• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nobrow (1 Sept. 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages

Forty years ago books like An Illustrated History of Ghosts were huge business and many got their earliest tastes of horror with Christopher Maynard’s Usborne’s World of the Unknown: Ghosts, which was first published back in 1978 and recently republished in 2019. Boardman tries to do the exact same Maynard did all those years ago, sadly things have moved on and these types of non-fiction books find themselves in competition with the horrors of the internet, haunting shows on television and all sorts of oddities lurking on You Tube. An illustrated History of Ghosts was also shortlisted for the highly regarded 2023 School Library Association Information Book Award, aged 13-16 category. Undoubtedly due to copyright reasons, the book has no photographs and relies solely on drawings to support its small bite-size chunks of text, which older children in that age bracket might find slightly dull. Long gone are the days where such a book might show a graphic snap of a severed leg due to spontaneous human combustion! 

Even if the drawings look slightly childish there is a lot of information to digest for those interested in the supernatural and it is perfect for using as a springboard for those brief stories which catch the readers eye. For example, there is a page on the medium Fox sisters, which would lead to a treasure trove of extra information on the internet. An Illustrated History of Ghosts is presented chronologically, going from Premodernity, the 19^th Century, 20^th Century, the Midcentury, the Postmodern Era and the 21^st Century, making all sorts of fascinating pitstops and ensuring it is truly international. Everything you expect is covered, from seances, haunted castles to the Bermuda Triangle. Some sections provide much more information than others, with some having what seemed like unnecessary lists (did it really need to list all the members of the Scooby Doo gang?) You will struggle to find anything missed out, or at least not mentioned in passing, however the concluding Further Reading and Further Viewing was very weak. There are twenty-one in each category and more effort should have been put into these important bibliographies (where was Christopher Maynard for a start?) and I would not actively recommend either Sam Raimi’s original 1981 Evil Dead or Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. More age-appropriate resources would have been more useful, including good YA teen horror rather than the very obvious Stephen King.

AGE RANGE 10/11+  

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scholastic; 1st edition (6 July 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages

Kathryn Foxfield is fast becoming one of the top UK authors for blending past-faced thrillers with horror, often with a dose of technology, social media and dysfunctional teen relationships thrown into the mix. Her latest Getting Away With Murder uses the same mix of ingredients which made her three previous books so readable and if you do not have Good Girls Die First (2020), It’s Behind You (2021) or Tag, You’re Dead (2022) in your school library then that should be rectified immediately. Foxfield’s fiction might not be deep or have worthy messages about changing the world, instead they provide highly diverting clever plotlines and realistic teenagers caught in outrageous situations. If you have a young teenager who spends too much time on their phone or other devices these are the types of books which could break the spell as they are fully immersive with a sneaky balance of realism and (possibly) the supernatural from abandoned piers to remote haunted underground mines or ultra-realistic virtual reality games, Kathryn Foxfield always spins cool stories.

Getting Away With Murder is an edgy spin on the high-tech escape room, I am surprised anybody ever attempts these, as they never seem to go well! The plot is a split chapter-by-chapter narrative with two teenage sisters whose relationship is at rock bottom and their feud has spilled out into school and onto social media. The story is seen from both ‘Saffron’ and ‘Georgia’ perspectives and it was fun seeing alternative versions of the same events. When the story starts both girls are on work experience, with Saffron working at a gaming company about to launch a new escape room, whilst Georgia is working at a local newspaper. Sensing a story, Georgia’s boss wants to ger her invited to the big premier launch of the game where things go horribly wrong. This is balanced against not only the dangers of AI technology, but the fact that those who are invited to the launch all know each other from the online game ‘Soul Survivor’ which the escape room mirrors in some quirky ways. After the first death the group realise the game is very real and there is no escape or pause button. This book is equally great for both those who love and hate technology! Has a lot of F-bombs and a couple of gory kills, otherwise most kids could read it.

AGE RANGE 12/13+  

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BRRPZ3XD
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Blackstone Publishing (15 Aug. 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English

The Girls from Hush Cabin was a murder mystery thriller which promised a lot, but ultimately failed to live up to its promise. It concerns four teenage girls (around seventeen) who meet up for the funeral of their former summer camp counsellor (Violet) who drowned in a swimming pool. Set over a brief few days around the time of the funeral, for assorted reasons the former friends suspect foul play. The Girls from Hush Cabin has four first person narratives, Zoe, Calistra, Holly and Denise, with this leading to the novel’s major weakness; I genuinely struggled to separate the narratives and they all merged together. Ultimately, they were too similar, all with their own secrets, and they just blended together and by the time the ending arrived I was beyond caring who the killer was, neither was there any great shock in the disappointing ending. The girls were supposed to be approaching the end of high school, but came across as much older with underage drinking, man hunting and were all very unlikable.

The story is built around the fact that everybody has secrets and Violet, whom the four-hero worshipped, manipulated to get what she wanted over those earlier summers from the age of thirteen or so. Although there was an occasional flashback the story could have done with much more of ‘then’ scenes from Hush Cabin, instead of the continual referencing to the earlier events. I am not sure who exactly the book is pitched at, but these bitchy teen girls seemed out of place going to bars underage and getting involved with gangster types, all seemed incredibly unbelievable. In the end of the day the mystery they solved was very underwhelming and this is not a book I would particularly recommend.

AGE RANGE 14+

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hyperion (8 Aug. 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages

Britney Lewis’s The Dark Place was an engaging teen read, which although it is quite tricky to categorise, will hold the attention of dark fiction fans, particularly those who enjoy a strong element of romance. The story is told in two timelines, primarily today’s ‘present’ when seventeen-year-old Hylee Williams is sent to live with her grandmother in Kansas. Why might you ask? Her behaviour has been erratic and unpredictable by her mother and it is clear she has some emotional problems which are connected to some years earlier when Hylee was eight. In this earlier timeline there is a violent incident in the family home after which her elder brother disappears and is never seen again. Lacking closure, a body to mourn, or any genuine answers Hylee struggles with both grief and trauma which is not managed very well by her family. This is because they have secrets and a lot of them. I read this book relatively blind and I would be extremely interested to see how genuine teen readers take to it, as it develops into a dark thriller which is spliced with teen drama, science fiction (time travel) and the type of concepts explored in the recent Oscar winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once. 

The romance storyline plays a big part in The Dark Place and after Hylee connects with the extremely cute (and really nice guy) Eliam Roads, you’ll see why. Initially the reader things Hylee suffers from blackouts, faints or loses her memory but quickly realise it is something much stranger, she physical disappears and the novel explores how this happens and its connection to the horrific events when she was eight. Time travel and romance are quirky bedfellows and even if it (beyond) highly convenient that another major character Hylee meets had the same gift I was happy enough to overlook it. Also, even though there was little explanation into how this worked it was more than made up for by Hylee’s great character and commitment to bringing her family back together. The Dark Place also had a really great ending and if you do not mind the frequent f-bombs then any young teen might enjoy it.

AGE RANGE 12/13+

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09RPK71W8
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Electric Monkey (1 Sept. 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English

Goldy Moldavsky takes the teen obsession with social media, celebrities, influencers and living the absolute perfect life through your Instagram account and gives it an amusing and cynical shake. Why does everybody look happier than I do in their online postings many might ask? Without realising that it is either a lie, a half-truth or at least tarted up by thirty different filters! Possibly inspired by true stories of influencers behaving badly or desert island cons a load of ‘important’ people head to Fly Fest, the hottest (and move expensive) ticket in town, an exclusive music festival on a Caribbean island. Only to find that everything goes horribly wrong and the Caribbean getaway they were promised turns out to be a nightmare and there is barely a pop star in sight, or a stage or even a hotel for that matter! This was very amusing stuff and as the influencers were pure caricatures of the types you might see on You Tube or Love Island it was playful fun seeing them brought down a peg or two. Expecting five-star vegan gourmet food, then being offered a mouldy sweaty cheese sandwich was a bit of a comedown and deliciously funny!

This was a jokey spin on the William Golding Lord of the Flies classic where the battle is not quite over survival, but whether the only functioning wifi-code can be obtained. The story follows Rafi Francisco, who needs a splashy eye-catching case to put her true-crime podcast on the map and is tracking River Stone, the pop star who rocketed to fame after his girlfriend’s mysterious disappearance. She is hoping a potential interview will expose him as the killer she’s certain he is and as another girl disappears from the island Rafi is sure he is guilty and part of the story follows her podcast musings. The most amusing part of the story revolves around how the influencers try to spin their fake Fly Fest narrative, some of which was very stupid, but was not meant to be taken too seriously. There were lots of social media references for teen readers to notice and they will undoubtedly find the obnoxious influencers more appealing than I did. This was a diverting follow-up to The Last Girl AKA The Mary Shelley Club, which we reviewed positively back in 2021.

AGE RANGE 12/13+

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little Island Books (3 Oct. 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages

Big Bad Me was published in late 2022 and I was delighted to take this funny shaggy dog story for a belated walk around the block. As with SJ Wills’s Bite Risk which we recently reviewed, Aislinn O’Loughlin fools around with the werewolf mythology (no full moons here) and throws in a taste of Stranger Things style kooky science to produce her own version which relies heavily on Buffy the Vampire Slayer making various knowing nods. Set-in small-town Canada, Evie Wilder has always thought she suffered from various rare aliments which she has to take a lot of medication for, under the keen eye of her elder sister Kate. Big Bad Me has a split chapter-by-chapter narrative between the two girls, with Evie realising early on that her elder sister and (missing) mother have used medication to suppress the fact she is a werewolf and is not related to them by blood. This book was a lot of fun and had a nice balance between sass, comedy, teen life and horror. It’s weakness was the fact that once you get beyond the fact that Evie is a werewolf, the developing story built around the increasing animal attacks and the teen disappearances might have been stronger as the ‘bad guy’ characters were a tad dull.

I enjoyed the manner in which the werewolf story was adapted and the control Evie has over the changes and the manner in which she becomes a force to be reckoned with. The sisters bounced off each other beautifully and the introduction of potential love interest Kevin was pitched nicely, it was obvious he was not entirely human but was still a nice character. Big Bad Me did not go over the top with violence, swearing or sex, making it accessible to both pre-teens and those older. There was not much surprise to find out there were other supernatural creatures lurking in the night and in true Scooby Doo fashion I hope the gang return for another adventure as this was great fun.

AGE RANGE 12/13+ 

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chicken House; 1st edition (6 July 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

The House Trap was an engaging Middle School blend of friendship, thriller, adventure and supernatural story. This page-turner will undoubtedly grab readers in the top end of primary school and into Year 7 of secondary who are after something not too scary. Early in the story, Amity, the younger sister of Claude runs off into the local forest, Badwell Woods, and is then followed by Sam and Delilah who go looking for her. The back story involves the fact that Amity and Claude will shortly be leaving the area and moving to the seaside, breaking up a long-standing friendship which Delilah already thinks has changed as Sam thinks he is now too cool for the nerdy stuff they used to get up to, but she still enjoys. Written in the third person, young readers are bound to see some of themselves in either Delilah, Sam or Claude. The three spot Amity’s scarf close to a house they had never seen before and follow her in and then the fun begins. 

What follows is a mash-up of escape room logic puzzles, computer game skills and a supernatural story which gets more pronounced as things move on, with the kids with the ‘nerdy’ type skills coming into their own. When the kids enter the house they realise they are trapped in a three storey-building with no stairs, by surveying what is around they discover hidden doors, secrets and ways in which to climb the levels of the house, like those of a game using both logic and instinct. The House Trap really came into its own when the ghosts were introduced into the story, children who had been trapped there from earlier generations. The backstory was interesting too, I grew up in a small Scottish town which had a house which was once own by a magician and was supposed to have similar traps to those in the story! This magician has been dead for over one hundred years, but his old property is still known locally as the “magician’s house.” This was a charming tale with the right balance of chills, friendship, action and character development. Even the funny and absolutely true adult patronising “when I was a kid” references to the days before mobile phones hit the spot. The author obviously has very cool taste in music as there is a sly Pixies reference which made me chuckle near the end!

AGE RANGE 8-12

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hot Key Books; 1st edition (29 Aug. 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages

With a title like I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me and a striking cover I was expecting a full-blown YA horror novel rather than a very slow-moving supernatural drama with racial undertones. If you are not interested in ballet or dance then this Paris set story may well leave you cold, which I found a slog to finish. Laure Mesny is a seventeen-year-old trainee dancer trying to make it in the cut-throat world of ballet. As she is Black and comes from a poor background has been seemingly overlooked for top dancing positions in a world which is very much class based. Even though one could feel some sympathy for Laure I found every character pretty boring, samey, vacant and rather one dimensional. Okay, they were driven by dancing, bordering on obsession, and stepping upon the competition was second nature in getting ahead, but they were all so unpleasant I struggled to tell them apart.

The story revolves around Laure making some form of supernatural deal in the catacombs under the city, this was all very obscure and I felt could have been explained better. However, it seemingly works and Laure moves up the greasy dancing pole at the cost of her friends and fellow dancers on the way to larger parts in the upcoming productions. Interestingly, I thought the book played more on the fact that Laure came from a poor family and broken home, and the undercurrent clearly shows that so many teenagers are cast aside with broken dreams when they do not make it to elite level. The supernatural angle of the story failed to impress me beyond being an obsessive extension of dancers prepared to do anything to succeed. This was a slow novel and without an interest in dancing will fall flat for many readers and if you are after a more traditional YA horror then look elsewhere.

AGE RANGE 13+

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B8MW82C1
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fitzroy Books (30 Aug. 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paula Stokes has written a number of other books, but Hellfinder was the first time I had come across her and was a solid introduction to her work. This was a very easy-to-read blend of action, thriller, supernatural horror and a cute bubbling under teen romance. The main character is seventeen-year-old Rory (short for Aurora) Quinn who is slightly socially awkward because she spends most of her time hanging out with her granny, whom she also helps with her research as a treasure hunter. I would not exactly call ‘Gram’ Indiana Jones and the pairing of a granny and her granddaughter was an odd mix for a dark thriller, but it mostly worked. The story kicks off in Iceland where they have been hired to find an enchanted stone, which leads them to searching for the grandson of their client who has stolen the artefact. If rumours are to be believed, then the stone can be used to access a gateway to hell, which is in an inaccessible area of Iceland. Soon the chase is on, Gram and Rory go in the hunt for Einar and the dodgy stone. 

Even though Hellfinder was fun the chase to recover the stone took too long and was ultimately most of the novel. There was also a really terrific plot-shift towards the end of the novel regarding Rory and her dead mother, but I did find the hell scenes with the stone slightly underwhelming. The love interest was a cute part of the story, Rory meets Einar’s twin brother Gunnar who is to be their guide, and although they rub each other the wrong way at the start, the attraction is there and some of the best scenes involve these two whilst the granny fades into the background. Interestingly, Einar has stolen the stone due to his obsession with a heavy metal band who are also interested in the black arts. This is a massive thing in Heavy Metal music and Hellfinder could have dug a bit deeper and presented genuine teen readers (I personally know a lot about this) with some accurate factual information. Along the way there are cults, demons and some big reveals. This was a refreshing and entertaining page-turner and a nice blend of genres.

AGE RANGE 11-14

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BJPJXPRX
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Electric Monkey (6 July 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English

I was a major fan of Kate Weston’s two comedy school dramas Diary of a Confused Feminist (2020) and sequel Must Do Better (2020) with the author retaining some of the humour in her latest offering Murder on a School Night. Even though there were several brutal murders in this novel it was very funny and is aimed at a slightly older age group than her previous two books, with the main characters being aged sixteen and just starting Sixth Form. Whilst Kerry and her best friend Annie are at their first party one of their classmates is killed horribly. The police initially think the death is some weird type of accident, with extremely popular Selena Monroe being discovered choked by a menstrual cup. There was a very funny scene when hyper-active and loud Annie explains to the police officers the purpose of one of these cups to an embarrassed policeman how it could not have been a murder. Other deaths follow, each of which have sanitary product connections. Set in a small village, Murder on a School Night quickly develops into a blend of comedy, drama, embarrassing teen moments, amusing text exchanges with mum and a developing romance.

Kerry narrates the story and was outstanding and slightly scatty company, being balanced nicely by her over-the-top friend Annie who wants to solve the murders before the police and even has her own photographic wall of suspects (which also includes Kerry!) For the most part it was very light-hearted, with laces of dark humour and period related jokes/observations, the reader quickly realises the police will never solve the crimes and it was a lot of fun piggybacking upon Kerry’s misadventures. Kerry’s interactions with the new boy in school came across as really authentic and light-hearted with motor-mouthed Annie buzzing in the background. Ultimately the book questions how important it is to be accepted by the coolest kids in the class and whether your life really depends on how many Instagram followers you have or if so-and-so follows you back. AGE RANGE 13/14+