In the context of Children's Literature, the treatment of violence and its cruelty may challenge the norms as well as the adult reader’s “horizon of expectation”. Guillaume Guéraud is one of the few French authors for young adult’s readers who chooses to ignore such norms. This article shows how violence is portrayed in three of his novels and how it can culminate in a “non-happy ending”. The omnipresence of the red and black motifs in Guéraud’s novels grants the teen reader a higher status, and transcends the didactic function often ascribed to adolescent literature.