What with yesterday being Halloween, and all... do you read horror? Stories of things that go bump in the night and keep you from sleeping?I don't tend to read horror (though I did go through a phase in middle/high school where I did). Of course I do come across books that keep me up at night, but they don't necessarily belong to the horror genre. Sometimes things that happen in literary fiction (for example) can be just as if not more disturbing than things that happen in horror.
Speaking of Halloween, I did receive a couple spooky books this week as part of a secret exchange:
My Haunted House and
The Sword in the Grotto by Angie Sage. They're not horror, but they're still perfect fit for a Halloween exchange. Because I've been thinking of getting this series for my niece (she's a voracious reader and I've really enjoyed Sage's
Septimus Heap books so far), I actually read them both right away so I can assure you all that they are wonderful little books for younger readers (they're targeted toward 7-10 year-olds, I think).
"Sometimes things that happen in literary fiction (for example) can be just as if not more disturbing than things that happen in horror."
ReplyDeleteIf you're narrowly defining horror by the marketing definition of horror, I absolutely agree. However, I go by the intrinsic definition of horror. Which is to say, horror fiction is fiction designed to evoke a reaction of horror in the reader. I could go on at length about how marketing people have created a very narrow definition of horror because they found that people shied away from the label of horror, but I already did that in a post on my blog today, so I'll skip it. :)
I am enjoying reading everyone's responses to this questions. There's so many different ideas on what horror really is. I do read some horror myself, mostly of the dark fantasy and/or psychological thriller variety. I don't mind a good scare now and then. :-)
ReplyDeleteI found The Handmaid's Tale to be more scary than those so called horror novels.
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