• Age: 14 to 18
• Grade: 9 to 12
• Reading age: 14 to 18

“A haunted house thriller packed with cryptic mystery, dark humor, and bone-chilling twists.” —Ryan Douglass, New York Times bestselling author of The Taking of Jake Livingston

The Haunting of Hill House meets Sadie in this “genuinely terrifying” (School Library Journal, starred review) psychological thriller following two teen girls navigating the treacherous past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart.

Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend. So when her mother inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario where she spent her childhood summers, Daisy jumps at the chance to escape. But the house is nothing like Daisy expects, and she begins to realize that her experience with the supernatural might be no match for her mother’s secrets, nor what lurks within these walls…

A decade later, Brittney is desperate to get out from under the thumb of her abusive mother, a bestselling author who claims her stay at “Miracle Mansion” allowed her to see the error of her ways. But Brittney knows that’s nothing but a sham. She decides the new season of her popular Haunted web series will uncover what happened to a young Black girl in the mansion ten years prior and finally expose her mother’s lies. But as she gets more wrapped up in the investigation, she’ll have to decide: if she can only bring one story to light, which one matters most—Daisy’s or her own?

As Brittney investigates the mansion in the present, Daisy’s story runs parallel in the past, both timelines propelling the girls to face the most dangerous monsters of all: those that hide in plain sight.

Mattel is a global learning, development, and play company with a portfolio of iconic consumer brands, including American Girl, Barbie, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, and Thomas & Friends. Liselle Sambury is a Trinidadian-Canadian author who grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and her brand of writing can be described as “messy Black girls in fantasy situations.” She is the author of the YA novel Blood Like Magic and its sequel, Blood Like Fate. In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to helping demystify the sometimes complicated business of being an author.

Liselle Sambury's profile page

“A haunted house thriller packed with cryptic mystery, dark humor, and bone-chilling twists. Sambury approaches the grim recesses of intergenerational trauma with diligence and bravery. The odd ghosts, fearless prose, and raw character dynamics make this an absolute page-turner and a win for psychic fiction.”

Ryan Douglass, New York Times bestselling author of The Taking of Jake Livingston

*"Even with the large cast of characters and dual narratives, Sambury carefully and clearly builds an intricate story that uses metaphors of gardening to spotlight the cyclical nature of sexual violence while providing a genuinely terrifying haunted house ghost story...An excellent choice for fans of sophisticated horror that includes both paranormal and real-life terrors, such as Elana K. Arnold’s Red Hood."

3/1/23

"On one page, this book sings a lullaby, and on the next, it throws you into a whirlwind you never could’ve seen coming. At its core, Delicious Monsters is a screaming declaration to the world that Black girls are complex and flawed, capable of everything, and that we matter. I'll be putting Delicious Monsters into the hands of everyone I know with a pulse."

Brittney Morris, author of Slay and The Cost of Knowing

*"A haunted mansion is the site of unmistakable horrors and horrific mistakes...The paranormal logistics are complex, and while Daisy is at the center of it all, Brittney’s investigation cuts through to discover layers upon layers of trauma that imbue the house with its supposed supernatural, if not psychological, power. As the saying goes, haunted people haunt people.
A story that is careful to make its ghosts and monsters painfully real."

12/15/22

"One part breathtaking ghost horror, one part gripping thriller, and an all-round absorbing read. Delicious Monsters turns an unflinching light onto the cycles of trauma and the ghosts that follow."

Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the These Violent Delights Duet

"The deeply creepy mansion delicately ties together two main characters who, despite being separated by 10 years and having very different backgrounds, are both fierce and compellingly imperfect, though one is perhaps less reliable than the other. A must-read."

1/1/23

"Delicious Monsters grabs you by the throat in the first chapter and refuses to let go until the very end. I was on the edge of my seat for this whole book. Sambury’s chillingly beautiful prose will stay with you for ages."

Victoria Lee, author of A Lesson in Vengeance

"Full of eerie ghosts and secrets most sinister, Delicious Monsters is the perfect read for a dark and stormy night. I read most of it from behind the safety of my fingers and was left thoroughly haunted."

Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows and Small Favors

“Scary, complex, emotional, lived-in, ambitious, Liselle Sambury’s Delicious Monsters is a can’t miss. A Canadian gothic epic (northern gothic?) that has a lot to say about the stories and lies we tell ourselves about our own families. Oh, and did I mention it’s scary?”

Adam Cesare, author of Clown in a Cornfield and Video Night

"Using speculative elements to cultivate genuinely terrifying scares whose perpetrators straddle the line between imagined and real-life monsters, Sambury empathetically highlights cycles of abuse, depression, and generational trauma."

1/30/23