I want to know the scariest moments you've come across in YA fiction, and how far you're pushing it in your own work...
Yeah, the scene in The Knife of Never Letting Go where Todd kills the Spackle.
loads of these just sound like standard horror lit and I didn't think that was a big thing in YA.
Can I derail the thread slightly and ask what redeemed all these books mentioned for you, or perhaps a better question; why do you think these dark scenes were needed? Because loads of these just sound like standard horror lit and I didn't think that was a big thing in YA.
Well... THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO was pretty thrilling and suspenseful, so the reading experience was good, and it did a pretty great job of showing how some love can grow in a brutal world. I recognize how well-written it is -- but honestly, I don't think I'm ever going to read the other two books in the series, despite owning them. The brutality was a bit much for me.
Also... yeah, a bad thing happens to an animal in that book. I hate that, too.
Can I derail the thread slightly and ask what redeemed all these books mentioned for you, or perhaps a better question; why do you think these dark scenes were needed? Because loads of these just sound like standard horror lit and I didn't think that was a big thing in YA.
Well... THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO was pretty thrilling and suspenseful, so the reading experience was good, and it did a pretty great job of showing how some love can grow in a brutal world. I recognize how well-written it is -- but honestly, I don't think I'm ever going to read the other two books in the series, despite owning them. The brutality was a bit much for me.
Also... yeah, a bad thing happens to an animal in that book. I hate that, too.
Everything you wrote were literally my thoughts about this book, especially the bolded parts! The 1st book was well written and compelling enough to *earn* me finishing it even though I wasn't enjoying the world or setting but once I was done I was like NOPE NOPE NOPE to the sequels. I suffer from depression and anxiety in real life and even though the story was good everything was just too depressing to continue to go on. Even the promise of an eventual happy ending in book 3 just isn't good enough.
Maybe someday in the future when my emotional state isn't so down, I might give it another try.
Also... yeah, a bad thing happens to an animal in that book. I hate that, too.
The unwinding scene in UNWIND by Neil Shusterman. I read that scene, put down the book, and then stared at the wall for twenty minutes. Horrific, heartbreaking, sinister. It stayed with me for weeks.
If we widened this question to adult books, I might be tempted to include the flashback scenes of female disenfranchisement in THE HANDMAID'S TALE.