Halloween is almost here and I just scooped up the last bags of Mounds at Stop and Shop, because if I’m going to give out candy it has to be candy I like. I don’t have a pumpkin because it would just get smashed, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed we won’t get egged this year. Hasn’t happened in a while but there is still some ancient yellow stuff permanently crusted on our porch.
But don’t get me wrong, I love Halloween. I especially love the attention that gets paid to all the creepy bone-chilling and thrilling YA out there. I love scary dark fiction and if you’re looking for young adult books about ghosts, kidnapping, murderers, witches or creepy creepers I have some great spooky reads for you.
- This list of 14 Spooky YA Books includes Kim Savage’s delightfully terrifying After the Woods (inspired by the Elizabeth Smart Case) and The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich about a girl who may or not be “a figment of a disturbed mind.” Kurtagich also has a new book out, And the Trees Crept In, that features a slender-man like creature who lives in woods that, you guessed it, keep coming closer. I have got to read this!
- My own YA novel Half in Love With Death, inspired by Charles Schmid the “charismatic chick magnet murderer” also known as the Pied Piper of Tucson is featured in this list of 5 YA Books Inspired By Real-Life Murderers. This list also includes My Friend Dahmer, by Derf Backderf, a memoir in comic form by someone who went to school with Jeffery Dahmer.
- The Best YA/Teen Fiction Books With Ghosts has some fantastic ghost stories including The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender (I’d read that one based on the title alone.)
- 13 Spooky YA Novels For When You Want More Than Just The Cold To Give You Chills includes Ten by Gretchen McNeil. “A modern slasher-movie version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.”
- If you’re feeling like you can’t possibly buy all these deliciously spooky books and still afford candy corn, check out this Spooktacular giveaway at YA Books Central.