Oct 18, 2006 07:06
Many years ago, back when half the paperbacks in a bookstore or drugstore were either romance or horror, there was one awful mass market I read that was a Lovecraftian bit that read as YA. It took place in a high school, the central theme was that Poe was a superior writer to Lovecraft (which is weird because at the end Lovecraft is proved to be factual yet still laughed at), and suffered from teens that spoke and acted like dull adults (no other focus on the plot and a poor attempt at romance so the girl would be in trouble).
All this leads me to wondering how Lovecraft could be done for kids. One talented author has submitted to Magic in the Mirrorstone a Lovecraftian YA piece that works on many levels because it seeks to incorporate the otherness and anger of the Mythos applied to high school. I do not know if a novel-length piece could be done without moving into pastiche, but it is food for thought.