It Came From the Library – TRW Young Adult Horror Picks

Who doesn’t love a good scary story? One that makes you get up and double-check the locks on the doors, spooks you when a tree branch scratches against the window, or fools you into seeing shadows of creatures and ghouls on the walls around you. This year’s Teen Read Week theme is “It Came From the Library - Dare to Read…For the Fun of It!” so I decided to run with it and emphasize books that make your spine tingle and your heart race - even made my own Teen Read Week poster for my school (snatch for yourself if you'd like!). Since the release of Twilight and Hunger Games, the Y.A. horror trend has veered more towards the paranormal or dystopian variety of 'boo!', but traditional horror that centers around more realistic killings and murder mysteries is making a comeback (ie. Ten, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, I Hunt Killers). For teen fans of horror, what’s out there to recommend beyond long-standing favorite Stephen King and the already popular vampire and werewolf series? Here are a few of the more popular titles amongst the horror fans at my school –  and I would love to hear some suggestions from you!

I Hunt Killers – Barry Lyga
This is Not a Test – Courtney Summers
Dead Time (The Murder Notebooks) – Anne Cassidy
The Body Finder series – Kim Derting
Rotters – Daniel Kraus
The Butterfly Clues – Kate Ellison
The Furnace series  - Alexander Gordon Smith
Demonata series – Darren Shan
Anna Dressed in Blood series – Kendare Blake
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone – Kat Rosenfeld
World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War – Max Brooks
Something Strange and Deadly – Susan Dennard
The Hunt – Andrew Fukuda
Rot & Ruin series – Jonathan Mayberry
Living Dead Girl – Elizabeth Scott
Blood Wounds – Susan Pfeiffer
Ashes – Ilsa Bick
The Loners – Lex Thomas
The Angel of Death – Alane Ferguson
The Body of Christopher Creed – Carol Plum-Ucci
The Truth Seeker – Dee Henderson
The Name of the Star – Maureen Johnson
Ripper – Stefan Petrucha
Ripper – Amy Carol Reeves
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Death Cloud – Andrew Lane
Miss Perengrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs


 

I Hunt Killers – Barry Lyga

People matter. People are real.

This is the mantra Jasper “Jazz” Francis Dent runs through his head whenever his darker urges get the best of him. A sentiment that completely goes  against what he’s been raised to believe by his dad, Billy Dent, who just-so-happens to be the notorious serial killer known as “The Artist,” “Green Jack,” “Gentle Killer,” and “Hand-in-Glove.” Daddy Dent has so many nicknames because he spent years switching up his M.O. to avoid getting caught by the police as he murdered no less than 123 people…possibly more. As soon as Jazz was old enough to talk, Dent began sharing his killings in great detail with his son – the who’s, the how’s and, with special delight, the why’s - the power of watching a human take his last breath before the light goes out in his eyes. This is all Jazz hears and knows until, at the age of 14, his father is finally caught and subsequently sentenced to life in prison. His arrest leaves Jazz in the custody of his ailing grandmother and alone to face the accusing stares of the people in his small town. Like father, like son…right?

Fast forward two years later when the body of a woman shows up in a field near town – three of her fingers cut off with only the middle finger left behind. Jazz can’t help but feel the mutilated hand is the work of a serial killer, and warns the police chief as much. After he’s politely but firmly told to ‘mind his own business,’ Jazz enlists his best and only friend, Howie, to help do some investigating of their own. After all, who better to profile a potential serial killer than someone like Jazz who studied for years under one of the best? When within days another body shows up and then another – all with missing fingers – the police are forced to acknowledge Jazz might be right. Worse, the pattern of the killings are quite familiar since they appear to be mimicking those of his father’s murders…in their order and style. As the bodies continue to pile up, can Jazz do what it takes to stop this new Impressionist killer…or will he be enticed to join him? A Hannibal Lecter-style visit to dear old dad in prison only heightens the suspense.

If you’re familiar with the book and Showtime series, Dexter, then you know Dexter Morgan is a serial killer who acts on his sociopathic impulses by sticking to a code where he only kills people who actually deserve it – murderers, rapists, and other hardened criminals. Like Dexter, Jazz struggles with the urge to act on what his father has taught him – the urge to kill. With the exception his girlfriend, Connie, and Howie, Jazz doesn’t feel emotionally attached to any humans, and sometimes when people make him angry – like, say, the social worker who believes his grandmother needs full-time medical care which would mean foster care for Jazz – he even imagines killing them…as in taking his fingers, wrapping them around the person’s neck, and watching as the life is slowly squeezed out of them.

This book is dark stuff, y’all. Lyga doesn’t spare the reader the cruelty of Dent’s killings, mostly women and even the family pet(!), and keeps you guessing as to which way Jazz might go. In fact, Jazz has a recurring nightmare about taking a knife and cutting through skin and bone with it himself, which he believes may be his brain’s way of burying a murder he’s already committed...possibly that of his own mother. In other words, put this in the hands of Stephen King, Dexter and/or murder mystery fans with strong stomachs and a taste for truly terrifying horror. I’m one of those freaks, so I dug it.

Like Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter series, I Hunt Killers has been snapped up by Warner Brothers to be made into a tv series. I can certainly see lots of plot possibilities. The book itself ends with a HUGE cliffhanger, and its sequel is projected to come out April 2013. To learn more about Lyga and his other books (Fanboy and Goth Girl, the Archvillian series) visit his website at http://barrylyga.com/ .