Tag: Joan Lowery Nixon

Six Scary Good Books and Why They Still Haunt Me

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment
Photo by Arturo A on Pexels.com

With all the reading I do (roughly 30 books per year), I occasionally come across titles that give me the chills and haunt me long after I finish reading them. I’m not talking about horror stories either, which I don’t read anyway as a rule. I get scared easily. It doesn’t take much for me to go from being a chilled-out baby boomer to an anxious insomniac. The smallest gruesome details, even in the most literary of published words, can leave an indelible mark on my imagination.

While I try to avoid reading those types of stories with some element of horror, every now and then, I do read one with a difficult-to-read scene (The Book of Ruth) or I challenge myself to read out of my comfort zone (In Cold Blood). Other times, a book I’m reading has kept me awake at night, the suspense so great I was afraid to sleep.

I’ve scoured my reading lists from the past few years to curate a list of the best, most haunting reads, just in time for Halloween season. These books haunted me in ways I didn’t expect and left a lasting impression.

Why did these titles make my “scary” list?

  • They might have contained a gruesome scene of brutal violence that I could not unsee in my imagination. 
  • Some scenes only hinted at violence, just enough to feed my own fears and prod my imagination to fill in the blanks.
  • Some stories contained scenes that kept playing over and over in my head, preventing me from falling asleep at night.
  • The story presented a sad, dark view of our future that felt real and viable.

Here is my short list of books that have haunted me over the years. Your own list of scary or haunting books may be different. What is the same is the way these stories make you feel and the lasting impressions they make on your psyche.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
I don’t usually read true crime, but I had heard so much about ICB that I challenged myself to read it. This is considered the premiere example of true crime, and Capote does it with tremendous empathy for the villains. The story doesn’t feel exploitative or flashy either, and the facts are presented in a way that helps you understand the mindset of the murderers and the events that led up to their crime. That is what made this book so haunting, helping readers understand that there’s more to a crime than meets the eye.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Morena-Garcia
This title is the closest thing to horror that I’ve ever read. I had heard a lot about it and I was curious about what the story was about. Morena-Garcia gives a Mexican spin on traditional gothic horror. Well-written with a likeable main character who behaved with greater maturity than her 21 years. The story was packed with a lot of gruesome and paranormal details that were both fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
I still cannot stop thinking about The Book of Ruth, which I read about five years ago.
Though this book is a work of fiction and not horror or true crime, it could easily have been one of them because of the way Hamilton presented the sequence of events. She also included back stories for the two people the main character Ruth was closest to – her mother and her husband. As the story progressed, the reader could see the growing tension and animosity between those two characters up until their final confrontation. This book haunted me in two ways: the brutal violence Ruth witnesses and her capacity to forgive in the end.

A Deadly Game of Magic by Joan Lowery Nixon
Nixon was a popular young adult novelist of the 1970s and 1980s, and I remember reading a few of her stories when I was younger. While the set-up for A Deadly Game wasn’t original – four teens seek shelter in an apparent abandoned house during a storm – Nixon turned their experience into a gripping, spine-tingling page turner around an evil magician who may or may not still be alive. There was no clear sign of violence, no actual blood and gore. But Nixon leaves enough clues, including a guillotine set that the magician had used for his tricks, to make readers use their imagination to fill in the  blanks. Sometimes that can be more scary than seeing the horror on the page. This one gave me a few sleepless nights.

One By One by Ruth Ware
This was the first of Ware’s psychological thrillers I read, and what an introduction it was. The story centers around a group of work colleagues who are trapped in an isolated chalet in the Swiss Alps, and one by one, they keep disappearing. The pacing and multiple points of view kept me guessing about what would happen next. The tension was so fraught that I had difficulty sleeping at night. Casual readers of suspense or Ware fans might say that I’m overreacting, that this was not one of her best works. But for me, there was something about the way she weaved in the story elements and tension that kept me looking over my shoulder.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I shake my head every time I see this title described as magic realism. Sure there is a “special school,” but the specialness has nothing to do with magic. I would describe this story as dystopian much like the Handmaid’s Tale. The story centers around an imagined society that raises orphaned children for a very dark purpose – to be sacrificed to help other people live. As readers see these children grow up and knowing what their future holds, leaves me feeling haunted in ways traditional crime novels do not. 

What do you think? Are there any books that have haunted you? What types of stories scare you?  

Learn to Read Books with a Writer’s Eye

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment

Recently, I read A Deadly Game of Magic, a young adult mystery by Joan Lowery Nixon, who had been a favorite author many years ago. I decided to pick up a couple of her mysteries that I had not read before. A Deadly Game of Magic lived up to my memory of her suspenseful writing. Not only did the story keep me turning pages, it scared the pants off me – more than any other book I’ve read in recent memory. (Then again, I’m easy to scare.)

Why was her book so successful in my opinion? What kept me turning the pages to the very end? How did Nixon create tension throughout the story? How did she manage to scare me (and other readers, I’m sure) without mentioning a single drop of blood or showing a dead body?

These are questions I will have to ask myself the next time I read the book.

We’ve all had those novels that we could not put down. Or conversely, we’ve read stories that bored us to tears or made us feel confused by the protagonist’s actions.

This is where it helps to know how to read a novel with a writer’s perspective. It’s one thing to read for pure enjoyment and entertainment. It’s quite another to observe the techniques the author used to develop the story. You read to notice how the story was constructed.

In other words, you read in order to learn about the writing process.

As Gabriela Pereira at DIYMFA explains: “You understand that every piece of writing has a purpose. Once we read toward that purpose, we can see how writers shape and craft their words to accomplish what they want.”

When you read with a writer’s eye, you might focus on certain areas of writing, such as:

* Plot/story structure – How does the plot develop? What is the inciting incident that starts the story?
* Emotional tone – What is the tone of the story? Is the protagonist sad, angry, surprised, or confused at the start? How does the tone change throughout the story?
* Character development – is it consistent throughout the story. Do you care what happens to the protagonist?
* Conflict – is there enough conflict to keep your interest?
* Point of view – Which point of view is used to tell the story? Are there multiple viewpoints or just one? Would you use a different point of view if you were telling this same story?
* Theme – Most stories have a theme, such as good always wins out over evil. Does it come through the story?
* Setting – Where does the story take place? Can you visualize where it is? How important is the setting to the story? For example, in Nixon’s mystery, the story takes place at an old home in the middle of nowhere that is thought to be uninhabited – but it isn’t.

So how do you go about reading with a writer’s eye? First you need to understand that writing consists of a series of choices by the author on how they will tell their story. As you read, you work to identify what some of those choices are, whether they work well or not, and whether they can work within your own writing.

Author Shaunta Grimes says as “story consumers” (I love that description), readers must first “read deeply and analytically.”

But does that mean you must study every paragraph of every chapter? No, say most writers. Go back and re-read only those sections that drew your interest. For example, was there a particular setting description that intrigued you? Or a chapter that was filled with tension? Go back and re-read those passages to study the techniques the author used.

Grimes shares a three-step process for doing a “deep dive” to study an author’s craft.

1. Choose a story you’re already familiar with. Perhaps it’s a book from the Harry Potter series, or a childhood favorite such as Little Women. When you’re already familiar with the story, you can study certain passages without getting distracted.

2. Know what you’re reading for. As mentioned previously, you’ll be looking for specific passages. For example, you may want to study how the author makes transitions between the current time and the past. Or you may want to look at the way the protagonist’s character is developed so that she feels real to you.

3. Read with a pencil in hand. Don’t be shy about marking up the book and highlighting sections that stand out. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t, and try to understand why.

Another word of advice: Be patient with this process. It takes longer to read as a writer because you are studying and absorbing the content.  

It’s one thing to read for pleasure. But by studying the works of others authors, we can all learn to be better writers ourselves.