Lois Duncan is the mistress of horror for young adults. Even though her novels were written decades ago, they are barely dated at all and are still very chilling. One of Duncan's great gifts is her skill in evoking the horror inherent in the helplessness of being a child/teen and being dependent on others for your safety. Some of her outstanding novels include
Gallows Hill, about a girl who moves from California to a small Indiana town and gets embroiled in doings that resemble the Salem witch trials. To say any more would spoil the suspense that Duncan so wonderfully creates. My all-time favorite of her novels is probably
Stranger With My Face. This is a great story of a teenage girl who lives on an isolated island with her family who starts getting mysterious visits from her long-lost (and far distant) sister. Amazing exploration of astral projection. Well written, amazingly suspensefuly, not even a bit dated, and really should have been made into a equally chilling film.
