Spooky October TBR …

I really feel like reading some spooky middle-grade this October, so I’ve had a look on my bookshelves and have found 10 that I would really like to read. Some have been on my TBR for a while, some are very recent purchases and some have been sent by publishers. I think they’ll all be books I’ll enjoy!

I’ve taken each synopsis from Goodreads except for The Witchstone Ghosts which is from Waterstones.

When Lewis’s family moves to a faraway town called Barrow, he can’t quite put his finger on what feels so strange about his new home. Everyone is obsessed with superstition, and an old story about floods and witches and a curse, while a mysterious bird watches his every move.
Then his family friend Moira arrives to stay. Only, there’s something peculiar about Moira too. She doesn’t know where she’s from, or even when she’s from, and strange things happen around her. Lewis and Moira are determined to figure out what’s going on in Barrow, but as they unravel secret symbols, riddles and stories of a midnight curse, they find that there might be some truth in the old town tales.
Time is running out, before magic switches up everything they know…

Eleven-year-old Bella Bright has just moved into Darkling House in Castleton. On her first day at her new school, she is spotted by a pair of manipulative mean girls, Skylar and Regan. They push her into inviting them to a Halloween sleepover. Another much friendlier girl, Lex, comes to Bella’s rescue and offers to join the sleepover to support Bella, who is delighted to be making a real friend. On Halloween night, things start getting spooky for the four girls, when the huge front door appears to shut itself, and their mobile phones lose signal. They decide to order pizza using the landline, but a hair-raising whisper comes down the line. Skylar suggests they play hide and seek, but as she utters the words, the house appears to wobble and they discover all the exits are impossibly locked. Bella searches the manor and a ghostly teenage girl appears in front of her. She reveals herself to be Alice, a young girl who died in the house 150 years ago during a game of hide and seek gone terribly wrong. She has hidden Bella’s three friends, and gives Bella a rhyming clue to find them in the enormous and cavernous house. Bella has until midnight. After that, Alice will get to keep the girls as her playmates for ever…

A boy is imprisoned by a witch and must tell her a new scary story each night to stay alive. This thrilling contemporary fantasy from J. A. White, the acclaimed author of the Thickety series, brings to life the magic and craft of storytelling.

Alex’s original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping the witch Natacha happy, but soon he’ll run out of pages to read from and be trapped forever. He’s loved scary stories his whole life, and he knows most don’t have a happily ever after. Now that Alex is trapped in a true terrifying tale, he’s desperate for a different ending—and a way out of this twisted place.

Orla, her brothers and Dave the dog are on holiday in Norfolk, visiting their eccentric Uncle Valentine. Orla may have recently learned she’s a witch, but she’s not looking for trouble. Nope. Definitely not. Unfortunately, her timing is terrible.

She quickly discovers the beautiful Anna’s Wood, due to be bulldozed any minute for shale gas. The locals are all convinced that GasFrac’s plan is a great one. Make way for a new shopping centre and car park! But why doesn’t anyone care about the destruction of the wood? Where are the protests? Orla soon begins to suspect that this isn’t just indifference … there’s dark magic involved here. With the help of a magpie, she finds out who is behind GasFrac. And what he wants is worse than she could possibly have imagined.

Autumn Albert can see the dead – much to her annoyance. But when her dad dies in mysterious circumstances, he’s the one ghost who doesn’t appear. A curious instruction in his will sends Autumn to Imber, the storm-soaked island of his childhood: a place marked by tight-lipped locals, strange stacks of witchstones – and even fewer ghosts. Soon Autumn is ensnared in a dark and twisty mystery, which must be unravelled before the sea rises up and history is doomed to repeat itself … 

Sisters Spel and Egg grew up in Mistress Mouldheels’ School for Wicked Girls believing they were the daughters of criminals, until they discovered the truth: They are witches.

And after always being in the shadow of her big sister, Spel discovered that she was a Shadowborn Witch – the only one who can step between portals to other worlds.

Now in a coven with their schoolmates and part of the alliance against the Hunt, the sisters try to master their new powers. But the Hunt is rising, the witches are in danger and when a new portal opens the whole world is under threat . . .

On her first day in Grave’s Pass, Raven McKay spotted a pooka horses chasing goblins in a vacant lot, three banshees on a bus, a zombie in ripped jeans staring in the window of a phone shop, a bogeyman walking a labradoodle, a ghost on a ladder cleaning windows, a ghoul sipping coffee at an outdoor café. This is Dead Town― this is Raven’s new home. But will Raven find her parents who have mysteriously disappeared? And who in Dead Town Can she trust? All her parents have left her is a suit case with a black butterfly and a cryptic note.

Twelve-year-old Flossie is no ordinary ghost — she’s the caretaker of every soul in Highgate Cemetery. And during World War II, even the ghosts are unsafe.

Flossie Birdwhistle is the Turnkey at London’s Highgate Cemetery. As Turnkey, it’s Flossie’s job to ensure that all the souls buried in the cemetery stay at rest. Not an easy job for a young ghost, but a task made especially difficult by World War II: London is being attacked every night by enemy bombers, and even the dead are unsettled. When Flossie encounters the ghost of a German soldier carrying a mysterious object that seems to exist in both the living and spirit worlds, she becomes suspicious — what is the officer up to? Before long, Flossie uncovers a sinister plot that could destroy not only her cemetery, but also her beloved country. Can Flossie and her ghostly friends stop the soldier before it’s too late?

When orphans Ben and Jennet arrive in the seaside town of Whitby to stay with Alice Boston, they have no idea what to expect. A lively 92-year-old, Miss Boston is unlike any other foster mother they’ve known. Ben is gifted with ‘the sight’, which gives him the power to see things invisible to other mortals. He soon encounters the mysterious fisher folk who live under the cliffs and discovers that Alice and her friends are not quite what they seem. But a darkness is stalking the streets of Whitby, bringing with it fear and death. Could it be a ghost from the Abbey? Or a beast from hell? Unless the truth is uncovered, the town and all its inhabitants is doomed. 

There’s a new craze at Dread Wood High. Flinch is a game of fear. The more you scare your friends, the more points on the app you get. At first it’s fun, but soon fun is replaced by fear. And Angelo and his friends notice that everyone is behaving more and more strangely every day – almost as if something is taking over their brains…

With the fair arriving in town, adrenaline and excitement levels are high. But who are the people behind the super-creepy clown masks? With fights breaking out and Flinch in full force, it’s time for the final showdown at the Fear Ground. Let the REAL games begin!

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Do you have any other recommendations?