Book picks similar to
The Undrowned by K.R. Alexander


horror
middle-grade
young-adult
fiction

Valkyrie


Kate O'Hearn - 2013
    This marks the official end of her childhood and when she takes up the full duties of a Valkyrie - an angel of death and collector of souls from humanity's battlefields. But Freya is unlike any other Valkyrie. She doesn't want to follow in the footsteps of the legends before her. As she observes humanity from her norse home on Asgard, she tries to understand what it is to be human: to share in the simple pleasures of friendship with girls her own age and laugh with boys, without the fear of causing their death with one touch. Little does she know that her dreams will soon be realized: on her first battlefield mission, Freya reaps the soul of a soldier with unfinished business that will send her to the human world on a deadly quest. And there she must battle both ordinary and extraordinary enemies to create a new VALKYRIE legend.

Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye


Tania del Rio - 2015
    It’s a strange, shadowy mansion full of crooked corridors and mysterious riddles—and it just might be home to a magical object known as the All-Seeing Eye. Can Warren decipher the clues and find the treasure before his sinister Aunt Annaconda (and a slew of greedy hotel guests) beats him to it?This middle-grade adventure features gorgeous two-color illustrations on every page and a lavish two-column Victorian design that will pull young readers into a spooky and delightful mystery.

His Hideous Heart


Dahlia AdlerMarieke Nijkamp - 2019
    Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways.Contributors include Kendare Blake (reimagining “Metzengerstein”), Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morge”), Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait”), Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee”), Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado”), Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart”), Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter”), Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death”), Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog”), Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum”), and Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).

The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray


E. Latimer - 2018
    As if it isn’t bad enough that her uncle keeps her locked in the attic, forcing her to paint for his rich clients, she’s becoming rather well known in the art world… since all her customers seem to go missing.When her newest painting escapes the canvas and rampages through the streets of London, Bryony digs into her family history, discovering some rather scandalous secrets her uncle has been keeping, including a deadly curse she’s inherited from her missing father. It turns out, Bryony has accidentally unleashed the Gray family curse, and it’s spreading fast.With a little help from the strange-but-beautiful girl next door and her paranoid brother, Bryony sets out to break the curse, dodging bloodthirsty paintings, angry mobs and her wicked uncle along the way.

Strange Star


Emma Carroll - 2016
    'A tale to freeze the blood,' was the only rule. Switzerland, 1816. On a stormy summer night, Lord Byron and his guests are gathered round the fire.Felix, their serving boy, can't wait to hear their creepy tales.Yet real life is about to take a chilling turn - more chilling than any tale.Frantic pounding at the front door reveals a stranger, a girl covered in the most unusual scars.She claims to be looking for her sister, supposedly snatched from England by a woman called Mary Shelley.Someone else has followed her here too, she says. And the girl is terrified. This breathtaking new book from Emma Carroll, the critically-acclaimed author of Frost Hollow Hall, The Girl Who Walked On Air, In Darkling Wood and The Snow Sister, is a deliciously creepy story inspired by the creation of Frankenstein, and is brought to life by a leading talent in children's literature.

Sleepless


Lou Morgan - 2014
    But exams are looming and at a school like Clerkenwell, failure is not an option. Luckily, Tigs has a solution. A small pill that will make revision a breeze and help them get the results they need. Desperate to succeed, the group begin taking the study drug. It doesn't take long before they realize there are far worse things than failing a few exams.

Jane-Emily, and Witches' Children


Patricia Clapp - 1969
    But that was a long time ago.Jane is nine years old and an orphan when she and her young Aunt Louisa come to spend the summer at Jane's grandmother's house, a large, mysterious mansion in Massachusetts. Then one day . . . Jane stares into a reflecting ball in the garden—and the face that looks back at her is not her own.Many years earlier, a child of rage and malevolence lived in this place. And she never left. Now Emily has dark plans for little Jane—a blood-chilling purpose that Louisa, just a girl herself, must battle with all her heart, soul, and spirit . . . or she will lose her innocent, helpless niece forever.One of the most adored ghost stories of all time is available again after thirty years—to thrill and chill a new generation!

Darkwood


M.E. Breen - 2009
    One minute the sky is light, the next minute it is black. But darkness comes in other forms, too, and for thirteen-year-old Annie, the misery she endures in her Uncle's household makes the black of night seem almost soothing. When Annie escapes, her route takes her first to a dangerous mine where a precious stone is being stolen by an enemy of the king, and later to the king's own halls, where a figure from Annie's past makes a startling appearance. All the while, reported sightings of kinderstalk— mysterious, wolf-like creatures that prowl Howland's dark forests—grow more frequent. Eloquent, suspenseful, and imbued with fairy-tale motifs found in The Brothers Grimm, this is a riveting coming-of-age story of a girl who must learn to trust her instincts if she's to lead the people she is destined to rule.

Hellworld


Tom Leveen - 2017
    She plans to go to the same cave where her mom and the crew went missing and to find out, once and for all, what happened there.With the help of the co-host’s son Charlie and two of his friends, Abby sets off on a quest for answers…but what the group ends up finding, what they stumble across in that dark, primordial cave in Arizona, is nothing they could have ever imagined.Abby was investigating a possible haunting… she never expected that there could be something worse.

Now Entering Addamsville


Francesca Zappia - 2019
    Never mind that Zora has been on the straight and narrow since her father was thrown in jail. With everyone looking for evidence against her, her only choice is to uncover the identity of the real killer. There’s one big problem—Zora has no leads. No one does. Addamsville has a history of tragedy, and thirty years ago a similar string of fires left several townspeople dead. The arsonist was never caught.Now, Zora must team up with her cousin Artemis—an annoying self-proclaimed Addamsville historian—to clear her name. But with a popular ghost-hunting television show riling up the townspeople, almost no support from her family and friends, and rumors spinning out of control, things aren’t looking good. Zora will have to read between the lines of Addamsville’s ghost stories before she becomes one herself.

Connect the Stars


Marisa de los Santos - 2015
    But as they trek through the challenging and unforgiving landscape, they learn that they each have what it takes to make the other whole. Luminous and clever, Connect the Stars has Marisa de los Santos and David Teague’s trademark beautiful prose, delicate humor, swooping emotions, and keen middle grade friendships. This novel takes on the hefty topics of the day—bullying, understanding where you fit in, and learning to live with physical and mental challenges—all in a joyous adventure kids will love!

The Medusa Plot


Gordon Korman - 2011
    They thought the hunt for 39 Clues leading to the source of that power was over. They even thought they'd won. But Amy and Dan were wrong.One by one, distress calls start coming in from around the globe. Cahills are being kidnapped by a shadowy group known only as the Vespers. Now Amy and Dan have only days to fulfill a bizarre ransom request or their captured friends will start dying. Amy and Dan don't know what the Vespers want or how to stop them. Only one thing is clear. The Vespers are playing to win, and if they get their hands on the Clues . . . the world will be their next hostage.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Graphic Novel)


Bo Hampton - 1993
    If you're looking for the short story, go here.This is Bo Hampton's 1993 Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a faithful adaptation of Washington Irving's tale surrounding the ghostly inhabitants of Tarrytown, New York around the time of the American Revolution. The cast of characters is headed up by the Headless Horseman himself. This edition boasts new covers and 16 pages of new material, including numerous preliminary sketches of scenes and characters.

The Bone Snatcher


Charlotte Salter - 2017
    She tells stories of what the world would be like if madness hadn’t taken over. If her parents hadn’t sold her off as a servant to pay for their stupid vacation. If she wasn’t now trapped in a decaying mansion filled with creepy people and surrounded by ravenous sea monsters.The mansion has plenty of stories, too: About fantastical machines, and the tragic inventor who created them. About his highly suspicious death. And about the Monster Box, a mysterious object hidden in the house that just might hold the key to escaping this horrible place—and to reuniting Sophie with her family.But not everyone wants Sophie to have the Monster Box, and as she gets closer to finding it, she finds herself unspooling years-old secrets—and dodging dangerous attacks. Sophie needs to use her brains, her brawn, and her unbreakable nature if she wants to make it off this wretched island…and live to tell this story.

Slender Man


Anonymous - 2018
    . . desperate enough to resort to the darkest means. But just how much is he willing to pay the Slender Man in order to save her?Told through a variety of narrative devices, including photos, journal entries, e-mails, articles, and other artifacts, this unique spine-tingling story is a brilliant and terrifying look at one of the most fascinating—and diabolical—mythical figures in modern times.