Tessa Gratton
Anthologies
Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite
In this delicious new collection, you’ll find stories about lurking vampires of social media, rebellious vampires hungry for more than just blood, eager vampires coming out―and going out for their first kill―and other bold, breathtaking, dangerous, dreamy, eerie, iconic, powerful creatures of the night.
Welcome to the evolution of the vampire―and a revolution on the page.
“Seven Nights for Dying” by Tessa Gratton
A teenage girl has seven nights to decide if she will become a vampire, never-changing, but maybe able to change the world…
Suddenly, Seti was on her knees, crouched over me. She reached, grabbed my hair, and dragged my head up. Her vivid brown eyes were alight with passion. “Imagine what you can change in a hundred years!”
I sat as best I could, still in her grip. Her intensity transferred through her hands into me, and I felt like I was trembling at the edge of something important.
She said, “What are you angry about? We can make it better. We can shape history, because we can do it a little at a time, child. A heart here, a mind there, then another and another—around the world. Having a goal—that’s how you survive the years.”
Visit this link for information on the Vampires Never Get Old pre-order promotion! All pre-orders receive a three-card draw from the exclusive Vampires Never Get Old Tarot Deck, and three grand prize winners will receive the entire deck!
His Hideous Heart : Thirteen of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation.
Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways.
“Night-Tide” by Tessa Gratton
Inspired by “Annabel-Lee”
There is a place deep in the heart of the ocean, so black and cold light cannot survive, and there, I think, Annabel and I could kiss, and no matter how strong the reverberations, no matter how lightning-bright that thread of time between us, the killing angels could not find it. Nor us.
I know what you are.
If the night-tide drags me deep, I’ll be a siren, a deep-sea girl. I’ll find Annabel and we’ll fly down there.
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens.
From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.
“Three Witches” by Tessa Gratton
Kingdom of Castille, 1519
Violante huddles in the dark corner of her cell. Through the window she hears singing: not the Sisters, but birds flitting about in the early morning, before the sun itself rises.
I am not a witch.
She thinks of the fire in her hips, the beat of her heart and how transported she’d been by only Inés’s soft mouth. Better than prayer, better than wine.
Three Sides of a Heart: Stories about Love Triangles
You may think you know the love triangle, but you've never seen love triangles like these.
A teen girl who offers kissing lessons. Zombies in the Civil War South. The girl next door, the boy who loves her, and the girl who loves them both. Vampires at a boarding school. Three teens fighting monsters in an abandoned video rental store. Literally the last three people on the planet.
What do all these stories have in common?
The love triangle.
“Before She Was Bloody” by Tessa Gratton
A young priestess falls in love with two people she’s forbidden to have…
He turned his face slightly; his left eye was beside mine. “I was not ready for you,” he whipsered, meaning something far more important than grappling.
I forgot who I was, where I was, I forgot everything with that single desert-fire eye on mine, his arm around my ribs. I was nobody except for the thing we were together, for an instant, for a perfect soft breath.
And then it call came rushing back. I was Safiya za Idris Sahiza, the Moon Eater’s Mistress, and I could never have him.
Grim: dark retellings of classic fairy tales
”Beast/Beast” by Tessa Gratton
When a girl is imprisoned with a terrible beast, she slowly realizes she wants to be a beast as much as she wants to be free.
My hands healed as the springtime grew.
I watched the process in the mirror gallery, as gashes scabbed over, as they grew thinner, closed up, turned pink and puckered, lining my hands as though my bones had been sewn together with uneven stitches. Like the Beast’s coats .
In the mirror, I was wild. Wild as I’d been dancing, but as I stared I didn’t see a lost girl; I saw a beast. Wild like nature is wild; tangled hair, scarred hands, heavy garden boots, a tattered hem on an otherwise beautiful velvet dress. I smiled and my teeth were strong and straight, not fangs, but when I turned my smile to a growl, they were dangerous.
Defy the Dark
The seventeen original stories in Defy the Dark, an eerie, mind-bending YA anthology, could only take place in darkness.
Open the pages and discover: A creepy guy who stares too long. The secrets of the core of the earth. Dreams of other people’s lives. A girl who goes mad in the darkness. Monsters in Bavaria. A generational spaceship where night doesn’t exist. And other mysteries and oddities.
“This Was Ophelia” by Tessa Gratton
When the moon rises, O puts on her brother’s clothes and haunts a New York City of the Roaring Twenties, looking for herself.
He studies me, eyes lingering on my mouth as I smile around my cigar. So long I feel a jerk of panic that he sees through my disguise. “Sir,” he murmurs, close enough I notice the spicy smell of his dark cigarette. “You already know who I am.”
“True.” My heart pounds and I can’t decide if I want him flirting with me because he knows what I am or because he doesn’t. “I’m O.”
“Oh,” Hal King says, shaping his mouth around it. He pops his tongue so a ring of smoke escapes.
I laugh, forgetting to modulate my voice, but Hal doesn’t seem to notice how girlish it is.
Corsets and Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances
Dark, urban fantasies come to life in the newest collection of Steampunk stories, Corsets & Clockwork. Young heroes and heroines battle evils with the help of supernatural or super-technological powers, each individual story perfectly balancing historical and fantastical elements. Throw in epic romances that transcend time, and this trendy, engrossing anthology is sure to become another hit for the fast-growing Steampunk genre!
“King of the Greenlight City” by Tessa Gratton
A young man becomes involved with an ancient wizard and his clockwork magic…
The summer that Everest Aleksander the Younger—called Ever by his many friends—set the housekeeper’s apron on fire was the summer his parents sent him to the family seat out on the Pearshire cliffs. It was the summer he met his intended, Alys Greentree of the Chenworth Niobes, the summer he turned seventeen, and the summer he cut off all his dark red hair. It was also the summer he fell over said Pearshire cliffs, after a bit too much champagne, plummeting off the iron staircase toward the tooth-like rocks below.
Fortunately, Ever could fly.
Werewolves and Shapeshifters: Encounters with the Beast Within
Werewolves and shapeshifters have morphed into the latest pop culture stars. This mind-bending collection includes thirty-two new and classic stories from the best writers in the genre
Werewolves and shapeshifters are the latest literary craze following vampires and zombies. The phenomenal success of the Twilight series, and the blockbuster movies that followed, has spawned a new obsession with these supernatural beings. From John Skipp, the master of horror, comes this definitive collection of thirty-two classic and new stories.
“The Cold that Flays the Skin” by Tessa Gratton
When the winter comes, Will’s skin is flayed off by the cold and he becomes someone new…
I’ve always been a sucker for moments. Like when you leap into a murky lake and startle the bluegills. Like when the sun bursts out from behind the rainclouds and this relief pours through you that you don’t have to sleep wet again. Like watching the baby bluejays hop around after they’ve been pushed from their nest. Like finishing the hardest essay exam ever. Like seeing a girl with purple hair and falling in love. Like the crackle of fire and the heat of cocoa sliding down your throat. Like when your favorite baseball team wind in overtime. Like selling your first website.
Those kinds of moments.
Like standing in a snowy field, when the coldest wind of the year snaps over your cheeks so sharply it feels like your skin will peel away.
