Ghosted

The Big Bad… Book?

I’ve never been a particular fan of the horror genre. You’re free to endlessly speculate whether it has something to do with my personality type, perhaps bad experience, or just my own preference. However, one of the few interactions I have had with horror was the film ‘It’, originally written by Stephen King. I know, a good one, right? I’m not going to lie, I was peer pressured... well, long story short, it wasn’t as bad as I expected; I spent half of the film with my eyes tightly shut and the other half laughing hysterically at the awful jokes Richie, one of the characters, made. The horror genre is undoubtedly one of the most controversial genres and people tend to have strong opinions on it: you either love it or hate it. Nevertheless, it has been around for some centuries.

When you think about horror, perhaps the first things that come to mind are jump scares, strange noises, and gore. Sometimes, suspense is also added by the stupid characters, who for some reason decide to go alone into complete darkness after asking several times ‘Who’s there?’ instead of running away and calling the police. But can we still get the same fear from a horror book?

It’s no secret that in the 21st century we’re all experiencing an immense informational overload; social media notifications, horrifying news being broadcasted to you 24/7, an abundance of shows, music, blogs etc. We’re basically snowed under the endless stream of information, being so used to the rich visual and audio stimuli that it does seem like at this stage, that’s all we’re capable of perceiving and we can’t imagine any further.