When I was a sophomore in high school, I had a student teacher for English II. He read out loud at the beginning of class, which was fun and exciting—the first book he chose was Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. It’s been a favorite of mine ever since. Last year, Anderson teamed up with Emily Carroll to transform her groundbreaking novel into a graphic novel. I was not sure how it would turn out, but one of my former professors is a frequent contributor to a […]
Deliciously scary graphic stories.
Add this book to the list of things I would’ve never picked up in a bajillion years if I hadn’t found it on CBR. Add this to one of my favorite books ever. I thought I hated graphic novels. I thought I hated horror. I thought I hated creepy gothic stuff. Apparently not. Who even am I? I don’t know. This book is just gorgeous. The illustrations are stunning and mysterious and creepy and terrifying. It’s like five little illustrated ghost stories. In “Our Neighbor’s […]
Using Uncertainty to Create a Sense of Unease and Eeriness
“It came from the woods. Most strange things do.” You know how horror movies can be super effective when they create a sense of unease just by making you know that something is not quite right? But you can’t determine what that thing that’s not right is, and therefore you have no idea what to do or how to fix the situation? How the idea of a monster is almost scarier than when you actually see what it is, because of the way your imagination […]
My Kinda Horror
I have a…complicated relationship with the horror genre. For most of my life, I avoided it entirely, more afraid of the fear and uncertainty that would come as a result of the scary thing than the scary thing itself. But I loved those books and movies that existed right on the edge of horror–Frankenstein and Dracula were just creepy enough to satisfy my desire for something mildly frightening, but weren’t so scary that I found it difficult to sleep at night. Through the Woods is something different. […]