Graphic Content: Empty Eyes, written by Diego Agrimbau and illustrated by Juan Manuel Tumburús

 Childhood is expected to be a time of innocence, but horror has a great way of subverting expectations. In some stories, there are “childhood things” that we are told we need to put away to become adults. These include toys and imaginary friends are ultimately holding us back from being mature and capable adults. In some horror stories, these childhood things (for example, killer dolls) prevent us from growing up by simply ending us, but some childhood things can also protect us from what awaits us in the very cruel, very real adult world. Such is the case of the graphic novel Empty Eyes, written by Diego Agrimbau and illustrated by Juan Manuel Tumburús.

The story takes place during WWI at the border between Russia and Poland. Near the border is the Nurk Orphanage, which now houses only three living children: young Otto, his older sister Ophelia, and Maurice, who has a psychological hold over the siblings, ordering them to bring back fresh meat to feed Maurice’s cannibalistic tendencies. Otto wants his sister’s protection, especially after all the other children died, but they might still be close to Otto, perhaps looking out at him through the dolls that fill the place.

It is easy to think of Guillermo Del Toro’s work as this story shows the contrast between the fantasy world and a real world ravaged by war, but Agrumbau’s story is less fantasy and more horror, as it deals with child death and cannibalism. Tumburus’s artwork even plays with this dichotomy of childlike wonder and horror in his artwork. The children are wide-eyed (when they have eyes) and cherubic and seem to reference the artwork of many popular children’s books. What this ultimately means for young Otto is that the world that exists outside his is not one of bright, safe fantasy. There is no respite, either in this world or the next, for the ravages of war and the horrors born of the human condition. Readers who are fans of Del Toro’s movies will love this particular graphic novel, as well as readers who know childhood always has a dark side.

 

Have You Read This? Rin Chupeco's The Sacrifice

 

YA horror has always seemed rather nebulous. What exactly is YA horror? It can be defined as “horror that specifically targets young adults ages 11-18” (and that’s my definition that I’m using to make a point, so bear with me here), but that then leads to the question of how exactly does fiction target a young adult market? Does it use teenagers? Does it reference Pokemon? Being that I am old enough to have grandchildren, when I talk about YA horror, I feel like the Steve Buscemi meme where he’s wearing skater garb and asking “How do you do, fellow kids?” Before I’m called a curmudgeon or advised to go play stickball in the street, I’m reminding people of my age only to illustrate how I need to broaden my own horizons. Thus, I’ve decided to give Rin Chupeco’s The Sacrifice a try, and it offers a narrative that borders on both folk horror and even a smattering of metacommentary.

There is no found footage necessarily in this story, but it does involve a Hollywood film crew that visits the remote island of Kipsmata located near the Philippines. The locals know that the island is under the sway of a dreaming god, but that’s exactly why a film crew has decided to film their latest reality show there. They hire a local teen, Aton, who is familiar with the island and its curse, to be their guide, but he also might have to be the crew’s savior when someone attempts to wake this god and claim its power.

The story collects a lot of different folklore and tropes to create its funhouse of an island, from ghosts that torment the living with guilt and regret to folk horror where the trees are said to grow around corpses. Chupeco’s use of East Asian mythology also gives this story a setting way different from the Gothic house with creaking doors. There’s a mishmash of characters who fill out the crew but the real linchpin in the story is Aton, the main POV character who offers an outsider perspective to a film crew blithely wandering into a trap. He also serves as the voice of reason that, of course, no one listens to, all while pursuing a relationship with teen Chase, a boy who is recovering from a nasty breakup through social media. Its focus on the teen protagonist puts this tale squarely in the YA category and its scares are fairly conventional but the setting does keep them interesting. Another YA horror novel, Adam Cesare’s Clown in a Cornfield, has more moments of sheer terror, but The Sacrifice does offer a spooky action-adventure in an exotic locale.

Special Halloween Post: So Very Tired

 

I am this pumpkin.

I am still a Scary Librarian, but in the circle of trust, I am also a tired librarian. The month of October has really beaten me up. Nothing terrible has happened to me, but it has been an incredibly busy one caused simply by life. That said, I would like to do something to celebrate the scariest time of the year by enjoying a good scary story, but I don’t really have time to dive into a novel, or even a novella. What I might do instead is give one of these anthologies a try.

One recent anthology that looks promising is the recently-released Literally Dead: Tales of Halloween Hauntings. It’s edited by Gaby Triana and John Palisano, and it also features some well-known up-and-coming horror authors like Gwendolyn Kiste, Sarah Tantlinger, and Catherine Cavendish. There’s also the old reliable October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween, which has writings from horror heavyweights like Jack Ketchum and Christopher Golden. It not only features short stories and novellas, but even essays on the films and stories of Halloween (if Halloween is actually a genre). I could split the difference and dive into Haunted Nights, an anthology edited by the esteemed Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton, which has some truly spine-tingling tales from writers like Stephen Graham Jones and John Langan.

However, my eyes might not have the stamina to follow lines on a page. Maybe I need a movie to watch. I’ve heard great things about Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix. Maybe I should revisit some great horror anthologies like Trick R’ Treat. I really enjoyed its interconnected tales and its full embrace of the Halloween spirit. I could also forgo the Halloween trappings and revisit
The Mortuary Collection. It’s a rare anthology series with all solid tales that truly take some dark turns. I have options. Maybe next month, I’ll have energy. Or time. Which means I’ll have to declare November Scaresgiving. Have to get the hashtag out.

#scaresgiving

Wish me luck!