I'm desensitized to horror because I saw a lot of things when I was too young and it's hard to actually enjoy it as an adult. I'm also numb because I've had a difficult time my whole life, so "scary books" never really cut it for me.
There's nothing wrong with most things and everything I read is well written or well done in some way, and I have a good time. Most horror just fails to really get under my skin unless there's some element to it that triggers me philosophically or ethically and makes me mad, and I don't mean Bird Box level where the book itself peeves me off as a disabled person, but more like in Pet Sematary where Louis (paraphrase) threatened to give his son "something to cry about". Only a limited amount of things have creeped me out or thrilled me. American Psycho was one that I really enjoyed, though it's a format that works only with that specific story and character. That one scene in it actually made me sick, which is what we like to see, but it probably wouldn't work as well if it happened too often, and I think not expecting it was what made it work.
I read The Girl Next Door after seeing it on every iceberg. The content was crazy enough (and the fact it was based on a real case had me upset), but I guess knowing it is ultimately fiction and not being connected to the characters enough, and possibly the fact that things are stated instead of shown too often, made me feel too "okay" while reading. Some things were really underplayed, and I don't exactly mean the character remembering things from a child perspective and having no complex feelings and little experience, but the things that happened to Meg simply happened and not in a way where the character just brushed it off. I don't know how to explain this but I hope someone gets it. I'm a 1% with things like this. I was a little irritated when the book was onto something, like the horrors of being a child and having no control, but then the character really drove it in and went on tangents explaining how it all works. There were times I would infer or had aha moments, but then the story threw it away. A lot of potential and not enough suspense for me, the 1%.
I read It (King) back in high school but it was actually to long for me to finish since I picked it up during a bad time, exams and grad parties and stuff. I'm definitely rereading that no matter what. I remember reading Carrie vividly, it didn't scare me but it did thrill me or otherwise did a great job of immersing me at the start and middle. Immersion is a huge thing for me. I generally enjoy how King can find ways to take things too far even in a very comfortable setting. But I have to say I'm looking for something too far in a way that I was expecting with The Girl Next Door. Actually too far, like regret reading.
What books have done that for you? Or what books would you actually ban if given the opportunity?
Like American Psycho, this is very well real and alive, happening every day. Or "I don't care if this is fiction, this is not good."
by MoistCurdyMaxiPad
7 Comments
American Psycho.
It, fantastic book except for the part in the sewers. I’ll never understand how that got past editing or why it’s still in the book.
The 120 Days of Sodom. Well written though.
I wouldn’t ban it, but The Marbled Swarm by Dennis Cooper is truly grotesque. Couldn’t get through it, and got rid of it because I didn’t even want to see it or have it in my house.
I have enjoyed most books by Dan Simmons that I’ve read, but *Song of Kali* left me hating that I had spent the time reading it to get to a certain scene about 85% of the way through the book.
(I haven’t checked if *Song of Kali* is considered “horror”, but it should be if it isn’t).
**EDIT**: Spoilers for the ending of Song of Kali, **do not click unless you want the book spoiled**: >!Main character’s infant is killed and hollowed out to smuggle gems out of Calcutta!<
Have you tried Blood Meridian?
I started *Tender is the Flesh* last month, got ~70 pages, and had to put it down. Reality is horrific enough, I don’t need human slaughterhouses rattling around my imagination while they are building literal concentration camps-with influencers gleefully selling merch-right now.