horror

And the River Drags Her Down by Jihyun Yun – Book Recommendation

| Tasha

And the River Drags Her Down by Jihyun Yun

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 7, 2025

Reviewed from library copy.

ISBN: 9780593904879

Soojin has lost her mother to a car accident years ago and now has lost her older sister who was found drowned in the river. In Soojin’s family, the women have a unique gift of being able to bring small animals back from the dead. Cautioned her entire life from using her power to bring back people, Soojin’s grief leads to do the unthinkable and bring back Mirae. The two sisters must hide what Soojin has done and as time goes by, the choice she made changes them both. Mirae becomes more vengeful and deaths start happening in town. Soojin begins to sicken as the toll of using the power becomes clear. Can the two sisters survive this? Should they?

Filled with the currents of grief and loss, this book triumphs. Using the river and water as a constant rush in the reader’s ears, the book is a dark and destructive look at what grief can cause people to do and how it is impossible to move on, particularly if you are keeping the dead alive. The use of Korean traditions throughout the book strengthens the magic of the sisters and makes the horror all the more palpable on the page. Additionally, the book has themes that take on racism in their small town and women taking back power from abusive men.

A marvelous slow-burn horror novel that will carry you into the depths. Appropriate for ages 13+.

2024 Bram Stoker Award Winners

| Tasha

The winners of the 2024 Stoker Awards have been announced by the Horror Writers Association. Here are the winners in the Middle Grade and YA categories. You can head to Locus to see the winners in all categories.

WINNER SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A MIDDLE GRADE NOVEL (TIE)

The Creepening of Dogwood House by Eden Royce

There’s Something Sinister in Center Field by Robert P. Ottone

FINALISTS

The Curse of Eelgrass Bog by Mary Averling

The No-Brainer’s Guide to Decomposition by Adrianna Cuevas

The Witch in the Woods by Michaelbrent Collings

WINNER SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo by Adam Cesare

FINALISTS

The Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker

The Losting Fountain by Lora Senf

A Place for Vanishing by Ann Fraistat

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

| Tasha
Cover image for A Lesson in Vengeance.

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee (9780593305829)

Felicity is returning to Dalloway School after the tragic death of her girlfriend ended her previous senior year early. But it’s not easy to return to the ivy-covered school that is filled with dark legends that Felicity finds herself drawn to. The early days of the school date to the witch trials and five Dalloway students died early in the schools history, their deaths filled with connections to witchcraft. As Felicity starts her senior year again, she meets a compelling new student, a young novelist who is working on her second book. When Ellis reveals her book is going to be about the Dalloway Five, Felicity agrees to help her with her research. As the two research documents, they also form their own coven and begin to explore the occult. There is so much history filled with questions, and that includes the death of Felicity’s girlfriend a year ago too.

This book is beautiful and delicious. I love that it has its own distinct vintage style too, combining elbow patches and fifties sweaters with cell phones. The witch elements of the story are an invigorating mix of real history with existing covens but also may be covering up more realistic reasons for the deaths of the five girls. The setting itself is marvelously isolated and allows the characters a lot of freedom. These are wealthy girls, who flaunt their privilege at times and deny it at others.

The book is layered and complex. It turns from being a gothic, vintage witchcraft tale to something even darker. As Felicity’s mental health destabilizes, the truth emerges in fits and starts. The book becomes far more about the power of young women, the way society has frowned upon them gaining agency in the world, and what that means today. Beautifully, that doesn’t mean that the bloody nature of the book goes away. Far from it.

Dark, dangerous and delightful. Appropriate for ages 14-18.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Delacorte Press.

2020 Bram Stoker Award Winners

| Tasha

The Horror Writers Association has announced the winners of the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards. The awards have one category that is for young adult novels. Here is the winner, followed by the finalist titles:

WINNER

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

FINALISTS

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

The Bone Carver by Monique Snyman

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters

The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard

| Tasha
Cover image

The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard (9781945820687)

This graphic novel offers a series of strange and tantalizing short stories sure to give readers the shivers. Set in ordinary places like the beach, on a farm, and near a lake, these stories take the mundane and make it strange and horrifying. From a lonely girl who discovers the terrifying truth of what happened on the farm next door to a young girl who meets a boy on the beach who becomes her best friend but who only comes out at night, these stories invite readers to look under the surface to the darkness and weirdness that lurks there. The stories also ask whether monsters are kind or cruel, and how we know what a monster actually is. Some people trust too much, others too little and some find a new path.

I’m a huge fan of Howard’s 2020 graphic novel The Last Halloween: Children. She uses the same gorgeous pen and ink illustrations here, once again creating a world adjacent to our own that is bewildering and yet familiar. Her skill with storytelling is clear as she creates one tale after the other, stringing them together into a beautiful yet horrifying collection that can’t be put down.

She manages to quickly bring us into each story with both her text and her illustrations, showing us at first how normal each scene is and then swiftly ripping that away. It’s a pleasure to experience each reveal, timed just right for maximum impact and then to have the story play out in unexpected and surprising ways.

A great graphic novel for teen horror fans. Best read after dark. Appropriate for ages 13-18.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Iron Circus Comics.

The Last Halloween: Children by Abby Howard

| Tasha
Cover image for The Last Halloween: Children

The Last Halloween: Children by Abby Howard (9781945820663)

This marvelously creepy horror graphic novel starts with a man’s death by fire where a strange dog-like demon stays to witness and then reports back to a woman. That same woman has a teenager in the back of her car, hooded and kidnapped. Later at the hospital, it is clear that the man survived after all, but is terribly burned. The doctor helping him is surprised by a strange figure with two heads and a body sewn together who demands her help. With such strange things afoot, the story moves to Mona, a 10-year-old girl who gets caught up as the world turns to chaos around her. After being left home alone on Halloween, Mona discovers a huge horned creature on her couch. Running away, she tries to reach the police station and takes a short cut through the cemetery. It is there that she meets the others who will join her in her Halloween quest: a vampire, a ghoul, and a living doll. Halloween is just getting started!

A warning first of all, this is not a graphic novel for 10-year-olds, even though the protagonist is that young. Save this one for teenagers who will revel in its grotesque creatures and gore. The panels include maiming, death and dismemberment vividly shown, and often done with a sly sense of humor. This book offers a demon horde determined to take over the world with only a handful of teens and children to try to stop them and one rather inept mummy. The plot offers a satisfying adventure and hero’s journey through a landscape of horrors with pacing that adds to the humor as well as the fright.

Drawn in black and white, the illustrations are captivatingly macabre. Even the human characters like Mona have over-large heads, tiny bodies and eyes that look right at readers. Howard leans into the gross factor, creating gore in black ink that you swear is actually blood red. With a diverse cast of characters, including Mona’s parent who uses the pronouns they/them.

Perfect for teens who enjoy blood, gore and demons mixed with lots of humor. Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Iron Circus Comics.

The Sisters of Straygarden Place by Hayley Chewins

| Tasha
The Sisters of Straygarden Place cover image

The Sisters of Straygarden Place by Hayley Chewins (9781536212273)

Mayhap lives with her two sisters in Straygarden Place, a magical mansion that caters to all of their needs. The house feeds them, tucks them into bed at night, and gives them anything they wish for. But the house can’t bring back their parents, who disappeared into the tall silver grass that surrounds the house seven years ago. Now Winnow, the oldest of the sisters, has entered the grass herself. When she returns, she is different: her eyes are turning silver and she is unable to speak. Mayhap in particular seems to upset Winnow, so Pavonine, the youngest cares for her. Meanwhile, Mayhap is determined to figure out how to save her sister. She encounters a mysterious other girl in the house, one who claims to have been there a long time and who is connected with the house. As Mayhap begins to unravel the mystery of the house, she must face the truth about herself and her sisters and what has been stolen from them all.

Chewins has created a delicious mystery here. It’s a marvelously constricted mystery, set in a house that no one dares leave, surrounded by sentient grass, and filled with strange contraptions, rules and delights. It’s the ideal book for a pandemic lockdown, sharing much of the qualities of our lives over the past few months. Chewins has created a truly eerie setting, the grass whispering at the windows and the house revealing spaces that the girls never knew existed. The clues are glimpses into their own past as well as that of the house itself.

The entire book is filled with marvelous details. There are the dogs who climb into the girls’ heads so that they can sleep. There are the carpets that thicken to provide padding or move to carry Mayhap to a new part of the house. There are delightful meals provided by the house, that can be clues as well. And a coffee-scented library that makes one want to linger with the living card catalog. Mayhap herself is a grand heroine, willing to sacrifice herself for her sisters and determined to understand what is actually happening to them all.

A genre-breaking book that is a fantasy-mystery with Victorian delights and horrors that will enter your dreams. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Candlewick.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

| Tasha

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power (9780525645627)

The author of Wilder Girls returns with a novel that is a dangerous mix of fire, family and fate. Margot has always lived with just her mother, struggling to make ends meet. Her mother has strange rules, like always leaving a candle burning. Margot has always wondered about the rest of her family, her father and grandparents. When she discovers a photograph of her grandmother’s home, she finally has the key to find them. She doesn’t expect to enter the town of Phalene and be immediately recognized as a member of their family, and she certainly doesn’t expect her grandmother to be despised, living alone on a ruined farm. When a girl with Margot’s face is found dead, Margot finds herself at the heart of a mystery that she may never escape.

A dynamic combination of horror, mystery and science fiction, this book grabs readers up and doesn’t release them until the final ember dies down. It’s a book that is terrifying but also exceptionally written with a keen sense of pacing, allowing moments of revelation to slow and other moments to race past. Power deeply understands horror, giving readers just enough information to keep them guessing. Her use of a rural setting is marvelous, hearkening back to classics like Children of the Corn.

Margot is a flawed character who is prickly, challenging and demanding. In other words, the perfect heroine for a horror novel. Margot refuses to allow her mother or grandmother to control her, always pushing and questioning what they are doing. It’s what lands her back in Phalene and what gets her into the center of all of the trouble.

Smart, haunting and horrifying, this novel begs to become a horror flick. Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Delacorte Press.

 

Review: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

| Tasha

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (9780525515029)

This shivery novel for middle-grade readers will give just the right amount of creepiness for kids reading Goosebumps. Ollie’s mother died in an accident last year, and Ollie found solace in her books, withdrawing from the kids who were her friends and not talking in class. Her father continues to create a warm home for her filled with fresh-baked bread and other treats. When Ollie meets a strange woman about to throw a book into the lake, Ollie rescues the book and runs away. She reads the book, learning about the “smiling man” and the deal that a local man made with him. When she heads out on a field trip with her class, Ollie is surprised to find herself on the farm in the book that has graves for the people in the story. On their way back home, the school bus breaks down and Ollie escapes with two other students from the clutches of the scarecrows and the smiling man himself. Can they avoid capture and find a way back home before nightfall?

There is so much to love about this book. It is so readable for kids, a story that is well-paced and actually frightening, but at just the right level for young readers. The scarecrows are particularly effective as they pivot to watch the children go by and come to life at night. The ghosts are eerie as is the hungry gray bus driver. Young readers will also appreciate Ollie’s growing connection to her mother through her mother’s broken watch, something that tells her what to do and by when. It’s a clever addition to the story, offering a sign of hope and a way out of grief.

Throughout the book, there are characters who will surprise readers by going directly against stereotype. First, there are Ollie’s parents with her domestic father and adventurous mother. Then the two children who accompany Ollie through her adventure are a jock who reads and quotes literature at just the right time and a girl who looks tiny and frail but can climb almost anything and is actually brave and strong. These unexpected little touches add up to a team that is unbeatable as they face real demons.

Written with rich prose that is a delight to read, this eerie tale will be enjoyed by any young reader looking for some spine tingles. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC provided by G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers.