Demons, Prisons and Imaginary Friends: Children's Horror Indeed!

Guess who's back? Yup, my exams went kaput! Freedom is mine! Please excuse me while I laugh maniacally.(Ten minutes later) Right, I'm done. So now that my exams are over, it's time to kick back and boot up my novel and my blog. It has been a long time. 

So anyways, a long time ago on the forum of the online writer's group, Critique Circle, someone asked about Children's and YA horror. Now I'm not much of a fan of horror movies and stuff like that (too much gore for my liking). And the only horror stories I've read were Goosebumps which I had begun to come off since I started getting older. But hello, what's this? Someone posted about a series called Demonata and said that it was a gore-filled and bloodthirsty childrens' book. Now gore-filled and bloodthirsty don't really go with children's book so my curiosity was piqued.

I searched up Demonata and found the site of its author, the one and only Darren Shan. I devoured the material on the site (which was a lot by the way) and I found myself in a world of fiction which I never knew: Children's horror!  I was excited and it wasn't soon until I uncovered two more names from the hall of horror: Alexander Gordon Smith and Barry Hutchison. I looked up their respective books (Furnace and Invisible Fiends). God, I was now starving for a taste of a horror book! 

And then, on a recent visit to Chandigarh, I found them. A whole line of Demonata books in a book shop! Since the first three were missing I bought the fourth one, Bec, and read it hungrily. My hunger only grew. I credit Bec as being the first book which actually sent a chill down my spine. It was completely awesome! (And the way Orna died, creepy and not just because it was messy!)

 This is an entire world of new I am eager to explore. In fact, it would be interesting to try and write something along the lines of children's horror. It sounds fun and creepy.

So Demonata (vicious, mindless demons), Furnace (an underground prison for juvenile murderers full of the most terrifying creatures) and Invisible Fiends (not-so-imaginary friends coming back to take revenge on the those who forgot them)- weird mix, huh? 

Children's Horror, indeed.

P.S Darren Shan has some great writing tips which are different from any others I sign. They're much more practical and so far the best tips I've ever found on the internet. 

Cheers