Scary Fantasy

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Beast Awakens by Joseph Delaney, read by Lee Ingleby. They heard shouting and cries of fear. Crafty looked down the slope and realised what had happened to cause so much panic. Without warning, the dark wall of the Shole had advanced. Crafty can't remember a time before the Shole - the terrifying mist that has engulfed most of Britain, leaving those trapped in it to either die or be transformed into horrifying monsters: the aberrations.

Clean slate. That's what Hendricks Becker-O'Malley's parents said when they moved their family to the tiny town of Drearfield, New York. Hendricks wants to lay low and forget her dark, traumatic past. Forget him. But things don't go as planned. Hendricks learns from new friends at school that Steele House--the fixer upper her parents are so excited about--is notorious in town. Local legend says it's haunted. But Hendricks isn't sure if it's the demons of her past haunting her ...or of the present. Voices whisper in her ear as she lays in bed.

The branches closed behind Kara and Taff when they rode Shadowdancer into the dark forest. But there is no returning to the village, and Sordyr chases close behind. The forest demon has a terrible plan - one that requires Kara's magic to succeed. The dangers of the Thickety are many. Its plants are often deadly, strange animals whisper among the trees, and unknown magic lurks behind every twist and shadow of the path. But more dangerous still are the other inhabitants of the Thickety.

Nightmares. They come in all shapes and sizes - from gargantuan lizards to teensy creepy-crawlies. No matter their form, we know all too well they are truly terrifying. The good news is that every nightmare, no matter how ferocious, mysterious, or hairy, can be defeated. And this book will tell you how.

Their radio is sabotaged. The wolves are gathering outside. And for the increasingly desperate mercenaries, the worst is yet to come in chapter three of The Boy in the Iron Box: the box is empty. In the wake of an inexplicable disappearance, Liev and his men use their tactical skills to last the night—by going hunting. Following a small, bare footprint in the snow leads only to the realization that someone, or something, is hunting them.

The mercenaries set an explosive scheme in motion to blow this bad dream to smithereens. But in chapter five of The Boy in the Iron Box, they soon find that even the best-laid plans can backfire. With the morale of the team fraying, Liev makes a vow. He’s not going to leave anyone behind until the last stand is seen through to its cold and bitter end. On this night, it’s Liev who lies in wait to face everything he’s feared. It’s nothing like he expected.

Charlie Hitchcock and Tyler Yu learn that the Abracadabra Hotel may be haunted.

Can Jimmy and his friends rescue Claire before it is too late? In volume 10 of Jimmy Slade's Minecraft diary, mysteries and questions abound. Was the head monk telling the truth about Claire's location? Will Jimmy learn to use his evoking powers? Why is there a wither on the cover of this book? These questions and more will be answered inside the latest unofficial Minecraft book of Minecraft fanfiction from Dr. Block—Diary of a Surfer Villager: Book 10!

Livvy and Jayden are the stars of their school's robotics team. Livvy is especially enthusiastic because her own mother works in a robotics lab and experiments with artificial intelligence. To impress her mom, Livvy and Jayden build a robot. Livvy wants to name their robot "Francine", but Jayden thinks that's too silly for their creation. Desperate to win, Livvy and Jayden "borrow" an artificial intelligence module. They soon realize they've made a terrible mistake. Francine has too much brain power. She's alive! And using this newly gained brain power to dream up a deadly contest!

In the absurd land of Nth, Thisby Thestoop can be found within the forlorn walls of Castle Grimstone, down the precarious steps of the Black Mountain dungeon, up to her nose in griffon toenails, gnoll spittle, and troll meat (to give to them, not made of them).

What if nothing was as it seemed? What if the ground beneath your feet was not made of solid earth and stone but had been hollowed into hundreds of tunnels and passageways? What if there were mysterious forces in these tunnels, mere inches below you as you sit in class or eat a banana? What if it were up to just two kids to stop these forces? What would it feel like to know the fate of an entire town rested on your shoulders? Twelve-year-old Gran Flowerpetal is about to find out.

In this fractured world, a sinister force is coming for Riley, and the only things keeping her safe are a perimeter fence and the people she loves. As her life is threatened, she must make impossible choices. But help comes from the most unlikely of places, and all Riley needs to know is: Who can she really trust? Meanwhile, a repentant killer searches for peace and salvation, but what he gets is the exact opposite. Now, he'll have to make the hardest decision of his life.

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming.... This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

Since his father disappeared under a dark cloud of scandal, Pin Carpue has been alone in the world. His work for the local undertaker keeps him busy, but his life is bleak. Then Pin encounters the Bone Magician, a man who can raise corpses and make the dead speak. As Pin is drawn into an intoxicating world of mystery and intrigue, he becomes suspicious of Juno, the Bone Magician's young assistant. A strange darkness haunts her when the Silver Apple Killer stalks the streets at night - and as Pin pieces together the secrets of Bone Magic, his own life becomes fraught with grave danger.

Crafty and his friends have already faced dozens of horrifying aberrations during their time as Castle Gate Grubs - assistants to the mysterious guild of Gatemancers, who fight against the terrifying Shole. But the real battle is only just beginning. New and even more dangerous aberrations are appearing all the time, and worse yet, it seems someone from within the Castle is helping them attack. And when an old enemy returns to give Crafty a disturbing warning, it seems time might be running out for all of them....

When feared Yankees slugger Cliff Bullard goes barnstorming around the northeast, offering $10,000 to any local pitcher who can strike him out, Professor Childermass and Johnny Dixon get a sneaky idea. There’s a local legend about a crackpot inventor who once built a robot capable of throwing a baseball 110 MPH, and the professor thinks that if they find the machine, they can win Bullard’s prize. They discover the rusted old monstrosity in an abandoned workshop and put it back together, piece by piece.

Spellbound...It’s been two months since Belladonna Johnson discovered she was the Spellbinder, and she’s full of questions about her powers. When a ghost finds Belladonna and her classmate, Steve, and gives them a mysterious map, the friends don’t know if they should be looking for, or hiding from, the one person who holds the answers to Belladonna’s powers: The Queen of the Abyss. Throw into the mix that Belladonna’s parents, who are ghosts, have disappeared, and that her foster family seems to know more than they’re letting on.

Dory is brand-new to her neighborhood, so it's a good thing she has a pet monster to keep her company. When she tells the mailman about her monster, he doesn't believe her. Dory begins to get angry that he's not taking her seriously, so she opens up the mailbox to show him the monster—only to find that the mailbox is empty! Is Dory's monster real, or part of her imagination?

It takes a special person to end up in detention on the last day of school. It takes a REALLY special person to accidentally burn down the school yard while chasing a fire-breathing chipmunk. But nothing about Valentina Salazar has ever been “normal.” The Salazars are protectors, tasked with rescuing the magical creatures who sometimes wander into our world, from grumpy unicorns to chupacabras...to the occasional fire-breathing chipmunk.

Dawn breaks, but the nightmare only intensifies in the shocking finale of The Boy in the Iron Box. In a final confrontation, the true nature of the Boy is coming to light. In a stone chamber, the familiar young figure lingers with an unsettling calm. He has a question for Liev: Do you want to stop me? Now, for two merchants of death, each with his own purpose, one last contest lies ahead.