It’s Spooktober readers, and I couldn’t be more excited to dive into reading a new genre this month! 

I love reading any time of the year, but there’s just something about October. Fall is settling in, the air is chilly, and the mood is dark. That’s why this month we’re studying Paranormal & Horror fiction in the classroom. By our classroom definition, these are “stories set in the real world that include experiences with otherworldly activity that defies scientific explanation.” They’re a type of fantasy and horror is a bit different from paranormal in that the intent (or purpose) behind the story is to specifically scare readers.

As a kid, I LOVED Goosebumps, Fear Street, and any paranormal-ish book, but it’s not my typical in terms of reading material these days, except for this time of the year. So, I’ve got a pretty intense TBR list I’m hoping to read through this month, and if you aren’t a paranormal/horror reader yourself, I encourage you to try something different during Spooktober!

I’m sharing 5 YA suggestions below, as well as a few extras in a printable book list. Each book summary is directly from the Goodreads page which is where the links will take you so you can add it to your to-be-read shelves!

Happy (haunted) reading!

 

Contagion by Erin Bowman (and its sequel Immunity)

It got in us

After receiving an urgent SOS from a work detail on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is dispatched to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.

Most are dead.

But when the crew arrives, they find an abandoned site, littered with rotten food, discarded weapons…and dead bodies.

Don’t set foot here again.

As they try to piece together who—or what—could have decimated an entire operation, they discover that some things are best left buried—and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.

 

 

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake


Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas’s life.

 

Ten by Gretchen McNeil


It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie are looking forward to two days of boys, booze, and fun-filled luxury. But what starts out as fun turns twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine. And things only get worse from there.

With a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the outside world . . . so when a mysterious killer begins picking them off one by one, there’s no escape. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on one another, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

*This is a fabulous retelling of one of my favorite novels, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It’s a classic murder mystery, and I highly recommend it as well!

 

 

 

 The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan


In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

 

 

 

 

 

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalo


Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

The story’s shocking twists and turns, augmented with real, sinister period photos, will make this dazzling, #1 New York Times bestselling debut from author Kerri Maniscalco impossible to forget.

 

 

 

Not quite what you’re looking for? Maybe one of these YA reads will interest you! (click to download a PDF book list!)

If you dive into the world of paranormal & horror this month, leave me a comment below and let me know what you think! Or, come connect with me on Instagram where I’m bound to post about at least one of these! 

-Ms. Lore

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Read this genre: Paranormal
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