TBR of Doom--Horror Edition (Patreon)

I've been thinking a lot about horror, terror and fear. Part of that is because I've been working on pages for the new YA book and writing the synopsis, but it's also because I have friends working on horror books and it has come up. My friend Chelsea passed along a few great articles on the subject--one is about why we like scary things and the other is about the words we choose to describe fear. 

The first is interesting, because it talks about why people are drawn to horror and what it might do, psychologically, for us. The article didn't surprise me--I've been saying the same things for years--but it was interesting to see scientists breaking it down on a grander scale. I've had to talk to a lot of adults about why teens love horror so much, and everything I've read on the subject brings it down to a few key things. Body horror, for example, is great to help teens cope with a body that is not only betraying them in a sense, but which they suddenly have less control over. Only, horror stories give our brains a remove, a buffer between us and the difficult topic. Why talk about puberty when you can talk about werewolves, you know?

It can give teens an escape. Don't knock escapes. If your homelife is awful and you have no power to change it, why wouldn't you pick a book or a movie to dip into? And that escape? That's not wasted time. As the article backs up, choosing to put ourselves into scary fictional worlds helps us learn how to cope and how to emotionally regulate when faced with REAL life horrors.

But there are many who don't believe this or, and I find this perplexing, don't want to prepare themselves or their kids for real life things like violence, drugs addiction, sex, assault, etc. They don't want them to read about fictional versions of this, so they can have a discussion with their kids about these things in a safe, consequence free zones. They'd rather hope their kids somehow miraculously never have to deal with anything. 

Which, great, I hope so too. But the reality is, kids are people, and people have to deal with reality whether they like it or not. I know for a fact that every day my oldest son goes to school, he'll encounter drugs of all kinds. He'll encounter kids who are homeless, or dealing with coming out to parents who aren't supportive. Who are thinking about suicide, losing a parent, or unwanted pregnancies. He'll have friends with eating disorders, mental health issues, and friends who live in abusive households. If I'm very, very lucky, my son will only be touched by these things tangentially, but it's unlikely.

Since I know he's going to deal with this, I'd much rather talk about it with him beforehand and books, movies, comics, and podcasts about historical or fictional takes on these things gives us a good jumping off point. That way when he runs into this stuff in real life, he at least has some tools AND knows I'm comfortable talking about things.

Okay, enough about that.

The second article, the one about vocabulary of fear, is really good at breaking down the difference between terror, horror, revulsion and the uncanny. As a reader, I prefer terror. Why? It's harder to do. Horror is that moment when a thing has happened and you're confronted with the scary monster or oozing swamp beast. Horror is when you find the dead body. Horror is short before we move on to the next stage. And once you've hit horror, well, the worst has already happened, right? Difficult to top that.

Terror, however, is the anticipation of the horror. It's the footsteps on the stairs in a dark house when you know that you're the only one home. It's the unexplained bloody handprint on the wall. It's your best friend not picking up your call when they always do, and you feel deep in your bones that something is wrong.

Terror can be a long, slow build, the marathon to horror's sprint. In the article about why we like scary things, they break down people who love horror into three categories--adrenaline junkies, white-knucklers, and dark copers. I'm a dark coper. 

"Dark copers, the third type of horror fan, seem to use scary media to help them deal with anxieties about the world or their own lives by focusing on a more concrete threat."

Oh, the accuracy, it burns. 

Today I thought I'd give recommendations based on the three different types of horror lovers.

Adrenaline Junkies: Try Stephen King's short stories. I've long said the more restrained he is, the better. I haven't read him in years, just FYI, but as a kid, his short stories kept me up nights. The Boogey Man, which I think is being made into a film, had me sleeping with the light on for days. Clive Barker's old stuff would be a good choice as well, and The Only Good Indians by Jones.

White-Knucklers--if you want to take a glance at horror, pick up something that has horror elements (like the Sam books!), cozy horror, like Cackle, or books for kids like Small Spaces, Doll Bones or the Jumbies. Find books that mix humor in, like Twisted Ones, #Murdertrending, or The Awesome.

Dark Copers--You're good with slow dread terror, but I think you need a glimmer of hope. Someone good needs to survive. Or there needs to be a possibility that the ending could go either way, like Kendare Blake's All These Bodies. Twisted Ones would work for you, too, or Grady Hendrix's books. 

What books do you recommend for people who love a little (or a lot) of spooky?

--Lish