Author: Tracy
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Day of the Arrow (1964) by Philip Loraine
Day of the Arrow (1964) by Philip Loraine (a pseudonym for British author Robin Estridge) exemplifies the genre principles of folk horror; and, in many ways, that’s part of its problem. For the modern genre fan who is familiar with folk horror’s tropes of sacrifice and fertility, the novel’s plot is too predictable. Indeed, by…
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Horror Movie: A Novel by Paul Tremblay (2024)
I don’t know what comes after the postmodern horror novel and, if his latest work is any indication, neither does Paul Tremblay. And that’s OK with me because Horror Movie (2024) demonstrates that–in the hands of this author at least–postmodern techniques continue to generate interesting insights. Foregrounding the artifice of narrative and the indeterminacy of…
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Rouge: A Novel (2023) by Mona Awad
Mona Awad’s Rouge (2023) is part of a trend in horror fiction that explores the scary side of beauty. Tracing a line between self-care and self-destruction, novels on this theme consider what happens when techniques for improving the body become torture in the pursuit of an unattainable ideal. Awad’s contribution stands out because it demonstrates…
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The Witch and the Priest (1956) by Hilda Lewis
If you like “authentic” representations of the occult in fiction and film, then you’ll appreciate Hilda Lewis’ The Witch and the Priest (1956). The novel falters with a clumsy framing device and a writing style that’s too minimalist for the time and subject. Still, these missteps are more than balanced by a careful attention to…
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955) by Jack Finney
Sometimes reading 50s horror feels like taking medicine. I know that it’s good for me–that it enhances my knowledge of the genre–but I find the characters flat, the plots hackneyed, and the fictional worlds generally inaccessible. So imagine my surprise when, sitting down to “endure” Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955), I found…
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The Hour of the Oxrun Dead (1977) by Charles L. Grant
Lately, I’ve been consulting some of the major guides to horror fiction; and I’ve noticed that, from Stephen King’s Danse Macabre to Marshall Tymm’s Horror Literature, virtually every study lists Charles L. Grant’s The Hour of the Oxrun Dead (1977). A tale of small town occultism sounds good to me, so I picked up a…
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In the Mountains of Madness (2016) by W. Scott Poole
H.P. Lovecraft and I have something in common: We are both from Rhode Island. And while he hails from Providence and I am from a rural backwater, when you live in a state that’s a 30 minute drive from end-to-end, everyone is your neighbor. Since my neighbor was a wizard of the weird tale and…
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The Search for Joseph Tully (1974) by William H. Hallahan
The conclusion of The Search for Joseph Tully (1974) by William H. Hallahan hits like a thunderbolt. Unfortunately, its power to shock in the final pages comes at the expense of everything before it, which, at times, can feel as reserved and directionless as the genealogical search it describes. While I hesitate to say that…
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Piñata (2023) by Leopoldo Gout
Piñata (2023) by Leopoldo Gout relocates the subject of possession from a Catholic to an Aztec cosmology. While I enjoyed this original reinterpretation of a classic horror trope, I think that the novel is at its best when examining the characters’ more mundane problems. All of them grapple with the fractures and contradictions of post-colonial…