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The Horror of Dunwick Farm – The Crooked Oak Mysteries by Dan Smith ill Chris King

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The mystery is growing at Dunwick Farm and it all started with a plane crash … Crooked Oak’s mystery-solving team return with another spine-tingling adventure, perfect for fans of Stranger Things and Crater Lake.

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[See also The Beast of Harwood Forest]

When an unidentified plane crashes in the fields next to Dunwick Farm in Crooked Oak, it quickly becomes clear that it was carrying some unusual cargo. As people in the town fall suddenly ill and animals start behaving strangely, friends Pete, Krish and Nancy try to find out what was in the glass boxes on board the plane. But as they uncover the facts, the trio realise that they are becoming entangled in a terrifying web …

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There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

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“Graphic violence and bloody mayhem saturate this high-speed slasher story.” KIRKUS
“The murders are both grisly and psychologically unnerving, and the novel’s intense realism makes them all the more disturbing.” Publishers Weekly

Now a Netflix movie:

Over a year after her parents sent her away from Hawaii to live with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska, Makani Young is still adjusting to her new life. She’s made a small group of close friends and even flirted with romance, but her past in Hawaii is still hard to forget.

And then . . . one by one the students of her new high school begin to die in a series of gruesome murders. Makani doesn’t know who’s next on the list. Between this, and a secret scorching relationship with the school weirdo, this school year may turn out to be one to die for . . . literally.

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Cruel Castle by Bryony Pearce

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A RED EYE horror novel for teens, this gripping sequel to SAVAGE ISLAND is full of fast-paced action and gruesome twists and turns.

Having survived the horrors of Savage Island, Grady is now stuck working for Gold, the psychopath who masterminded the gruesome competition. Sent on a “team-building exercise” in a remote castle, he starts to plot his escape.
Ben and Lizzie are in hiding, presumed dead after escaping the island. If they’re ever to return to their families, they need to bring Gold down. So they secretly join Grady in the castle. But as the doors slam shut and the series of deadly challenges between them and freedom are revealed, it looks like history is going to repeat itself…

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Every Line of You by Naomi Gibson

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“An absolute page-turner” Nikki Gamble, In The Reading Corner

This dark, modern twist on young love explores the complexity and scope of artificial intelligence while also examining bigger themes of humanity, revenge, grief, love and forgiveness. A powerful, high-concept crossover debut by a new voice in YA. Expect elements of horror, psychological drama and romance.

Lydia has been creating her AI, Henry, for years – since before her little brother died in the accident that haunts her nightmares; since before her dad walked out, leaving her and Mum painfully alone; since before her best friend turned into her worst enemy. Now, Henry is strong, clever, loving and scarily capable: Lydia’s built herself the perfect boyfriend in a hard-drive filled with lines of code. But what is Henry really – and how far is he willing to go to be everything Lydia desires?

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Wicked Little Deeds by Kat Ellis

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 9 Aug 2021

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“I’ve been slightly obsessed with Chelsea Wolfe while working on Wicked Little Deeds. I love the dark, eerie vibe of her music — it’s exactly what I wanted to capture in this story.” Kate Ellis, from an interview on HITC
“Maintaining her knack for spooky suspense, Ellis keeps the tension taut, delivering a gritty whodunit, a spine-tingling supernatural story, and a twisty psychological thriller all in one… Atmospherically grapples with literal and figurative ghosts in an eerie Indiana.” KIRKUS

From its creepy town mascot to the story of its cursed waterfall, Burden Falls is a small town dripping with superstition. Ava Thorn knows this well – since the horrific accident she witnessed a year ago, she’s been plagued by nightmares. But when her school nemesis is brutally murdered and Ava is the primary suspect, she starts to wonder if the legends surrounding the town are more fact than fiction. Whatever secrets Burden Falls is hiding, there’s a killer on the loose, and they have a vendetta against the Thorns…

Kat Ellis’s previous thriller, Harrow Lake, was an ACHUKA Book of the Day in September 2020.

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Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw

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17-year-old Mina, from England, arrives in New Orleans to visit her estranged sister, Libby. After growing up in the town that inspired Dracula, Mina loves nothing more than a creepy horror movie. She can’t wait to explore the city’s darkest secrets – vampire tours, seedy bars, spooky cemeteries, disturbing local myths… And it gets even better when Mina lands a part-time job at a horror movie mansion and meets Jared, Libby’s gorgeous housemate, co-worker and fellow horror enthusiast. But the perfect summer bliss is broken when, while exploring the mansion, Mina stumbles upon the body of a girl with puncture marks on her neck, clutching a lock of hair that suspiciously resembles Libby’s… Someone is replicating New Orleans’ most brutal supernatural killings. Mina must discover the truth and prove her sister’s innocence before she becomes the victim of another myth. Perfect for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stranger Things.

Last One To Die by Cynthia Murphy

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 6 Jan 2021

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Are you a teen who thrills to be terrified? This book is for you.
Promoted as “Point Horror for the social media generation” [The book is published by Scholastic]
We love the striking jacket design.

Young, brunette women are being attacked in London. 16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived for a summer of freedom, and quickly discovers that the girls being attacked look frighteningly similar to her. Niamh is determined not to let her fear destroy her summer. But can her new friends be trusted? Will she be able to stay ahead of the attacker? Or will she be next? Packed with voice-driven whodunit storytelling, and a retro slasher-movie feel reminiscent of cult classics, this dark, pacy, and irresistibly-creepy debut really has something for everybody!

Last One to Die is a YA horror novel and you’ve mentioned that Point Horror has been a big influence for you. Can you tell us a bit more about your debut, and the inspiration behind it?

Last One to Die came about after a huge writing slump. I was actually trying to write something else when I started listening to a podcast called Lore and an episode about a creepy Victorian villain, Spring Heeled Jack. I had never heard of him, but it planted a little seed which I kept coming back to. I shelved what I was writing and started to brainstorm a teen horror. I have always been a huge fan of anything remotely scary so went and re-watched all of the classics from my teens – Scream, Final Destination, The Craft – and I knew that I wanted to write something scary but also fun. I wanted to recapture that feeling I had as a teen where I was thrilled to be terrified!

from Curtis Brown’s website

 

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

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A blistering horror-thriller  that will grip you from its very first page.

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Wilder Girls comes a twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery – until she decides to return to her mother’s hometown, where history has a tendency to repeat itself . . .

Ever since Margot was born, it’s been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot’s questions. No history to hold on to. Just the two of them, stuck in their run-down apartment, struggling to get along. But that’s not enough for Margot. She wants family. She wants a past. And when she finds a photograph pointing her to a town called Phalene, she leaves. But when Margot gets there, it’s not what she bargained for. Margot’s mother left for a reason. But was it to hide her past? Or was it to protect Margot from what’s still there?


 

Point Horror 25th Anniversary

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Whatever happened to Point Horror? asks Beth Rodgers

irishtimes

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Point Horror imprint. In 1991, the British base of Scholastic publishers decided to rebrand a set of horror titles sent by its American counterpart and thus Point Horror was born. Written by the likes of RL Stine (who would go on to pen the more enduring Goosebumps series for younger readers), Caroline B Cooney and Diane Hoh, Point Horror books arrived thick and fast in the mid-90s. That was one of the best things about them from the reader’s perspective – there were always more on the way. The series dominated the children’s book charts in the ’90s. At their height, upwards of 15 books were published annually, plus omnibus editions of the most popular titles. By 2000 they had sold in the region of 7 million copies. And then they seemed to fizzle out.