Stephen Jones - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 23

Crave was the first book in a trilogy by Melissa Darnell about a war between witches and vampires.

The Cellar by A. J. Whitten (Shirley Jump and Amanda Jump) was a YA horror novel inspired by Romeo and Juliet , while Stacey Jay’s Juliet Immortal found Shakespeare’s lovers on opposite sides in the battle between Good and Evil.

Jackson Pearce’s Sweetly was a dark twist on the “Hansel and Gretel” story, and This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Ogiwara was a prequel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , about Victor Frankenstein and his dying twin brother Konrad. Chris Priestley’s Mister Creecher was based on the same source novel.

Two teenagers found themselves staring at death after a car wreck in August by New Zealand writer Bernard Beckett, while three teens living a New Zealand town discovered the secret behind the suspicious deaths of their brothers in The Shattering by Karen Healey.

Death Watch was the first in the “Undertaken” trilogy by Ari Berk.

Illustrated by Coleman Polhemus, Return to Daemon Hall: Evil Roots was the second volume in the series by Andrew Nance, and From Bad to Cursed was the second title in Katie Alender’s “Bad Girls Don’t Die” series.

A girl was torn between her living and ghostly boyfriends in Shift , the sequel to Jeri Smith-Ready’s Shade , while The Waking: Spirits of the Noh was the second book in a Japan-set trilogy by “Thomas Randall” (Christopher Golden).

Ocean of Blood and Palace of the Damned were the second and third volumes in the “The Saga of Larten Crepsley” vampire spin-off series by “Darren Shan” (Darren O’Shaughnessy).

Lisi Harrison’s Monster High 2: The Ghoul Next Door and Monster High 3: Where There’s a Wolf There’s a Way were the second and third volumes in a series of YA tie-in novels based on a series of dolls.

Set in a haunted boarding school, The Screaming Session was the third book in Nancy Holder’s “Possessions” series. The busy author also teamed up with Debbie Viguié for Damned , the second in the “Wicked” spin-off series, “Crusade”, and Unleashed , the first volume in the “Wolf Springs Chronicles”.

The Isle of Blood was the third in Rick Yancy’s “Monstrumologist” series about an apprentice monster-hunter.

Everfound was the final book in Neal Shusterman’s supernatural “Skinjacker” trilogy, while The Hidden was the third and final book in Jessica Verday’s trilogy set in Sleepy Hollow.

The Spook’s Destiny (aka The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen ) was the eighth in Joseph Delaney’s series about an apprentice ghost-buster, illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith.

A young girl had a strange reaction to a vampire’s bite in R. A. Nelson’s Throat , and Jane Jones: Worst Vampire Ever was a humorous novel about a nerdy undead teenager by Caissie St. Onge.

The Slayer Chronicles: First Kill was the first in a spin-off series from “The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” by Heather Brewer, while By Midnight was the first volume in Mia James’ “Ravenwood” vampire mystery series. It was followed by Darkness Falls .

Catlyn Youngblood, a descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, unknowingly fell in love with a vampire in After Midnight , the first volume in the “Youngbloods” series by “Lynn Viehl” (Sheila Kelly, who writes under a variety of pseudonyms).

Jason Henderson’s Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead was the second book about another teenage vampire-hunter, and The President’s Vampire was the second book in a series by Christopher Farnsworth.

The Vampire Diaries: The Return Vol.3: Midnight was the seventh volume in the overall series by L. J. Smith, while The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries Vol.3: The Craving and Vol.4: The Ripper were the third and fourth volumes in the uncredited spin-off series based on Smith’s books and TV series. The author was also only credited as “creator” on Vampire Diaries: Hunters: Phantom .

Thirst No.4: The Shadow of Death was the latest volume in the YA “Last Vampire” series by Christopher Pike, and Afterlife was the fourth book in the vampire school series by “Claudia Gray” (Amy Vincent).

Waking Nightmares was the fifth in Christopher Golden’s “Shadow Saga” series about Christopher Octavian.

Blood Ties by Mari Mancusi was the sixth in the “Blood Coven Vampire” series, and Melissa de la Cruz’s Bloody Valentine and Lost in Time were the latest titles in the prolific author’s “Blue Bloods” series.

Awakened and Destined were the eighth and ninth volumes, respectively, in the “House of Night” vampire series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast.

After an electromagnetic pulse wiped out technology, a sixteen-year-old girl and her friends attempted to evade the flesh-eating “Changed” of a post-apocalyptic world in Ashes , the first in a new trilogy by Ilsa J. Bick.

In Ty Drago’s The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses , a boy discovered that he could see that many of the people around him were actually the walking dead.

The Fear by Charlie Higson was the third in the author’s zombie series that began with The Enemy and The Dead , and following on from The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, The Dark and Hollow Places was the final volume in Carrie Ryan’s post-apocalyptic zombie trilogy.

Wereworld: Rise of the Wolf was the first in a new YA series by Curtis Jobling, while Fateful was a werewolf romance set on the Titanic by “Claudia Gray” (Amy Vincent).

Christine Johnson’s werewolf novel Nocturne was a sequel to Claire de Lune , Karen Kincy’s Bloodborn was the second novel about a shape-shifting teen in the “Others” series, and Trial by Fire was the second volume in Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ “Raised by Wolves” series about human Were-pack alpha Bryn.

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group was Australian writer Catherin Jinks’ follow-up to the humorous The Reformed Vampire Support Group , as a teenage werewolf received help from an unexpected source.

Changeling: Zombie Dawn was the fifth and final volume about a teenage werewolf by Steve Feasey.

R. L. Stine, Margaret Mahy and Nina Kiriki Hoffman were amongst the contributors to the young adult anthology Bones: Terrifying Tales to Haunt Your Dreams .

The Doll: The Lost Short Stories was a collection of thirteen “forgotten” short stories (not all genre) by Daphne du Maurier, mostly written between 1926–32, eight of which were re-discovered online by a bookseller in Cornwall. Cemetery Dance published a limited hardcover edition.

Steel and Other Stories was a collection of fifteen stories by Richard Matheson, published to coincide with the release of the movie Real Steel , which was based on the title story.

Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense collected ten reprint stories by Joyce Carol Oates.

Ellen Datlow’s Supernatural Noir featured sixteen original dark fantasy stories with a noir sensibility by Lucius Shepard, Jeffrey Ford, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Melanie Tem, John Langan and others, while Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy from the same editor contained twenty contributions from, amongst others, Shepard, Ford, Kiernan, Jim Butcher, Peter S. Beagle, Christopher Fowler, John Crowley and Pat Cadigan.