My Top YA Bram Stoker Award Picks of the Last Decade by Tony Jones.

The Young Adult (YA) Bram Stoker Award: my top picks from the last decade of Final Ballots

In my previous Young Blood article “A depressing night for quality children’s fiction” I criticised the 2024 Bram Stoker Award, particularly the members who voted for two very weak novels, which clearly do not represent the best in YA and Middle Grade horror. I am not going to rehash the whole article here, so follow the link should you want to read it.

It is a real shame that the committees that spend a huge amount of time pulling together the books which end up on the Preliminary Ballots, only for voting members to disregard their suggestions and instead vote for inferior novels which were probably written by a friend or they recognised it from a film.  

But rather than dwell on the negative and to support the excellent work by the Selection Committees, in this article I select my favourite fifteen titles to grace the Final Ballots since 2016. Ann Fraistat’s outstanding haunted house novel  A Place for Vanishing is the only book from this year’s Stoker to make this list. Ann should consider herself ‘robbed’ of this this year’s award as it was the standout read from the shortlist, head and shoulders above the competition.

Adam Cesare’s Clown in a Cornfield is undoubtedly the best known book of the fifteen I have selected, but for those of you looking to expand your knowledge of YA horror or develop a library collection there are some terrific authors to investigate further, with many of the books not being particularly well known. Between 2015 and 2018 Amy Lukavics wrote four outstanding YA horror novels, but only The Ravenous made it to the Final Ballot, the HWA should hold its head in shame that this incredible author was never awarded a YA Stoker. And for this reason I place her number one.  

The books are ranked by personal preference, but they are crackers. 

My Top YA Bram Stoker Award Picks of the Last Decade by Tony Jones.

AMY LUKAVICS – The Ravenous (2017)

The Ravenous has complex family issues beating at its dark heart, much more than twitching goes on beyond the curtains in this broken household. There are few better YA writers in cross-pollinating the issues of everyday life, damaged teenagers with that of the supernatural than Lukavics. The Ravenous also has a healthy amount of gore, as the eldest sister makes good use of the family hammer, as her unhealthy interest in serial killers develops and the body-count increases.

The Ravenous is told from the point of view of Mona, the middle of five teenage sisters. Getting into the head of a teenager and making it convincing is incredibly hard to do, but the author totally nails the isolation felt by the girl.

The eldest of the sisters acts as a surrogate parent to the others, as their mother is an alcoholic and their father completely absent. However, tragedy strikes when their mother causes a drunken argument and the youngest falls into the deep basement, tumbling to the bottom and dies, instantly breaking her neck.

This was one of many brutal sequences, the family staring at their broken sibling, her head twisted at a wrong angle. In her madness, the mother claims she can “bring Rose back” and disappears for a few days with the body. When she returns, she is not alone, and Rose is alive again, but with very different tastes. Brutal savagery all the way until the unsettling bleak end.

LIANA GARDNER – Speak No Evil (2019)

Liana Gardner’s brilliant Speak No Evil is built around sixteen-year-old Melody Fisher in the American foster home system, who has not spoken for almost two years. The doctor responsible for her treatment realises music is very important to her and uses lyrics as a way of breaking down the communication barriers.

The reasons for this are revealed slowly and told via multiple timelines, going back to when she was aged five, with the novel moving across the years. As it progresses, the backstory slowly focuses upon the sixteen-year-old version of the main character. Ultimately, this is a novel about real life horror; abuse, overcoming it, and the resilience of Melody Fisher as she slowly, with a lot of help, turns her life around. I am not ashamed to reveal I had a tear in my eye on more than one occasion. 

The backdrop of the story edges this powerful tale of broken families into the realms of dark fiction. Melody’s parents both attend a church where snake-handling is part of the normal Sunday service, however, Melody’s mother is also scared of the snakes, but the child is gifted with animals and has a beautiful hypnotic voice.

Soon something goes horribly wrong with the snakes which rips their family apart. Teenage novels which touch on subjects as dark as this need to be applauded, and although it also features a very unpleasant rape scene, it is handled sensitively. Everybody needs hope and even though Melody does not talk she does have others fighting in her corner. In real life perhaps she would slip through the cracks of society, but this if fiction and we all need hope. A quite beautiful book of which I am delighted to have two copies in my library and recommend it regularly. I loved Melody Fisher.

R.L. BOYLE – The Book of the Baku (2021)

R.L. Boyle’s The Book of the Baku is one of the novels of the year and was beautifully ambiguous. For the most part it was astonishingly bleak for a teen novel. Although the blurb calls it “A Monster Calls meets The Shining” I would disagree and amend that to “A Monster Calls meets The Babadook” which suits it slightly better.

This highly unsettling debut novel is very much its own beast and does not lean on anything, except for the pain of broken families, isolation, guilt and tragedy. If you think this sounds too heavy, do not let that put you off; Sean is a brilliant leading character who deserves your empathy and support. It was also fantastic to read a horror novel with a boy as a central character, these are few and far between, and one who struggles bravely with a disability, whose cause is revealed in tragic flashback. 

The Book of the Baku plays out in two ‘before’ and ‘after’ narratives, but it is enticingly unclear what happened to Sean’s mother when he arrives at his estranged grandfather’s house. A family tragedy has led to him developing a Conversion Order, which means he cannot talk, but he also has a serious leg disability which hampers his mobility and has been bullied because of it. In the past, his grandad was a writer who wrote a collection of short stories about a mythical creature, called the ‘Baku’, which feeds on the dreams of children.

As Sean reads the terrifying collection, he begins to lose touch with reality, and the stories from the book blend into his everyday world, with some real Bababook style moments.

This was one of those books where you just will the main character to confront their internal demons, and I was quite literally cheering out loud when some glimmers of light appeared in the darkness of the tunnel. In many ways, the life Sean left behind was considerably more harrowing than anything the Baku could do to him, and it was brilliantly written into the major reveals which come later in the plot. The Book of the Baku is one of the bravest and most impressive horror novels on the market and deserves to be read incredibly widely. 

DANIEL KRAUS – Bent Heavens (2020)

Eighteen-year-old Liv Fleming leads this genre-bending thriller which dances around horror and science fiction in a very convincing, smalltown Ohio setting. Readers will easily tap into the troubled psyche and angst of a girl whose world was turned upside down when her father disappeared two years earlier, but it is the circumstances surrounding her father which makes this story fascinating.

Lee Fleming was a very popular English teacher at the school Liv attended and before he disappeared indefinitely, vanished for a much shorter period before reappearing, naked, on the school campus. He was not the same man, deeply psychologically traumatised and claiming to have been abducted by aliens, with vague memories of being experimented upon. Officially, it was presumed he suffered a mental breakdown and the family struggled to cope with the very public emotional fallout. 

Once Lee Fleming returns after his initial disappearance, he becomes obsessed with aliens and constructs a series of six very dangerous traps in the woodland surrounding his house, and names them; Amputator, Hangman’s Noose, Crusher, Neckbreaker, Abyss and Hard Passage. If you have ever read the Iain Banks cult classic The Wasp Factory (1984) the traps might ring some bells. Eventually, his creations catch something significantly larger than a squirrel.

Bent Heavens is a great read and has enough strings in its bow to attract differing types of teen readers with its convincing blend of horror, drama, and thriller. Even though Liv might not have been the most sympathetic of characters, her pain and grief is convincingly portrayed in a tale about the lengths we will go to uncover the truth. Even if the answers uncover more pain, at least there is closure.

JUSTINA IRELAND – Dread Nation (2018)

During the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War, the dead reanimate and suddenly both sides of the bloody conflict realise there is a new enemy and temporarily put their differences aside. This stunning novel picks the story fifteen up years later, with the Civil War abandoned.

The word zombie is never used (‘shambler’ is the term to appear most frequently) and there is little hint of the supernatural, it is portrayed as an infection which science cannot explain. When Dread Nation opens, many cities in the east have already been lost to the plague, and there is now a Thirteenth Amendment that ensures there is still no equality between white and Black people, a key recurring theme throughout the story. Slavery still exists and the worldbuilding around this is incredibly well developed.

Dread Nation is a convincing alternative history zombie horror novel, but it is much more than that, having a lot to say about race, equality and gender. It also has both a beautiful and memorable voice, being narrated in the first person by fifteen-year-old Jane McKeene who is Black and is used as a slave bodyguard (called Attendants) to a white woman.

A new law after the uprising, the ‘Negro and Native Re-education Act’, forces young Black women to be taught a mixture of fighting skills and house etiquette, and they are the first line of defence against shamblers who attack the walled settlements. Jane is a funny, sassy, proud and memorable character whom you will quickly have empathy for.  

TIFFANY D. JACKSON – The Weight of Blood (2022)

I was totally blown away by this intense riff on Stephen King’sCarrie, with a clever racial social commentary. What Jackson does with the original is nothing short of inspirational, adding a whole new layer regarding the legacy of racism in a small Georgian town, beautifully blended into a story of an isolated and bullied teenage girl developing telekinetic powers.

Take the bones of the King story and sets it in a high school where Black students are in the minority, where Black kids have separate proms and where blackfacing is still seen as funny and an acceptable form of fancy dress. Undercurrents of institutionalised racism throb throughout the book, but it is nicely balanced by an engaging teen storyline and a second podcast/radio style story strand set ten years later, which cleverly mirror the style in King’s Carrie.  

Main character Maddy Washington has hidden the fact that she is biracial from her classmates, predominately because her father controls every aspect of her life. She has no friends and is relentlessly bullied; this is before the fact she is half-Black is revealed. After another student films classmates throwing stuff at her afro-style hair, the video ends up on the TV news and the fact that the town still has separate proms ends under the spotlight.

Right from the start, we know something very nasty is going to happen at the first integrated prom, as the second narrative of the documentary “Maddy Did It” – makes this abundantly clear, but the fun is in how events play out. For large chunks of the book, The Weight of Blood plays like a teen drama, featuring other characters, including Black football star Kenny, who ignores the racism. The Weight of Blood balances the social commentary with the teen drama and the horror exceptionally well, with the location of Springville being a notorious ‘Sundown Town’ years earlier. Maddy was a pitiful character and I found myself feeling more for her than the original ‘Carrie’. 

KRYSTAL SUTHERLAND – House of Hollow (2021)

One of the great strengths of House of Hollow is the uncertainty surrounding the direction the supernatural narrative might take, which remains cleverly shrouded. It is obvious from the outset that the family at the centre of the plot is very strange, but the contemporary London private school setting, grounds the action in today. Narrated by the youngest of three sisters Iris (the others being Vivi and Grey), who openly admits that unsettling things happen around them but shrugs it off as the biproduct of being a ‘Hollow Sister’, a phrase which has more than one meaning.

Whether Iris Hollow has unique powers or is just plain weird is for the reader to uncover, however, as a narrator she crackles, giving House of Hollow an authentic teenage voice. Ten years earlier the three sisters vanished, only to mysteriously reappear a month later, with no recollection of where they had been or what happened. Early in proceedings the story takes a fascinating turn when Grey disappears for a second time, but leaves clues which only her sisters can decipher. The story moves into the realms of dark fairy tales and folklore, without playing to the stereotypes popular in this brand of YA novel. Make sure you stay the course for a terrific ending.

ERICA WATERS – The River Has Teeth (2021)

The River Has Teeth takes place in a small town in Tennessee where teenage girls have been disappearing, and seventeen-year-old Della believes her mother to be the culprit. Della’s family live in a ramshackle house outside of town and make ends meet by selling remedies to superstitious locals. Della is the youngest of a long family line of witches whose magic is connected to the land where they live. However, Della believes their magic has gone bad and has turned her mother into a creature (don’t worry it’s not a vampire or werewolf). When the police and others come snooping, what can the teenager do to protect her dangerous mother?

The story is told via a split first-person narrative, between Della and Natasha, whose sister is one of the disappeared girls. Natasha comes from a rich family but has her own problems from being adopted and acceptance around being bisexual. After the police draw a blank, Natasha comes to Della for help. After an initial personality clash, the novel documents their developing friendship, secrets, and more.

The River has Teeth was convincing on multiple levels and although magic never dominates, it had an earthy feel to it and within the constraints of the family. The conflict between the two teenagers, and developing friendship, was also a pleasure to read, both having their own problems, issues and clashes. The way in which everything came together was superb writing, and I enjoyed the fact that the killer was not the most obvious character (or the second most obvious) helping build a very satisfying finish.

ANN FRAISTAT – A Place for Vanishing (2024)

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 bipolar 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.

JEYN ROBERTS – When They Fade (2016)

When they Fade is a complex and gripping supernatural thriller story told through two convincing and distinct voices. Firstly, Tatum, who is having serious problems at school. Her ex-best friend Claudette is having an affair with a teacher, and having concerns for her friend Tatum reports it to their councillor.

When confronted, Claudette and her boyfriend teacher turn the tables on Tatum and nobody believes her. Her life becomes a misery as she is outed as a tattletale; much of this back story is told via flashback. The second character the narrative follows is Molly, who is a ghost, originally murdered in 1970 by a serial killer not long after the Woodstock Music Festival, and she repeatedly reappears as a hitchhiker on the stretch of road close to where she originally disappeared. 

One evening, Tatum is out driving and she picks up Molly, and when their hands touch the ghost foresees a horrible death for the other girl and their lives connect. When They Fade is a superb fusion of painful and realistic high school bullying, ghost story, thriller, and even a believable romance as Tatum tries to confront her demons. The author does a memorable job of creating a gripping ghost story with convincing characters, both alive and dead. 

ADAM CESARE – Clown in a Cornfield (2020)

With a title like Clown in a Cornfield you might be forgiven for thinking you had stumbled upon a glorious ‘straight-to-video’ release from the 1980s heyday of lurid but wonderful horror films. However, you would be mistaken, as this is a genuine YA release and an impressive teen debut from adult horror author Adam Cesare.

I do love a ‘final girl’ and main character Quinn Maybrook ticks many of the boxes when the body count spirals in the second half of the story. Clown in a Cornfield truly is a book of two halves; the first establishes the plot with the story exploding in the second stanza. Upon arrival in the sleepy and remote small town of Kettle Strings (Missouri) Quinn and her father, Doctor Glen Maybrook, are quickly sucked into a white-knuckle ride where, like many of the horror films it is inspired by, the main bout of action takes place over a single night. 

What of the clowns? I will drop no spoilers on how they factor into the story, however, this part of the plot is inspired by ‘Frendo’, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat which has been connected to the town for decades.  If you have watched many of the slasher films Clown in the Cornfield plays homage to, you’ll realise these films were all about the kill sequences and, in this regard, the novel does not hold back on the gore which involves chainsaws, shotguns and crossbows.

The clown action sequences were outstanding set pieces and are guaranteed to nail any teenage reader to the page as the body count mounts with the kids trapped and hunted in the cornfields. I hope this highly entertaining novel is taken in the spirit in which it is intended: old fashioned gore, unrelenting action and gleefully violent fun, played out with a nice group of teenage characters. YA horror does not take up a large slice of the overall teen book market and there are very few novels like this in the bookshops. First and foremost, teen fiction is a form of escapism, which is supposed to be fun, and in that, this novel is an absolute banger.

CLAIRE LEGRAND – Sawkill Girls (2018)

Sawkill Girls attracted hype as a feminist horror novel and although it was slow-moving strong readers will surely engage with the three leading teenagers. Set on an American island, Sawkill Rock, where girls routinely disappear, murdered by an ancient creature which strengthens as the novel progresses. These teens are not exactly friends but have to fight to survive and develop their own strange powers to oppose the creature. 

The teen issues section of the novel worked well, covering friendship, self-harming and sexuality. This is an atmospheric, challenging, and eerie assertion of female strength against the odds and an ancient powerful evil. Sawkill Girlswas a clever balance of thoughtful spine-chilling horror story and coming-of-age lesbian romance. 

KATE ALICE MARSHALL – Rules for Vanishing (2019)

Rules for Vanishing is a very clever, original, and sneaky novel told via transcribes, written testimonies, interviews, exhibits, and video evidence. We know from the beginning that the action opens in April 2017 with police discussions being conducted in May 2017 and main character Sara is the suspect.

The story revolves around a local legend; once a year, an isolated road is rumoured to magically appear, which leads to the entrance to a supernatural dimension. Those who follow the path must follow precise rules or risk being trapped there forever. If Sara’s impossible story is to be believed she was lucky to make it out alive, but as fates of her friends are unknown, we then follow her narrative which is enticingly told out of synch.

Why was Sara attempting to enter another dimension? Exactly a year previously her sister Becca disappeared, her parents believe she ran away with her boyfriend but Sara believes she played the game and is lost the alternative dimension. Soon, Sara and her friends are on the hunt, attempting to pass through the seven gates and completing the challenges. This was a highly entertaining novel which was both atmospheric and cleverly written, with an involving documentary feel to proceedings allowing the reader to solve the puzzles and their own analysis to the conclusion.

AMELINDA BÉRUBÉ – Here There Are Monsters (2019)

I was enthralled by this slow-burning YA horror/fantasy novel which nailed the troubled psyche of a sixteen-year-old girl dealing with the sudden disappearance of her little sister. The younger girl Deirdre had issues, revealed slowly as the plot moves backwards and forwards through narratives before and after she vanished. Although Skye is not directly at fault, she feels guilty, putting a strain on her relationship with her struggling parents who try not to blame her. But when they’re so stressed tensions run high.

The supernatural narrative is slowly filtered into the story and the haunting is cleverly connected to Skye, her new friends, and what lurks within the local forest. Or is it an entity which has followed the sisters throughout their childhood? The compelling dynamics Skye has with her new school friends works very well as she struggles to cope even more as the length of the disappearance stretches. The mystery quickly deepens, and I found this to be an excellent and atmospheric read for teenagers looking for a subtle supernatural slow burner.

ELLE COSIMANO – Holding Smoke (2016)

Holding Smokeis an entertaining crossover urban and supernatural thriller from the author of the Nearly Gone duology. John ‘Smoke’ Conlan is in a youth detention centre commonly known as the ‘Y’ for the double murder of a teacher and a teenager. The reader quickly realises he has been framed for the murder of the teacher and killed the other boy in self-defence. Much of the long term thrust of the book is about Smoke trying to prove his innocence. Of course, being banged up in prison is pretty difficult, but due to an earlier near-death experience he has the power to leave his body, watch other people, and gather information to help prove his innocence. 

Because he’s a nice guy he also uses his abilities to help other inmates who have become his friends. Little does he know the true murderer still has an eye on him; even in prison he is far from safe. The ability to leave his body is called ‘threading’ and Smoke does not realise the more he does it, and the longer he does it for, the more likely it is he will get lost, his soul separating from his body.

Whilst out of his body he meets a girl called Pink, who can see him due to her own supernatural gifts as a medium. Holding Smoke’s main strength is its engaging main character and striking out of body experience sequences.

Tony Jones 

Praise for the YA Horror 400 almanac, published in 2024:

“The YA Horror 400 is such a good and constructive push for YA horror.” JEREMY DE QUIDT (YA author of The Wrong Train & The Toymaker)

“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)

“A must have for anyone looking to help connect younger readers to the best genre in the world. Expertly compiled by Tony Jones” PHIL HICKES (Middle Grade author of the Aveline Jones and Shadowhall Academy series)

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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)

“I want to alert English teachers and librarians to the most definitive resource I’ve ever seen highlighting the best YA horror novels since 2008. 400 of the best dark fiction for readers 9-15+ . Where do you go for advice yourself to know what to purchase? It’s all here. What do you give a middle-grade reader or teen with a taste for the darker side? This … and let them pick and choose their own! CLIFF McNISH (YA author of Breathe & The Hunting Ground)

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“The YA Horror 400 is a fabulous resource for librarians, parents, and fans of horror kidlit.” Lora Senf (Bram Stoker Award winning author of The Blight Harbor series)

“I highly recommend the YA Horror 400: an almanac of 400 teen horror novel reviews published between 2008-2024 by Tony Jones, featuring reviews of the best YA and middle grade horror (including my own novel Channel Fear”. LISA RICHARDSON (YA author of Channel Fear)

“Teachers, librarians, readers… This brand new almanac from horror guru Tony Jones is all you need to navigate your way through YA spookiness, gore and thrills. SJ Wills (YA author of the Bite Risk series)