'Trapped between adulthood and childhood'

‘I remember as a teenager I was trapped between adulthood and childhood. I still loved reading Roald Dahl but I also loved Stephen King, Clive Barker and James Herbert. I think teenagers are drawn to both worlds so I try to tell stories that have all the darkness of adult books, but which are written with a younger audience in mind. I'm always conscious of not taking it too far, but at the same time I believe YA books can go very far. But I never glamourize violence, never write about it as an offhand thing. The violence is always there for a reason and I explore the consequences of it. It's about how the characters come to terms with these events and overcome them.

I think really good horror and fantasy books are always a reflection of the world in which we're living. There's much more going on in them than just the fantasy trappings.'

Darren Shan, author of the just-published Zom-B: Goddess in Bookbrunch