BOOKS

The Dead, Charlie Higson

Why It’s Spooky: Zombies!

Set in present day London, this prequel to The Enemy follows a small group of survivors from Rowhurst boarding school as they make their way across the city to safety. The Dead takes place right after the disaster struck, when a terrible disease affected everyone over the age of sixteen, leaving them dead or worse…turning them into decomposing, flesh-eating monsters.

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Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1, Alexander Gordon Smith

Why It’s Spooky: Furnace Penitentiary—a terrifying prison for young offenders, buried underground with a host of awful inhabitants.

Alex Sawyer is the “new fish” at Furnace Penitentiary, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his good friend. A murder he did not commit. Upon arriving, Alex realizes he has two choices, find a way out or resign himself to death within the shadowy walls of the Furnace.

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Ashes, Ilsa J. Bick

Why It’s Spooky: A series of mysterious electromagnetic pulses have seemingly taken out the entire world, destroying electronics and communication in an instant.

What if in one moment everything you knew changed? Phones? Gone. Computers? Wiped out. Most adults? Dead. Most young adults? Transformed into psychotic flesh-eating monsters. Take a healthy dose of dystopian, post-apocalyptic fiction, add a dash of survival fiction and mix in some cannibals and zombies with an inspiring heroine, and you have Ashes.

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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin

Why It’s Spooky: Imagine waking up from a coma with no memory of the mysterious accident in an asylum that caused the deaths of your best friend, boyfriend, and boyfriend’s sister.

This is exactly what happens to Mara Dyer. Her parents, in the aftermath of the accident, are urged by doctors to start over in a new state, at a new school….a new beginning. However, Mara’s new start is going less than stellar. She keeps seeing the faces of her dead friends and then starts to see people’s deaths just before they happen—or at least that’s what she thinks she’s seeing.

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The Name of the Star, Maureen Johnson

Why It’s Spooky: Gory killings reminiscent of Jack the Ripper in London.

Rory makes a drastic move from sweltering Louisiana to cold and gloomy London. She starts at a London boarding school the same day a series of gruesome murders break out across the city, mimicking the notorious Jack the Ripper murder spree from 1888. “Rippermania” breaks out across modern-day London, leaving the police completely baffled, with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory is positive she spotted the man police now believe to be the prime suspect. However, she is the only one.

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Teeth, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Why it’s Spooky: Vampire anthology with refreshingly less emphasis on romance (we’re looking at you, Twilight) and more concentration on mythology and lore.

Teeth is a compilation of nineteen vampire stories contributed by award-winning, popular authors, including Melissa Marr, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black and Neil Gaiman. Each one is dark and original, some with snarky humor, and plenty with a healthy dose of angst.

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Have you checked out any of these books yet? Blog about it, babes.

by Martha Mack | 2/1/2016