Ah! what a GREAT Halloween topic, and y’all know how much I LURVE Halloween:D
Click here to take a peek at the LA Times feature I produced called L.A. RIP which has clips of movies that haunted my YA heart. The classics, yaknow, like Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Even though these stories aren’t YA, they terrified me as a teenager and inspire my writing.
So, what’s at the heart of a great monster? Um, the really scary answer? What we fear about ourselves. Take Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. We all have good and bad inside of us. There’s a wonderful Cherokee tale about an elder Chief telling his grandson about life. He tells his son that every man has two wolves living inside of him. There’s a good wolf–full of gratitude, joy, reverence, respect, truth, happiness, and love. But there’s a bad wolf to–full of betrayal, manipulation, deceit, selfishness, secrecy and calculation. The young grandson went wide-eyed and asked his grandfather which wolf would win. To this his grandfather replied, whichever wolf you feed, my son. The Shadow Series explores this duality. In the series, during the 13th year, a teenager must decide what kind of person they will become. The person they choose to leave behind, their alter ego, populates a shadow world of beings who want nothing more than to become human and invade earth. These shadows are the monsters in the series. Some are good, some are bad and all of them are desperate to become human.
The monsters in YA fiction feed the bad wolf. And they don’t have to have fangs or green or furry or sparkling skin. The truly scary ones are the ones that seem just like you and me. And what makes every great YA monster so intriguing? Most of them are vulnerable to something or someone. They aren’t all bad, some even want to end their battle with the dark side but can’t or are unwilling or don’t know how.
Here’s some of my recent favorite YA Monster titles, what are yours?
From Bad to Cursed by Katie Alexander
Bad Girls Don’t Die
The Haunting Season by Michelle Muto
Be careful what you let in…
The Existence Series by Abbi Glines
What happens when you’re stalked by death?
Eeep, did I tell you I’m a part of this new super cool group of 11 other writers! I’m really excited to have been asked to join the YA Society of Storytellers. I’ve been honored to know these authors over the years and respect and admire their work so much. Check out these amazing authors here and get in on the book club here! We post every other Friday. And our next topic is Cover Love!
