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If you’re looking for spine-tingling reads to dive into this spooky season, the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards Winners are an absolute must!
These reads bring horror to life in gripping, eerie ways that will have you hooked from page one.
Whether you’re after the chilling tension of Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory (Best Novel) or the suspenseful debut of Christa Carmen’s The Daughters of Block Island (Best First Novel), these books will satisfy your craving for a good scare.
And don’t forget to explore the hauntingly imaginative worlds of Lora Senf’s The Nighthouse Keeper (Middle Grade) and Trang Thanh Tran’s She Is a Haunting (Young Adult) for an extra dose of thrills.
Get ready to settle in with a blanket and a hot chocolate —these award-winning tales are perfect for creeping yourself out this October!
Winner - Superior Achievement in a Novel:
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to 6 months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defence of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. This is a stand-alone novel.
Who Would We Have Picked?:
We enjoyed this one! Check out review of ‘The Reformatory‘ for more info. I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘How to Sell a Haunted House’ by Grady Hendrix, but I’ve enjoyed other books by him and will still pick up most things he writes. The other 3 nominees are still firmly on my TBR – so happy for Tananarive to pick up in the well-deserved win in this group!
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Winner - Superior Achievement in a First Novel:
Two sisters, strangers since birth yet bound by family secrets, are caught up in a century-old mystery on an isolated island. After arriving on Block Island to find her birth mother, Blake Bronson becomes convinced she’s the heroine of a gothic novel—the kind that allowed her intermittent escape from a traumatic childhood. How else to explain the torrential rain, the salt-worn mansion known as White Hall, and the restless ghost purported to haunt its halls? But before Blake can discern the novel’s ending, she’s found dead, murdered in a claw-foot tub. The proprietress of White Hall stands accused. Summoned by a letter sent from Blake before she died, Thalia Mills returns to the island she swore she’d left for good. She finds that Blake wasn’t the first to die at White Hall under suspicious circumstances. Thalia must uncover the real reason for Blake’s demise before the forces conspiring to keep Block Island’s secrets dead and buried rise up to consume her too. This is a stand-alone novel.
Who Would We Have Picked?:
Out of this group, I’ve only read ‘Maeve Fly‘ and ‘The Spite House‘. All the others look like a hoot though and are on our TBR to get to. What book would you have picked for winner in this category?
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Winner - Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel:
Evie Von Rathe has been home for only a few weeks from her adventure in the strange world of seven houses when Blight Harbor’s beloved ghosts begin to disappear. Did they leave without saying goodbye, or has something gone horribly wrong? Soon Evie is invited to a mysterious council meeting, where she learns about the Dark Sun Side and a terrible secret. Yes, the ghosts have gone missing. And that means serious trouble. With the help of an eleven-year-old (or 111-year-old, but who’s counting) ghost named Lark, trusty Bird, and a plump ghost spider, Evie must find a way to defeat the vicious Nighthouse Keeper responsible for the missing ghosts, save her otherworldly friends, and find her way home from the Dark Sun Side before she’s trapped there forever. This is Book 2 in the ‘Blight Harbor Series’. Check out Book One – ‘The Clackity’.
Who Would We Have Picked?:
I’m super keen to get to this one, as I really enjoyed ‘The Clackity’ in this series – yay for Lora Senf! The rest of the nominees in this group would also be great additions to any Halloween boxes you’re making for the kids in your life, this spooky season!
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Winner - Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel:
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive 5 weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised. But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralysed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them.
Who Would We Have Picked?:
I didn’t love this one, but I’m not the target YA audience, and I know it has its champions. Check out our review of ‘She is a Haunting’. Out of the nominee list, I’m most excited about picking up ‘Find Him Where You Left Him Dead’ – sounds like a fun ride! Which book would you choose for the horror-loving young adult in your life?
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