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What the Woods Keep is the stunning debut of Katya de Becerra, who combines mystery, science fiction, and dark fantasy in a twisty story that will keep you mesmerized right up to the final page. On her eighteenth birthday, Hayden inherits her childhood home—on the condition that she uncover its dark secrets. Hayden tried to put the past behind her, and it worked. She’s getting ready for college, living in a Brooklyn apartment, and hanging out with her best friend and roommate Del. But now it’s all catching up with her: her mother’s mysterious disappearance a decade before, her father’s outlandish theories about a lost supernatural race, and Hayden’s own dark dreams of strange sym...
In this young adult thriller for fans of Lost and The Twilight Zone, a group of teens are saved when they come across a mysterious oasis. But who will save them from the oasis? Alif had exciting summer plans: working on her father’s archeological dig site in the desert with four close friends ... and a very cute research assistant. Then the sandstorm hit. Their camp wiped away, Alif and the others find themselves lost on the sands, seemingly doomed ... until they find the oasis. It has everything they need: food, water, and shade—and mysterious ruins that hide a deadly secret. As reality begins to shift around them, they question what’s real and what’s a mirage. The answers turn Alif and her friends against each other, and they begin to wonder if they’ve truly been saved. And while it was easy to walk into the oasis, it may be impossible to leave ... An Imprint Book “Will stick to readers’ skin long after the final page is turned.” —Booklist (starred review) “de Becerra successfully builds a fraught tension throughout the book that mirrors the characters’ feelings as reality leaves them behind . . . well worth the payoff.” —The Bulletin
The theme is Femme Fatale-that beautiful and seductive temptress who is sure to cause disaster and destruction wherever she chooses to go. This time, for the Castle of Horror, we're taking a dark peek into the mind of the female. These are horror stories from females, about females, edited by a female, each one featuring a clever twist on the femme fatale. Is she the villain or is she the hero? With everything from demons and snakes to taxidermy and strip poker, we've pulled together 16 tales that may leave you looking at your wife, your lover, your best friend, or just your next door neighbor, wondering "what is she really thinking?" Featuring stories from P. J. Hoover, Joy Preble, Christina Berry, Shelli Cornelison, Jessica Lee Anderson, Bernadette Johnson, S. de Freitas, Madeline Smoot, Carmen Gray, Jess Hagemann, Britta Jensen, S. N. Rodriguez, Miracle Austin, Katya de Becerra, M.J. Addy, and Beth Kander.
Ever since the witch cursed Babs, she turns invisible sometimes. She has her mum and her dog, but teachers and classmates barely notice her. Then, one day, Iris can see her. And Iris likes what they see. Babs is made of fire. Iris grew from a seed in the ground. They have friends, but not human ones. Not until they meet Babs. The two of them have a lot in common: they speak to dryads and faeries, and they're connected to the magic that's all around them. There's a new boy at school, a boy who's like them and who hasn't yet found his real name. Soon the three of them are hanging out and trying spellwork together. Magic can be dangerous, though. Witches and fae can be cruel. Something is happening in the other realm, and despite being warned to stay away, the three friends have to figure out how to deal with it on their own terms. Anyone who loves the work of Francesca Lia Block and delights in Studio Ghibli films will be entranced by this gorgeous and gentle young adult novel about three queer friends who come into their power.
Young Fidelia Knight arrives in Melbourne in 1874, alone except for her treasured companion, Samuel Johnson; well, half of him. To escape servitude, Fidelia hides each night in Bourke-street's renowned Coles Book Arcade. She loves words, you see, and wants to know them all. What she overhears in Coles sets her on a path that will change the lives of everyone she meets, starting with Jasper Godwin, the hopelessly underqualified manager of the new Billings Better Bookstore. Fidelia's thirst for knowledge is contagious. She tutors two orphan boys and two illiterate women, inspiring them to unlock their creativity; and her exploration of colonial Melbourne takes her to some unusual places. Nothing daunts this diminutive genius, except the mystery of what really happened to her parents on the voyage from England.
The future world has been divided into sectors—each the same as the other. Surrounded by thick steel fences, there is no way in and no way out. Yet a cyborg army penetrates each sector, picking off its citizens one by one, until no one is left. Behind the sectors’ thick walls, the citizens wait to die. Few will be chosen to survive what’s coming; the rest will be left behind to suffer. A new world has been created and its rulers are incredibly selective on who will become a citizen. They want only those with important roles in society to help create a more perfect future. Sixteen-year-old Sia lives in one of the sectors as part of a family that is far too ordinary to be picked to live....
2023 Ontario Author Project Winner in Adult Fiction Rich with folklore and paranormal intrigue, The Hollow Gods is an atmospheric supernatural thriller that will satisfy lovers of Hannah Whitten's FOR THE WOLF, especially those craving a fable with a darker touch. hr Black Hollow is a town with a dark secret. For centuries, residents have foretold the return of the Dreamwalker—an ominous figure from local folklore said to lure young women into the woods and possess them. Yet the boundary between fact and fable is blurred by a troubling statistic: occasionally, women do go missing. And after they return, they almost always end up dead. When Kai wakes up next to the lifeless body of a recent...
Seventeen-year-old Annabeth prefers the fantasy of her books and paintings to reality—because in reality, her mom is dead, and it was all her fault. When she accompanies her father to the funeral of some family friends who drowned, she’s surprised to find her grief reflected in the face of Griffin Bradford, the son of the couple who died. Griffin is nothing like the carefree boy she once knew. Now he’s irritable, removed, and he’s under police investigation for his parents’ deaths. One night following the memorial service, Annabeth’s dad goes missing in the woods, and she suspects Griffin knows more about the disappearance than he’s letting on. He refuses toanswer her questions, particularly those related to the mysterious “expedition” his parents took to Ireland, where they went missing for seven months. Annabeth fears her father isn’t lost, but rather a victim of something sinister. She launches her own investigation, tracing clues that whisper of myth and legend and death, until she stumbles upon asecret. One that some would die to protect, others would kill to expose—and which twists Annabeth’s fantasy and reality together in deadly new ways.
Sabine Velde, a teen podcaster on the hunt for a big idea, finds inspiration in her mother’s old lecture notes from the Concepts of Modern Natural Science, a freshman subject from decades ago. Hidden between the notes is a handwritten message: “If I disappear, know that they took me.” Sabine suspects the message is from Dr. Julia Rogoff, the enigmatic professor who taught the subject—she disappeared twenty years ago. The message launches Sabine straight into the heart of an old campus mystery which, to this day, keeps students and faculty wary of the shadowy “Pale Men”, believed to be the omens of death. As Sabine untangles the clues surrounding Julia’s long-ago disappearance, she believes the Pale Men are the ones being referenced in the message. But they do not want to be found. Sabine’s investigation lands her in the crosshairs of the vicious occult society that might be responsible for Julia’s fate, while her mother’s entanglement with the society twists everything Sabine thought she knew about herself, pushing her toward the point of no return. Will she resist the magicians or lose herself to their dark thrall?
When her sister is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Lena strikes a gruesome deal with the Norse gods to bring her back and finds herself in the middle of an impending doomsday—all while discovering dangerous secrets about her sister’s identity.