Showing results by author "Megan Shepherd" in All Categories

Jack Skellington, the beloved Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, has grown tired of his home's annual scaring routines and longs for something new. So when he and his loyal dog, Zero, discover a series of doors in the Hinterlands leading to other holiday towns, he can't help but explore--and quickly becomes enamored with Christmas Town, a place filled with jolly laughs, merry elves, and plenty of presents. Jack shares all of his findings with the rest of Halloween Town, and together, they devise a plan to run Christmas themselves.

A dark, breathless, beautifully written gothic thriller of murder, madness, and a mysterious island.... London, 1894: Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself - working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumours about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns her father is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations were true.

Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father's remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted.

Laika is a “Cold Dog" - a stray pawing the streets of Moscow until Soviet researchers take her to live at the top-secret facility. Nervous and alone, she learns she will be trained to become a “starflyer”, an animal launched into outer space in the Soviet’s race against American innovation. Twelve-year-old Nina is also a “Cold Girl", heartbroken after her best friend defects to America. When Nina and Laika meet in Nina’s father’s lab, their growing bond slowly warms the cold that has settled in each other’s hearts.

Seventeen-year-old Anouk envies the human world, where people known as Pretties lavish themselves in fast cars, high fashion, and have the freedom to fall in love. But Anouk can never have those things, because she is not really human. Enchanted from animal to human girl and forbidden to venture beyond her familiar Parisian prison, Anouk is a Beastie: destined for a life surrounded by dust bunnies and cinders serving Mada Vittora, the evil witch who spelled her into existence. That is, until one day she finds her mistress murdered in a pool of blood - and Anouk is accused of the crime.

With inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman's Daughter trilogy explores the things we'll sacrifice to save those we love . . . even our own humanity. Juliet has killed the men who tried to steal her father's research and escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet's secrets.

Back in London after her trip to Dr. Moreau's horrific island, Juliet is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget her father's legacy. But soon it's clear that someone - or something - hasn't forgotten her, as people close to Juliet start falling victim to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes. Has one of her father's creations also escaped the island? As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in a world of scandal and danger.

Ever since she discovered her affinity for magic, 17-year-old Anouk has been desperate to become a witch. It's the only way to save her friends who, like Anouk, are beasties: animals enchanted into humans. But unlike Anouk, the other beasties didn't make it out of the battle at Montelimar in one piece. With her friends now trapped in their animal forms, Anouk is forced into a sinister deal involving a political marriage with her sworn enemy, a wicked plot to overthrow London's fiercest coven of witches, and a deadly trial of fire to become a witch.