A01=Melanie Dale
amateur sleuth
atmospheric
Author_Melanie Dale
Category=YFH
Category=YFMR
Category=YNXB2
cemetery
crave series
disappearances
Dracula retelling
early high school
eerie
eq_bestseller
eq_childrens
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_teenage-young-adult
horror
investigation
kidnapped
light romance
local legends folklore
mental health struggles
monsters
motley crew
murder
obsessive compulsive disorder
orphan
outcast
paranormal
secrets
small town
Southern gothic
spooky
supernatural
teen detective
upper middle grade for 10 11 12 13 14 year olds grades 5 6 7 8 9
vampire academy
vampire diaries
vampires
younger ya
Product details
- ISBN 9781665969826
- Weight: 503g
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 23 Apr 2026
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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For the first printing only! This hardcover features stained edges while the special edition supply lasts.
A girl who’s used to battling the monster of her own mind discovers there’s a sinister evil lurking in her small town in this atmospheric paranormal novel that’s perfect for fans of Tracy Wolff and Maggie Stiefvater.
Stories of dark magic and even darker creatures have always swirled about Mina Murray’s town of London, Georgia. Mina knows they aren’t true—and are likely perpetuated only to drive the quirky tourist-trap ghost tours of downtown—but that doesn’t stop her from collecting the stories and drawing them in her sketchbook. Something about the possibility of real monsters helps her deal with the monster in her own head: her OCD, which convinces her danger lurks everywhere.
But when a body is found drained of blood and a classmate goes missing, Mina is thrust into a tangled web of London secrets…that she seems to be at the center of.
A girl who’s used to battling the monster of her own mind discovers there’s a sinister evil lurking in her small town in this atmospheric paranormal novel that’s perfect for fans of Tracy Wolff and Maggie Stiefvater.
Stories of dark magic and even darker creatures have always swirled about Mina Murray’s town of London, Georgia. Mina knows they aren’t true—and are likely perpetuated only to drive the quirky tourist-trap ghost tours of downtown—but that doesn’t stop her from collecting the stories and drawing them in her sketchbook. Something about the possibility of real monsters helps her deal with the monster in her own head: her OCD, which convinces her danger lurks everywhere.
But when a body is found drained of blood and a classmate goes missing, Mina is thrust into a tangled web of London secrets…that she seems to be at the center of.
Before embracing her love of monsters and sneaking into Mina’s fictional world, Melanie Dale published a bunch of nonfiction books, shambled around as a zombie on TV, and survived cancer. She’s written episodes for the anthology horror television series Creepshow and over a decade of essays for Coffee + Crumbs. While she has won no awards for literature, she won a Halloween costume contest one time and still feels pretty stoked about it. When she’s not writing, she’s teaching yoga or battling her own brain. She lives in the Atlanta area.
