 Recap: If you missed part 1, 2 and 3 featuring numbers 21 to 50, the links below Part 1: 50-41 Part 2: 40-31 Part 3: 30-21 This is our fourth batch of ten, so stay tuned for the next selections. All are outstanding reads and great recommendations to buy for any teens in your life. Once our number one is unveiled, we will also reveal numbers 51-100. Here are some pointers to bear in mind for this list: a. I need to have read the book for it to be featured. Nobody can read everything and there are bound to be amazing books I have not come across. b. I do not care whether a book has 30,000 reviews on Goodreads or none. c. My fourteen-year-old daughter reads a lot of YA horror and has read many of these also. d. YA, does not mean books for children, these are ‘teen’ reads not books for younger children. e. Many of my other YA charts featured on Ginger Nuts blend into other genre fiction, this one concentrates on straight horror f. I am quite liberal with my age ‘rating’, other librarians might raise them by a year or two, especially 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  20. Melvin Burgess – The Hit (2012) Melvin Burgess is a YA writer who has been around for decades but is never really thought of as a genre or horror writer, as the majority of his work deals with gritty social realism and is most famous for the multi award winning and controversial cult classic Junk. However, if you look at his impressive back-catalogue more closely there are some excellent novels with horror or supernatural elements, including Sara’s Face, The Hunger or the more recent The Lost Witch. However, The Hit is his title which has been most popular in my library, even if it is not one of his better-known titles. If you go further back, make sure you check out Bloodtide (1999) one of the best YA post-apocalyptic thrillers, easily blowing the huge selling Hunger Games away. The Hit has an amazing hook: take a pill which will give you an amazing week, but at the end of it, you pay the price and die. For teenagers, even this startling basic concept of the book is disturbing and can lead to fascinating discussions. The Hit crash lands fast and keeps moving at lightning speed, taking the reader into main character Adam's world immediately, sweeping the reader along into a world of riots, surveillance, and inequality. It is set about fifty years or so into a future Britain, where there are huge divides between rich and poor and has many of the hallmarks of a great dystopian thriller. As always with Burgess's novels there are some grim and gritty themes which he deals with through his conflicted and believable characters. His depiction of the nutter gangster Christian was very convincing and spectacularly nasty in a book loaded with darkness. Although this is a controversial subject The Hit has a message of life, the value of it, peer pressure, how you live it and the choices you make are truthful and hard hitting and relevant to all age groups, not just teenagers. This is not for the faint-of-heart, but powerful thought-provoking stuff and deserves a place in YA horror circles as it is considerable bleaker and more thought provoking than most traditional horror novels. AGE 14+ 19. Jacqueline West – Last Things (2019) YA novels with a musical theme are notoriously tricky to get right and when you throw in heavy metal it becomes even more difficult to avoid the dreaded devil-horn clichés. Amazingly, Jacqueline West superb Last Things avoids these pitfalls in a gripping tale of a tortured teenage musician who believes his success might be because of a strange conversation he cannot shake from his head. The music scenes with main character Anders truly sizzle, equally his obsession with improving his guitar style and the comedown when the gig is over is completely convincing when he is alone brooding in his bedroom. The story is told via two uniquely different first-person narratives in alternating chapters; ‘Thea’ and ‘Anders’, with all the action taking place in the small Minnesota town of Greenwood. The band are beautifully portrayed as three young men, with dreams of escaping their small town, until the cracks begin to show after Anders makes a few rash big decisions on his own. They are big news and it is easy for the reader to get carried along by their success. The second narrative, featuring Thea, develops very slowly as this teenager is much more than a fan and slowly the narratives merge is the strangest of ways. Where is the supernatural angle you might ask? Anders believes, even if he practices for hours every day, he plays better than he should or deserves to. He suspects something dark has happened to make him this good and feels that deep down he is a cheat and does not deserve this success, playing on the old ‘selling your soul for rock and roll’ story. The blend of atmosphere, the music vibe, the subtle supernatural approach, and a host of engaging characters made this one of the best YA supernatural thrillers I have read in a long time. Make sure you’re listening to Rage against the Machine if you’re checking out this book, as the author name checks them as one of the bands which ‘Last Things’ might sound a bit like. Two copies of this novel are happily in my library and the kids are loving them. AGE 12+ 18. Kendare Blake – Anna Dressed in Blood (2011) Kendare Drake is undoubtedly much better known in the USA than in the UK, where her excellent range of both horror and dark fantasy is surprisingly unknown. Anna Dressed in Blood and its sequel Girl of Nightmares which appeared a couple of years later is a highly entertaining spin on the teenage exorcist, ghost hunter, story. Although the ghost ‘Anna’ is referenced in the title, the story is mostly seen from the point of view of Cas Lowood, who has inherited an unusual vocation: he kills the dead. Whilst most kids Cas’s age are enjoying high school, instead he moves around the country with his mother following leads about hauntings, local lore, and unusual deaths. He is also a boy with on a mission, his father before him, was gruesomely murdered by a ghost and Cas takes revenge on every ghost he encounters. The novel kicks off when the mother and son arrive in a new town in search for a ghost known as ‘Anna Dressed in Blood’ who apparently got her name after having her throat cut and blood flowed freely all over her dress. However, this ghost is incredibly powerful and might not be all bad, so their normal strategy of ‘track, hunt, kill’ goes out the window as he has a weird connection with the ghost after she spares his life after his initial attempt to exorcise her goes badly wrong. Once he begins to dig deeper he uncovers a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before, who has been raging since her death in 1958, killing everybody who has dared to venture inside her Victorian house. Anna Dressed in Blood was a superb ghost story of exorcisms, hauntings, and it was very nice to read a novel written in the first person from a male point of view, in a genre which is totally dominated these days by girls. Although it lacks scares, it more than makes up with it with believable well drawn high school characters and the obvious sympathy you are going to feel for the ghost. And the ending will most certainly make you return for the sequel, most kids I know who have read book one, head straight to book two and why not? AGE 12+ 17. Frances Hardinge – Cuckoo Song (2012) Frances Hardinge is undoubtedly the best all-round writer in the broad area of ‘dark fiction’ writing in the UK today and although her fiction is impossible to pigeon-hole to any specific genre Cuckoo Song is probably her closest to straight horror. However, she has many others, probably branching into fantasy which have horror elements, including The Lie Tree, A Skinful of Shadows and Deeplight which I would also recommend without hesitation. Cuckoo Song also won the best novel award at the British Fantasy Society and was nominated for a host of others including the sadly defunct James Herbert Award for Horror Writing Best Book and the prestigious Carnegie Medal. Frances is one of few YA authors frequently nominated for adult awards and often recommended by leading adult horror authors such as Ramsey Campbell. In 2019 Ginger Nuts of Horror interviewed Frances and, in this excerpt, she discusses the inspiration she got from folktales for Cuckoo Song….. “Cuckoo Song is very much inspired by the old changeling folktales. I’ve been fascinated by the figure of the changeling since I was young, because as a child I had an irrational fear of doubles, doppelgangers, and evil twins. I had nightmares in which somebody I trusted turned out to be something else impersonating them. When I started reading the old changeling folktales, however, I discovered that they were chilling in ways I hadn’t expected. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of those old stories was the way in which the human families reacted once they knew that they had a changeling in their midst. Changeling children (many of them babies) would be thrown in the fire, hurled into running water, beaten with sticks, or left on dung heaps to scream. To my surprise, I found myself feeling sorry for the changeling. Many aspects of Cuckoo Song are borrowed from the old changeling folktales. A tailor to see the truth. Eggshells and absurdity to flush out the imposter. A knife to hold the way open. A weaponised cockerel. A week of waning. A thing of sticks and leaves...” This is an incredibly creepy and brooding novel, with exquisitely slow pace, which reveals its secrets very slowly. A girl wakes up after an accident she barely remembers, and everybody seems scared of her. She is, quite literally, not herself. Join Triss on the challenging quest to save her humanity in a memorable blend of fantasy, horror, period drama and folklore. AGE 12+  16. Jeremy de Quidt – The Wrong Train (2016) Everyone likes a good ghost story, right? If you do, then look no further than this, a scary series of inter-connected supernatural stories lynch-pinned by a little boy stuck with a creepy old man at a deserted train station. Apparently, the author De Quidt does not read horror, making this achievement even cooler. This is a great collection for kids which expertly blends the old-fashioned MR James style with the modern, with the story of the old man menacing the poor little boy possibly the most unsettling of all. Never judge a book by its cover and behind a rather drab looking train time-table book-jacket lurks a truly delicious collection of eight short stories aimed at the teen/YA market, or anybody who enjoys a bloody good old-fashioned scare…. And to be frank, if any adult horror writers (published or unpublished) out there want an A-Z lesson on how to construct supernatural stories for children, then look no further than this masterful collection. Many of the tales sneakily play on the insecurities of everyday life, especially those irrational fears that put children on edge, from the outdoor light which randomly flashes on and off, to the smelly old photo album, not forgetting the strangeness of a new house or even the invisible friend who is just a tad too real. Jeremy De Quidt presses all the right buttons in building an overwhelming atmosphere of darkness which permeates throughout all unique eight stories. AGE 11+ 15. Lindsey Barraclough - Long Lankin (2011) Long Lankin is a terrifying tale of a house cursed by an ancient evil, set in the 1950s, inspired by a haunting folk song about murder, witchcraft, and revenge. Two unlucky children, Cora and her little sister Mimi (aged fourteen and ten), are sent to live with their elderly aunt in the isolated village of Bryers Guerdon and receive a less than warm welcome and are desperate to return to London. Instead, their arrival has reawakened an evil that has lain waiting for years and they find themselves next on this bogeyman’s hit list. Along with Roger and Peter, two young village boys, Cora must uncover the horrifying truth that has held Bryers Guerdon in its dark grip for centuries - before it is too late for Mimi. You will rarely see a better use of a rural setting than Long Lankin, especially for city children, which also effortlessly moves into the areas of folk horror, giving this tale an exceptionally convincing backstory. Here’s part of the creepy old song: Says milord to milady, as he mounted his horse: “Beware of Long Lankin that lives in the moss.” Says milord to milady, as he went on his way: “Beware of Long Lankin that lives in the hay.” It is roughly based around a real ghostly character from local English folklore and this horrible creation is as nasty as anything you will find in adult horror fiction. Worse even. In the past I have met Lindsay at book events and it’s amazing such a charming lady can create such an evil monster, sadly she has not published anything since the 2012 sequel Mark of Cain, but I hope she returns at some point. If Adam Nevill wrote a kid’s book it might be a bit like this, coincidentally he also found it equally scary and noted on his website “I’ll read it to my nipper when she’s twenty!” which says it all, as it is genuinely scary. Nevill is absolutely right, you’ll quickly forget you are reading a book, aimed at kids, which will creep you out more that most adult horror. AGE 12+ 14. Liana Gardner – Speak No Evil (2019) Liana Gardner’s brilliant Speak No Evil revolves around a sixteen-year-old girl who is in the American care-home system and has not spoken for almost two years. The doctor treating her realises music is very important to her and uses lyrics as a way of breaking down the communication barriers. The reasons for this are revealed very slowly and is told over multiple time periods, going back to when Melody Fisher was five-years-old, with the novel repeatedly jumping across the years, but as it progresses the backstory slowly closes in on the Melody who is sixteen. Ultimately this it is a novel about real life horror; abuse, overcoming it, and the resilience of Melody Fisher as she slowly, with a lot of help, turns her life around. I am not ashamed to say I had a tear in my eye on more than one occasion. It is the backdrop of the story which edges it into dark fiction, whilst also working as a compelling family drama, as this is very dark stuff. Melody’s parents both attend a church where snake-handling is part of the normal Sunday service, however, Melody’s mother is also scared of the snakes, but Melody is gifted with animals and has a beautiful voice which almost has a hypnotic quality. Soon something goes horribly wrong with the snakes which rips their family apart. Teenage novels which touch on subjects as dark as this need to applaud, and although it also features a very unpleasant rape scene, it is handled sensitively. Everybody needs hope and even though Melody does not talk she does have others fighting in her corner for her, including the reader, I loved this girl. Perhaps in real life she would slip through the cracks of society? But this if fiction and we all need hope. A quite beautiful book and one in which I am very happy to champion and have two copies in my library. AGE 14+ 13. E Lockhart – We Were Liars (2014) This was one of the books my daughter absolutely adored and like most readers, once she got to the mind-boggling finish went right back to the start and reread the first thirty pages. The ending gives the beginning new meaning and We Were Liars has one of the best twists in modern YA fiction, or for that matter any novel. Ultimately, the twist makes the book which also qualifies it for this list and due to avoiding potential spoilers I am going to keep this review exceptionally vague. If you check this book out online, be careful, as it is very easy to have it spoilt, or by a friend who might let the cat out of the bag, even unintentionally. Once you have finished We Were Liars you will definitely want to talk it out with friends. This suspense mystery is set on a private family owned by a rich family who holiday there every summer and centres around teenager Cadence Sinclair, her cousins and extended family. Cadence has problems with her memory due to an accident which happened prior to the book starting the previous summer, but is revisited in flashbacks, considering what is going on in Cadence’s life she is also a classic unreliable narrator who is disconnected from the rest of her family, and with good reason. Overall, the author paints an evocative picture of a family portrait being ripped by tragedy alongside a tale of suspense which reveals its secrets deliciously slowly, building towards the killer ending. AGE 13+  12. Amy Lukavics - Daughters unto Devils (2015) It is rare to see a ghost or horror story set on the plains of the pioneer era American outback, so Daughters unto Devils was a unique experience. This wickedly well-crafted chiller had more creeps in it than many adult horror novels and has an edginess you rarely find in fiction aimed at teens. I am also pleased to report that it creeped out (my normally unshakable) daughter so much she had a nightmare! Written in the first person, with a very authentic 16-year-old female narrator, who lives with her parents and four younger siblings in a remote cabin near the bottom of a mountain. She is secretly having an affair with a post delivery boy and early in the novel realises she is pregnant. There is a second narrative which flicks back to the previous year when there was a severe snowstorm, stranding the family in their home, while their mother became ill while heavily pregnant. In the middle of all this stress, Amanda flips out, claiming to see the Devil after which she struggles to grasp reality. Whether her visions are merely cabin fever or something else is not revealed, but this ‘episode’ is something which the family do not talk about and is the elephant in the room. Amanda feels guilty over everything, particularly praying for the death of her unborn child and her youngest sibling who screams and screams all the time, while the reader is not sure how sick the child is. Imagine The Little House on the Prairie with demons and you are heading in the direction this outstanding novel moves into. As the plot develops the family uproot themselves, once again based on superstition, and relocate to a prairie close to a forest. Moving into an abandoned cabin the supernatural element of the novel kicks in and you feel the helplessness of the young children who are easy prey without their parents. Thrown into the mix are demons, madness, guilt, nutty neighbours, young love, and teenagers struggling to hold their family in the face of real nastiness, real and very probably supernatural. There is also a meat pie you really would not want to eat, and do not even mention the ant scene! At 200 pages it is the perfect length for teenagers who enjoy intelligent horror with genuine scares. It has a strong, spunky, female lead, who although she is tough on herself, is both engaging and a great girl to root for. AGE 13+ 11. Joshua Gaylord – When We Were Animals (2015) When We Were Animals is a strange novel about a small town where when teenagers reach a certain age, they ‘breach’. Although the concept of breaching is never fully explained, it is best described as a strong mental and physical pull where most teens lose control of their inhibitions, running wild in the streets, sometimes naked, abandoning all normal boundaries. Their parents do not do anything about this because they did it themselves years earlier and it is seen as a peculiar right-of-passage into adulthood. Is When We Were Animals an adult or a teen novel? It was incredibly different to tell, however, it completely knocked out my fourteen-year-old daughter who found a lot of magic in the novel, particularly in relation to the ‘bad boy’ Blackhat Roy. He was not a main character, but his shadow dominated the book and my daughter felt herself being pulled to his dark, irresistible, side. Blackhat Roy was nasty, interesting, layered, violent and very human character. He was the ultimate outsider. Lumen, however, swears she will never breach because of what happened to her mother. Soon everyone around her is breaching, including her only friend Polly. When the sound of the teens howling echoes the streets, she hears her classmates calling her name and the pull becomes almost irresistible. The novel also flashes forward to see Lumen as a married adult with a son, as she reflects on her past and begins to feel the urge again, it is a coming-of-age tale like no other. Technically an adult novel, but very accessible to teens, I have used When We Were Animals for my school book club and it has been hugely popular. In 2019 Ginger Nuts of Horror interviewed Joshua Gaylord and asked him to provide more information on the phenomenon of ‘breaching’ which is at the core of When We Were Animals. “The story is definitely my version of werewolf mythology. But it also comes from the fact that when I was younger, I always romanticized werewolves because of their freedom. I was like Lumen—a good student who was always overly concerned with what people thought about me. When I thought about what it would be like to be a werewolf, I imagined not caring about all the mundane daily concerns of image or moral consequence. I loved the idea of just running through the streets, not caring what people thought about me. For me, the werewolf mythology was always about fulfilling the fantasy of being selfish, of dropping the choirboy façade I was so intent on maintaining.” AGE 14+   the heart and soul of YA horror fiction reviews |
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