So what exactly is young adult fiction? Recently, I asked some of my followers on Twitter – or X, or whatever the hell it’s called now – to define young adult fiction, and for some reason many of them decided YA fiction features teenage characters and is aimed, mainly, towards a teenage audience. Some even said it was for any age over 12. But for me, that’s not correct. We don’t hit adulthood until our mid-twenties (when our brain stops maturing), so I’d always defined young adults to be people in their early twenties. Or, perhaps, 18 to mid-twenties. And much of the YA fiction seems to be based within the fantasy or supernatural genres.

When I wrote “For the Love of the Devil”, I was in my late twenties. It was 1998, something like that, and I wrote the characters to be slightly young than I was. And back then, there was no category such as “young adult fiction”. But there was the supernatural genre – or “horror” as we used to call it. Make no mistake, “For the Love of the Devil” is a horror story. A demon comes to Earth, falls in love with a young woman who doesn’t know he’s a demon. And he doesn’t know that he’s slowly transforming into the devil, the lead demon in Hell. Throw in some gangsters chasing after the young woman for the money her dead accountant father swindled out of them, a demon punishing people in violently imaginative ways, a really evil demon tracking him down, and there you have it. A crazy journey into Hell, demons fighting against demons, an errant angel, and an impossible love story. Man, if only I’d written it half a dozen years ago and pitched it to an agent.

But wait a minute. “For the Love of the Devil” isn’t aimed towards a teenage audience. It certainly isn’t the proper reading material for a young teen, with its occasional, but graphic sex scenes, and violent deaths. What it is, is an old-school horror story that should appeal to a young adult.

Should, but never did. It wasn’t a success when it was published back in 1999, and when I self-published it a few years ago, its sales didn’t improve. And that’s a shame because – and even if I do say so myself – the hellish Hell I created, where lost souls were being tortured, and demons were fighting against demons, and the final battle between my “hero” Kobold and the devil Satan unfolds was my most imaginative piece of fiction ever. Is it worth a read? I think so. But you need to be an adult. A young one would be more appropriate, but an adult at the very least.

And hey, you know what, if you give it a read and you’re the first to email me with a typo you’ve spotted (and you live in the UK), I’ll send you a paperback copy of the book for free. Can’t say fairer than that. Emails to shaunmartinstafford@yahoo.co.uk.