Monthly Sub-Genre Challenge 2016 : What Type Are You? September 2016

Each month a randomly selected sub-genre of Mystery and Suspense will appear for us. We want you to discuss your favorite books and make recommendations. You may choose books to read in this sub-genre and post comments or reviews about the books read. Even a sentence will do!

The sub-genre for the month of September is "Creepy Kids".

This genre may be a bit more challenging that previous ones but knowing this group...I know you're up to it. You may have already read some of this genre and not realized it... especially if you read Neil Gaiman or Stephen King or Dean Koontz, Chris Gaberstein and many others. It is a genre that has been around since the Bother's Grimm wrote the first of their fairy tales.

The Sub-genre “Creepy Kids” Is defined as… a tale in which children often come under the influence of dark forces and may begin to turn against the adults. This is also sometimes referred to as “children’s horror” and may seem like an oxymoron…and is generally aimed at the 5-12 age groups.
The "children's horror genre spans ages ranging from cute, not-that-scary picture books for preschoolers such as Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems to series that straddle the line between middle-grade and young adult with kids fighting some truly scary monsters such as Jonathan Stroud’s new series, Lockwood and Co. And then there is award-winning modern horror classics such as Neil Gaiman’s Coraline as well as tales that have haunted children for decades such as Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. There is macabre humor, dark fantasy, adventure and mystery in all of these stories.

Here are a few to get you started. These are geared for 13-18 years. Please add any others that you find. Happy reading and take the covers off your head you big chicken!

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding
Remember Me by Christopher Pike
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
The Diviners by Libba Bray
The Shadow of the Blackbird by Cat Winters
Dolls Bones by Holly Black
Locked In Time by Lois Duncan
The Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
The Crossroads by Chris Gaberstein
The Waking: Dreams of the Dead by Thomas Randall
The Devil's Footsteps by E.E. Richardson
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Also any of the R.L. Stein books are great as well as Scary Stories, More Scary Stories and Scary Stories to Chill Your Bones…a collection of Urban Legends by Alvin Swartz for 9-12 year olds. British author Susan Cooper wrote a series called The Dark is Rising that has been published almost exclusively in the U.K. It features 11 year old Will Stanton and based on Arthurian legends, Celtic Mythology and Norse Mythology.

Oh...and those authors you may already be reading...
Children of the Storm by Dean Koontz writing as Deanna Dwyer
Demon Child by Dean Koontz as Deanna Dwyer
Legacy of Terror by Dean Koontz as Deanna Dwyer
Carrie by Stephen King
Christine by Stephen King
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
and...
The Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. The first book in the series is The Angel Experiment

Okay this is a sub-genre that is new to me. Will need to give this one some thought. The only author I have read is Stephen King and then only 11.22.63. In fact not heard of most of them. Horror has never been my bag.

I think I read The Angel Experiment years ago and I've read the early Stephen King books but I've drifted away from this genre for the last thirty years or so.

Would Kathy and Brendan Reich's Virals Series count or aren't they creepy enough?

>3 Olivermagnus: 30 years? Well welcome back:) >4 Andrew-theQM: Yes it would. I thought of one of my old favorites...Something Wicked This Way Comes. Loved the book and the movie.

>5 Carol420: By the look of it, this is book 3 in a series.

>6 Andrew-theQM:
I'm watching!

>6 Andrew-theQM: The RIO eye is always watching!

>8 Andrew-theQM:
You know it!

>6 Andrew-theQM: Virals is the first book in the Virals series. Dandelion Wine is the first book in the the Greentown series and it is also very good...Something Wicked This Way Comes is the second book and Farewell Summer is the third. I can't see why they call it a series since the only thing the books have in common is they take place in Greentown, Illinois. The last book was written some 20 years after the second.

I've read the first two in the Virals Series and am on to Code which I have been threatening to read for a few months. May even give The Graveyard Book a go.

>10 Carol420: That's quite a gap in series.

>11 Andrew-theQM: As I said...I don;t even know why they call it a series.

>12 Carol420: That is the same for some series out there.

Ooooo... I like horror, so this sounds fun to me! No idea what's on my tbr, but we'll see...

Awwww, I found Children of the Corn is a book! The movie really scared me when I was younger. Would love to read it, by my library doesn't have it! Oh, wait... as I look closer, was it a short story or novella in Night Shift? I might have to dig through my books to see if I have it. The library is sure to have it!

The Diviners looks good, too. For the number of holds (at least on the ebook... and I don't know that I'll get to the audio), I might not be able to get to it in Sept, though.

If anyone really wants creepy, I'm going to recommend:
The Winter People / Jennifer McMahon

5 stars from me. Ghost story, 6 year old girl, and it fits mystery, too, with a missing mother.

Also Help for the Haunted / John Searles

Teenagers, rather than kids and I suppose the teens themselves are creepy, but there are creepy parts in the book. There is a creepy doll that belonged to a little girl. Also a mystery for the reader as how the teens parents were murdered slowly becomes revealed as the book goes on. 4 stars from me.

>15 LibraryCin: - Night Shift is one of my favorite books. I hardly ever read hooror but I have Night Shift in Hardback, Paperback and Ebook. I haven't read it in years but I would recommend it to everyone.

>17 LibraryCin: This one sounds interesting.

I really love one of the lesser known stories, Quitters Incorporated. I recommend it to everyone I know who smokes

>17 LibraryCin: - I have a copy of Winter People somewhere.

>22 Olivermagnus: >18 LibraryCin: I love Winter People and Help for the Haunted both great recommendations. Might also recommend Joyland by Stephen King. It's less horror than his earlier books and features a little boy that is affected by events that that take place. I was terrified by the first Children of the Corn movie but the later ones just tried to see how much blood they could work into an hour and a half. Almost all of John Saul's books feature children that are affected by the "forces of darkness". Don't you love that phrase?

Hmmm, since I still haven't decided, I'm going to see about maybe John Saul. I might even have one of his books here at home. I'll take a look and see if it fits!

I found two books I've had here for years! I can't tell from the tags or info here if they "fit", but based on the blurb on the back of one of them, I'm certain it would.

So, I'm likely to go with:
Amy Girl / Bari Wood

The other one is:
Second Child by John Saul.

The Saul one, from the title, sounds like it would fit, but the blurb on the back isn't very descriptive, so hard to tell. Nah.... as I reread, it sound like it would work as well.

So, it will be one of those for me.

>25 LibraryCin: Is this anymore information for Second Child than your book gives. It's from John Saul's webpage.

"Secret Cove. Ruggedly beautiful and remote, bordered by dark woods and deserted beaches, this postcard-perfect village harbors the mansions of the wealthy—families who have summered in splendid seclusion at Secret Cove for generations. Here, one hundred years ago, on the night of the annual August Moon Ball, a shy and lovely servant girl committed a single, unspeakable act of violence—an act so shocking its legacy lives still.

And now, long after the horror of that night has faded to a tale whispered by children around summer camp fires, an unholy terror is about to be reborn.

Now, one family is about to feel the icy hand of supernatural fear—as Melissa Holloway, shy and troubled and just thirteen years old, comes to know the blood-drenched secret that waits behind a locked attic door... For in the dead of night a Secret Cove sleeps unaware, a soul-chilling presence slowly begins to enact a terrifying vengeance.

Second Child: It is unspeakable evil merely Melissa's nightmares made horrifyingly real? Is it the manifestation of deadly fury risen from the grave? Or is the heart-stopping horror soon to be unleashed in Secret Cove something even more insidious--something unimaginably evil...and alive?"

Yes, that is more info! It's some kind of little poem on the back of the book. Thank you!

The Other Child by Joanne Fluke
5★’s

From The Book:
Where Innocence Dies. . .

Expectant parents Karen and Mike Houston are excited about restoring their old rambling Victorian mansion to its former glory. With its endless maze of rooms, hallways, and hiding places, it's a wonderful place for their nine-year-old daughter Leslie to play and explore. Unfortunately, they didn't listen to the stories about the house's dark history. They didn't believe the rumors about the evil that lived there.

. . .The Nightmare Begins.

It begins with a whisper…. a child's voice beckoning from the rose garden…. crying out in the night. It lures little Leslie to a crumbling storm door and down a flight of broken stairs. It calls to their unborn child. It wants something from each of them….something in their very hearts and souls. Tonight, the house will reveal its secret. Tonight, the other child will come out to play.

My Thoughts:
A small boy huddled in the dark. His mother had promised she would never leave him… not in this awful house… not in this evil town. She was dead and gone and he was alone….accidentally trapped in the root cellar with no one to answer his call or hear his final cry. One hundred years later he has found he has company…a playmate… and best of all…a mother. You almost knew from the time the Houston’s bought the old house what was going to happen but you just had to continue reading. In the beginning the little ghost seemed to be friendly and just lonely but it didn’t take very long before you knew that the time he had spent alone dying in the root cellar and calling for is lost mother, had changed him. From that point on the entire family was doomed in their own way and for individual reasons.

I love a good ghost story. I had only been familiar with Joanne Fluke as a cozy mystery writer. The Other Child is a well done mystery/horror/ghost story that is guaranteed to produce mega goose bumps and is anything but cozy. The story reminds me of the works of John Saul who writes some of the best ghostly horror I have ever read. I see she has a few other books in this vein that I will have to check out very soon. I recommend it to all ghost story lovers.

I have to admit that this sub-genre does not appeal to me. From the recommendations above, I liked The Winter People, so would The Night Sister fit? Or Hollow City the second book in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children?

I found the perfect book on my tbr: We have always lived in the castle!

>30 sushicat: Oh, that's a good one!

>29 sushicat: All of the ones that you mentioned would fit perfectly. I really liked The Winter people and The Night Sister. It's been ages since I read We've Always Lived in the Castle.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

I didn't know what to expect from this book but have to admit I really enjoyed it, although it is quite different fayre to the books I usually read. I wouldn't have read this but for the Librarything Mystery and Suspense Extra Group Monthly Sub-genre Challenge, which is the beauty of these challenges. I think it was very cleverly written and can be enjoyed by both adults and children. It almost needs a sequel to find out what happened next! I do look forward to reading more books by Neil Gaiman in the future.

>33 Andrew-theQM: Glad you enjoyed it! I really enjoyed it when I read it a few years back, as well!

Amy Girl / Bari Wood
4 stars

It's the early 1970s. Amy is only 8 years old when she (mostly) sees her father kill her mother with a hammer. She was locked in a closet at the time, and she tried – with her mind – to stop him. From here on, when Amy gets upset, she feels a cold and is able to control other people with her mind. Her uncle, who is in a mental institution, sees things through other people and knows what's happened. One of the police officers who saved Amy from the closet decides to take her in as a foster child. His daughter, Greta, loves having Amy around, but teenager, Paulie, HATES Amy and will do anything to get rid of her.

I have had this over 25 years and never read it until now. There is an inscription from a couple of friends from high school and it took me this long to read it! It's a good thing I still “like” horror novels, because it was really good (though quite horrifying). There is a lot of violence, though, so beware.

>33 Andrew-theQM: I really loved this book. One of my favorites. Coraline would also fit very well.

The next Flavia book is coming out so I'm going to read this for my 'Creepy Kids' book:

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd a Flavia de Luce novel by Alan Bradley

>36 sushicat: Funnily enough, I have been looking at that one. Thanks :)

The Watcher in the Wall by Owen Laukkanen
Stevens & Windermere series Book #5
5★'s

From The Book:
Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint BCA-FBI violent crime task force have handled shocking cases before, but this one is different. Stevens’s daughter, Andrea, is distraught over a classmate’s suicide, but what the two investigators find is even more disturbing—an online suicide club of unhappy teenagers, presided over by an anonymous presence who seems to be spurring them on. Soon, it becomes apparent that the classmate wasn’t the first victim—and won’t be the last, either, unless they can hunt down this psychopath once and for all.

My Thoughts:
It appears that there is someone encouraging teenagers on a suicide website to enter into a pack with the administrator of the site to not only kill themselves but are encouraged to film their death. This person leads them to believe that they are also suicidal and will die with them. Stevens and Windermere realize that there is a very sick and evil internet predator that is preying on susceptible youngsters and selling these recordings on the black websites.

A back story is taking place at the same time. A 15 year old boy is brutally abused by his alcoholic step-father. For some reason he feels that he has the right to prey on his step-sister and encourage her to kill herself. He has been watching her for several months and seeing her die is the high point of his life and he tries again and again to reach this high point again by watching others die.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, the reader needs to be aware that it is a very, very dark topic. You will want so badly to tell the 16 year old girl that is on a bus from Tampa to Louisville to meet, what she believes is a 16 year old desperate boy named Brandon…to just turn around and run…DON”T get off the bus. Unfortunately the story has so much truth to it that it should scare every parent to watch what and who your child is meeting on line. Don’t be too busy or too trusting…they are children and don’t always have good judgment.

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley - 5 stars
Book Description
Hailed as “a combination of Eloise and Sherlock Holmes” by The Boston Globe, Flavia de Luce returns in a much anticipated new Christmas mystery from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley.

In spite of being ejected from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is excited to be sailing home to England. But instead of a joyous homecoming, she is greeted on the docks with unfortunate news: Her father has fallen ill, and a hospital visit will have to wait while he rests. But with Flavia’s blasted sisters and insufferable cousin underfoot, Buckshaw now seems both too empty—and not empty enough. Only too eager to run an errand for the vicar’s wife, Flavia hops on her trusty bicycle, Gladys, to deliver a message to a reclusive wood-carver. Finding the front door ajar, Flavia enters and stumbles upon the poor man’s body hanging upside down on the back of his bedroom door. The only living creature in the house is a feline that shows little interest in the disturbing scene. Curiosity may not kill this cat, but Flavia is energized at the prospect of a new investigation. It’s amazing what the discovery of a corpse can do for one’s spirits. But what awaits Flavia will shake her to the very core.

Acclaim for Alan Bradley’s beloved Flavia de Luce novels, winners of the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, Barry Award, Agatha Award, Macavity Award, Dilys Award, and Arthur Ellis Award

“If ever there were a sleuth who’s bold, brilliant, and, yes, adorable, it’s Flavia de Luce.”—USA Today

“Flavia is as addictive as dark chocolate.”—Daily Mail

“Flavia de Luce is still the world’s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth.”—The Seattle Times

My Review
I always love when a new Flavia book gets released. She is my favorite adolescent sleuth. Alan Bradley writes the most clever plots and keeps us chuckling all the way through the book. The characters are all unique and very believable. I love the way Flavia stumbles over the dead bodies and solves the mysteries before the chief inspector does. If you haven't started reading this series, what are you waiting for? I would highly recommend them to young adults and adults who like entertaining mysteries.