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6 YA Horror Series You Could Be Reading

I was over at Dread Central and they had posted a list of 5 horror series you should be reading, and it’s an interesting list. Inspirational, even. So I’m going to thank them for the idea and offer you a list myself of YA series you should read, if you haven’t already. There are so many more, it’s hard to limit it to just a few. Enjoy! If you have other ideas, I’d love to know them!

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Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender (Book 1: Bad Girls Don’t Die, Book 2: From Bad to Cursed, Book 3: As Dead As It).

Creepy ghostly possession is now apparently a “thing” in the horror genre, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, but Katie Alender was way ahead of the trend in this series about a girl whose younger sister is possessed by a malignant ghost.

The Enemy by Charlie Higson (Book 1: The Enemy, Book 2: The Dead, Book 3: The Fear, Book 4: The Sacrifice, Book 5: The Fallen, Book 6: The Hunted)
A plague hits London, transforming nearly all adults into zombies. Children and teens are on their own, fighting for survival in post-apocalyptic world. Higson, somewhat controversially, claimed to be writing for boys, but he has strong female characters as well. The books in this series are fast paced and action packed, and there’s plenty of gore, but not at the expense of character development.

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Zom-B by Darren Shan (13 book series).

Darren Shan gets hardcore in Zom–B. B, the protagonist, is not a nice person. B comes from an abusive environment that reeks of racist attitudes, and has not problem passing that on to weaker victims. The first half of the first book sets up B’s background, character, and moral dilemmas, but the second half has all the graphic gore and zombie action fans of zombie novels could desire. There is a surprising twist at the end of the first book that will change your perception of B, and Shan handles it well.

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie and Alyssa Sheinmel. (Book 2: The Awakening of Sunshine Girl)

This series is based on a YouTube webisode series, Sunshine Girl, created by Paige McKenzie. After Sunshine Griffith moves from sunny Texas to gloomy Washington, she discovers she is living in a haunted house, inhabited by a malicious spirit. Fast paced, intense, and incredibly creepy.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux. (Book 2: Catacomb, Book 3: Sanctum).

This is a creepy, photo-illustrated series with a design similar to that of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. It begins by introducing students in a summer college prep program that just happend to take place in a renovated mental asylum. Nothing could go wrong there, right? The photos give the story a disturbing sort of realism. As a digression, Ms. Roux also is an alumna of my own alma mater, although I’ve never met her personally.

Lockdown: Escape From Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith. (Book 2: Solitary, Book 3: Death Sentence, Book 4: Fugitives, Book 5: Execution)

In a dystopian future where there has been a massive backlash against teen crime, 14-year old Alex, caught committing a burglary, is sentenced to time in the underground prison Furnace. Violent, rife with gang activities, and patrolled by monstrous creatures, Furnace is a terrifying place to try to survive, and Alex decides to make the attempt to escape. Gripping and fast-paced, Smith takes you on a breathless tour of the next thing to hell.

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Kirsten, Reply

Book Review: The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker (audiobook)

The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker

St. Martin’s Press, 2015

ISBN-13: 9781250055804 (Hardback)

ISBN-13: 9781427261571 (Macmillan audiobook)

Available: Hardback, Macmillan audiobook, paperback, Kindle edition, Audible edition

The Scarlet Gospels marks Clive Barker’s long awaited return to adult horror fiction. This novel has a long history, and he’s had fans on tenterhooks since the 1990s when he first hinted at this work in progress. The story revolves around two of Barker’s iconic characters, Harry D’Amour, his tattooed implacable investigator of the supernatural, and the eloquent Cenobite Hell Priest, better known as Pinhead. Joining Harry is a group of magic users, the Harrowers, who help him along the way after Norma Paine is abducted by the Hell Priest and his misshapen minion, Felixson. Harry finds the Lament Configuration, that damned box, and is pulled into a Dante-esque mission put forth by the Hell Priest himself. At first it is unclear what the Hell Priest wants to do with D’Amour—kill him or use him. He needs a witness, an archivist, who will chronicle his usurping the throne of Hell. While there were of course several colourful characters to the story, the main action revolves around Harry and the Hell Priest. Most other relationships remain secondary.

The book was fast paced, and very cinematic at times, especially regarding gore, body horror, and the scenes in Hell. One of the best and bloodiest sections of the novel is the prologue, only matched by what he wrote in the Books of Blood series. The reader is introduced to the magicians who resurrect the magician Ragowski, one of their dwindling number that the Hell Priest tore apart. Ragowski reveals that the Hell Priest is killing all of them off after torturing information out of them as to the location of magical talismans and grimoires and collecting the world’s magic, but to what end? The violence is incredibly visceral and graphic, and the Hell Priest’s curses and speeches to the magicians are intelligently delivered. The prologue really drew me in and made me want to continue reading.

Despite Barker’s writing the Hell Priest as a departure from what we are familiar with most of the films, it was difficult not to imagine Doug Bradley’s face and voice overpowering my reading. If you are expecting the Cenobite from the films, you will be disappointed. This writing of the Hell Priest of the Order of the Gash relishes in the abuses and torments he puts his victim through, which seems like the complete opposite characterization from the distinguished, duty bound Cenobite from the first two Hellraiser movies, let alone The Hellbound Heart. The character in the films was more reserved, even reverent when visiting pain on others, as it was his duty.

I wish the novel would have been much longer, especially regarding the space devoted to D’Amour’s and the Harrowers’ journey through Hell, and the epic battle between the Hell Priest and Lucifer. My main complaint seems to be echoed by other Barker fans: while the book is good, it could have been much longer and given the reader a lot more content.

As a side note, the narrator of the Macmillan audio book version of the novel is John Lee. He pulls out some fantastic voice acting for The Scarlet Gospels.

As an avid Clive Barker fan, I recommend this book, but with reservation. Recommended for adult readers

Contains: Body horror, gore, graphic violence, rape, sex, implications of child abuse.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Kirsten, Reply

Help a Reader Out: A Haunted Boarding School

Amy writes:

I read a book in the early 80’s about some girls who go to a special boarding school for the arts. One girl is a painter, one a writer and one is a musician. At night, they are possessed by the ghosts of famous artists (one is T.S. Eliot) but are unaware of this. They find out the teachers are using them to get more works out of the dead artists. Do you have any idea what book this is? I have no idea of the name or the author. Thanks.

Ooh, I know this one!