Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

In this gruesome collection of horror stories, 14 authors including Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Jonathan Maberry, and Carrie Ryan take inspiration from movies, books, songs, and television, twisting, reworking, and combining them to create something terrifying and new. Some references are expected (Frankenstein leaves its mark in several stories), while others are less so—All Quiet on the Western Front, or songs by Nirvana and Mudvayne. Urban legends and ghost stories rub elbows with disturbing romances and bloody tales of revenge. Tucholke’s “The Flicker, the Fingers, the Beat, the Sigh” pays homage to classic teen horror films, right down to the tragedy on a rainy night; Cat Winters’s “Emmeline” is a haunting story of love and loss in wartime. Danielle Paige’s “The Dark, Scary Parts and All” adds romance to a mashup of two very different horror films, and Jay Kristoff’s “Sleepless” puts the knife to a disturbing online relationship. With both variety and familiarity at play, there’s nary a clunker in the collection—this is satisfying, disturbing horror for the modern YA audience. Ages 12–up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Aug.)