Episode 10: Young Adult Horror

“Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”
― Iain Reid, I’m Thinking of Ending Things

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fae06b08-49de-48cd-aa55-96e260d78c7b We are joined this week by a very special guest, Cameron Chaney! You can find him on YouTube making bookish videos or writing articles for the Nightma re on Film Street website. His book, There Are Monsters Here, is now available on Amazon.

Books Mentioned:

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

This book is about a teenager girl that was brutally murder three hundred years ago when a man threw her body down a well. That man was never brought to justice, so now that dead teenage girl is trapped as a spirit taking out her revenge on other child killers.

The story starts when a boy with stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood. He is followed by another spirit, but this one is more dangerous. From there, the two characters are drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the shrines of Japan.

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys compiled by April Genevieve Tucholke

Each story draws from a classic tale- sometimes horror, sometimes not- to inspire something fresh and terrifying. Some of my favorites include In the Forest Dark and Deep and The Birds of Azalea Street.

Fear Street series by R.L. Stine download (10)

A 90s YA horror series that revolves around Fear Street, a street in Shadyside, Ohio where weird and horrible things happen.

The Merciless by Danielle Vega

This story is told from the perspective of a teenage girl, Sofia who has recently moved to a new school where is makes friends with a clique of popular girls. There is also another girl that is a bit of an outcast. She is dresses weird and there are rumors that she has been chanting weird things at school. As good Catholic school girls, Sofia’s new friends become convinced that Brooklyn is possessed by a demon and proceed to kidnap her and attempt to exorcise the demon.

Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan download (12)

Why does the exclusive boarding school Blackwood have only four students? Kit walks the dark halls and feels a penetrating chill. What terror waits around the next corner? This was a good gothic story set in an eerie boarding school. The edition I read had been updated to include modern technology.

download (13) The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

The Dead House follows a girl named Kaitlyn who may not actually be a real girl. She is the alter ego of Carly, a girl who has been institutionalized after the tragic death of her parents. However, in the mind of Kaitlyn and Carly they are like twins sharing a body. Carly gets the body during the day and then sometime in the evening, Kaitlyn takes over. The story follows Kaitlyn specifically. The entire book is set up using different forms of media like psychiatric reports, interviews, and letters that Kaitlyn and Carly write to each other, which is their only way of communication. However, one night the letters from Carly stop coming and Kaitlyn is left to worry alone in the dark. This is when she begins hearing voices in her head, when the nightmares begin and when she gets the feeling that she is being watched by some unknown presence, not to mention the smell of wet fur in her room at night. We slowly begin to wonder if Kaitlyn/Carly is really crazy or if there is something much darker at work.

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