Tag Archives: horror

YA Book Prize display

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The Monstrous Child was a Book of the Week earlier in the year, and was also on the Costa Book Awards shortlist. I thought it was brilliantly disgusting, with a fabulous narrator.

Before you reject me, before you hate me, remember: I never asked to be Hel’s queen.

Meet Hel, teenager and Queen of the Dead. Daughter of a giantess and a god. Sister to Fenhir the wolf and Jormungand the snake. This is her testament.

Hel never wanted to be queen, but being a normal teenager wasn’t an option either. Now she’s stuck ruling the underworld. For eternity. She doesn’t want your pity. But she does demand you listen. It’s only fair you hear her side of the story…

It didn’t have to be like this.

This is a must-read book for anyone who loves mythology.

 

New Books in the Library

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New in the Library this week, and on the YA Book Prize display is the chilling The Call by Peadar O’Guilin.

‘Your people drove them out of their homes. Thousands of years later they turn up again – and they’re gonna wipe you out.’

THREE MINUTES…

On her birthday, Nessa finds out the terrible truth about her homeland, Ireland – the truth that will change her life forever.

TWO MINUTES…

That she and her friends must train for the most dangerous three minutes of their lives: THE CALL.

ONE MINUTE…

That any day now, without warning, they will each wake in a terrifying land, alone and hunted, with a one in ten chance of returning alive.

If you look very carefully at the cover you will see that it is made up of rows and rows of little skulls…

Book of the Week – Zom-B Goddess by Darren Shan

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Zom-B GoddessBook of the week this week is the eagerly-awaited last episode in the Zom-B series – Zom-B Goddess.

  • Where can you turn when you’ve run out of options?
  • What card can you play when the decks are stacked against you?
  • Is there any hope in a world of the lost?
  • B Smith has reached the end.
  • Double-crossed again, B is confused, enraged and broken. But the battle isn’t over. The end is nigh, but there are plenty of horrors to come. And who will survive? The zombies? The humans? Or worse…?

Zom-B Goddess is not on the library display because it has already been requested, but we have all the other eleven Zom-B books by Darren Shan in the library.

Book of the Week – Demon Road, by Derek Landy

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DemonRoadDerek Landy’s new novel is a road trip with demons!

Amber Lamont is a normal sixteen-year-old. Smart but insecure, she spends most of her time online, where she can avoid her beautiful, aloof parents and their weird friends.

But when a shocking encounter reveals a horrifying family secret, Amber is forced to go on the run. Killer cars, vampires, undead serial killers and red-skinned, horned demons – Amber hurtles from one threat to the next, revealing the terror woven into the very fabric of her life. As her parents close in behind her, Amber’s only chance rests with her fellow travellers, who are not at all what they appear to be…

Demon Road is a scary roller-coaster of a book, which already has a waiting list (sorry), so if you want to read it, ask at the library desk.

New Books in the Library – The Hunted, by Charlie Higson

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HuntedHbk

New in the library – the sixth and penultimate part of Charlie Higson’s epic zombie series The Enemy, The Hunted. Our copy has the lovely oozy green cover and is signed by the author.

The blurb says:

The sickness struck everyone over fourteen. First it twisted their minds. Next it ravaged their bodies. Now they roam the streets – crazed and hungry.

The others told Ella that the countryside would be safer than the city. They were wrong. Now Ed wants to assemble a crew and find her, though he has no idea who – or what – they’ll meet out there. Or if Ella is even alive…

But the SICKOS are moving as one towards the capital as if being called – and will kill anyone who stands in their way.

We have all the other books in The Enemy series in the library; find them on the junior/teen fiction shelves.

Old books with new covers…

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something wickedOne of our S5 students recently asked me for some Ray Bradbury books, and I discovered that although I believed we had lots in the library, actually we don’t – they must have gradually deteriorated, disappeared or become long overdue to students who have left the school. However the covers are much better on the new ones, so it’s probably a good thing that they needed to be replaced.

scifiSomething Wicked This Way Comes (the title is a quote from Macbeth) was one of the first adult novels I ever read. I thought it was science fiction, because of the library copy cover (which I think was the picture on the right), but the new cover (left) is a much better representation of the gothic horror that it actually is!

This is a book which will send shivers down your spine and which will immediately send you out to find everything else that Ray Bradbury wrote.

Blurb…

It’s the week before Hallowe’en, and Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois. The siren song of the calliope entices all with promises of youth regained and dreams fulfilled…as two boys trembling on the brink of manhood set out to explore the mysteries of the dark carnival’s smoke, mazes and mirrors, they will also discover the true price of innermost wishes…

My very favourite piece of Ray Bradbury writing is a short story called Zero Hour in The Illustrated Man – why not try it? It’s only fifteen pages long but you will remember it forever! You can find the Ray Bradbury books in the senior fiction section of the library.

Book of the Week – Hollow Pike by James Dawson

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HollowPike

Book of the week this week is another chilling thrilling read from James Dawson, Hollow Pike. I didn’t look in a mirror for a week after I read Say Her Name, so I’m going to leave this one for someone else to review!

The blurb says:

She thought she’d be safe in the country, but you can’t escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her.

Lis thinks she’s being paranoid – after all who would want to murder her? She doesn’t believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn’t believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you?

Not until you’re alone in the woods, after dark – and a twig snaps…

Click on the book cover to go to James Dawson’s site.

New books in the library – Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

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daysofbloodandstarlight

Days of Blood and Starlight is the long-awaited sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone – the third part of the trilogy, Dreams of Gods and Monsters is not yet in the library.

The blurb on the back of the book says:

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living – one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies of children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was like a jewel-box without a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world.

These books are all-engulfing fantasy that verge on the horrific – real edge of the seat reading!

The Library Team’s recommended reads for Hallowe’en…

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The October week holiday is an ideal time to do some extra reading, and there are some great scary books out there! We would like to recommend our favourite frighteners to read in preparation for Hallowe’en.

Lockwood & CoZom-B

say her name

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  • Lockwood & Co. – The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud because spectral disturbance could absolutely be a real thing, and they have rapiers! We have the second in the Lockwood & Co series, The Whispering Skull, in the library as well. Click here to find out more about both books.
  • Zom-B and the rest of the series by Darren Shan because they scoop out peoples’ brains… Find out more here.
  • Say Her Name by James Dawson because you will never, ever want to look in a mirror again! Click here to visit James Dawson’s site and find out about his other books.
  • Raised by Wolves, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes because of the sheer gruesomeness of the werewolf killings. Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ site is here.
  • The Enemy series by Charlie Higson because of how realistic a threat the zombie apocalypse is (everyone should be scared of the zombie apocalypse). The official site (here) has some amazing videos – some of them might almost be documentaries….

These are our favourite five scary books – why not tell us yours?