Trying the Scares
My thoughts on horror and how I navigate the genre.
A Fact About Me
I’ll let you in on a fact about me: I’ve never been a horror person.
Even when I was young, I don’t like scary things and couldn’t understand why people would willing engage in the macabre details horror seems to thrive on as a genre.
Now, here’s a bit where we get to some contradictions. That doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally look up and read plot summaries of horror movies due to my curiosity/boredom. And what I have found since I’ve been reviewing books online about my opinions on horror is this: reading about these scary and horrifying things isn’t as bad compared watching it all unfold in front of you on a big screen.
It’s a weird conclusion coming from the person who is never one for watching horror movies, but somehow knowing that I’m not visually seeing the scary stuff and it’s safely put away inside a book doesn’t make it quite so scary. Of course, I know there are some horror books that are just as terrifying as watching an actual horror movie itself, but consuming horror through a book a teensy bit less apprehensive about the genre.
My Experience with Reading Horror
Now that being said, I’ve only ever read one book that would be considered a horror novel. Sure, I’ve had read thrillers where characters are put in perilous situations similar to those of experienced by characters in horror novels. I do my best to read from a wide variety of genres. Yet, the only horror novel that I’ve read in recent years is Andrew Joseph White’s The Spirit Bares Its Teeth.
I won’t go into a full review of this book (perhaps maybe for another article) and I know part of the reason why I decided to read the book is because White is autistic (I try my best to platform #ActuallyAutistic authors on my bookish platforms), but while the book can be described as a bit… well, gross…. I did actually like the book despite my averseness to horror as a genre.
As a result of that experience, it did made my want to step a bit outside my comfort zone and see what other horror novels I could be interested in.
A Challenge for Myself
While I don’t know what quite to expect for myself as I challenge myself to read a bit more horror novels that I’m used to, I’m heading into this challenge with an open mind and the knowledge that I can always DNF (do not finish) if I don’t think the book is right for me.
I have two sections where I’m dividing this challenge to help navigate the horror genre without getting too overwhelmed by the choices. One being horror (or horror-adjacent) novels that pique my interest and are currently on my general TBR, and the other being a mini, unofficial reading challenge I’m doing created by Cassidy over at Covers with Cassidy.
Seasonal Spooky Reading Challenge
I’m linking here the announcement video for the challenge from Covers with Cassidy, but this challenge is all about reading “spooky” and fall books based off of setting prompts and matching them to unlocking prompts as well as cover and bonus prompts. Not all of my reads for this challenge are horror novels, but at least a good almost 50% of them are horror.
I’ll go over them in more depth as well as the other books I have in my TBR for that challenge, but the horror novels I’m planning to read for this challenge are the following:
Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
The Backbone of the World by Stephen Graham Jones
The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror edited by Tori Bovalino
The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller
Horror and Horror-Adjacent Picks on My General TBR
While some of the books listed above I was able to use for Covers with Cassidy’s Seasonal Spooky Reading Challenge, I couldn’t use all of the horror and horror-adjacent books I’m interested in for this challenge.
For picks from my general TBR, I’ve listed a couple down below that I’m currently reading or hope to read in the near future:
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Final Thoughts
Even though I’m not the type of person who gravitates towards horror, I’m willing to try it out just a tiny bit. While I may not love every single horror book I’ve picked out for myself, I’m using this as an opportunity to learn more about myself as a reader when it comes to the horror genre and I hope you come along for the ride.