Around this time of year, I start looking for spooky reads. This is always a little weird for me, because I’m both fascinated by horror novels and easily put off by them. Plus they sit outside my usual ranking system, because for me, a book has to be re-readable to get a four star or above–and I rarely want to reread horror novels. I’m just happy to survive them. So their ratings tend to be one of three. DNF–not for me! 3 stars–a good read that I will never revisit. Or the rare 5 stars, where I will never reread it myself, but I will tell everyone I know who likes horror that they have to read this book.
But I keep trying, even as I DNF the majority of them. I have such a narrow range of “horror that I enjoy” instead of “horror that annoys me” or “horror that horrifies me”. For the long weekend, I dove into two and they were both successes.
Malice House by Megan Shepherd has the kind of premise I just love. A character inheriting an isolated artist’s estate–along with its Terrible Secrets (TM). This book upped the ante by involving monsters. Plus it brought in the always evocative idea of art (writing or illustration) birthing its own reality. That said, this was a reasonably pleasant read, but not much more. There was a sudden jump to “The Marburys are cursed!” that sort of came out of nowhere for me. The ending was very full of all the monsters, when the rest of the book was only sort of looking at them sidelong. Plus Haven Marbury, the heroine, takes a midpoint action that feels also out of the blue. Overall, I liked the book, but it felt like Shepherd was putting in as many elements as she could to make sure her book felt distinct from others, and it just ended up a little rushed and muddled. The core tension between Haven Marbury and the local “Ink Drinkers” book club was wonderful, and went to great, creepy places. I also really loved Haven and Kylie’s friendship. An enjoyable read. It is apparently book one in a series, and I’ll probably read the next.
Burn the Negative by Josh Winning. Another familiar sort of premise that always attracts me: A cursed film, a child actor who’s made a new life for herself yet gets dragged back to the traumatic events of her past when the cursed film gets a remake. I liked this one a lot. It’s also sort of familiar, but it also has an interesting take on the “final girl”. A few twists that hold up well with the characterization and the information that has come before–which is not always the case! This one I recommend.
I’ll take suggestions for other horror reads. I like horror-adventure really. I don’t like horror where absolutely everyone dies miserably. I don’t like weirdly contrived stories. I like ghost stories. I love mad science. I love discovery stories. In movie terms, I like Crimson Peak, The Others, or The Relic. I don’t like Saw, Human Centipede, Hostel, or Seven.
Horror novels that have really worked for me? Gemma Files’ Experimental Film. Robert Jackson Bennett’s America Elsewhere. Kate Alice Marshall’s Rules for Vanishing. Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is a Chainsaw. T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead. Elizabeth Hand’s Wylding Hall.
lane robins 