Horror and Monsters: 2023

Welcome to 2023. The new releases (books) are on fire this year in the best possible way. Unfortunately, the world is also on fire, so we have that going for us. Have you checked out your library lately? Holy shitballs, (Is that one word or two? I’m making it one because I can.) my library new release section used to be all Thriller and Mysteries with a sprinkle of Historic Fiction, now we’ve moved into Horror. They’re sparse on the Science Fiction. As a side note, I was told that SF & F is niche when I inquired about why it—unless you skip over to the Young Adult New Releases.

 I’m complaining now and you’re not here for that. I’ll get to it.

 So, every time I go, they have a New Release book I’ve heard of or is an author I recognize. Horror often slips over into the speculative and if you’ve read some of my published short stories, you know I like a good creeptastic story. So, I don’t have a choice. I check it out. I mean, it’s right there. What else am I supposed to do?

 How often do I go? Once every other week, or more. Depends. I have a toddler and we load up on picture books. By the way, have you read out of the kid section lately!? The art, the poetry, it’s so simple, so…. I should do some blogs about these books and our experiences. We buy the ones he likes.

 Anyway. I try to read new releases, but the truth is that I’m so far behind. There is so much to read, and I have so much I’ve purchased last month, two months, and three years ago. My reading back log is a thing of beauty. I think I’m starting to hit books that were released in 2013 but occasionally find 2011 and 2012 hold outs. I’m told I read fast but I’m not sure that’s true.

 Perhaps my eyes are bigger than my brain.

 I just finished A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. This book said hold my beer. I didn’t know horror could be cozy, or is it because I tend to find campy things cozy? And while I’m sitting at 4am reading when I should be writing a story about a weird west monster hunter (Why? Because I haven’t worked on a story like that before.) I think to myself, why am I engrossed in horror right now?

 In 2020 I developed insomnia. It happens a couple days out of the week. I rise like a zombie horror at 2-3am and there is no going back to sleep. I am filled with anxious energy that I tell myself I’m going to put onto paper and be done with, but instead bury myself in someone else’s made up horror.

 These are the reasons I’ve come up with, and pre-warning this will mention some of the very scary shit happening around the states. I have a toddler and soon he should be in school and before that I have to have a talk about active shooters and drills and being super quiet. Maybe it is because in 2020 I was pregnant and watching body bags on the news. Maybe it’s because I won’t have another child while I live in Georgia and if something goes wrong, I’m kind of fucked, not as fucked as other places. We probably couldn’t afford it anyway. And how can I sit and write when rights are being taken? Holy shit, I didn’t even get into housing and environmental crisis.

 And then I think: I sound like this old lady I used to work with who would come in and tell me some awful story from the news. Or how I hear people say, “There is a lot more violence now.” And I think, That’s NOT fucking true, it wasn’t as documented. 

 Anyway. Anyway. Anyway.

 So yeah, Monsters. They’re wonderful. I mean awful, but in a wonderful way. The protagonists are scared but have agency. They might get to DO something about it. They might escape and the world might be better off. Oh sure, the monsters might still lurk in the shadows, nothing ever goes away. Even a haunting leaves bruises but there is life at the end.