YA Horror Novels of 2017 via Stacked

Click here for Kelly Jensen’s run down of 2017 YA horror.

Kelly runs one of the best and most comprehensive YA books sites on the web- Stacked- and she loves horror.

Remember that YA horror is often perfect for adults who don’t want too much blood and gore but still want to feel the fear.

Personally, I am not a huge YA fan. I get annoyed by the whiny teen protagonists, but then again I am living in a home with 2 teens so....

But not with YA horror. I really enjoy it. I feel like sometimes, it is better than adult horror because the authors can’t just fall back on blood and guts, they have to work to create the anxiety, fear, and terror.

I have said it a million times, Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry is one of the best zombie novels ever written.  I also like Amy Lukavics whose newest book is on Kelly's list.

Since Kelly likes YA horror so much, she has a lot of posts about it. And since she is a “reformed” librarian [her words], she has it all well cataloged. Just click here and you can pull up every horror post from Stacked.

2016 Shirley Jackson Award Winners

Over the weekend, my favorite awards were announced-- the Shirley Jackson Award winners.

For those new to the game here is all the info on this amazing cross-genre award:

Boston, MA (July 2017) — In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. 

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology. 

The 2016 Shirley Jackson Awards were presented on Sunday, July 16th at Readercon 28, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Quincy, Massachusetts. Naomi Novik hosted the ceremony.
The winners for the 

2016 Shirley Jackson Awards are: 

NOVEL
Winner: The Girls, Emma Cline (Random House) 

Finalists
Foxlowe, Eleanor Wasserberg (Fourth Estate-UK/Penguin Books-US)
I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid (Gallery/Scout)
Lily, Michael Thomas Ford (Lethe)
Mongrels, Stephen Graham Jones (William Morrow)
The Wonder, Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown) 

NOVELLA
Winner: The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com) 

Finalists:
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (Tor.com)
“Maggots,” Nina Allan (Five Stories High)
Muscadines, S.P. Miskowski (Dunhams Manor)
The Sadist’s Bible, Nicole Cushing (01 Publishing)
The Warren, Brian Evenson (Tor.com) 

NOVELETTE
Winner: “Waxy,” Camilla Grudova (Granta)) 

Finalists:
“Andy Kaufman Creeping Through the Trees,” Laird Barron (Autumn Cthulhu)
“Angel, Monster, Man,” Sam J. Miller (Nightmare Magazine)
“Breaking Water,” Indrapramit Das (Tor.com)
“The Night Cyclist,” Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
“Presence,” Helen Oyeyemi (What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours) 

SHORT FICTION
Winner: “Postcards from Natalie,” Carrie Laben (The Dark) 

Finalists:
“Animal Parts,” Irenosen Okojie (Speak, Gigantular)
“The Apartments,” Karen Heuler (Other Places)
“Postcards from Natalie,” Carrie Laben (The Dark)
“Red,” Katie Knoll (Masters Review)
“Things With Beards,” Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld) 

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION
Winner: A Natural History of Hell, Jeffrey Ford (Small Beer Press) 

Finalists:
Almost Insentient, Almost Divine, D.P. Watt (Undertow)
Furnace, Livia Llewellyn (Word Horde)
Greener Pastures, Michael Wehunt (Shock Totem)
We Show What We Have Learned, Clare Beams (Lookout) 

EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Winner: The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe (Saga Press) 

Finalists:
Autumn Cthulhu, edited by Mike Davis (Lovecraft eZine Press)
The Madness of Dr. Caligari, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (Fedogan and Bremer )
Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories, edited by Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay (Exile Editions)
An Unreliable Guide to London, edited by Kit Caless and Gary Budden (Influx Press)
 
BOARD OF DIRECTORS AWARD to Ruth Franklin in recognition of the biography, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life.
 
Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, “The Lottery.” Her work continues to be a major influence on writers of every kind of fiction, from the most traditional genre offerings to the most innovative literary work.Congratulations to all the winners.

Please make sure you take a look at the long list here [and above] as all of the nominated titles are fantastic and many would not be noticed anywhere else because they do not easily fit into a single genre.

IT Re-Read With Daniel Kraus on Booklist Reader- Updates Every Monday

Click here to join in on the evil fun

Want to brush up on horror before October comes along?

Follow along [if you dare] with Daniel Kraus as he leads a re-read of IT every Monday on Booklist Reader.

Look I know many of you are scared to try to read horror for yourself but you want to understand why you patrons like it. Reading these weekly discussions will help you improve your service to horror readers without giving you nightmares.

Now the more adventurous among you may decide to also read along. But if IT is too much for you, there are plenty of other horror books I could suggest for you to try. Let me know if you need some help finding the best one for you or a patron.