It’s nearly that time of year again – time to plan your costume, stock up on treats and crack open a good creepy read for Halloween. No matter what your favourite monster or cryptid, or whether you’re into something a little creepy or downright terrifying, there’s something for everyone in our collection to have you checking under the bed before you turn out the light on Halloween. Here are a few recent ones we like the look of…
Three kisses, one midnight : a novel / Chokshi, Roshani
“Told in interconnected stories, three witchy best friends brew a love potion on Halloween that is said to produce a love that will last forever as long as it is sealed by true love’s kiss before the stroke of midnight. The town of Moon Ridge was founded 400 years ago and everyone born and raised there knows the legend of the young woman who perished at the stroke of twelve that very same night, losing the life she was set to embark on with her dearest love. Every century since, one day a year, the Lady of Moon Ridge descends from the stars to walk among the townsfolk, conjuring an aura upon those willing to follow their hearts’ desires. This year at Moon Ridge High, a group of friends known as The Coven will weave art, science, and magic during a masquerade ball unlike any other. Onny, True, and Ash believe everything is in alignment to bring them the affection, acceptance, and healing that can only come from romance–with a little help from Onny’s grandmother’s love potion. But nothing is as simple as it first seems. And as midnight approaches, The Coven learn that it will take more than a spell to recognize those who offer their love and to embrace all the magic that follows.” (Catalogue)
Long live the Pumpkin Queen / Ernshaw, Shea
“Saddled with queenly duties after marrying her one true love, Sally Skellington wonders if she traded one captivity for another until she finds a long-hidden doorway to an ancient realm putting everything into perspective. Sally Skellington is the official, newly-minted Pumpkin Queen after a whirlwind courtship with her true love, Jack, who Sally adores with every inch of her fabric seams — if only she could say the same for her new role as Queen of Halloween Town. Cast into the spotlight and tasked with all sorts of queenly duties, Sally can’t help but wonder if all she’s done is trade her captivity under Dr. Finkelstein for a different cage. But when Sally and Zero accidentally uncover a long-hidden doorway to an ancient realm called Dream Town in the forest Hinterlands, she’ll unknowingly set into motion a chain of sinister events that put her future as Pumpkin Queen, and the future of Halloween Town itself, into jeopardy. Can Sally discover what it means to be true to herself and save the town she’s learned to call home, or will her future turn into her worst… well, nightmare?” (Catalogue)
In the night wood / Bailey, Dale
“American Charles Hayden came to England to forget the past. Failed father, failed husband, and failed scholar, Charles hopes to put his life back together with a biography of Caedmon Hollow, the long-dead author of a legendary Victorian children’s book, In the Night Wood. But soon after settling into Hollow’s remote Yorkshire home, Charles learns that the past isn’t dead. And every morning the fringe of darkling trees presses closer …” (Catalogue)
The deathless girls / Hargrave, Kiran Millwood
“They say the thirst of blood is like a madness – they must sate it. Even with their own kin. On the eve of her divining, the day she’ll discover her fate, seventeen-year-old Lil and her twin sister Kizzy are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveller community. Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn’t understand. But she also learns about the Dragon, a mysterious and terrifying figure of myth and legend who takes girls as gifts. They may not have had their divining day, but the girls will still discover their fate.” (Catalogue)
The Rarkyn’s Familiar / Lee, Nikky
“An orphan bent on revenge. A monster searching for freedom. A forbidden pact that binds their fate. Lyss had heard her father’s screams, smelled the iron-tang of his blood. She witnessed his execution. And plotted her revenge. Then a violent encounter traps Lyss in a blood-pact with a rarkyn from the otherworld, imbuing her with the monster’s forbidden magic – a magic that will her erode her sanity. To break the pact, she and the rarkyn must journey to the heart of the Empire. All that stands in their way are the mountains, the Empire’s soldiers, and Lyss’ uneasy alliance with the rarkyn. But horrors await them on the road – horrors even rarkyns fear. The most terrifying monster isn’t the one Lyss travels with. It’s the one that’s awoken inside her. Monsters of a feather flock together.” (Catalogue)
Horror hotel / Fulton, Victoria
“Chrissy has always been able to see ghosts, and when her friend Chase realized it he turned her affliction into an internet sensation, with the help of Emmaline, the technology expert and Kiki, the presenter; now they are planning to film an episode in an infamously haunted hotel in Los Angeles, but they may be tackling something really dangerous because Chrissy is seeing the terrifying shadow man who started appearing to her when her mother was dying of cancer–and there is an internet troll who keeps sending death threats to the group.” (Catalogue)
“In this velvet-clad 1990s gothic horror, Aja encounters a charming vampire who wants to lure her into the woods-just like her missing sister. No one ever pays attention to sixteen-year-old Aja until her perfect older sister Fiona goes missing. In the days leading up to Fiona’s disappearance, Aja notices some extraordinary things: a strange fog rolling through their idyllic suburban town, a brief moment when the sky seems to rain blood, and a host of parasitic caterpillars burrowing their way through the trees. Aja’s father, the neighbours, and even her ex-friend Mary all play down this strange string of occurrences, claiming there must be some natural explanation. It seems everyone is willing to keep living in denial until other teens start to go missing too.” (Catalogue)
The initial insult / McGinnis, Mindy
“Tress Montor’s parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home. The entire town shuns her now that she lives with her drunken, one-eyed grandfather at what locals refer to as the ‘White Trash Zoo,’ a wild animal attraction featuring a zebra, a chimpanzee, and a panther, among other things. Felicity Turnado has worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared. She buried what she knows so deeply that she can’t even remember what it is– only that she can’t look at Tress without having a panic attack. At a Halloween costume party at an abandoned house, Tress wants either the truth– or revenge. She tries to pry the truth from Felicity by slowly sealing her former best friend into a coal chute… with a drunken party above them, and a loose panther on the prowl.” (Catalogue)
“A contemporary novel for teenagers with mysterious goings on, time travel, a curse and a strange painting. Etta is worried about her brother Jamie. The doctors can find nothing wrong with him, but he is getting weaker by the day. At breakfast one morning, he seems to have lost it completely- In a voice as pale as his face, he said, ‘I think I can see a ghost.’ However, when they all turn to look, sure enough, materialising on the window seat is a girl about Etta’s age, wearing a beautiful Victorian wedding dress. Etta has to get off to school, she has no time for this, but she is about to discover that time has a whole new significance. She and her ghost companion have no choice but to work out what is going on before Jamie is lost for ever . . .” (Catalogue)
“Every family has its secrets, but the summer Joan Chang-Hunt goes to stay with her Gran in London, she learns hers is bigger than most. The Hunts are one of twelve families in London with terrifying, hidden powers. Joan is half-monster. And what’s more, her summer crush Nick isn’t just a cute boy, he’s hiding a secret as well; a secret that places Joan in terrible danger. When the monsters of London are attacked, Joan is forced on the run with the ruthless Aaron Oliver, heir to a monster family who are sworn enemies of her own. Joan is drawn deeper into a world that simmers with hostilities, alliances and secrets. And her rare and dangerous power means she’s being hunted. She’ll have to embrace her own monstrousness if she is to save herself, and her family. Because in this story, she is not the hero.” (Catalogue)
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