Gail Gauthier: What If Dexter Morgan’s Dad Had Been A Serial Killer Instead Of That Creepy Cop?

From: Original Content
http://blog.gailgauthier.com/2012/10/what-if-dexter-morgans-dad-had-been.html
October 15, 2012 at 08:02PM

Well, well, well. I requested I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga a while back, and by the time I got hold of it, it was a Cybils nominee for YA fiction.

I Hunt Killers is a serial murderer story with a tormented lead who is both hunting for the killer and fearful that he could become one. It includes a quirky, much weaker, sidekick and a spunky girlfriend. It made me think of Dexter, if Dexter had made any attempt to control himself when he was young. And had friends.

It also reminded me of Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick in that both books seem like YA book versions of adult movies. With some changes to details, all the main characters could easily be ten years older and pretty much maintain the same plot and end up with the same story. And it seems as if it wouldn’t take a whole lot to adapt them into movies because they seem so much like movies already.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. This thriller scenario may be new to YA, which is different than doing the same thing in YA over and over again simply because new readers are coming up who haven’t seen it before.

This idea of using adult film as inspiration for YA novels may be really taking off right now. I’m reading The FitzOsbornes in Exile, and though I’m enjoying it, I have to say it seems a lot like a Masterpiece series.