At first I debated if I should post this over on my GMF newsletter, as it is vaguely related to writing, but I decided not to because it's more about reading for me.
I'm not a fan of haunted house stories. There are a few exceptions. King's The Shining, obviously, and Matheson's Hell House. And I have a warm spot in my heart for Hodgson's The House on the Borderland, but that might not count. I'll also add any of Laymon's Beast House books here, too, but the threat in those books are from monsters, so I'm not sure if they count either. But haunted house stories usually turn me off. It's practically the same thing every time. Family moves into a new house, someone returns to their childhood house after their parents die, blah blah blah.
I think what turns me off is that this is a capitalist concern. *I* have moved into this house. This house is *mine* not some ghost or demon or whatever. I bought and paid for it with my hard-earned American dollars. I will not be driven from my house, from my land, by supernatural elements. I'll get the exorcist or John Constantine or Tangina Barrons or whoever, but I'll really be the one who saves myself and my family in the end because of yawn, etc.
Oddly enough I don't count haunted castle stories. I'm into haunted castle stories possibly because like nearly every American I know I did not grow up in a European ancestral manse. It's different, and the haunting is usually about more than someone's ownership of the castle. There's usually a delicious curse involved, or sins of the father, stuff waaaaaaaaaaay more interesting than some capitalist worry.
A while back in my newsletter, maybe when it was still on Patreon, I talked about writing two haunted house stories, which is unusual for me. One of them is actually based on my own real life experience and will not see publication while I'm alive or while anyone involved as characters are alive. The other is a very unusual American haunted house story, not because of what haunts the house, but because of who is haunted. These are projects that I'm merely tinkering with now, as I have other stuff to work on.
This GF was prompted by my habit of picking up free horror ebooks. I no longer do this (unless it's written by someone I know personally) because I've read just about all I can stomach of paint-by-numbers haunted house stories. It's to the point where I no longer give constructive criticism in my reviews. (I believe that if you pick up a free ebook, you should always review it.) I just give the starred rating and move on, hoping that the next book isn't yet another one of these. It sucks that so many people out there are bent on telling the same story over and over again, especially when there's so much other stuff we could be writing about. Ah well.
No comments:
Post a Comment