Coming Up in 2011 #6: The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish

We've had vampires. Werewolves too. Zombies are currently a hot subject for kids and YA books, but in 2011 it looks as if things are going to go old school and we will see the return to mass popularity of the ghost/haunted house story. And if Cliff McNish's previous work is anything to go by then I reckon The Hunting Ground should be amongst the very best in this genre in 2011. I first discovered Mr McNish through his brilliant Savannah Grey, a science fiction story with a great undercurrent of terror, and I have since  hunted out some of his other books. This new one looks like just my kind of thing, and my thanks go to Cliff for taking the time to write a short piece about The Hunting Ground for us:

I’ve always loved ghost stories. A few years ago hardly anyone was writing any good ones, so I decided to write BREATHE, where I put a boy who can talk to the dead in a lot of danger. I made it as scary as I could. In THE HUNTING GROUND two boys, Elliott (14) and Ben (12) move into a new house, but there’s something in there with them. It’s a little girl, but she’s not alive and she’s not innocent and behind her is a murderer who has been waiting a long time for new blood to arrive.

Cliff is right - there has been a disappointing dearth of good ghost stories for the younger market in recent years, and so I am really looking forward to reading this one. The Hunting Ground is scheduled for a May release, and I am sure a review will appear here on The Book Zone at some point in the future.