A History of Fear

I completely understand anyone who finished this book, and could not fully enjoy the horror-mystery aspect due to the heavy weight the story places on themes of ‘internalized homophobia and childhood abuse and neglect can lead to violence and mental break' and ‘is it all in that character's head' ? There are certainly many times in the past where homoerotic subtext, blatant homophobia, trauma survival and mental health concerns have been exploited in the most sensational ways, with no regard for the communities such ‘representation' affects. As neither a gay man, a survivor of abuse, nor a person currently struggling with mental health, I cannot comment on the specific representation, but I think this was a sharper, more empathetic read on such themes, from the angle of what fear makes us do, and the tragedy of being made to fear a part of ourselves. Whether you go with ‘repressed homosexual man with abusive childhood struggles with sexual identify and mental health and turns violent', OR ‘man with that past is goaded on by supernatural force to become violent', it's tragic, and depressing either way. But the way this story is built up, the multimedia elements by turns supporting and contradicting the main narrative, those moments when you can see the characters revealing things they might not have intended to, even in their own POV, the creeping increase in uncanny, violent, horrifying circumstances... It did a very good job of presenting the Devil as a plausible boogeyman (clandestine, shape shifting, friendly, seductive), in the best tradition of films like The Devil's Advocate. [If there are other books like this, I would love recommendations.] I guess what I'm saying is ‘your mileage may vary', but I had a damn good time, quality chills, especially after that last line. 😉

⚠️Fatphobia, child abuse, neglect, suicide, animal cruelty, internalized homophobia, homophobia, homophobic violence, child death