The Boy Meets Girl Massacre

Gr 10 Up—A cute title and playful cover masks a truly scary and unsettling YA title. The events leading up to a bloody massacre of a group of teens at a local inn is told through a journal found at the scene of a crime. The journal belongs to Noelle, a young employee of the inn and the prime suspect in the murders. Noelle's story is a grim one—abandoned by her mother and living with her depressed, disabled, and emotionally abusive father, she is quickly developing an obsessive disorder that's resulting in self-harm. This is a lot for a teen to handle, and her frightening summer job on the night shift at an inn with a gruesome past is not helping matters. The protagonist's voice is honest, raw, and ruthlessly funny; those who can stomach some darkness will laugh out loud as they cringe. Hogarth packs the narrative with some brutal insight into the teen (and human) psyche, disarming readers with nerve-touching truths before she hits them with the horror. And the horror is terrifying. This book is not for everyone—give it to older teens who are thirsting for some real-deal terror and those who can handle a little cat torture.