Reading with teafortiffany

Hello friends!!

Last week I was talking about how I wanted some easy wins and I wanted to stick to the spooky month theme by going for more of those horror, creepy and macabre types of books. After I thought about it some more, I determined it was the perfect time to look a bit further into the genre of horror itself. Ultimately, I want to answer the question: Is this genre something I will enjoy?

So I decided to look a bit more into what the genre means, what the sub-genre’s looked like, and I also read a novella that (as far as I’m aware) falls into the horror genre. I plan on exploring this through a few books, trying to understand what I might like and what maybe just isn’t for me.

As a bit of a disclaimer, this is not my very first horror book I have ever read in this blog. I’ve always enjoyed Edgar Allan Poe and I’ve read a few of the horror books from T. Kingfisher. I also read some of the horror classics (Frankenstein and Dracula) due to my degree in college. This is, however, my first attempt to really dig in and get a better understanding of the genre and see what might fit for me.

I’m not an expert in horror. I’m not really an expert in any genre but I wanted to understand it a bit more. I’m primarily a sci-fi/fantasy type of girl with the occasional historical romance thrown in. I don’t branch out from that much. So I decided to look into it a little bit more and see what I can find.

The easiest way to get a start is to look at the definition of a word. So lets ask Merriam-Webster.

From this, I can gather that horror tends to involve particular feelings and sensations; fear, dread, an extreme discomfort. Looking further into it, we can gather that these are feelings that are typically associated with a negative view. So, this doesn’t completely explain everything of course. Horror is more complex than a simple definition but we can begin to understand what it might begin to entail.

There are, of course, other places we can look. The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has a brief article about what the horror genre means and here we get an idea of the complexity around the genre. It’s not only necessary for horror to elicit feelings of fear and dread, but there is also a need for a specific atmosphere. The HWA states that horror is a deeply personal area of literature and as such, it should not be limited by a specific ruleset. Each reader is going to have a different idea of what is scary, creepy, or downright unsettling. With this in mind, that means that for each reader, horror evolves and changes. What is scary as a child is probably different than what’s scary as an adult. What is horror for me, might not be horror for you.

This leaves the general definition of horror quite open and allows me to explore more freely. There are so many subgenres of horror to explore as well as levels of what I can tolerate as a reader. It’s my job to find what is going to ride the line between keeping me stuck in that uncomfortable space and something that I want to throw into space because it’s just too much for me. With the information that I have found, I am more excited than before to continue looking into horror and feel confident that I can find something that I will enjoy.

A few other bits!

Book Riot has a good little (key word here) article about some of the more common subgenres of horror and the Self-Publishing School has a larger list of 33 subgenres that you can look through, as well as a few tips on writing it! You can also find a short article about the history of horror from Encylopedia Brittanica.

It’s a story that shifts perspective between a group of people who meet up late at night at an abandoned church graveyard when one night an empty grave appears. That’s the premise. While reading it, I definitely felt a bit creeped out and uncomfortable. I was definitely interested in where the story was going and I liked hearing a bit about each person who is part of this night crew. I also like the idea of horror involving plants and animals (thank you Little Shop of Horrors). The story is also about different people in a way. You learn about each person’s reason for going to the graveyard each night.

All that being said, while I enjoyed the premise and learning about the people, because it was so short I didn’t get enough time to be truly invested. I found out that I wanted a bit more. The ending was just okay and the creepy crawlies that I was getting could have definitely gone up a level or two. At the end the book for me was good but that was it. I don’t know that this would classify as a Tiffany Horror. It could be someone else’s though. In the end, I only ended up rating this book a 3/5 because it was just “okay”. I have a pretty basic rating system honestly.

I think that this opened the door to what I’m looking for in a horror novel. I definitely enjoyed the mystery aspect of it and, like I wrote earlier, the creepy plant/animal thing is fun to read about. I definitely won’t find my limits with this one but I’ll get there!

I hope to have read another book for you next time and maybe look a bit deeper into the history of the horror genre. I’m not sure yet. Honestly, I don’t plan these out that far in advance (maybe someday I will).

What are some recommendations you have for horror books to try? Side note when recommending, I’m from Maine so I already have Stephen King on the list.

Bye friends!!!!