My entire adult career has, in various forms, dealt with selling or promoting horror books. So at parties, or on dates, it invariably comes up what I do for a living, and the response is all-too-often “I could never read horror. Who would read that kind of crap?” To borrow a phrase from Family Guy, it really grinds my gears. There is a persistent stereotype of horror fiction — the idea that it’s nothing more than reading a novel of mindless “Friday the 13th”-ish slaughters.
The trick is showing these folks that horror fiction, like horror movies, can cover a massive range of styles, emotions, and themes. And once they realize that horror fiction doesn’t have to mean (although it can mean) supernatural, or buckets of blood, or zombies, they often see that they’ve not quite understood what horror fiction is. So how to do it? Most avid readers will have read at least one of the following titles. And many readers of these books have loved them. So find a title they’ve loved that they hadn’t identified in their heads as horror. I’ve selected a range of incredibly popular titles here not often thought of as “horror novels” that will cover various age ranges, so you should be covered regardless of the demographic you’re aiming to educate. And if there’s any books on this list that you haven’t read — do yourself a favor and dig in. You won’t be sorry.
The Other by Thomas Tryon (1971)
Sadly, this masterpiece has been out of print for nearly two decades, but is thankfully back in a gorgeous new edition from Millipede Press. While younger readers may not be familiar with it, anyone who was reading fiction in 1971 had a copy of this book. The language is stunningly gorgeous, which just makes the terrifying revelations in the book that much more shocking. Millions and millions of readers devoured this book and would never think of themselves as horror book readers — and yet The Other remains one of the most brilliant horror novels of all time.
More books to convert horror-haters after the jump…
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)
When this one won the Stoker Award for best first horror novel, it certainly amounted to some discussion as to what makes a book "horror." To me, the classification (and award) were right on the money. There's nothing demeaning about calling a book "horror" -- to me, it lets you know that the book is going to inspire certain emotions and feelings in you while reading it. There's no question that The Lovely Bones isn't what one thinks of when you hear the term "horror novel." But if you've read it, you know that those emotions you associate with the term horror -- dread, suspense, despair, fear -- are in this book. It's a dazzling novel. Will someone who loves The Lovely Bones also love Salem's Lot? Maybe, maybe not. But it's just a perfect example of the huge rainbow of styles that can be found in books that can fall into the term "horror." Cheers to the Stoker Awards for not overlooking this one.
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971)
Of all the titles on the list, this one is closest to "traditional' horror. And when you say it out loud, it's hard for anyone to deny it's a horror novel. More than 12 million copies sold, and yet, somehow, these people aren't horror readers? Blatty's truly frightening novel was a literary phenomenon long before the movie, and you can't have loved The Exorcist and say you haven't read horror fiction. While many younger readers may not have experienced this one yet (ya whippersnappers) you'll be hard-pressed to find older readers who didn't have a copy of this on their bookshelves in the '70s. You loved The Exorcist? Trust me, then you've read horror. You love horror. Deal with it.
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (1974)
Don't kid yourself -- Robert Cormier's novels may be not be supernatural (other than Fade), but few authors have ever captured the true terror of life the way he did. Many of his novels are alternately suspenseful, terrifying, and heartbreaking, including I Am the Cheese, After the First Death, and Heroes, all of which I think are mandatory reading for any horror book lover. But surely anyone who has read The Chocolate War will never forget the level of horror they felt by the end. Read and loved by millions, and yet sadly often overlooked by both horror book lovers and adult readers. Cormier remains one of my very favorite novelists of all time -- not just in horror, but in fiction, period.
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (1967)
As with The Exorcist it's not really a case of people denying it's a horror novel. In fact, it's one of the first contemporary horror novels to be a blockbuster bestseller. Yet, it's shocking how many people have will say they hate horror books and then admit to having read -- and having loved -- Rosemary's Baby or The Stepford Wives. Being a work of genius -- and Rosemary's Baby is a work of genius -- does not preclude it from being a horror novel. What probably makes it easier for people to forget this is a horror novel is Levin's brilliance at presenting the story in such a way that it feels absolutely, shockingly believable.
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)
News flash! Just because a book is a thriller doesn't mean it can't also be horror. If a book scares the hell out of you -- it's horror. And any reader of this one (or its predecessor Red Dragon) knows just how scary non-supernatural fiction can get. There's a good reason Harris was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bram Stoker Award committee for horror fiction -- his work gives you nightmares. That's what horror fiction is all about.
Mainstream readers go through the most fascinating acrobatics to avoid classifying their favourite novels as genre. If they loved it, it can't be SFF or horror or romance! It must have transcended the limits of genre and become a real, respectable, non-genre novel. (see: Cormac McCarthy)
Well, I can honestly say that I've never read any of these books.
My dislike of horror stems from my dislike of horror movies - they give me nightmares. When I was little (I think around 5 or so), my parents took me to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit in the movie theatre. Judge Doom freaked me out.
I love the movie now, but whether or not I actually believe what's going on, horror movies still tend to give me nightmares, so I avoid them.
I avoid horror books because I tend to get even more into well-written books than I do movies, so I suspect the impact of horror would be even harder for me. And well, if the book isn't well-written, that doesn't really give me more of a reason to read it. Admittedly, I have been curious about Silence of the Lambs. I haven't read it yet because of the above, but the idea does fascinate me.
And I am pretty sure that there are elements of horror in many fantasy books (which is mostly all I read), where the horror doesn't bother me so much. (Well, actually, I did throw Terry Brooks' Elfstones of Shannara down once because I got too scared to see where the plot was going. I finally picked it up and finished it a couple of years later.) But I do see elements of it in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series, and I absolutely adore that series.
Sina'i, that's totally fair. It doesn't bother me at all that some people don't like horror -- there are definitely genres that I'm not crazy about. And horror can be extremely disturbing. It only bothers me when people pass judgment on horror readers -- that's when I go in for the kill and find a way to show them that they, too, enjoy horror. They just have convinced themselves otherwise.