BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN WORLDS, HORROR AUTHORS WHO WRITE YA AND ADULT HORROR, PART 2: I-R
16/8/2021
If you missed the first post, follow the link: ADULT HORROR WRITERS WHO ALSO WRITE YA FICTION (AND VISA-VERSA) PART 1: A-H Interestingly, considering the huge number of horror writers there are, it is not an especially long list. Jonathan Maberry and Sarah Pinborough are two of my personal favourites from this section and fine examples of authors who write adult and YA fiction equally convincingly. Mastering both age groups is an artform and if you do not know many of these authors, they are well worth exploring. For example, I am sure not many of you knew Joe Lansdale or Graeme Masterton wrote YA! It is not an authoritative list, and it has been compiled mainly from going through my old Ginger Nuts of Horror reviews, which date back to 2015. I would also like to thank the Twitter horror-sphere and the Books of Horror Facebook group who helped with many of the obscurer suggestions. I am sure there are many other great examples out there, so get in touch if there are any glaring omissions and they may feature in a follow-up article. Regarding the short accompanying reviews: if it is a book I have previously reviewed on Ginger Nuts of Horror it is introduced with “Here’s what we said about….” Others might have reviews of books I have read but have never previously reviewed online. The late additions, books I definitely have not read, have blurbs which I have borrowed from either Fantastic Fiction or Amazon. These are books to be read further down the line. The dates I have used have also originate from Amazon or Fantastic Fiction. Note, they do not aim to be complete lists, and I have selected what I have found to be a good sample most relevant to this project. The authors are listed alphabetically.  DAVE JEFFERY Dave Jeffrey is a very versatile author who is equally accomplished writing about werewolves, zombies as he is about yetis. His impressive back catalogue includes the Necropolis Rising series, Tooth and Claw (2019) and the Frostbite duology (2017-20) which involve this diverse range of creatures and more. However, over the last couple of years he has genuinely upped the ante with a fascinating change of pace, A Quiet Apocalypse (2020) and its sequel Cathedral (2021), in which survivors of a virus live in a post-apocalyptic world where those with hearing are hunted and used as slaves or killed. Part three, The Samaritan (2021), was even better and I urge you to check this excellent series out. Dave is one of the few authors who has frequentlyly switched from adult to YA and back again with his engaging supernatural Beatrice Beecham series which saw six books published between 2007-18, with another volume currently in the works. HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT ‘THE BEATRICE BEECHAM’ SERIES Beatrice Beecham's Cryptic Crypt is an entertaining and enterprising fun read about a group of four teenage misfits (the ‘Newshounds’) who get wrapped up in a supernatural mystery in their sleepy small coastal town. The series is lightly spooky, but also very good natured; the joy of the first kiss and walks on the pier holding hands and all that cute stuff. I found the main character Beatrice to be really engaging and innocently likable, and not really the type of girl to get wrapped up in the weird reawakening of World War II and Neo Nazis. The books can be read in any order and this review is based on reading which are technically books five and six, the latter features the crazy reappearance of a ghost-ship which begins to possess some of the characters. Don’t worry though, Beatrice is soon on the case, leading a memorable fightback and outstanding climax. 2021 should see another book in the series released. AGE RANGE 11+ JOHN HORNOR JACOBS John Hornor Jacobs kicked off his career off in style with two awesome adult horror novels Southern Gods (2011) and This Dark Earth (2012) before making a fascinating sidestep into YA with the Twelve Fingered Boy Trilogy (2013-15) a series which is so cool it deserves to be in every school library in the country. He followed this with The Incorruptibles Trilogy, which although was adult fantasy, also had YA leanings. John then found his stride with the beguiling and critically acclaimed A Lush and Seething Hell (2019). This is another author I hope returns to YA one of these days, but whatever he publishes, I always keep a keen eye on what he is up to. The Twelve Fingered Boy was also ranked 31 out of 50 in the Ginger Nuts of Horror top 50 YA horror novels of the decade. HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT THE TWELVE FINGERED BOY (2013) John Hornor Jacobs is an incredibly versatile author who effortlessly moves around the genres, and from YA to adult. He is equally skilled in writing about cosmic horror and zombies, as he is with fantasy, deserving to be much more widely read than he probably is. I first came across him after loving his beguiling adult horror debut about the blues, Southern Gods and followed that with an entertaining zombie novel This Dark Earth and his fantasy series The Incorruptibles. I reckon this author could turn his hand to just about anything and proves it with The Twelve Fingered Boy series, a superb coming of age tale set in a juvie prison. Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon does not mind being locked up as he sells contraband sweets and treats, and for him anything is better than living with his drunk mother. Soon a new kid, Jack, who freakishly has twelve fingers arrives on the wing, and when he gets angry or triggered develops telekinesis powers which he struggles to control. Soon others, including a sinister doctor, begin to show interest in Jack and it is not because they want to help him. Shreve quickly takes the vulnerable Jack under his wing in this commanding fusion of fantasy, horror and teen coming-of-age drama which kicks off an outstanding trilogy in which Jack’s superpowers really come out to play. An engaging series which has been criminally ignored by the YA world. AGE RANGE 12+ LEX H JONES Lex has been widely published in many horror anthologies and wrote The Other Side of the Mirror (2019) and Nick and Abe (2015) for adults. In 2019 Lex made a fascinating change of direction, with a Middle Grade reimagining of the life of HP Lovecraft, The Old One and the Sea (2019). It was as charming as it was delightful, and I hope Lex continues to write for children. REVIEW OF THE OLD ONE AND THE SEA (2019) Writing a book for children about the life of HP Lovecraft was never going to be an easy task. But Lex Jones completely nails it in a quirky tale which wisely avoids his adult politics and instead focusses upon how he developed his imagination for what would later feature in his fiction. It is not a YA novel, but more aimed at kids aged 7-10 and in many ways is a tale of grief and coming of age of a young boy who loses his father. Seeped in loneliness and melancholy HP is living on a quiet beach town and discovers a reef with a weird alter and coins with strange symbols. Adults with an interest in Lovecraft will undoubtedly enjoy this quirky read also and pick up on a few things which will pass child readers by. It is an incredibly gentle read, and I could well imagine this being a wonderful bedtime story for a parent to read to their child. Just don’t talk politics! AGE RANGE 7-10 GRAHAM JOYCE Few authors effortlessly moved through the genres better than the late great Graham Joyce, who wrote horror, science fiction, fantasy and literary fiction. I have read many of his adult novels, my favourites were probably The Tooth Fairy (1996) and The Silent Land (2010) and of his non-horror YA I also enjoyed TWOC (2005). However, my personal favourite was always Do the Creepy Thing (2006), which was published as The Exchange in the USA. This terrific YA horror novel deserved much wider recognition than it ever got and truly showcased the originality of this very savvy writer. HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT DO THE CREEPY THING (2006) Two teenagers are cursed after breaking into an old lady’s house. They play a dare type game where you hover above the face (nose to nose) of the sleeping person who the house belongs to. Caz acquires a bracelet during one of these dares which begins to make her feel different. Not strictly a horror novel, but both clever and inventive, as you would expect from the late Graham Joyce who wrote several great books for teens.  T KINGFISHER AKA URSULA VERNON T Kingfisher is the pseudonym for Ursula Vernon, the latter exclusively writes for children, including the eleven book graphic novel series Dragonbreath (2009-16) and the six book Hamster Prince series (2015-18). Kingfisher predominately writes fantasy, both for children and adult, but in recent years has turned to horror with the highly regarded The Twisted Ones (2019) and The Hollow Places (2020), both of which I have read, and thought were great. Kingfisher’s fantasy effortlessly moves between adult and children, including The Raven and the Reindeer (2016) and A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking (2020). Her children’s fiction has been predominately fantasy, rather than horror. BLURB FOR A WIZARDS’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING (2020) Fourteen-year-old Mona isn't like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can't control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter, and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt's bakery making gingerbread men dance. But Mona's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona's city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona's worries... KATHE KOJA Although Kathe Koja is undoubtedly best known for her 1991 cult classic debut The Cipher, over the subsequent thirty years her widely varied career has taken in science fiction, horror, fantasy, romance and historical fiction. Between 2002-2008 Kathe also wrote seven, generally non-horror, YA novels featuring a range of teen issues including friendship, family dramas and animal stories. They were Straydog (2002), Buddha Boy (2003), Blue Mirror (2004), Talk (2005), Going Under (2006), Kissing the Bee (2007) and Headlong (2008). Her adult output also includes the Under the Poppy (2010-15) science fiction trilogy and Christopher Wild (2017) which is historical fiction. BLURB OF ‘HEADLONG’ (2008) The Vaughn School. Home of domed ceilings, gleaming checkerboard floors, and the Vaughn Virgins: the upper stratum of girls who have perfect grades, perfect lives, and perfect friends. Lily Noble is a lifer '" she knows all the rules. Then sophomore year, Hazel Tobias arrives as a scholarship student, with her model's looks and unconventional family, and shows Lily everything she's been missing. Can you ever fit in someplace you don't want to be? As Lily befriends Hazel, both girls discover what it means to dive deep beneath the surface '" of friendship, of commitment '" and to live life with all their hearts, with all they are, headlong. DANIEL KRAUS I am a huge fan of the YA fiction of Daniel Kraus, who is equally proficient at writing for adults also, his superb most recent YA effort Bent Heavens (2020) was deservedly nominated for a YA Bram Stoker Award in 2021. Between 2009-13 Daniel kicked-off his career with three YA horror and dark fantasy novels, The Monster Variations (2009), the superb Rotters (2011) and Scowler (2013) before teaming up with Guillermo del Toro for the novelisation of the Oscar winning film The Shape of Water (2018) and later completing the massive zombie epic The Living Dead (2019) based on the original idea of zombie godfather George Romero. Along the way he has written Middle Grade novels also, Trollhunters (2015) also with del Toro, and two other series Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (2015-16) and finally the Teddies Saga (2020-21). WHAT WE SAID ABOUT BENT HEAVENS (2020) Kraus has a superb back-catalogue of dark/horror YA fiction, including the highly recommended Rotters, and this latest release maintains this high standard. Eighteen-year-old Liv Fleming leads this genre-bending thriller which dances around horror and science fiction in a very convincing, Ohio, small-town setting. Teenage readers will easily tap into the troubled psyche and angst of a girl whose world was turned upside down when her father disappeared two years earlier, but it is the circumstances surrounding her father which makes this story fascinating. Lee Fleming was a very popular English teacher at the school Liv attended and before he disappeared indefinitely, vanished for a much shorter period before reappearing, naked, on the school campus. He was not the same man and was deeply psychologically traumatised claiming to have been abducted by aliens, with patchy memories of being experimented upon. Officially, it was presumed he suffered a mental breakdown and the family struggled to cope with the very public emotional fallout. Once Lee Fleming returns after his first disappearance, he becomes obsessed with aliens and constructs a series of six very dangerous traps in the woodland surrounding his house and names them; Amputator, Hangman’s Noose, Crusher, Neckbreaker, Abyss and Hard Passage. I found Bent Heavens to be a great read and it has enough strings in its bow to attract differing types of teen readers with its convincing blend of horror, drama, and thriller. In the end the story did not go where many readers might expect it to and is backed up an impressive twist (although I saw it coming) which was also completely heart-breaking. Ultimately, even though Liv might not have been the most sympathetic of characters, her pain and grief were convincingly portrayed in a powerful novel about the lengths people will go to know the truth. Even if the answers are going to provide more pain, there is at least closure. AGE RANGE 13+ JOE LANSDALE The creator of the Hap and Leonard (1990-2019) series will need no introduction to the majority of you. Few authors effortlessly move and blend genres better than Joe Lansdale, also responsible for the cult-classic Bubba Ho-Tep (2003), which was turned into the awesome Bruce Campbell film. When not writing horror, Lansdale is equally at home with westerns and thrillers, including Cold in July (1989) which was also turned into a great film and Edge of Dark Water (2012), another high-quality thriller. He is also a prolific writer of short stories, novellas and is involved in graphic novels. However, he is not particularly known as a YA author, but has dipped into this reading age on a couple of occasions, including All the Earth Thrown to the Sky (2011) and Fender Lizards (2015) which has YA leanings. BLURB FOR ALL THE ‘EARTH THROWN TO THE SKY’ (2011) Jack Catcher's parents are dead - his mom died of sickness and his dad of a broken heart - and he has to get out of Oklahoma, where dust storms have killed everything green, hopeful, or alive. When former classmate Jane and her little brother Tony show up in his yard with plans to steal a dead neighbour’s car and make a break for Texas, Jack doesn't need much convincing. But a run-in with one of the era's most notorious gangsters puts a crimp in Jane's plan, and soon the three kids are hitching the rails among hoboes, gangsters, and con men, racing to warn a carnival wrestler turned bank robber of the danger he faces and, in the process, find a new home for themselves. This road trip adventure from the legendary Joe R. Lansdale is a thrilling and colourful ride through Depression-era America.  TANITH LEE The late Tanith Lee wrote over ninety novels, the majority of which were science fiction and fantasy, but she also released a few horror titles, dabbled in mystery, eroticism and literary fiction. Of her incredible output Kill the Dead (1980) and sequel Sabella (1980), the four-book series Secret Books of Paradys (1988-93), and the Blood Opera Trilogy (1992-4) were the most obviously horror. Although some of her adult fiction bridged into YA, The Castle of Dark Trilogy (1978) was specifically aimed at children. She also wrote picture books and was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award, for Death's Master (1980). BLURB FOR THE CASTLE OF DARK BOOK ONE (1978) Although she leads an overprotected life with the two old hags, Lilune knows she possesses a special gift. When she 'calls' the musician, Lir, to her prison-like castle, she knows she must avail herself of the opportunity to escape and explore the world. But travelling south of the castle, Lilune and Lir realize that they aren't alone - for an ancient, infectious evil accompanies them, which instils terror in everyone they meet. Lir dislikes arrogant Lilune but finds himself intrigued by her and the source of the evil. Is it within Lilune, or does it come from a deeper source? When the pair become separated, he carries on searching for her. Finally, Lilune returns to her castle in despair, believing that she must be imprisoned to protect the world from the evil within her. But Lir follows her, and discovers that the root of the evil lies deep beneath the castle... JONATHAN MABERRY The prolific Jonathan Maberry is probably best known for the Joe Ledger (2009-18) series which begins with the awesome Patient Zero, Ghost Road Blues (2006), Glimpse (2018), Ink (2020), the Dead of Night (2011-18) series and a huge range of comic and graphic novels. I am a massive Maberry fan and whilst Joe Ledger was going strong, he published the awesome five book YA Rot and Ruin series (2010-15) and later a second interconnected series called Broken Lands. This is undoubtedly the best YA zombie series ever written and Maberry’s transition to teen author was totally seamless and amongst the most impressive jumps I have come across. He has also written other YA novels, including the Nightsiders (2015-16) series. HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT THE ROT AND RUIN SERIES (2010-15) Rot and Ruin is an outstanding series (also known as the Benny Imura sequence) set in a zombie infested world. Two brothers hunt the creatures, but not for the most obvious reason, as they are a slightly different breed of zombie killer, which plays a major role in this excellent adventure horror story. Leading up to this, when Benny turns fifteen, he needs to find a job otherwise his rations will be cut in a beautifully described isolated community of survivors. This was Maberry’s YA debut, which remains the best zombie teen series in the business, through a combination of strong characterisation, clever plot and very well developed post-apocalyptic world near the Mexican border. Although they are primarily aimed at adults, many of Maberry’s other series deserve to find teen audience, Joe Ledger, Dead of Night and Glimpse have all been popular titles in my school library. Maberry is simply a terrific author to gets teens reading, with his intensely fast-paced fiction, loaded with page-turning action sequences and likable characters which kids can easily connect with. The author recently returned to this world in a second series which begins with Broken Lands, and sees Benny Imura return with a host of other characters and further zombie adventures. I am not sure how successful that will be as the zombie craze never truly took off in YA like it did with adult horror. Rot and Ruins direct sequel, Dust and Decay, is also top notch. AGE RANGE 12+ TIM MAJOR Tim Major is best described as a writer of speculative fiction, rather than horror, and his four novels and novellas cross horror, fantasy and science fiction. Machineries of Mercy (2018) is definitely YA, the others are adult reads. His adult fiction includes You Don’t Belong Here (2016), Snakeskins (2019) and Hope Island (2020). If you have a teenager who loves computer games, they might really dig Machineries of Mercy. HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT MACHINIERIES OF MERCY (2018) Machineries of Mercy was originally published in 2018 on CHITEEN, the YA section of the troubled CHIZINE publishing house. There problems have been well documented elsewhere, so if you are interested in this quirky dystopian thriller, perhaps consider waiting until it is republished on a new label later this year. I don’t know how fashionable the computer game SIMS is with kids today, but my fourteen-year-daughter remains an avid fan and there is an element of that system in this novel, there is also a large slice of Orwell’s 1984, John Wyndham’s Midwich Cuckoos and other novels of this type will probably spring to mind. Told through a double-narrative, Lex and Ethan, are involved in a break into a powerful company Mercy HQ and after he is caught, and imprisoned, things go from bad to worse. The story takes its time revealing what is going on and being set slightly in the future an Orwellian style world is chillingly mapped out in a Wyndham style village. Lex and Ethan are railing against the system created by the all-powerful Mercy HQ, but ‘the man’ is big and very powerful. Once caught Ethan is not sent to a prison, he is sent to a virtual reality village called Touchstone, adult readers will quickly realise this is very similar to Westworld. However, this is a freaky place and is incredibly well drawn out by the author. There are loads of glitches in the system, the ‘prisoners’ so to school and many are avatars mixed in amongst the real prisoners who band together. Like 1984, the objective is brainwashing and breaking the spirits of the inmates. In one great scene Ethan runs in a long-distance race and is doing well, but eventually finishes last, as he is an avatar, the system is rigged for him to lose. Whilst he fights to survive in the virtual reality world Lex tries to solve the mystery of where he disappeared to. Things might fit together a bit too easily in the end, but for teens who like computer games and YA dystopian novels it was very entertaining. AGE RANGE 12+ GRAEME MASTERTON Scottish horror legend Graeme Masterton’s adult fiction needs no introduction. Actually, I would not know where to start and he was deservedly presented with a lifetime award by the Horror Writer’s Association a couple of years ago. In a career spanning six decades he has terrified and shocked readers with the likes of The Manitou (1976) and is as good as ever with recent titles Ghost Virus (2018) and The House of a Hundred Whispers (2020). Over the years he made an occasional foray into YA writing for two Point Horror spin-off series, Hair Raiser (2001) for Mutant Point Horror and House of Bones (1998) for Point Horror Unleashed, whilst contributing to many other YA Point Horror anthologies. HERE’S THE BLURB FOR HAIR RAISER (2001) Kelly has just started as a trainee hairdresser at Sizzuz, working for the sinister, but creative, Paul. One evening, having swept up the hair from the salon floor, she has a nasty experience disposing of it in the basement. Could there be something living there, something hairy?  ADRIAN McKINTY I have read many Adrian McKinty novels, none of which are horror, as he specialises in thrillers, including the Michael Forsythe Series (2003-07), the Lighthouse Trilogy (2006-08), the Sean Duffy Series (2012-17) and many standalone novels, of which my favourite was Fifty Grand (2009). In 2011, out of the blue, he wrote his single YA horror novel Deviant. It was outstanding and I hope he writes another one day. HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT ‘DEVIANT’ (2011) I really love this guy as he can expertly move around the genres and age groups and is best known as a highly distinguished crime novelist. Deviant is his only foray into YA though and blends his trademark mystery style with clever crossovers into horror with a troubled teenager biting off more than he can chew when he is sent to an experimental school in Colorado where a killer awaits and a tale which seamlessly blends horror and thriller. BRIANA MORGAN Since 2016 Briana Morgan has published two plays Touch: A One-Act Play (2016) and Unboxed: A Play (2020), also her debut collection The Tricker-Treater and Other Stories (2020). Her debut publication was in 2015 with the YA novel Blood and Water, which she has since followed with Reflections (2019) and Livingston Girls (Livingston Witches Book 1) in 2020. BLURB FOR ‘LIVINGSTONE GIRLS’ (2020) What if you could become a witch? When my parents shipped me off to an all-girls boarding school, I thought I was in for a boring junior year. The last thing I expected was discovering magic and a secret coven of witches. Although I’d wanted to lie low at my new school, I couldn’t deny how tempting it was to join the witches. As I got more involved in the coven, I discovered something else about myself: I had feelings for my roommate, another girl, for the first time in my life. Suddenly, learning magic didn’t seem so scary. But nothing exists in a vacuum, and along with becoming a witch, I learned our coven must go up against a witch-hunter. Not only that, but he’s the headmaster of the boys’ school across town. Now, I have to juggle my feelings for my roommate, my complicated new friendships, my status as a witch… and schoolwork. Maybe this year won’t be as boring as I thought. SARAH J NAUGHTON Sarah J Naughton started writing YA back in 2013, with a second novel in 2014, however, since then she has exclusively written adult thriller mysteries which include Tattletale (2017), The Last Gift (2017), The Girlfriend (2018), The Mothers (2020) and most recently The Festival (2021). It is a shame Sarah departed the world of YA as both The Hanged Man Rises (2013) and The Blood List (2014) were great reads, with her debut being nominated for the prestigious Costa Children's Book Award. Interestingly, both of Sarah’s YA novels are set in historical periods (Victorian and Sixteenth Century) whereas her adult novels have contemporary settings. Sarah and I exchange the occasional horror themed email and one of these days I might just try and convince her to return to YA horror. THE HANGED MAN RISES (2013) I read The Hanged Man Rises when it was originally nominated for the Costa Children's Book Award and was greatly impressed by a very clever page-turner set in a claustrophobically drawn and dangerous Victorian London. The descriptions are so vivid you can almost feel the smog and smell the squalor. Blended into a story of murder is the fact that the author naturally makes the reader aware how difficult it was for children raised in poverty in the Victorian era. Steeped in the gothic tradition, after their parents are killed in a fire Titus Adams and his little sister Hannah are left to fend for themselves before coming into the orbit of a policeman involved in apprehending a child killer. As the story moves on, the murders restart and the supernatural is beautifully blended into the story, with Titus going to any lengths to protect his little sister. Dangers lurk around every corner in this gripping chiller which is ripe for rediscover. AGE RANGE 12+ JAMES PATTERSON These days James Patterson undoubtedly deserves his reputation as a low-brow thriller writer in which you leave your brain at the door, with many novels ‘co-authored’ with others who undoubtedly do all the heavy lifting. However, it was not always like that, back in the day Patterson wrote a couple of excellent YA series, Maximum Ride (2005-15) and Daniel X (2008-15) and to a lesser extent Witch and Wizard (2009-14). HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT MAXIMUM RIDE (9 BOOK SERIES 2005-15) Many readers might have a doubletake when they see the mainstream writing machine James Patterson appear on a YA horror list, but this is a very entertaining fantasy/science fiction series. The story revolves around six teenagers who are 98% human and 2% bird after a series of scientific experiments. The six kids can fly and when the bloodthirsty Erasers who are half men, half-wolves genetically engineered by sick and sinister scientists, kidnap one of the group they have to go on a rescue mission with fourteen-year-old Max leading the group on a dangerous adventure where they might just have to save the world along the way. This was fast paced exciting fun, that heads into post-apocalyptic fiction as the series develops. AGE RANGE 11+  CHRISTOPHER PIKE Christopher Pike arrived on the YA horror scene in the mid-1980s, around the same time as RL Stine, combined the pair revolutionised the genre and went onto sell millions of books. Pike is probably best known for his Chain Letter (1986-92) duology, Remember Me (1989-95) trilogy, The Last Vampire (1994-96) series, and the 24-book series Spooksville (1995-8). Like RL Stine Pike dabbled, with limited success, in adult fiction, some of his titles included: Sati (1990), The Season of Passage (1992), The Listeners (1994), The Cold One (1995), Blind Mirror (2003) and Falling (2007). Like RL Stine, his YA fiction inspired many of the next generation of horror writers. BLURB OF ‘SATI’ (1990) The first adult novel from a bestselling author of young adult fiction. Michael picks up a young hitch hiker in the Arizona desert, bringing her home and letting her sleep on his couch. The next day, she talks about being God and strange things begin to happen to everyone coming in contact with her. SARAH PINBOROUGH Sarah Pinborough is one of the few authors who is equally skilled writing for adults as she is for teens. First published in 2004, her early novels The Hidden (2004), The Reckoning (2005) and Bleeding Ground (2006) were all adult horror before The Nowhere Chronicles Trilogy (2010-12) arrived as Sarah Singleton before returning to her original name to retell dark fairy tales. However, in 2015 and 2016 she really moved through the YA gears, publishing two awesome novels back-to-back, with The Death House (2015) and 13 Minutes (2016), the former was a particularly powerful and moving dystopian read. In 2017 she hit the jackpot with the adult twister Behind Her Eyes, which was adapted by Netflix and has followed that with other big selling thrillers. It’s sad to say, but I feel Sarah’s days in YA are over, but I hope I’m wrong. HERE’S WHAT WE SAID ABOUT ‘THE DEATH HOUSE’ (2015) When I recommend books to teenagers, I am always on the lookout for titles which the readers can make strong emotional connections with and in my experience, there are few better than The Death House. In the years I have been recommending this amazing dystopian thriller I always tell the kids to watch out for the stunning ending and if I enquire how they got on, more than a few admit to crying at the very sad end. Certain readers think the ending is unnecessarily downbeat, I am not sure though, but it is amazing that it encourages such debate. One thing is for sure: there are a lot of teenagers out there who are truly passionate about this knockout of a novel. You could argue The Death House is not strictly a horror story, but it is so good I add it to just about any list I can. It has a haunting mix of dystopia, where everything is kept enticingly vague, and teen novel which has been rightly compared to classics such as Lord of the Flies. Children who are infected with a virus, which they have been told is deadly, are shipped to a remote orphanage on an island which they call ‘Death Houses’ because the survival rate is zero. What follows is a quite beautiful and haunting look at the teens who live there, waiting to die, whilst trying to live. The story is seen from the point of view of Toby, who has been in the Death House longer than everybody else (who are all dead) and what changes when a couple of girls arrive amongst the latest bunch of inmates. YA writing has never been better as young love begins to blossom on the island. An absolute stunner and I loved it more than you can ever imagine. AGE RANGE 13+ Tony Jones TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE[COMIC REVIEW] SPLASHES OF DARKNESS: RAYGUN ROADS THE HEART AND SOUL OF YA HORROR REVIEWS |
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