I’m rereading this series right now. I know I said I probably wouldn’t post full reviews this month, but after reading it, I decided “why not?” This review is posted on Goodreads as well.

Another excellent entry in The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney. In this one, Tom and the Spook go to Priestown (it’s what it sounds like) to face the Bane, one of the most evil creatures the Spook has ever encountered. While there, they run afoul of the corrupt Quisitor (think Matthew Hopkins), who habitually burns innocent “witches” at the stake in order to profit from their deaths. Not only is he after the Spook, but he has Alice.

Alice is still my favorite character. The Spook himself is still frustrating at times, and my only complaint is how quick he is to anger in this one. He doesn’t always seem to tell Tom everything he needs to know. And while I understand why he doesn’t trust Alice, his treatment of her (and some of his comments about women in general) can be irritating. Still, that’s a fairly small complaint.

Although longer than its predecessor, Curse of the Bane is just as quick of a read, and it’s hard to put down. If you enjoyed the first one, you’ll like this too. But if you’re new to the series, start with the first one. These books are best read in order.

Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis is an excellent supernatural horror novel set in the small town of Blackfin where strange things regularly happen. Despite the town’s general oddness, no one is prepared when Sky shows up to school one day…three months after her body was found, drowned and definitely dead. Sky soon discovers she has supernatural powers and that her history is tied to that of a burnt out circus in the woods near her town.

I discovered this book when I was still working at the library and decided to read it based on the cover and back cover blurb alone. I was blown away, even more so when I investigated the author afterwards and discovered this was her debut novel. I recommend Blackfin Sky to anyone who likes their supernatural with a good dose of mystery, and I am eager to check out Ellis’s subsequent work (her fourth novel is due out in 2020).

My first pick is an obvious one. I’m sure most YA fans have at least heard of, if not already read, Ransom Rigg’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (or seen its unfortunately lackluster movie adaptation).

I first read this novel during my final semester at university, and I was late to (0r flat out missed) several classes, because I could never put it down once I’d picked it up.

The original trilogy (including sequels: Hollow City and Library of Souls) is excellent, although this first one remains far and away my favorite. Riggs is also about to release the second book in the follow up trilogy, although I haven’t delved into that one yet.

Note: Definitely read these in order. They will make little sense if you start in the middle.

I know I haven’t posted anything in a while, and with the holidays here, it looks like I’m going to be super busy over the next month. So I’ve decided to do something a little different. Over the next few weeks I’m going to spotlight different favorite YA horror novels that I’ve already read. The posts won’t be long or incredibly detailed (as in some cases I haven’t read the books since I was a teenager myself), but will just show you some of the best (in my opinion anyway) that the genre has to offer. Happy Holidays everyone!

Want some good seasonal reading to get into the Halloween mood? Here are some of my top YA picks for October.

The Wardstone Chronicles series by Joseph Delaney

These books tend to fall under both the Middle Grade and Young Adult categories, depending on where you are in the series. They’re fun, quick reads, and their universe feels eternally autumnal. Start with Revenge of the Witch. I dare you to be able to stop after just that one. I couldn’t.

Another middle grade title to check out is Small Spaces by Katherine Arden. You can read my recent review here.

Vivian Vande Velde is a reliable if not always phenomenal writer of children’s and YA fantasy, and her YA halloween collection, All Hallow’s Eve is a fun and quick read perfect for the season. Favorite entries include ghostly serial killer tale, “Morgan Roehmars’ Boys” and “My Real Mother” about an ungrateful adopted girl searching for her birth family.

Finally, I haven’t read Thirteen Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt (not to be confused with the similarly titled and covered Thirteen Days to Midnight by Patrick Carman) yet, but it’s supposedly a fun YA novel, and it’s set during the Halloween season. I plan on getting my hands on a copy and reading it soon and didn’t want to leave it off the list just because I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Also Ray Bradbury books are good for all ages. Some of his seasonally appropriate titles include The October Country, The Halloween Tree, From the Dust Returned, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

For some adult Halloween reading, check out my Final Women blog, here.

Small Spaces is a Middle Grade offering by Katherine Arden (author of the YA fantasy, The Bear and the Nightingale). It is also the perfect read for the Halloween season.

Set during October in small town Vermont, Small Spaces introduces readers to Ollie, a sixth grader still mourning the loss of her mother a few month before. She copes with the pain by immersing herself in reading fiction and alienating herself from her classmates.

One day, Ollie finds a woman about to toss a book into the river. Ollie saves the book and begins reading it. The story in the book within our book tells of a deal with a devil at a small turn of the century farm. Events in the book begin to mirror real life when Ollie and her sixth grade class visit a local farm the next day, a farm that Ollie begins to suspect is the same one she’s been reading about. Soon, Ollie and two of her friends find themselves trapped in an alternate universe, hunted by creepy animated scarecrows.

With Small Spaces, Arden has written a legitimately spooky tale that should entertain readers of all ages. The October atmosphere is palpable; while reading I could almost smell the autumn air and feel the chilly breezes. I encourage readers to snatch this book up quickly. There’s no better time than the Halloween season to enjoy it!

The Fade by Demitria Lunetta made me feel old. Being an adult who reads YA titles, this occasionally happens. Still none have yet hit me quite this hard, and it was all thanks to this one passage, where the heroine teases her sister:

            “Whatever, Sporty Spice.”

            She looks at me. “Who?”

            “You know, the Spice Girls. They were a girl group in the nineties…”

            I don’t bother to explain that I helped Mom rip all her old CDs to her computer…

This book was published in 2018, so it makes sense that the teenage characters wouldn’t be terribly familiar with the Spice Girls, but I was still surprised. I turned 30 recently, and the fact that I am now closer in age to the parents than the teenagers in some of the books that I read still hasn’t completely sunk in.

Other than this shock to my system, I really enjoyed The Fade. The story revolves around Hayley, who moves from Chicago with her parents and older sister to an old house in small town Wisconsin. Shortly after moving in, she begins to hear stories of the Grabbed Girls of Gladwell, four girls who disappeared about five years before. The girls were all from her neighborhood, and one of them had lived in her house. Hayley knows that the girls were actually killed, because she begins to sense the girls’ ghosts. The novel revolves around her hunt for their killer.

The Fade gets instant points for inclusivity. The main character is half Vietnamese, and there are several gay and lesbian side characters. For the most part the characters behave like realistic teenagers and are pretty likable, even if the fast pace of the story means that some character development falls to the wayside.

There’s also a few neat twists that seasoned horror fans may see coming, but the average YA reader might not. About halfway through the book, one twist takes the novel in a new and interesting direction. It’s unique enough that it allows The Fade to stand apart from many similarly plotted novels.

Ultimately, I highly recommend The Fade for older teens and adults who enjoy YA. The subject matter (which includes suicide, abuse, and murder) plus the somber tone of the latter half of the book might be too heavy for younger readers, but older ones should appreciate this novel’s unique take on the haunted house genre.

I’ve been pretty sick recently, so I didn’t really have time to get in a book review this week. Instead, I thought I’d share with y’all a brief movie review that I wrote for my other sight, Final Woman: Horror Fiction from a Female Perspective. THE WITCH FILES is a teen horror movie (rated TV-14) currently available on Netflix, which I encourage everyone to check out. Here’s what I had to say about it:

I checked this one out solely because I saw it featured Paget Brewster, of Criminal Minds fame. I honestly wasn’t expecting much; I knew next to nothing about THE WITCH FILES going in, but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie plays out like a PG-13 version of The Craft, which is a long time favorite of mine. FILES revolves around 5 teen girls who form a coven and start casting spells to get everything they want. Unfortunately, their new gifts come with a price. Brewster is sadly underused in the role of a police detective investigating the coven, but she shines in every scene she’s in. The five teen actresses are also outstanding, particularly Britt Flatmo as head witch with a secret, Jules. Serious horror fans might find the tone of the film too light and breezy, but fans of Buffy and Charmed will probably enjoy it as much as I did.

I first read the four Tales for the Midnight Hour collections by J. B. Stamper as a preteen and was pretty impressed. Over the years since, I had forgotten most of the stories, but remembered enjoying the books and even being pretty creeped out by some of the stories. A few days ago I was going through some books stored in my old bedroom at my mom’s place and found the two omnibus editions Tales for the Midnight Hour, Volume 1 (collecting the first two books Tales for the Midnight Hour and More Tales for the Midnight Hour) and Tales for the Midnight Hour, Volume 2 (collecting Still More Tales for the Midnight Hour and Even More Tales for the Midnight Hour). I decided to reread Volume 1 and see if it held up after all these years.

The first part of Volume 1 (the stories from the original Tales for the Midnight Hour) starts off with “The Furry Collar,” which while somewhat nonsensical is still suitably creepy. Two other stories, “The Ten Claws” and “The Jigsaw Puzzle” were also effective, even if they didn’t manage to invoke the same shivers they gave me when I was younger. In these stories the brevity works to Stamper’s advantage. The best entries in the collection all play out like the recitation of an urban legend and would make good tales to tell around a campfire.

Speaking of urban legends, some stories are directly lifted from famous ones. “The Black Velvet Ribbon” tells the familiar tale of a lovely young woman with a ribbon around her neck, which she refuses to take off. When her lover defies her wishes and removes it, he realizes too late why she was so insistent. Another story, “A Free Place to Sleep” is set at 50 Berkley Square, a notoriously haunted London home.

Some stories, however, suffer from their shortness. These are the stories that are less fable-like. Stories such as “The Face” and “The Stuffed Dog” are more original, but that’s not necessarily to their advantage. They don’t feel fully thought out and end abruptly. They also don’t make a lot of sense.

In the second section of Volume 1 (the stories from More Tales for the Midnight Hour), we’re treated to some slightly longer stories. While none of them reach the creep factor of the best stories of the early segment, they are overall more even in tone. The writing is slightly better in this collection, and the stories are mostly fun, if occasionally predictable. I particularly enjoyed “The Hearse” and “The Black Mare.” ” A Night in the Woods” started off pretty strong but ultimately would have been creepier if Stamper had gone in a different direction with it. The werewolf angle seemed kind of silly.

So did the collection hold up? Unfortunately, not really. But that shouldn’t stop kids from picking it up. Preteens will likely still be creeped out by the same stories I was at their age. I might go back and reread Volume 2 at some point. Maybe it will hold up a little better.

I originally received this Point Horror anthology as a birthday gift from one of my best friends, way back when I was 11 or 12. I read it for the first time that summer and revisited it again and again. While none of the tales ever really scared me, even as a kid, they were thrilling and fun and infinitely re-readable. So I thought now, on my 30th birthday, I’d revisit the collection and give it a proper review. 13 is filled with authors who were super popular in the 90s, so there’s also an incredibly high nostalgia value here for those of us who lived through that time.

“Collect Call”-Christopher Pike

“Collect Call” is actually divided into two parts; one begins the compilation, the other appears later on. This is a fun tale that plays with time and destiny – two girls are in love with the same dangerous boy, but which one will be his victim and which one will enact revenge for them both?

“Lucinda”-Lael Litke

I originally loved this story because of its depiction of an underwater town – flooded to create a nearby dam. That concept always fascinated me as a kid. The story itself is one of retribution from beyond the grave. Nothing fancy or too original, but fun all the same.

“The Guiccioli Minature”-Jay Bennett

This one is one of the best written in the collection but doesn’t really fit well with the other stories, being much quieter and more understated.

“Blood Kiss”-D. E. Athkins

I thought this vampire story was oh-so-romantic when I was growing up. Now that the media has been oversaturated by romantic teen vampires, I’m a little less in to it, but it’s still worth a read.

“A Little Taste of Death”-Patricia Windsor

This one, though one of the more original entries, has never been one of my favorites. The “never take candy from a stranger” saying is hounded home here, when a girl finds herself mixed up with a group of other teens who all took candy from the same man when they were kids. These teens are now turning up dead. Who could possibly be responsible? (Hint: it’s the obvious answer.)

“The Doll”-Carol Ellis

I always forget about this story, which is a shame, because, while not original, it’s still a pretty good entry into the “killer doll” subgenre. Nothing seasoned horror fans haven’t seen before, but for kids who may be less familiar with Chucky, Annabelle, and their ilk, it’s a good diving in point for the subgenre.

“House of Horrors”-J. B. Stamper

A teen stays after-hours in a wax museum of horrors. Haunted/deadly wax museums are another popular subgenre, and this is also a fun jumping off point for kids not yet familiar with the “House of Wax” films, “Wax Mask,” or anything similar. It’s also a genuinely fun story, even for those of us familiar with the course it will take.

“Where the Deer Are”-Caroline Cooney

This story, Mummy (received as a gift from the same friend on the same birthday), and (obviously for those of us in the 90s) The Face on the Milk Carton were my introductions to Caroline Cooney. “Where the Deer Are” was definitely the strangest of these early reads, but it’s also the only one of the three that has really stuck with me over the years.

“The Spell”-R. L. Stine

I stand by what I’ve said before. R. L. Stine is comfort food horror. You can always count on him for a good time, and this story is no exception.

“Dedicated to the One I Love”-Diane Hoh

Three best friends are all unknowingly dating the same boy and accidentally kill him after discovering his two-timing and attempting revenge. This one has I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes mixed with the supernatural. It’s one of the most fun entries in the collection, although I’m not sure if I would have appreciated it as much had I read it for the first time as an adult.

“Hacker”-Sinclair Smith

This one might have been my favorite back in the day. It’s a fun tale of a girl going up against a serial killer, and I must have read it a million times as a teen. While the computer references are so out of date today, it otherwise still holds up.

“Deathflash”-A. Bates

A story of the gift of life conquering death, this one is one of the most memorable, if not one of the best in the collection. Plus, it has cats. I love cats.

“The Boy Next Door”-Ellen Emerson White

I’ve seen this story in other anthologies as well, for good reason. The story of a girl facing off against a dangerous acquaintance in an ice cream parlor after hours is one of the best written in the collection and features a neat twist.

Overall, this collection holds up to adult re-reading. It’s nothing incredibly special, but a good way to kill a few hours. The stories, for the most part, are fun, quick reads, and I highly recommend 13 for both teens looking for an introduction to the horror genre and people of my generation looking for a nostalgic trip back in time.