Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Spellcaster by Claudia Gray

White Cat by Holly Black

The Nightmare Affair by Mindi Arnett

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress

Have you recently read a great book and don’t know what to read next? Do you have a suggestion for fans of a certain title? Let us know and we’ll feature it in our next like—try—why post!

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson 

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake 

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kawaga 

The Hunt by Andrew Fukada

Have you recently read a great book and don’t know what to read next? Do you have a suggestion for fans of a certain title? Let us know and we’ll feature it in our next like—try—why post!

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul by Leanna Renee Hieber

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Shadowfell by Juliet Mariller

Have you recently read a great book and don’t know what to read next? Do you have a suggestion for fans of a certain title? Let us know and we’ll feature it in our next like—try—why post!

We have lots of novels that feature haunted houses, and you can check out to celebrate Teen Read Week. The Theme is “It Came from the Library” and culminates in a teen dance and costume party with crafts, snacks, games, prizes, a DJ, and a photo booth.

Frost is not your normal boarding school novel — the old Victorian house in this story has an unexpected extra roommate. In Bad Girls Don’t Die, another old Victorian house (it’s always the Victorians…) starts causing it’s occupants to act strangely, and upon investigation, some frightening facts about its previous occupants are revealed. A night of babysitting turns strange in The Turning, a story set on a haunted island. Another creepy novel about a nanny who finds herself in a haunted house that was the sight of two previous deaths is Tighter, which like The Turning, is based on the Henry James novel The Turn of the Screw. Henry James was a great friend to fellow writer Edith Wharton, who also wrote a collection of spooky ghost stories.

If you like to celebrate the season by watching scary (or funny) movies about haunted houses, we’ve got you covered. The Others is a dark and creepy movie with a chilling ending. If humor is more your style, try a classic like Ghostbusters or Beetlejuice.

If you’re in the mood for real life scary stories, check out the ghosts caught on film in this DVD in the Teen Zone paranormal nonfiction section. If haunted houses are too mainstream for your taste, how about reading up on some ghost ships in these true stories of nautical nightmares. Mystery library brings you this investigation into hauntings, and you can also learn how to do your own ghost hunting in The Other Side: A Teen’s Guide to Ghost Hunting and the paranormal. 

Check out one of these books and come to our It Came from the Library Teen Read Week party — if you dare! 

What is it about?

From acclaimed YA authors Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff comes The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories.

- A vampire locked in a cage in the basement, for good luck.

- Bad guys, clever girls, and the various reasons why the guys have to stop breathing.

- A world where fires never go out (with references to vanilla ice cream).

These are but a few of the curiosities collected in this volume of short stories by three acclaimed practitioners of paranormal fiction.

But The Curiosities is more than the stories. Since 2008, Maggie, Tessa, and Brenna have posted more than 250 works of short fiction to their website merryfates.com. Their goal was simple: create a space for experimentation and improvisation in their writing—all in public and without a backspace key. In that spirit, The Curiosities includes the stories and each author’s comments, critiques, and kudos in the margins. Think of it as a guided tour of the creative processes of three acclaimed authors.

So, are you curious now?

Summary courtesy of Goodreads

What did you think of it & why did you pick it up?

To understand this review, you need to understand how much I adore Maggie Stiefvater and everything she writes. When I first read her werewolf series, Shiver, I thought it was pretty good. When I read the sequel, Linger, I thought it was great. After finishing the series conclusion, Forever, it solidified my respect for her. If I could choose one person to write like, it would be her. Of course, there is always the incredible John Green, but he is in a league by himself. Honestly.

The wonderful thing about Maggie is that she is very multi-talented. Somehow she managed to write beautifully, have four main characters with their own POV’s, branch off in other directions after the Shiver trilogy, and become one of my favorite authors in the process. I like that she gives an equal amount of time and effort to each character and none of them ever seem under-developed. It boggles my mind when authors write in multiple POV’s. Two point-of-views, is one thing, but FOUR?! Insane. She also wrote a stand-alone novel and has started a new series. That is even more impressive. After an author finishes a major series they can get into this rut. Maggie didn’t do that. She continued to branch out and try and succeed.

The main point of me telling you all of that is for you to see that I am very biased towards her. I can’t help it. I’ve read all her books, and even met her in person (along with Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff, but we’ll get to that later). I’m not sure if I would’ve loved The Curiosities had she not been one of the authors.

Actually, I’m still not sure if I loved it. Maybe it’s because I had never read an anthology of short stories before that drove me crazy or maybe it was the short stories themselves. I liked them all and some I loved but in short stories you don’t get the time to invest yourself in the characters, even when you really want to. This killed me. There were so many spectacular ideas in those stories I would want to read individual novels for. I am undoubtedly a novel person but I’m very pleased that I read this. I learned a lot as a write from all of the drawings and advice scribbled in the margins. It was lovely to be able to witness these famous authors develop and grow before they were famous. Writing can be overwhelming and having someone right there sharing stories that are unedited and previously used as tools to improve their writing, was very reassuring.

After finishing, I felt motivated to write. Crazy, huh?! I had never thought about short stories as “novel playgrounds.” I always become so afraid to “waste” an idea on a short story so I don’t write and pretend I’m saving it for a novel. Needless to say, discovering that my philosophy sucked was a huge revelation.

As for the actual stories in the book, I had many favorites and, yes, I did enjoy Maggie’s the most. But, I will say that after I while I stopped trying to identify who wrote what and whose handwriting belonged to whomever. Although after meeting Brenna and Tessa and hearing about some of their other books, I will definitely be checking those out to get a better idea of their style.

For those of you who have read the book a few of my favorites were:

“A Murder of Gods” by Maggie Stiefvater – I love mythology stories and groups of kids rebelling against adults. When I was younger I was always the kid who thought she was going to start a revolution on the playground.

” Beserk” by Tessa Gratton – I would have sobbed if this had been a novel.

“Girl Raised by Wolves” by Brenna Yovanoff – This story was shocking. Everything made sense, it’s just that one minute the girls were talking and the next…

Of course, there were many more by Maggie that I adored but I’m starting to feel bad that I spent the whole tie talking about her. Brenna and Tessa were really wonderful as well, I promise. I wish I had bought a copy of the book when at the signing my library hosted because I know that this is a book I will want to flip through again and again.

Star Rating:  It was really good. I’ve already told my friends about it.

I would suggest this for: Teens that LOVE paranormal/fantasy YA

Review by: Lauren B

Thanks for the review, Lauren!

This review is also posted at Books that Smolder.

But I decided to take a chance on The Immortal Rules, and I’m glad I did. Julie Kawaga has made a unique and gripping contribution to young adult vampire fiction.

Allison Sekemoto lives on the Fringe, outside the walls of the vampire city. As an unregistered, she doesn’t have to regularly donate blood, but she doesn’t get any rations, either. She and her band of friends survive by scavenging, but just barely get by. Not only are they vulnerable to attacks from vampires who aren’t content to feed on donated blood, they are also constantly defending their territory from other gangs of unregistereds fighting for scarce resources. And if they leave the walls that protect city, they face the worst enemy of all: the Rabids. These zombie-like creatures have contracted a virus that leaves them emaciated and hungry for flesh. Even vampires steer clear of Rabids.

Allison braves the ruins past the walls of the city on a scavenging trip, and discovers an entire basement full of food that will allow her and her friends to survive through the winter. However, when she returns with her crew to haul back the canned goods, they are caught by Rabids. Her friends die, and as Allison lies dangerously close to death herself, she is given a choice by a vampire: die for good, or be turned into what she hates more than anything.

Allison’s drive to survive is strong enough that she accepts, and endures training with her sire, who exists outside of the walls of the city and is obsessed with strange research in an old hospital. When Allison and her mentor are discovered by the vampires that rule the city, they must flee. Allison escapes the city, but just barely, and finds herself alone in the wilderness full of Rabids. She sets out in search of another city, hoping there is life out there. If she doesn’t come across a human to feed on soon, she’ll go crazy and die.

Allison stumbles across a band of travelers searching for a city called Eden, perhaps the last place on Earth not ruled by vampires. They travel at night because they lost many of their camp when Rabids emerged from their daytime slumber in the ground beneath them, so Allison is able to conceal her identity as a vampire. She develops a close relationship with one of the boys in the group, and uncovers some of their leader’s secrets. Is there a cure to the disease that has decimated so much of the world’s population? Is Eden a real place or just a myth? Can a vampire love a human? None of these questions have easy answers.

This novel blends the best of post-apocalyptic and dystopian genres with horror and paranormal elements. It’s gritty, bleak, and chocked full of action. The world-building is astounding, even if the backstory is awkwardly inserted during dialogue. The plot is fast-paced and complicated, with plenty of twists and turns. I loved that romance took a back seat to the basic struggle to survive. Allison is a compelling character, and while far from perfect, she’s someone I wanted to cheer on. She’s smart and driven and struggles with her new identity.

I’d recommend this book to those who are skeptical of vampire stories, anyone who likes a strong female protagonist, and readers looking for a paranormal twist on a post-apocalyptic story. If you loved this novel, check out Scott Westerfeld’s Peeps and Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

- Molly, YA Staff

 Day by Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne

An ongoing journal depicting one man’s personal struggle for survival, dealing with the trials of an undead world unfolding around him. An unknown plague sweeps the planet. The dead rise to claim the Earth as the new dominant species. Trapped in the midst of a global tragedy, he must make decisions … choices that ultimately mean life, or the eternal curse to walk as one of them.

  Ashes by Ilsa Bick

Alex (a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain tumor), Tom (who has left the war in Afghanistan), and Ellie (an angry eight-year-old) join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky and kills most of the world’s population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses.

 Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother’s footsteps and become a bounty hunter.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

When dead teenagers who have come back to life start showing up at her high school, Phoebe, a goth girl, becomes interested in the phenomenon, and when she starts dating a “living impaired” boy, they encounter prejudice, fear, and hatred.

I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It by Adam Selzer

Living in the post-human era when the undead are part of everyday life, high schooler Alley breaks her no-dating rule when Doug catches her eye, but classmate Will demands to turn her into a vampire and her zombie boyfriend may be unable to stop him.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kawaga

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city, until she too becomes an immortal vampire. Forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls, she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend — a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Barricaded in Cortege High with five other teens while zombies try to get in, Sloane Price observes her fellow captives become more unpredictable and violent as time passes although they each have much more reason to live than she has.

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

In an alternate nineteenth-century Philadelphia, Eleanor Fitt sets out to rescue her brother, who seems to have been captured by an evil necromancer in control of an army of Undead.

What is it about? Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby. But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood. -Summary courtesy of Goodreads

What did you think of it & why did you pick it up? Imaginary Girls was bizarre. It was crazy and it was unnatural. Bottom line, I did not enjoy reading this book. For me it was like running. To understand this comparison you have to know that I am very un-athletic and uncoordinated. I run because otherwise I would sit on my couch eating cookies and watching the Mentalist. As I’m doing it, I’m wondering why in the world I chose today to become healthy. BUT that does not mean I don’t greatly respect people who run. I respect Nova Ren Suma for writing such an excellent piece of literature. I also realize that this novel isn’t for everyone and that if I were to rate it solely on my enjoyment level, it would have only have gotten a 2.5 out of 5 stars. The writing level though, was a definite 5.

Nova Ren Suma somehow managed to manipulate my emotions so that I purposefully felt confused and disorientated. For half the book I felt as if I were just as crazy as Chloe and Ruby. The fact that I didn’t know it was a paranormal book might have played a part in that, but I doubt it. Mostly because the main reason I continued to read on was because I wanted NEEDED to know what Ruby was hiding from Chloe and why the whole town just seemed to give Ruby everything she wanted. I thought to myself, that doesn’t happen. Sure there are girls that can persuade a lot of people to do things for them, but not stuff that involves the other person not getting anything in return. That’s just not really how people work. What I’m trying to say, is that Nova Ren Suma made me wonder and think about her book. That’s amazing because this novel has all of the qualities I really dislike about books.

For example, take Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers or Breathless by Jessica Warman and compare it to Imaginary Girls and you’ll find they are extremely similar. All three novels are set in smallish towns or within small communities. The protagonist in them is always what I call a “stairwell kid”. This is someone who isn’t necessarily a bad person, but does do some drugs (marijuana, for the most part) and gets into bad situations. Often times these narrators speak…starkly, and the book comes off rather un-charming. The ends usually leave you up to your own assumptions. In Fall for Anything and Breathless I felt detached from the characters and I just didn’t care. Once again, this proves that Nova Ren Suma is truly talented because she made me almost care. (I don’t know about you, but it is slightly hard to care about and relate to a crazy person for me.)

There was one thing I seriously disliked about the book, and that is that I really didn’t know it was a paranormal book until the end. I realize that maybe that might have been the point…but it always bugs me when I have no idea what I’m getting into.

In the end, you may not love, or even like this book. Obviously, I too, am on the fence. But if you do decide to pick it up, you will see what I’m talking about when I say that Nova Ren Suma is a great author. She was always in characters; she used vivid imagery, and had a superbly developed setting.

Star Rating:  This was like doing homework. I finished it, but I didn’t like it.

I would suggest this for: Paranormal book-lovers, and people who like their YA with a dark edge!

Review by Lauren B. Grade 8

Thanks for the review Lauren!

The Raven Boys is the story of Blue, a teenaged misfit in a household of psychics. But unlike her clairvoyant mother, Blue’s only talent is to amplify the psychic abilities of others. Though the women Blue has grown up with aren’t always able to give specific readings, they all agree on what lies in her future: if she is ever to kiss her one true love, he will die. Of course, that’s not the only reason that Blue avoids the boys of Aglionby, the local private school. These boys with their raven-crested sweaters are rich, privileged, and definitely bad news.

Each year on the eve of the festival of St. Mark, she accompanies her mother to an abandoned church to watch the procession of ghost-like figures parade down the Corpse Road so the psychics can learn who will die in the next twelve months. Blue’s never seen those fated to die before, but in the graveyard that night, she sees Gansey, a dark-haired boy wearing an Aglionby sweater, a raven embroidered on its breast.

When she asks how this could happen, the answer is simple: either he’s her one true love, or she’s the one to kill them. In her case, probably both. Blue’s mother warns her to stay away from the raven boys, and whatever she does, not to kiss one!

Of course, fate is a tricky thing. When a group of Aglionby boys comes into the pizza parlor where she works, it isn’t Gansey who is immediately taken with the short girl with spiky hair and odd, handmade clothes, but his friend Adam, the poor boy only able to attend Aglionby on scholarship. But it is Gansey who has made an appointment with the psychics of 300 Fox Way.

Gansey has an odd hobby for a blue blood teenager: he’s on a quest to find King Glendower, a long lost Welsh king rumored to be buried in the New World somewhere along the ley line. If he wakes up, he will grant a wish to the person who discovered him. Gansey hopes the psychics in Blue’s family will help him locate the ley lines, but it is Blue who joins their quest.

But Blue and her raven boys aren’t the only one seeking the Welsh king, and waking up the ley line might be more dangerous than they anticipated.

As the first in a four book series, The Raven Boys is a lot about world-building and character development. For the first third of the book, I found it difficult to keep all of the raven boys straight. Gansey, the ring leader, was easy, but Ronan, the angry soul with a dark secret and recently dead father, Adam, the scholarship boy with a fierce desire to escape his abusive father and the trailer park where he grew up but only on his own terms, and Noah, the quiet onlooker, at times bled together until I slowly realized why each boy was significant. The plot is complicated, and not just because there are several scenes that take place in locations where time doesn’t pass in a fixed line.  Though the main action is focused on the quest for Glendower, there’s also the question of who Blue’s father is, which will certainly be important in the subsequent installments.

The Raven Boys is an original, exciting kick off to what promises to be a popular series. Its cast of quirky, compelling characters, dash of obscure mythology, and hint of romantic angst are a winning combination. Fans of Maggie’s stories of fairies, werewolves, and killer horses will delight in this project, but I have a feeling this tale will win her new readers who enjoy paranormal fantasy in a real world setting.

- Molly, YA Staff

What is it about? Belle Goose has self-exiled herself from her home in Arizona. Moving to Switchblade seems like quite the drag, until she meets nerdy boy Edwart Mullen, whom she believes to be a vampire.

What did you think of it & why did you pick it up: I’m not a huge fan of Twilight in any shape or form, so I thought it would be funny. It was funny, but the humor did get kind of old after a while. It gets tedious after the first seventy pages or so.

Star Rating:

  It was okay.

Name: Meredith S.,  Grade 8

Thanks for the review Meredith!