That's a funny header, but I couldn't think how else to put it, but I'm currently drafting (and drafting and drafting and drafting) my new Idea of the Moment, a YA horror, and I wondered - horror is something of an emerging genre in YA right now. There have been a few (dating all the way back to my beloveds, Stine's Fear Street), but not many. The only horror that seems to revolve regularly around teenagers in mainstream culture is the slasher movie.
A friend of mine and I was talking about what made horror, and he said that he thought a prerequisite of horror was the mother protecting her child. I'm not sure what I think about that, but one of the upcoming horrors is Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics, about a pregnant girl in the 1800s, and mine features the mother/child bond strongly, as it's set across two timelines: the mother when she was a teenager, and the daughter 20 years later.
So, is there anything special or particular about YA horror? Does it appeal to you, or not? How does it differ from 'adult' horror?
A friend of mine and I was talking about what made horror, and he said that he thought a prerequisite of horror was the mother protecting her child. I'm not sure what I think about that, but one of the upcoming horrors is Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics, about a pregnant girl in the 1800s, and mine features the mother/child bond strongly, as it's set across two timelines: the mother when she was a teenager, and the daughter 20 years later.
So, is there anything special or particular about YA horror? Does it appeal to you, or not? How does it differ from 'adult' horror?