Horror Movie (2024) by Paul G. Tremblay

 Audiobook Review

Horror Movie (2024)

by Paul G. Tremblay

   I'm not a big genre fiction guy but I dip my toes in fantasy, horror and crime/detective fiction and read quite a bit of science fiction.  My usual rule for fantasy/horror/crime/detective fiction is that I'll read it if it gets a stand alone (vs. round-up) review in the New York Times book section.   Regardless of the content of the book or the tenor of the review, any genre title that gets a stand alone review means that it is well above the standard quality for whatever genre, and that it may, in fact, exceed genre standards to the point where it qualifies as literary fiction.

  Such was the case with Horror Movie, the latest from Paul G. Tremblay, one of a handful of horror authors who maintain contact with the literary fiction establishment.  The New York Times review for Horror Movie- written by a horror-industry stalwart, was sparkling, to the point where I checked out the Audiobook from the library.  Alas, I did not enjoy my listening experience, largely for the same issues I have with most horror books.  These can be expressed as follows:

1.  Every horror novel wants the reader to care about whether SOMEONE lives or dies, and I never ever do, not for one moment, care what happens to any character in any horror novel.  In my mind, a real horror story is a novel about the struggles of an unwed, poorly educated teen mom who gives birth in the rural south in the mid 20th century.

2.  Every horror novel is built around a ridiculous concept- that the world is filled with malevolent things- human or other, who are absolutely obsessed with murdering/ruining the lives of living humans, specifically the characters in this book.  This is the opposite of my lived experience, which suggests that the supernatural is largely a delusion caused by different kinds of mental illness and that the wider world does not care what happens to a specific person, no matter what they have going on in their life.

3.  I don't enjoy being scared.

    Although I was never in danger of being scared by the Horror Movie audiobook, the other two issues were front and center, since the plot: About the revival of an ill-fated cult horror film shot by a bunch of college-age students in the Northeast,  hits points 1 and 2 right in the bullseye despite the metafictional attempts by the author to spice up the timeline of the book.  Simply put, who gives a shit whether these people live or die, or how they go about it.  Not me.