Saturday, October 27, 2018

A Spooky Harvest of 16 Tales

 Boo!  Here are books to shudder and shiver with as we enter the dark of Fall. All published within the past nine months. Cheers! 

 Fiction 

Devils Unto Dust, by Emma Berquist, 2018. After her mother's death, Willie must protect her younger siblings from the flesh-eating creatures that surround her town and is forced to enter the dangerous desert to find her father when he steals from the most powerful man in town.

The Dark Beneath the Ice, by Amelinda Berube, 2018. Marianne has felt a supernatural presence since she stopped dancing, and is afraid that she is following her mother into mental illness until a new friend, Ron, helps her find the truth.

Contagion, by Erin Bowman, 2018. Responding to a distress call on the distant planet of Achlys, Thea Sadik and her search-and-rescue crew are confronted by a zombie-like outbreak that forces them to uncover a monstrous enemy.

The Good Demon, by Jimmy Cajoleas, 2018. Clare, miserable since an exorcism took away the demon that was like a sister to her, discovers the occult roots of her small Southern town and must question the fine lines between good and evil, love and hate, and religion and free will.

Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland, 2018. When families go missing in Baltimore County, Jane, who is studying to become an Attendant, finds herself in a conspiracy fighting for her life against powerful enemies.

Scream Site, by Justina Ireland, 2018. Future investigative reporter Sabrina, fourteen, researches a popular website where people post horror videos, hoping to prove they are not as real as they seem until her sister, a big fan of the site, disappears.

Sawkill Girls, by Claire Legrand, 2018. Three teenage girls face off against an insidious monster that preys upon young women.

#murdertrending, by Gretchen McNeil, 2018. Falsely accused of murdering her stepsister, seventeen-year-old Dee fights to survive paid assassins on Alcatraz 2.0, the most popular prison on social media.

The Agony House, by Cherie Priest, 2018. 17-year-old Denise, her mom, and her stepfather are moving back to New Orleans, into the 100 year old Argonne house. Her mother plans to turn into a bed-and-breakfast--but old houses have histories, and sometimes ghosts, and a mysterious old comic book that Denise finds in the attic may hold the answer to a crime and the terrifying things that keep happening.

Not Even Bones, by Rebecca Schaeffer, 2018. Nita's mother hunts monsters and, after Nita dissects and packages them, sells them online but when Nita follows her conscience to help a live monster escape, she is sold on the black market in his place.

The Sacrifice Box, by Martin Stewart, 2018. Five friends discover an ancient stone box hidden deep in the woods. They seal inside of it treasured objects from their childhoods, and they make a vow. Four years later, a series of strange and terrifying events begin to unfold. Someone broke the rules of the box, and now everyone has to pay.

You May Now Kill the Bride, by R.L. Stine, 2018. Two sisters, divided by time, both discover the ancient curse put on the Fear family on their wedding nights.

A Room Away From the Wolves, by Nova Ren Suma, 2018. Teenage Bina runs away to New York City's Catherine House, a young women's residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history and dark secrets, where she is drawn to her mysterious downstairs neighbor Monet.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Kiersten White, 2018. The events of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein unfold from the perspective of Elizabeth Lavenza, who is adopted as a child by the Frankensteins as a companion for their volatile son Victor.

 Graphic Format 

Onibi: Diary of a Yokai Ghost Hunter, by Cecile Brun, 2018. Follows the adventures of two young foreigners as they travel to a remote corner of Japan, where they find an old camera that has the ability to capture images of Japan's invisible spirit world.


 Nonfiction 

Mary Shelley: The Strange, True Tale of Frankenstein's Creator, by Catherine Reef, 2018. On the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein, comes a biography of its author, Mary Shelley, whose life reads like a dark gothic novel, filled with scandal, death, drama, and one of the strangest love stories in literary history.