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The criteria that come to mind are not exclusive to horror novels, so I'm a little confused and annoyed (annoyed because I find horror novels scary, and yet just cannot define it logically when I t...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/10555 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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The criteria that come to mind are not exclusive to horror novels, so I'm a little confused and annoyed (annoyed because I find horror novels scary, and yet just cannot define it logically when I try to distill the reasons in words). Some of the criteria that come to mind are: Blood and gore (also found in war novels) Death and destruction (war novels) Fear of the unknown (Crew of a nuclear submarine) The Supernatural (Beautiful Creatures) Monsters (Twilight, Warm Bodies). The powerlessness of the protagonists (crew of a nuclear submarine) Isolation and loneliness (Count of Monte Christo) Protagonists who die along the way Societal chaos and disorder (novels set in a post-apocalyptic world) Does anyone have any criteria or books to suggest?