YOUNG BLOOD:TONY JONES DISSECTS THE NOVELS ON THE YA STOKER PRELIMINARY LIST

The HWA must be congratulated for selecting a mostly strong, and wide ranging, preliminary list of ten novels for the YA category of the upcoming Bram Stoker Award. We are also delighted to note that Ginger Nuts of Horror has previously reviewed six of the ten selections in our Young Blood section of the site which is dedicated to YA dark fiction. Perhaps the Stoker judges have been keeping track of the books we have been reviewing? Nobody knows YA horror like we do.

In the UK I have worked as a school librarian for 25 years and over that period I have followed countless children and YA book prizes, the winners are virtually all selected by panels of book experts. Prizes which use voting systems do so to encourage reader involvement and are not true judges of quality, merely what is popular with the kids. The winner of the YA Stoker is also chosen by a vote. I wonder what proportion of the voting body have read any of these ten books?

The reality is this: unless you are a YA specialist the majority of the authors featured on the ballot will not be familiar to voting members of the HWA. So please take the opportunity to look through our reviews and find something to new to try. Jonathan Maberry is probably the only household horror big-name on the ballot, however, Broken Lands far from his best work and we hope those voting do not simply tick such a box on name recognition. That would be a real shame as some of the other novels are truly terrific, from the horror of deep-space in Courtney Alameda’s Pitch Dark with terrifying creatures that kill by sound, to  Christian McKay Heidicker’s highly original and even quirkier homage to 1950s SF horror Attack of the Fifty Foot Wallflower. Or the amazing fusion of race, gender and zombies in Justine Ireland’s Dread Nation, which is my favourite, those books really deserve your attention.
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Ginger Nuts does not normally grade the books we review, but for the sake of this competition we are breaking with tradition.

​Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE 9.5/10

During the American Civil War battle of Gettysburg, the dead begin to walk and all of a sudden both sides of the bloody conflict realise there is a new enemy and temporarily put their differences aside. This stunning novel picks up the story fifteen years later and is my pick of the ten novels on the Preliminary Ballot for the YA Stoker Award. This novel was totally brilliant. This was a stunning read which was the best example of world building in a YA novel I have seen in a long time. The word zombie is never used (‘shambler’ is the preferred term) and there is not the slightest hint of anything supernatural, it is merely portrayed as some sort of infection which science cannot yet explain. As Dread Nation is set fifteen years after the outbreak, America has begun to recover and the author very slowly paints a picture of what has happened over that period. Many cities in the east have been lost and there is now a Thirteenth Amendment that ensures there is still no equality between white and black people who are still severely downtrodden, a key theme of the novel.

On one level Dread Nation is a convincing horror novel, but it is much more than that, having much to say about race, equality and gender. It also has both a beautiful and memorable voice, being narrated in the first person by fifteen-year-old Jane McKeene who is black (or mixed-race) and is used as a virtual slave as a type of bodyguard (called Attendants) to a white woman. A new law, the ‘Negro and Native Re-education Act’ forces young black women to be taught a mixture of fighting skills and house etiquette and are seen as the first line of defence against any shamblers which might attack the walled settlements. They are entirely expendable, but it is still seen as a way to a better life for poor black people.
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Jane is a funny, sassy, proud and terrific character whom you’ll be rooting for all the way.  Dread Nation has so many positives it’s hard to know where to begin, once you get past the superb world building, it does not pull any punches using the racist language from the time, even developing new ideas such as black people are less likely to become infected and thus are more expendable. The best YA novel I have read it quite some time.  The zombie is dead, bring on the shambler! Unmissable.

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Pitch Dark by Courtney Alameda
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE: 9/10

 Pitch Dark by Courtney Alameda was the best crossover science fiction horror novel I have read in a while, aimed at slightly older teens which pulled no punches. It also featured some truly brilliant creatures, which were once human but have become changed after 400 years sleep stasis and kill by sound. Everybody loves a good space zombie! The main characters are two teenagers from different worlds, Tuck has slept for centuries on the spaceship USS John Muir, which as cargo holds one of the last surviving pieces of land from planet Earth. Laura is a ship-raider/scavenger, from a family of archaeologists, searching for lost pieces of history which is scattered across the galaxy.
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Before long Laura ends up on Tucks ship and as this is a teen novel expect the kids to hate each other, and then not... I thought the world-building in this novel was terrific and the chemistry between Laura, who comes from a post-apocalyptic Earth, and Tuck was first class. Throw in terrorist organisations, computer hackers, more mutants (lots of them Mourners, Weepers, and Griefers) a story told from multiple points of view and time periods and you have a terrific science fiction novel with a heavy dose of horror. A genuine knockout. Seriously recommended.

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Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower by Christian McKay Heidicker
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE: 8/10

Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower is easily the quirkiest and most original selection on the list and I applaud the HWA for including such an oddball of a novel. Vaguely set in the late 1950s fifteen-year-old Phoebe Darrow lives a transient life, has no real friends, travelling with her mother who was once famous for appearing with a huge gorilla and for her ear-piercing scream. She now works a nostalgia circuit of guest appearances. She was also a fan favourite for appearing in various states of undress, Phoebe, the “Wallflower” of the title does not physically look like her mother and most folks find her to be mildly disappointing. However, I loved this clever, cool and sassy teenager and found her to be a terrific and engaging lead, who just got better as her life began to unravel horribly. Why does it unravel? Enter the crazy fantasy horror….
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Phoebe’s mother believes her daughter was born by immaculate conception and that her father is some sort of immortal monster titan that lives in the sky and is endlessly searching for her and Phoebe. Weird stuff does follow the pair around and whenever nasty is about to happen they uproot and move. However, when Phoebe’s mother disappears in the sleepy town of Pennybrooke all sorts of bizarre stuff really does happen.  This book is so far over the top it is half way down the other-side, to you have to read it with a seriously large pinch of salt. There is not much serious horror on offer, but it is genuinely funny and comes across as some sort of mash-up of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Rick Riordan and lots of trashy 1950s monster science fiction. It’s a genuine shame it’s been marketed as a YA novel, as I feel adults will find it much more engaging than the audience it is aimed at. Essential reading for teenagers aged over twenty!

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The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE 7/10

The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson was a strange one, and probably too challenging for younger teens, it takes its time getting going, but is worth sticking with. It’s more dark fantasy than horror, but fans of the latter will happily cross genres with a highly impressive novel which cleverly integrates Irish mythology into a skewered modern Ireland. Two supernatural factions (the Judges and the Augers) battle for survival in a version of the country which is top heavy with magic, superstition, and strange goings on. The two factions are eternal enemies, and the main character is an Auger, ‘Wren Silke’, who has a powerful supernatural gift which is one of the main thrusts of the novel.
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Wren is a really engaging character, and for the sake of her family, goes undercover, as an intern, at the family home of their sworn enemy hoping to discover anything which might tip the ancient battle in her family’s favour. However, with magic the reality is rarely black and white, and the teenager gets into trouble along the way, especially as her power and gift is slowly revealed. I’ve seen reviewers compare the use of Irish mythology to Peadar O’Guilin’s magnificent The Call duology but I can’t see this book having the same impact as those two books which have developed into a sleeper YA hit in the UK. It’s certainly very ambitious, the author does not talk down to her readers, and I really enjoyed this quirky mix of genres.

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The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE: 7/10

 The Wicked Deep was an entertaining debut which blends dark fantasy, horror and a taste of teen romance. Ernshaw’s novel deserves to be a hit, probably with a young teen female audience who enjoy the supernatural mixed with engaging teen drama. The plot is centred around a local myth…  Two centuries ago in a small town in Oregon, three sisters were drowned in the ocean who were suspected of being witches. According to folklore, every summer since, they've emerged from the shadowy depths, temporarily possessing the bodies of drunk or stupid teenage girls and using them to lure boys to the harbour where they will meet their deaths. Something like sirens from Greek mythology.
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Over the years there have been a number of suspicious deaths which has fed the myth, and the town makes great tourist trade from the summer festival which celebrates its colourful history around the witches. Penny Talbot’s mother owns a local bed and breakfast and after she gives a summer job to Bo Carter, who she thinks is really cute, is sucked into the old town mystery and might even be the next victim. It’s definitely aimed at girls, and had a great mix of folklore, magic, witchcraft, the paranormal with young love blossoming in the background.

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The Night Weaver (Shadow Grove Book 1) by Monique Snyman
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE 7/10

Shadow Grove is one of those small sleepy American towns where nothing much ever happens and main character Rachel Cleary dreams of escaping and studying to be a vet at university. However, she is from one of the town’s oldest families and her house borders upon a huge forest that everybody avoids but do not say why. When the story opens a number of small children have disappeared and both the police and local community are strangely lethargic in doing anything about it. Suspiciously uninterested. A mystery begins to develop when Rachel and a former close friend something has happened to their parents and other adults. Before long we’re heading into Stepford Wife territory with a strong with of dark fantasy and fairy folklore with an entertaining novel which moves along at a good pace.
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The Night Weaver was a very easy to read page-turner and even though the supernatural being of the title which stalks the novel was not particularly scary the novel has much to commend and I could see young teenage girls in particular spinning through this in no time at all. The main character Rachel Cleary stole the show, engaging, funny, knows her own mind and is trying to overcome the death of her father. She is ably supported by a super cool local granny, a distant relative from Scotland and a cute guy from school. As the mystery develops it moves deeper into dark fantasy and fairy stuff and it will probably recall lots of other books. The Stepford Wife type spell held over the parents was intriguing, but in the end it was not explored properly which I thought was a shame. However, The Night Weaver was brimming with ideas, nice touches and was good company. 

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Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE 6/10

With some hype as a ‘feminist’ horror novel, and with some excellent reviews to back it up, I found Sawkill Girls to be slightly disappointing. Weighing it at 460 pages it was way too long and not enough happened, having said that older teenage readers will most certainly engage with the three leading teenage ladies more than I did. Set on an American island, Sawkill Rock, teenage girls routinely disappear, killed by an ancient creature which gets stronger as the novel progresses and after each meal. Three teenage girls, who are not exactly friends, have to fight to survive and along the way develop strange powers which they can use against the creature.
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The teenage issues part of the novel worked successfully enough, tackling issues such as friendship, self-harming and sexuality, however, the creature itself was unbelievably dull. It’s obviously aimed at teenage girls, but I wonder whether they will have the patience to stay the course, and if they do whether the pay-off at the end is worth it? I was not convinced. Buffy the Vampire Slayer it was not.

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The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE 5/10

I’m getting a bit tired of hearing and reading that Frankenstein is 200 years old, as it has turned into an excuse for authors to trot out tired reworkings of the original story. The Dark Descent tells the story of Elizabeth Frankenstein, who was adopted by the family Frankenstein when she was five to be a play friend for the young Victor who already had issues. In order to fill in the backstory, the author inserts reminisces, written in italics, and I found these to be exceptionally irritating. Most of the characters are fairly unpleasant, and I did not care too much for any of them.
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Elizabeth herself dominates the novel, her relationships with others such as Henry and Justine, not just Victor and is full of conflicts. Although there was nothing wrong with the writing, I felt I had been here before and the book bordered close to fan fiction at a few points. Perhaps a teenager less familiar with the story might enjoy it more than I did. Indeed, if you have never read the original Frankenstein you might have fresher experience.

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Broken Lands by Jonathan Maberry
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE: 4/10

Maberry returns to the zombie infested world of his excellent Rot and Ruin series with Broken Lands. Benny is back as a major character and if you have not read the Rot and Ruin series this will be disjointed read. Maberry’s 2010 was a terrific, fast-paced YA horror classic and this latest entry just pounds the same ground with a few new revelations.

Broken Lands has two major plot strands, set a few weeks apart, which do not cross until close to the conclusion of the novel. In the Benny Imura sequence Benny and his friends venture into the wasteland to try and establish contact with a colony they have not heard from in a while.  The second story strand features new characters, the main one being Gabriella “Gutsy” Gomez who is recovering from the death of her mother five days earlier. However, someone digs up her body and transports the body back to Gutsy. The mother is, of course, a zombie. But why has the mother been dug-up? Much of this story strand sees Gutsy investigating the history of the zombie infection, taking her well out of her comfort zone, into the dangerous conspiracy behind it. 
 
For a zombie novel Broken Lands lacked serious action and the story was just not strong enough to spin out over 500 pages. There was too much scene-setting and flash backs to events from previous novels and new readers will tire of these continual plot catch-ups. All the revelations which reveal the cause for the zombie outbreak just did not flow naturally into the plot and it became tiresome. ​

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Wormholes: Book 1 of Axles and Allies by Dane Kane 
GINGER NUTS OF HORROR GRADE: 3/10

Wormholes has been miscategorised and is not a YA novel, so I am not sure why it was on the ballot, it even states ‘Ages 9-12’ on its own back-page. I would not recommend this book to anyone over the age of ten, as it reads like a UK primary school novel or middle grade in the USA.  It deals, in quite simple terms, with issues of friendship, bullying and standing up for yourself, in a context which is more fantasy and horror. I’m very surprised this book made it onto the Preliminary Ballot, not just because of its age group, but because it is dull, uninspiring and holds little to enthuse a child into reading.
 
A bullied schoolboy, Danny Mendoza, discovers a wormhole in a pipe in his local park which transports him to a blandly described fantasy land. He finds himself in the land of Umberhold, where a crazy warlord is turning everything natural (trees, plants etc) into metal. When Danny is in this other world the time almost stops in our world and nobody notice he has been gone. Before long he realises his sister is lost in Umberhold, after following him through the wormhole, and with his new friends he goes on a quest to find her. Predictably he quickly finds the friends he lacks in the real world. The action was minimal, the dialogue clunky, the characters were flat and this is a book to avoid and is very unlikely to entice any kid into reading. If you want to find an alternative book where a kid is sent to another world try Peadar Ó Guilín’s The Call duology, it will blow you and your child away. Wormholes will not.
 
Tony Jones

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