Amy Lukavics

Prior to publishing her first novel, Lukavics was offered to rewrite the fourth novel she ever wrote with an editor from a "big publishing house."[2] Along the way, she realized that their creative visions differed, but went ahead with the revisions anyway, only to create a novel that wasn't up to either of their standards and ultimately was declined for publication.[2] That same novel would later be rewritten and went on to sell to another publishing house, Harlequin Teen, which published it as Daughters Unto Devils in September 2015.[2] It stars Amanda, a teen who finds herself pregnant during pioneer times while her family is searching for a new home in the prairie and settles on cursed land.[8]

Lukavics says that the novel is "sort of Little House on the Prairie meets The Exorcist inspired."[7] She originally wrote the Daughters Unto Devils with the intention of writing something set in the past, finding the idea of a pioneer horror story particularly intriguing, inspired by Stephen King's novella 1922, included in the Full Dark, No Stars novella collection.[3][9]

In 2022, Daughters Unto Devils was listed among 52 books banned by the Alpine School District following the implementation of Utah law H.B. 374, “Sensitive Materials In Schools,"[10] 42% of which “feature LBGTQ+ characters and or themes.”[11][12] Many of the books were removed because they were considered to contain pornographic material according to the new law, which defines porn using the following criteria:

• "The average person" would find that the material, on the whole, "appeals to prurient interest in sex"[13]
• The material "is patently offensive in the description or depiction of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sadomasochistic abuse, or excretion"[13]
• The material, on the whole, "does not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."[13]

Her second novel, The Women in the Walls, follows Lucy, a teen who suspects something strange is going on in her mansion home with her family[14] after her mother dies, her aunt goes missing and her cousin claims she can hear voices coming from the walls. It was published by Harlequin Teen in October 2016.[14]

The Ravenous is about four sisters and their youngest sister, who dies in a car accident and gets resurrected by her mother, only to have developed cannibalistic tendencies.[15] It was published by Harlequin Teen in September 2017.[15] Lukavics describes The Ravenous as The Virgin Suicides meets Pet Sematary.[4] It was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 2018.[16]

Her fourth young adult novel, Nightingale, is set in an asylum in 1951, telling the story of June, who finds herself held there against her will.[17] It was published by Harlequin Teen in 2018.[17]

She also wrote a horror short story called "The Feeding", about a monster creeping in the woods of a small town, available for free on Wattpad.[7] Another one of her short stories was featured in issue six of Unnverving Magazine.[7]