August is offering up an abundance mystery and horror for young adults and children. We're getting both sapphic and achillean young adult stories, which I love. Also Filipino vampires, creepy campers, and secret magical societies.
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Creepy Kid by Caleb Roehrig - August 11, 2026
Middle Grade Horror
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Creepy Kid is a heartfelt but page-turning exploration of grief, moving on, and finding one’s place in the world—sure to make middle grade readers laugh, cry, and wonder about the mysteries that might lie on the other side.
Book Description
Poe has spent his whole life wishing he could meet a ghost, but when he moves into a real-life haunted house, he discovers that communing with the other side might be a little more than he bargained for.
Twelve-year-old Edgar Alden, also known as “Poe,” has always been an outcast. Obsessed with the macabre, he’s never remotely hit it off with other kids. Only Grandma ever really understood his love for the supernatural, but when she dies and his parents move into a dilapidated house on the other side of town, things for Poe quickly go from bad to worse.
You see, Poe has a roommate. A dead one. A 12-year-old ghost named Violet, who’s been stuck haunting Poe’s room for longer than she can remember. Violet is territorial, kind of annoying, and tethered to the human world by her doll, Baby Jessica.
But Poe quickly discovers that Violet isn’t the only spirit haunting his house. There’s a vengeful, violent entity in his basement. And it’s up to Poe to find a way to help them both cross to the other side.
Nest of Tongues by Randy Ribay - August 11, 2026
Young Adult Fantasy
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A lyrical, evocative horror about vampires from the Philippines . . . and a hunter on their tail. A brother and sister fight to protect their secrets, their community, and most of all, each other, in this evocative novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Patron Saints of Nothing.
Book Description
As Filipino vampires known as manananggal, Lily and her brother Caleb understand the value of a secret. After all, to hide is to survive. To lie is to live. They’d never harm another person—but people only believe their worst fears around creatures of myth. So the siblings stay quiet. They follow their community’s rules.
Until a monster hunter turns up and kills a fellow manananggal, anyway.
Until Caleb is marked as the hunter’s next prey.
Suddenly, he and Lily realize there’s always been more at stake than the lives of their people. Because when doing everything "right" is still a death sentence, what can they take as truth? As the hunter nears, the siblings must decide if they’ll be driven from the only home they’ve ever known . . . or fight to protect a community that may already be lost.
There Are Ghosts Here by Adrienne Tooley - August 11, 2026
Young Adult Sapphic Horror
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Willa has no memory of anything before arriving at Dorsey House, and when she meets two sinister girls who seem to already know her, she slowly begins to lose her grip on what is real . . . and what is a lie. A haunting contemporary speculative thriller for fans of Kill Creatures and We Were Liars.
Book Description
Willa Childs doesn't know why she's at Dorsey House. The tragic accident that banished her to the mysterious reformatory perched at the edge of the sea is lost in the recesses of her murky memory. The Dorseys themselves offer no answers, and the only other wards, Caroline and Ivy, seem intent on keeping Willa in the dark—and on the outside of their obsessive friendship.
Yet as the days pass, it begins to feel like the sinister twosome knows Willa better than she knows herself. And as her memories gradually return to focus, the girls become even stranger, doing their best to convince Willa that she’s been at Dorsey House before. Only, that’s impossible.
Or is it? If they’re telling the truth, Willa can no longer trust her own mind. The line between reality and nightmare begins to blur. Willa is certain Dorsey House is haunted, but by what? And if she can’t remember leaving, how will she ever escape?
The Sinking House (Tales from Cabin 23 4) by Darcie Little Badger - August 11, 2026
Middle Grade Horror
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Few campers at Camp Apple Hill Farm have found the mysterious cabin rumored to be hidden deep in the woods, but those who have whisper of a mysterious woman who tells tales of horrors beyond imagination. Find out if you’re brave enough for Tales from Cabin 23—the thrilling new series created by award-winning authors Justina Ireland and Hanna Alkaf.
Book Description
Sean knows that one disaster tends to leads to another—like when his mother got sick and the cost of the treatment meant they had to move out of their cozy Texas home. As they try to get back on their feet, Sean’s parents send him to stay with his aunt and cousin, Zeke, in Victorvale, Massachusetts—a seaside town that has seen its own share of bad luck, with crumbling houses sitting on an eroding coastline that threatens to fall into the sea. It is into one of these decrepit old mansions that Sean and Zeke, along with their classmate Jenny, venture, looking for a neighbor's lost cat. Before they can rescue it, though, lightning cracks, the ground rumbles, and the cliffside crumbles....
When Sean and Jenny come to, they find themselves trapped inside a house on its side, half submerged in the ocean, leaning against a sheer wall of rock. Zeke is in a room somewhere below them—one that is filling with water. And as night falls and the storm picks up, they discover there may be something else in the house with them.
Now, the three friends must escape before the cold water—or whatever lurks within it—consumes them.
And don't miss the other books in the hit Tales from Cabin 23 series: The Boo Hag Flex, Night of the Living Head, and The Visitors!
Find My Way Down to You by Julian Winters - August 4, 2026
Young Adult Achillean Fantasy Romance
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You've Reached Sam meets Hadestown in this enchanting, intoxicating romance across the mortal world and the underworld.
Book Description
Eighteen-year-old August is trying to navigate life after the sudden death of his boyfriend left him devastated, aimless, and feeling guilty. Years after the tragic accident, August mistakenly stumbles into a world beyond his own—the Underworld. Unlike his own gray existence, the underworld is a lavish extravagant place, full of mystery and a flurry of charismatic gods, all curious about August's arrival in their world. Realizing right away the opportunity in front of him, August goes searching for his lost love, guided by Cary, the smoldering, broody ferrier of souls. But the more time August spends down below, the more his intentions begin to blur. Is he visiting this realm to reunite with his soulmate? Or is he desperately, inexplicably, intoxicatingly drawn to Cary? With his own world in pieces and a dangerously seductive realm promising him a new existence at a heavy cost, August must choose: a life with grief or a love that might destroy him.
A Clash of Carnivores (Mastery of Monsters Trilogy Book 2) by Liselle Sambury - August 4, 2026
Young Adult Dark Academia Fantasy
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August and her bonded Monster face a cutthroat competition to advance within their secret society as part of August’s mission to avenge her brother in this “thrilling, high-stakes” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) sequel to A Mastery of Monsters.
Book Description
August Black risked everything to find her brother, joining a deadly secret society protecting the chilling truth that monsters are very, very real. She thought when she found him that she would leave the society behind. Instead, she fought and bled to bond herself to a Monster for life.
Now, despite her efforts to stay unattached, her connection to her Monster partner, Virgil, continues to grow. She can’t stop replaying the memory of their forbidden kiss that Virgil wants to pretend never happened.
Their strained bond is put to the test as they prepare for the Monster’s Ball, a brutal tournament where pairs battle for the coveted title of Master. But despite the danger of the contest, August is consumed with finding her mom’s killer and getting revenge. Her vendetta leads to her accidentally forming a rare second bond with Nolan, a Wild Monster who wants nothing to do with her. And if the three of them can’t work together, they’ll be kicked out of the tournament before it even begins.
But August can’t pull her focus away from vengeance—even if it means becoming the worst sort of monster herself. She believes that revenge will cure her grief, but it may just be the thing that breaks her bonds for good.
Felix Powell, Boy Squirrel by Erin Entrada Kelly - August 18, 2026
Children's
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Felix Powell is back! After his brief stint as a dog, Felix thinks his troubles with magical animal transformation are over. . . until a mysterious bit of magic turns him into a squirrel. A funny, short, young middle grade novel about friendship, family, and animals written and illustrated with black-and-white drawings by two-time Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly.
Book Description
Felix Powell loves to climb trees. He loves to run and jump and hide. But he’s never shoved acorns into his cheeks. He’s never gnawed at twigs to build a nest. And he’s certainly never worried about being eaten by hawks. Until now.
When his magic blanket turns Felix from an eight-year-old aspiring zoologist into a skittering squirrel, Felix discovers that there’s more to squirrelhood than meets the eye. Will Felix triumph, avoiding predators and helping his new squirrel friend? Will he learn to jump and leap and climb? And will he turn back into a boy in time for dinner with his grandmother?
Felix Powell, Boy Squirrel is a standalone companion to two-time Newbery Medal winner Erin Entrada Kelly’s Felix Powell, Boy Dog, which is set in the world of her popular Marisol books. With short, high-interest chapters and illustrations and comics by the author on almost every page, Felix Powell, Boy Squirrel celebrates curiosity, ingenuity, imagination, and friendship. For animal lovers and readers of Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Meg Medina, and Megan McDonald.
Happy reading!
