TOP FIFTY YA HORROR NOVELS OF THE LAST DECADE PART 1: NUMBERS 50-41

INTRODUCTION

Over the next few weeks, we are running down my favourite fifty YA horror novels of the last decade. Ginger Nuts of Horror has been reviewing YA horror since 2015, I have been a school librarian since 1994 and a regular reader of YA for all those years. This is not at authoritative, be all and end all kind of list, merely my ‘favourite’ fifty as I remember them.
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We’re going to be releasing them in batches of ten, so stay tuned for upcoming selections. All are outstanding reads and great recommendations to buy for any teens in your life.
Here are some pointers to bear in mind:

a.     I need to have read the book for it to be considered, there are bound to be great books out there I have not come across.

b.     I do not care whether a book has 30,000 stars on Goodreads or none, If I liked it and feel it can connect with teenagers then that is good enough.

c.     Many, but not all, of these books have been very popular reads with the kids in my library.

d.     My fourteen-year-old daughter reads a lot of YA horror and recommends many of these also.

e.     I have ignored sequels.

f.      I have included a few, what I call, ‘accessible adult’ titles, these are books that might have been released into the adult market but have picked up teenage readers since then.

g.     YA, does not mean books for children, so except for a couple of selections, these are ‘teen’ reads not books for younger children or primary school.

h.     Many of my other YA charts featured on Ginger Nuts blend into other genre fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy, this one does not and is much more concentrated around straight horror and the supernatural.
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i.      I’m quite liberal with my age ‘rating’, other librarians might raise them by a year or two, particularly in America.

If you would like to purchase any of these books just click on the titles to be taken to you regional Amazon store 

50. DAVE SHELTON: THIRTEEN CHAIRS (2012)

We are kicking off with a beautifully crafted collection of thirteen ghost stories which is more of a kid’s book but is also suitable for younger teen readers who do not want something too tough or long. All the stories are cleverly intertwined together by a little boy dared to go into a haunted house and when exploring finds himself drawn into a room with twelve strangers and an empty chair which has obviously been prepared for his arrival.  All those sitting in the circle have a story to tell, including young Jack who already wishes he never entered the house in the first place.
The thirteen tales are deliciously varied and for younger kids finding their feet in horror and ghost stories this is a wonderful introduction. Along the way we take in spooky goings on at an Arctic substation, a tale of bullying at school and the story of a family’s boat overturning at sea. The flow is pitch perfect, and it has a creaky old-fashioned feel that helps create atmosphere, enticing the readers to read ‘one more story’ before bed. But the younger ones will probably want to keep the lights on! We will have a second single author collection in one of the following sections. AGE 10+

49. ALEX GORDON SMITH: THE FURY (2012)

This novel had an exceptionally neat premise: one day, without warning, everybody violently turns against a few random teenagers who are introduced character by character. Every single person they meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage, hell-bent on killing them (and a few other kids they eventually band together with). You will rarely read a better opening chapter in YA horror fiction: a kid comes downstairs looking for his breakfast, his mother starts acting a bit funny and is distracted from her hoovering and out of the blue jumps over the sofa and viciously attacks him. When the boy is down and being choked, his sister joins in and together, they kill him. Once he is dead the pair start going about their business as if nothing has happened and switch on the telly as he bleeds out behind the sofa. Wow. Beat that.

The Fury is a very chunky novel and if you hang in there and get past page 250 it heads of in a surprising, some might say crazy, direction. Initially, when these random teenagers are targeted by this invisible force, it is particularly freaky as the rest of the population turn into psychos ONLY when they are around, as if they were a trigger of some sort.  This is a very clever twist on the zombie novel (but no zombies here) and really plays on primeval fears your nearest and dearest will kill you in a heartbeat. This 500-page beast of a novel really deserves to be better known and has also been released with an even longer ‘Director’s Cut’ edition. I also really dug Gordon Smith’s great supernatural prison series Furnace although The Fury is probably aimed at a slightly older audience. AGE 13+

48. WILLIAM HUSSEY: JEKYLL’S MIRROR (2015)

In the first half of the decade the always excellent Willian Hussey wrote a string of horror novels aimed at young teens, in recent years he has been concentrating on adult fiction, he has a new YA novel coming out in 2020, sadly it’s not horror. Jekyll’s Mirror is an outstanding modern twist of RL Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde story, written for the social media generation as users of an experimental website called ‘Project Hyde’ are sucked into something much nastier as they turn against each other, have their fears manipulated and many aspects of the modern online world surface including trolling, cyber bullying and horrific violence collide fusing with dodgy magic. It is very easy to take liberties with the Stevenson masterpiece, but Hussey both updates it for the online generation whilst retains the subtleties of the original. 

The main character Sam is easy to get behind because of the internal conflicts he struggles with. His father had anger management problems so severe that he is now in prison for killing Sam’s mother. Sam feels some of that same family rage and is fearful that too much of his father lurks inside him, in another clever nod to Jekyll and Hyde. Other great Hussey YA novels to check out include Witchfinder and Haunted. AGE 11+

47. MATTHEW KIRBY: A TASTE OF MONSTERS (2016)

This historical fiction novel which blends horror with mystery is a real one-off, sadly lots of kids are turned off by this subgenre, but A Taste of Monsters fuses history nicely with horror.  It has to be the only teen novel ever written  which features both Jack the Ripper and John Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man. Set in London 1888, this wonderfully gritty and atmospheric tale has a superb main character, Evelyn Fallows, a young woman horribly disfigured by a sulphur accident in a match factory. To hide herself away, Evelyn gets a job working in a hospital, a job nobody else wants… being the nurse to the Elephant Man who has been horribly deformed since birth but has since been rescued from the streets.
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Much of this very clever novel is about the friendship which develops between Evelyn and Merrick. Evelyn loves her job and hopes never to return to the streets where she was once shunned, however, a second supernatural strand to the story add a level of mystery which sends her back to the places she hoped never to return to. The Elephant Man is haunted by apparitions, ghosts, whom he thinks are the victims of Jack the Ripper. With every murder, Merrick becomes weaker, but Evelyn will do anything to help him and the stories merge. Make no mistake about it, this was a strange book, but there was a lot going on, with the descriptions of the London streets so vivid you can smell them.  Historical fiction is not a big draw for most kids, and I can hardly think of anything less mainstream than A Taste of Monsters, so the author should be applauded for coming up with something genuinely different. AGE 13+

46. GRETCHEN McNEIL: TEN (2013)

If you’re after a perfect blend of thriller and trashy horror thriller, top heavy with loud and scared teens then Ten is most definitely a book to check out and one in which my daughter had 150% tunnel vision for. She loved it. With shades of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why ten teenagers are invited to an exclusive island for a three-day party, which they have been told to keep hush hush. This is a very cinematic book, and although there have been rumours of a film, nothing has materialised, but it might be a lot of fun, dancing with slasher horror film territory as the body-count mounts and help is faraway. 

The story is told in the third person from Meg’s point of view, whose best friend Minnie is also excited to be invited, but after they discover a DVD with the sinister message “vengeance is mine” they realise the party might not be what it is cracked up to be. When one of the other party goers is found hanged, they realise they are in a fight for their lives. From then on in Ten is a beautifully crafted whodunnit rollercoaster of a novel and you’ll struggle to figure out who the murderer is, with numerous clever red herrings. Sometimes YA novels do not have to be deep or emotional and instead there is nothing better than immersing yourself in an old-fashioned page-turner. McNeil seems to be an unknown quantity in the UK, I’ve no idea why, as MurderTrending and MurderFunding are further examples of excellent thrillers, both with convincing horror elements. Check this very cool author out today.  AGE 13+

45. WILL HILL: DEPARTMENT 19 (2011)
 
Department 19 is a government secret agency which has been involved in a never-ending battle against the supernatural, including the spread of vampirism. The novel opens when Jamie Carpenter's mother is kidnapped by strange creatures and as a result, he finds himself dragged into the shadowy agency for protection. Fortunately for Jamie, Department 19 can provide the tools he needs to find his mother, and to kill the vampires who appear to have a personal vendetta against him. But unfortunately for everyone, something much older is stirring, the king of vampires, Dracula himself. The ancient Transylvanian count becomes a recurring these in the five-book series and he really has it in for Jamie when he is recruited fully into the agency.
 
Although these are seriously chunky books, this is high-octane fun top heavy with incredible weapons, outstanding action sequences and a crazy amount of over-the-top gore. Lots of other monsters from folklore are thrown into the mash-up, with even the legendary Frankenstein’s monster joining in the fun. These are very easy to read and great for kids who want action, horror and adventure, without everything getting too serious. Will Hill later made an outstanding change of direction with a novel about a girl escaping a cult, After the Fire, a book I also loved. AGE 11+
 
44. MICHAEL THOMAS FORD: LILY (2016)

Lily by Michael Thomas Ford was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award and longlisted for the YA Bram Stoker Award and was most likely written as an adult novel, but it is also an engaging experience for fans of strange, bizarre and rather warped fairy-tales. When Lily turns thirteen, she develops a strange ability which she sees as a curse; the ability to tell when someone is going to die, merely by touching them. Upon realising this, and the imminent death of her father, but unable to prevent it, Lily becomes depressed and feels that this curse is another being living within her.

Along the way Lily attracts the attention of an ancient witch, Baba Yaga, every fairy-tale requires a witch and Baba Yaga is a terrific character as she stalks Lily, feeling her immense power but is unsure of its meaning. Magic seems to exist in this world (is it ours?) but much remains fuzzy and vague, this is one of the great strengths of the novel, fairy-tales do not need to provide all the answers and spell everything out. As the reader accompanies Lily on her strange odyssey, she stumbles upon a travelling evangelical revival tent where the Preacher Reverend Silas Everyman discovers her gift and wants to exploit it. Lily is a truly off-beat and beguiling story which is perfect for kids who want to read something genuinely different and embark upon the sort of journey Neil Gaiman might lead them on. AGE 13+

43. RICK YANCEY: THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST: THE TERROR BENEATH (2010)
 
This atmospheric gothic series has it all: monsters, corpses, spooky catacombs, atmosphere and loads of great scares, not to mention three bloody sequels which are top heavy with formidable creatures. Will Henry is an apprentice to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and starts telling his story, in diary format, the darkest secrets of the world’s most famous Monstrumologist and the dodgy experiments and dealings he gets up to in the name of science. The ‘mad scientist’ may well remind you of a crazy version of Sherlock Holmes and although Will does not really like Warthrop, he is loyal and loves the excitement and unpredictability of working with the scientist.
 
Set in the Victorian era, the atmosphere is outstanding, and for a children’s book it really is incredibly gory. Each of the novels in the series are presented as different quests and if monster mashups are your thing, these are hard to beat. In The Terror Beneath (the first book) a group of monsters from any person's worst nightmare begin to wreak havoc on the sleepy New England town of New Jerusalem and Will has to swing into action to save the day. After the conclusion of this series Yancey turned his hand to science fiction with the excellent Fifth Wave trilogy. If I had read this as an eleven-year-old I would have been knocked out, don’t be a prude, let the blood flow red, buy it for a kid today. AGE 11+

42. COURTNEY ALAMEDA: SHUTTER (2015)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
After firstly reading the brilliant science fiction horror Pitch Black I found Courtney Alameda’s earlier novel Shutter equally impressed and I am looking forward to her third release, due in 2020. As with her other work, the level of intricate supernatural world-building is first rate and there are numerous ghosts built into a first-rate story. Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat, a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum, as 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 of the camera. Hence why the book is called Shutter, the analogue SLR camera is her best weapon, with the help of her team Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film.

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 unless the team figure out how to break it. 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 ensure both the Ghostbusters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchises remain in retirement with their pipes and slippers. AGE 12+

41. MARCUS SEDGWICK: WHITE CROW (2010)

Marcus Sedgwick is one of the finest YA writers in the business who effortlessly glides around the genres and is impossible to pigeonhole. If I had compiled a ‘Top 50’ of the previous decade I would have undoubtedly included his stunning vampire novel My Swordhand is Singing. However, White Crow, an eerie modern gothic thriller, is probably the closest he has come to writing an out-an-out horror novel over the last decade, but like most of his fiction it is not easy to categorise. I love books like that. The theme of what awaits after death, nudges this complicated novel with a split triple narrative into the realms of suggestive and supernatural horror with the setting an isolated village where the local graveyard teeters on a cliff-edge which is slowly eroding and being reclaimed by the sea, with bones being found on the underlying beaches.

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca, whose story is told in the third person, is visiting Winterfold for the summer whilst her stressed policeman father faces disciplinary action and hates everything about it. She is a troubled city girl with nothing to do, detached from her city friends. But soon she meets Ferelith, whose voice is presented in the first person, and they become unlikely friends. However, Ferelith is an odd character and together they explore the village, including the ancient graveyard, but she also has her own agenda. The third narrative takes us back to 1798 and bizarre and bloody experiments into the afterlife which took place in the village after the arrival of a French doctor. The character studies of the contrasting teenagers are great, but the 1798 story takes longer getting going, but intertwines with the modern stories nicely towards the end. This is an outstanding and challenging dark thriller for teenagers who might not normally read horror which is packaged more as a thriller.  AGE 12+
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THE HEART AND SOUL OF YA HORROR FICTION