Long Lankin

There's a secret buried in Bryers Guerdon.  It's been haunting this village for more than 400 years, taking children, destroying lives.  It's been asleep for decades, but now it's hunger has been awakened, and Long Lankin is hunting.

It's 1958, and Cora and Mimi have been sent to live with their Great Aunt Ida in the tiny village of Bryers Guerdon.  It's clear Auntie Ida doesn't want them.  Her reaction to their arrival is almost violent, and the girls are terrified by her ancient crumbling home with its locked doors and nailed shut windows.  But there is no where else to go.

Auntie Ida warns them against going out on the marshes, and especially to never go into All Hallows, the ancient nearly abandoned church and cemetery.  But local boys Pete and Roger tell the girls they go there all the time, even though they've been warned not to.  What could it hurt?
There are strange markings inside the church, and four-year-old Mimi wants to leave.   The older children enjoy the thrill of exploring the spooky old building and grounds until Cora thinks she sees someone watching.

Have the children unwittingly unleashed an ancient terror on the village?  No one wants to talk about it, but Cora knows something is wrong.  A monster is stalking the village, and the dead have returned to the world of the living.  Long Lankin is looking for another victim.

This slow boil of a horror story is truly creepy!  I couldn't put it down, and I couldn't go to sleep.  Pay attention, this is the kind of subtle thriller that is all in the details, and a true connoisseur of dark fantasy and classic horror will recognize the warning signs and sense the approach of the beast.  Read Lindsey Barraclough's debut novel if you aren't too afraid.

Every Other Day

Kali D'Angelo isn't a normal girl; she's just pretending to be one.  From the outside she looks normal, maybe a bit of a loner, and no one knows about her practically nonexistent relationship with her father.  But all this pretending to be normal is a cover for her secret.  Every other day Kali is anything but normal, she's a superhuman hunter, unstoppable and gifted with incredible strength and healing powers.  Even on the days when she is human, she's not normal.

In Kali's world, Darwin didn't just find proof of evolution, he found proof of preternatural beings that once discovered seemed to pop up everywhere--chupacabras, zombies, hell hounds, dragons.  You name it, Kali feels the overwhelming desire to fight it.

Now she's in bigger trouble than she's ever imagined.  It all started when she saw the mark on Bethany Davis's back.  Kali could have ignored it, but she didn't.  In her efforts to save Bethany from a death sentence, Kali sets off a chain reaction even she couldn't have predicted.  Now she has a voice in her head that may or may not be trustworthy giving her advice and direction, and the girl that has kept all her secrets close for years will have to learn to trust an odd assortment of people who may just be able to help her get some answers about who and what she is.

But the truth will come at cost that may break her heart.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes's new thriller is filled with monsters, gore, and plenty of plot twists!

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

This is a reimagining of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which just means the author took the basic ideas of the original story and looked at them in a different way or in this case, fleshed out part of the story.  Oppel looks at Victor Frankenstein as a teenager.  Victor and his twin brother, Konrad, are best friends, but that doesn't mean there isn't a touch or jealousy and competition in their relationship.  This competitiveness only increases for Victor when he thinks of the lovely Elizabeth. 

Life is relatively peaceful until Konrad becomes unexpectedly ill, and all medical efforts fail.  Victor remembers a dark library hidden in the house with alchemy books and papers.  He struggles to create an Elixir of Life to save his brother and to glorify himself.  Victor and Elizabeth must battle vicious creatures and cunning enemies to meet their goal, but Victor finds the danger exhilarating. 

This book was a heart pounding thrill ride that manages to be character driven at the same time.  Oppell looks further into Victor's motivations than the original story does, and he creates a character who is believable and disturbing.

The best compliment I can give This Dark Endeavor is it inspired me to read the original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I'd never read it, but I thought I knew the story based on a jumble of movie clips and cultural references.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong and that Shelley's novel provokes questions about loneliness and personal responsibility.  We also have Shelley's book here in the library.  Both are challenging reads, so I would recommend them for 8th graders and 7th graders who are strong readers.

This Dark Endeavor was also named as part of the 2012-2013 Lone Star List!