We missed a couple books last month so I’ll share those along with the five out today.
Tell the Ghosts I’m Gone by Kalynn Bayron – published September 1
Bloomsbury Publishing
Moll, Redd, Agnes, and Ossie each have a supernatural gift that they have spent their lives struggling to control—because when they don’t, the consequences are deadly. Moll can see and influence people’s emotions, Redd has the power of distraction, Agnes is psychic, and Ossie can control pests.
Together, they offer paranormal investigative services, and they’re pulled into the case of a missing young woman, last seen at a coffee shop run out of an old (and rumor has it, haunted) Victorian mansion.
The more that Moll and her friends investigate the Spring Street House, the more it looks like Harley did fall victim to the paranormal forces at work there—forces that may have ties to Moll’s past, and that may help shed light on the darkness that she doesn’t want to admit exists at the edge of her powers.
Night of Madness by Ryan Douglass – published September 29
Simon Pulse
Mara is a horror buff whose only fond memories of her dad are bonding over movies by Jack Stanley—the producer of the eighties. Stanley’s campy slasher movies may have kept Mara’s fraught parental relationship on life support and gained a cult following, but the man himself has faded from the public eye…until he announces a contest centered around Asylum, his most terrifying film. Five teen influencers will be invited to spend the night on the fully constructed set; whoever sticks it out until morning wins a hundred thousand dollars.
Stuck in a dead-end job, Mara seriously needs that cash. She may not be a famous influencer, but there has to be a way to manufacture an online presence that will capture Stanley’s attention. With the help of her brother and best friend, Mara finds some creative solutions to her dilemma and lands herself onto the roster of the lucky chosen few by way of her engaging authenticity.
When Mara and the other contestants arrive on set, it’s a horror fan’s dream being immersed in the asylum setting, but as the night wears on, they realize the danger is more than movie magic… They’re not there to win or lose but to live or die. As Mara fights to survive, she discovers an inner ruthlessness she didn’t know she had. Just how far will she go to see the sunrise—and will she still recognize herself by the end?
And Today–
It’s Only Dancing by Jasmine Guillory
Scholastic Press
It’s the summer before her senior year of high school and Kat (Kitty to her family) planned to spend it reading good books, working on her college applications, and enjoying her independence. Instead, she’s stuck for an entire month with her family at a camp in the desert in Southern California.
When she stumbles across a staff party on the first night, she’s jealous of their joyful, uninhibited dancing. She hasn’t danced like that since two years ago, when she was forced to quit ballet, which she once loved more than anything. She’s determined to leave dance where it belongs — the past.
But Jordan, the handsome and magnetic hip-hop dance instructor, keeps dragging it into her present. As Kat begins sneaking around and lying to her parents in order to spend time with Jordan, she’ll have to ask herself — what is she willing to risk in order to finally feel free? And is it possible her feelings for Jordan could reignite her love for dance?
What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Bindery Books
At the edge of the City of the Void, a massive chasm extends miles into the earth, its treacherous terrain overrun with vicious monsters and carnivorous plants. For orphaned best friends Petra and Jade, guiding treasure-seeking tourists down into the Void is the only way to earn enough to pull themselves up out of the slums for good.
Petra prefers to play it safe and take jobs only in the Void’s upper levels, where the dangers are better understood, while Jade wants to risk a descent to the deepest and most mysterious Sixth Layer. Because the deeper they go, the better the payout, and the sooner their dreams can become reality. Their friendship is Petra’s whole world, and Jade’s approval means everything–so Petra agrees to do it Jade’s way.
When their job goes wrong and Jade is lost in the Void, Petra must plunge deeper than she’s ever dared to save her friend. But she doesn’t know the truth of the Void . . . or what really waits for her in its depths.
Like Glass by Jen Ferguson
Heartdrum
When Tatum Nova Lambert boards a plane to Chamonix, a town in the French Alps, she has one half-formed plan: to drag her Michelin-star-winning dad home. Since her older sister Bronwyn’s death a year ago, Tate and her dad don’t talk. They barely even text. So when he doesn’t pick her up at the transit station like he said he would, it’s no surprise.
What is a complete and very unwelcome surprise? Her dad is unexpectedly living in Bronwyn’s apartment, and Tate discovers she’ll be sleeping in her sister’s bed—the one Bronwyn died in. In the apartment and at her dad’s restaurant, it’s hard to bear both her dad’s broken promises and her sister’s ghost.
While trying to untangle the secret life Tate’s sister left behind, Tate meets Agatha, a schedule-obsessed Olympic ski-jump hopeful, and Beetle, a pickpocket and general teenaged dirtbag. As the unlikely trio explore in the mountains’ shadow, Tate brings her distinct kind of chaos to everyone’s lives—all while she tries to figure out if she can forgive her dad and her sister for leaving her behind.
Children of Owl by Darcie Little Badger
Levine Querido
Maisie: hasn’t gotten her life back on track since her best friend died and she saw Owl, harbinger of ill tidings and doom.
Joel: Streaming prodigy with questionable decision-making who’s been exiled to a summer of kitten fostering.
Verona: will do anything to leave their trailer park behind, even watch a house she knows is haunted.
Owl: son of Big Owl, who can’t help who he is, or how much he cares about these aforementioned humans.
Their four stories intertwine with a ghost bent on justice, an adorable feline Animal Person, and a vengeful monster headed straight for them in this singular YA fantasy novel from Newbery Honor-winning Darcie Little Badger.
Twisted Vows (The Souls of Blackwood Academy #0.5) by I.V. Marie
Delacorte Press
When Wren Loughty finds herself dropped outside the gates of Blackwood Academy, the infamous magical boarding school located on the fringes of the afterlife, she quickly realizes that she’s dead. Worse, she’s stuck between life and death, eternally tasked with learning the magical skills required to guide lost souls to the Other Side.
And her first assignment? A class project with the boy known as the notorious “Demon of Blackwood,” Augustine Hughes.
August doesn’t do friends. He has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the new girl…reasons that are quickly becoming more complicated the more time he spends with her.
As Wren and August navigate the darkly enchanting Blackwood campus and their cutthroat fellow students, an undeniable connection grows between them. But some connections can be twisted.
And some betrayals can’t be undone.