Why Teens Need Horror Stories, a guest post by Leslie Lutz

The world is a pretty scary place. Climate change looms ever-present, and our politics have become increasingly divisive (and downright violent at times). If that isn’t enough to create a stew of anxiety, let’s add a soupçon of annihilation with the threat of nuclear war hanging over our heads for the last seventy-plus years. All this would make you think that a light romcom is in order, or an escapist sci-fi novel. So why in the world do we hand teens novels intended to scare the pants off them?

Let’s take a look at what horror novels really are. They’re stories in which a protagonist fights against a seemingly overwhelming force—or even an omnipresent evil—facing stakes that go beyond life and death (the “fate worse than death” stakes are common in this genre). Luckily, in the teen category, that plucky protagonist usually wins in the end.

And it’s the last part of this setup that answers our question.  Why do we want teens reading about vicious monsters and serial killers? Because in this subgenre of horror, the teen protagonist prevails, despite enormous struggle, and is forever changed and shaped—often in positive ways—by the struggle itself.

Teens are dealing with all the fears adults must endure regarding our changing world, but teens also have to deal with something adults don’t: these fears of annihilation are all very new to young people. In fact, they’ve just arrived in our troubled planet Earth, and by the time they’re perusing the teen bookshelves at their school library, they’ve had very little time to process all the bad stuff parents and guardians have finally let on about. Add to this shock to the system all the normal wear and tear of the teenage years: fear of high school bullies, identity crises, and perhaps even a troubled home life that they have no power to change. I can confidently say that teens need a win more than we adults do. They need that assurance that yes, you can prevail in the face of great adversity, and you can have control over your own life.

Horror novels are cathartic. Books like Kate Alice Marshall’s Rules for Vanishing lead the reader on a terror ride that allows them to let out that scream they’ve been holding in for too long. Stories like Horrid by Katrina Leno allow you to vicariously experience what it’s like to be out of control of your emotions when your environment is too stressful to endure.

Sure, there are elements in these books that are fantastical and don’t apply at all to a teen’s regular life. I certainly hope none of our young readers are facing something like the alternate dimension that opens up in Rules for Vanishing to swallow teens whole. But even though these elements are bizarre and “out there,” they will feel oddly familiar to teens. Horror novels exaggerate what teens are already feeling and provide a convenient metaphor for working through issues.

For example, the protagonist in Kate McLaughlin’s Daughter learns that her mother has been lying to her all her life, and that her father is actually an imprisoned serial killer. Although these events are unlikely to happen to most of your library patrons, teen readers will recognize the thread of disillusionment that runs through this deftly written story. What do you do when you discover your parents or your guardians are not the people you thought they were? How do you make sense of the world when the people who are supposed to lead you into adulthood are deeply flawed?

In short, horror novels, despite their fantastical underpinnings, help the teen readers feel seen.

So next time you’re a bright-eyed teen approaches your desk with the question, “Do you have any recommendations?” consider reaching for a book with claws.  They’ll thank you later.

My favorite horror reads for teens:

Horrid by Katrina Leno (Haunted house, unreliable narrator, very creepy)

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall (Wilderness survival, an adrenaline rush)

Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon (a child’s game gone horribly wrong, Stranger Things vibes)

Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall (Mind-bending imagery, alternate dimensions)

Daughter by Kate McLaughlin (Edgy, disturbing, ultimately restorative)

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert (A powerful spirit, revenge, atmospheric prose)

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson (Carrie vibes, unbeatable tension)

The Depths by Nicole Lesperance (Creepy underwater caves, a lush island, an unusual premise well executed)

One Last Breath by Ginny Myers Sain (Reincarnation, serial killers, a sweltering Florida summer)

Alex Van Helsing by Jason Henderson (Vampires! Need I say more?)

Sweetest Darkness by Leslie Lutz (My book! Haunted safe, psychic teen, tragic love)

Meet the author

Leslie Lutz is the author of SWEETEST DARKNESS, a young adult horror novel that draws inspiration from the lonely beauty of the American Southwest. Her poetry and prose have appeared in various journals, including Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal, Typishly, Orca Literary Journal, The Lyric, and Raintown Review. She has been a speaker at the DFW Writers Convention, Border Regional Library Association, and Thrillerfest in NYC. Her debut YA thriller, FRACTURED TIDE, was voted best of 2020 by Suspense Magazine and was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard pick. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter, along with three cats and two spoiled chickens.

Website: https://lesliekarenlutz.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/leslie_writes

About Sweetest Darkness

A teenage psychic is drawn deep into the honeycomb of an abandoned hotel—and into a cat-and-mouse game with a predatory entity—in this riveting new supernatural horror novel.

“SO SCARY, IT GIVES DARKNESS A BAD NAME! When I finished the last page, I realized I was still shivering.”—R.L. STINE, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street

Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he’s been having dreams about it… dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town’s more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths.

But the dreams are relentless. When Quinn braves the hotel’s darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren’t the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they’re there, cold and restless and angry).

No. He’s been called by something worse: a predatory, inhuman entity that threatens to wipe Gypsum off the map, along with everyone in it. And wrongly—accidentally—he’s let it out. It takes the shape of a handsome young man. It walks. It talks. It laughs. It can even make you laugh. But its appetite for death can never be sated. Quinn has always had the power to see the future… can he find the power to change it?

ISBN-13: 9780823454945
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication date: 09/24/2024
Age Range: 14 – 17 Years

Filed under: Guest Post