Young Adult Literature; Fantasy; Gothic Fiction
Young adult lit generally features YA characters, and The Demon's Lexicon is no exception. With a sixteen-year-old protagonist, Nick Ryves, as well as his brother Alan (age nineteen), and their new best friends Mae (age seventeen) and Jamie (age sixteen), The Demon's Lexicon is YA-packed. But that's not the only thing that makes it YA Lit.
It also has a focus on characters who are trying to navigate the path from adolescence to adulthood (while simultaneously fighting demons and dealing with magic—those are the bits that make it fantasy), and it features distinctive teen voices as well as teen-centered dialogue and issues.
As for what makes it Gothic fiction, the list is long. We have:
- supernatural elements;
- mysterious houses with secret pasts (or presents);
- an overall sense of foreboding;
- extreme weather;
- extreme emotions;
- one or more tyrannical romances; and
- the sounds of footsteps, screams, or other ghostly sounds.
So yeah—the gothic fiction label fits.