By Chris Miller
Coquitlam Public Library

Teens facing the horrors of a full year in school might feel like they need some escapist fiction. Here are three picks: a Gothic gore-fest set in the 19th century, a near future examination of how life could suck as a result of global warming and a science fiction novel dealing with an ark ship run by teens.

Using a palette of scarlet, gray, yellowish-white and pink — for blood, brain matter, pus and viscera — author Rick Yancey paints the disturbing picture of a Victorian-era monster hunter and his young assistant in The Monstrumologist. Early in the book, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and his orphaned charge, Will Henry, learn that a pod of horrendous creatures lurks beneath a graveyard in their New England town. Known as “anthropophagi,” the creatures are brutal, headless humanoids with powerful arms, steely talons and gaping, shark-like maws in the middle of their chests.

The book starts slowly, with the gruesome examination of a dead anthropophagus, then picks up pace when Warthrop and Henry make a hair-raising visit to the graveyard. Unsure of how to exterminate the creatures, the monstrumologist reluctantly contacts Dr. John Kearns, a handsome, cultured, capable man who may be worse than the monsters he hunts.

In between scenes of action, the book drips atmosphere. Warthrop and Henry interview a dying inmate in a madhouse, examine a grue-spattered home and eventually descend beneath the graveyard into the creatures’ underground lair.

Yancey’s story is not for the faint of heart or sensitive of disposition. The most affecting scene features the clinical, room-by-room description of a house in which anthropophagi have torn a man, woman and four young children to pieces. The book isn’t just gory, it is psychologically dark. All the characters — except for Kearns — seem haunted by mistakes, regrets and secrets from the past.

If you can stand the gore and disturbing themes, you will find a carefully told story with well-crafted moments of suspense and dread. Affecting a slightly archaic style, Yancey chooses words with surgical precision and creates characters whom you will think about well after you close the book.

In The Carbon Diaries: 2015 by Saci Lloyd, global warming has led Great Britain to enact carbon rationing, which means families must cut back on their use of just about everything. Enter Laura Brown, ordinary teenager, who has grown up in London enjoying her creature comforts. Now, even using the hair dryer will earn dreaded “carbon points.”

Outside Laura’s home, the world is going mad. Blizzards, drought and rainstorms of biblical proportions batter England. The power goes out in the winter, water runs low in the summer. People take to the streets, protests turn into riots. The government uses police and soldiers to smack down resistance.

The stress of adjusting to a fearful new world proves too much for Laura’s family. Her older sister buys plane tickets to Ibiza. Her father loses his job and starts raising a pig in the back yard. Finding home life intolerable, her mom leaves to hang out with a women’s liberation group.

In the midst of this chaos, Laura tries to maintain a normal life, struggling to keep her grades up in school, flirting with the boy next door and jamming with her punk band, dirty angels. But as she discovers, “normal” isn’t what it used to be.

Adopting a journal style, Lloyd uses Laura’s sarcastic sense of humour to lighten the story, which — thanks to some telling details — seems startlingly plausible. Small and large questions abound. Will Laura stop fixating on the guy next door and start dating her band-mate Adi? More importantly, will her family and friends survive the big storm that hits near the end of the book? Read to find out.

In The Comet’s Curse by Dom Testa, a passing comet has doomed human life on Earth. Particles from its tail carry a deadly infection that is causing adults to waste away. For some reason, though, everyone younger than 18 is immune. 

Acting quickly, an international consortium of scientists designs a massive space ship, the Galahad, and crews it with the 251 best teenagers they can find, all 16 and under. The teens’ mission is to seek out a new world that will sustain human life so they can start civilization all over again. No pressure, right?

Shortly after the ship blasts off, things seem fine but soon a stowaway begins scrawling ominous messages in the corridors. It is clear that he wants to destroy the Galahad — and all hope for the human race with it. Aided by the ship’s computer system, an AI presence named Roc, Triana Martell and the ship’s ruling council must find and stop the saboteur.

With suspense, action and appealing teen characters like Martell and chief engineer Gap Lee, who secretly has a crush on her, The Comet’s Curse is a quick but entertaining read suitable for middle school and up.

Look for these books and others in your local library.