This YA novel follows the story of Winnie, who recently lost her mother, as she goes to live and help the aunt she barely knows on her reality TV show called Fantastic Fearsome which she both produces and presents. The latest filming takes her to one place her mother would never go: New Jersey, an area her mother has a history with. Winnie doesn’t believe in the supernatural but as the filming progresses she hears and feels things that make her question whether there is some truth in the legend of the Jersey Devil.

I found the TV reality show setting quite entertaining because of the mix of fake, staged and real elements of paranormal activity as well as the teenage goings on behind the scenes, which kept it fairly light hearted. As horror novels go it was not scary, so if you like to jump you’ll have too look elsewhere for a dose of real chills. Because it mixes horror with the television setting it might attract a wider readership, but real horror-hounds are going to feel short-changed as there is even less blood than scares.

I liked the numerous pictures which were integrated into the story which were pretty good pieces of art, but they didn’t really add much to the book apart from breaking up the flow of the text. The interview parts were interesting, with a lot of detail, but again it didn’t really add anything to the characters or the plot and seemed like padding in a book which was already quite long and slow moving.

I enjoyed picking up the many movie references along the way including: The Shining, The Blair Witch Project, Buffy, The Evil Dead and many more I probably missed. But if you aren’t a horror movie buff like me you’re probably quite confused when Winne mentions ‘I love you and I know’, a famous Star Wars reference. Winnie would frequently talk about a horror movie clique or trot out a reference. I’m also not sure if it was a good idea Winnie shading classic movies like The Blair Witch Project, one of the best horror films of the last twenty years. The author may have thought they we being original but quite a lot of the novel was too top heavy in references to other books and films. I’m not sure if this would be a good book for the new horror reader as many of these in-jokes are going to go straight over their heads.  

I also failed to understand why Winnie called herself the ‘Final Girl’ when barely anyone died? Also, would a non-horror fan know what a Final Girl was anyway? The pacing in this book was extremely slow and when it started to build up, the end result was very disappointing. The big ‘reveal’ was seriously lame. The majority of the book was presented with Winnie writing to her best friend and this slowed things down further and was a serious tension killer. The Jersey Devil made one appearance with no imagination put into its arrival and it was decidedly underwhelming.

Overall, I would not recommend this book if you’re looking for a good scare or a solid introduction to horror, it’s too slow and not enough happens. Many readers may well find it very boring. I have listed some of my favourites below. If you like your horror to bring on sleepless nights The Devil and Winnie Flynn is not the book to do that. I live in Britain and did some internet searching on the Jersey Devil as I was not familiar with the myth, so perhaps an American teenager might identify more with it as the novel provides lots of extra information about the real myth.

2/5

“Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds” is a prequel to the show “Stranger Things” of which I am a huge fan of. This first official literary spin-off follows the character Terry Ives (Eleven’s mother) and covers the period leading to Eleven’s birth. The story is set in the late 1960s/early 70s in the state of Indiana and at first I was unsure how it was all going to fit together because the story is not set in our beloved, strange town of Hawkins. But in getting over that initial surprise I found it an easy and engaging read but continually wondered whether it was aimed at teenagers or adults. At £20 no kid is going to afford that!

I was also unsure how it would work as a book because I feel “Stranger Things” would not transfer too well as it relied heavily on period references, however, I think Gwenda Bond did a nice job with this plot and if there were sequels I would be interested in reading them. It almost holds its own against the award-winning show, once you realise none of those characters are going to show up and was a nice addition to the series.

If you have watched the TV show then you will know how the book ends and what is going to become of Terry and her child and that in itself makes it rather predictable. Also, I think the pace was at times a bit too fast and it gave away too many secrets and big reveals, such as the test subject Eight and it lost some excitement towards the end. Also, when you get to the end you realise there really was not too much to the story, which might have been more ambitious. I did wonder how much the author enjoyed the TV show? The novel doesn’t go into a lot of detail or set the scene, it just dives into the MK Ultra backstory and shows the history of Eleven. Overall though it ties in the series well without it feeling too forced, but I couldn’t help thinking the amazing TV show deserved something better?

By knowing how the novel ends, it does create sympathy for Terry and her friends, because in the series she is completely broken and drained, but in this novel she is young and full of life and I thought that was a nice comparison. It does add a feeling of dread knowing the direction the book is heading into. It doesn’t have much of an ending because its really just the beginning of the end and most of the people who read this book are going to be “Stranger Things” fans who know what happens. I doubt it will have any interest for non-fans of the TV show.

Overall, I doubt this book work for people who are new to the series as it is aimed at the fans. However, the fans should find it entertaining with likeable characters and a nice balance between “Stanger Things” and the important back-story. In the end though I was disappointed that nothing much new was added to the world the Duffer Brothers had created and it felt drawn out and forced references to the show into the story. If you’re looking for huge WOW reveals you will not find any, but it was still a decent read.

My dad said if I wanted the real thing I should check out Stephen King’s “Firestarter” which this has a lot of similarities to!

Head to the Isle of Skye for an origins story on the nasty Frozen Charlotte dolls
 
The prequel to the superb “Charlotte Says” provides us with a very convincing backstory on the origins of the Frozen Charlotte dolls and what occurred way back in 1910 in the Dunvegan School for Girls. Seventeen-year-old Jemima is an engaging and punchy central character, and we pick up the story when she arrives at Dunvegan for her new job as Assistant School Mistress. She quickly finds it to be a horrible place with a cruel Headmistress whom she does not get on with and punishes her along with the girls. Strange things begin to happen when she receives a large package in the post containing many tiny porcelain dolls which may be connected with Jemima’s old life before arriving in Skye.
 
Like with “Frozen Charlotte” there are chills all the way as the dolls start to play their horrible games including the “throw the teacher down the stairs game” and Jemima tries to unsolved the mystery which is interconnected to her own past, whilst trying to deal with an increasingly unhinged Headmistress. Writing horror for kids is not easy and both “Charlotte” books hit the nail on the dead, having an excellent balance of fast placed plot, the supernatural, characters you care about, and nasty little dolls that will have your kids looking under their beds at night.

Kids… If offered study drugs… JUST SAY NO!!!

“Sleepless” remains one of my favourite Red Eye novels and was a terrific way to kick off the series. It has an unsettling quality, and my thirteen-year-old daughter was really sucked into this very well drawn story with believable characters. It also featured a plot which was edgy enough to be believable to a teen readership who will identify with the teens under pressure 100%. The stress of exams leads Izzy and her friends to stupidly take a new study drug they find online and soon, one by one, they succumb to hallucinations, nightmares and psychosis. The only way to survive is to stay awake, which is pretty tough with big exams around the corner. Throw a killer into the mix and you have an engrossing thriller.  “Sleepless” was slightly more challenging than some of the other Red Eye titles and the suggestion that a pill that allows you to study better has nasty side effects was a clever one. The central London location of the school also added atmosphere and threat of something nasty lurking around the corner. Highly recommended.
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To find out more, check out:  http://littletiger.co.uk/red-eye )

I’m getting a bit tired of hearing and reading that Frankenstein is 200 years old, as it has turned into an excuse for authors to trot out tired reworkings of the original story. The Dark Descent tells the story of Elizabeth Frankenstein, who was adopted by the family Frankenstein when she was five to be a play friend for the young Victor who already had issues. In order to fill in the backstory, the author inserts reminisces, written in italics, and I found these to be exceptionally irritating. Most of the characters are fairly unpleasant, and I did not care too much for any of them.
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Elizabeth herself dominates the novel, her relationships with others such as Henry and Justine, not just Victor and is full of conflicts. Although there was nothing wrong with the writing, I felt I had been here before and the book bordered close to fan fiction at a few points. Perhaps a teenager less familiar with the story might enjoy it more than I did. Indeed, if you have never read the original Frankenstein you might have fresher experience.

Maberry returns to the zombie infested world of his excellent Rot and Ruin series with Broken Lands. Benny is back as a major character and if you have not read the Rot and Ruin series this will be disjointed read. Maberry’s 2010 was a terrific, fast-paced YA horror classic and this latest entry just pounds the same ground with a few new revelations.

Broken Lands has two major plot strands, set a few weeks apart, which do not cross until close to the conclusion of the novel. In the Benny Imura sequence Benny and his friends venture into the wasteland to try and establish contact with a colony they have not heard from in a while.  The second story strand features new characters, the main one being Gabriella “Gutsy” Gomez who is recovering from the death of her mother five days earlier. However, someone digs up her body and transports the body back to Gutsy. The mother is, of course, a zombie. But why has the mother been dug-up? Much of this story strand sees Gutsy investigating the history of the zombie infection, taking her well out of her comfort zone, into the dangerous conspiracy behind it. 
 
For a zombie novel Broken Lands lacked serious action and the story was just not strong enough to spin out over 500 pages. There was too much scene-setting and flash backs to events from previous novels and new readers will tire of these continual plot catch-ups. All the revelations which reveal the cause for the zombie outbreak just did not flow naturally into the plot and it became tiresome. ​

Wormholes has been miscategorised and is not a YA novel, so I am not sure why it was on the ballot, it even states ‘Ages 9-12’ on its own back-page. I would not recommend this book to anyone over the age of ten, as it reads like a UK primary school novel or middle grade in the USA.  It deals, in quite simple terms, with issues of friendship, bullying and standing up for yourself, in a context which is more fantasy and horror. I’m very surprised this book made it onto the Preliminary Ballot, not just because of its age group, but because it is dull, uninspiring and holds little to enthuse a child into reading.
 
A bullied schoolboy, Danny Mendoza, discovers a wormhole in a pipe in his local park which transports him to a blandly described fantasy land. He finds himself in the land of Umberhold, where a crazy warlord is turning everything natural (trees, plants etc) into metal. When Danny is in this other world the time almost stops in our world and nobody notice he has been gone. Before long he realises his sister is lost in Umberhold, after following him through the wormhole, and with his new friends he goes on a quest to find her. Predictably he quickly finds the friends he lacks in the real world. The action was minimal, the dialogue clunky, the characters were flat and this is a book to avoid and is very unlikely to entice any kid into reading. If you want to find an alternative book where a kid is sent to another world try Peadar Ó Guilín’s The Call duology, it will blow you and your child away. Wormholes will not.
 
Tony Jones

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+.
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“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+.

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A review and commentary on an outstanding YA debut

 
“Parasite Life” the debut YA novel from Victoria Dalpe was the most intense and unsettling teen novel I had read for quite some time. The YA vampire sub-genre has been totally played out by the never-ending cycle of brooding blood suckers in the same ilk as Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” and PC Cast’s yawn inducing “House of Night” series.  I’ve studiously avoided most of them. Even the kids grew up and moved on to dystopia. Be rest assured though, “Parasite Life” is as far away from “Twilight” as a vampire novel can possibly be and if, like myself, you haven’t read a vampire novel for a while MAKE IT THIS ONE! Meyer, Cast and Dalpe may well inhabit the same genre, but there the comparisons end and this superb novel rises head and shoulders above the teen horror pack and has more in common with Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire” than YA fiction.
 
Perhaps it’s because I’m nosy, but I was so intrigued by Victoria Dalphe’s modern Gothic take on the vampire myth I tracked her down and some of the quotations used later in the article are the fruits of our email conversations. Be rest assured Victoria really knows her vampires and she generously answered all my rambling questions.  
 
Why does “Parasite Life” rise above your average teen horror novel? It succeeds on two crucial and inter-connected levels which are essential in writing successful YA fiction. Firstly, the ‘teen-life’ sequences are so painfully believable and realistic they exist without any need for horror, an isolated and lonely seventeen-year-old girl with no friends is horror enough. However, when the supernatural angle is filtered into the plot, it is done so cleverly and believably you’re going to be sucked into what is a unique take on the vampire myth. Blend both story strands together, supernatural and teen novel, and you have an intoxicating and very feminine vampire tale.
 
Equally cool is the fact that Dalphe creates her own version of what a vampire is and sets her own rules, for example, the vampires in this story can live in sunlight. It sounds strange, but something about her rules work. The author also tackles tricky subjects such as menstruation, which when you think about it, should play an important role in vampire novels, but never do. I asked Victoria about the mature content of the novel, which I thought was very challenging YA: “I agree tonally some of the topics do lean more adult, but as someone who reads a ton of horror, YA, urban fantasy, etc. I felt the content, especially dealing with toxic/abusive relationships, neglect, sexuality etc. could resonate with a younger audience who are often more sophisticated than are given credit for and do deal with those issues often.”
 
As I’ve said menstruation is not a subject you come across much in genre-fiction and Dalphe really tackles this head-on. There was one particularly gross scene I specifically asked the author about, which I was surprised was not edited when the content evolved from adult into a YA novel. Dalphe commented: “I also wanted to make it a priority to acknowledge menstruation, as it's a personal vampire pet peeve of mine that they can't encounter a paper clip without going homicidal when half the population is menstruating. I wanted to demystify and remove some stigma around something that is basic biology.”
 
Jane is the novel’s powerful narrator, she spends her time looking after her invalided mother who either cannot or refuses to talk to her and has a weird wasting illness. She has no friends, they have little money, and she escapes her humdrum life by hiding in books. However, early in a novel outgoing and vivacious Sabrina arrives at her school and life takes an amazing upturn. For some unknown reason Sabrina tags onto Jane and they become friends. Jane presumes once Sabrina finds her feet in her new town she’ll soon be dumped for new more exciting friends, but this never happens. There is a budding sexual attraction between the two girls which awakens something hidden in Jane and it takes the girls into some dark places as the novel progresses. These relationship scenes are a combination of sexy, sensual, sleazy and terrifically edgy writing as Jane discovers her hidden talents. They may also raise a few eyebrows in the YA world…
 
Several large sections of the novel are told in diary form. After the discovery of a hidden log, we head back eighteen years to when Jane’s mother was an aspiring artist, whom after meeting a dark stranger, her life changes forever. Much of the novel leads to how the two-story strands merge together, ultimately creating a third as Jane’s voyage of discovery intensifies. Is this a YA coming of age drama? Possibly, but it’s very close to being fully fledged adult fiction also.
 
To call “Parasite Life” a mere teen novel does it an injustice, as adults could read it just as easily as a teenager. It was as close to being an adult novel as it possibly could be and Victoria has this to say on its potential audience: “I originally wrote it not as YA, but more in the New Adult/ Adult but when ChiZine bought it, they asked if I would be willing to rework it a little for a YA audience, as they felt it straddled the line (and I agreed) and would be a good fit for their smaller ChiTeen label. So, I dropped it from an R to a PG-13.” I must be honest here, I had never heard of ‘New Adult’ until Victoria mentioned it above.
 
I was not surprised to hear that “Parasite Life” was originally written as an adult novel. The main characters are almost adults and the diary flashback sequences all feature adults. As I read the book I was uncertain it was a YA novel, however, the cover clearly says ‘CHITEEN’ and I was delighted to hear that ChiZine cared enough about the book to recommend such radical alterations. Victoria commented upon the changes the publisher suggested: “In the editing process I did not have to done down the content as much as I initially anticipated. Toned down the explicit sexuality, some of the self-harm elements, and reworked a lot of Hugh (Jane's father). In my mind, I liked to think of him like a predator parent, like a big cat or something, giving the tips on how to hunt and then leaving them on their own. But a creature like that wouldn't have the boundaries that a normal father/daughter would.”
 
One of the other things that struck me as odd was the amount of true heavy-weight adult horror writers that recommended the book, there are fantastic quotes from Laird Barron, John Langan and others! As YA horror writers usually swim in a different pond, it’s heartening to hear authors of that stature read YA, this is what Victoria thought: “I was very humbled at the talented writers who were willing to give my book (and me) a read and a blurb. I was also very flattered by how bothered and uncomfortable the book made them (as seasoned horror writers).” They got that right. This really was an unsettling book.
 
I highly recommend this outstanding vampire novel which could be read by anybody, not just moody teenagers with a 1980s goth fixation. We’re going to give the final work to Victoria and finish the article with other dark fiction/horror novels she recommends: “The goal with the book was to bring back some of the gothic and some of the lesbian vampires of the past. Since Carmilla predates Dracula by 20 years! And I love Jean Rollin's vampire movies, and in particular "Living Dead Girl" was a big inspiration for this book.”
 
Recommended by Victoria, who likes complex characters, well-built worlds and monsters. In
no particular order:
 
Maggie Stiefvater: Raven Boys Series
Awesome, really creative world building, a fluid sexuality, and a main girl character that all male characters aren't totally obsessed with a damsel.
 
Kelly Armstrong: Darkest Powers Otherworld
YA spinoff, just really fun. Potboiler, sort of a monsters meets the X-men, teens on the run type series.
 
Sabaa Tahir: Ember in the Ashes Series
I love middle eastern folk/monsters and these are just brutal, addictive, and mysterious books.
 
Laini Taylor: Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy
Beautiful, magical, heart-breaking exploration of race wars/ tribal genocides etc.
 
Thanks to Victoria for her invaluable input in the article.
 
Tony Jones

 
Welcome to our latest round-up of horror and dark fiction aimed at children and the YA market. Most of the books are fairly new, others are older titles I’ve only recently stumbled across. I’m always on the lookout for new YA selections to include in future editions of Young Blood, so do get in touch if you have something we might be interested in reading. I also love making new discoveries and the first two books by Stephen Stromp are amongst my recent favourites. 

If any of these books take your fancy please click on the cover image or title to purchase a copy from your local Amazon store.  Purchasing through affiliate  links helps to keep pay for the running cost of this site.  

I’m going to start by introducing an author who we have never featured on Ginger Nuts before, but whom has impressed by greatly with his two novels and one novella. Occasionally I read a book and I cannot decide whether it is YA or adult, nobody fits that bill better than Stephen Stromp with his trippy blend of genre bending fantasy horror. I’ve now read all his stuff and I’m none the wiser! Adult or YA? Who knows, but it’s terrific either way…

Although “In the Graveyard Antemortem” has been marketed as a YA title, when I read it I wasn’t so sure, so I tracked the author down and asked him directly, this is what he had to say: “I agree it doesn't completely fit in YA, although it was partly marketed as such. I guess I consider it YA for adults. Most of the readers who contacted me saying they really connected with the book were adults. I think it really works for adults looking back to their teen years and maybe equating it to the horror movies they loved growing up.”

Either way, older teens or adults would enjoy this brilliant book equally, it would really challenge adventurous teenage readers. Seventeen-year-old Lisa is looking forward to leaving high school when her father is murdered, having a dysfunctional brother, she is forced to live with an uncle she never knew existed. This very strange uncle is the owner of Grand Hallow, which is the biggest funeral and mortuary business in America. This huge mortuary is a bizarre, but brilliant, setting for much of the novel. Set in the early 1980s, it has terrific sense of time and place with Lisa trying to cope with the death of her father, maintain her friendships and the exceptionally strange place she is sent to live. Supernatural elements are slowly integrated into the plot, it bobs and weaves in all sorts of directions and is busting with all sorts of larger than life characters. I read this as if it was an adult novel, but strong teen readers would find much to enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an exceptionally quirky read, but highly recommended for AGES FOURTEEN+ who don’t mind a little bit of cannibalism in their YA. Also recommended for TEENAGERS WHO ARE IN THEIR FORTIES!
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Stephen Stromp went on to say about writing YA which adults also enjoy: “To me, what makes it work with adults [In the Graveyard Antemortem] is it's written from an adult perspective, with adult language, as if the main character is looking back at her teen years when recalling the story. It also doesn't shy away from the gory elements, which are quite graphic at times. It also references many things the YA market wouldn't necessarily identify with today (being set in the 80s). But despite that, I do think it works for YA too. It keeps the teen B-movie horror vibe. And I didn't worry too much about the gore being over the top. It's so over the top in parts, it's silly. When I was 15 and 16, I saw gory movies and read pretty gory stuff - and loved it. And as for as the 80s references, I never minded being exposed to references I didn't understand as a young adult. It just lets you know there's a bigger world to explore.”

Stephen Stromp’s brand new novel is in many ways even weirder than his predecessor, and you really must admire an author who repeatedly comes up with such off-the-wall fiction. This was a recent winner on the ‘Amazon Scout’ system and fair play to them for publishing such a different book. Again, they have this dreamy fantasy horror novel listed as YA, however, if you ask the author he may disagree. I have the feeling Stromp would sell a lot more books if he wrote fiction which was easier to categorise. However, that is not really his style, and this is another beauty for older teens and adults alike.
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The novel focuses on a young man coming-of-age against the backdrop of his struggle to understand whether he possess the ability to read the future through dreams, or he is in some way delusional. For much of the time he is protected by his elder brother who helps him manipulate these nightmares and the demons who lurk there and begin to bleed into our world. The book beautifully blends horror, fantasy and surrealism and refuses to sit comfortably in any of those boxes, with terrific sequences involving flying cars, demon hoards mini tornadoes made of metal and sexy tree women. It’s set over many years and Ayden is an exceptionally fractured, but nevertheless engaging, unreliable narrator and it’s one of those books which is difficult to compare to anything else. Like Stromp’s previous novel, this is probably acquired taste, but an adventurous teenager AGED FOURTEEN+ might love it, but equally, it may well have them running for safer more mainstream YA ground!

I’ve heard “How to Hang a Witch” the debut novel from Adriana Mather caused quite a stir in America, and should you read this engagingly modern take on the Salem Witch Trials it is easy to see why. Sixteen-year-old, Samantha Mather is a descendant of one of the leaders involved in the original Salem Witch Trials and when the novel opens she is arriving in her ancestral town for the first time, not really knowing what to expect. Until then her father has not allowed her to visit the home of her birth, however, after an accident he is in a coma, so Sam and her stepmother must relocate to Salem from New York.
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Spunky, spiky and very quick to lose her temper, Sam, is not too happy and soon gets into trouble when she starts her new school in Salem. The problem with this quirky little town is that everyone knows she is a ‘Mather’ and even after multiple generations of past history there are plenty of others out there, descendants of the so-called ‘witches’, who would rather she was gone or even dead. What we have here is a very entertaining supernatural yarn aimed at teenage girls, with lots of school bitchiness, supernatural goings on, ghosts, hauntings, ancient curses and a nice dose of romance. The author plays around with the true facts, but there are enough of them around to get readers interested in the original Salem story. A fun supernatural recommendation for AGES THIRTEEN+ and more likely to appeal to girls.  

“The Wren Hunt” by Mary Hunt was a strange one, and is probably too challenging for many kids, it takes its time getting going, but is worth sticking with. It’s more dark fantasy than horror, but fans of the latter will happily cross genres with another highly impressive YA debut which cleverly utilises Irish mythology. Two supernatural factions (the Judges and the Augers) battle for survival in a version of modern day Ireland which is top heavy with magic, superstition, and strange goings on. The two factions are eternal enemies, and the main character is an Auger, ‘Wren Silke’, who has a powerful supernatural gift which is one of the main thrusts of the novel.
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Wren is a really engaging character, and for the sake of her family, goes undercover, as an intern, at the family home of their sworn enemy hoping to discover anything which might tip the ancient battle in her family’s favour. However, with magic the reality is rarely black and white, and the teenager gets into trouble along the way, especially as her power and gift is slowly revealed. I’ve seen reviewers compare the use of Irish mythology to Peadar O’Guilin’s magnificent “The Call” duology but I can’t see this book having the same impact as those two books. It’s certainly very ambitious, the author does not talk down to her readers, and I really enjoyed this quirky mix of genres, which may confuse slightly younger kids. Recommended for kids AGES FOURTEEN+.

“Savage Island” by Byrony Pearce is the latest release from ‘Red Eye’, one of the only imprints releasing straight YA horror in the UK. If I’m completely honest this latest release is below their normal standard and I found it to be predictable, but that may be because I’ve read the likes of “Battle Royale” which may have inspired this book on some level. A group of teenagers enter a competition to win a million pounds in an endurance survival competition on an island near the Shetlands. Everything is secretive and social media is banned. Very quickly the friends realise the competition has a bit more than problem solving and one girl loses a finger and things then get worse in a fight for survival.
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Although I found it pedestrian, easy to please teens might get a kick and fast paced read out of it, but stronger readers may seek more challenging reads. Obviously, the organisation behind the event have their own secret agenda, but by the time it was revealed my interest had waned. Throughout, the description of the remote Island was non-existent, which was a shame, as there was potential to do much more with the dark natural surroundings. I suppose you could call this ‘survival horror’, but it was more thriller than anything else. A solid easy read for kids not looking for something too challenging AGED ELEVEN+ and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Martin Stewart’s second YA novel “Sacrifice Box” was an intriguing little number which was very difficult to classify and because it is set in the 1980s has been compared to “Stand by Me” and “Stranger Things”. Neither of those comparisons do it any favours, as it really is its own odd little beast.  What we have here is a genuinely atmospheric supernatural horror about the discovery of an ancient stone box hidden in the forest.  Five kids, who are hanging out together over the summer find the box, they decide to each make a sacrifice: something special to them, committed to the box for ever. And they make a pact: they will never return to the box at night; they'll never visit it alone; and they'll never take back their offerings. However, the five kids, Sep, Arkle, Mack, Lamb and Hadley are not friends for life and once school starts up again the friendship disappears.
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The story is told in tandem, four years later, a series of strange and terrifying events take place obviously connected to what went before. Someone broke the rules, but who? The old gang (kind of) get back together and investigate what the heck is going on. Although I really liked this book I fear many kids will find it too slow, as it does take its time, however, it’s worth sticking with it as the second half has some terrific scares and set pieces as the origins of the box is explored and how it has impacted other people. The island setting is particularly strong and the main character Sep, who is super bright, bullied, and dreams of escaping to the mainland is a superb main character. Recommended for those AGED FOURTEEN+ who want a genuine and challenging rather unique scare. This is an author to watch, his previous effort “River Keep” was an impressive dark fantasy novel.

I was going to give this one a swerve, but my twelve-year-old daughter really enjoyed it, so I’m going to bow to her greater wisdom and paraphrase her thoughts. Based on the horror video game series, “Five Nights at Freddy's”, this was originally self-published by the creators of the video-game and after over-night success was picked up by Scholastic and is looking to become a franchise. It is very similar in look, style and content to old school Point Horror novels, and as page turners go by daughter was a very happy customer.

From the blurb: “Ten years after the horrific murders at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza that ripped their town apart, Charlie, whose father owned the restaurant, and her childhood friends reunite on the anniversary of the tragedy and find themselves at the old pizza place which had been locked up and abandoned for years. After they discover a way inside, they realise that things are not as they used to be. The four adult-sized animatronic mascots that once entertained patrons have changed. They now have a dark secret and a murderous agenda.” My daughter said there were many terrific set pieces, gory deaths, twists, turns, excitement and fun all the way. Who am I to argue? She certainly ‘oooed’ and ‘aaaad’ when she was reading it! Recommended for any budding gore-hound AGED TWELVE+.
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“Pitch Dark” by Courtney Alameda was the best crossover science fiction horror novel I have read in a while, aimed at slightly older teens and pulled no punches. It also featured some truly brilliant creatures, which were once human but have become changed after 400 years sleep stasis and kill by sound. Everybody loves a good space zombie! The main characters are two teenagers from different worlds, Tuck has slept for centuries on the spaceship USS John Muir, which as cargo holds one of the last surviving pieces of land from planet Earth. Laura is a ship-raider/scavenger, from a family of archaeologists, searching for lost pieces of history which is scattered across the galaxy.
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Before long Laura ends up on Tucks ship and as this is a teen novel expect the kids to hate each other, and then not... I thought the world-building in this novel was terrific and the chemistry between Laura, who comes from a post-apocalyptic Earth, and Tuck was first class. Throw in terrorist organisations, computer hackers, more mutants (lots of them Mourners, Weepers, and Griefers) a story told from multiple points of view and time periods and you have a terrific science fiction novel with a heavy dose of horror.  Highly recommended for fans of science fiction horror AGED THIRTEEN+.

After reading the brilliant “Pitch Black” I had absolutely no choice but to track down Courtney Alameda’s other YA horror novel “Shutter” and once again I was highly impressed. As with her other novel, the level of intricate supernatural world-building is first rate. Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat, a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. So, in this world supernatural occurrences, ghosts, and much nastier beings are common as mud. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. Hence why the book is called “Shutter”, the analogue SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exercises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film.
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Early in the novel a job goes wrong and one of Michelle’s friends is infected with a curse which will lead to death in seven days. As a YA horror novel “Shutter” really delivered in spades, it was fast paced, powerfully drawn characters, loaded with creatively drawn monsters, and Micheline’s team of sidekicks had more than enough whack to kick both the “Ghostbusters” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” into retirement. Highly recommended for fans of supernatural horror AGED THIRTEEN+.

I was a huge fan of the very cool “Odd and True” by Cat Winters, which was a refreshing mix of historical fiction, family drama, folklore and the supernatural set in Oregon around 1910. I’m not sure if the cover does the cover much justice, it seems to imply the two teenagers are ass-kicking predecessors of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” but it’s much more thoughtful and character driven than a crash bang wallop story. The story alternates between the two sisters and the reader gets to see the past through Od's eyes and the present through Tru's, although the two sequences are only a few years apart.

When Trudchen was a little girl her sister Odette used to tell her stories of monster slayings and ferocious creatures, perhaps to disguise the humdrum nature of their lives on a remote Oregon farm, living with their aunt and uncle, but harbouring dreams of their real mother and their exotic family heritage in Europe. The chapters by Tru happen in the present take us on an adventure across America where well face dangers, hunt monsters, and uncover family secrets. Od's chapters tell us about the past; how the two sisters grew up, the truth about their family history and what happened to Od when she was sent away from home and her sister. I really liked both sisters, their different struggles, and the simple fact that the supernatural element did not dominate what I found to be a very charming novel. And I REALLY loved what was a totally terrific final chapter. This book is most likely aimed at girls, which is highly recommended for those AGED THIRTEEN+.

Billed as “The Hunger Games meets Jurassic Park” is high praise indeed, and although SM Wilson’s entertaining monster-mashup never really reaches those dizzy heights it is a highly engaging fusion of science fiction, dystopia, adventure, and dinosaur epic which pre-teens and young teens should enjoy tremendously. It’s set in a world pretty much like ours, which is dealing with its own problems such as hunger, overcrowding and lack of healthcare. As it’s a dystopian novel life is cheap, well is shared unfairly and there are dangerous contests held for participants to win food and medicine.
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Their world is split into two continents - on one live humans (Earthasia), squeezed together competing for space and scant resources, on the other live dinosaurs (Piloria), with potential living areas and food supplies that we might be able to utilise. The winners of the various competitions which take place in the first half of the novel are those chosen to explore and take valuable resources from Piloria, including dinosaur eggs. The novel is seen from the points of view of two characters, Lincoln and Stormchaser who must fight against the odds against both the dinosaurs and others in power scheming against them. “The Extinction Trials: Exile” is out later in 2018. Book one was good fun and an easy enough read for those AGED ELEVEN+.

“Alone” by Cyn Balog is a genuine twister, along with being an easy going read, and could be a terrific recommendation for teens who like thrillers with a good mix of horror. The novel is narrated by Seda who is not the most reliable of story tellers, she most certainly has her issues, which are revealed as the plot plays out. Her convoluted family includes two sets of twins and an invisible friend who may or not be the twin who once shared the womb her. Seda’s family inherit a remote mansion which is used for murder mystery entertainment events, they move to the house intending to sell it, however things take much longer than planned and the family begins to fracture. There is no mobile phone coverage in this remote part of Pennsylvania and Seda begins to question her own sanity with the weird goings on in the house.

The story progresses, and we end up with four stranded high school aged teenagers coming to stay with Seda and her family. With these four enters a love interest for Seda and things get even stranger as nobody is quite whom they seem. If you do read this book I suggest you do so carefully as it has some clever twists, as it’s seen entirely from Seda’s perspective tread carefully. Although it had quite a slow start, once you get into the head of Seda’s teenage musings, it had a lot going for it with obvious nods to classic texts such as “The Shining” and “The Taming of the Shrew”. A great read for teens who like top notch thriller horrors, recommended for teens AGED THIRTEE

 
Today we have an in-depth interview with Peadar Ó Guilín who in 2016 wrote one of the most outstanding fantasy/horror YA novels of the last few years ‘The Call’ which in the time since it was published has steadily begun to pick up momentum through word of mouth praise. It was also Long Listed for the prestigious Carnegie Medal book prize, this is very high praise, as genre fiction rarely does well in this competition. In the last couple of weeks, the highly anticipated sequel ‘The Call 2: The Invasion’ was released and having read both books it may be one of the rare occasions when a sequel truly tops the original. Both books are set in a version of Ireland where children aged between the age of 12-18 are ripped out of time for 3 minutes and 4 seconds and magically reappear in ‘The Grey Lands’, the exiled home of an ancient race from Irish mythology, the Sídhe. What happens to them there is pretty nasty, but we won’t ruin the surprise. Let’s find out more from Peadar….
 
GNoH: Irish mythology is at the heart of both novels, would an Irish teenage reader be
familiar with the legends of Sídhe and specific gods like ‘Dagda’? Do you think these old
legends been usurped by Disney princesses? I asked my fourteen-year- old Irish niece who
lives near Cork and she knew very little?
 
Peadar: Irish kids do learn traditional legends, but a lot of the stuff I used in ‘The Call’ is more obscure. Some of it comes from dying superstitions, some from storytellers or academic studies. There are also large parts that I made up in order to score a political point that nobody will notice. But I amuse myself any way I can. 
 
GNoH: Nessa, who dominates both books, is one of the pluckiest teen characters I have
come across in years. Forget Katniss from ‘The Hunger Games’, this spunky fourteen is the
absolute real deal and you put her through the emotional and physical roller-coaster in both
books, maybe more so in the second. Could you give us some insight into how you came up with such an amazing young woman?
 
Peadar:  I am always interested in people that others discount. The supposed no-hopers who won’t accept the role that society has prepared for them. Nessa is one of those. I remember seeing a line from the Bible about the end of the world, and what a terrible time it would be for the mothers of young children. Most people want to escape the apocalypse. This includes not just the mothers of young children, but also people in wheelchairs. Are they just going to lie there and wait for the zombies? I don’t think so.
 
GNoH: In both novels the Sídhe enter Ireland through these mounds in the earth, known as
‘fairy mounds’ which are common in Ireland. Obviously as a child you had a very fertile
imagination, did you live near one or visit one as a kid?
 
Peadar:  I did have a pretty vivid imagination, all right! At least, I like to think I did. But sadly, although I was chased through fields by more than one farmer, I spent most of my life in a town and only experienced the Sídhe through books.
 
GNoH: Would we be right in saying you have a day job working in computing, but are also
skilled somewhat in languages?
 
Peadar:  I do work with computers. I love languages and can speak Irish, Italian and French. I also have a smattering of other tongues.
 
GNoH: I read you’ve always been interested in writing. Which authors have been pivotal in
your personal development as a writer?
 
Peadar:  Robert Graves, Tolkien and Tanith Lee were all big for me. The first produced my favourite character in the ‘Emperor Claudius’. The second filled my imagination to bursting point. And the third, Tanith Lee -- particularly in ‘Silver Metal Lover’ - did the same for my emotions.
 
GNoH: Your version of the faerie folk, or the Sídhe, is particularly violent, this race live,
breathe and take great joy in inflicting pain. Is your vision of this race inspired by anything
specific or did you just want to make them as nasty as possible to fuel the novels?
 
Peadar:  Their cruelty had to be proportionate to the suffering that we, the Irish, had caused them, and were still causing them. They are in the ‘Grey Lands’ forever, while we live in what should have been their paradise. They are entitled to be vicious.
 
GNoH: Which YA authors, not necessarily horror do you read? You share the same homeland as true giants Darren Shan, Eion Colfer and John Connolly after all…
 
Peadar:  Ireland is crawling with writers, of course and I try to keep up with them all. Recent scary stuff I’ve read has come from Deirdre Sullivan, Celine Kiernan and Ruth Frances Long. Meanwhile, the non-Irish Martin Stewart has just written a horror called ‘The Sacrifice Box’ that I’m keen to get my hands on.
 
GNoH: Your fiction is a fine balance of dark fantasy branching into horror, tell us which adult
writers really give you a kick, I’m guessing you read both genres?
 
Peadar:  Lots of the writers I most admire span the very same two genres. George R. R. Martin, N. K. Jemisin and R. Scott Bakker have all ploughed that particular furrow very well.
 
GNoH: My twelve-year- old daughter is a particularly fussy reader but devoured ‘The Call’ in
three days loving it, however, upon completion her immediate reaction was “Daddy, Nessa
should have been called earlier!” Would you care to comment [I don’t agree by the way]?
 
Peadar:  I’m delighted she read it and I acknowledge that she has a good point. But narratively, I don’t think it could have worked. Also, in the logic of the world, Nessa might have had to wait until she was 17 to be Called, so, it wasn’t that late.
 
GNoH: Dystopian literature has been riding a wave of success in YA for over ten years now,
‘The Call’ has many dystopian hallmarks, but the mythology twist takes it into a much
fresher direction. Did you intentionally write a novel which was crossing into several genres?
Most YA literature is usually very easy to pigeonhole ‘The Call’ novels are most definitely
Not….
 
Peadar:  Honestly, all I did was follow the logic of the initial premise. I don’t think there’s any point in classifying a book even as you’re writing it. You’ll just be second-guessing yourself the whole way through instead of creating the strongest possible story.
 
GnoH: Ginger Nuts of Horror gives YA horror must wider coverage than anywhere else on
the web, but in recent times we’re struggling to find good new stuff to read. What’s your
take on the current state of the YA horror market? Also, there has been fresh interest (and
republishing) of vintage Point Horror novels… Personally I don’t think this reflects well on
the current state of YA horror as I don’t think they’ve aged well… Any thoughts?
 
Peadar:  You and your readers would know far more about this than I! I don’t deliberately go looking for horror. I’ll pick up whatever seems interesting and sometimes it will be a chiller like Nick Cutter’s ‘The Troop’, which I read a few weeks ago, or a non-fiction book or a historical novel. As a result, I am the last person to realise if a particular genre is suffering from a lack of publishers’ attention.
 
GNoH: Nessa may be the driving force of both novels, but lots of other characters also have
voices, were you ever tempted to tell part of the story from a Sídhe POV?
 
Peadar: No, never. They are quite insane, and I would be afraid that I wouldn’t do them justice.
 
GNoH: Superb pacing is key to the success of both novels (no matter what my daughter
says), especially the way you gradually reveal what a desperate mess Ireland is in. For
example, we find out very slowly: there has been no change of government for 25 years,
disabled children are offered poison as an alternative to The Call, or the fact that there is
now only one surviving radio station in Ireland. Could you give us any tips on how you went
about creating such a vividly drawn version of Ireland devastated by The Call? Your ‘world
building’ is truly superb.
 
Peadar:  Thank you! I usually use an extrapolation worldbuilding technique. In other words, I start out with a premise, i.e., the existence of fire-breathing dragons, and from then on, every detail I add must make sense. For example, all villages are built underground. Humans evolve asbestos skin etc.
 
GNoH: The endnotes of ‘The Call 2’ imply that a sequel was not always on the cards? Did I
read that right? As duologies go it’s near perfect, with one of the best YA sequels I have read
in a long-time. Surely ‘The Call 2: The Invasion’ was not an after-thought?
 
Peadar:  Oh, I always hoped there’d be a sequel and I knew if I wrote one, it would involve an invasion. But other than that, not a single plot-point of the sequel was imagined until the first book was already complete.
 
GNoH: As YA goes both books are very violent, book 2 perhaps more so, there is a lot of
bloody body-horror with poor unfortunates being turned into horrible creatures and worse… How did you gage the levels of violence? Did your editors ever ask you to tone it down?
 
Peadar:  They never did ask me to tone it down, but there were a few points where I wondered if I’d gone too far. Also, there was already so much violence in the second book that I myself started removing gory details that weren’t absolutely necessary for the plot.
 
GNoH: By day I work in a school library and have been championing ‘The Call’ for ages, as
has Ginger Nuts of Horror, but the dull-as- dishwater hardback cover really did it no favours.
What possessed your publishers? Initially, the only kids to borrow it from my library did so
on my recommendation and latterly word of mouth. What did you think of the cover?
Personally, I thought the American cover was much stronger….
 
Peadar:  I am the least visually artistic person in the universe. I never know what will make somebody pick up a novel. The thing is, I think publishers are always trying to figure out the exact same thing. After all these years, they still seem to hit on the right design through luck more than anything else.
 
GNoH: Could you tell us a little bit about your earlier series ‘The Bone World Trilogy’ which
concluded in 2014? Do you think the success of ‘The Call’ will revive interest in this earlier
work?
 
Peadar: I still love my first books. ‘The Bone World Trilogy’ is about a primitive tribe of humans who share a giant, ruined city with equally primitive tribes from a wide variety of alien races. For generations, all these tribes hunted each other for food, because nothing else was edible. The tribe are considering swapping the main character for food, but just then, a civilised woman falls out of the sky and everything changes. I would love if these came back into print, but we’ll just have to see.
 
GNoH: If you could hang out with an author for an evening (living or dead) and it doesn’t
have to be horror, who would it be and why?
 
Peadar: I’d love to spend a bit of time with Douglas Adams and hang on his every word. I’m sure I’d laugh enough to ruin everybody else’s dinner, though.
 
GNoH: Here’s a real curveball question for you… I was wracking my brains for books I’ve read which use Irish mythology and recall reading Bridget Wood, whose real name is I believe Sarah Rayne. Between 1991-94 (around the time I read them) she wrote a spectacularly brutal violent four-book- series called ‘Wolf King’. I’m not sure if they’re well known or not, but you should check them out. Or maybe you have come across her? I think she has Irish connections…
 
Peadar:  I’m really sorry, but that’s a new one for me! I never heard of her. But it does sound great.
 
GNoH: I imagine you are, deservedly so, going to be riding ‘The Call’ wave for a while now,
but what do have planned for your next writing project?
 
Peadar:  I am currently editing a YA epic fantasy set in an imaginary land that resembles a mix between 1970s Africa and 19th Century Ireland. It has helicopters. It has witchcraft and demons and a President for Life with a chest-full of medals. I just hope some publisher is interested!
 
GNoH: That’s twenty questions Peadar and twenty fascinating answers and plenty for our readers to chew over. Thank you very much for taking the time to visit Ginger Nuts of Horror, we’ve had great pleasure recommending ‘The Call’ to everyone we know, and we hope your superb sequel gets the success it richly deserves.
 
Tony Jones
 
 

“Ink” the debut novel of Alice Broadway is a clever fusion of fantasy, horror and dystopia. Set in an unknown location, Saintstone, where culturally everything revolves around tattooing. Babies are tattooed when they are newly born, and thereafter every significant moment in their lives is recorded on their bodies with a fresh tattoo. This ranges from everything from exam success to marriage. The novel is seen from the point of view of Leora, who dreams of being a tattoo artist when she reaches adulthood. However, when her father dies suddenly her life is turned upside down. After a death all bodies are dried, then skinned of their tattoos are once they are removed are converted into a ‘Skin Book’ which records the good deeds and successes in any life, and this is a way of the deceased to enter this society’s version of heaven. When Leona discovers that her father’s ink has been edited and his book is not available for reading, she begins to realise he had secrets she did not understand? Of course, she begins to investigate and there is both mystery and romance along in the way, in this highly readable novel probably more aimed at girls. Shockingly, she discovers there is another disregarded society, those without tattoos, known as ‘Blanks’.  “Ink” was a clever character driven novel which lacked action, but more than made up for it with a cleverly drawn world. Aimed at ages 12/13+
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I was totally blown away by David Owen’s “The Fallen Children” which is a very clever update of John Wyndham’s “The Midwich Cuckoos”. However, this superb revamp is not set in a quaint English village, the action takes place in a London estate aptly called Midwich Tower.  In a single night, many inhabitants of the Midwich tower block loses consciousness, when they wake up, four girls are pregnant. It’s quite graphic, slightly sleazy, and unsettling stuff. Answers are hard to come by - what happened to them? What does it mean? When the pregnancies start developing much faster than they should, time is short, and everything changes for these girls. It’s a great teen novel which meshes horror and science fiction with the troubles the girls face, the shame, the name-calling, and having to tell parents about the pregnancies. In its own way it was explicit for a teen novel, but the conceptions are handled well, and the teenagers are both sympathetically and believably drawn. “The Fallen Children” pays considerable respect to the Wyndham novel, but it really does run on its own two feet and is no copy.  Recommended for ages 12+. ​

In 2015 “Frozen Charlotte” really hit the horror hotspot in some style, Alex Bell’s dark and unsettling tale of killer tiny porcelain dolls, the size of two pence pieces, was an edgy, tension rich read for the age group 10-14 and was particularly popular with girls. Tiny little dolls that could sew your eyes shut when you sleep are guaranteed to be a success with young horror readers!  We’re pleased to say the dolls are back in Alex Bell’s terrific prequel which heads back to 1910 and explores the origins of the dolls on the windswept Isle of Skye. It covers some of the same themes of seances, contacting the dead and is set in the orphanage which has been converted into a house from the original novel. A young teacher arrives at the school and soon finds strange things going on, a vicious Headmistress and young charges with all sorts of problems. Her past follows her though, and things are going to get a whole lot worse.  Aimed at 11+.
 
If you’re an author or published involved in YA do get in touch with us if you have a book we might be interested in reading for review.   The books we love are usually given their own major review, others which we enjoy can feature in our round-ups, which are every second month or so. The books do not have to be brand new, we are happy to feature books we might have missed first time around.  Drop us an email by clicking here.

Tony Jones ​