City of Nightmares (Schaeffer)

“Gotham” meets “Strange the Dreamer” in this thrilling young adult fantasy about a cowardly girl who finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where crooked politicians and sinister cults reign and dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare. Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified-terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear. Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that's monstrous only in appearance, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the city, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a questionable organization that may or may not be a cult. But being a member of maybe-cult has a price. In order to prove herself, Ness cons her way into what's supposed to be a simple job for the organization-only for it to blow up in her face. Literally. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, now Ness and the only other survivor-a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her-must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack, even as the horrors of her past loom ominously near.

Ness is forced to make a twisted deal with the Nightmare Phantom, only to find herself embroiled in the explosive fallout of the agreement when a botched assassination attempt unleashes chaos into the City of Newham. Nineteen-year-old Ness used to have a vehement terror of Nightmares-people who'd been turned into their worst fears while they slept. Through two assassination attempts, an explosion, and a faustian bargain with a dream demon, she's finally working through those fears. Unfortunately, Nightmares aren't the only dangerous thing in Newham. Working at a speakeasy where gunfights are common and death is a regular occurrence, Ness is forced to reckon with all her other fears-including her fear of mortality. It's easy to die in Newham, but it's hard to live. So, when the Nightmare Phantom, the monster that turns people into Nightmares-shows up, asking her another favor, she agrees, but only if he turns her into a Nightmare. One of her own choosing, something bullet proof and strong and able to live without fear. But when Ness's attempt to fulfill the bargain goes wrong, things start to spiral out of control. Now, Ness is in the crosshairs of enemies old and new, and this time, she can't run from her problems. If she wants to survive, she's going to have to conquer the most difficult enemy of all: herself