Haunted Houses Tony’s top YA picks for Halloween
Halloween is the perfect time to take a closer look at some of my favourite YA horror novels featuring haunted houses or other spooky locations and buildings. Since Shirley Jackson wrote The Haunting of Hill House (1959) this popular sub-genre exploded and never looked back, subsequently dominating bookshop shelves and bestseller charts.
The YA end of the market has always been significantly smaller than its adult counterpart with fear, paranoia, isolation and unreliable narrators often playing significant roles, with damaged teenagers struggling with the unknown. The majority of the novels featured in this particular twenty book list are YA, with a smaller number Middle Grade. All were reviewed in my almanac The YA Horror 400, which was published earlier this year and included many personal favourites. More information on the almanac is included after the reviews.

– The Devil You Know (2017)
Publisher : Coronet

M.C. Atwood’s debut novel is a solid and traditional horror tale, a good old-fashioned haunted house yarn with a contemporary setting. Five teenagers visit the infamous Boulder House in the Whispering Bluffs area of Wisconsin. Seen from five teen points of view, I found this chatty novel to be very entertaining which bounced along at a decent pace. Violet, Paul, Ashley, Dylan, and Gretchen have all chosen to visit the house for different reasons, which become apparent as the narratives unfold.
Before long we head into familiar haunted house territory, but the author throws in plenty of jumpy curveballs, including sinister dolls, miniature centaurs, clowns, evil angels, killer unicorns, and reanimated sharks and some sinister villains. There are plenty of twists and turns but, ultimately, the five kids, their secrets, and how they deal with each other and the problems thrown at them is the strength of the book. A successful balance of teen drama and supernatural fiction.
– Alone (2017)
Publisher : Sourcebooks Fire

Alone is a genuine twister which could be a top recommendation for teens who like thrillers with a tasty mix of the supernatural. The novel is narrated by Seda, who is not the most reliable of storytellers. She most certainly has her issues, which are revealed as the plot unfolds. Her convoluted family includes two sets of twins and an invisible friend who could be the twin who once shared the womb with her. Seda’s family inherit a remote mansion, used for murder mystery events. They move into the house before intending to sell it, however things take much longer than planned and the family begins to fracture. There is no mobile phone coverage in this remote part of Pennsylvania and Seda questions her own sanity with the increasingly unsettling goings on in the house.
As the story progresses, we end up with four stranded high school aged teenagers coming to stay with Seda and her family. With these four enters a love interest for Seda and things get even stranger as nobody is quite whom they seem. If you do read this book, I suggest doing so carefully as it has some clever twists. As it’s seen entirely from Seda’s perspective, tread particularly carefully. Although it had quite a slow start, once you get into the head of Seda’s jarring teenage musings, it had a lot going for it with obvious nods to classic texts including The Shining(1977) and The Turning of the Screw (1898).
– The Lighthouse (2022)
Publisher : Stripes Publishing

The incredibly well plotted Lighthouse will have most young teens on the hook and make sure you hang around for a simply brilliant closing two pages which will wrongfoot even the most jaded of horror readers (adults included). The Lighthouse opens with fifteen-year-old Jess and twelve-year-old Rosie being shipped off to Bird Rock, a tiny island in the Outer Hebrides where they will stay with their ornithologist father, their half-brother Charlie, and their stepmother. Jess narrates the story and is shocked to be stuck in such a remote location during the summer holidays, on an island dominated by gannets who shriek, stink, and poo endlessly.
The family stay in the ancient lighthouse, which bird hunters say is haunted with a dark history. The manner in which the supernatural story develops is perfectly pitched, expertly paced as Jess feels increasingly isolated, and things go bump in the night with Charlie acting out of character. Things really kick off when Rosie disappears and nobody seems to remember her existence except for Jess. Along the way a teenage boy with a tragic connection to the lighthouse helps out, and it was nice to see a token romance not thrown into the mix. This was a very cool, pacey supernatural thriller, and watch out for that ending.
KENDARE BLAKE – Anna Dressed in Blood (2011)
Publisher : Orchard Books

Anna Dressed in Blood is a highly entertaining spin on the teenage exorcist/ghost hunter story, laced with revenge. Although the ghost ‘Anna’ is referenced in the title, the story is mostly seen from the point of view of Cas Lowood, who has inherited an unusual vocation: he kills the dead. Whilst most kids Cas’s age are enjoying high school, instead he moves around the country with his mother following leads about hauntings, local lore, and unusual deaths. He is a boy on a mission; his father was gruesomely murdered by a ghost and Cas dishes out payback on every supernatural being he encounters.
The novel kicks off when the pair arrive in a new town in search for a ghost known as ‘Anna Dressed in Blood’, who earned her name after having her throat cut and blood flowed freely all over her white dress. However, this spirit is incredibly powerful and might not be all bad, so their normal strategy of ‘track, hunt, kill’ goes out the window as he has a weird connection with the ghost when she spares his life after his initial exorcism goes badly wrong.
Once he digs deeper, he uncovers a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before, who has been furious since her death in 1958, killing everybody who has dared to venture inside her Victorian house. Anna Dressed in Blood is blessed with well-drawn high school characters and the obvious sympathy you are going to feel for the ghost. And the ending will most certainly make you return for the sequel, most kids I know who have read book one head straight to book two.
AMY CLARKIN – What Walks These Halls (2023)
Publisher : The O’Brien Press

Plotwise What Walks These Halls lurks in the same ballpark as Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood and Co series, but the manner in which the supernatural is presented is refreshingly different from Stroud. This very clever novel downplays the spooky stuff and completely ignores the bombastic approach of Stroud’s extrovert Anthony Lockwood; and this lower key approach makes the entity more realistic and threatening. The story is built around a house with such a notorious reputation it does not appear on any ghost hunter maps. Events are set in motion by a YouTuber breaking in, looking to spend a night there, instead terrified out of his wits and ending up in hospital with amnesia. This leads indirectly to the revival of the ghost hunting outfit, Paranormal Surveyance Ireland (PSI), which led a big investigation in the house five years earlier, leading to the death of one of the senior operators.
The narrative has several third person characters
, the most prominent being nineteen-year-old Raven O’Sullivan, the daughter of the investigator killed in Hyacinth House five years before. Early in proceedings we find out that her younger brother Arthur intends to revive the family business, PSI, return to the house and solve the mysterious death. One of the strengths of What Walks These Halls was the banter between these older teen characters, their relationships, LGBTQIA+ representation and the bonds they make in the latest incarnation of PSI. Éabha McLoughlin was another highlight, a university student who has grown up seeing and hearing things no one else does. After being cut-off by her possessive family, she joins the team and helps in the investigation.
I also smiled at the fact that whilst Arthur is the new boss of PSI he also has a daytime job working in a coffeeshop! This was quite a slow-moving book which is aimed at older teens as the characters are more mature. Because all the characters already believed in ghosts gave the story had an extra level of realism which was highly convincing.
Haunted Houses Tony’s top YA picks for Halloween

– When Ghosts Call Us Home (2023)
Publisher : Macmillan; Main Market edition

When Ghosts Call Us Home is an immersive, atmospheric head scratcher with an engaging but very unreliable and troubled narrator. Although it contains little graphic material, sex or swearing this is a mature read aimed at older audience. Indeed, adults could just as easily find themselves lost on ‘the path’ (one of the more perplexing aspects of the novel). The narrative is cleverly developed around a cult film made five years before the action starts. ‘Vermillion’ was an amateur found footage film shot in Cashmore House by seventeen-year-old Layla Galich, starring her twelve-year-old sister Sophia.
In much of the film, Sophia is scared out of her wits (she is not acting) told by her sister the eerie and strange things she sees are special effects. Over the years experts and movie nerds examine the film and are dumbfounded by the quality of the special effects, which look incredibly real and enhance the mythology surrounding the flick. Sophia, who narrates When Ghosts Call Us Home, has very patchy recollection of making the film and, due to personal circumstances, finds herself returning to Cashmore as a seventeen-year-old to participate in a documentary about the film, where very troubling snatches begin to return.
This is much more than a simple haunted house or possession novel.
As the aura built around ‘Vermillion’ was top notch, a whole online culture (some might call it a cult) has sprung up around the film where V-Heads (obsessive fans) try to move along the various stages of ‘the path’ guided by obscure website ‘Crismon Dread’. Sophia is all over the place as her return to film the documentary was preceded by her sister inexplicably vanishing, which set the internet alight as it was an ongoing police investigation. Also, the documentary is being filmed by one of the top V-Heads, and it’s extremely hard to know who to trust.
Although When Ghosts Call Us Home takes its time it develops into a very ambiguous atmospheric supernatural chiller which deserves to be read very closely as there are clues and clever reveals dropped here and there. As I approached the final fifty pages I had no idea what was going to happen (where was Layla, alive, dead or in another supernatural realm?) and was wrong footed by the clever ending. If the film ‘Vermillion’ (perhaps inspired by the successful ad campaign behind Blair Witch) existed I would definitely watch it, but only with the lights on.
– A Place for Vanishing (2024)
Publisher :

A Place to Vanish is a clever haunted house novel; backed up with an outstanding setting, sympathetic characters, complex family drama and an unsettling vibe that vibrates from deep inside the foundations of the monstrosity. This horror novel also has much to say about mental health, with the main character being chaotic and recovering from a suicide attempt which led to her family relocating for a fresh start. Libba is a fragile, sensitive, and incredibly well drawn young woman, and her interactions with her younger sister Vivi (who has her own fragilities), single parent mother and potential love interest Flynn help carry the story.
The story opens when the family move into their new home, uninhabited for years, but has a strong personal connection as Libba’s grandparents disappeared whist living there many years earlier. Libba soon discovers many others have vanished from the house, stretching back over a century. Insects manifest all over the building; Vivi is strangely attracted to the many butterflies, and after the discovery of several masks, which are in the shapes of insects events get stranger, particularly when the girls wear the masks. A Place to Vanish is a deliciously paced, atmospheric ghost story as the house is top heavy with spirits connected to the masks, who have their own plans for the sisters. The legacy of Libba’s family runs deep in this modern gothic and endlessly inventive haunted house story with a fragile, but highly memorable, lead character.
SHARON GOSLING – Fir (2017)
Publisher : Stripes Publishing

Fir is the seventh entry in the popular Red Eye series of books, the ‘go to’ series for school librarians who know zero about horror, as they almost always deliver the scares whilst remaining accessible to most kids of secondary school age. A teenager is disgruntled to be uprooted from Stockholm to a remote pine plantation in northern Sweden, especially when ferocious never-ending storms cut the family off from civilisation and contact with the outside world. Interestingly, the main character is never named and gender is not discussed, although I felt she was a girl around fifteen or sixteen who as events proceed is hampered with loneliness which increases anxiety with her surroundings and mental health.
Fir is loaded with sly references to classic novels, full of creepy children (imaginary or real?), strange whispers, a housekeeper who the family inherit when they move in, and coupled with atmospheric snow scenes this new take on the Scandinavian legends and folktales is a vivid, engrossing read. The fractured family dynamics, distant parents and brooding resentments take this edgy story to the next level as the teenager wonders where do the true horrors actually lie? In the house which has a dark history or the forest with its strange movements and sounds? Readers should be patient as the first half is slowly paced, but the second half where the supernatural escalates is certainly worth the wait.
LAUREN JAMES – The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker (2020)
Publisher : Walker Books

The Reckless Afterlife of HarrietStoker is a stylish jump into the realms of supernatural fiction for an author who confidently blends genres. The level of worldbuilding after main character Harriet Stoker falls to her death in the opening pages is second to none. YA novels set in the ‘afterlife’ are relatively common, this particular effort was top loaded with engaging characters and a carefully thought-out afterlife ecosystem which adds several extra dimensions to the plot. It is much too easy to have dead teens observing those they have left behind, this novel throws that concept out the window and concentrates on the ‘being dead’ side of things.
Harriet lives with her grumbling grandmother and has just started a photography course at university. Whilst exploring an abandoned building for the perfect snap, she falls to her death. When she wakes up, she does not initially realise she is dead, but the precise moment of her demise sent a bolt of life energy around the building and reawakened other ghosts which inhabit the space. Although Harriet is the main character, the story is also seen from a few other ghosts, who have been there for varying lengths of time.
Also, many of the chapters are introduced by an unnamed narrator who drops hints here and there of the bigger picture at play. There is a fair bit going on in this book, some great twists, including ghosts having unique special powers and the system in which the supernatural entities exist within the house (which they could not leave) was outstanding. And watch out for the granny!
MARY CARROLL LEOSON – The Butterfly Circle (2023)
Publisher : Manta Press, Ltd.;

The Butterfly Circle is one of those quiet mediative novels which any thoughtful reader will take something from. This 1948 tale is set entirely in Prescott House, Cleveland, Ohio. This location is a home for unwed teenage mothers who have been abandoned (temporarily or for good) by their families. Genuine teen readers of 2023 will undoubtedly be shocked by the way the teens are treated, the shame lumped upon their shoulders and the routine cruelty they are subjected to by the staff. The story opens with Eliza Kendall being dropped off by her father. Initially fearful, she quickly becomes friends with her three roommates and the strongest parts of the story is built around their relationships and the feelings they have for the men they have left behind or been abandoned by.
If you are after an out-and-out horror novel, then The Butterfly Circle might not be for you, the supernatural is kept on the backburner as the young women explore the vast house. This subtle novel explores a number of themes, ranging from Catholic guilt, mental illness, racism and a simmering LGBTQIA+ plotline. There is also a significant mystery element involving what eventually happens to the babies and the mothers. Dreams bubble under the surface and blend into reality with the teens having their own visions of what fate awaits them (or their child) beyond the home. This was a powerful, emotional read and although not all questions were answered it was a satisfying tale of friendships, fear and a lust for life in the most harrowing of circumstances.
Haunted Houses Tony’s top YA picks for Halloween

AMY LUKAVICS – The Woman in the Walls (2016)
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Children’s UK

The Women in The Walls is a complex, character driven, and highly enjoyable supernatural tale which reveals its secrets gleefully slowly through to its explosive ending. Seventeen-year-old Lucy lives in a huge house in the countryside with her cousin Margaret. They rarely see anyone except for her distant and distracted father and Margaret’s mother, who acts like a surrogate mother.
Much of the early action focusses on the two teenagers, who are very close, and how they deal with the suicide of a servant in the opening few pages. Although they are cousins they are as close as sisters and inseparable. I loved the vagueness of the setting, and although the odd hint is thrown in here and there, it was hard to pin-point. Considering they are two seventeen-year-old girls, there are no mobile phones, internet, boys, sex, very little mention of TV, school or other pop culture references. They seem to live in their own bubble in this strange empty house.
Lucy is very close to her aunt, in many ways closer than Margaret which leads to some friction, especially after Aunt Penelope disappears. The police do not come to look for the aunt and both Lucy and Margaret become suspicious. As do we the readers. As the plot picks up the pace, Margaret becomes withdrawn and believes she hears the voice of her missing mother in the walls. Lucy, of course, doesn’t believe her. The novel has several very clever twists, a couple of which I didn’t see coming. And you just cannot beat the cracker with the replacement cook! If you ever read it, you’ll know what I mean.
SARAH GLENN MARSH – The Girls Are Never Gone (2021)
Publisher : Razorbill

Dare Chase is the seventeen-year-old host of a new paranormal investigation podcast called ‘Attachments’ which, after some success with a similar YouTube channel, she hopes will be a hit. She pins her aspirations on the fact she is about to intern for a month at Arrington Estate, a sprawling property rumoured to be haunted by teenage girl who drowned there thirty years earlier, called Atheleen. Dare was a direct lead character, making it clear from the outset that she does not believe in ghosts. Not long after her arrival, strange things happen as the teen digs into the history of the house and her podcast pick up listeners. Much of the supernatural strand of the story surrounds the lake, the drowning and other reveals which deepen the mystery.
Suffering from type 1 diabetes, Dare monitors her health constantly, and early in the novel connects with another intern, Quinn. The developing relationship of the two girls is very nicely judged, with Dare’s acceptance of being bisexual. The book is populated entirely with female characters and the development of the podcast was another interesting facet of the book. The supernatural story takes precedent as the novel progresses, becoming more convoluted than it initially appears.
CHRIS PRIESTLEY – The Dead of Winter (2011)
Publisher : Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Michael Vyner finds out that things really do go bump in the night when he arrives at the isolated mansion of his sinister and slightly deranged new guardian. This is an outstanding example of an old-fashioned ghost story, set over one very cold Christmas holiday, beautifully capturing an atmosphere which balances perfectly between creepy and chilly. It is not violent or gory but has the power to unsettle as Sir Stephen Clarendon takes to his sickbed and abandons Michael to fend for himself. As the unhappy boy rattles around the huge and drafty house, he has never felt so alone, until he sees a woman standing in the mist in the vast gardens. Michael then embarks upon a dangerous mystery involving the death of a previous owner, whose ghost is rumored to wander the halls.
Chris Priestley writes this type of tale with ease and is a master of the modern gothic ghost story, with the fog rolling in and the mansion Hawton Mere being surrounded by marshes. It is short (you will be disappointed to finish it), very accessible, has some traditional ghost story scares and is perfect for kids who struggle with long books. Should you still read aloud to your kids, this type of novel is pitch perfect due to the larger than life and unhinged characters and secrets at every turn. As Dead of Winter is inspired by Edwardian ghost stories in the style of MR James, expect some spice in the ending.
LISA RICHARDSON – Channel Fear (2023)
Publisher : Chicken House

Lisa Richardson’s debut Channel Fear was a tasty blend of thriller and horror which cleverly utilises our obsession with social media and stardom, whilst asking how far we are prepared to go to gain a few more ‘likes’ or smiley faces. A convincing toxic friendship lies at the centre of Channel Fear; Iris co-hosts an unsuccessful ghost hunting YouTube channel with Byron and his girlfriend Molly.
The reader sees the negative comments (and only a few hundred views) after their latest episode fails to make any impression. Early in the action, we realise Byron is tired of the show and intends to leave, taking Molly with him. The story is told in the first person by Iris, who is intense and obsessed with the show’s success; there is also a strong sense of her being an unreliable narrator, as she tries to convince Byron to stay, for reasons which become apparent later.
The main hook of the plot is a clever one:
the three are on the hunt for YouTube ghost hunting stars Zach and Lucas, who had over three million subscribers. Iris, Byron and Molly dreamed of similar success and in a bid to find new viewers try to uncover what happened to the pair via a series of shows. After a few damp squids, a lead takes them to the long abandoned Thornhanger House, where most of the novel is set.
They believe Zach and Lucas visited this spooky house and soon they find clues, however, the novel revolves as much around the dynamics between Iris, Byron and Molly as the supernatural escalations. As a blame game, the book nicely balances bumps in the night, friendship troubles with potential sabotage. There are some nice jump scares, obvious comparisons with The Blair Witch Project, clever use of found footage with a strong social media spin relevant for teenagers of today.
LISELLE SAMBURY – Delicious Monsters (2023)
Publisher : Margaret K. McElderry Books

Considering Delicious Monsters pulls in at a very hefty 500 pages, it holds together remarkably well. This is a mature read which features abuse, trauma, mental health, neglect, gaslighting and other tough themes. The split narrative is told from ten years apart, and the manner in which the two stories mirrored, complimented and foreshadowed each other was nicely pitched. Seventeen-year-old Daisy sees ghosts and has problems with her single parent mother, she is also Black and although race is not a crucial part of the story it bubbles in the background. Daisy’s mum inherits a family mansion in a remote area of northern Ontario and there is a murky history the daughter is unaware of with simmering family feuds.
In the second narrative Brittney (nineteen) is interning at a media company and is responsible for a successful haunted house web channel and for a new feature, interviews with those connected to an incident ten years earlier which led to a death in the Daisy timeline. Brittney, who is also Black, is desperate to find out what happened in the house by interviewing as many of those she can track down connected to Daisy’s time in the house. This is one of those books where (at least in the Daisy narrative) it is exceedingly difficult to tell who is telling the truth, as there were secrets layered upon lies heading back to when the mother was a teenager. The house and its ghosts were a living breathing monster, but it was all subtlety managed via a train-wreck of a family and the failure to escape the past.
Haunted Houses Tony’s top YA picks for Halloween
DAVE SHELTON – Thirteen Chairs (2014)
Publisher : David Fickling Books

This beautifully crafted collection of thirteen ghost stories is Middle Grade but is suitable for younger teen readers who do not want something too challenging. The stories are cleverly crafted together by a little boy, dared to enter a haunted house. When exploring he finds himself drawn into a room with twelve strangers and an empty chair which has clearly been prepared for his arrival. All those sitting in the circle have a story to tell, including Jack, who already wishes he never entered the house in the first place.
The thirteen tales are deliciously varied and for younger kids finding their feet in horror and ghost stories this is a sublime introduction. The journey includes spooky goings on at an Arctic substation, a tale of school bullying and the story of a family’s boat overturning at sea. The flow is pitch perfect, with a creaky old-fashioned feel which helps sustain atmosphere, nudging the readers to read ‘one more story’ before bed. But the younger ones will probably want to keep the lights on!
– Thornhill (2017)
Publisher : David Fickling Books;

Even though Thornhill is a hefty 500 pages, fast readers will devour this this moving timeslip story in a few hours. The present-day section is told entirely in pictures, which are so incredibly expressive you barely notice there are no words. In the 1982 narrative, when Thornhill is a care home, the story focusses on Mary, a lonely orphan who suffers from selective mutism and is bullied mercilessly by other girls. Jump forward to 2017, Ella moves into a new house which overlooks the burned-out shell of Thornhill, and when she looks upon the ruin, she sees a ghostly figure watching her from the derelict and shadowy building.
This story is so beautifully told you will have a tear in the eye come the end when the tales merge together. The drawings are so natural and expressive they perfectly tell the 2017 story of Ella without the needs of any words at all. Even considering its girth, anyone over the age of ten to adult will fall in love with it. Wonderful in every possible way, and if recommending to kids, make sure you explain how the unique narrative works.
JONATHAN STROUD – The Screaming Staircase (2012)
Publisher : RHCP Digital

The Lockwood and Company series is set in a very atmospheric thirties version of Britain, where the appearance of ghosts and spirits have become commonplace and hauntings normalised. Only young people (mainly teenagers) have the psychic abilities required to eradicate these supernatural entities, and are exploited for their abilities. Lockwood and Company are a small group of teens who run a ‘guns for hire’ business to exorcise ghosts. In their first mission, the friends find themselves hired to work in one of the most haunted houses in Britain and have to solve the mystery of The Screaming Staircase.
Each of the five books is a standalone mystery and there is so much to enjoy in this highly creative series, which is grounded in a well-developed supernatural world. I loved the fact that it was set in the thirties, a period not often featured in children’s fiction, and the competing ghost hunting agencies and recurring larger than life characters were memorable. There is a lot of humour and wit with main character Lockwood reminding me of Bartimaeus the Djinni from The Amulet of Samarkand (2003). This story helps lay the foundations of what happens in later books and I was with Anthony, George and Lucy all the way.
TRANG THANH TRAN – She Is a Haunting (2023)
Publisher : Bloomsbury YA

In She Is a Haunting the narrator is American Vietnamese seventeen-year-old Jade Nguyen, with a lot of the story dealing with her internal conflict over how she sees herself. She does not speak fluent Vietnamese, and when she visits the home of her family for the summer feels disconnected and less than. She has also been hiding the fact that she is bisexual and is concerned with how her mother will react. The queer representation is excellent, Jade left a messy relationship in Canada, and readers who have personal struggles in coming out will be sure to identify with the internal monologue.
Jade has been promised funding for college if she helps restore an old house in Vietnam her father has bought and is looking to convert into a hotel. However, the house has a dark history and inserts itself in the narrative, with the story dipping into the colonial aspects of the house and local area. The supernatural story was kept deliberately low key, with Jade suffering from sleep paralysis and seeing ghosts from the house’s history. As nobody believes her, she attempts to fake hauntings, which takes the story in odd directions and towards a new romance. The haunting and the living house, with the use of insects and body parts, some of which was gory, was a genuine highlight. This was an ambitious and challenging novel which will make an impression on readers after a book which makes the most of its location.
– Moon Child (2021)
Publisher : Independently published

Religious conflict lies at the heart of Moon Child, the engaging story of eighteen-year-old Cuban American Valentina Callejas who has been brought up very close to the Catholic Church in a very close-knit Latinx community. However, Valentina has a secret interest in tarot cards and the occult which clashes with her strict Catholic upbringing. After a bust up with her family, and a refusal to stay on a church retreat, she visits a half-sister, whom she has never met, and finds her welcoming, warm, and completely different from her immediate family.
Whilst out exploring her new location, Valentina discovers an abandoned hotel and meets a group of teenagers, who insist she completes their magic circle. After overcoming her suspicions, Valentina realises the group all have slightly different magical gifts and are trying to open a gateway to the spirit world. Events heat up when the supernatural story develops in the second half of the story, connecting nicely to Valentina’s complex family history and the hotel. This was a very convincing blend of supernatural and family drama, made even more so by the flashbacks to an unpleasant sexual experience Valentina had with a boy at the church camp the previous year. Readers are going to have a lot of fun with this spunky teenage girl as she goes on her own voyage of discovery and attempts to leave her Catholic guilt in the past and be accepted for who she is.
Tony Jones
Haunted Houses Tony’s top YA picks for Halloween
Praise for the recently published YA Horror 400 almanac:

“The YA Horror 400 is a spectacular resource for lovers of horror and YA fiction. It’s a comprehensive guide to the past 15+ years of YA horror with reviews and author insights on over 400 YA horror novels and books, including my ‘We Mostly Come Out at Night’. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to YA horror readers. 10/10!” ROB COSTELLO (YA author and editor of We Mostly Come Out at Night & The Dancing Bears)
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“An amazing teen horror guide, with fabulous features like fear factor ratings and ‘If You Like This Try” recs. Perfect for librarians, teachers, and anyone who wants to live their best YA horror life” ANN FRAISTAT (YA author of What We Harvest & A Place for Vanishing)
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“If you’ve ever wished there were an easily accessible almanac of YA horror, I’ve got great news, Tony Jones, who has been reviewing and supporting my work since I first started and is one of my biggest professional cheerleaders has released his YA Horror 400 almanac! I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to contribute to it, too. What a cool project! Go Tony!” AMY LUKAVICS (YA author of Daughters Unto Devils & The Ravenous)
Haunted Houses Tony’s top YA picks for Halloween
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