It’s not Halloween season, but it’s always a good time of year for gripping stories of LGBTQ youth, youth with LGBTQ parents, and their friends tackling—and overcoming—monsters, beasts, and curses. Two standalone titles join four sequels to ongoing series for a wealth of spooky, exciting, and empowering reading for tweens.
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New Standalone Titles
The Ghosts Behind the Door, by Jen Wilde (Scholastic). Twelve-year-old Maggie has relocated with her mom (who is queer) and her parent Moe (who is trans and nonbinary) from Brooklyn to the small town upstate where her Nana lives. Everyone in the town, however, sees Maggie and her mom as just two more of the Havercroft witches, who have long had a reputation for being different and causing trouble. Maggie soon comes to realize that some parts of the stories are true: Nana’s house is haunted, with the ghosts of their ancestors trapped there by an old curse. Maggie, who is autistic and has ADHD and anxiety, is soon the target of bullies who see her only through the lens of her family’s purported oddness. She finds a friend, however, in goth girl Ivy, who is trans and is also the subject of peer bullying. Maggie resolves to break the family curse, and with Ivy’s help, dives into the family’s heritage of witchcraft that her mom had kept from her—but will the girls’ efforts be enough to stop the threats both supernatural and real? Content warning: Spousal abuse (by historic characters in the book).
Saber-Tooth, by Robin Gow (Amulet). Jasper, an autistic, transgender, eighth-grader, had always been close with his older brother, his only friend. Now, Casper is away at college and didn’t take Jasper on the fossil dig he said he would. ignoring Jasper’s texts, Jasper feels lonely and angry. He decides to dig for fossils on his own, in his backyard. As he does so, however, he begins to hear the voice of a saber-toothed tiger buried deep in the earth. The tiger urges Jasper to dig, promising friendship and understanding. But the tiger, once unearthed, is not as it seemed, and endangers not only Jasper and two new friends, but also the world around them. Told through Jasper’s first-person perspective, this novel in verse balances a nuanced exploration of his feelings with the dramatic tension of the tiger’s growing threat. An original, compelling, and insightful look at change, friendship, anger, and how we process and share our feelings.
Spooky Sequels
Blood City Rollers: Move It or Bruise It, by V. P. Anderson, illustrated by Tatiana Hill (Labyrinth Road). Thirteen-year-old Mina and friend Swan are finally back with the Blood City Rollers after a summer separated from their team, in this graphic novel sequel. The two girls are the needed human “jammers” on the otherwise vampire-filled squad. The Rollers, led by Mina’s crush Val Halla, are now living an old, abandoned asylum, with a basement full of zombies. But a motley team of monsters also wants the attractive (?) locale for their home, leading to a challenge: a Sudden Death Scrimmage. Mina feels additional pressure because she’s still trying to prove herself to the team. And Swan’s skating skills are improving, making her a challenger for the starting lineup. Will their friendship have to fracture in order for the team to win? Or is the only way to victory by letting friendship lead? It’s paranormal, queer-filled fun, with a light message about what it means to be a teammate, a friend, and a community. (Start with: Blood City Rollers.)
The Doomsday Archives: Shadowglass, by Nick Eliopulos and Zack Loran Clark, illustrated by Julian Callos (Zando). The third volume of this series brings us back to New Rotterdam, a contender for one of America’s Most Haunted Cities, and to the three friends—Emrys, Hazel, and Serena—who have been given magic relics to combat forces of evil. Serena, who has two dads, is the lead protagonist of this volume. She must track down a mysterious online video game streamer named Shadowglass who is attracting talented young people and somehow influencing them to do and say awful things before they die. It’s a gripping, fast-paced mystery with a good dose of creepiness, and a nice message about whether we approach the world around us with cynicism and division or love and cooperation. (Start with: The Doomsday Archives: The Wandering Hour.)
Magic School Sequels
The Frozen Curse (Ice Apprentices #2), by Jacob North (Simon & Schuster): Trans boy Oswin leads this immersive and creatively imagined sequel set on a harsh ice world where magic holds the key to survival. This volume picks up as Oswin starts his second year as an Ice Apprentice, learning how to wield magic in order to survive in the frigid land and contribute to society. Oswin is an original protagonist, irrepressibly curious and questioning, with a quirky sense of humor, yet still struggling with his sense of worth. There’s a definite message about belonging here, but refreshingly, it doesn’t center around queer identities (though we do see how being trans impacts Oswin in other ways). Once again, North has created a compelling and original world that keeps the story from feeling like a tired rehash of the “magic school” trope. Content warning: Parental emotional and physical abuse. (Start with: Ice Apprentices.)
The Nowhere Beast (Labyrinth of Souls #2), by Leslie Vedder, illustrated by Abigail Larson (G.P. Putnam’s Sons). Ix Tatterfall has long felt like an outcast, picked on by peers at home and hiding her rare ability to cross back and forth into the Labyrinth, a between-world that is home to Sorrows like Wrath, Misery, Greed, and other personified ills. In the second volume of this spooky and original magic-school series, Ix is still feeling like an outsider despite her enrollment at Candle Corps Academy, where students are trained to protect the Kingdom of Spinar from the dangerous Nightmare creatures who can slip into our world from the Labyrinth. She’s found two good friends, though (one of whom has two dads in this queer-normalized world), with whom she must partake in a new challenge and face new dangers. The tale is full of adventure, peril, and age-appropriate spookiness, but underlying the action is a thoughtful exploration of loneliness, grief, belonging, and the ways we handle the feelings we have. (Start with: The Labyrinth of Souls.)