Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell is probably one of the most unusual collection of short stories I have ever read. The genre of the collection is difficult to pinpoint, but you have ghostly coming of age tales, Gothic Prairie fiction (I borrowed that from the Amazon review - I'm not sure if that's a genre), historical/political humor, and the cover story involving elderly vampires who learn to curb their blood lust by biting into lemons (while residing in an Italian lemon grove, no less). No stupid and sparkling teenage vampires in the bunch. Two stories, "Proving Up" and
"The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis" were my favorites, and contained elements of unrelenting creepiness which haunted me long after I finished reading. Ms. Russell's imagination is boundless, and she takes readers to realms they've never been. Perplexing, chilling and bizarre...highly recommended.

When I was 6 years old, I remember one evening sitting with my older brother in his bedroom playing something and watching TV. He was twelve and actually had his own black and white portable TV - the whole thing was cool beyond belief. At one point, a trailer (they used to call them “coming attractions” back then in 1960) for the movie Village of the Damned came on. Kids with platinum blond hair with strange eyes which would glow and make people kill themselves. My God, it scared the hell out of me. I couldn’t make sense of it. These were kids, actual killer kids, and they had a movie about them. I couldn’t stop talking about it, and hoped in vain to see the trailer again. I don’t remember if I was fortunate to see it, but I sure remembered the images of those searing eyes. I was too young to see the movie, of course, but my brother did. Much to my chagrin, he pronounced it “neat” but wouldn’t go into detail – whether this was out of brotherly concern (which I doubt) about causing me nightmares or he just couldn’t be bothered to talk to his baby brother at the time when he had more pressing things to do. Years later I was finally able to see the movie and also read the novel on which it was based: The Midwich Cuckoos.  Both the film and the novel have justifiably attained “classic” status. The plot is unnerving and freakish. The characters, however, those kids who were monsters, they made a huge impression on my 6-year old mind. I’m not sure if I can point to this as the origin of my interest in the “creepy kid” horror genre, but it is a good account as any. Most of my horror fascination throughout childhood was drawn to giant rampaging dinosaurs in major cities (followed by other big monsters doing nasty things). So, being a fan of scary kid horror didn’t really take hold until high school when I read The Other and The Exorcist, but the origins may have started with that trailer seen in my brother’s bedroom in 1960.

When I started my horror novel, Birth Offering, I knew the major character would be a 14 year old. Now, my entire career has been as a psychologist with the past twenty years specializing in pediatric psychology. I convinced myself that I knew a little bit about how kids acted, felt, and thought. However, I was getting rather, well, old, and I needed to brush up on how other authors were writing about kids. I found four recent novels which were excellent reads and contained great adolescent characters:

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

The Last Child by John Hart

None of them are horror stories, although the mystery novel, The Last Child, certainly contains elements of horror. Regardless, for anyone interested in well-drawn teenage characters, these novels provide great examples. I recommend them highly.