Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke (ed.) (2015)

Oh my goodness, I LOVED this collection of YA short stories, which are spooky stories that are all inspired by various works of horror movies, fiction and even songs. Not a single dud in this collection and some of the stories are legit spooky. And each story names its references (in upside down print at the end of the story). So fun to figure them out while reading. 

I adored so many of them, but the standout was Sleepless by Jay Kristoff (inspiration: Psycho!). I'm going to name all the authors, though, cause they're ALL good: Nova Ren Suma, Carrie Ryan, Cat Winters, Leigh Bardugo, Megan Shepherd, Danielle Paige, April Genevieve Tucholke, Jonathan Maberry, Jay Kristoff, Stefan Bachmann, Marie Lu, McCormick Templeman, A.G. Howard, and Kendare Blake.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King (2011)

I am really starting to love A.S. King's work for young adults. I love how she adds the slightest bit of magical realism to her otherwise realistic novels that make them utterly original.

In this novel, Lucky is being bullied by a guy at his high school, and obsessed with finding out what happened to his grandfather who is a POW/MIA in Vietnam.  He dreams vividly about his grandfather which struggling with everyday life and his relationship with his parents. 

In an era when every other young adult novel is the first in a yet-to-be-written trilogy, I love a book that ends REALLY well, and this one does.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King (2014)

Fascinatingly weird and marvelously, utterly original young adult novel about a girl graduating from high school who drinks a petrified bat (what?) with her best friend who lives on the commune across the street and finds that she can see people's future. And a big war is coming.

Really well told and very chilling, and in the midst of all this strangeness, King creates interesting and realistic relationships between friends and family members.

The Dolls by Kiki Sullivan (2014)

Eveny Cheval just moved back to Carrefour, Louisiana from Brooklyn with her aunt. Many secrets await, including the cliquey new group to which her family has mysterious ties.  

Long story short: Eveny is a voodoo queen, possibly the most powerful one of all! And the super handsome guy she likes? Generations of his family have protected hers so they can never be together! And her mother's suicide?  Possibly not a suicide! 

That said, it was great mythology and a fun read that, despite the fact that it's no doubt the first in a trilogy, stood alone just fine on its own.

The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco (2014)

This young adult horror novel is narrated by Okiku, a 300-year old ghost who avenges murdered children by killing their murderers and freeing their spirits.

Some excellent imagery--very much as if you were reading a novelization of The Ring (but well done) and quite interesting back story and info on Japanese ghost stories. I love the imagery of the ghosts of the murdered children clinging to the murderers, as well as the occasional people who can see Okiku and other spirits.

Quite a well-done and original young adult horror novel.

The Wells Bequest by Polly Shulman (2013)

 

A very endearing young adult novel that follows the adventures of the pages who work at the New-York Circulating Library, a library that lends out magical items instead of books. We first met this library in the even-more-charming The Grimm Legacy. 

While researching robots, Leo discovers the New-York Circulating Library and the mysterious objects held within its walls.  Leo gets a job as a page at the library, mostly to be around the intriguing head page Jaya, but soon gets embroiled in time travel, death rays and other exciting developments.  Funny, adventurous and charming, and great fun for any fan of H.G. Wells. 

See also The Librarian's Note which explains how the librarian created call numbers for the mythical and magical objects in these two books.

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan (2012)

Very sweet and funny young adult novel about a town where humans and vampires live in (relative) peace. 

When a handsome vampire comes to her high school and falls in love with her best friend, Mel's world is turned upside down. Not to mention that her other best friend is still struggling with her father's decision to run away with a vampire. But Mel is not just going to sit back and let things happen. She investigates mysteries and is fiercely ready to protect her friends--even if they don't want to be protected. 

When she meets Kit, a human living with the vampires (and one of the most charming romantic interests ever), the plot thickens even more. Delightful.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin (2008)

Sometimes you find the strangest books just by searching the library catalog. I was looking for something else and ended up requesting this because it's based on the ballad Scarborough Fair (made popular by Simon & Garfunkel, of course).

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women in her family are under a curse by an elf king that causes each of the women to be pregnant at 17, and requires them to perform three impossible tasks. If they can't complete those tasks, they go insane. Lucy has seen the proof of this in her estranged mother, who periodically shows up, crazy and pushing a shopping cart and embarrassing her at school.

What set this book apart from so many young adult novels that I've read is that when Lucy goes to her family to tell them of the curse, they believe her. There's no argument that "there's no such thing as magic or elf kings--you must be crazy", they just believe in her and work with her to help her try to complete the impossible tasks. And they give an excellent explanation that maybe it's true and maybe it's not, but she believes so strongly in it, they need to work with her. 

The novel itself is an odd blend--there's a lovely romance with Zach, the boy next door--but it also contains genuine peril, including rape and mental illness. But due to the excellent characterization and the unusually and well-constructed plot, it works very well. This would definitely go on my list of favorite fairy tale/ballad adaptations along with Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and Beauty by Robin McKinley.

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins (2012)

In a vast world of paranormal teen lit, this is an unexpectedly great novel (recommended by an actual teen). Yay!

Our heroine Anna Whitt has extremely sharp senses, but has never understood why. As the novel begins, she finds out that she is the daughter of a fallen angel (and a non-fallen angel) and her life is about to change.

Higgins creates a beautifully constructed world and peoples it with realistic characters, including the hot son of another fallen angel to whom Anna finds herself overwhelmingly attracted.  Great, realistic situations and complex, believable characters. Although incredibly readable and enjoyable, it ties in quite sneakily and successfully with adolescent issues (heightened senses stand in for raging hormones, complex parentage for feeling special, and peer pressure as an actual job).

Note for completists:  This is the first in a planned trilogy; parts two and three are not yet published, but certainly worth checking out.

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman (2010)

Charming young adult novel about Elizabeth, who gets a job as a page at the New-York Circulating Material Repository, which lends out objects rather than books. It's also home to the Grimm collection, which contains magical objects that inspired the famous fairy tales. When items (and pages) start disappearing, Elizabeth and her fellow pages have to use everything they can to solve the mystery and get them back. This book is fabulous for anyone who loves libraries and fairy tales. It's subtle and charming, mysterious and romantic and a little funny. Great characters. So yay!  Shulman also wrote the witty young adult Pride and Prejudice-inspired Enthusiam.

Feathered by Laura Kasischke (2008)

A teen novel about three girlfriends who travel to Mexico for spring break, and something awful happens to one of them. Beautifully descriptive of Cancun and at the same time, wonderfully eerie and spooky and tense in the events leading up to the drama. I actually had to put the book down at one point, I was so worried about these poor girls. And the author's description of the girls walk through a debauched spring break party at Club Med is more horrifying than almost anything else in the novel.  Chilling.

Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier (2005)

Compelling young adult novel about a young girl in Sydney on the run with her mother. When her mother is committed and she goes to live with her grandmother, she learns some truths about her family, her life, and the reality of magic. Split between Sydney and NYC, it’s filled with Aussie slang (glossary included!) and a refreshingly diverse cast of characters. Followed by two sequels: Magic Lessons and Magic’s Child.

Boy Heaven by Laura Kasischke (2006)

A story of three girls at a cheerleading camp and the events that take place involving two townie boys who followed them one day as they played hooky from camp and went into town. Unfolds wonderfully and keeps an amazing level of suspense throughout.

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause (1997)

Well done modern werewolf story. Complex relationships and characters, and unusual look at werewolf mythology. Very good film version, as well. Interesting to see the changes they made between the book and film.  Although the film has flaws, one of them is not the casting of Olivier Martinez as the head werewolf, who is amaaaazingly hot.

Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Mylnowski (2005)

Rachel is a normal Jewish girl growing up in New York City, who wants nothing more than to be popular, have a boyfriend, grow breasts and stop her father from marrying her evil Soon-To-Be-Stepmonster (STB for short). When she comes home one day to discover that her younger sister Miri is a witch, as is her mother, she begins to make all sorts of plans to make her dreams come true. Very cute YA chick lit.

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman (2008)

Set in a post-apocalyptic, future society run by The Corporation, Honor is willing to get along by obeying the rules at her school, but her parents are rebellious and eventually disappear. Would provide good discussion for a teen book club.  I do love a good post-apocalypse story.

Rhymes with Witches by Lauren Myracle (2005)

Our heroine gets tapped to join the group of the most popular girls in school, known as the Bitches. However, she finds out that popularity is not all it's cracked up to be, and that popularity has a price. All pretty clichéd, but interesting characterizations and a supernatural element keeps this fresh and fun.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (2008)

Jenna Fox has recently woken up from a year-long coma after a serious accident, but things are a little mysterious. Why doesn't her grandmother like her? Why did they move cross-country while she was in a coma? Why are there so many locked doors in their new house? Semi-poetically written and suspenseful.

Lois Duncan - Adored Author

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.

Vivian Vande Velde - Adored Author

Vivian Vande Velde writes funny and spooky stories and novels for children and teens.  Some of her best collections include Being Dead: Seven stories that are all wonderful and range from gently creepy to out-and-out horror. One story made me gasp aloud. The stories are definitely dark, but very good.  All Hallow's Eve, wonderfully weird Halloween short stories by the mistress of horror and humor for young adults. Some of the stories are genuinely chilling, some are lighter and funny, but all are delightful.  Two of her best YA novels include Heir Apparent, where a girl gets trapped in a virtual reality game and has to replay the game until she can win and escape, and Now You See It.  Wendy finds a pair of sunglasses on her front lawn and finds that she can see things beyond the normal world, including a doorway to another world, where she meets a variety of interesting characters including one of her own ancestors.  See also The Rumpelstiltskin Problem and Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird under Fairy Tales Retold.