I think I’ve found my favourite genre! It only took me 37 years (as of today)!
Dark Tales is a collection of dark short stories by Shirley Jackson. They range from biting yet realistic dissections of suburban life to classic ghost stories and fever-dream-like tales with loose endings frayed as cut ribbons. My favourite stories were ‘Paranoia’, in which an ordinary businessman is hunted through the big city by mysterious figures, and ‘What a Thought’, in which a housewife experiences life- ending changing urges after dinner. They’re all great though; only one or two weren’t fully to my taste, but I enjoyed them all and some made falling asleep afterwards a little more difficult (yes, they’re definitely scary).
Jackson is the queen of creating uncomfortable moods and slow-creeping horror, but she can be pretty explicitly violent, too. The variation is great; it keeps my scatterbrained mind engaged, and I love how almost all of the stories affect ‘ordinary’ people. The overall theme is that their ordinariness and their quaint little worlds are the horror. This is just the best freaking thing if you ask me. Hell is in everyday life. So, yeah, I guess my favourite genre is creepy short stories, since they’re what got me reading physical books for fun again (not just books for work or audiobooks), and it was an absolute delight. I also bought the book in a lovely bookshop in the West Village last April during my trip to NYC. If you’re ever in the area, check out Three Lives & Company — I’m sure many of you will find it right up your alley!