Dead Rite: Adolescent Horror Fiction and Death

Abstract

The following quotations are all taken from novels in the ‘Point Horror’ or ‘Nightmare’ series, books which are aimed at an adolescent audience:

Ryan’s body hung supported from the forklift, the chest a mass of blood and broken bones…. (Nicholas Adams, Horrorscope (1992), p. 114)

The great glittering blade hooked him under the chin. It caught, fractionally. Wrenched sideways, the boy dressed like Freddie was in shock long before it was finished. He never knew he was dead. (D.E. Athkins, The Cemetery (1993), p. 54)

The back of Chip’s head had been covered with blood, but the back of Ron’s was missing, as though it had been blown away, leaving only a mass of bloody pulp. (Bebe Faas Rice, Class Trip (1993), p. 148)

The man with the torch plunged a knife deep into Karen’s heart, then pulled it out. She was barely alive as he threw her on top of the bodies of her brother and boyfriend…. The last sound that Karen heard before she died was that of police sirens…. (David Belbin, ‘The Buyers’ (1992), p. 287)