Book picks similar to
The Varcolac's Diary by D.C. McGannon
fantasy
young-adult
middle-grade
paranormal
Matt Archer: Monster Hunter
Kendra C. Highley - 2012
To be honest, he thinks his life is pretty lame until he discovers something terrifying on a weekend camping trip at the local state park. Monsters are real. And living in his backyard. But that's not the half of it. After Matt is forced to kill a strange creature to save his uncle, he finds out that the weird knife he took from his uncle's bag has a secret, one that will change Matt's life. The knife was designed with one purpose: to hunt monsters. And it's chosen Matt as its wielder. Now Matt's part of a world he didn't know existed, working with a covert military unit dedicated to eliminating walking nightmares. Faced with a prophecy about a looming dark war, Matt soon realizes his upcoming Algebra test is the least of his worries. His new double life leaves Matt wondering which is tougher: hunting monsters or asking Ella Mitchell for a date?
The Witch Hunter
Nicole R. Taylor - 2013
The problem was, he didn't stay that way. Present day, he's just another vampire with another unremarkable story. That is, until he manages to provoke a two thousand year old witch named Katrin, who wants to make him pay in the most horrible way imagined.Along with his brother Sam, newly made vampire Liz and their only witch ally, Gabby, his only chance for survival is to summon the ancient and unpredictable vampire known as the Witch Hunter.Zac is just looking for a way out of his psychopathic witch problems, but instead will find himself falling head first into a blood feud that has stretched thousands of years.Aya has been asleep for the past 150 years, until she was awoken by a haunting call. The witch she has been hunting for thousands of years, Katrin, has resurfaced and marked a young, annoyingly arrogant vampire by the name of Zachary Degaud. Unless she does something, he will die a slow and painful death. He has given her an opportunity to end the witch, but does she want to help him or leave him to his fate? Zac will get under her skin like no one else has and she just might find herself making the ultimate sacrifice before he is gone forever.They will both have to choose sides and look deep within themselves before the end. But, what Zac learns about himself, will surprise him most of all.
The Girl Who Could Not Dream
Sarah Beth Durst - 2015
When the dream shop is robbed and her parents go missing, Sophie must unravel the truth to save them. Together with her best friend—a wisecracking and fanatically loyal monster named Monster—she must decide whom to trust with her family’s carefully guarded secrets. Who will help them, and who will betray them?
Sleepers
Megg Jensen - 2011
Now she's filled with uncontrollable rage and access to magic she thought had been bled from her people years ago. Even her years of secret training in elite hand-to-hand combat and meditation can’t calm the fires raging inside her.Her heart is torn between two boys, the one she’s always loved and the one who always ignored her. But when the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart due to rumors surrounding the queen’s alleged affair, who will Lianne protect and who will she destroy?
Avis Blackthorn: Is Not An Evil Wizard!
Jack Simmonds - 2014
The problem? Avis isn't evil. Not one bit. His magical wizarding family will do anything to make Avis's life a misery. Even the horses that pull the carriages don't like him.But he has a way out at last... “Hailing Hall School for Wizards,” a sanctuary, a place for good wizards, where he can make some nice, normal friends, learn magic and live a normal life, finally escaping the notoriety of the Blackthorn name... or so he thinks.That's where the real adventure — humorous, haunting and mysterious — begins.Come along with Avis as he tries desperately to prove he isn't evil like his family. And join tall, thin, be-speckled Robin and accident prone Hunter, Avis's friends from the Outside — the same world as yours in fact — as they discover Wizard's Spider Soap, the wizarding sport of Riptide and even the ghosts that do the laundry!Of course, in a magic school full of teenage wizards there will always be drama. But stranger things are brewing and Avis finds himself at the centre of it. After spotting Malakai — the most evil Sorcerer around and his parents employer — coming into the school in the dead of night. Avis wonders why? And why will no one believe him? The mysterious, beautiful Tina might know why. When Avis and Robin spot her creeping round in the dead of night, she tells them about the quest and a thrilling mystery unfolds. Yet, everything goes horribly wrong for Avis. After being accused of something terrible, he is ostracised from his friends and lives high up in the clock tower. Everyone thinks he's evil, just like his family...Avis must uncover the biggest of quests with the help of Tina and Robin and finally prove once and for all, that he is a good wizard. Avis has to make a big choice to make — his friends, or his family, and the choice... might just kill him.
Phantom Touch
Jessica Hawke - 2013
As if high school wasn’t hard enough on its own, now she spends her days helping unhappy ghosts move on to the afterlife. Dealing with death on a daily basis is too much for one girl to handle, so when she finds a way to get rid of her supernatural sight, she jumps at the chance. But when a missing student turns up as a freshly murdered ghost with a taste for vengeance, Bridget realizes she's the only one who can find the killer. With innocent lives hanging in the balance, Bridget must decide if she’s willing to sacrifice her one chance at a normal life. Join Bridget and her rag-tag team of ghostly companions for a nail-biting mystery that will keep you up all night.
Dream Dark
Kami Garcia - 2011
But returning home to Gatlin, South Carolina was just the beginning...Wounded during a climactic battle, Link discovers that tending his injuries won't be as simple as visiting a doctor and that healing his arm should be the least of his worries. For being bitten by a Supernatural does more than break the skin -- it changes a person, inside and out, turning Link into someone more and more like the dark creature who injured him.In this never-before-seen short story by New York Times bestselling authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, listeners witness Link's heart-racing transformation. Dream Dark is set before the much-anticipated third Beautiful Creatures novel, Beautiful Chaos, and as a special bonus includes an exclusive sneak peek at the first five chapters.Dream Dark word count: ~10,000
Good Witch
David F. Porteous - 2015
Magic runs in Jane Howard's family. Her brother hunts werewolves, her sister vanished without trace twenty-five years ago, her mother is the worst witch of all, and her grandmother just might blow up the world - despite having drowned somewhere on the ferry route from Cairnryan to Largs. Jane wants to be a good witch . . . but that's not all she wants.
Vengeance and Vampires: The Complete Series
Alicia Rades - 2020
I’m Rachel Collins, low witch and raven shifter in hiding. I spend my days tending the cash register at a local magic shop and my nights patrolling the streets for vampires with a death wish. Until the night I spot the mark of the Soulless on some lowly vampire’s wrist.The Soulless answer to Valkas, the original vampire and the most ruthless of them all. They’re the same bloodsuckers who murdered my parents and kidnapped my sister. I want answers—and maybe a little revenge.Along comes Venn, a handsome, protective wolf shifter who takes my breath away. We’re both after the same guy, and as much as it kills me to ask for help, I kind of need it.Heaven help me. The dark, dangerous road we’re traveling together will either free my sister or get me killed.
The Supernatural Society
Rex Ogle - 2022
But Will was wrong—things are about to get worse. Because East Emerson is filled with a whole lot of monsters, and he’s the only person who can see them.When all the town pets (including Fitz) go missing, Will suspects there’s something sinister going on. So he joins forces with outcast Ivy and super-smart Linus to uncover the ancient secrets of East Emerson. Besides, nothing bad could happen when three sixth graders team up against monsters, magic, myths, and mad science . . . right?
Skulduggery Pleasant
Derek Landy - 2007
Meet Skulduggery PleasantAce DetectiveSnappy DresserRazor–tongued WitCrackerjack SorcererandWalking, Talking, Fire-throwing Skeleton—as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old.These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.The end of the world?Over his dead body.
The Rig
Joe Ducie - 2013
His talents have landed him at The Rig, a specialist juvenile holding facility in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. No one can escape from The Rig. No one except for Drake...After making some escape plans and meeting the first real friends of his life, Drake quickly realises that all is not as it seems on The Rig. The Warden is obsessed with the mysterious Crystal-X - a blue, glowing substance that appears to give superpowers to the teens exposed to it. Drake, Tristan and Irene are banking on a bid for freedom - but can they survive long enough to make it? Drake is an action hero to rival Jason Bourne and the CHERUB team in this debut author's fantastically imagined sci-‐fi nightmare.
The Vampire Skeleton
Sara General - 2016
Rowen is the healer’s apprentice. The rules have never bothered her—until a vampire attacks her community and hurts one of the people she cares about most. Suddenly, Rowen is forced to make a life-altering decision—hunt the vampire or let her best friend die. But hunting a vampire isn’t as easy as it sounds and soon enough, Rowen finds herself needing help. Enter Cruz, wealthy businessman and vampire overlord of the City of Brantwood. He’s the only person powerful enough to help Rowen save her friend and naturally—his help comes at a price. Will Rowen agree to pay it? And what will her decision cost her?
Jack Templar, Monster Hunter
Jeff Gunhus - 2012
The day before Jack's fourteenth birthday, things start to change for him. At first it's great: A sudden new strength helps him defend his nose-picking friend "T-Rex" from the school bully, and even his crush, Cindy Adams, takes notice. But then a mysterious girl named Eva arrives and tells him two facts that will change his life forever. First, that he's the descendent of a long line of monster hunters and he's destined to be in the family business. Second, that there's a truce between man and monster that children are off-limits...until their fourteenth birthday! Jack has only one day before hundreds of monsters will descend on his little town of Sunnyvale and try to kill him. As if that weren't enough, things get even more complicated when Jack discovers that the Lord of the Creach (as the monsters are collectively known) holds a personal grudge against him and will do anything to see that Jack has a slow and painful death. To stay alive and save his friends, Jack will have to battle werewolves, vampires, harpies, trolls, zombies and more. But perhaps the most dangerous thing he must face is the truth about his past. Why do the other hunters call him the last Templar? Why do they whisper that he may be the "One?" Why do the monsters want him dead so badly? Even as these questions plague him, he quickly discovers survival is his new full-time job and that in the world of monster hunters, nothing is really what it seems.
Alex Finch: Monster Hunter
Cate Dean - 2013
Instead she makes a life-changing discovery.Monsters are real.That single, mind-blowing incident throws her life in a completely different direction – and into the path of Sam, the boy she’s had a serious crush on since first grade. He knows more than he’s telling, and the further she digs, the deeper and darker the secrets become.What else is hiding behind the ordinary facade of her California beach town?Alex is about to find out.