YA Horror?

JetFueledCar

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I love horror. I love being scared--specifically the kind of fear I get from horror. (I do not like the kind of clawing panic that my various phobias give me when left unchecked.) I love gruesome gory disgusting things happening on the page--they make me happy.

I love YA. I love the transitional period where people are trying on identities like they try on shoes. I love the moment when characters realize for the first time, "I'm allowed to do/decide/learn that for myself?" I love this stuff.

When I was writing the first draft of this novel, YA horror was just not a thing. Everything was urban fantasy, three-book structure. I've had the sense, as I go into the YA section recently, that YA horror is becoming more of a thing. Katherine Howe, I think, qualifies. So does ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD, though I don't think the author's next book does. From the book jackets, Rin Chupeco writes glorious YA horror that I need to get on reading right now.

So does anyone have recs? Am I alone in seeing this start to happen? Is it something that the market will grow for? I want to rewrite this MS as full-blown horror, but I'm leery of putting that much time into writing something no one will want to read. (I write to be read and to engage with my readers, with the caveat that I am the first and frequently most important of those readers.)
 

cornflake

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I love horror. I love being scared--specifically the kind of fear I get from horror. (I do not like the kind of clawing panic that my various phobias give me when left unchecked.) I love gruesome gory disgusting things happening on the page--they make me happy.

I love YA. I love the transitional period where people are trying on identities like they try on shoes. I love the moment when characters realize for the first time, "I'm allowed to do/decide/learn that for myself?" I love this stuff.

When I was writing the first draft of this novel, YA horror was just not a thing. Everything was urban fantasy, three-book structure. I've had the sense, as I go into the YA section recently, that YA horror is becoming more of a thing. Katherine Howe, I think, qualifies. So does ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD, though I don't think the author's next book does. From the book jackets, Rin Chupeco writes glorious YA horror that I need to get on reading right now.

So does anyone have recs? Am I alone in seeing this start to happen? Is it something that the market will grow for? I want to rewrite this MS as full-blown horror, but I'm leery of putting that much time into writing something no one will want to read. (I write to be read and to engage with my readers, with the caveat that I am the first and frequently most important of those readers.)

When was YA horror not a thing? R. L. Stine is pretty old by now, heh. He was writing YA horror 30 years ago and I think Lois Duncan predates him? Dean Koontz has been producing YA for a decade or more if we're talking current stuff, and he's certainly not alone.

In short, it's never not been a thing, afaik, so feel free to write it!
 
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JetFueledCar

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When was YA horror not a thing? R. L. Stine is pretty old by now, heh. He was writing YA horror 30 years ago and I think Lois Duncan predates him? Dean Koontz has been producing YA for a decade or more if we're talking current stuff, and he's certainly not alone.

In short, it's never not been a thing, afaik.

RL Stine is middle-grade, which in my library means shelved in children's rather than YA. But I take your point. I just never saw anything I would qualify as "horror" shelved with the other YA books from the time Twilight hit shelves until Kendare Blake put out the aforementioned ANNA. It's fairly recent that I've seen more than a few titles that both fit the design and conventions of the YA that's being published right now and are designed to be scary.

Also hold on, is Odd Thomas young adult? It's shelved in adult at my library. My library has nothing by Koontz shelved in YA, I just checked. Admittedly, for whatever reason the times I tried to read Koontz I couldn't get past the first few pages. So I'm not all that familiar with what he writes.
 

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Okay, let me clarify and hope my brain isn't totally dead yet (it's midnight and it's been a looooong day):

I am referring to "current" YA here. Young adult that came out since young adult started being a profitable category. Young adult since it stopped being confined to 200-300 pages or so and started pushing 400 as a matter of course. Young adult with the current set of publishers, the ever-increasing word count guidelines, the popular trope conventions, the shorthand that cover designers have started using so you know which subgenre of your favorite genre the book falls under (I've also noticed them getting better about only having three covers in the entire age category, but that's a separate discussion). Young adult that came out... when I was a young adult. Or later. I'm biased, naturally, but that's what I think of when I think of the YA market.

In terms of horror, I'm a Lovecraft fan. I collect board games based on Cthulhu, and my introduction to visual horror was Silent Hill. That's the "mood" of horror that I enjoy the most.

What I'm seeing more of is the intersection in these two things. What I'm especially seeing is more of that intersection being done well. I have in my head an early attempt at bringing horror to this market that I hated so much I didn't even get to the actual horror.


It may be that these books have existed all along and I just wasn't looking in the right places before. I'll accept that answer and go digging for what I missed before. But if it's not just my imagination that there's a place for these and that place is growing... Well, I'm excited.
 
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cornflake

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Stine has famous MG (Goosebumps) and YA series (Fear Street), as well as standalones and smaller series in both categories.

Koontz has a slew of stuff -- I don't know from the titles, sorry, I kind of hate his writing in general.

Oh, Christopher Pike, also a YA horror staple.
 

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Stine has famous MG (Goosebumps) and YA series (Fear Street), as well as standalones and smaller series in both categories.

Koontz has a slew of stuff -- I don't know from the titles, sorry, I kind of hate his writing in general.

Oh, Christopher Pike, also a YA horror staple.

*laughs nervously* Oh good, I was worried you liked him (Koontz) and I was going to offend you by saying I've never finished a thing he wrote.

Also yes, as you suggested somewhat, I did mean "current" YA.
 

cornflake

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Okay, let me clarify and hope my brain isn't totally dead yet (it's midnight and it's been a looooong day):

I am referring to "current" YA here. Young adult that came out since young adult started being a profitable genre. Young adult since it stopped being confined to 200-300 pages or so and started pushing 400 as a matter of course. Young adult with the current set of publishers, the ever-increasing word count guidelines, the popular trope conventions, the shorthand that cover designers have started using so you know which subgenre of your favorite genre the book falls under (I've also noticed them getting better about only having three covers in the entire age category, but that's a separate discussion). Young adult that came out... when I was a young adult. Or later. I'm biased, naturally, but that's what I think of when I think of the YA market.

In terms of horror, I'm a Lovecraft fan. I collect board games based on Cthulhu, and my introduction to visual horror was Silent Hill. That's the "mood" of horror that I enjoy the most.

What I'm seeing more of is the intersection in these two things. What I'm especially seeing is more of that intersection being done well. I have in my head an early attempt at bringing horror to this market that I hated so much I didn't even get to the actual horror.


It may be that these books have existed all along and I just wasn't looking in the right places before. I'll accept that answer and go digging for what I missed before. But if it's not just my imagination that there's a place for these and that place is growing... Well, I'm excited.

To start with, YA isn't a genre, it's a category. It was also profitable long before you started reading it, sorry. I'm guessing there were longer YA books before you started reading it too.

As to the current market, I don't read much horror, so can't help you besides the big names, sorry. As to whether they're current -- Fear Street is still pubbed, afaik, and there's a movie in the works. Pike is certainly still producing in droves; Koontz is ... I'm sure someone will come along with other authors.
 

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To start with, YA isn't a genre, it's a category. It was also profitable long before you started reading it, sorry. I'm guessing there were longer YA books before you started reading it too.

As to the current market, I don't read much horror, so can't help you besides the big names, sorry. As to whether they're current -- Fear Street is still pubbed, afaik, and there's a movie in the works. Pike is certainly still producing in droves; Koontz is ... I'm sure someone will come along with other authors.

...GDI, I meant marketing category/age group. I caught it everywhere else. It's midnight and I should be asleep. That's my excuse.

My reference to page count is based on observations, both mine and my favorite YA author's (Tamora Pierce), who put an acknowledgement in one of her post-Deathly-Hallows books that makes me smile. Roughly quoted, "Aly's story is a duet because JKR (I haven't met her!) taught US publishers that kids will read long books, so I don't need four books to tell a complete story."

...I say "roughly quoted" but that's give or take a word or two. Anyway, I share it more because I think it's funny than because I think this is an argument we should be having, and if it is, it's probably one that belongs in the YA forum rather than Horror. It's enough to say that the "standard" length of YA books has gone up, and up, and up. That is observation based on QueryShark, these forums, my public library, and my own bookshelf.

Anyway.

I think I responded to an earlier version of your comment and missed the encouragement at the end, which has probably made me unnecessarily defensive. I will take the encouragement to write the horror and let the market (or lack thereof) sort it out. Thanks much for reminding me I am not, in fact, alone in wanting to scare and horrify impressionable teenagers.

Still open to recs, incidentally.

*looks at clock*

In the morning.
 

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I love reading YA horror! And definitely yes, it is in fact a thing! Some of the more recent books I've read: The Girl From the Well by: Rin Chupeco (2015) and Daughters Unto Devils by: Amy Lukavics (2015) both were graphic and awesome to read. If I think of more newer releases, I'll let you know.
 

DavidBrett

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RL Stine's Fear Street, along with the Point Horror line he wrote for are some of the earliest YA horror I read. Christopher Pike also has some great chilling works out there, but if you want something/one much more recent and wildly popular, I'm surprised no one's mentioned Darren Shan, author of the "Cirque Du Freak", "Demonata", and "Zom-B" series. And before you say it, they're definitely not MG (at least not "The Demonata", which was wildly gory and horrific). Another series that might border the MG-YA line is "Invisible Fiends" by Barry Hutchinson, and the "Mokee Joe" series by Peter J. Murray
 

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The first writer that came to mind was Ransom Riggs, who wrote the Miss Peregrine novels. There're three---well, technically four---in the series.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Hollow City
Library of Souls
Tales of the Peculiar

Tales of the Peculiar
more or less takes place in the universe, and covers some of the urban legends mentioned throughout the series. An interesting read, but not as good as the actual books. The first is the best, and the creepiest. Though beware Tim Burton's movie; it didn't do the novel justice at all.
 

JetFueledCar

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RL Stine's Fear Street, along with the Point Horror line he wrote for are some of the earliest YA horror I read. Christopher Pike also has some great chilling works out there, but if you want something/one much more recent and wildly popular, I'm surprised no one's mentioned Darren Shan, author of the "Cirque Du Freak", "Demonata", and "Zom-B" series. And before you say it, they're definitely not MG (at least not "The Demonata", which was wildly gory and horrific). Another series that might border the MG-YA line is "Invisible Fiends" by Barry Hutchinson, and the "Mokee Joe" series by Peter J. Murray

This is going to sound super nitpicky, but I put Cirque du Freak down when they said the snake-boy was slimy. There are many things I will give you leeway and creative license on, but I love snakes. Do not misrepresent your snakes to me. (IIRC, that wasn't the first thing I'd found wrong with the snake-boy. It was just, weirdly enough, the thing that made me mad enough to put it down--probably because it's a myth that I learned better when I was five years old and reading my first book about snakes.) Haven't tried his other works, but I'll go back and have a look. Thanks!

The first writer that came to mind was Ransom Riggs, who wrote the Miss Peregrine novels. There're three---well, technically four---in the series.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Hollow City
Library of Souls
Tales of the Peculiar

Tales of the Peculiar
more or less takes place in the universe, and covers some of the urban legends mentioned throughout the series. An interesting read, but not as good as the actual books. The first is the best, and the creepiest. Though beware Tim Burton's movie; it didn't do the novel justice at all.

*does a giddy dance of glee about Miss Peregrine*

There is one reason I haven't finished the series. I am bad at rereading. I get bored quickly when rereading, but I don't remember books one and two well enough to jump into book three.

Agreed on the movie. Someone asked me about the movie and I said "It's a Tim Burton movie." Riggs was so excited when Burton was chosen as director, and I was excited for him--and then I saw the movie and IMO, it's about 20% "adaptation of the book," 80% "what Tim Burton thinks is cool." I also, IIRC, called it Alice in Wonderland with mutants. (This is, of course, my opinion. And for the record, I love Tim Burton's adaptation of Wonderland--I just think it has no place in Riggs' world of the peculiar. If it were an original movie, or weren't based on a book I was so fond of, I might have felt differently.) Also I will admit: The skeleton army was fantastic.
 

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I'm sure there'd be an easy way to play catch-up so you can read Library of Souls. I thought it was a fitting ending to this part of the series. However, Riggs said recently that he's writing another trilogy for the series, and that part one should be out later on this year (though I haven't heard any updates lately. This might have changed since then). If you can re-read the series, I highly reccommend it. It's one of my favourites.
 

DavidBrett

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I thought Miss Peregrine was more a YA modern fantasy with darker elements - if we're throwing those kinda recs around, I'm not going to miss the chance to plug the AMAZING Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy!
 

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I thought Miss Peregrine was more a YA modern fantasy with darker elements - if we're throwing those kinda recs around, I'm not going to miss the chance to plug the AMAZING Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy!

*steps up on stool with megaphone in hand* I JUST STARTED SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT AND IT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I'VE READ IN A HUNDRED YEARS or at least since I discovered Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians.

Also, to be clear, I didn't protest that Goosebumps is MG because I don't like MG. I LOVE MG. MG, on the whole, doesn't take itself too seriously, is lighter, is quicker to read (I am a slow reader because I am compelled to read and process every single word). My track record for finishing MG is higher, proportionately speaking, than my track record for finishing YA. I don't read as much of it, but I'm more likely to fall head over heels in love with it when I do read it. I only point out the difference because it's a different market, and as such, impacts how I construct and target what I write. I'll gleefully read just about anything as long as I like the voice and characters. Or, alternately, if it freaks me out. :D
 

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YA is always in flux in terms of the next big thing. I think planning for the next trend to be somewhat like timing the stock market. So I would just write it and see what happens. Hopefully YA horror DOES become a big thing, but I love both. :)