Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1988 – the story of a family of former slaves whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a restless spirit. This greater understanding of the genre to reflect ourselves and our realities has seen a reshaping of horror narratives, particularly those written by women, and even the reconsideration of stories that are traditionally not seen as horror. “Black history is Black horror,” author and educator Tananarive Due said in the 2019 documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Horror increasingly slips between the personal and political, the real and surreal.
“Horror is an intimate, eerie, terrifying thing, and when it’s done well it can unmake you, the viewer, the reader,” she said. With gothic tropes and style, Machado replayed physical and emotional abuse within the walls of her mind and the memories of the old house she shared with her partner – now haunted by the past and their relationship. Having won the Shirley Jackson award for her short story collection Her Body and Other Parties, Machado went on to use a horror framework to tell her personal story of queer domestic violence in her 2019 memoir, In the Dream House. “When you enter into horror, you’re entering into your own mind, your own anxiety, your own fear, your own darkest spaces,” said American author Carmen Maria Machado, speaking to the Paris Review in 2017.
And about embracing the things that scare us, in order to be braver.Horror is one of the only genres that allows for a constantly evolving interplay of the factual and fantastical. When a chance encounter with a young film buff leads her to a feminist horror film collective, Ellie meets Riya, a girl who she might be able to show her real self to, and last comes to understand her family’s legacy - and her own part in it.Ī story of love, loss, family and film - a stirring, insightful novel about letting go of anger and learning to forgive without forgetting. But forgiveness feels like playing make-believe, and memories are like ghosts. Lottie is dying and Ellie wants to make peace with her before it’s too late. Now seventeen, Ellie has returned home to Hobart for the first time in years. The experience left Ellie deeply traumatised and estranged from people she loved. Granddaughter of the infamous Lottie Lovinger, as a child Ellie shared the silver screen with Lottie in her one-and-only role playing the child monster in a cult horror movie. But sooner or later, the mask must come off…Įllie Marsden was born into the legendary Lovinger acting dynasty. How do you ruin someone’s childhood? You let them make-believe that they are a monster. A coming-of-age story about embracing the things that scare us from the author of ‘The Year the Maps Changed.’ In a neo-Gothic mansion in a city at the end of the world, Ellie finds there’s room enough for art, family, forgiveness and love.
‘The Monster of Her Age’ by Danielle Binks - coming August 2021
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