Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Published: October 2021
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult
Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales is an anthology of fourteen spooky tales by Australian writers. This anthology is part of the Australian Young Adult Literature Alliance (#LoveOzYA) series and is the first with a horror focus. These stories reflect the diversity of their writers, ranging from surrealism to psychological horror to the gothic, yet are all connected by a thematic focus: the inherent liminality of young adulthood. Horror, suggests editor Poppy Nwosu, can act as a mirror of our times. The stories we find by delving deep within can be beautiful and unsettling—often both. Holden Sheppard (author of Invisible Boys) represents Western Australia in this collection with his story ‘Rappaccini’s Son’: a queer coming-of-age that resituates elements of the gothic within the suburban setting of the Italian-Australian diaspora.