The horrors of teen social media shaming with a supernatural twist If you’re on the hunt for a YA novel which effortlessly blends the horrors of teenage social media use with the tale of a 400-year-old witch trial then look no further. This was a superb read which carries a powerful message about the dangers of social media and peer pressure, delivering it in a naturalistic style, which never becomes heavy handed or preachy. In no time at all you will be rooting for the teenage protagonist Anna who is dragged through a horrific emotional wringer. The Burning is horror with a light touch, in reality the pain and long-term repercussions of one naive decision becomes scarier than any supernatural bogeyman. This novel should be essential reading for any 12-15-year-olds as it makes obvious the fact that these days you cannot delete anything from the internet and that your past is never truly behind you if it is leaked online. Anna learns this bitter lesson and although we do not know exactly what she has done until some way into the novel the reader has a fair idea. The fallout was severe and The Burning opens with Anna and her mother leaving their old life in Birmingham behind to live in a small coastal village near Saint Andrews on the east side of Scotland. Anna also changes her name and dreams of a fresh start. Starting any new school is difficult and Laura Bates completely nails the awkwardness of this transition, but before long Anna becomes friends with local girls, but bullying is never far away and soon her past catches up with her. The two new friends, Alisha and Cat, could have been fleshed out more, as could potential boyfriend Robin, but overall they were strong support characters. The bullying and group peer pressure was incredibly powerful, as was the ‘not our problem’ attitude of the school to any kind of protection for Anna. With bullying there are always ring leaders and teenagers can smell a victim from a mile away. The Burning has a second main story which nudges it into the horror genre, beyond the horrors of everyday teenage life (which were more than enough). As part of a school history project everyone has to research a topic of local interest and after Anna discovers an obscure reference to someone who was suspected of being a witch 400 year earlier, a retired local historian helps her with the project. As she uncovers the story, the plight of Maggie, she realises the ‘witch’ has many startling similarities to her own story and starts to feel a strong connection to the long-dead young woman, part of which whose story is told in flashback mode. Potentially there was scope to expand upon this older story, however, with the target audience being teenagers of 2019 I think the balance was probably right. This very clever novel, both in the 400-year-old story and Anna’s predicament raise startling similarities in how the woman is very often seen as the blame or cause, rather than the victim in these types of cases. Once again, this is naturally woven into the plot and any teenager reading The Burning should be able to pick up this underlying message; it is very easy to blame girls for what boys do to them. I loved the way the book ended and I hope any teenager who gets to the end of the novel will be shouting “COME ON ANNA!” as loudly as I was. If I was being harsh, you could say this ending was a tad too much like an American high school movie, but hey, it was cool anyway and I was very happy to go along with the flow. In my experience in YA fiction kids generally avoid books which obviously have a heavy-handed message, The Burning works because it combines the message of the dangers of social media with a top-notch story, believable story and a convincing dose of history. This might be the first YA novel by Bates but she has written widely on sexism and so it comes as no surprise that she tackles the subject in such a convincing manner. A totally irrelevant side-note: I grew up in the north of Scotland and the village of St. Monans really reminded me of a local village called Gardenstown on the North East coast. It was cliquey and had kirks (Scottish churches) everywhere! 5/5 Tony Jones THE BURNING BY LAURA BATES'The Burning lights a fire in you - one that makes you want to fight for change and ignite sparks in others so the fire spreads and spreads.' - HOLLY BOURNE A rumour is like a fire. You might think you’ve extinguished it but one creeping, red tendril, one single wisp of smoke is enough to let it leap back into life again. Especially if someone is watching, waiting to fan the flames .. New school. Tick. New town. Tick. New surname. Tick. Social media profiles? Erased. There’s nothing to trace Anna back to her old life. Nothing to link her to the ‘incident’. At least that’s what she thinks … until the whispers start up again. As time begins to run out on her secrets, Anna finds herself irresistibly drawn to the tale of Maggie, a local girl accused of witchcraft centuries earlier. A girl whose story has terrifying parallels to Anna’s own… The compelling YA debut from Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project and bestselling author of Girl Up. ‘SUMMER SCARES’ READING PROGRAM: GINGER NUTS OF HORROR BREAKS DOWN THE ‘YOUNG ADULT’ CATEGORY
3/4/2019
United for Libraries, Book Riot, and Library Journal/School Library Journal and the Horror Writers Association have banded together to publish a list of nine books they hope will act as gateways into the horror genre for new readers, both adult and child. You can read more about it here: https://bookriot.com/2019/02/14/summer-scares-first-annual-reading-list-announced/ The nine books below form their first Summer Scares Reading List and it is hoped that these books will lead their readers to other lists and books creating life-long readers. This is an admirable idea and certainly one worth getting behind. But will it work? As I am writing from a Young Adult fiction point of view I am only going to comment upon the titles in the YA section. You can draw your own conclusions on the adult titles by following the link above for more information. At first glance I found the YA selection to be very underwhelming and I see little point of releasing a list (and making such a big deal out of it) with so few books on it. Horror is a very wide-ranging genre and a mere three selections does not do it justice. However, we’ve been told the Summer Scares committee will also release themed lists of even more “read-alike” titles, so hopefully these later lists will include a much broader range of titles. These are the books included; I’m only going to comment on the YA three: YOUNG ADULT Rotters by Daniel Kraus (Ember, 2012) Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, edited by April Genevieve Tucholke (Speak, 2016) Devil and Winnie Flynn by Micol Ostow (Penguin Random House Publisher Services, 2015) MIDDLE GRADE Doll Bones Holly Black (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2015) Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2014) The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste (Algonquin Young Readers, 2016) Ginger Nuts of Horror reviewed Rotters in 2016 and this is what we said: “Highly original, and pretty demented novel, about a straight-laced teenager sent to live with the father he doesn’t know in rural Iowa. Moving to the sticks is the least of Joey’s worries as is father soon introduces him to the world of modern-day grave robbing. Kraus is relatively unknown in the UK, but is an established filmmaker, columnist and novelist in the USA.” Rotters is an outstanding novel but it is not a good entry point for new horror readers. It is a very challenging read and many teenagers will find it very difficult and it will not have broad appeal. From a librarian’s point of view, it is also a VERY difficult sell, I know this from experience. I have had this book in my school library since 2012 and it has been borrowed ONCE in those six or seven years! I recommend horror all the time, know YA inside out, so public librarians who do not know the subject so well are going to struggle to sell this book even more than I have. For programs like this to succeed the chosen books require hooks which will reel teenager readers in with quick thirty second sells. This book is great but has the hook of a lead balloon. Our accompanying article has a selection of horror novels with great teen grabbing hooks. Here’s three examples from the other article: The Death House: Teens with an undisclosed virus are sent to remote prison hospitals to die. Frozen Charlotte: Tiny killer dolls the size of a Nickle will sew your eyes shut if you don’t watch out. The Call: Kids are ripped out of time for three minutes and sent to ancient Ireland to fight or die. I have been a school librarian since 1994 and over these years have seen many reading programs rise, fail and fall. What makes a good one? First and foremost, it is the quality of the books and this is where Summer Scares comes up short, the books just are not good enough. You need a strong short-list to back up your flag-ship program, I do not even think three books is substantial enough to qualify as a proper short-list. The school where I work participates in such a program, called the Trinity School Book Award, which we internally call the Six Book Challenge, and because of the strength of the short-list a massive amount of kids have read all six books. It is not genre based but connected by theme. Over twenty local schools have participated, but it would have achieved the fraction of its success if the books had not been appealing to the kids involved. Selection is the key and the group of librarians on the committee spent a massive amount of time and discussion on the shortlist. There are some big names of the Summer Scares committee, so I’m surprised by the limited choice of books. I was equally surprised to see the Devil and Winnie Flynn on the list of three books, as it is a very slow and dull story of a teenage girl who goes to work on a supernatural virtual reality TV show with her aunt. It might have some fans, but I would never consider this book as a good entry point for those new to horror. It is loaded with horror in-jokes, is not scary and many kids will find the slug-slow pace turgid. One of Ginger Nuts of Horror reviewers thirteen year-old-daughter covered this book in the accompanying article. She is a very confident YA horror reader and she also gave it the thumbs down and found the ending particularly weak. ‘AJ’, or reviewer, also provides a list of what she believes as excellent entry points to kids and YA horror, many of which have previously been reviewed on Ginger Nuts of Horror. Some of these cross into other genres including fantasy, very realistic horror and an adult novel accessible to stronger teen readers. The third book is probably the strongest Slasher Girls and Monster Boys a multi-author anthology which features many top YA authors including Kendare Blake, Jonathan Maberry, Carrie Ryan, Danielle Paige, Cat Winters and Marie Lu. Who between them sell a lot of YA novels. Short stories play a major role in horror fiction, it’s a shame so few kids seem to read them. Let’s hope this book will help change that. Summer Scares has the likes of Grady Hendrix involved in the program and dropping his own recommendations. I love Grady, but I’m afraid his name will mean nothing to any teenager, and it’s a shame there are not any contemporary YA authors on their panel. I’m sure the likes of superb authors, such as Amy Lukavics, would have loved to be involved. You can find out who the panel of six are here: Of course, you’re welcome to disagree with everything I say. Should you fancy it check out what the Monster Librarian has to say about Summer Scares, she really knows her stuff and has and informed opinion: Ginger Nuts of Horror tracked down Becky Spratford who is on the panel and she had this to say and comments upon why the lists are so short: “The Summer Scares Program is NOT supposed to be comprehensive. The idea is to take 3 titles in each category picked by American Librarians to get horror in the mix for established summer reading programs. Then we will be leading them to longer lists like your [Ginger Nuts of Horror] and others to give them more options. It’s more an advertisement to librarians saying ‘Hey, here are some horror titles that are preapproved. And hey, here are some more lists.’” Let’s hope that Summer Scares truly does expand beyond these very limited initial selections and taps into the vast range of reading lists on the Young Blood section of Ginger Nuts of Horror and other sites which cover YA otherwise this program will disappear without trace and very quickly. Be sure to check out our accompany review of Devil and Winnie Flynn which also includes a dozen great horror ‘entry’ novels chosen by our teen reviewer ‘AJ’ for kids aged around 10-14. Tony Jones A reality TV shows investigates the Jersey DeviL This YA novel follows the story of Winnie, who recently lost her mother, as she goes to live and help the aunt she barely knows on her reality TV show called Fantastic Fearsome which she both produces and presents. The latest filming takes her to one place her mother would never go: New Jersey, an area her mother has a history with. Winnie doesn’t believe in the supernatural but as the filming progresses she hears and feels things that make her question whether there is some truth in the legend of the Jersey Devil. I found the TV reality show setting quite entertaining because of the mix of fake, staged and real elements of paranormal activity as well as the teenage goings on behind the scenes, which kept it fairly light hearted. As horror novels go it was not scary, so if you like to jump you’ll have too look elsewhere for a dose of real chills. Because it mixes horror with the television setting it might attract a wider readership, but real horror-hounds are going to feel short-changed as there is even less blood than scares. I liked the numerous pictures which were integrated into the story which were pretty good pieces of art, but they didn’t really add much to the book apart from breaking up the flow of the text. The interview parts were interesting, with a lot of detail, but again it didn’t really add anything to the characters or the plot and seemed like padding in a book which was already quite long and slow moving. I enjoyed picking up the many movie references along the way including: The Shining, The Blair Witch Project, Buffy, The Evil Dead and many more I probably missed. But if you aren’t a horror movie buff like me you’re probably quite confused when Winne mentions ‘I love you and I know’, a famous Star Wars reference. Winnie would frequently talk about a horror movie clique or trot out a reference. I’m also not sure if it was a good idea Winnie shading classic movies like The Blair Witch Project, one of the best horror films of the last twenty years. The author may have thought they we being original but quite a lot of the novel was too top heavy in references to other books and films. I’m not sure if this would be a good book for the new horror reader as many of these in-jokes are going to go straight over their heads. I also failed to understand why Winnie called herself the ‘Final Girl’ when barely anyone died? Also, would a non-horror fan know what a Final Girl was anyway? The pacing in this book was extremely slow and when it started to build up, the end result was very disappointing. The big ‘reveal’ was seriously lame. The majority of the book was presented with Winnie writing to her best friend and this slowed things down further and was a serious tension killer. The Jersey Devil made one appearance with no imagination put into its arrival and it was decidedly underwhelming. Overall, I would not recommend this book if you’re looking for a good scare or a solid introduction to horror, it’s too slow and not enough happens. Many readers may well find it very boring. I have listed some of my favourites below. If you like your horror to bring on sleepless nights The Devil and Winnie Flynn is not the book to do that. I live in Britain and did some internet searching on the Jersey Devil as I was not familiar with the myth, so perhaps an American teenager might identify more with it as the novel provides lots of extra information about the real myth. 2/5 Here’s some horror novels I’ve really enjoyed in the last couple of years, aimed at kids from around 10-14. Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory (13+) – Horrible Scottish novel about a teenager who murders three kids by the time he is sixteen. Richard Farren-Barber – Closer Still (13+) – A lonely teenage girl’s best friend is the ghost of her best friend. Holly Black - Doll Bones (10+) – Creepy story about a haunted doll made out of the bones of executed murderers. Alex Bell - Frozen Charlotte (10+) – Amazingly scary tale of tiny Victorian dolls which haunt a huge house on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Alex Bell – Charlotte Says (prequel) (10+) – The backstory of how the Charlotte dolls ended up in Skye, heading back to the early 20th century. Kevin Brooks - The Bunker Diary (13+) – One of the darkest modern and most realistic horrors ever. It even shocked my Dad! Scott Cawthon - Five Night at Freddy’s: Silver Eyes (11+) – It might be based around a computer game but the first book still had loads of jump scares. Jeremy De Quidt -The Wrong Train (10+) – Terrific collection of modern horror stories built around a little boy who gets off his train at the wrong stop. Neil Gaiman – Coraline (10+) – A little girl finds a dark world lurking behind her wardrobe. E Lockhart – We Were Liars (13+) – Horror or not? Don’t decide until you get to one of the finest twist endings around! Lou Morgan – Sleepless (12+) – Kids take new drugs to help them succeed in exams and quickly end up regretting it. Peadar Ó Guilín - The Call (11+) – One of my favourite books. Irish kids get pulled out of time and sent back to an ancient faerie world where most are stalked and killed. Peadar Ó Guilín – The Call 2: Invasion (11+) – This is one of the rare occasions where a sequel is as good as the original. Stephen King - The Long Walk (13+) – My introduction to Stephen King and a favourite of my Dad! 100 boys have a walking race to the death in intense dystopian thriller. Cliff McNish – Breathe (10+) – Wonderful ghost story about a little boy who moves into a house full of kid ghosts and nobody to play with. Patrick Ness - A Monster Calls (10+) – This one made me cry. A tree monster asks a sad little boy a question every night at 12.07am. Why? What an amazing book. Sara Pinborough – The Death House (13+) - This made my cry too. Kids with undiagnosed illnesses are sent to Death Houses to die. THE DEVIL AND WINNIE FLYNN BY MICOL OSTOW AND DAVID OSTOW17-year-old Winnie Flynn, a closet horror fan with a starkly realistic worldview, has never known her mum's sister, Maggie: a high-profile reality TV producer. But in the wake of her mother's suicide, Winnie is recruited by Maggie to spend a summer in New Jersey, working as a production assistant on her current hit. At first Winnie figures that she has nothing to lose; her father has checked out, and Maggie is the only family she has left. But things get increasingly weird on set as Winnie is drawn into a world of paranormal believers and non-believers alike. |
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