This week’s new releases focus on witches, zombies, unwanteds and the wildwood. Each book brings a new look to the paranormal beings we know and love.
Witchlanders is a fantastic addition to the high fantasy genre with starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. If your looking for a story of boy meets girl with the boy being a self destructive ghost hunter and the girl being an actual ghost then Anna Dressed in Blood, is the perfect book for you. The Wildwood is an illustrated middel grade book from The Decemberists leader singer, Colin Meloy. The Unwanteds is the first book in a new series from Lisa McMann. Dust and Decay is the second book in Jonathan Maberry’s amazing zombie series.
Witchlander by Lena Coakley
Living in the Witchlands, Ryder struggles to maintain his family’s remote farm after his father’s death. Falpian is a “blackhair” Baen prince from the Bitterlands, sent on a retreat to mourn his drowned twin. They are hereditary enemies, carrying the weight of disappointed expectations and unquestioned cultural assumptions. All his life, Ryder has been taught by his mother, the lapsed witch Mabis, to mock the prophecies of the coven that drove off the invading Baen army 20 years ago. When a drug-crazed Mabis returns to prophesying, Ryder considers her mad–until the prophecies begin coming true. And if this madness is true, what about his own visions of black-haired sisters or the strange power of the songs he sings in the fields? In her first novel, picture book author Coakley (Mrs. Goodhearth and the Gargoyle) takes on faith, doubt, and dualities, exposing their flaws and strengths alike. Plot twists unfold at a riveting pace, the boys’ characters are compellingly sketched, and Coakley explores her subject matter masterfully without falling prey to safe plot choices. Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly
Dust&Decay by Jonathan Maberry
Six months have passed since the terrifying battle with Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer in the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot & Ruin. It’s also six months since Benny Imura and Nix Riley saw something in the air that changed their lives. Now, after months of rigorous training with Benny’s zombie-hunter brother Tom, Benny and Nix are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future. Lilah the Lost Girl and Benny’s best friend Lou Chong are going with them.
Sounds easy. Sounds wonderful. Except that everything that can go wrong does. Before they can even leave there is a shocking zombie attack in town. But as soon as they step into the Rot & Ruin they are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, insane murderers and the horrors of Gameland –where teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in the zombie pits. In the great Rot & Ruin everything wants to kill you. Everything…and not everyone in Benny’s small band of travelers will make it out alive.
Every year in Quill, thirteen-year-olds are sorted into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go to university, and the artistic Unwanteds are sent to their deaths
Thirteen-year-old Alex tries his hardest to be stoic when his fate is announced as Unwanted, even while leaving behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted. Upon arrival at the destination where he expected to be eliminated, however, Alex discovers a stunning secret–behind the mirage of the “death farm” there is instead a place called Artime.
In Artime, each child is taught to cultivate their creative abilities and learn how to use them magically, weaving spells through paintbrushes and musical instruments. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it’s a wondrous transformation.
But it’s a rare, unique occurence for twins to be separated between Wanted and Unwanted, and as Alex and Aaron’s bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of Artime that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate, magical battle.
Wildwood by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis
Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. At least until her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows. And then things get really weird.
You see, on every map of Portland, Oregon, there is a big splotch of green on the edge of the city labeled “I.W.” This stands for “Impassable Wilderness.” No one’s ever gone in—or at least returned to tell of it.
And this is where the crows take her brother.
So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval, a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much bigger as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness.
A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas’s life.
Do any of these books make your TBR pile?