I Am Still Alive

I Am Still Alive is by Kate Alice Marshall. Sixteen-year-old Jess has to go live with her survivalist father after a car crash kills her mother and leaves her handicapped. When a friend of her father's picks her up at the airport and flies her out into the wilderness, she realizes she is alone with a father she doesn't really know. After her father is murdered, Jess must find a way to survive in the Canadian wilderness until she can avenge her father's death and find a way back to civilization. A real page-turner, if you enjoyed Hatchet, consider this a more grownup version. 

Ratings: 10th grade - 8 out of 10 - V (violence). 

The Hazel Wood

The Hazel Wood is by Melissa Albert. An amazing work of fantasy! Alice is seventeen and has been on the run with her mother for her entire life. What are they running from? Alice isn't sure, but she calls it "bad luck." When her mother is kidnapped and leaves her a message to "stay away from the Hazel Wood," Alice must travel to her grandmother's estate called "The Hazel Wood" and discover the reason she has spent her life running and find her mother. 

Ratings: 10th grade - 9 out of 10 - P (profanity) - V (violence) - AC (some mature thematic content). 

Werewolf Cop

Werewolf Cop is by Andrew Klavan. A wonderfully creepy fantasy crime novel. Zach Adams is part of a special task force designed to hunt down a master international criminal named Dominic Abend. Zach, struggling with his infidelity to his beloved wife and the possibility of his partner's being crooked, follows Abend's trail to Germany where he meets with a strange professor who tells him stories of werewolves. Disgusted, but wanting to pacify the elderly woman, he agrees to meet her at her cabin. Once there she transforms into a werewolf and bites Zach. The novel follows Zach's physical and spiritual journey to control the beast he has become and track down and destroy Abend. 

Ratings: 11th grade - 9 out of 10 - P (profanity) - V (violence). 

The Ballad of Black Tom

The Ballad of Black Tom is by Victor LaValle. A wonderfully creepy fantasy novella which takes a dive into historical fiction, being set in Jazz Age New York. Charles Thomas "Tommy" Tester hustles to support his ailing father. One day he delivers an occult text to a reclusive sorceress and sets off a chain of events that will change his life forever and possibly bring about the end of the world. LaValle's novella gives you a real insight into life as an African-American in the 1920s, while at the same time providing a deliciously creepy tale of supernatural horror. 

Ratings: 11th grade - 9 out of 10 - P (profanity) - V (violence). 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is by Shirley Jackson. The classic realistic fiction novella of paranoia and mental illness. Constance and her sister Mary Katherine live with their invalid Uncle Julian in a large home in a small town. Their parents, sibling, Uncle Julian and his wife were poisoned at dinner and only Uncle Julian survived. Mary Katherine had been sent to her room, and since the poison was in the sugar and Constance never ate sugar they both survived. Constance was accused of the crime, but later found not guilty. The townspeople are still scared of the Blackwoods and avoid them when possible, but treat them poorly when they are forced to interact with the town. The situation changes when a cousin appears at the Blackwood home and moves in. A wonderfully creepy tale that is textbook Jackson. Prepare to meet the family who truly put the "fun" in dysfunctional. 

Ratings: 9th grade - 10 out of 10.