Thoughts on reading horror

Ever since I read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and the sci-fi horror novels Salvation Day by Kali Wallace and Dead Silence by SA Barnes, I've fallen into a fascination with reading horror books. In fact, my TBR list for 2023 has the most horror novels ever. Though, as I'm starting to read more horror novels, I'm slowly figuring out what works and doesn't work for me in the genre.

For one, so far, I find sci-fi horror and psychological horror to be scarier to me than ghosts, spirits, or gore. Sci-fi horror, because nothing frightens me more than the idea of an alien virus or parasite causing people to go berserk; psychological horror, because I'm addicted to the slow build-up of dread, unsettling feelings, and questioning "wait, is something weird going on or am I seeing/hearing things?"

Spirits? Killer ghosts? Monstrous man-eating creatures? Meh.

Hell, I was surprised when a friend told me they couldn't read The Hacienda by Isabal Cañas at night because of how scary it was. I blew through that book thinking it wasn't all that frightening. Demonic possession in a house? Okay, sure.

Maybe it's partly because monsters in a verbal medium are inherently less scary than in a visual medium. I've started reading horror books, but I'm still reluctant to watch horror movies. I enjoyed watching YouTube playthroughs of the video game The Medium—the main monster there definitely freaks me out every time in a way that I wouldn't feel if I just read about it in a book.

I think maybe it's also because, as someone who struggles with anxiety, I find the scariest books ones that focus on the fear of the unknown. Hence why I love psychological horror/thriller. If a monster has a shape and a physical form, well, it's something that I've seen or heard of before, even if it's a new take on it. (Also, maybe my history of reading fantasy plays into this? I've read enough books, watched enough shows, and played enough games with monsters that end up killed by the protagonist, no matter how scary they are.)

But a story in which the protagonist has no idea what they're dealing with? Or one in which a protagonist is wondering if their own mind is betraying them? Terrifying.

Also, what I love about stories like Mexican Gothic and The Medium is that, while there are Scary Things (TM) at play, ultimately, the story is about how humans are the most frightening monsters of all. And that resonates with me so deeply. I have never read that much horror, but it still strikes me as impossible to invent some new scary monster that no one has ever seen or heard of before. So basing the reveal of the horrific thing on the "what" rather than the "why" never really freaks me out.

(Hell, I still haven't quite given up on my own haunted house horror idea I came up with last year but put on the back burner, which is all about the monstrousness of humans.)

Anyway, this rant was brought to you by Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie, which was well-written and engaging but gave me more feelings of "these main characters are idiots" rather than terrified fascination. Here's the rest of my horror TBR for 2023, and here's hoping I'll find more books that scratch my particular itch:

- She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (Mexican Gothic was used as a comp for this, so I'm excited)
- Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury (if I can find it on audio, since I already had a rough time trying to read this)
- The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown (sci-fi horror!)
- Paradise-1 by David Wellington (more sci-fi horror, though the advance reviews have made me wary of this)
- Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith (oceanic horror on a cruise ship!)
- Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (another SMG horror book!)
- Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes (no idea about this but the summary sounded vaguely interesting?)