Isn’t it spooky how close we are to Halloween? Houses with dark secrets, mysterious disappearances, supernatural encounters, and more lurk in the pages of these new releases. Chase a thriller or catch a killer. Uncover a secret and try not to get scared! What are you reading after lights out?
Don’t Want to Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton
“Adam and Victor are brothers who have the usual fights over the remote, which movie to watch and whether or not it’s morally acceptable to eat people. Well, not so much eat . . . just drink a little blood. They’re vampires, hiding in plain sight with their eclectic yet loving family.
Ten-year-old Adam knows he has a better purpose in life (well, death) than just drinking blood, but fourteen-year-old Victor wants to accept his own self-image of vampirism. Everything changes when bodies start to appear all over town, and it becomes clear that a vampire hunter may be on the lookout for the family. Can Adam and Victor reconcile their differences and work together to stop the killer before it’s too late?”
What Happened on Hicks Road by Hannah Jayne
“Sadie Oliver is loving her new life in California. For the first time, she has friends and a normal teenage life filled with parties and pranks. But when one of those pranks goes horribly wrong, Sadie hits someone with her car on a dark, winding road. Or at least… she thinks she did.Though her friends are quick to convince her that they didn’t see anything, Sadie can’t shake the vision of the girl in the headlights: bloody hair, wide, terrified eyes, lips parted in a scream. When she goes out to investigate, there’s a slight dent in the car, but that’s it: no body, no blood.Sadie wants to go to the police—but how can she? She shouldn’t have been driving, and as her friends remind her, there’s nothing to tell. But when a note that says FIND ME is slipped through Sadie’s window, she fears that she’s either onto something big… or slipping deeper into the illness that took her mother.”
The Reunion by Kit Frick
“A doomed family reunion at a posh Caribbean resort, where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.
Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.
It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect:The peacekeeper: Addison needs a better hiding place.The outsider: Theo just wants to mend fences.The romantic: Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past.The hothead: Mason needs to keep his temper under control.
It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.”
The Girls from Hush Cabin by Marie Hoy-Kenny
“Calista, Zoe, Holly, and Denise were inseparable best friends when they spent their summers together at sleepaway camp. But after an unexplained tragedy forced the camp to close, the girls drifted apart.
Years later, reunited at their beloved camp counselor Violet’s funeral, the four former best friends quickly realize how much they’ve changed over the years. But despite their differences, they agree on one thing–Violet’s so-called accidental death was actually murder.
Unwilling to leave the case unsolved, they set off to uncover the truth–even if it means revealing the dark secrets of their pasts.
But someone wants them to stop investigating, and the anonymous threats keep coming, leaving them suspicious of everyone.
No one can be trusted, not even the girls from Hush Cabin.”
Just Do This One Thing for Me by Laura Zimmermann
“‘Just do this one thing for me.’ Drew’s mother says it more often than good morning. Heidi Hill has been juggling shady side hustles for all of Drew’s seventeen years, and Drew knows that “one thing” really means all the necessary things her mother thinks are boring, including taking care of her fifteen-year-old sister and eight-year-old brother. In fact, Drew is the closest thing to a responsible adult they’ve ever known. When their mother disappears on the way to a New Year’s Eve concert in Mexico and her schemes start unraveling, Drew is faced with a choice: Follow the rules, do the responsible thing, and walk away–alone–from her mother’s mess. Or hope the weather stays cold, keep the cons going, and just maybe hold her family together.”