The Horror in Fiction

Once upon a summer, our neighbor’s apartment caught fire.

I woke up as usual and was just about to get dressed when the fire alarm went off. Seeing as another neighbor tended to burn his meals a lot, a certain somebody told me to ignore it. So I got dressed. That’s when the certain somebody rushed back into my room saying, “There’s a real fire! Why aren’t you outside yet?!”

So I snatched up my backup hard drive and my library book, a signed copy of The Fault in Our Stars, and headed outside. Turns out one of the neighbors had left their fan on and it caught on fire. You know it’s hot when the fans go on strike and spontaneously combust. The fire department took care of the fire, and only the neighbor’s apartment suffered from smoke damage and a broken window. (Thank you, fire department.)

The whole incident got me thinking. I was glad I’d grabbed my hard drive and my library book, but what would have happened if the fire had spread to our apartment? What would I have done if I found myself faced with a fire and could only save a handful of books? Would I even think to do so before it was too late? It makes for a good story, sure, but I certainly wouldn’t want to relive it let alone find myself faced with a life and death situation like in Fahrenheit 451.

What is it about the horror in fiction that we find so attractive?

There are many types of horror when it comes to fiction, from suspenseful stories to the horror genre. I don’t typically watch horror movies, let alone read horror books, but every now and then I come across such a book in one of my other preferred genres and it creeps me out. Yet I read it to the end.

Here are just a few elements concerning horror in fiction. Though I’ve picked certain categories and given example books, the categories are not strict and often overlap.

The Suspenseful

Like the true and somehow fortunate story above, some stories are more suspenseful than horrific, as long as we’re reading them that is. Living them would be another matter entirely. Let’s face it, bookworms, more often than not, I’d rather read suspenseful stories than live one. Who’s with me? In this sense, readers are like Bilbo Baggins when he first turned down an adventure with Gandalf:

“Sorry! I don’t want any adventures, thank you. Not Today. Good morning! But please come to tea—any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Good bye!” 

—The Hobbit

Yet when it comes to reading fiction, a lack of suspense often leads to books that are labeled “boring.” As long as it’s not happening to us right here, right now, suspense can be enticing. I found this to be the case when I recently listened to Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Though I knew how it ended, having read the book and seen the movie adaption before, I was still captivated by the perils that Tristran had to face as he sought a star and evaded a witch.

The Creepy

I’m not about to go and check out It from the library (Clowns? So thanks! But no. I think I’m good to go.). But I have considered reading Misery, a story where an author is held hostage by an obsessive fan and forced to write a new book.

Unlike suspense, the creep factor isn’t so much of a hook. If anything, it’s a thrill factor. While some people go skydiving or watch a creepy movie, bookworms ready creepy books. Sometimes. But not at night. Definitely not alone. Or so readers claim…

Actually, I think the creepiest books I ever read were after the sun had set. The first book I ever remember genuinely creeping me out had to be This Present Darkness in which the author, Peretti, imagines what it might be like for angels and demons to interact with society today. And by today, I mean the 80’s. Today-ish. Despite being horrified by the book, fourteen-year-old me was fascinated by the story.

Fast forward several years, and I picked Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell while studying for my M.A. Quite the contrast to the Christian fiction I used to read in high school, this book dealt more with magicians than religion and more with the Fae than supernatural beings. While maybe not nearly as creepy as the former, I still found the book fairly creepy, though I still liked it for its imaginative writing style and cautionary tale about the dangers of arrogance and misery.

The Violent

One of my favorite picture books from my childhood was simultaneously entertaining and grotesque. My first book on con artists, The Roly-Poly Spider, was basically a story about a spider who goes about befriending various bugs and then eating them. Talk about morbid. I must have been a demented child for reading this book so much, let alone remembering it. Yet it’s also a story about the brutality of nature. You might even say it’s a cautionary tale about trusting strangers.

Anybody who’s asked for a fantasy book recommendation will often hear me talk about The Scorpio Races. It’s all fun and games until I start describing it: it’s a beautiful fantasy story with two brilliantly-written points of views, an island by the sea, horse races, and oh—don’t forget the bloodthirsty horses who will EAT YOU.

Yeah, sorry. I can’t find an explanation for why anybody would like a grotesque story. Let’s go with the cautionary bit. Don’t try this at home, kids.

The Horrible

I’m not for books that advocate for violence or abuse, but I do, on occasion, read a story or two that addresses such issues. If handled well, a book focused on a terrible topic can actually be a good story.

Take To Kill a Mockingbird for example. It’s a pleasant book about a tomgirl growing up and becoming a woman, right? Well, yes, but it’s much more than that. It’s also a tale about racism and murder. Just saying. Then there’s the recently published Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough. I almost stopped reading it—it was that intense. I stuck with the story, and I’m glad I did. The subject matter may be rough, but it may also be important to know so we can do something about it in our society today.

Books aren’t just happy stories. (I won’t say books aren’t fairytales because fairytales hardly ever end well.) Sometimes books are full of heartbreak. Sometimes they’re creepy or even horrific. While readers have to be careful not to become too entrenched in one concept or the other, they’re still important to read.

Reading to me is a learning experience, a way to communicate and how readers respond is how they talk back.

Let’s chat! What are some suspenseful books you enjoyed? How about creepy ones? Violent? Horrible? What’s your stance on the horror in fiction?

***

Give your feedback. Would you take a minute to answer my reader-feedback survey? (Estimated completion time: 1 minute)

Create your own user feedback survey

Similar posts: Controversy in Fiction: Monsters, 11 Writerly Fears, and No Story is Perfect

Literary references: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, Frank E. Peretti’s This Present Darkness, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Jill Sardegna’s The Roly-Poly Spider, Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Joy McCullough’s Blood Water Paint

A Study in Foreshadowing: Why Foreshadow?

I’m such a nerd that I admire literary techniques. When a book or a movie has a balance between excellent character development, witty dialogue, and a plot that makes me think, I’m hooked. Perhaps one of my all-time favorite techniques is foreshadowing. Since I liked it so much, I wanted to read all I could about it.

But I found the internet sadly lacking in explaining foreshadowing. Sure, one post suggested if it’s in the text, it must play a role later. In other words, Chekhov’s rule that if a gun is included in a story, it must be fired. The more I looked at foreshadowing in books and movies, the more I’ve realized that foreshadowing is so much more than that, and I’ve never found a post that taught me how to write it.

So I decided to study it myself and write about my findings. In this series, I’ll be tackling three important questions: Why use foreshadowing? What are the pitfalls of foreshadowing? And how can writers incorporate it?

First of all, it’s important to define foreshadowing. According to the dictionary, the word foreshadow means “to show, indicate, or suggest in advance.” When it comes to fiction, foreshadowing is a literary technique where the text hints at important plot points. This can range anywhere from which character is going to die to another character’s identity and so on.

In blogging, foreshadowing can be as simple as telling you what posts I’m going to write next, or having a great title like 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging, where you expect seven simple blogging tips. Fiction, however, is a little more complicated. Most readers don’t necessarily want to know what’s going to happen next. That’d be like reading the book blurb and having half the book spoiled for you. Nobody likes that.

So how does foreshadowing benefit readers? I’ll sum it up in one simple word: suspense. There’s nothing that keeps a reader turning pages like suspense. If writers can hook a reader and promise them something good will happen, they may be curious. If a writer promises something bad will happen, even better. That’s the point where the readers’ eyes become glued to the page, and they are squirming inside and wanting to shout, “TELL ME!!!”

Then, when readers finally reach the point alluded to, they may say something like “Aha!” Or if a writer really succeeded: “How did I not see that coming?” If a reader really likes the story enough to read it and try to find all the subtle clues peppered throughout the story, the writer has succeeded with proper foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing doesn’t just make for good reading. It makes for great rereading. (Tweet this!)

When most people think of foreshadowing this way, they may think of mystery books, and while they’re not wrong, it’s certainly not limited to it. Foreshadowing can be found in the correlation between the four thrones at Cair Paravel and the four Pevensie children. It can be in the title of Liesel Meminger’s story. It can be in August Water’s metaphor. It can be in the rule of only having one winner of the annual Hunger Games.

Yet foreshadowing can be a difficult technique to master. Do it wrong, and the suspense is ruined and the readers are disappointed. But do it correctly, and readers are hooked on your story. Foreshadowing done right is like promising your readers a secret and not letting them in on it until the last page.

Come back next month to read part 2 of A Study in Foreshadowing: How NOT to Use Foreshadowing.

***

Literary references: C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.

Let’s chat! What’s your favorite literary technique? Which technique do you want advice on writing? What’s the best example of foreshadowing you’ve seen in a book or film?

Book Review: "Stranger Things" by Erin Healy

Some books are easier to review than others, not necessarily because of the book but because of my writing style. I’m used to writing fiction instead of critiques, so I apologize for being a day late on my post. Without further ado, here is my latest review.

Such a captivating cover! I've got
a thing for pretty covers, can you tell?

Book: Stranger Things by Erin Healy

Genre: Christian fiction, suspense

Awards: none

My rating: 5/5 stars

One word description:  Eye-opening

 

I never win anything during raffles. You can imagine my surprise when I entered an online book scavenger hunt and received signed copies of Erin Healy’s The Baker’s Wife, Afloat, and Stranger Things. Of the three, Stranger Things is my favorite, hence the blog post. You can read my review for The Baker’s Wife here (I gave it 4/5 stars).

 

I put off reading Stranger Things during the school year because it was labeled as suspenseful, and it didn’t disappoint. I finished the book in two days. When I first started reading it, I didn’t know what to expect. I make it a policy not to read the back of books I own because of their tendency to give away major plot points (Caution: the back of Stranger Things does this).

 

Proof of my signed copy.

Stranger Things is a fictional story involving a pressing issue in society that we don’t always here about: human trafficking. The books is a reminder of humanity and tragedy, yet there are themes of hope woven throughout the story. Healy creates realistic characters, many of whom are not the kind I would have expected to like but liked nonetheless.

 

The story was heartbreaking yet inspiring. Heartbreaking because I would never want to see my own siblings in any of the book’s situations, yet inspiring because of how the main characters respond to their crisis. The book not only made me more aware of human trafficking, but also challenged me with the way I treat people, family members and strangers alike. There were so many takeaways from the story, but if had to pick the major one it would be this quote:

“‘If everybody just had one person who cared, everybody would be okay. Just one person.’” 

Because of its dark themes, I would not recommend Stranger Things to anybody under 15. I gave this book 5/5 stars for its eye-opening elements and theme of hope. I would recommend this book to anybody with a sister/daughter/girlfriend and those who enjoy suspenseful and thought-provoking stories.

Have you read any of Healy’s books? What did you think of them?
Ever won anything in a book giveaway? Comment below with the title!