Hell

I think having to live through the things you fear the most, or the worst days/events of your life, over and over, would be scary for anyone, teen or adult, even if they aren't religious. It's one of those things that works as Hell or Twilight Zone.

Teenagers are very socially oriented too, so whereas graphic gore and tortures might not be terrifying for a lot of today's jaded youth, being socially isolated or shamed in front of friends/others would be the WORST.

Personally being in a place without wifi would be hellish for me!

Modern teenish hell - don't forget the technology part of it. Because a lot of who we as humans are becoming now includes our digital identity.

Everyone looking at their smart phone laughing and pointing at you, and you not being able to unlock yours to see WTF is going on, but knowing it's about you?

Naked photos of you posted online and being unable to delete them no matter how many times you click, and just that knowing that people will find out, people will know, and people will be judging you over it?

A video clip of that one moment you are most embarrassed about that you can't get to just go away - you can delete it but every time you do it pops up again and again and again forever, and that mounting knowledge that your parents or little sister or that girl you have a crush on across the street is going to FIND it?

Sounds like a modern hell to me. Given the suicides that spawn from such things, especially.

It's the writing that counts. Good writing can make anything scary.

I don't read YA horror either, so I took a look at this Goodreads list of popular YA horror titles:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/ya-horror

and there you'll find ghosts, vampires, zombies, murder, madness, loss- all the same monsters and fears you find in adult horror fiction, ever since horror fiction began. So I wouldn't worry about what "teenagers" find scary "these days". I'd just concentrate on writing your own story effectively.

(btw frozen Hells and charismatic human-form devils aren't new; not that it really matters because essentially nothing in fiction is new.

The_Outlaw_Torn said:

I'm writing a horror novel for young adults. There's going to be a whole lot of graphic content

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whut

You should read my book and see what MY vision of hell is

I would think the angle means everything.

Bri is right, of course, that hell is subjective. A teen's hell is vastly different than an old man's hell. And if you are writing with a religious perspective, then your flavor of religion counts, too.

I don't think you can write about Hell without a religious angle of some kind.

Hell is definitely subjective.

I don’t know if anyone has ever read John Paul Sartre’s play ‘No Exit’ but it’s where the famous quote ‘Hell is other people’ comes from.

His hell is actually quite pleasant – I’m sure it was some kind of fancy living room – it’s the other people you’re stuck with that make it so terrible.

I really think you can do what you want with it - but agree with the others that as its YA it should probably reflect their fears and some of the suggestions are good.

many religious traditions feature a cold hell.

The_Outlaw_Torn said:

The first half of the novel is set in Southern California. The second half is set in Hell.

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this sounds suspiciously like a distinction without a difference.

High school, and your character has raging - and contagious - acne...

as noted the first thing I thought when i heard hell was frozen was Dante's hell in the divine comedy.

This leads me to a tangential but important consideration: You should be well-read in your genre. If you want to present hell, you should have read a fair number of books where hell has been "done" recently.