Archives de catégorie : Fiction

THE BELLWOODS GAME de Celia Krampien

Perfect for fans of Small Spaces and Doll Bones, this spooky, highly illustrated middle-grade novel follows a girl who hopes to fix her outcast status through a game in the haunted woods, only to discover that some legends shouldn’t be played with.

THE BELLWOODS GAME
by Celia Krampien
Atheneum, Summer 2023
(via Writers House)

Everyone knows Fall Hollow is haunted. It has been ever since Abigail Snook went into the woods many years ago, never to be seen again. Since then, it’s tradition for the sixth graders at Beckett Elementary to play the Bellwoods Game on Halloween night. Three kids are chosen to go into the woods. Whoever rings the bell there wins the game and saves the town for another year, but if Abigail’s ghost captures the players first, the spirit is let loose to wreak havoc on Fall Hollow—or so the story goes.
Now that it’s Bailee’s year to play, she can finally find out what really happens. And legend has it the game’s winner gets a wish. Maybe, just maybe, if Bailee wins, she can go back to the way things used to be before her grandma got sick and everyone at school started hating her. But when the night begins, everything the kids thought they knew about the game—and each other—is challenged. One thing’s for sure: something sinister is at play…waiting for them all in the woods.

Celia Krampien grew up in a house in the woods in a small town near Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. She studied illustration at Sheridan College and currently lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with her partner, a mischievous cat, and a nosy beagle. She is the author of The Bellwoods Game.

THE MEMORY HOTEL de Mariko Turk

From the highly acclaimed author of The Other Side of Perfect comes a layered YA novel about grief, love, and what it means to believe in the beyond—perfect for fans of Emily X.R. Pan, Dustin Thao, and Nina LaCour.

THE MEMORY HOTEL
by Mariko Turk
‎ Little, Brown, Winter 2024
(via Writers House)

Natalie and Imogen were inseparable—Imogen was always the infuriatingly humble and intelligent one, while Natalie was the brave one, jumping into danger and new adventures. Despite their differences, one thing tied them together: their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they’d vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen fully believed in the tales of the supernatural, while Natalie saw ghosts stories as nothing but pure fun. Natalie has never been a believer.
Then, their summers change forever. When Imogen unexpectedly passes away from an undiagnosed heart condition, Natalie is left to take on the summer before senior year alone. Now that Imogen’s gone, Natalie’s doesn’t have much to focus on besides her senior project. Her passion is still horror so Natalie decides her project will be all about ghost chasing—specifically, she’s planning to spend her summer back at the Harlow Hotel recording fun fake footage that will get her on the teen ghost hunting show of her dreams. And her plans would be a lot less complicated if Leander, her arch rival from school, wasn’t working on his senior project at the very same hotel.
But the longer that Natalie stays at the Harlow Hotel, the more she realizes that her nemesis Leander might be helpful for her project. After all, she could use an extra hand to help record her fake footage. But, when strange occurrences suggest that ghosts could be real, Natalie questions her long held beliefs and whether Imogen is truly gone. In this story about the way grief shapes the way we look at the world and what we choose to believe, Natalie Nakada learns what it means to let go and let new love in.

Mariko Turk teaches writing and rhetoric classes and works as a writing tutor at the University of Colorado Boulder. She received her PhD in English from the University of Florida, with a concentration in children’s literature. The Other Side of Perfect was her debut novel.

THE ONLY GIRL IN TOWN d’Ally Condie

What would you do if everyone you love disappeared? What if it was your fault? A biting and breathless contemporary novel from Ally Condie, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Matched series.

THE ONLY GIRL IN TOWN
by Ally Condie
‎ Penguin Random House, September 2023
(via Writers House)

For July Fielding, nothing has been the same since that summer before her senior year. Or that late-August night at the jump. Before, she had Alex to be her loyal bestie, always up for playing endless rounds of mini golf or trying every ice cream flavor at local favorite Verity. She had Sydney, who pushed her during every sweaty and wonderful cross country run, and who sometimes seemed to know July better than she knew herself. And she had Sam. Sam, who told her she was everything and left her breathless with his kisses.
Now, July is alone. Every single person in her small town of Lithia has disappeared. No family. No Alex or Sydney. No Sam. July’s only chance at unraveling the mystery of their disappearance is a series of objects, each a reminder of the people she loved most. And a recurring message that begins to appear all over town: GET TH3M BACK.
With sharp, poetically visceral prose that grabs you by the heart and refuses to let go, New York Times bestselling author Ally Condie makes her contemporary YA debut with a searingly candid, breathless novel that perfectly distills the messy, beautiful realities of growing up, growing apart, and the courageous act of self-discovery.

Ally Condie is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Matched trilogy and co-author of the Darkdeep middle grade series. She is also the author of the novel Summerlost, an Edgar Award Finalist. A former English teacher, Ally lives with her family outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. Ally has an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is the founder and director of the nonprofit WriteOut Foundation.

I LOVED YOU IN ANOTHER LIFE de David Arnold

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland and Kids of Appetite comes a sweeping tale of love and loss, and a coming-of-age story like no other.

I LOVED YOU IN ANOTHER LIFE
by David Arnold
Viking 2023, Fall 2023
(via Writers House)

Meet Evan and Shosh, two teens whose lives are coming apart at the seams. They don’t know it yet, but they’re about to hear music no one else can hear, songs that will lead them to the same park on the same night. They don’t know it yet, but this music is about to change their lives forever. Just like it always does.
From an escaped murderer in 19th century Paris, to a Norwegian kosmonaut in low-earth orbit, a mysterious bird is bringing strangers together in fortuitous ways. Through art, poetry, and original songs (written and recorded by the author), the book explores the history of love, and how some souls are meant for each other—yesterday, today, forever.

“I Loved You in Another Life will have your soul soaring! With unmatched lyricism, David Arnold has written a timeless love saga for the ages about two teens whose love outlasts even death itself. I love this book so much.” —Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End

David Arnold is the New York Times bestselling author of The Electric Kingdom, Mosquitoland, Kids of Appetite, and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, which has been optioned for film by Paramount. He has won the Southern Book Prize and the Great Lakes Book Award, and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and son.

THE SPITE HOUSE de Johnny Compton

A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making—The Babadook meets A Head Full of Ghosts in Texas Hill Country.

THE SPITE HOUSE
by Johnny Compton
Tor Nightfire, February 2023

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he’s desperate for money—it’s not easy to find steady, safe work when you can’t provide references, you can’t stay in one place for long, and you’re paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you.
When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.
The job calls to Eric, not just because there’s a huge payout if they can make it through, but because he wants to explore the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it’ll help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, making them afraid to stop running.

“Ever since I devoured Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House as a boy, I’ve loved a good ghost story, and The Spite House gave me those same chills. Johnny Compton has built a haunted house that is creepy as hell, the bricks and mortar oozing not just spite, but evil. Here’s a supernatural thriller that will have you watching the windows and doors as you read.”
―Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and The Lioness

Johnny Compton’s short stories have appeared in Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, The No Sleep Podcast and many other markets. He is an HWA member and operates the podcast Healthy Fears, which covers how our fears are explored through horror fiction. THE SPITE HOUSE is his first novel.