Genre Summary: Horror
With October being the month of Halloween, it seems appropriate that this month’s genre summary should be horror! So, what is it about some books that makes them known as horror?
The genre of horror fiction is the third of the commonly recognised forms of speculative fiction; acknowledged for around half a century as being works with a gruesome, suspenseful or frightening theme, specifically designed to scare or disturb the reader. This is commonly achieved by introducing a supernatural or distressing element into a situation to which the reader can relate – everyday life, school trips or family holidays, for example.
Popular plot devices used throughout the horror genre include haunting by ghosts, invasions by zombies and attacks by homicidal humans. For this reason, there is often a strong theme of violence within horror fiction, although this is definitely not always the case. By playing to the power of the unknown, some of the best works of horror make intensely disturbing scenes few and far between; using suggestion and implication to coax the reader’s imagination and further build suspense.
One of the most famous works of horror every written is Stephen King’s The Shining; a book I shall review in my next post.
