There’s something about a contemporary setting that interrupts my enjoyment of a horror novel. We simply have too many tools for avoiding danger at our disposal. Couldn’t a phone flashlight illuminate the danger ahead in that damp basement? Wouldn’t a quick reverse image search reveal that, actually, that grimoire seems to be authentic, so it’s probably not a great idea to recite its demon-summoning incantation? (Although, let’s be real, A.I. might get it wrong and lead the character astray anyway.)
But stick your horrors in a bygone era and you’ve got a perfect pairing. While I adore reading (and writing) a genre-bending novel, wedding historical fiction and horror doesn’t require much bending at all. Turning back the clock strips the characters of modern tools and makes the physical realities of the setting much crueler. There are no cars to whisk you away from danger, no GPS to guide you home, no hydrogen peroxide to disinfect that bite. Your weapons are crude; your ability to wield them against whatever demons come your way is probably even cruder. And when the sun sets, the darkness is that much darker.
For the characters of my favorite historical horror novels, something even more sinister often prowls the horizon. Colonialism, with its oppressive racist structures, diseases and massacres, can be crueler than any serial killer or Slender Man that stalks contemporary horror. Many of these books wield the themes and motifs of the subversive Gothic tradition to challenge traditional power structures. Their plots excavate histories long suppressed by dominant narratives — both official and fictional — and give voice to characters whose tragedies and triumphs traditionally have not taken center stage in mainstream horror. Here, they step into the light.
Lone Women
by Victor LaValle
Montana in the early 20th century was a brutal place — and it is especially brutal for Adelaide Henry, a young Black woman who fled California with a steamer trunk full of horrific secrets. While there are human and supernatural antagonists aplenty in “Lone Women,” the most terrifying element may be the stark natural setting. The isolation of homesteading and the frigid clutches of the Montana winter could prove just as deadly as the darkness within Adelaide’s trunk.
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