I’ve Always Preferred the Dark

People who read my Facebook posts probably get the wrong idea of me as a reader and a writer. Because when I’m trying to present the incredible mess of my life in a social platform, I try to enable Mark’s Twins philosophy:

”Human is tragedy plus time.”

This makes the posts pretty lighthearted and even humorous - not to mention how it helps me in the stress of the moment to try and think of how I’m going to put a comedic spin on the events later.

But when it comes to my fiction writing and especially my fiction READING - well, I like it dark.

I thought that was a new thing, but then I remembered how many R. L. Stine novels I consumed in grade school. And Christopher Pike. Classmates always remember the huge fantasy tomes I’d lug around in my arms since they were too big for my backpack - The Wheel of Time, David Eddings, etc. but there were just as many horror novels slipping into the stacks.

I cannot watch horror movies, despite being drawn to them. I like the twists and the suspense and trying to figure things out, I think, but I have a graphic and long memory, so the images? I don’t need those. Novels, on the other hand - I can put up with a lot in print. But even then, there are a few books / scenes that have haunted me. Want a list? Me too.

Gerald’s Game by Stephen King
Why? Because the whole thing is creepy in a disturbing, it-could-happen-to-you kind of way. Plus there’s a character toward the middle / end that turns out to be incredibly unsettling. Parts of this book have haunted me.

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Why? I love vampire novels. (Really, almost all of them. We’ll talk about Twilight another day, but know that it is indeed on my shelves). THIS one, though, has a section in it where the Boy Next Door is trapped in a shed with a mutated monstrosity of a thing and the writing in that section is so terrifying and claustrophobic and BLIND that I was breathing hard and almost had to put the book down for a second. SCARY, ok. It was just scary.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Why? It’s a great book. Another vampire book with an excellent spin. However, the book opens in a spectacularly awful and frightening way. It started so hard that I wondered if I would be able to continue.

”The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains” by Neil Gaiman
Why? This is a short story. I read it as part of the Trigger Warning anthology, and it was odd in the way that Neil writes about odd things. Doors that hang askew. Normal things that feel off. This wasn’t a scary story, but there is an IMAGE in this story that slapped hard into my brain with the force of a jump scare. Impressive writing to project that kind of thing with simple words.

It’s kind of a slim list. I’ll add to it when / if I find more scary stuff. Apparently I will continue to be drawn to it. These were just particularly powerful, and I find it a rare skill to raise someone’s heartbeat without the benefit of a visual and an intense soundtrack.

I want to do more lists in the future. Like my favorite movie scenes. More lists of books that I like for different reasons (Books with the Best Twists, Books that Made Me Walk Around Dazed, Books that I Wish Were Longer)

There are quite a few.