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Booklist: Great YA Horror of 2022

Wow, it’s been a great year for YA horror! I feel like we are seeing much more diversity than in the past, which is great, and it isn’t just surface: it’s essential to many of these stories.  I read more than I got reviewed for Monster Librarian, and there were definitely other great reads  (Angel Falls by David Surface and Julia Rust, Bitter by Akwake Emezi, How to Succeed at Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy, Prelude to Lost Souls by Helene Dunbar, and My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham to name a few) but these are the ones that stand out from the rest.

 

Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow:

 

This is outstanding social horror. Morrow wrote that she initially intended this for an adult market but it hits the mark as a YA crossover.

 

Cherish is a Black girl adopted by progressive, wealthy, privileged white parents. Farrah is the only other Black girl at the private school they attend.. They have been best friends since fourth grade. Farrah’s father has lost his job and she is staying with Cherish’s family while her parents sell their house and look for new jobs. Farrah is in an antagonistic relationship with her mother, who she also identifies with. There is something wrong with Farrah, and something odd about the situation with Cherish’s family. All of them seem to be individually following their own, different narratives but it is hard to spot because Farrah is the point of view character and she is very focused on controlling situations to her advantage, so she doesn’t notice it in the other characters. There are a few scenes with disturbing body horror and several near-drownings that made this hard to read, but it is really a compelling, dark, and chilling book.

 

Cover art for Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph Wright

 

This follows trans boy Benji through his flight from the evangelical doomsday cult the Angels, who have infected him with a bioweapon that will eventually turn him into a genocidal monster. Benji finds support through a group of queer teens surviving in the ruins of their community center and they come up with a plan to destroy the Angels and prevent another apocalypse.

 

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany L. Jackson

 

Carrie was my first King book, and since I read it as a teenage girl, probably the most impactful. So I was curious to see the differences between the original and this race-bent version. The bones of the original are there but Jackson has updated the story, added depth to many characters, and brought issues of race and class to the fore.

 

Cover for The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

 

Mars, a nonbinary teen, decides to go to the summer camp their sister attended after she dies attempting to murder Mars, and join their sister’s cabin, The Honeys, known for living in a cabin near the beehives where they are responsible for tending the bees. But something sinister is going on under the surface. This one is so creepy, and original. You’ll never want to go near bees again.

 

The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew

 

Wow, this is a wild ride. If it doesn’t make the Stoker shortlist it will be an absolute shame.

 

Delaney is Deaf (with a cochlear implant) and has brittle bones. She has always seen and heard shadows (her deafness plays a role in this). Now she has been admitted to Godbole College. Students at Godbole all have some kind of occult ability: most have died and come back.

 

Several months into the year, a missing Godbole student, Nate Schiller, is discovered severely hurt in Chicago. Unknown to Lane, Nate had died and was haunting her, but has found a way back: he is now possessed by a dark godlike force that is destroying his mind and body. When Lane visits it senses a more acceptable vessel. And then the story goes into truly strange and scary territory.

 

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall.

 

Helen Vaughan and her mother left Harrow, the Vaughan family estate, when Helen was seven, and return for the first time for her grandfather’s funeral. Her grandfather leaves Harrow to her, if she will agree to be its mistress, live there for a year, and go through a ritual at the end to see if the house accepts her. Basically all of her family except her cousins Desmond and Celia are terrible people who clearly do not have her best interests at heart. The house itself is designed to seem to be a spiral labyrinth, or trap, for a dark force, and Helen finds herself wandering for hours, hearing voices tell her to “find the heart of Harrow.” The descriptions of the house are amazing, in some ways reminding me of Hill House. When her cousins leave she begins a cautious friendship with Bryony Locke, the Harrow Witch, who wants to release it. She and Bryony find a journal in cipher which Helen gets Desmond to crack, which tells a disturbing story about the founder of the Vaughan family and the gruesome way the family has kept the dark god trapped. It is foreshadowed, but the story completely flips in an unexpected and satisfying way.

 

Parts of the story, especially names, are inspired by Arthur Machen’s story The Great God Pan. Women in that story have very little agency, and Marshall gives it back in the form and actions of Helen Vaughan in this book. I think this is the best of Marshall’s books I’ve read to date and will be surprised if it isn’t on the Stoker shortlist.

 

Book List: Summer Scares Recommendations (Middle Grade)

With school nearly out and summer reading just around the corner, we can probably expect to see programming and suggestions from the HWA regarding their Summer Scares program.

I think it’s really cool that Summer Scares includes middle-grade fiction. Middle-grade fiction is a slippery creature. As a children’s librarian I have always identified it as what’s appropriate for and aimed at ages 8-12.  However, there are 11 and 12 year olds who are already in sixth grade, which can be elementary or middle school depending on your district, and if sixth grade is in the middle school, then MAYBE some people stretch it  a few years later. Problem is, there starts to be an overlap with YA fiction by the end of middle school, and it’s a huge developmental leap from grade 3 (yes, there are 8 year olds in third grade) to grade 6, much less to grade 8.  In my world, middle grade fiction is ages 8-12.  If I can’t put it in the elementary library, it’s not middle grade. I don’t think this is necessarily the age range the Summer Scares committee was considering, though. Kiera Parrot, one of the committee members, made some additional recommendations for middle-grade horror, which I want to share with you.

 

 

Out of the Wild Night by Blue Balliett

I am a huge fan of Blue Balliett, so when the school librarian at my kids’ middle school handed this to me and said, “You like these kinds of books, right? I just can’t get into this, would you give it a shot?” I said yes right away. I can’t begin to tell you how disappointing Out of the Wild Night was for me. Balliett does a good job of building atmosphere but it is so slow, and the plot is confusing, while the vocabulary is advanced. Only very persistent readers will push through to the end. I would love to be able to recommend this as an outstanding ghost story for middle grade students, especially as an author’s note explains that this story was very close to her heart, but there are better ones out there, and much better books by Balliett.  I did review this one in detail here.

 

Dreaming Dangerous by Lauren DeStefano

This didn’t really strike me as horror– it’s more of a science-fictiony dystopia where scientists are experimenting on children. It’s horrific that anyone would do that, but I’d call this more of a dystopian thriller. The main character, Plum, and three of her peers, have been dreaming in tandem since they were babies, and based on the way the book starts, with the kids getting blood tests and psychological testing, it’s not terribly surprising to find out that the adults in charge don’t really have the children’s best interests at heart.  Booklist  suggested this for fans of Stranger Things (which I hope is not being watched by elementary-aged kids, although I’m sure it is) but this lacks the 1980s aesthetic or realism on the show. I can see it maybe appealing to kids who liked Gathering Blue. 

 

Nightbooks by J.A. White

This is a dark, fairytale-like story both fantastic, wondrous, and frightening, perfect for the young horror lover feeling out of place. A boy on his way to destroy the scary stories he has been writing is lured into the equivalent of a gingerbread house by the promise of getting to see his favorite movie, Night of the Living Dead. He is forced to tell the witch a new scary story each night, as he tries to find a way to escape, and comes to the realization that he actually has something to be proud of, rather than something to hide. The same librarian who gave a thumbs-down to Out of the Wild Blue ran excitedly up to me with this one, saying, “You’ve gotta read this!” At that point, I already had. It’s probably one of my favorite books for any age that I’ve read this year. J. A. White is also the author of The Thickety, and we’ve reviewed a couple of the books in that series. We are fans.

 

The Girl in the Locked Room by Mary Downing Hahn

This one starts out promisingly, with a truly disorienting beginning, but I quickly started to feel like Hahn was phoning it in. As with many a ghost story (and many of Hahn’s ghost stories) a family is involved with an old house in need of repair. In this case, Dad restores old houses, Mom is an absentminded writer, and Jules is the resentful daughter who is tired of moving from place to place. The three move into a modern addition to the old house that will be their home over the course of the renovation. Jules has nothing to do except wander around. She’s pretty sure she’s seen a ghost but her only company is her skeptical parents. She makes one friend on a visit to the library, who comes to visit and investigate the old house. There’s not a lot at stake for Jules here. The ghost is silent, afraid, and in a locked room. The backstory is interesting, but while there’s tension, this isn’t something that will make the heart race. Hahn has done so much better; her previous book, Took, was much more suspenseful and definitely scarier, with better character development, even though there were many more characters and the story was more complex. Hahn has written many excellent ghost stories, including All The Lovely Bad Ones and Deep and Dark and Dangerous. Author Grady Hendrix, also on the Summer Scares committee, recommended another, older, book of Hahn’s, Wait Til Helen Comes, which is well-known as a classic children’s ghost story. Many kids in the target age range for this book will enjoy The Girl in the Locked Roombut if I had a shelf of her ghost stories to choose a recommendation from, this wouldn’t be the first one I suggested.

 

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

I first encountered Victoria Schwab when we were sent her first book, The Near Witch, for review, many years back. Since then, she’s written the Shades of Magic books as V.E. Schwab, but on the cover of City of Ghosts, she is back to Victoria Schwab again. Our main character, Cassidy, fell into an icy river with her new camera and drowned a year ago, but was brought back by Jacob, a ghost, who is now her best friend. Cassidy can now cross the “Veil” and see ghosts. Her camera, altered by her fall, can capture photos of the ghosts. When Cassidy starts losing track of herself, Jacob is always with her to bring her back from beyond the Veil.

Cassidy’s parents are “ghost hunters.” One is a historian, the other is a storyteller, and while they don’t actually believe in ghosts, they do make a living writing and talking about them. Her parents are offered a “reality” show where they will travel to haunted places, tour them, and talk about them. They decide to take Cassidy with them, and their first stop is Edinburgh, in Scotland. The catacombs, cemeteries, and execution grounds they visit are not for the weak even if they can’t see ghosts, but Cassidy’s ability means we experience her panic and dread.

City of Ghosts is creepy, ominous, and at times terrifying. Schwab is great at creating atmosphere; you feel like you are in Edinburgh, especially the oppressiveness of the “haunted” areas.  It is compelling and, at times, truly scary. There’s also a mystery– clearly unsolved– that will lead to sequels I can only look forward to.

The House in Poplar Wood  by K.E. Ormsbee

Reminiscent of Tuck Everlasting, this fable/fairytale feels “out of time”.  Twin brothers Felix and Lee are the sons of the apprentices of Death and Memory, tricked by Passion into falling in love. While they live in the same house, Felix must live with his father in Death’s half of the house and Lee must live with his mother in Memory’s half of the house. Their parents are not allowed to meet or see each other. Their father can only see Felix, and their mother can only see Lee. Outside the house, the two boys can meet, but never inside. When they come of age, both boys will have to choose whether to also become apprentices or to walk away. Gretchen is the daughter of the town’s Summoner, who is responsible for keeping the balance between Death, Memory, and Passion to benefit the town. When Passion’s apprentice dies in a mysterious accident, and her father covers it up, Gretchen decides to do some detective work, and involves Felix and Lee in her schemes. Death in particular is horrific in this book, abusing his power and disciplining Felix in an abusive manner that his father is unable to act against. At heart this is a story about family, friendship, and self-determination, but with strong mythic bones that take it out of the everyday and into the universal.

 

Well, that’s all for now. I’m compiling some additional middle-grade recommendations, but this should get you, and the young readers you know, started with your summer reading!

 

 

 

 

Reviewer Lucy Lockley Interviewed in Booklist

Well, that sort of says it all. In her secret life as a librarian, one of our new reviewers, Lucy Lockley, is a collection development manager who puts a lot of energy into readers advisory, and I have just discovered that she was interviewed in Booklist this month! Congratulations, Lucy! We’re glad to have you on board!