Novel From a Child's POV

Maryn said:

To Kill a Mockingbird leaps to mind.

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That was the first one I thought of. The other one that came to mind is Room by Emma Donoghue, though I haven't read it.

There are loads of books written from a child's point of view. Look to young adult books, for example. A few I've read which I thought effective are The Night Rainbow, by Claire King; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon; and Florence and Giles, whose author's name escapes me.

Spy_on_the_Inside said:

I would love if anyone could recommend any novels (not children's stories) where the POV belongs to a child. Brownie points if the novel is a horror story.

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Stephen King, Dean Koontz and John Saul all have horror stories written from the POV of children.

I haven't read Florence and Giles yet, but there's a sequel called 'The Girl Who Couldn't Read' which has Praise for F&G on the back cover. The Times says: "An elegant literary exercise worked out with the strictness of a fugue. Nothing prepares you for the chillingly ruthless but inevitable finale."

To Kill a Mockingbird leaps to mind.

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Scout's age at the time she narrates the story is indeterminate, but she's at least "...far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight...."

IT (King) At least the first part is told from the POV of ten year olds. IIRC

I am still scared of clowns

jcwriter said:

Scout's age at the time she narrates the story is indeterminate, but she's at least "...far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight...."

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But not ten. She's about to start at the little primary school, I think.

How about that one with the four boys marooned on an island whose animal instincts take over. Never read it but would suppose it's from a kid's POV. Can't recall the title. A classic. Definitely elements of horror.

Yep. That's the one!
(Someone just described what it was generally about to me. So not surprising I got the number wrong. Wasn't trying to lead you astray. Honest.)

Lord of the Flies doesn't leap out at me as sounding like it's from a kid POV, but it's been quite awhile since I read it myself.

Maybe What About My Sister, which is first person, unreliable narrator, not horror per se, but pretty horrible stuff happens.

I don't think you have to look for adult books. A child's POV is a child's POV, regardless of whether the book is written for children or adult. What the story is about changes, but not the POV. In either case, it has to ring true, has to make that child real and three dimensional.

Ten is the bottom rung of the ladder for MG, and pretty rare, even in adult books with child POV characters. Twelve is a lot more common, and part of this is because twelve is an easier age to write, and an age where the child has a bit more self-determinism, can make a bigger difference through his or her own actions.

ROOM

Room by Emma Donoghue. Sounds like one you need to research. Not horror, exactly, but horrible elements. Well-done, too. Written from the POV of a 5- or 6-year-old.

If you're writing in 3rd person, can you use an omniscient narrator or possibly another older character as narrator in the harder parts? Just a thought.


Good Luck!!!

It's not horror but the book Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is told from an 11-year-old's POV. It's a great book, but horrible things do happen in it.

Well, a large number of first-person novels where the protagonist is a child are not really written from the pov of that person as a child, because it's the adult narrator telling you the story about something that happened to them years before.

To Kill a Mockingbird (not a horror novel, obviously) comes to mind.

There are also plenty of stories where the voice of the narrator sounds more like the character as they are in the story. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (also not a horror story) is an example of this kind of narrative. It sounds like a kid is telling you the story about something that happened more recently or is happening now. This is a more common approach in stories written for children and teens than stories written for adults, though.

So if you're writing something for adults, it's not necessarily a flaw if the first-person narrator doesn't "sound" like a child. It's about the effect you're going for. Of course, if you want it to be more in the voice of a younger person, then you really have to put yourselves into the mind of a kid. You have to be able to use words and language a kid would use in that situation, and describe things the way a person of that age might understand them.

If you want to do this, you may want to read some books written for kids or young adults and see how the authors (who are usually adults) handle the voice and perspective.

Maybe some books from this reading list will help?

I'm querying a novel now which I've written from an 11 y/o boy's POV. First person, not quite horror but suspense, and a killer is involved.

Dialogue helps. Especially, reading it aloud. Seems like the more I did that, the more I was able to channel that kid. Betas helped me, too. Some had kids that age, they gave me some really good advice.

The Haddon novel is really well done, although the kid's a bit older. Lord of the Flies is more sophisticated, I think. King's short story The Body is something you may find helpful. The Lovely Bones, too.


Listen to kids, how they speak, their mindset. I also did some research to familiarize myself with how kids think at that age, how their minds work, what they generally understand, or don't yet understand.

It can be done. Good luck, for sure.

Spy_on_the_Inside said:

Do you have a link to that book? I typed it into Amazon and came up with nothing.

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Probably 'cos I misremembered the title!

It's "What Happened To My Sister" and actually that's the sequel--you'd want to start with "Me & Emma," which is the first one. Author is Elizabeth Flock. I'd recommend getting the sample first--the voice is one of those that works or makes you want to throw the book, I think.

Reading actual children's novels could probably help you a lot, actually. If for no other reason than because that's what most children read, and a major influence on how they use language.

I heartily recommend 1984's Testing the Current by William McPherson which was deservedly reissued in 2013.