Really, if someone had handed me this book and told me it was written by Donald Ray Pollock or Daniel Woodrell I wouldn't have blinked an eye. Scowler is firmly planted in the Rural Lit / Country Noir tradition. In the case of Scowler it makes me think about how many people will ignore it and miss out turned off by its YA label, and then it makes me think about the young teen readers who will lack the emotional maturity and mental resilience to process such a dark and disturbing tale. On any given Sunday it shouldn't really matter. There are definitely books that walk the hinterland - the very, very outer reaches of YA and upon reading them you realize that there's way more 'Adult' in the pages than 'Young'. Content, language, themes - all of the meatier, important elements of any book are blithely ignored in the rush to market and movie deals. These days it seems the label has become so loosey-goosey all that's required is that there be a teen protagonist. “Bound to scare up many jaw-dropping reactions.It puzzles me - and sometimes frustrates me to no end - how or why some books get categorized/released as Young Adult. “For lovers of dark thrillers and horror narratives, Scowler is one crazy roller-coaster ride.” - Portland Book Review “ Scowler is dark, poetic, and challenging.”. “So unrelentingly bleak, it stretches the very definition of YA horror.”.

“A Midwestern gothic family saga that will hook readers.” - Kirkus Reviews “Connoisseurs of the grotesque have come to the right place, as Kraus’ impeccable sense of thriller timing spins out the terror.” - The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books “This book has the pacing of a Stephen King movie, and it never lets up in its gruesomeness.” - School Library Journal “A boldly visceral coming-of-age story that explores the darkest spaces in family life and the shocking resilience of the human psyche.” - Booklist Consider yourself warned.” -Adele Griffin, two-time National Book Award finalist “Daniel Kraus writes raw and deft and dangerous. “A memorable, brutal assault on the senses, not for the fainthearted or delicate.” - Publishers Weekly “The demon offspring of Stephen King’s The Shining and Hitchcock’s Psycho.” -Michael Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Gone and BZRK “Marvin is one of the great monsters of literature, a figure of immense, credible terror and savagery.” -Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and coeditor of Boing Boing

Scowler book