 This year’s Preliminary Ballot for the YA category is an absolute cracker and the HWA committee responsible for these high-quality selections should be congratulated for their keen eye. All ten books reviewed in this feature article are worthy of the Final Ballot and the fact that the majority of the authors are relatively newbies (five debuts, two sophomores) show that YA horror is in very safe hands. I have been a school librarian since 1994 and am forever on the hunt for YA horror titles to recommend to my pupils and hope that my Young Blood column for the Ginger Nuts of Horror help others with this task. However, historically speaking the YA Stoker Award has often failed in this regard with weak shortlists where excellent books are ignored and mediocre or terrible titles have been nominated and even won the award. This is not a good advert for either the HWA or YA horror in general, but hopefully this year’s ultra-strong list signifies that the days of substandard nominations are a thing of the past. If there was a poster for this excellent list I would happily promote it in my school library and am already actively recommending all these titles, which are all stocked by my library. Many of which I am delighted to say are on loan! Ranking these books was incredibly difficult (nearly impossible actually) with the authors coming from globally much further afield than usual. RL Boyle is the only British author featured and I hope I don’t jinx Rosanna by saying that it is rare for British authors to get anywhere in the YA Stoker category! Boyle (half English/Italian) deserves to break this duck with her brilliant debut, The Book of the Baku, a stunner GNOH has been championing since it was first published. Australian, Krystal Sutherland, is the second non-American featured on the list for The House of Hollow and Kendare Blake keeps the South Korean flag flying with All These Bodies. Young Blood, the YA section of the site, had previously reviewed five of the ten books and so we hope the HWA committee has been keeping an eye on what we feature across the year. Women continue to dominate YA horror, and so it is no particular surprise that that there is only one man featured on the list, Aden Polydoros with The City Beautiful. Over the last few years there has also been a serious lack of male narratives in YA horror, so having three within this list is a pretty good return (All These Bodies, The Book of the Baku and The City Beautiful). Regarding diversity the Preliminary Ballot was also convincing with a strong range of gay characters (To Break a Covenant, The Dead and the Dark, The City Beautiful and The River Has Teeth). It was also terrific to see a disabled lead character in The Book of the Baku, Black characters in Bad Witch Burning and a story based around Jewish culture/folklore (The Beautiful City) which does not feature in YA fiction too often. Overall, you are unlikely to see a better celebration of YA horror than this list. So, if you are a voting member of the HWA make sure you spend some time on this category. It is well worth your time and you will not be disappointed. If any of these books takes your fancy please click on teh title or image to purchase a copy 10/10 - RL Boyle: The Book of the Baku Publisher : Titan Books (UK) (15 Jun. 2021) Language : English Paperback : 320 pages ISBN-10 : 178909660X ISBN-13 : 978-1789096606  RL Boyle’s debut The Book of the Baku is one of the outstanding novels of the year (any category) and it is a shame her publisher Titan have not specifically targeted the YA market with this awesome tale. 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 amend that to “A Monster Calls meets The Babadook” which suits it slightly better. This highly unsettling story is very much its own beast and does not lean on any other fiction for its inspiration, instead it builds upon the pain of broken families, isolation, guilt, tragedy and is ultimately a very moving experience. 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 time. It was also fantastic to read a horror novel with a boy as a central character, in modern YA fiction boys have been relegated to the side-lines, 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 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 is a star in the making. AGE RANGE 12+ 9.75/10 - Erica Waters: The River Has Teeth Publisher : HarperTeen (19 Aug. 2021) Language : English Hardcover : 400 pages ISBN-10 : 0062894250 ISBN-13 : 978-0062894250  Erica Waters follows the terrific Ghost Wood Song which also made the Final Ballot of the Bram Stoker Award last year with another belter. Two novels of such quality on the bounce surely announce the arrival of a major new talent in YA horror. Both of Erica’s novels feature bisexual female teenage characters who financially struggle and come from the wrong side of the tracks. Waters convincingly gives these marginalised teens passionate and believable voices. 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 land where they cultivate the potions they make a living from. However, Della believes the magic has gone bad and when night comes transforms her mother into a creature (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+ 9.5 - Alison Ames: To Break a Covenant Publisher : Page Street Kids (26 Oct. 2021) Language : English Hardcover : 320 pages ISBN-10 : 1645672069 ISBN-13 : 978-1645672067  I went into To Break a Covenant expecting yet another supernatural thriller about teenage witches. A trope which has been truly flogged to death over the years, but this absolute cracker of a debut totally broke that particular mould and was so much more. When you see the word ‘covenant’ in the title you automatically think of witches, but the four teenage girls in this novel were bound to a covenant of friendship, as much as anything else. The dynamics of the four, initially Clem (the narrator) and Nina, who later welcome Lisey into their group, before finally Piper whose arrival is the driving force behind this very clever, but beautifully restrained, supernatural thriller. Clem narrates the action as the girls approach the end of high school, she is gay, but her sexuality does not play a major part in the story as her friendship group expands from two to four. There was a certain innocence to the group and I found the friendship part of the story very convincing, with the supernatural angle about a haunted mine, which has made their town Moon Basin a tourist centre for ghost hunters a fascinating backdrop. The spooky side of the story was never over the top and I loved the casual acceptance the locals have for the fact that something otherworldly may live in the mines, which because of underground fires can no longer be visited, except for the regions close to the surface. The setting of Moon Basin was superb, a small town which physically upped sticks and moved its location to a safer distance slightly further away from the mine which spews out coal dust due to the underground burning fires. The main story kicks off when Piper arrives, her father is an engineer who is going to be working stabalising the mine, but after a while begins to act weird. The three other girls have seen this type of behaviour before and realise the inhabitants (who or whatever they are) of the mine have got their hands into him. This was a terrific blend of supernatural and convincing teen drama, which climaxes with a bleak, but superb and moving ending. This was a winner all the way. AGE RANGE 12+ 9/10 Erin A Craig - Small Favors Publisher : Random House Inc; 1st edition (27 July 2021) Language : English Paperback : 480 pages ISBN-10 : 0593425626 ISBN-13 : 978-0593425626  Erin Craig follows her promising debut House of Salt and Sorrows with an absolute cracker, Small Favors, which is a considerably stronger and more rounded novel. This beautifully constructed story is framed around an incredibly isolated tiny farming village which is separated from the outside world by a large forest, in which supplies are brought in and out by seasonal wagon train or trading and trapping. The exact location of Amity Falls is never disclosed, but it felt like frontier land America, with the town having its own peculiar ways of doing things regarding the law, which is enforced by a council of the oldest families. The setting was a major plus point of Small Favors and the hustle and bustle of farm life, the limited opportunities of women and the risk of hardship should crops fail is vividly and brilliantly brought to life. Weighing in at 450-pages this tale is aimed at older readers, as even though it is not violent, it is slow but atmospherically paced with the town gradually unravelling as it runs out of luck and begins to turn on itself. Eighteen-year-old Ellerie Downing tells the story which has a strong, but vaguely undiagnosed supernatural or otherworldly twang to proceedings. After a supply run fails there are rumours of creatures of old in the forest and the council must decide whether to send backup or tighten their belts and see out the winter without resupplying. Ellerie lives a contented life, with her twin brother Samuel and two younger sisters, tending the family beehives until further disasters strike. On one level Small Favours feels like an old fairy tale with human desires being met, but the consequences of what this debt might cost being overlooked with terrifying or unpredictable costs. Although everything came together very cleverly, I could not help thinking resolution was achieved slightly too neatly and it was incredibly obvious who was the cause of the mischief from the moment he was introduced into the plot, but it was still a great read. The action also took in an engaging romantic story and the inner voice of Ellerie was very convincing as she struggled to hold her family together when things turned dark. A thoughtful and highly entertaining read. AGE RANGE 14+ 9/10 - Kate Alice Marshall: Our Last Echoes Publisher : Viking Books for Young Readers (1 Jan. 1900) Language : English Hardcover : 416 pages ISBN-10 : 0593113624 ISBN-13 : 978-0593113622  Kate Alice Marshall is fast becoming one of those authors I keep a keen eye out for new fiction from, as both Thirteens (2020) and Rules For Vanishing (2019) were real beauties. Marshall has the rare ability of effortlessly moving between Middle Grade and YA, with Rules for Vanishing deservedly making the Bram Stoker YA Final Ballot a couple of years ago. I am amazed this great author is not better known in the horror world as she certainly deserves to be. Her latest, Our Last Echoes, is written in the same style as Vanishing, with parts of the story being presented via interviews, video recordings and other media spanning a couple of decades. Of all the books on the list this year, this is the one which headed in the most unexpected of directions, which was a million miles from what I anticipated, taking in a wildly original mashup of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Some of which was so offbeat it may well be too strange for kids who are expecting a more ABC style supernatural mystery. The trick is to expect the unexpected and you will still be taken aback. Eighteen-year-old Sophia heads to the remote northern island of Bitter Rock to study birds, or that is at least the official reason. The real purpose is to investigate what happened to her mother who vanished without trace from the island fifteen years earlier. It turns out Bitter Rock has a long history for Bermuda Triangle style disappearances, with people vanishing in the thick mist, including an incident in 1973 when 31 residents were never seen again. Sophia feels she has a deeper connection with Bitter Rock (key to the story) than is possible and when she begins to dig into the mystery hold onto your hat for the direction it takes and it is a bit more than déjà vu. Having completed the book I realised there were plenty of clues dropped here and there and it was packaged into a well-developed mystery which morphs into full blown horror as events develop. A clue into what lies ahead is in the title and the different perspectives through the interviews and jumps back to 2003 helped strengthen a complex and rewarding genre-bending thriller. AGE RANGE 13+ 9/10 - Aden Polydoros: The City Beautiful Publisher : Inkyard Press; Original ed. edition (11 Nov. 2021) Language : English Hardcover : 384 pages ISBN-10 : 1335402500 ISBN-13 : 978-1335402509  The City Beautiful was a fascinating read and a supreme blend of historical and horror fiction, with a vividly drawn and immersive setting. Alter Rosen is a Romanian Jewish immigrant living in Chicago, 1893 whilst his mother and sisters are still in his homeland. His English language skills are limited, works as a runner for a newspaper, and sticks predominately to the familiar large Jewish community. The novel quickly absorbs the reader into a world of Jewish culture which rarely gets much coverage in YA fiction unless it concerns the Holocaust. This was a very mature YA novel and younger readers may struggle with the level of detail, but for those looking for a challenge there was much to admire in an incredibly assured debut novel. Aden Polydoros makes it clear that the persecution of Jews goes way beyond the Holocaust and this theme lurks in the background with Alter Rosen too poor to attend the famous World’s Fair which was in the city and attracting tourists from all over the country. Thankfully The Beautiful City has a glossary as many Jewish words are used and I found myself enjoying the immersion of cultural facts dropped by the author which added another very convincing level to the story. The horror element of the story also has a strong connection in Jewish culture or folklore. After the murder of Alter’s friend Yakov, he agrees to watch the body, as their faith dictates, but believing he saw it move touches the corpse. This breaks a burial custom which leads him to believe he is possessed by a spirit called a ‘dybbuk’ which is connected to the dead man. This leads to a complex horror thriller in which they try to solve the murder before the spirit takes over Alter completely. The story also takes in sexuality, as Alter is gay, which he is obviously kept quiet and when an old friend reappears proceedings get even more complex. The Beautiful City was a multi-faceted and very clever tale which adults could read without genuinely realising was aimed at teens. The blend of the Jewish story, the supernatural and sexuality were perfectly pitched and dropped into a superb 19th century setting which shimmered with realism and vibrancy. AGE RANGE 14+ 8/10 - Jessica Lewis: Bad Witch Burning Publisher : Ember (11 July 2023) Language : English Paperback : 368 pages ISBN-10 : 059317741X ISBN-13 : 978-0593177419  Considering Bad Witch Burning is narrated by an often-unlikable main character it remained an engaging and rather quirky read. It was also refreshing to read a YA horror novel with a lead Black character which was not built around race or racism. In recent years school librarians have been desperate for books such as this and, thankfully, diversity in YA fiction has improved significantly and continues to do so. The fact that Katrell is tricky to like needs to be balanced against her troubling home circumstances, with the sixteen-year-old working a thirty hour a week job to support her unemployed mother and loser hanger on boyfriend. However, she has another very peculiar way of supporting her deeply unpleasant family; by writing short letters Katrell has the ability to communicate with the dead. She keeps this lowkey and makes a few extra Dollars here and there to pay the family rent whilst the school guidance councillor is on her tail. Sadly, she has already accepted that before long she will drop out of school. The novel really kicks off when the teen realises she has the power to raise the dead after a horrific incident with her mother’s boyfriend and her beloved dog. Instead of making twenty or thirty Dollars there is the possibility of much more is she is able to pitch her ability at families who have suffered bereavements. We’ve all read Pet Semetary and although things do not pan out that way, Jessica Lewis puts a very clever and original spin on how the resurrected are and specifically how they interact with Katrell and the families who paid thousands of Dollars to have them back. Interestingly, there is zero insight into how the magic worked and I felt Katrell lacked compassion for those she brought back and struggled to see beyond the immediate financial gain. However, as is the way in YA novels lessons are learned and supported by her best (and only) friend there is growth and some emotional scenes regarding her beloved dog near the end. AGE RANGE 13+ 8/10 - Krystal Sutherland: House of Hollow Publisher : Hot Key Books; 1st edition (6 April 2021) Language : English Paperback : 304 pages ISBN-10 : 1471409899 ISBN-13 : 978-1471409899  I always enjoy authors moving around the genres and Krystal Sutherland’s third novel House of Hollow is a convincing example of this. A few years ago, I read her debut Chemical Hearts, which was an entertaining YA romantic drama, but her latest offering retains the convincing teenage voice of her debut, but this time effortlessly blending in the supernatural. One of the great strengths of the novel was that the reader was, for most of the time, unsure whether there was something otherworldly going on or not. It was obvious from the outset that the family the story revolved around was peculiar, but the contemporary private school setting in Hampstead north London, grounded the action in the world of today. The novel is narrated by the youngest of three sisters Iris (the others being Vivi and Grey) and even she admits that odd things can happen around them, but kind of shrugs it off as the biproduct of being a ‘Hollow Sister’. Whether Iris Hollow has special powers or is just plain weird is for the reader to find out, however, as a narrator she seriously crackles and gives House of Hollow a very authentic teenage voice which I am sure many teen readers will tap straight into. The reason the sisters are ‘special’ is because ten years earlier the three vanished into thin air, only to reappear a month later, with no memory of where they had been. Over the following years, even if the media interest eventually died down, both elder sisters Vivi and Grey led very different lives in a rock band and as a super model. However, even if the sister bond is very tight (and a great strength of the novel) it is Iris who is left behind. Early in the novel the story takes a fascinating direction when, once again, Grey disappears, but leaves clues to where she might be only her sisters can decipher. The story then moves into the realms of dark fairy tales and folklore, without ever playing to the stereotypes you often get in this brand of YA novel. Make sure you hang in there for a terrific ending. AGE RANGE 13+ 7/10 - Courtney Gould: The Dead and the Dark Publisher : Wednesday Books (3 Aug. 2021) Language : English Hardcover : 384 pages ISBN-10 : 1250762014 ISBN-13 : 978-1250762016  The Dead and the Dark was a quirky combination of horror, dark thriller with a twist of teen romance thrown into the mix. The action takes place in the small Oregon town of Snakebite, where several teenagers have disappeared. Now attracting media attention, a team of ghosthunters from a popular TV show hit the town looking for answers and a big story, much of the novel revolves around Logan, who is the daughter of the presenter of ParaSpectors and is used to being dragged from place to place and fake haunting to haunting. But this time it is different as the investigators realise they not dealing with the usual hoaxes or cheesy fake ghost stories. Quite early in the action we realise that this is one of those towns where weird things happen (and in YA fiction there are plenty of them about!) the weather is unpredictable, ghosts are real and that the town in buried in a layer of secrets which are difficult to unearth. Beyond the secrets, there is something in the darkness and the town is the target or perhaps part of the problem. Although the book had plenty of engaging characters, in particular Logan, I quickly found myself feeling I had been around this block before and found The Dead and the Dark offered little which was new, covering similar ground to To Break A Covenant. However, it was a solid debut, features decent twists, has lots of quirky characters and a supernatural feeling which darkens as the novel progresses. For young teens who are looking for a blend of thriller and horror it is worth a look. AGE RANGE 13+ 7/10 - Kendare Blake: All These Bodies Publisher : Macmillan Children's Books; Main Market edition (21 Sept. 2021) Language : English Paperback : 304 pages ISBN-10 : 1529052890 ISBN-13 : 978-1529052893  All These Bodies is an interesting change of direction for Kendare Blake, taking us back to the late 1950s Minnesota Midwest of America, with a story which has a true crime feel to it. Blake is best known for her terrific horror novel Anna Dressed in Blood and dark fantasy titles such as the Three Dark Crowns series. The main character is schoolboy, and aspiring journalist, Michael Jensen who dreams of escaping the small-town life of Black Deer Falls, go to college, meet a girl, and find excitement in the wider world. He has had the same friends his entire life and his father is the local sheriff. Nothing new ever happens, until a series of graphic murders, which the newspapers brand the ‘Bloodless Murders,’ seem to be heading in their direction. After multiple killings, where the victims are drained of blood, there is indeed a killing in their town. As Michael’s father is the sheriff, he finds himself in close proximity to the action and even closer to the only suspect, fifteen-year-old Marie Catherine Hale. Although All These Bodies was a solid read, it was rather one paced and the author struggled slightly to shoehorn a supernatural angle into the plot. The story was inspired by real life murders and the true crime feel it had worked better than the attempts to convince the reader there were vampires on the loose. Also, the way in which the author inserts the YA angle into the story lacked credibility: here we have is a woman implicated in 12-14 murders, but the only person she will speak to is a seventeen-year-old boy. Yeah, right, I found that impossible to swallow. Although proceedings felt like an authentic 1950s America and the attention to detail was convincing, I felt that the story lacked suspense, as we were being repeatedly told (from Marie to Michael) after the fact what went on and after a while, I began to lose interest in who the anonymous killer truly was, human or something else. AGE RANGE 13+ TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE
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