Usborne wins 'unforgettable' YA horror in two-book deal from Kisner

Usborne has landed Old Wounds, an "unforgettable and utterly fresh" debut YA horror, in a two-book deal from Logan-Ashley Kisner.

Becky Walker, senior commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, and audio rights at auction from Chloe Seager from Madeline Milburn Associates. Old Wounds will be published by Delacorte, an imprint of Penguin Random House in the US, where it was also acquired at auction. The novel will be published by Usborne in October 2024.

"It’s not often you find a writer who can terrify the living daylights out of readers and reduce them to tears," said Seager. "Logan-Ashley is a rare talent; his profound and chilling debut is doing something exciting within the genre and will appeal to horror fans and general readers alike."

Marking "an evolution in YA horror", Old Wounds follows two "messy" transgender children fighting otherworldly monsters and the "literal ghosts of their pasts".

Walker commented: “Old Wounds is a story that is as heart-poundingly terrifying and claustrophobic as it is raw and emotional, that ultimately finds hope in the darkness, Old Wounds indelibly imprinted itself in my mind from the very first page – and, I have no doubt, will do the same for every single reader who devours it. Logan-Ashley has taken YA horror and made it entirely his own; utterly unforgettable and utterly fresh. We could not be prouder to be publishing his stories in the UK.”

Kisner added: “Old Wounds may be set in a very small strip of rural America, but the need for stories of trans resilience and survival is universal. I’ve been blown away by the passion and love that Becky and the Usborne team have shown for this story, and I am happy that Max and Erin have found such a perfect home in the UK."