The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is putting a spotlight on Young Adult and Middle Grade horror each month. Below we are featuring the books that were released in September as well as what our team has been reading and reviewing.
Young Adult New Releases
Horrid by Katrina Leno
From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.
Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.
As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all–it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears….
Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more…horrid?
Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | Amazon | Goodreads
Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour
Nina LaCour delivers another emotional knockout with Watch Over Me, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the Printz Award-winning We Are Okay.
Mila is used to being alone. Maybe that’s why she said yes to the opportunity: living in this remote place, among the flowers and the fog and the crash of waves far below.
But she hadn’t known about the ghosts.
Newly graduated from high school, Mila has aged out of the foster care system. So when she’s offered a job and a place to stay at a farm on an isolated part of the Northern California Coast, she immediately accepts. Maybe she will finally find a new home, a real home. The farm is a refuge, but also haunted by the past traumas its young residents have come to escape. And Mila’s own terrible memories are starting to rise to the surface.
Watch Over Me is another stunner from Printz Award-Winning author Nina LaCour, whose empathetic, lyrical prose is at the heart of this modern ghost story of resilience and rebirth.
Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Dutton Books for Young Readers | Amazon | Goodreads
White Fox by Sara Faring
After their world-famous actor mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Manon and Thaïs left their remote Mediterranean island home—sent away by their pharma-tech tycoon father. Opposites in every way, the sisters drifted apart in their grief. Yet their mother’s unfinished story still haunts them both, and they can’t put to rest the possibility that she is still alive.
Lured home a decade later, Manon and Thaïs discover their mother’s legendary last work, long thought lost: White Fox, a screenplay filled with enigmatic metaphors. The clues in this dark fairytale draw them deep into the island’s surreal society, into the twisted secrets hidden by their glittering family, to reveal the truth about their mother—and themselves.
Expected publication: September 22nd 2020 by Imprint | Amazon | Goodreads
Middle Grade New Releases
Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee
After watching her circle of friends seemingly fade away, Lora is determined to still have fun on her own, so when a tea party leads Lora to discovering Alexa, the ghost that haunts her house, they soon become best friends.
Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Random House Graphic | Amazon | Goodreads
Young Adult Books Reviewed
This month Emily and Jen read Dread Nation by Justina Ireland during the #LOHFReathon. Be sure to check out Emily’s review (“The story and characters are memorable, and it was amusing and heartbreaking at the same time.”) and Jen’s review (“I love when a book gets better and better and then thoroughly hooks me by the end.”) Amazon | Goodreads
Emily also read and loved Harrow Lake! Don’t miss her 5⭐ review (“Harrow Lake is mysterious and intriguing, and it has a couple delightfully spooky parts and storylines.”) Amazon | Goodreads
Have you read any of the books we read or reviewed this month? Let us know what YA or MG books you have read recently!
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