Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

The survivalist “utopia” of Summerland fell to a horde. Jane McKeene and Katherine Deveraux, along with six other survivors, escaped the death and destruction with one immediate goal: to get somewhere safe. But where can safety be found in a world where the dead walk the earth? For Jane, wherever they go is just a stop along the way. Now that she knows where her mother is, she plans to find her. Plans tend to go awry, however, and the small group of survivors will face calamities resulting in devastating losses that test the bonds of friendship—leaving one combatant questioning everything she thought she knew about the world,  and struggling to find her place within it.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Historical fiction meets the zombie apocalypse in Justina Ireland’s addictive new novel, Dread Nation.

The Civil War came to an abrupt end when the dead rose from the battlefields to feast upon the living, and slavery fell sometime later, with the passing of the Native and Negro Reeducation Act. Children of a certain age (and race) are required to go to combat schools to learn how to fight the dead. Jane McKeen has nearly finished her training at Miss Prescott’s School of Combat for Negro Girls when a friend requests for help from Jane and Katherine (another girl at Miss Preston’s) regarding a missing family, it leads to the discovery of a deadly conspiracy that puts all three of them in danger.

Lilly’s Tale (The Milk-Blood Trilogy) by Mark Matthews

I’ve struggled with how to review this book, and even now, I’m sure not quite sure what to say. This is likely to go down as the strangest book I’ve read this year. And yet… I was unable to set it aside, and felt a strong desire to finish it.

The Devil’s Prayer by Luke Gracias

After the death of her mother, Denise Russo, Siobhan needs to understand what caused her to vanish six years earlier, and finds herself caught up in a nightmare centuries in the making.  Traveling to the convent in Zamora where her mother lived, Siobhan is in danger from the moment she arrives, and it is with great difficulty that she is able to access her mother’s final written confession. Reading it, she learns of a terrible betrayal that led her mother to make a deal with the Devil, risking Siobhan’s soul if Denise didn’t hold up her end of the bargain. As disturbing as all that is to Siobhan, other discoveries made in later parts of her mother’s confession are absolutely horrifying… as is the unfinished task her mother begs her to complete.

What the Dead Want by Norah Olson

Gretchen is a 16-year-old photography enthusiast, living in New York City with her oft-absent father. Her mother, renowned owner of the Mona Axton Gallery, disappeared without a trace nearly five years earlier. Gretchen is surprised to receive a call from her Great-Aunt Esther—a woman she doesn’t know—informing her that she is leaving the Axton Mansion, which Gretchen will inherit as the last remaining member of the Axton family. Gretchen agrees to go and help Esther with the house, and the next day she is on her way.