As a child I loved the REDWALL books of Brian Jacques, but as an adult I acknowledge that they were a medieval Christo-fascist fantasy of violence with a heart of nationalistic ideology. In retrospect, some of the implications are disturbing from a sociopolitical standpoint. As an adult, I’m now a Pagan anarchic-syndicalism who actively opposes the kind of messages Jacques propounded, though still acknowledging his great storytelling ability and characterisation. I had a similar experience with Anne McAffrey’s DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN. Maybe there’s something to that experience when it comes to my development, I can’t be sure.
My all-time favourite YA novels were Robin Jarvis’s morbid horror-fantasy books in the WYRD MUSEUM series, in particular THE RAVEN’S KNOT. My ten-year old self ate that up, all gore and body-horror and torturous hauntings and God-fist material. Even the cover-art was so chilling in a cool Celtic-mystic way. I always wanted to be a voice actor in the movie of that (maybe putting that out in the universe will manifest it..). I still shudder every time I walk past an old stately house that looks dark and mausoleum-esque, or I see a lone scarecrow in a field,
Honorary mentions: Mervyn Peake’s GORMENGHAST, which is still a big influence on my inner life, and written in a style I greatly admire,; Walter Wangerin’s THE BOOK OF THE DUN COW, which boasts one of the most horrifying portrayals of allegorical ‘evil’ I have ever read, and; David Clement Davies THE SIGHT series, an extremely visceral story about a pack of wolves who have fucked-up supernatural and telepathic abilities that enable a bloody clan war. The latter conceit was plagiarised and dumbed-down to create the successful WARRIOR CATS series; it seems that creepy and downbeat non-anthro animal stories and ‘beast fables’ enjoyed a resurgence and became ubiquitous and popular when I was young; SILVERWING, ONE FOR SORROW, and HUNTER’S MOON and also come to mind.
Looking back, I also remember loving Robin Hobbs’ THE LIVESHIP TRADER series, which feature a lot of rape and pillage and murderous imperialist political moves. One rape scene in particular somewhat haunts me to this day. Those books weren’t really for young people, however, so I only have myself to blame for any disturbance.
Because I was sheltered but also an ‘Advanced reader’, who was very bored and ignored by my teachers in school, I ended up getting into a lot of books way too early for my emotional maturity level, I.e., devouring novels such as STEPPENWOLF, OUR LADY OF THE FLOWERS, NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, PARADISE LOST, and DEATH IN VENICE at the tender age of around thirteen or fourteen. Of course, I didn’t fully get much of these texts, despite being able to follow the stories and language. Thankfully I revisited them later, with eyes and mind better equipped to understand.
