Some interesting things happening in the young adult speculative market this summer. Horror is still alive and kicking, and the stories just keep getting wilder. On the other hand, pretty much all fantasy is now being marketed as “romantasy,” so good luck to anyone trying to define that genre label into anything useful. If you were hoping for some sci-fi, the best I can offer you are a couple of genre-benders and some superheroes. On the plus side: vampires are back, baby!
Vampire Chronicles
The Ones Who Come Back Hungry by Amelinda Bérubé
Jo’s sister Audrey is the star of the family, until she dies suddenly. And just as suddenly, she’s back from the grave, with an oozing autopsy wound and an insatiable hunger for blood. As Jo steps into Audrey’s recently vacated role—joining her friend group and flirting with her ex-boyfriend—she also tries to find a cure to her sister’s increasingly bloodthirsty situation. Toxic family relationships with a vampire twist. (Sourcebooks Fire; July 2, 2024)
Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber
Estela is the lone survivor from a terrible, unexplained event that killed her parents. After a stint in a mental hospital, she’s sent to live in her aunt’s ancestral family home, a castle in the Spanish countryside. There she meets the enigmatic Sebastián. There she encounters strange happenings and dark secrets. There she realizes that discovering the truth of what happened to her parents may turn out to be worse than not knowing. (Wednesday Books; July 30, 2024)
This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings (This Ravenous Fate #1)
The first in a duology from a debut author, this book tweaks the vampire mythos. It’s 1926 and Harlem is brimming with Jazz Age magic and mayhem. Elise, recently returned from Paris, is the heir to a mob empire that makes cash hand over fist hunting reapers. Layla, one of said reapers, is still nursing a grudge over Elise’s role in her getting turned. A series of murders forces the two young women to work together, turning enemies into lovers. (Sourcebooks Fire; August 6, 2024)
Genre-benders
The Second Chance of Darius Logan by David F. Walker
Sixteen year old Darius has spent much of his life bouncing around between shelters and foster homes. Years ago, Earth was attacked by aliens, and although the planet was saved by the superhero team Super Justice Force, his parents died in the invasion. After he gets caught selling drugs, Captain Freedom, the leader of the supes, offers him a trade: instead of jail, he must join a rehab program working with the Force. Can he make something new with his life now that he has a second chance? (Scholastic Press; July 2, 2024)
Grief in the Fourth Dimension by Jennifer Yu
Kenny Zhou and Caroline Davison are dead. But also still alive? Kinda? The two high school seniors wake up in a white room with almost nothing in it but a giant television. They’re also not alone. Something or someone seems to be watching them. When they realize they can influence the world of the living, they decide to use their powers to help their families. Although Kenny and Caroline couldn’t be more different, the strange circumstances pull them together. (Amulet Books; July 16, 2024)
Gallows Humor
Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch by Codie Crowley
Annie Lane isn’t well liked in her home town. Too crass, too rough, too bad. Until one day she wakes up dead in a river on Resurrection Peak. Her best friend is also missing. Ghosts haunt her town, and a team of fellow spirited misfits join her to help her figure out whodunit. Annie wants revenge, and she’ll get it even if it takes her entire Afterlife. This is giving me Lisa Frankenstein meets Undead Girl Gang vibes. Into it. (Disney Hyperion; August 6, 2024)
Helga by Catherine Yu
When her father created her, Helga was supposed to be a docile, compliant automaton. Instead, she’s a curious, excitable, eager young woman chafing under his rule. As soon as he leaves for a two week work trip, Helga escapes her minder and heads into the teeming, tumultuous Amaris City. A tempestuous relationship with a boy who isn’t who he seems is balanced by new friends ready to show Helga the world, but an impending volcanic implosion puts a damper on things. A little bit Frankenstein, a little bit Poor Things, a little bit seminal 1997 disaster movie Volcano. (Page Street YA; August 20, 2024)
Thrills & Chills
Portrait of a Shadow by Meriam Metoui
When her sister Inez vanishes without a trace, Mae sets out to find her. At her Brooklyn apartment, she discovers an unsettling painting, all white except for a peeling corner. Why did Inez have this strange thing? And what is underneath the white paint? Dev, the boy next door, offers to assist Mae in tracking down Inez, but there’s something off about him, something Mae can’t quite put her finger on. (Henry Holt & Company; July 16, 2024)
The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee
Art student Isadora left home at sixteen to escape her isolated hometown and abusive father. Now that he’s dead, she plans to return just long enough to collect her inheritance and polish her portfolio. Mason, a friend she abandoned when she left, convinces her to help him investigate the disappearance and deaths of other kids they grew up with. Something wicked is lurking in Isa’s hometown, and whatever it is, it has a connection to her. (Gillian Flynn Books; August 13, 2024)
Hocus Pocus
A Magic Fierce and Bright by Hemant Nayak
Four hundred years in the future, technomancer Adya is caught between colonizer forces and family struggles. Her sister, Priya, left home to use her magic to help defeat the invading British army, but when she gets into trouble, Adya makes some risky decisions to try and save her. A new ally, who has plans of his own, helps her escape the clutches of a local crime lord. To stop the colonization of her homeland, Adya must use her rare magic in ways she never imagined. (Simon & Schuster BYR; July 9, 2024)
So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky
Nell is looking forward to spending the final spring break of high school with her friends on a private island in Florida, but the secrets from her painful past follow her. Tensions flare as personalities clash, made worse when a sinister mist surrounds the island. Something hunts the teens from within the mist, and the things Nell desperately wants to forget are clawing their way out of her. (Little, Brown BYR; July 23, 2024)
Anthologies
The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power by edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker
I don’t need to know a single thing more about this anthology beyond the title. Sold. Here’s my money. But in case you, for whatever reason, need more enticement, this is a collection of stories where, instead of the trope of a character of color dying first in a horror movie, this time it’s the white guy. YA social horror is having quite the moment. Authors include: Adiba Jaigirdar, Alexis Henderson, Chloe Gong, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, H. E. Edgmon, Kalynn Bayron, Karen Strong, Kendare Blake, Lamar Giles, Mark Oshiro, Naseem Jamnia, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Terry J. Benton-Walker. (Tor Teen; July 16, 2024)
The House Where Death Lives by edited by Alex Brown
This is a book about a house. Not just any house, but one filled with magic dark and strange. Each of the sixteen stories are set in a different room. Spanning different genres and themes, this haunted house anthology will leave you cowering under the covers. Authors include: Alex Brown, Nova Ren Suma, Gina Chen, Traci Chee, Linsey Miller, Rosiee Thor, Courtney Gould, Kay Costales, Liz Hull, Shelly Page, Justine Pucella Winans, Sandra Proudman, C.L. McCollum, Nora Elghazzawi, Tori Bovalino, and g. haron davis. (Page Street YA; August 6, 2024)
Magic with a Twist
The Lost Souls of Benzaiten by Kelly Murashige
After her friends drop her, Machi stops speaking. Her therapist sends the lonely teen to a Shinto shrine where she makes a wish to be turned into a robot vacuum cleaner. Why be human when it sucks so much? Benzaiten, a god of fortune, takes pity on Machi. The two head out into the world of the living and the dead to help Machi rediscover her faith in humanity and herself. (Soho Teen; July 23, 2024)
The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow
Princess Ying Yue was prepared for an arranged marriage. What she didn’t expect was a prince who was indifferent to her at best, hostile at worst. Locked away in her chambers with only a maid and her reflection to keep her company, she spends the days leading up to her wedding fretting over the fates of the seven previous brides who were never heard from again. The night before the big day, she’s sucked into the mirror. The Mirror Prince is everything his counterpart is not, but this new world holds dangerous secrets. (Delacorte Press; August 6, 2024)
The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko
With no family and no friends, Small Sade is alone in the bustling metropolis of Oluwan. She has vitiligo and uses a cane, disabilities that others may see as a sign of weakness but that she has learned to survive with in a world that doesn’t accommodate her. She also has the magical power to destroy curses. That ability that lands her a job in the estate of the Crocodile God who is suffering under an unbreakable curse. This is a standalone story set in the same world as the Raybearer series. (Amulet Books; August 13, 2024)
Ghost Stories
Trespass Against Us by Leon Kemp
Two years ago, four teens snuck into Saint Dominic Savio’s School for Troubled Youth, an abandoned reform school with a brutal past. Only three made it back out. Riley, Colton, and Vee are scarred, literally and psychologically. A documentary filmmaker and ghost hunter pays them to return to the scene of the crime, and things go even worse the second time around. Whatever is haunting the school has been waiting for them all this time. (Harperteen; July 16, 2024)
Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker
Five years ago, Fern, Jaq, and Mallory found refuge in their little queer found family. One night while taking a break from the outside world in an abandoned house, Mal vanishes. Neither Fern nor Jaq have any memories of that night…until now. While at a high school graduation party in the woods, the two closeted teens encounter a spirit who looks an awful lot like Mal. Something terrible happened all those years ago, and it’s about to happen again. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR; August 27, 2024)
