13 Horror/Thriller Books

With Halloween coming up in just a few weeks, everyone has the creepy, spooky, and scary on their mind.  Take a break from your horror movies to try one of these thrilling, scary, or creepy YA reads!

*Ghosts & Hauntings*

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (YA HIS WIN)

In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first love, killed in battle, returns.

~ Fantastic ghost story with dramatic historical backdrop. 

~ Enough twists to make me gasp in shock while reading 

~ Very suspenseful, a bit gory in parts, somewhat violent. 

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (YA PAR BLA)

For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father's work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat, but everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.

~ The plot of this book is quite dark and has its moments of creepiness but it lightens up whenever Cas puts in a thought or two (his humor really is quite good). 

~ This is definitely not your average ghost story! It's so much better!

~ Oh yes, this was a pretty scary one, especially when I was reading it at 2am and had to go to the kitchen for a snack break. 

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco (YA PAR CHU)

Okiku has wandered the world for centuries, freeing the innocent ghosts of the murdered-dead and taking the lives of killers with the vengeance they are due, but when she meets Tark she knows the moody teen with the series of intricate tattoos is not a monster and needs to be freed from the demonic malevolence that clings to him.

~ Wow this was an incredibly gripping and engaging horror novel; I could not put this book down. Parts of this horror book are very graphic and gory, so just a heads up. 

~ A deliciously creepy, but horrifyingly amazing, spook to keep you up into the wee hours!

~ An incredibly creepy and chilling paranormal/horror novel that weaves both ghost story and Japanese legend.

Insanity by Susan Vaught (YA PAR VAU)

The intertwining stories of three teenagers who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of a Kentucky mental institution.

~ When I was reading at night, and the creepiest villain of the bunch appeared, I could not stop shivering. 

~ A quick, dark, paranormal read

~  I found myself reading into the night to see what happened to the characters, only to stop reading for fear of what might invade my dreams from reading right before bed.  

*Fear & Murder*

Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz (YA ACT STO)

Seven super fans have won the trip of a lifetime to meet the master of horror, legendary film director Justin Blake. But things quickly go from delightfully dark to dangerously deadly, when Ivy, Parker, Shayla, Natalie, Frankie, and Garth find themselves trapped in an abandoned amusement park. To earn a ticket out, they must face their darkest demons one ride at a time.

~ Lock your doors, turn on all the lights and leave yourself a an escape route before you start this one!

~ It was a mash-up of all my favorite things horror and left me with chills.

~ This is one book that is all kinds of messed up and in a good way. It’s scary, strange and engrossing all in one...

This Dark Endeavor by Kennth Oppel (YA SFF OPP)

When his twin brother falls ill in the family's chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family's secret Biblioteka Obscura.

~ The story itself isn’t gruesome exactly, but is quite dark and has a fairly grim ending.

~ 304 pages of dark, adventurous and gothic goodness. 

~ If you love dark and twisted tales, then this one is for you. 

Shadowlands by Kate Brian (YA ACT BRI)

Rory, a girl in witness protection, thinks the serial killer she turned in has found her and is killing people around her. But as she investigates, she discovers a dark, disturbing truth about her new hometown.

~ Whoa. This is different. And scary. 

~ I finished this in one day, because I simply didn’t want to put it down.

~ For the first ninety pages or so I was absolutely terrified and almost stopped reading because I wasn’t sure I could handle it. 

Ten by Gretchen McNeil (YA ACT MCN)

Ten teens head to a house party at a remote island mansion off the Washington coast . . . only for them to picked off by a killer one by one.

~ I was sucked into reading this book, and couldn't put it down until I finished and learned who the killer was.

~ Both thrilling and pretty frightening when it had to be.

~ Reading Ten was kind of like reading a horror movie in book form.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (YA MYS LYG)

Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his notorious "Dear Old Dad," but believes he has a conscience that will help fight his own urges and right some of his father's wrongs, so he secretly helps the police apprehend the town's newest murderer, "The Impressionist."

~ A rather graphically violent story with plenty of psychological thriller to it.

~ Dexter fans will love it!

~ This is not a story for the faint of heart. 

*Monsters & Demons*

The Diviners by Libba Bray (YA HIS BRA)

Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.

~ There are parts of this book that are extremely creepy where you feel like screaming at the characters “No! No! Don’t go down into the creepy basement cellar.”

~ This book was full of creeping, brilliant horror, which I was absolutely not expecting.

~ Fantastic combination of horror with historical fiction. 

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (YA PAR YOV)

Sixteen-year-old Mackie Doyle knows that he replaced a human child when he was just an infant, and when a friend's sister disappears he goes against his family's and town's deliberate denial of the problem to confront the beings that dwell under the town, tampering with human lives.

~ Think of the scariest movie you've ever seen, the sadest song you know, and the one fearless leader you've always looked up to. Put them into one book and you'll have Yovanoff's "The Replacement."

~ Awesome...I totally loved it! It certainly had a dark and haunting feel to it. (I mean...look at that cover!) 

~ An eerie book that kept me up late at night.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (YA SFF MAB)

In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a bounty hunter.

~ I picked it up planning to start it, read a chapter or two, and go to sleep at a reasonable time. Then it was 5 a.m. and I was finishing it. 

~ I liked the characters, lots of actions, lots of suspense! 

~  Was on the edge of my seat a lot of the time. I just couldn't stop reading once I got started.

Zom-B by Darren Shan (YA SFF SHA)

When the news starts reporting a zombie outbreak in Ireland, B's father thinks it's a hoax-but even if it isn't, the two of them joke, it's only the Irish, right? That is, until zombies actually attack the school. B is forced on a mad dash through the serpentine corridors of high school, making allegiances with anyone with enough gall to fight off their pursuers. But when they come face-to-face with the ravenous, oozing corpses, all bets are off. There are no friends. No allies. Just whatever it takes to survive.

~ Prepare yourself for a couple of complete surprises and a really good cliff hanger.

~ It's an exciting, entertaining, fast read that is well suited to zombie fans

~ I would recommend to anyone who loves zombies and guts, or anyone who wants a quick read with some action.

**Review tidbits from the LION online catalog and from Amazon.com**

Voting for the Teens' Top Ten starts today!

Have you guys and girls heard of the Teens' Top Ten?  The Teens' Top Ten is like the teen's choice awards, for books! Teen book groups in sixteen school and public libraries around the country make lists of the books they really liked from last year and those nominations are posted online. Then, you guys read them and starting TODAY you can vote for your favorite online!  Anyone ages 12 to 18 can vote adn the winners will be announced in October.

You can VOTE HERE

Let's meet the books, shall we?  Here are the nominees for best teen books this year:

All Good Children by Catherine Austen

In the not-too-distant future, Max tries to maintain his identity in a world where the only way to survive is to conform and obey.

 (I just got this one, it will be on the shelf soon!)

 Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

Alex, a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain tumor, Tom, who has left the war in Afghanistan, and Ellie, an angry eight-year-old, join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky and kills most of the world's population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses.

(YA SFF BIC - I read this one and really liked it)

Abandon by Meg Cabot

A near-death experience, a horrible incident at school, and a move from Connecticut to Florida have turned seventeen-year-old Pierce's life upside-down, but when she needs him most John Hayden is always there, helping but reminding her of her visit to the Underworld.

(YA PAR CAB - haven't read this one, but Meg Cabot generally writes good stuff!)

 Tempest by Julie Cross

After his girlfriend Holly is fatally shot during a violent struggle, nineteen-year-old Jackson uses his supernatural abilities and travels back in time two years, where he falls in love with Holly all over again, learns that his father is a spy, and discovers powerful enemies of time who will stop at nothing to recruit him for their own purposes.

(YA SFF CRO - haven't read this one, like time travel thou - its on my to-read list!)

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Following her parents' bitter divorce as she and her father move from town to town, seventeen-year-old Mclean reinvents herself at each school she attends until she is no longer sure she knows who she is or where she belongs.

(YA FIC DES)

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.

(YA SFF DES - LOVED this one!   Read it!)

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Adam, now a rising rock star, and Mia, a successful cellist, reunite in New York and reconnect after the horrific events that tore them apart when Mia almost died in a car accident three years earlier.

(YA FIC FOR)

 

Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen

Will Scarlet shadows Robin Hood, with an unerring eye for finding treasures to steal and throwing daggers with deadly accuracy, but when Gisbourne, a ruthless bounty hunter, is hired by the sheriff to capture Robin and his band of thieves, Robin must become Will's protector risking his own life in the process.

(YA HIS GAU)

 

Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman

Facing the ultimate battle for control of the land she calls home, Eona finds herself waging an internal battle every bit as devastating as the war threatening to break out across the kingdom.

(Don't have this one YET - we do have the books that come before it.  Until we get it, you can always request it from another library)

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

(YA FIC GREE - haven't read this one but everyone else just RAVES about it)

Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge

When Paige Turner and her family move to New York City from rural Virginia, she tries to make sense of her new life through her sketchbook, and it helps bring her true personality into the open, a process that is equal parts terrifying and rewarding.

(YA GN GUL - the only graphic novel on the list)

 

Legend by Marie Lu

In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.

(YA SFF LU and YA BCD LU - I LOVEEEE Dystopia!)

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Seventeen-year-old Emerson uses her power to manipulate time to help Michael, a consultant hired by her brother, to prevent a murder that happened six months ago while simultaneously navigating their undeniable attraction to one another.

(YA PAR MCE)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.

(YA SFF MEY and YA BCD MEY - This is without a doubt my favorite on this list - CYBORG CINDERELLA? NOTHING could be better!!)

 

Shine by Lauren Myracle

When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.

(YA MYS MYR)

 

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.

(YA SFF NES)

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

When his twin brother falls ill in the family's chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family's secret Biblioteka Obscura.

(YA SFF OPP)

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Teenaged Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger on the spaceship Godspeed, wakes up to discover that someone may have tried to murder her.

(YA SFF REV)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children , an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience.

(YA SFF RIG)

Divergent by Veronica Roth

  In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

(YA SFF ROT - another great dystopian!)

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.

(YA HIS SEP)

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

(YA SFF STI and YA BCD STI)

 

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

(YA FIC ZAR)

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

In a future where chocolate and caffeine are contraband, teenage cellphone use is illegal, and water and paper are carefully rationed, sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight as heir apparent to an important New York City crime family.

Now get reading and get voting!
VOTE HERE

New Book Time - June Post 4

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

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When his twin brother falls ill in the family's chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family's secret Biblioteka Obscura.

Endure by Carrie Jones

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When evil pixies cause mass destruction and chaos in Bedford, Maine, sixteen-year-old Zara prepares for war, aligning her team of pixies with the humans she loves so much, a task made more difficult by her growing feelings for pixie king Astley.

Scandalous!: 50 Shocking Events You Should Know About by Hallie Fryd

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Do you love a good scandal? This book includes 50 juicy pop culture, political, and entertainment-related scandals complete with photos, event synopses, and a look at why it went down in history and how it continues to influence us today. Other features include famous quotes and a section on where the players are now. 

 Guy Langman: Crime Scene Procrastinator by Josh Berk

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Sixteen-year-old Guy Langman, his best friend Anoop, and other members of the school Forensics Club investigate a break-in and a possible murder, which could be connected to the mysterious past of Guy's recently-deceased father.

 The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

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In a dystopian kingdom where the classes are separated by the languages they speak, Charlaina "Charlie" Hart has a secret gift that is revealed when she meets a mysterious young man named Max.