which nobody is prepared to give and, in the end realises there are more than one type of monster, and some are more powerful than others. AGE RANGE 14+

Julia Tuffs – Hexed

“Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets Sex Education” is a perfect leading quote for this highly entertaining supernatural comedy set on the Isle of Wight. Fifteen-year-old Jessie Jones moves to the island with her single parent mother and struggles to settle in her new school, with a few amusing mishaps along the way. Jessica believes her mother to be having a mid-life crisis, but in actual fact her mother is descended from a long line of witches, but their power is only potent when they are on their island turf (this was a quirky spin). Early in her new school career weird things begin to happen when Math geek Jessie is around, and she begins to suspect she is the cause. Sure enough, now that she is back on her family’s island, she is beginning to develop the family’s witching powers. Interestingly, this is connected to her period, so although Hexed is a teen comedy, there is a lot of open talk of menstruation. It does not particularly read like a horror novel and is more in tune with teen dramas by the likes of Holly Bourne, with a feisty and very engaging teen negotiating the dangers of high school, boys, social media and fitting in without selling her soul.

Amazingly, when we get beyond the humorous aspects of Jessie trying to get a handle on her clumsy magical skills Hexed has a powerful message which is uncannily similar to the 2021 media stories of rape culture and sexism in British secondary schools. In fact, Hexed completely nails this subject and does it with some style and good humour whilst making revealing observations. Incredibly, when Julia Tuffs wrote Hexed the website Everyone’s Invited did not exist, but it covers the same ground as Jessie finds herself being filmed and mocked. As a result, she is shocked by the level of sexism in her school and the fact that the teachers are aware of it but do little or nothing about it. This was an interesting development which took Hexed beyond the story of a normal girl developing supernatural powers. The final sequences in the assembly hall might have been lifted from an American high school teen drama, but I was still smiling and cheering Jessie on. Go girl! AGE RANGE 12/13+

Diana Rodriguez Wallach – Small Town Monsters
​
Small Town Monsters was an outstanding read and the split chapter narratives between ‘Vera’ and ‘Max’ was perfectly balanced, engaging and played a big part in creating a convincing horror novel which should be attractive to both boys and girls. Vera is the daughter of a family who have supernatural powers and operate as exorcists however, the ‘gift’ seems to have jumped a generation and Vera is seemingly just a normal teenager. Max has his own problems, and his mother is a recovering alcoholic who is very disconnected, and he is worried that she might hurt his little sister. Max’s dad died in a fire a few years earlier and has had to grow up fast, working in the family restaurant and dealing with his immature school friends.

The setting of the novel is outstanding and bad things routinely occur in the town of Roaring Creek, with Max also suspecting something supernatural is wrong with his mother, approaches Vera for help. The problem is the two have been in the same classes since primary school but have never ever spoken to each other and the developing dynamics between the two teens is a real strength of the novel. I loved both characters and their contrasts, Vera was an outsider and Max was popular, but leads a complicated life because of his family. There is more than one angle to the supernatural which has a real Latin American feel to it, taking in Santa Muerte (Saint Death), aspects of exorcisms, demon possession and a sinister cult which begins to infiltrate the people of the town. Small Town Monsters was a terrific blend of horror, thriller, spooky small-town secrets and a convincing slow burning romance. Highly recommended. AGE RANGE 12+

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. 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? 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 a year after the murder with daughter Wyatt Green in a toxic friendship with Cash and a second boy Porter, who also have history with each other. In the background there is the longing to escape the small town and the sadness of Wyatt feels with 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 which nails the challenges of toxic friendships, with an unspecified supernatural feeling lurking in the background, with a lot of pain and anxieties thrown in. This was a challenging, bleak, but ultimately rewarding read for older teens. But watch out for that ending. AGE RANGE 14+

Erica Waters – The River Has Teeth

Erica Waters follows the terrific Ghost Wood Song with another belter. Both of Erica’s novels feature bisexual female teenage characters who financially struggle and might be described as coming from the wrong side of the tracks and she convincingly gives these marginalised teens a voice. The action takes place in a small town in Tennessee where young girls have been disappearing and seventeen-year-old Della believes her mother to be the culprit. Della’s families are what we would probably term ‘hillbillies’ and live in a ramshackle house outside of town and make ends meet by selling remedies and potions to superstitious locals. Della is the youngest of a long family line of witches whose magic is connected to the area of land where they live and cultivate for the potions they create and make a living from. However, Della believes the magic has gone bad and this has turned her mother into a creature when night comes (don’t worry it’s not a vampire or werewolf) and as the police and others come snooping what can the teenager do to protect her dangerous mother? The story is told via a split first-person narrative, between Della and Natasha, whose sister is one of the disappeared girls. Natasha comes from a rich family but has her own problems from being adopted and accepting she is bisexual. After the police draw a blank Natasha comes to Della for help and after an initial personality clash the novel documents their developing friendship, secrets, and more.

The River has Teeth was convincing on several levels and although magic never dominated the novel, it had an earthy type of feel to it and within the constraints of the book and the way the family operated was excellent. The conflict between the two teenagers, and developing friendship, was also a pleasure to read, both having their own problems, issues and clashes. The way in which everything came together was top notch writing, and I enjoyed the fact that the killer was not the most obvious character (or the second most obvious) helping build a very satisfying finish. Both novels by Erica Waters have specialised in giving the reader terrific outsider characters and I cannot wait to see what this she gives us next. AGE RANGE 13+
​

​Other top tips (in alphabetical order) I enjoyed and are also worth a closer look:
Georgia Bowers – Mark of the Wicked (A teen witch begins to lose control of her power).
Ryan Douglass – The Taking of Jake Livingstone (A gay teen who can see dead people is haunted by the person responsible for a local high school shooting).
Kat Ellis – Wicked Little Deeds (Welcome to Burden Falls, a creepy small-town dripping with superstition, where murder is never far away).
Yvette Fielding - The House in the Woods (Ghost Hunter Chronicles book 1) (Kids play around with a Ouija board and soon regret it).
Kathryn Foxfield - It's Behind You (An online horror TV show spends the night in a haunted cave). 
Naomi Gibson – Every Line Of You (A teen creates a powerful AI which becomes much more than a friend). 
Daka Hermon - Hide and Seeker (Children are stalked by a supernatural creature which likes to play games).
Sarah Glenn Marsh – The Girls Are Never Gone (A teen podcaster interns at a haunted house looking for her next story).
Cynthia Murphy – Last One to Die (An Irish teen visits London for summer drama experience and is stalked by a supernatural presence). 
Stephanie Perkins - The Woods Are Always Watching (Hillbilly horror for teens. Nasty!)
Krystal Sutherland – House of Hollow (When they were small the three Hollow sisters disappeared for a month, with the story being picked up some years later).
Gaby Triana – Moon Child (A teen girl visits her half-sister and finds an abandoned mansion and a new group of friends with special powers). 


Tony Jones

TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE ​

SLOTH BY JOANNE ASKEW [BOOK REVIEW]

THE HEART AND SOUL OF YA HORROR