Book picks similar to
Growing Up Dead by Greg Wilkey
young-adult
fantasy
horror
ya
UnEnchanted
Chanda Hahn - 2011
But with her new found fame brings misfortune in the form of an old family curse come to light. For Mina is descended from the Brothers Grimm and has inherited all of their unfinished fairy tale business. Which includes trying to outwit a powerful Story from making her it's next fairytale victim. To break the fairy tale curse on her family and make these deadly occurrences stop, Mina must finish the tales until the very Grimm end.
Witchy, Witchy
Penelope King - 2011
When Calista McCoy moves from the slums of the Louisiana Bayou to an illustrious beach community in California, she knows her life is going to take a drastic turn. But once she arrives at the beautiful mansion by the sea, dark secrets are revealed...secrets that become even more complicated when she meets the gorgeous neighbor boy, Nicholas, and she feels an unexplainable--and undeniable--attraction. He's everything she's ever dreamed of. Literally. Her new life seems almost too good to be true. But as everyone knows, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. ...And in Calista's case, it could be deadly.Witchy, Witchy is a full length paranormal romance novel. Book #2 in the Spellbound trilogy, Kiss the Crystal Sun, will be available spring 2012.
Three Days to Dead
Kelly Meding - 2009
. . .When Evangeline Stone wakes up naked and bruised on a cold slab at the morgue—in a stranger’s body, with no memory of who she is and how she got there—her troubles are only just beginning. Before that night she and the two other members of her Triad were the city’s star bounty hunters, mercilessly cleansing the city of the murderous creatures living in the shadows, from vampires to shape-shifters to trolls. Then something terrible happened that not only cost all three of them their lives but also convinced the city’s other Hunters that Evy was a traitor—and she can’t even remember what it was.Now she’s a fugitive, piecing together her memory, trying to deal some serious justice—and discovering that she has only three days to solve her own murder before the reincarnation spell wears off. Because in three days Evy will die again—but this time there’s no second chance. . . .
Jaben's Rift
G. David Walker - 2010
Adding to his dilemma, his arrival also intensifies a conflict between two of the godlike Altered, one of whom is secretly aiding Jason's ancestor, violating a Covenant that has kept Teleria safe from their influence for over a millennia.Unable to return home, Jason must learn to use power he isn't convinced he has, keep from triggering a devastating war between the Altered, and most of all…survive.JABEN’S RIFT takes the reader on a journey of honor and deception, betrayal and self-sacrifice, as Jason tries to figure out who is telling him the truth and who only wants to use him, before Teleria’s fate is sealed forever.
Afterlight
Elle Jasper - 2010
Now she's put over the edge when her younger brother is taken by a sinister cult led by vampires. Her only ally is the hot-tempered vampire Eli Dupre, attracted to Riley's beauty and rare blood type. To save her brother from certain un-death, Riley faces dangers she's never dreamed of, ruthless bloodthirsty enemies, and an evil of endless hunger that wants to devour it all...
Drinking Life
Kevin George - 2011
But it's not the other team she has to worry about stopping her - it's the two soldiers in ancient battle armor who attack during the game! Nia has always been a little quicker, a little stronger, a little more agile than everyone else. She quickly learns that hand-to-hand combat is another skill she possesses...The attack makes headlines and causes her parents to uproot the family business and move cross-country during her senior year. It's not an easy adjustment and before long she finds herself in the middle of another physical altercation, this time with the entire boy's lacrosse team. But a mysterious stranger named John Leon shows up to help and starts Nia's life on an uncontrollable spiral she never imagined...On the night of her eighteenth birthday, she begins to dream about being another person in another life. The dreams grow increasingly frequent - and increasingly clear - and she begins to question everything about her life, from who she really is, to who she really was, to whether her parents are who they claim to be...Nia unexpectedly finds herself falling for John but has fierce competition for his affection. Cassie is her neighbor and the daughter of her parents' business partner. She's selfish and ruthless and shallow and John seems like he can't stand her. But he also can't say no to her...John knows something about Nia's past and the dreams she's been having but getting the information from him might turn deadly...CHAPTER ONEI’m the first person to see the attackers though I have plenty of reason to be focused elsewhere. I don’t know how but it’s like I sensed the danger coming and looked up just in time to see a pair of behemoths charging out of the nearby woods. In the split second I first lay eyes on them, my mind registers every minor detail: two men well above six feet tall, biceps rippling like steroid-laced professional wrestlers. One has long greasy blond hair and wields a sword almost as long as his body; the other has brown hair just as long and greasy and wields a massive axe. Their teeth are equally brown and rotted, evil sneers of blood lust plastered across their lips. There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re both ugly but I can’t see their faces behind metal helmets that cover their heads and most of their faces. Only a single slit in the helmets allows them to see, their eyes focused in my direction.Had I not spotted the attackers right away, I surely would have heard them soon after appearing from the trees. They wear matching suits of armor that cover their chest and legs, clattering and clanging with every step they run. I can’t imagine how a normal human could walk in such bulky suits let alone run but they don’t seem slowed by them at all. For the second time in a matter of seconds, my mind surprises me with something else I can’t quite explain: somehow I know that these soldiers are from the Spanish Armada. Logically, I think this should be some sort of ill-advised joke. This type of soldier hasn’t been seen in centuries. Others around me must have the same thought because it takes several seconds for the first scream to cry out from the large crowd. I stop staring at the soldiers once I feel a heavy smash against the back of my leg; I’d almost forgotten that I was in the middle of the most important game of my life.Did I forget to mention that I’m in the middle of a field hockey game?CHECK OUT THE AUTHOR'S OTHER NOVELSKEEPER OF THE WATER TRILOGYBOOK ONE - Drinking LifeBOOK TWO - Recruits BOOK THREE - The Water Queens
Finder
Connie Suttle - 2014
A dying world. A girl never meant to be sentient. Siriaa is dying. A poison is spreading throughout the planet and none know how to neutralize it. Finder, working in King Tamblin's castle kitchen most of her life, has never spoken. A child of questionable parentage, Finder is an orphan assigned to perform duties nobody else wants. While others plan intrigue, murder and invasion to escape the poison's effects, Finder watches all in mute acceptance. Will she be the key to Siriaa's salvation, or will it die about her, without knowing why?
Cobweb Bride
Vera Nazarian - 2013
What if you killed someone and then fell in love with them?In an alternate Renaissance world, somewhere in an imaginary "pocket" of Europe called the Kingdom of Lethe, Death comes, in the form of a grim Spaniard, to claim his Bride. Until she is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops. There is no relief for the mortally wounded and the terminally ill....Covered in white cobwebs of a thousand snow spiders she lies in the darkness... Her skin is cold as snow... Her eyes frozen... Her gaze, fiercely alive...While kings and emperors send expeditions to search for a suitable Bride for Death, armies of the undead wage an endless war... A black knight roams the forest at the command of his undead father ... Spies and political treacheries abound at the imperial Silver Court.... Murdered lovers find themselves locked in the realm of the living...Look closer — through the cobweb filaments of her hair and along each strand shine stars...And one small village girl, Percy—an unwanted, ungainly middle daughter—is faced with the responsibility of granting her dying grandmother the desperate release she needs.As a result, Percy joins the crowds of other young women of the land in a desperate quest to Death's own mysterious holding in the deepest forests of the North...And everyone is trying to stop her.
An Unattractive Vampire
Jim McDoniel - 2016
After three centuries trapped underground, thousand-year-old Yulric Bile, also known as The Cursed One, The Devil's Apprentice, He Who Worships the Slumbering Horrors, awakens only to find that no one believes he is a vampire. Apparently he's just too ugly. Modern vampires, he soon discovers, are pretty, weak, and, most disturbing of all, good. Determined to reestablish his bloodstained reign, Yulric sets out to correct this disgusting turn of events or, at the very least, murder the person responsible. With the help of part vampire-wannabe Amanda; Simon, the eight-year-old reincarnation of his greatest foe; and a cadre of ancient and ugly horrors, Yulric prepares to battle the glamorous undead. But who will win the right to determine, once and for all, what it truly means to be a vampire?
New England Witch Chronicles
Chelsea Luna - 2011
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were an embarrassing stain on America’s revered past. Innocent people were persecuted at the hands of a few overzealous Puritans, but what if real witches existed during those colonial hunts? What if there are witches in present day New England? That’s what Alexandria Ramsey’s crazy grandmother believes. Grandma Claudia claims Alex descends from a long line of New England witches. Modern day witches in Hazel Cove, Massachusetts? Unlikely, but strange things are occurring in the weeks preceding Alex’s seventeenth birthday. Alex is haunted by bizarre recurring nightmares of a man chasing her through the Hazel Cove Cemetery. On a few occasions, when her emotions have spiraled out of control, inanimate objects have shattered around her. But that’s just a coincidence, right? Alex isn’t so sure, especially after a local girl, who supposedly dabbled in witchcraft, was killed in the nearby forest. Alex knows something strange is happening. With the arrival of a new boy in town, James Van Curen, who is causing problems between Alex and her best friend, Peter, Alex feels like her entire world is on the verge of chaos. Could Alex really be a witch? Is it possible Hazel Cove will become a battleground for modern-day witches and witch hunters?
Anathema
Megg Jensen - 2011
Make your own destiny. Reychel is a slave girl surrounded by magic, lies, and manipulation. Her best friend disappears in the middle of the night leaving Reychel to face her fifteenth birthday, the day her master burns his brand into the back of her bald head, alone. Sheltered from the outside world and without any hope for escape, can Reychel learn to believe in herself?
Born
Tara Brown - 2012
There are no regular people anymore."Ten years ago when the world ended she ran for her life.Five weeks ago the world she'd hidden from came knocking on the door of her secluded cabin.Ten days ago she found salvation hiding amongst the dead.Yesterday she went back for the living.Today she wonders if she will live to see tomorrow.What do you do when the world you were born to is gone?Where do you hide when even your own body isn't safe?Emma ran when her daddy told her to. She hid like he said she should. He was the first person she turned her back on. The first one she let die.Ten years has gone by and she still lives by the simple rules he taught her when she was nine years old."Don't help anyone. Don't go where other people are unless you have to. Trust no one. Always pull the trigger."Until one night she hears the worst sound in the world, a knock. A simple, timid knock, on the door to her cabin.Only the voice of the brave little girl, ready to die for her brother, persuades Emma to open the door.As her fingers turn the lock, she has a terrible feeling she will regret her decision.But even as regret fills her world, so do love and companionship. Things she never imagined she would ever have again.Everything comes at a cost; you decide what you'll pay.
Into the Vampire City
Phil Tucker - 2012
The innocents within live like animals, not knowing if they will survive the night, playthings for their vampire masters.When seventeen-year-old Selah Brown's father disappears while investigating the new drug 'Blood Dust', she masters her terror, abandons her quiet life, and follows his trail into the rotten heart of Miami. Yet despite her attempts to lie low, once inside her investigations bring her to the attention of the handsome rebel leader Cloud... and the darkly seductive vampire known only as The Dragon.But there is more at stake than Selah can possibly imagine - the secrets she uncovers are so terrible they might start Vampire War anew.
Tempest Rising
Nicole Peeler - 2009
During her nightly, clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean, a grisly find leads Jane to startling revelations about her heritage: she is only half-human. Now, Jane must enter a world filled with supernatural creatures alternatively terrifying, beautiful, and deadly- all of which perfectly describe her new "friend," Ryu, a gorgeous and powerful vampire. It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: a dog can heal with a lick; spirits bag your groceries; and whatever you do, never-ever rub the genie's lamp. If you love Sookie Stackhouse, then you'll want to dive into Nicole Peeler's enchanting debut novel.
Blood Calling
Joshua Grover-David Patterson - 2011
Her parents divorced, she's earned a DUI, and her grandfather has died. He left her a single possession: A vampire slaying kit with a note that says, "They're real. Fight them."Lucy finds answers in a place she never expected--the homeless shelter where she has to perform her community service. The Sundown Shelter is only open at night, and the man who runs it disappears during the day. But digging into the truth is dangerous. What Lucy learns will force her to abandon her life and confront an ancient vampire out to get her family.