Thanks to virtuoso publications in the 1990s by Budge Wilson, Martha Brooks, Sarah Ellis, Tim Wynne-Jones, R.P. MacIntyre, and others, YA short story writing in Canada is in the midst of a golden age. Be Afraid!, a collection of horror stories selected by Edo van Belkom, serves to burnish the gold still further.

These 15 stories expose at their root the horror of adolescence, the way that body, mind, kith, and kin all turn against you. Along with ghosts and goblins, these stories explore the “sound of all those parties you’re not invited to.” “Jake’s Body” by Steve Rasnic Tem slyly turns on the horror of the ever-changing male adolescent body. Edmund Plante winks at the horror of the modern blended family in “In the Middle of the Night.” Nancy Kilpatrick’s “Old One/New One” follows the horror of being different by tracking a young witch seeking to re-unite with her Gram. Monica Hughes, in her first foray into this genre, explores hurting the one you love best in “The Gift.” The NRA credo (guns don’t kill people, people kill people) is exquisitely spun on its ear in Ed Gorman’s “The Gun Show.” All teens complain about their hideous bodies. Joe R. Lansdale offers a fresh two-page riff on poor old Frankenstein’s self-esteem issues. Finally, Robert J. Sawyer’s “Last But Not Least” is a delicious revenge-of-the-nerd tale, and Tim Wynne-Jones’s “The iBook” is a homage to Rod Serling that would have made the master proud.

Only a couple of the stories clunk as too earnest or obvious. Van Belkom (author of the short story collection Death Drives a Semi) asks “What scares you?” Happily, the answers of these award-winning authors are both literate and entertaining.