Author: Sydney
The horror genre is expansive. Horror can be funny and fast, or slow and dreadful. It is perfect for a sad romance or thrilling adventure. Below are some of my absolute favorites of the genre
Cosmic Horror
The Fisherman by John Langan
The Fisherman by John Langan is a story within a story, an exploration of grief in the shadow of the Catskills, where river tributaries run through time and dead women walk.
Cosmic horror eschews gore and lightheartedness in favor of the unknowable. Places where our reality is superceded by another and the horror is in the lack of understanding. This genre is decended from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but The Fisherman is an even better starting place for those interested.
Reviews:
Psychological Horror
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is perhaps the finest haunted house story ever written. It has always been well-regarded, but fans of the recent Netflix adaptation might be surprised at the novel’s differences.
The characters are strangers to one another, brought together to stay and observe the alleged supernatural happenings of a house with a dark history. The house is certainly alive, and one of the guests in particular seems to be the perfect prey.
Psychological horror has been the most popular form of American horror for at least a decade, exemplified by films like Hereditary, It Follows, and It. This genre and its popularity proves that nothing scares us as much as ourselves.
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (Contemporary Review)
New York Times (Archived Review)
Comedic Horror
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix is a tale of woe told by the disgruntled workers of a Scandinavian-American line of furniture stores. They work too-long hours, are severely underpaid, and when strange things begin happening to the stock at night, they are forced into an impromptu sleepover to catch whoever is vandalizing the store.
This book manages to be both irreverent and unsettling, a combination that, while hard to strike, is what makes comedic horror such an interesting subgenre.
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