YA Horror Roundup November 2024
Our latest roundup has ten books for you, a mixed bag of sequels, familiar authors and titles which drift into thriller and dark fantasy territory. I rarely review graphic novels but was captivated by Rosie Talbot and Sarah Maxwell’s Phantom Hearts, an LGBTQIA+ supernatural thriller set after a high school tragedy. I also rarely review non-fiction and was also a big fan of Adam Allsuch Boardman’s An Illustrated History of Urban Legends. If you think urban legends begin and end with Slenderman then this book provides plenty of food for thought.
Monsters are abound in both Logan-Ashley Kisner’s Old Wounds and Joelle Wellington’s The Blonde Dies First, both featuring thriller elements with strong LGBTQIA+ representation. Should you want even more horrible creatures, Jennifer Lyle’s Snow Drowned disguises itself nicely as a thriller before going monstertastic in its big finish.
We’ve reviewed Kathryn Foxfield’s Getting Away With Murder before,
but it arrives with a fresh coat of paint and a new publisher over in the USA, if you do not like escape rooms avoid this book like the plague. There is even more claustrophobia in Diana Urban’s Under the Surface with a group of American teens being trapped and stalked in the Paris catacombs. Hannah Jayne’s We Did Nothing Wrong is an easy read thriller about the disappearance of a teenage girl and the resulting fallout and secrets.
Liz Hyder’s The Twelve mixes mythology, folklore, plays around with mystery and timeslips in an entertaining historical thriller in which a sibling vanishes back into an earlier time period. Finally we have Adam Cesare’s disappointing Clown in a Cornfield 3: the Church of Frendo, I’m done with this series and should Frendo return I will not be joining the fun.
The books are presented alphabetically by author.
Adam Allsuch Boardman – An Illustrated History of Urban Legends
Publisher : Flying Eye Books
Forty years ago books like An Illustrated History of Urban Legends were huge business and many kids got their earliest tastes of horror with Christopher Maynard’s Usborne’s World of the Unknown: Ghosts, which was first published back in 1978. 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 Urban Legends follows An Illustrated History of Ghosts (2023) and An Illustrated History of UFOs (2020, which is republished next year) and is identical in style. The book has no photographs and relies solely on drawings and graphic design to support its snappy small bite-size chunks of text. Long gone are the days where such a book might show a graphic snap of a severed leg (I remember this well!) due to spontaneous human combustion!
Even if the drawings look slightly juvenile there is a huge amount of information to digest for those interested in the whacky world of Urban Legends.
It is also perfect for catching the eye of those with a short attention span. This is the sort of book a group of kids could have a lot of fun with whilst idling away a slow afternoon in the school library. An Illustrated History of Urbans is presented chronologically, going from Premodernity, Modernity, Midcentury, Postmodern Era and Metamodern Era, making all sorts of fascinating pitstops and ensuring it is truly international (little was UK based except for Nessie).
You will struggle to find anything missed out (even creepypasta makes an appearance) or is at least mentioned in passing. I enjoyed the manner in which the book made its own conclusions in how Urban Legends reinvented themselves for new generations. The book closes with a useful further reading list, 66 people to research further, along with some films to check out (the age ratings were wrong in a few of them). This is another entertaining read and should appeal to any kid with an overactive imagination which has already been borrowed from my school library several times. AGE RANGE 10/11+ to TEEN
Adam Cesare – Clown in a Cornfield 3: the Church of Frendo
Publisher : HarperTeen (20 Aug. 2024)
Adam Cesare needs to call time of his Clown in a Cornfield series as it has completely run out of steam and I would not recommend this third instalment. Cesare unsuccessfully attempts to take the series in a new direction, but instead scores a massive own goal by abandoning the location of Kettle Springs and cutting some popular characters (Cole and Rust) from the first two books. The original Clown in a Cornfield was a breath of fresh air in the YA horror scene and was a deserved winner of the YA Bram Stoker Award. This third instalment is tired, old hat and a weak conclusion which lacked both clowns and cornfields. Cesare does continue to push the boundaries for what levels of violence you can get away with in a YA novel, but some creative kills are not enough to save a flat, boring and tiresome novel.
Credibility is stretched from the outset, as at some point between Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives and book 3 The Church of Frendo the main character and final girl Quinn Maybrook goes on an (almost) murderous spree hunting the followers of Frendo. The reasons for this are murky (maybe I missed something) and Quinn moves from being the hunted to being the predator.
However, as this is a YA novel Cesare pulls his punches and revenge does not necessarily mean murder.
This is fair enough, as having mass murderer central ‘hero’ characters in YA novels is exceptionally rare, but not unheard of, check out Summertime of the Dead (2015) by Gregory Hughes, where revenge means murder without punches are pulled. As Quinn hunts down the Frendo followers, new characters are introduced, including the fascinating Tabitha which takes the plot into the area of cults and true believers. This third instalment has had mixed reviewers, with plenty enjoying it more than I did, so investigate further before taking my word for it. AGE RANGE 13/14+
Kathryn Foxfield – Getting Away With Murder
Publisher : Scholastic; 1st edition (6 July 2023)
Getting Away With Murder was originally published in the UK in 2023 and is republished in the USA by Sourcebooks Fire with a new cover and 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 teen sisters whose relationship is at rock bottom; their feud has spilled out into school and onto social media. The story is seen from both ‘Saffron’s’ and ‘Georgia’s’ perspectives and it was fun seeing alternative versions of the same events.
When the story starts, both girls are on work experience, with Saffron based at a gaming company about to launch a new escape room, whilst Georgia is 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 clever 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 13+
Liz Hyder – The Twelve
Publisher : Pushkin Children’s Books (10 Oct. 2024)
Liz Hyder is well known in the book world for her award-winning debut Bearmouth (2020) scooping both the Waterstone’s Prize for older readers and the prestigious Branford Boase for debut novels. Written in vernacular English Bearmouth was a fascinating, but very tough read, with her follow-up The Twelve being a significantly easier experience. As this is a story featuring standing stones, folklore and timeslips back to ancient times advance praise has namechecked it alongside the likes of Alan Garner, and when reading The Twelve Garner’s masterpiece Red Shift (1973) certainly sprang to mind.
The story develops around a teenager on a caravan holiday in Wales who must go on a quest to seek out her sister who becomes lost during a strange event on the winter solstice. Dealing with the disappearance, Kit also has to balance her normal life as time moves differently in the historical timeslip period. Paced slowly, I would not classify this an action novel which blends fantasy with elements of Welsh folklore and magic which is connected to a standing stone circle neighbouring a church.
The main hook of the story was smart
Kit is on a winter holiday by the coast with her sister Libby and mum when Libby vanishes into thin air after they have been messing around at the church. Afterwards Kit is faced with a new reality, one in which her sister never existed and the scenes where she tries to discuss her vanished sister with her mother were terrific. However, panicking she meets a boy who does remember Libby and together they try to bring her back via help from one of ‘The Twelve’. The developing romance between Kit and Story, who has his own problems, was very cute and a nice slow burner.
The fantasy and magic elements were kept rather low key, earthy even, and those readers who might expect wands and unicorns might be disappointed by the griminess of it all. I also felt that the ‘bad guy’ was kept too far in the background and provided too little threat. There was a second interesting bullying side story regarding school bullying which was also kept too far in the background which helped shape Kit’s character. AGE RANGE 12+
Hannah Jayne – We Did Nothing Wrong
Publisher : Sourcebooks Fire (3 Dec. 2024)
Since 2011, Hannah Jayne has been widely published as an author of adult urban fantasy (Underworld Detection Agency series) and a host of YA thrillers and dramas. Before reading We Did Nothing Wrong the only other I had read was The Dare (2014), an entertaining thriller about a dare which goes wrong when two teens jump from a pier. Jayne obviously enjoys throwing hooks and twists into her thrillers, often with a high school setting and friendship a major theme alongside whichever mystery is keeping the pages turning. We Did Nothing Wrong was a relatively easy read, offering more of the same and is reminiscent of many other school set thrillers. However, there was still enough to keep the young teens on the hook to speed read towards seeing the mystery solved.
The story is built around two girls, Lia and Diana, both very popular pupils at Empire Hill High, until Diana disappears. Everyone thinks Diana is a runaway, including the police. However, Lia is secretly convinced it’s all a prank, until she finds a crushed red rose tied with a candy-cane ribbon where Diana went missing and a note. Lila connects the note to a secret admirer who has been sending her stuff and the mystery is off and running. This is one of those books where everybody is a suspect, there are several red herrings and although the central characters are fairly unlikable young teens readers should be keen to find out who the killer is. This is aimed at the lower end of YA and I would let anybody in secondary school read it without worry. AGE RANGE 12+
Logan-Ashley Kisner – Old Wounds
Publisher : Usborne Publishing (12 Sept. 2024)
Old Wounds had some advance hype and although it has some strong moments too much of the book fell flat, as monster novels go it offered little new apart from the manner in which it approaches gender. For the first half of this 340 page book you might not realise it was a horror novel, as it spends a lot of time exploring transgender issues, as both main characters Erin and Max are trans.
Things are complicated further by the fact that they were once a couple but have kept their distance from each other until deciding upon this road trip to California, where Max is desperate to finally be able to transition. The complex issues the two teenagers face was undoubtedly the strongest part of the story, the lack of acceptance by their family and their struggles at school. This part of the narrative was very informative and there is much for LGBTQIA+ teens to connect with.
The horror part of the story was too long in arriving and when it did was slightly underwhelming,
and simply pushed the fact that this was supposed to be a horror novel further into the background. Whilst on the road to California the friends unwisely stop off in a small town where they are stalked by local rednecks and a creature which is only feeds on girls.
There were some decent action sequences, but ultimately too much went unexplored regarding the monster and its legend. Erin and Max carried the story and the rednecks just came across as cliches and the monster did not really add too many scares. As a novel about the issues facing trans teens this was a notable book, the blend of this and as a YA horror novel failed to convince. AGE RANGE 13+
Jennifer Lyle – Snow Drowned
Publisher : Sourcebooks Fire (5 Nov. 2024)
I was a massive fan of Jennifer Lyle’s debut Swarm (2023) and was delighted to feature it my YA Horror 400 almanac, her sophomore effort Snow Drowned is a decent follow up but does not grab quite in the same way as the giant killer butterflies do in Swarm. Snow Drowned starts off as an atmospheric wintery thriller set on an island off the New England coast. As the weather worsens many have left the island for the mainland, however, main character Gracie Hutchinson decides to stay behind, expecting to meet up with her parents before the storm reaches its peak.
Island snowstorms are known to be deadly and every year there are casualties and disappearances, which partly form the backdrop of the story. Early in the narrative Gracie is intrigued to find someone else her age has stayed too, Joseph Wescott, whose mysterious and aloof family lives in Wescott Manor, descendants of the first settlers of Fall Island. Together, they stumble across something even more unsettling than the coming storm: the body of a man, murdered in a grim ritual in the local graveyard.
The two hit it off and the novel jogs along nicely as a thriller and possible romance.
To say any more about the plot would head into spoiler territory as it diverts into some wild unsuspecting directions, initially playing as a straight thriller before morphing into something much darker and decidedly supernatural. Expect cults, conspiracies, dark family secrets, generational curses, sacrifices, and monsters. Although Snow Drowned was fun I was unconvinced it worked both as a thriller and a full blown horror novel, and apart from Gracie was populated with highly unlikable characters who would do anything to protect their own skins and wealth. This is one of those books which ends up a million miles away from where it started and was a major contrast to Swarm, which was the opposite, in that it had a hugely wild opening and a lower key ending. AGE RANGE 13+
Rosie Talbot & Sarah Maxwell (illustrator) – Phantom Hearts (graphic novel)
Publisher : Scholastic; 1st edition (24 Oct. 2024)
I first came across Rosie Talbot via her excellent Sixteen Souls (2022-3) duology, which I also featured in my own YA Horror 400 almanac. Rosie abandons her haunted version of York for a UK secondary school, trying to deal with the tragedy of a fatal bus crash which kills four sixteen-year-olds in the opening pages of this highly readable graphic novel. (Sorry folks) I usually find graphic novels to be very light (too light) unsubstantial reads, but Phantom Hearts surprised me with its depth, and I found the ending to be very moving.
It is clear that Talbot’s background and experience as a novelist gives this book much more weight and I thoroughly enjoyed its meaty 288 pages over four or so immersive sittings. Drawn entirely in black-and-white, Sarah Maxwell’s sketchy free-flowing drawings compliment the text and I was quickly sucked into a story which was a neat balance of a gentle sapphic love story and supernatural mystery. Talbot’s earlier Sixteen Souls also had terrific LGBTQIA+ representation and this graphic novel has both a relationship between two girls as a major plot and in a crucial secondary story two boys. And perhaps for the first time in YA fiction we have a trans ghost! Which is naturally added into the story along with some other gender issues.
The bus crash occurs early in the story and it turns the life of the main character Malia upside down as her father was the driver.
Four teens are killed and her father ends up in a coma with Malia refusing to visit. Things worsen when there are rumours the driver was at fault and if he wakes up will be held accountable. Malia already has other personal problems, has come out as bi-sexual and with the help of another girl, Keezy, begins to investigate.
Whilst she investigates she realises Keezy is gay and the girls begin to fall for each other. Meanwhile three of the four ghosts appear and offer advice on how to find out what happened to the bus! The ghosts do not really act like they are dead and until I figured out who-was-who struggled to figure out which characters were dead and who was alive. The romance was very cute, but Malia’s struggles with her mother were also really moving and this was an equally great story about grief, acceptance, moving on and following your dreams.
AGE RATING 12/13+
Diana Urban – Under the Surface
Diana Urban – Under the Surface
Under the Surface is Diana Urban’s fourth YA novel and the second I have read, having enjoyed her debut All Your Twisted Secrets (2020) a few years back. Urban specialises in dark teen thrillers and her latest Under is undoubtedly the closest to a straight horror novel she had written so far. A couple of fourteen-year-olds borrowed it from my library (and really enjoyed it) prompting me to give it a try as we’ve had it in stock for a few months.
A cool quote from mega-selling Karen McManus “Tense and fast-moving, with a unique setting and compelling characters, Under the Surface is Diana Urban’s best yet” is also a smart selling point. The action starts in solid YA teen territory with a split narrative between Ruby and Sean. Ruby has a thing for Sean, but is keeping him at a distance, whilst Sean is desperate to get closer to Ruby. Things are complicated by the fact that there are wider friendship issues, particularly with Ruby and her best friend and a fallout they had a while back over an incident at a party which Ruby deeply regrets.
The action is entirely set over a few days in Paris.
With an American school group visiting the French capital on their senior class trip. Early in the trip Ruby’s best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a French boy they spoke to earlier in the day.
Ruby goes after her with two classmates hoping to attend an exclusive party in the Paris catacombs with the boy as host. However, they soon get lost in the intricate web of tunnels beneath the city, home to six million long-dead Parisians and a battle for survival begins, as they realise they are not alone. Under the Surface soon develops into a terrific page turner, with the split narrative nicely balanced between Ruby and the anxieties Sean and the others face once they realise the four are gone. There are numerous subplots, great action sequences, a locked room style mystery, sporadic moments of violence and believable teen characters. I am also a sucker for a good old fashioned cult. Perfect for teens who enjoy thrillers but may shy away from traditional horror. AGE RANGE 13+
Joelle Wellington – The Blonde Dies First
Joelle Wellington follows her super dark high school thriller debut Their Vicious Games (2023) with another very dark offering, The Blonde Dies First, even if there is a lot of engaging teen humour along the way. Although this sophomore effort does not abandon the bitchy teens from her debut, this latest novel is a full blown supernatural demon stalking romp which teens should enjoy. It also plays around and has fun with horror tropes, hence the title, recently there have been a sizable number of YA horror novels tapping into this, whilst this felt like very tired territory to myself, it is unlikely to be seen that way by genuine teen readers.
Teens who love the blend of horror films with snappy larger than life characters should have a lot of fun here, even if at times they come across as slightly shallow. The story is seen from the point of view of twin sister Devon, whilst Drew, Malachi, Leila, Yaya, and Gael all have plenty of page time via Devon.
There is also excellent LGBTQIA+ representation and an underlying social commentary.
Which plays some part of the story. There were a few weaknesses, even for a teen novel it was angsty and has a very slow start and I did not find the demon remotely scary or particularly threatening, perhaps this was because the characters were incredibly accepting of this supernatural entity.
The plot revolves around Devon and her friends unwittingly become the target of a demon after attending a party where they fooled around with an Ouija Board. Now, they are being hunted down in stereotypical slasher film order, starting with the blonde, which is Devon, with her bleach blond eyebrows and hair. As she survives the attack, there is then a debate about whether the demon will return for her or jump to another in the group and an argument about who the Final Girl might be kicks off.
Some of this was fun, but it also tested my patience as the twins barely seemed to know each other, with the novel opening with Drew intending to attend college a year early. As the two girls went to different schools there is a whole subplot about their relationship, how they drifted apart and who is at fault, if anybody. Like all good horror films the final act has a twist (which was not really explained) and as a ‘Big Bad’ I though the demon lacked bite. Overall, a fun and easy read for mid-teens, which has multiple f-bombs. AGE RANGE 13/14+
Tony Jones
Praise for the recently published YA Horror 400 almanac:
“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)
“So excited that my books have been featured here. Teachers and librarians – this is the PERFECT resource for you!” LORIEN LAWRENCE (Middle Grade author of The Stitchers series)
YA Horror Roundup November 2024
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