The Friday the 13th franchise seemed inextricably linked to Jason’s immortality; it seemed for a number of years that it would never die. The first and second films in the series, released in 1980 and 1981, were violent and gory with plenty of nudity. The release of Friday the 13th Part 3 (originally released in 3D) carried on the tradition, being the first film in which Jason Voorhees appears with his now-trademark hockey mask. Later films in the series tapered off quite a bit on the gore, nudity, and lost some of the creative flare that made the earlier movies so much fun to watch. Perhaps Hollywood was pressured to tone down the movies, understanding that their primary audience for the films was composed of teens, or maybe they simply did so to milk the franchise for all it was worth without spending much time or money on things like story, special effects, or people who would take their clothes off.  Regardless of the quality of the later films (at least until Jason X, which certainly turned things back up in the violence department), the popularity never waned.

In the mid-1990s, Berkley launched a series of Friday the 13th novels. Four of them were published in 1994, all written by William Pattison under the pen name Eric Morse. They tend to be highly sought-after by collectors in today’s market.

To view a list of the YA Friday the 13th novels available in print and ebook formats, please click here.

These cover scans are from the library of author Christopher Fulbright.