Olaf the Troll ,'Showtime'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
(Nodding and pointing at What Betsy Said.)
As an aside, anything from the SF/Fantasy genres still has a better chance of a Serious Review than a book from the horror genre, unless it's written by Clive Barker or Stephan King. Neither of whom has written in that genre for a while now.
Does fantasy count? because I can think of three....
Le oops.
t resets Wayback Machine to 2004. I hate it when I'm stuck in the past like that.
Jilli, what about Peter Straub?
The man can flat-out write.
Le oops.
(giggling)
Jilli, what about Peter Straub?
Good point. He gets Serious Reviews, too. But anyone who isn't a Big Name Author who is writing horror? Gets shunned. And frequently stuck with horrible, schlocky cover art, which doesn't help at all.
My perspective is that it's not the authors who are dismissed, but the readers. People who read mysteries are more socially acceptable than people who read SF/Fantasy. Horror's probably somewhere in the middle, thanks to King.
Why I dropped in here, tho: A friend has talked me into joining a paperback book swap, and I'm wondering if any Buffistas would be interested? You get a list, mail a book to the first person on the list, add your name to the bottom of the list, and send the newly-updated list to new people. So you only send one book, but get several. You don't get to keep trading with the same people, though.
Anyway, if you are interested, my profile addy's good.
Horror's probably somewhere in the middle, thanks to King.
Nope. King, Barker, Straub, and Koontz are considered the "acceptable" faces of horror fiction. But if you ask the average sales clerk at B&N or Borders where they shelve any other horror authors, you will usually get a startled look, and a mumbled statment of "Oh, those books are just mixed in with general fiction".
People who read mysteries are more socially acceptable than people who read SF/Fantasy.
That's definitely true. As a mystery reader, I may be sheepish to pull the book out of my bag, but no one thinks I'm a freak when they see it.
I'll just say there's a reason that bookstores specializing in romance books sell ornamental book covers at the register. (Because nobody likes being seen in public with the covers the publishers pick.)
Yup. How comfortable I am reading any genre book in public (and I read romance, fantasy, mystery, and occasional science fiction) has a lot to do with how classy the cover is.