The summer’s horror crop: the hits and the misses
Our latest YA horror roundup has five novels for you to investigate, three of which are from authors who I have given coverage to in the past and all featured in my YA Horror 400 almanac.
Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls is Cynthia Murphy’s sixth straight YA horror on the bounce and also one of her best. Her latest has minimal violence and little swearing, so this is going to be one of my top recommendations when the new school year starts. A terrific supernatural page turner.
I love the manner in which Melinda Salisbury effortlessly moves from horror to fantasy and her latest Local Gods features slices of both. This is also going to be a top pick for the new school year, but for older pupils.
Jacqueline West is not as well known in the UK as the two authors above but back in 2019 I gave her superb music themed fantasy horror Last Things a fair bit of coverage, so it is great to read her again with the excellent Black Point.
I am a huge fan of Vincent Ralph’s thrillers and have read a few I never reviewed, including Are You Watching (2019), Lock the Doors (2021) and the super creepy One House Left (2024) which I did review. His Bleak Haven Quartet conclude with book 3 Corpse Creek and book 4 Fear Farm. Harking back to the Point Horror and Fear Street of the eighties and early nineties these books were decent, but did not convince in the same way as his thrillers.
Five New YA Horror Novels: Which Ones Deliver? – The Young Blood Library August Round-Up
Cynthia Murphy – Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls
Publisher : Penguin
I have been a fan of Cynthia Murphy since her arrival on the YA horror scene back in 2021 and have reviewed most of her six previous novels. Three of her works also featured in my own YA Horror 400 almanac, Last One to Die (2021), Win Lose Kill Die (2022) and The Midnight Game (2023). I was critical of Murphy’s previous boarding school set novel Keep Your Friends Close (2025) which was top heavy with unlikable characters and large amounts of totally unnecessarily swearing.
This latest novel, Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls, is much more accessible and is the perfect balance of horror and thriller, which should be accessible to most readers and is her best work for a while. School librarians have frequently referenced the gap between Middle Grade and YA which they feel uncomfortable putting in the hands of younger but confident readers, this book fills the gap perfectly. There is limited violence, virtually no f-bombs, a bit of drinking (the main characters are seventeen) and a brief kiss. This is a seriously clever page turner which could be enjoyed by anybody of secondary school age.
Fliss Keller is doing her best to get used to her new blended family, her dad has remarried, and she is staying with him whilst her mum is abroad. In the middle of her A-Levels, she is attending a summer Art course with her best friend in the university connected to her dad’s work job. Whilst rummaging around in a garage sale of a former university professor Fliss discovers a highly sought after painting with a very murky history which might have connections to an early 20th century serial killer.
She decides to research the painting as part of her summer project and things quickly get dark when there is a murder of a young woman the night the painting is unveiled. What follows is a very clever murder mystery, which might or might not be supernatural, with Fliss carrying out her own investigation, whilst hanging out with her best friend and old crush. The plot weaves in true crime, art history, forgotten female voices, further murders and you will be speed reading to figure out who the killer is. Fliss was a terrific lead character who quickly outshone the police plods with her crime solving skills gleaned from listening to too many podcasts. Excellent stuff and highly recommended.
AGE RANGE 11/12+
Vincent Ralph – Corpse Creek (Bleak Haven book 3)
Publisher : MacMillan
Earlier in 2026 Vincent Ralph simultaneously released Dead Fake and Night Terror, the first and second books in the Bleak Haven Quartet. I enjoyed the first significantly more than the second, which was an origins story about a creepy town with a dark history loaded with serial killers and tragedy. Ralph is clearly trying to recreate an update of the Fear Street novels of the nineties, or something similar to the once popular Point Horror brand which dominated the teen bookshelves.
The reality is YA horror has moved on since the Point Horror heyday and this latest supernatural thriller was a real trudge and a struggle to finish. There is some cross referencing to the various serial killers mentioned in the other books, such as the Lullaby Man, with the town of Bleak Haven, dominating proceedings.
This third novel in the series follows Ethan, an eighteen-year-old whose brother died in an accidental drowning four years earlier. Ethan has been unable to accept that Brody’s death was accidental and believes he was murdered, the story kicks off when Ethan and his loyal friends visit the lake for the first time since the accident.
As this is Bleak Haven deaths come and go pretty fast and Ethan feels guilt for not saving his brother and carries out his own investigation, akin to a bull in a China shop. My major gripe with Corpse Creek was the whiny main character who continually pushes his friends away, his brother died four years earlier and he carries on like was yesterday with never-ending moping and griping. As things move on the true nature of the lake is revealed, but by that stage I was beyond caring. The books do not need to be read in order, even if there is cross referencing.
AGE RANGE 13+
Vincent Ralph – Fear Farm (Bleak Haven book 4)
Publisher : MacMillan
Vincent Ralph’s Bleak Haven Quartet concludes with Fear Farm, following hot on the heels of Corpse Creek and the two earlier titles from 2026, Dead Fake and Night Terror. The series closes on a minor high as Fear Farm has more going for it than its predecessor.
The annual Fear Farm Fright Fest, which runs every Halloween, is the top local attraction with teens auditioning to be chosen as one of the performers. The main character Tori is excited to join the cast, but has the secret motive of finding out who almost killed her sister in the same event a couple of years earlier. Things quickly move into slasher territory, with plenty of red herrings and one of the strongest endings in the series. Each of the four books has a slightly different angle when it comes to their horror and I would rate Fear Farm second behind my favourite, the first, Dead Fake.
AGE RANGE 13+
Melinda Salisbury – Local Gods
Publisher : David Fickling Books
Down the years I have read most of Melinda Salisbury’s fiction, which skilfully flits between horror and fantasy. She had two books featured in my own YA 400 Horror almanac Hold Back the Tide (2020) and Her Dark Wings (2022). I was also a massive fan of Adelaide (2024) which was part of a wider series with the dangers of technology as a theme, this particular title has been one of the most reviewed and read titles in my school library.
In her latest, Local Gods, Salisbury returns to favourite ground and once again combines fantasy with horror, with a dose of romance thrown in, although it stops well short of drifting into the ultra-trendy area of Romantasy and edges closer into the realms of Folk Horror. Adult readers might recognise familiar tropes; it has some similarities to Jacqueline West’s Black Point and is coincidentally released on the same day. I challenge both author’s to read each other’s novels!
Even before we get to Folk Horror or small town horror vibes Local Gods has a strong central plot hook. Sylvie is in her last year of high school and is now socially at rock bottom as her father, a dodgy investor, has stolen loads of cash from the town’s locals and disappeared. This is not Sylvie’s fault, but she takes the blame, even from the teachers at school.
Her mother finds a new man and she is left to fend for herself, living in an old house in the forest. In this forest the animals act strangely and it has a local reputation for being dangerous, which Sylvie is soon to discover. Finding a creature, which she does not find to be dangerous, she begins to investigate what this being is and whether she has any connection to it. Blending local history, searching for old books, feminist rage, quirky support characters and totally useless parents Local Gods is a fascinating read about a teen hellbent on discovering her own destiny. And in a totally brilliant finish nails it.
AGE RANGE 13+
Jacqueline West – Black Point
Back in 2019 I was a massive fan of Jacqueline West’s Last Things, which I later featured in my own YA Horror 400 almanac. West writes in both fantasy and horror areas, with her work sitting at the top end of Middle Grade and also suitable for YA readers.
Her latest, Black Point, is similar, the characters are all aged over sixteen, but there is little to offend or younger readers to struggle with. Set in an insular Wisconsin small town steeped in Norse traditions, this is quite a slow moving dark drama which holds any potential supernatural ripples in reserve until well into the action. I was totally vested into discovering what was going on in this strange little town; however, genuine teen readers might be slightly underwhelmed by the final big reveals.
Lucia Sorenson narrates the story and loves working in her grandfather’s Viking themed museum, she intends to remain local instead of travelling further afield for college. She spends her time hanging out with her grandfather’s elderly friends until she meets the boy whose family have bought the derelict Black Point Hotel, a 150-year-old landmark that’s been empty for decades.
After they become friends a mystery develops, which includes a letter narrative from the eighties, connected to various disappearances which have occurred in the town over the last century. Although it never descends into a truly creepy town, there is plenty of mystery and of course generational secrets lurk at the heart of the matter. Lucia was a great central character and good company as the story hurtles into an engaging dark mystery.
AGE RANGE 12/13+
Praise for the YA Horror 400 almanack
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