Don’t Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon

Don’t Turn Around is a clever techno-thriller. The plot revolves around a secret organization supposedly trying to find a cure for PEMA, a deadly disease infecting teens across the nation. One of the main characters, Noa—who is surely Lisbeth Salander of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as a 15 year old—wakes up a lab rat, while the other, Peter, stumbles upon the organization’s files in his dad’s home office. After minutes of hacking the organization’s online files, his door gets kicked down. It’s easy to be put-off by unrealistic solutions to conflicts in such high stakes books like these, but Noa and Peter are smart, and in order to outwit the bad guys, they have to be smarter—and they are! Michelle Gagnon did her research. This book hooks you in and does not release you until the very end. It’s go-go-go, and since the main characters hardly know what to do next, the book’s plot is perfectly unpredictable. While reading, I had to guess along with the characters and constantly impressed by their resourcefulness! As an added bonus, Noa and Peter’s strange alliance grows into an even weirder, quirky romance! Their point of views, both clever and witty, give this fight or flight, do or die book a splash of lightheartedness! More than once I got the chills while reading this book alone! I’ve confidently placed this on the Young Adult Book of the Month stand at The Bookcase. It’s the perfect suspenseful, spooky autumn read!

Recommended for boys and girls ages 13 and up! Hardcover $17.99

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder series have remained my favorite go-to mystery books when I want something spooky and just a tad bit disturbing. The Body Finder is perfect for the month of October, as everything grows darker and scarier! Although I would consider this series contemporary, there is also a splash of paranormal intertwined throughout because of the main character, Violet Ambrose, who can sense the echoes of the murdered deceased. These echoes—a scent, sound, or feeling—are also found on the killers and one day, Violet stumbles upon a dead body that’s apart of a much bigger, serial crime. As the killer gets closer and closer to home, she feels obligated to find him before he finds her! Kimberly Derting does not hold back on detail, but the creepiest aspect of these books is that every once in awhile you’ll flip the page and there will be a small chapter from the killer’s point of view. For those of you who have not read stories told from a killer’s point of view, it is disturbing—and wonderfully so! Each book in the series of four (with the fourth set to release this April) has a very different kind of murder mystery! Derting mixes it up in book two, Desires of the Dead, when nothing—nothing—is as it seems.  Even more haunting in book three of the series, The Last Echo, Miss Violet, The Body Finder herself, must make the ultimate sacrifice to save her life and the lives of future victims of the Girlfriend Collector! If you’re home alone at night, then these are the perfect books to grab for a good scare! Recommended for girls ages 13 and up!

The Body Finder, paperback
$8.90 Desires of the Dead, paperback
$8.99 The Last Echo, hardcover, $17.99