#museandreview

[museandquill]

As some one who likes dark and gothic YA books I thought I would share some of my favorites

Warning, all of these books are dark and have gory themes

Also I’ll post more reviews on #museandreview

1. The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude

Stay on the roads. Don’t enter the woods. Never go out at night. Those are the rules in Rowan’s Glen, a remote farming community in the Missouri Ozarks where Ivy Templeton’s family has lived for centuries. It’s an old-fashioned way of life, full of superstition and traditions, and sixteen-year-old Ivy loves it. The other kids at school may think the Glen kids are weird, but Ivy doesn’t care—she has her cousin Heather as her best friend. The two girls share everything with each other—or so Ivy thinks. When Heather goes missing after a May Day celebration, Ivy discovers that both her best friend and her beloved hometown are as full of secrets as the woods that surround them.

This book is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. It’s dark, it’s gritty, it’s full of folk lore that small towns and farm communities often have. There’s mystery and side romance between the Ivy and her childhood best friend.

Triggers- Bury your gays, Murder, physical assault, and animal cruelty.

2. What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo

Eleanor Zarrin has been estranged from her wild family for years. When she flees boarding school after a horrifying incident, she goes to the only place she thinks is safe: the home she left behind. But when she gets there, she struggles to fit in with her monstrous relatives, who prowl the woods around the family estate and read fortunes in the guts of birds. Eleanor finds herself desperately trying to hold the family together — in order to save them all, Eleanor must learn to embrace her family of monsters and tame the darkness inside her.

This is a great book that talks about feeling ostracized from your own family and desperately trying to find your place, even in a strange family like that Zarrin’s. Once again another small town horror (are we seeing a pattern lol) where monsters far too familiar roam the woods and your own home.

Triggers- Animal Death, Child Abuse, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Mind Control, Trauma, and Xenophobia

3. The Fairytale Experiment by Amy Hoyer

A high school psychology class volunteers for “The Fairytale Experiment” to test Doctor Arthur Fae’s theory of ‘conscious travel’. Olivia Beaumont and her classmates are consciously teleported to a world of fairytales, where they are all assigned roles of heroes and villains they must play, living out the stories we all grew up with. As their journey progresses, though, they realize this experiment is darker and much more dangerous than they ever could have imagined, and right when they think they understand everything, the game is changed again. Join Olivia, Hunter, Phoebe, Jack, Wendy, and the rest of their class as they navigate the Fairytale Experiment.

I found this book of TikTok in 2020 and oh boy did I enjoy this. It’s filled with familiar fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland just to name a few. We get little backstories to even some of the smallest background characters. There’s body horror and psychological horror throughout the whole book and I really home she writes a second book

Triggers- violent imagery, body horror, physical and emotional abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, captivity and control, disordered eating, and trauma related flashbacks

4. The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas

Clare has been miserable since her exorcism. The preacher that rid her of evil didn’t understand that her demon—simply known as Her—was like a sister to Clare. Now, Clare will do almost anything to get Her back. After a chance encounter with the son of the preacher who exorcised her, Clare goes on an adventure through the dark underbelly of her small Southern town, discovering its deep-seated occult roots. As she searches for Her, she must question the fine lines between good and evil, love and hate, and religion and free will. Vivid and sharp, The Good Demon tells the unusual story of friendship amid dark Gothic horror.

I found this book in a resale store not long after this book came out. (big thanks to my hippy grandma who bought this for me) This is the book who created my love for books FILLED with religious imagery and trauma. Not gonna lie it’s been a minute since I’ve read this book so I can’t say as much as I can on the others.

Triggers- SA, substance abuse, animal cruelty, religious trauma, addiction, demonic possession, violence, slut-shaming, poor representation of other religions, parental neglect, and self deletion

5. My Best Friends Exorcismbt by Grady Hendrix

The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

If you know anything about Grady Hendrix you know this man love a dark book. There’s body horror, theirs 80’s body image issues, and of course being in love with your best friend but never actually admitting it (technically it’s not confirmed but my god is Abby gay for Gretchen)

Triggers (there’s a lot)- Alcohol, Animal death, Assault, Attempted murder, Attempted self deletion, Blood, Cheating, Child abuse, Cults, Demons, Drug abuse, Eating disorders, Vomiting, Gore, Hallucinations, Homophobia, Misogyny, Poisoning, Potential SA, Racist language, Self-harm, Sexism

These book are NOT light or easy reads. They are dark, they are disturbing, and they are gory. If you need read these books, please do your research on what triggers they have (I know I listed them but just in case I missed them) I have gone into books without knowing their triggers and they were very similar to these and because I didn’t know, it was very hard to read and I had to stop (this was for school and EVERYONE in the class had to stop reading it)

Please be safe, please be careful, your mental health comes first