The Devouring by Simon Holt 

When dark creeps in and eats the light,
Bury your fears on Sorry Night.
For in the winter’s blackest hours
Comes the feasting of the Vours.
No one can see it, the life they stole,
Your body’s here but not your soul…

You’ve probably heard FDR’s famous quote, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  The Devouring is a bone-chillingly literal interpretation of that saying.  The heroine, Reggie, finds an old journal at the bookstore where she works and is engrossed by the creepy story inside.  The shaky handwriting tells about creatures called Vours that feast on fear and inhabit the body of a person scared enough to let them in.  Reggie dismissed the journal as pure fiction or the ravings of a crazy person, but soon her brother starts acting strangely and the story seems to be coming true. 

The Devouring was extremely creepy and the imagery is the stuff that nightmares are made of, so beware reading it right before you go to bed.  It has a great story line drenched in guts and gore, like an effective mix of Neil Gaiman’s classic fantasy Coraline and the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  In many horror books, I feel like yelling at the stupid character that is always wandering around alone in the dark making dangerous choices, but Reggie stayed sensible and I loved her for it.  She was strong and her relationships with the other characters motivated her actions and kept the book realistic.  If you like to be scared, I definitely recommend this book.