Reviewed by Jeanne
I am not really much of a horror reader. I am definitely not a horror movie fan. I will read and watch atmospheric things,
like Something Wicked This Way Comes (both book and movie) or We Have
Always Lived in the Castle. But when Halloween rolls around, I find myself
wanting to read something a bit spooky. That’s why this book caught my eye.
With horror being such a popular genre, I’m interested in why people want to
write horror, and why people want to read it. This book has a lot of answers to
that question.
Editor Spratford brought together nineteen contemporary horror
writers and let them write a personal essay on what moves them to write this
genre. These are the newer authors;
don’t expect Stephen King, Dean Koontz, F. Paul Wilson, or any of the
long-established writers. Even so, there
were many names I knew, including Grady Hendrix, Alma Katsu, Tananarive Due,
Jennifer McMahon, and Stephen Graham Jones. Some I didn’t, but all had
interesting things to say. Many wrote to make sense of the world, often in
response to childhood trauma; others wrote about the influences that led them
to write horror, such as a particular movie or book. Some speculated on the purpose horror plays
in our lives and why people are drawn to it as a genre.
I enjoyed the different ways the authors approached the
question, and the different writing styles. Most of all, I enjoyed learning
about some of the new authors. Reading
the essays of the ones I knew gave me some insight into their books; the others
either sounded intriguing or else let me know that we weren’t on the same page
(no pun intended.)
I found this to be an interesting and entertaining read. I will say that Grady Hendrix’s story raised
a few hairs on the back of my head, too.
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