2011 Reading #110: The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. Liar by Justine Larbalestier.
102. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard.
103. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.
104. The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung.
105. American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King.
106. Autobiography of Mark Twain.
107. The Compass Rose: Short Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin.
108. American Vampire: Volume Two by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Mateus Santolouco.
109. Faithless by Karin Slaughter.
110. The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan. I found myself thinking, this past week, that perhaps I actually have a fear deficit--and considering that fear can be a good motivator, this isn't necessarily a good thing. Whether this is true or not, I tend not to find horror writing scary, with some exceptions--Laird Barron is one, and there are others, though none leap to mind. I think that without that component, some horror doesn't work. Lovecraft is one example of this; I have always found his work more silly than scary. The Red Tree isn't silly, but--at least for me--it's not scary, either. It doesn't help that I found the protagonist so unlikeable (deliberately so, I believe) that I kind of wanted bad things to happen to her. Where The Red Tree works, I think, is as an examination of the foundations of horror, or at least a certain sort of New England-based horror. The writer-protagonist, through her own research and through an abandoned manuscript she finds at the old farmhouse where she is staying, creates a sort of biblio-anthropological study of fiction and folklore centered on the dark woods. So--for me--the book works better as meta-horror than anything else. On the other hand, just a quick look around the Internet shows that I'm firmly in the minority on this, so take that into account.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. Liar by Justine Larbalestier.
102. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard.
103. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.
104. The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung.
105. American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King.
106. Autobiography of Mark Twain.
107. The Compass Rose: Short Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin.
108. American Vampire: Volume Two by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Mateus Santolouco.
109. Faithless by Karin Slaughter.
110. The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan. I found myself thinking, this past week, that perhaps I actually have a fear deficit--and considering that fear can be a good motivator, this isn't necessarily a good thing. Whether this is true or not, I tend not to find horror writing scary, with some exceptions--Laird Barron is one, and there are others, though none leap to mind. I think that without that component, some horror doesn't work. Lovecraft is one example of this; I have always found his work more silly than scary. The Red Tree isn't silly, but--at least for me--it's not scary, either. It doesn't help that I found the protagonist so unlikeable (deliberately so, I believe) that I kind of wanted bad things to happen to her. Where The Red Tree works, I think, is as an examination of the foundations of horror, or at least a certain sort of New England-based horror. The writer-protagonist, through her own research and through an abandoned manuscript she finds at the old farmhouse where she is staying, creates a sort of biblio-anthropological study of fiction and folklore centered on the dark woods. So--for me--the book works better as meta-horror than anything else. On the other hand, just a quick look around the Internet shows that I'm firmly in the minority on this, so take that into account.