In my time, I’ve read lots of books in lots of genres and styles. But one I haven’t read much of is horror.
I’ve been intrigued by it for ages, after having read and loved Edgar Allan Poe. And yes, I know he’s not strictly horror, more fantastical or supernatural than anything, but if you’re not chilled by his stories then I’m not sure what to say.
But recently, I tried a collection of HP Lovecraft, and loved it! I didn’t realise that horror could be lyrical, and even beautiful. The Call of Cthulthu in particular had everything I wanted from a story, from ancient interstellar krakens terrifying the world to odd mysteries and myth, from sensual descriptions to compelling characters. But the rest were just as spectacular, with horrid happenings and curses, creepy towns and unearthly beings bent on destruction.
There were many things I loved about his tales. Firstly was his use of language, with this lyrical quality that flowed like the sea, and had a musicality to it that kept you going. I enjoyed how many of these were related back to the audience, using experimental forms of reports and letters to enhance the terror. The Dunwich Horror was excellent at foreshadowing, with a town that felt strange even before the action started, and foreshadowing by linking it back to the event. As a partially sighted person, using the senses to describe something is perfect, helping me visualise with sound and scents instead of sight, and HP Lovecraft wrote this to perfection when describing each cryptid creature his narrators encounter. And I loved how we’re never sure if these beings had no explanation of where they came from, at least not for definite. Sometimes in science fiction, we over explain, and it loses something, like with Darth Vader’s origins or the creation of the Daleks. I also enjoyed how we’re never sure if these beings are still there, if Dunwich was defeated or not. That mystery keeps the terror and magic of these events, and again sometimes in science fiction we lose something by defeated these creatures. Although, a perfect outlier to this is definitely John Wyndham, who leaves endings open to everything.
His stories were new to me, and I’m very glad I decided to give them a try. They even inspired my own stories, as I wrote a flash about a monster made of mushrooms terrorising a local town, which one reader said was so creepy she would never look at mushrooms the same again. From them, I learnt that horror can be beautiful, and lyrical. And that you can build horror slowly, unravelling events like a mystery, instead of just using jump scares throughout. I will definitely read more, and keep exploring horror, now I know it can be so wonderful.
