Old Wounds

By Author / Illustrator

Logan-Ashley Kisner

Genre

LBGTQ+

Age range(s)

14+

Publisher

Usborne

ISBN

9781835400944

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

12-09-2024

Synopsis

OLD WOUNDS...new monsters. Two trans teens end up in a small, isolated town, where they must escape the locals who plan to sacrifice them to an ancient monster that only eats girls... This is the freshest YA horror thriller of 2024, perfect for fans of Darren Charlton and Aiden Thomas.

Erin and Max are two trans kids, just trying to get to California. Max is desperate to finally be able to transition, and Erin is longing to understand why she's on this trip to begin with, after Max suddenly broke up with her two years earlier. But when they find themselves stranded - and eventually separated - in the creepy woods of rural middle-America, they suddenly have much bigger problems.

First, there's the creature that, according to legend, feeds on girls, hunting them through the shadows.
And then there are the locals, who are searching for a female sacrifice. If either of them hope to survive to see the sunrise, Erin and Max will have to come together and stop running: from their attackers, from each other, and, ultimately, from themselves.

Logan-Ashley Kisner is a ReadingZone Featured Author: Find out what inspired Old Wounds

"Terrifying, tender, and unflinchingly honest. Old Wounds demands your attention from the very first page and never lets up." Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls. "Wholly original, endlessly subversive and genuinely terrifying." Laura Steven, author of The Society for Soulless Girls. "A terrifying, masterful debut... Old Wounds is a gripping exploration of gender, sacrifice and the real monsters we're running from." Lex Croucher

Download Extract

Reviews

Erin and Max are two teenagers at different stages of their gender/identity journeys. For Erin, the changes appear outwardly seamless and accepted but for Max, the struggle continues. Although they used to date, two years have passed when Max unexpectedly asks Erin to accompany him on a road trip to California, where he hopes salvation and acceptance lie.

With deep feelings lingering, Erin loyally and perhaps recklessly decides to join him. But the journey from Columbus, Ohio to Berkley, California is a long and fraught one and that's before you throw in terrifying beasts and even more terrifying locals... Erin and Max seem to seem destined to perish in some ominous mid-American backwater unless they can outwit their human and not-so-human foes.

The horror in Old Wounds is sufficiently grisly and there's a clever gender identity twist that propels and complicates the plot, but it's Max and Erin's emotional journey that forms the core of the story. There are lots of neat parallels between the horror faced in the woods and real-life challenges of transition and although Max and particularly Erin can seem rash in their decision-making, you can feel years of sentiment behind it.

This is a thoughtful and entertaining read and a gently subversive addition to the YA horror canon.

352 pages / Reviewed by Clare Wilkins, school librarian