#since i said i wanted to become more of a horror blog and f1 is off for a month...

[pumpkinnning]

Horror(ish) books I've read so far this year :

The Lost Village, Camilla Sten : 7.5/10 Documentary crew goes to isolated Swedish village where everyone mysteriously disappeared 50 yrs ago to investigate. Great tense atmosphere, broke my heart, I felt so much for the characters, loved the complex take on female solidarity and understanding btw mentally ill characters. Some nonsensical character decisions and plot explanations, esp at the end. Horrors of ableism, hive minds, the scapegoating of difference and cult dynamics (although that last bit felt thinner than the rest).

Black Sheep, Rachel Harrison : 6.5/10 Daughter returns to culty family she escaped from for her sister's wedding. A bit forgettable, and slow in the middle, but the ending has some great oomf and imagery. The horror is about charismatic parents you can't help but be compelled by even when you know they're abusive and awful, and what it takes to break away from that.

Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas : 7.5/10 Dramatic love story between childhood sweethearts separated by class and tragedy, in 1846 Mexico, on a backdrop of war against the US and vampires. Very compelling worldbuilding, the romantic plot felt a bit cliche but I was so sold on it - one of them learning the other isn't dead after grieving for a decade and imagery of love as haunting was gorgeous. The horror aspect feels underused, this is more of a spooky romance. The horror is about class differences, authoritarian familes but most of all colonialism and white supremacy.

Gallows Hill, Darcy Coates : 7/10. MC inherits estranged parents' winery and estate when they die, the place is very very cursed. Tense as fuck through most of it, the action and vibes really worked for me, a few amazingly sinister yet heartbreaking bits. I grew up near a winery and the whole process was always spooky to me so the setting was great. Characters are underdeveloped. Effective overall and I really liked the poetic justice of the ending. The horror is about family secrets, the dehumanization of poor people and how greed perpetuates misery.

From Below, Darcy Coates : 5/10. Documentary crew goes to film the wreck of a Titanic-like cruise ship that sunk mysteriously a century ago, but sinister shit is afoot. Great set up and tension up until half of the novel, but then when the source of the horror is revealed, it just becomes a slog of repetitive action. Explanation felt incomplete, source of the horror in the plot (worker exploitation) and the horror mostly shown on page (deep sea scary brrrrr) somehow feel mismatched and it doesn't land. Underdeveloped characters, the most interesting character's story is only revealed at the end and not properly explored. Lots of potential but disappointing.

House of Hunger, Alexis Henderson : 7.5/10. In order to escape the slums, MC becomes the 'bloodmaid' of distant reclusive noblewoman. Inspired by Countess Bathory but make it Gothic/sapphic/vampiric (ish). Great setting and set up but became a little bit underwhelming at the middle point, feel like the author held back on going as fully bonkers as she should have, still pretty awesome. The horrors are about abusive relationships, power imbalances, exploitation, racism, and the way rich people dehumanize those who work for them and literally consume their life force.

Night's Edge, Liz Kerin : 7/10. MC spent most of her life completely isolated in order to take care of her mother, a vampire that she feeds with her blood. Very realistic, powerful depiction of codependent relationships and the horror of parentalized childhood ; also a metaphor for drug addiction and how it can be enabled by loved ones. The sapphic love interest was kind of annoying and felt very manic pixie dream girl vibes (although I guess that was part of the point, and they had some sweet moments). Overall incredibly draining to read, points for psychological and moral complexity, but the individuation journey of the MC felt less convincing - I didn't like that it was carried almost entirely by the romance - so I was fucking depressed at the end. But yeah personally triggering lmfao.

A House with Good Bones, T Kingfisher : 6.5/10. MC returns to her mom's home during a lull in her job as a paleoentomologist and starts to worry she's unwell ; then there are swarms of ladybugs in the house and jars of teeth buried among the roses, and her evil grandma might be haunting the place. I liked the MC but her very millenial quirky self deprecating voice got a little annoying at times, and it's a drag in places. The overall plot concept is very interesting but somehow it didn't fully land ; the monsters are very scary at first but their origins were so ridiculous it killed the vibe for me and the end felt silly. Good sendup of fatphobia. Horrors of conformism, neglectful egocentric fathers, white hegemonic femininity and...??? yeah the end lost me a bit. Also i do NOT vibe with the author's insistance that roses are evil.

Overall - good decent batch although I didn't feel really wowed by any of them, which is frustrating. I'm having a 💀 horror year 💀 so I absolutely want to be wowed - please send recs if you have any !

I'm trying to figure out what I think makes good horror - from these I feel like a lot of horror authors underestimate the importance of emotional character development and weight. AND i feel like you have to know what the core horror of your story is and radiate it through the entire story, slowly drawing the reader to it right from the start ; it's not easy knowing when to bring pathos, when to build up tension and when to do temporary relief/sweetness ; if you get the rhythm wrong you can easily kill the tension or end up with something underbaked.