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I used to hate Halloween. I know, it is a seriously unpopular opinion. But I was the world’s biggest fraidy cat. I’m serious. I couldn’t watch the slasher movie episode of Boy Meets World without foregoing sleep that night. I refused to have anything to do with even the tamest of scary movies. Spooky YA books were out of the question. I jumped at the slightest noise.
Ok, I still do that. I’m a jumpy person. I can’t stop myself.
So how did I go from the most cowardly teen on the block to someone who willingly subjects herself to horror movies on a regular basis, and doesn’t consider the Halloween season complete without a Scream movie marathon? I honestly wish I knew. I bet I could patent a “get over your childish fears” seminar and be set for life.
It might be because of my late blooming fear of the creepy, spooky and scary that I am so drawn to YA horror and supernatural novels. I get to experience the scares I missed as a youth, but with the benefit of adult wisdom that makes it easier to accept that there probably isn’t a ghost in my closet.
I mean, probably. You never know with ghosts.
Check out some fun suggestions for Halloween reads, ranging from the witchy and weird to the haunting and horrifying. Enjoy, and have a Happy Halloween!
Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post. i received a copy of In the Hall with the Knife in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In the Hall with the Knife
Written by Diana Peterfreund
I love Clue. I loved the game, even though a board game about murder is pretty disturbing if you think about it too much. Also, I loved the books as a kid, even though it flew directly in the face of my “avoid scary things at all costs” rules. And I love the movie. Really love it. Like, it is in my top three favorites of all time and I quote it all too frequently to people who have no idea what I am talking about, love it. So when I heard “YA novel based on Clue” I was immediately on board.
When a familiarly named group of students are stranded at their elite New England prep school, it doesn’t take long before a body is found. In the conservatory no less. It soon becomes apparent that these students are keeping secrets, and that each one has a motive for murder. Built on nostalgia and a plot that keeps you guessing but never takes itself too seriously, In the Hall with the Knife is perfect for anyone who has ever checked a fireplace for secret passageways, or secretly wished their house contained a conservatory.
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Anna Dressed in Blood
Written by Kendare Blake
Not every ghost can be as friendly as Casper. But it’s the mean, tortured and cruel ghosts that keep Cas Lowood in business. Following in his late father’s footsteps, Cas travels the country destroying the dead. While investigating a ghost the locals call “Anna Dressed in Blood”, Cas is confronted by a spirit unlike any he has faced before. Bogged down in rage, Anna has spent over sixty years murdering every person who enters the house she haunts. Except for Cas. Armed with his father’s mysterious athame, and his white witch mother, Cas knows it is his duty to rid the world of this vengeful, murdering spirit. But Anna’s captivating and horrific story makes him hesitate. A story full of tragedy, terror and mystery, Anna Dressed in Blood will certainly make you stand still and listen the next time you hear something go bump in the night.
The Replacement
Written by Brenna Yovanoff
Almost every teen feels like an outcast at one point or another. But almost no one has actual evidence to prove that they are, in fact, a completely different being than their peers. At first glance, Mackie Doyle seems like an average teenage boy. He attends school, has a crush on a cheerleader, and never feels like he truly fits in with the rest of the teens in the town of Gentry. But he is anything but ordinary, he is a Replacement. 16 years ago, a human baby was stolen from its crib, and Mackie was left in its place. He isn’t the only one. Every seven years a baby is replaced, sacrificed to mysterious creatures as part of a deal to guarantee Gentry’s prosperity and safety. Mackie longs to fit into our world, but every day is a struggle when you don’t really belong. When another baby disappears, Mackie is forced to confront the dark creatures surrounding Gentry and decide where he truly belongs-with us or with them.
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Asylum
Written by Madeleine Roux
I love places with a history completely different from its current use. (I am forever jealous of a friend whose apartment building is a converted schoolhouse. She still has a blackboard on her living room wall.) But even I know that it is probably not a great idea to turn an abandoned asylum for the criminally insane into a school for college bound teens. That is a level of tempting fate I just don’t see working out in your favor.
Apparently, the fictional New Hampshire College Prep thought differently. The former asylum has been transformed into a campus for advanced students to spend the summer with other like-minded teens. Dan Crawford, social outcast, hopes that attending the summer program will finally give him the chance to make friends he can really relate to. He soon discovers that it might not be a coincidence he ended up at NHCP. And those new friends he makes? Not a coincidence he met them either. Can Dan discover the truth about the asylum before it is too late?
What are your favorite spooky YA books? Share them in the comments below!
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