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.)
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.)