The Horror! The Horror!: Reads for Teens

What is the appeal of the frightening?  For many of us, we can consider ourselves lucky that we rarely (if ever) encounter a truly terrifying experience.  Many of us go to school, go to work, go hang out with our friends; the most frightening thing we might encounter on a typical day is the school’s mystery meatloaf.  But there is something undeniably exciting about a book that makes us want to turn all the lights on and double-check that all the doors are locked, or a movie that has us covering our eyes as the music crescendos in a feverish pitch.  We can hear the blood pumping in our ears, but still feel secure that the book or movie is only a story.  When we leave the theater, no zombies are going to attack us as we go to our cars.  Once the book is finished, no half-crazed, un-swoon-worthy vampires will chase after us.  With Halloween and crisp weather fast approaching, what horrific reads will you pick up?

Mer’s Horror Picks:

• Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender
• First Kill by Heather Brewer
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (Adult Fiction for YA)
• Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin
• Vampire Rising by Jason Henderson

• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (Classically Creepy)
• Night Road by A.M. Jenkins
• The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
• Devilish by Maureen Johnson
• Carrie by Stephen King (Adult Fiction for YA)

• Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
• Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
• Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann
• Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish
• The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

• White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick
• The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith
• Killer Pizza by Greg Taylor
• I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells (Adult Fiction for YA)
• The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Flickr CC: Halloween pumpkin Photo by: missteee