As an avid reader, watcher, and player of Horror over the past decade or so. The phenomenon of found footage horror books is not lost on me. I have enjoyed many of the genre and I find the idea of using found footage in a novel format to be interesting and, well, novel.
Let’s talk about the advantages of using this format.
Advantages of Found Footage Horror Books
In a novel, you don’t have to show everything visually. So you aren’t stuck with using the hokey “this footage was retrieved from…” There could be a journal entry, or an email. This can tell some parts of the story. These things really lend themselves well to storytelling.
Before tearing things apart, I do want to quickly remind everyone what the definition of horror is. These are books that are meant to terrify readers. They are the kind of books that don’t have a happy ending. They leave the reader with an uneasy feeling.
My favorite books in the Found Footage Horror Genre are:
House of Leaves
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski: I’m pretty sure that this is the “classic” of the genre. I don’t know if there is another book out there that exemplifies that Found Footage Horror Book genre just quite the same way that House of Leaves does. It is a book that isn’t for everyone. It comes complete with pages that need to be turned upside down to read, and footnotes.
A quick description of this book: there is a tattoo apprentice named Johnny. He is given a trunk by his friend. The trunk is from the friend’s neighbor’s house. It contains the writings from the neighbor. The writings are about this documentary about this man who moved his family into a house that was bigger on the inside than the outside. The story that unfolds is quite the ride.
Episode 13
Episode 13 by Craig DiLouie. This one, is about the cast of one of those paranormal TV shows. The ones where the cast members go to haunted houses and “talk” to the ghosts at the location. This book is written as if it’s a screen play. I listened to this one, so I can’t say what the book looks like. But, needless to say, the ending of the book was very intense.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reed. I don’t know if this one counts in the Found Footage genre, but I’m going to count it. This book is fantastic. I haven’t seen the show. Throughout the first 3/4s of the book, the reader feels like they are in the head of the protagonist. It is only at the end when the reader is shown the truth.
Horrorstor
Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix: This one may not count as found footage, but I’m putting it here. There are these little epigraphs that show the reader parts of the catalog from the store. They give the book a feeling of found footage. Allowing the readers are able to almost interact with the store and see, via catalog entries, how it devolves as the story takes them deeper into the store.
Conclusion
The Found Footage Horror Book genre as a whole is hard to get just right. There are many ways to fumble it. Sometimes things get too complicated, or too unbelievable, and then readers get lost. But when it’s done right, the book can be beautiful to read.
I think that some of the techniques are used in any genre. “Found Footage” doesn’t have to refer to only horror, it can be any kind of book. I can see romance working well with little found items, or alternative history, or even sci-fi.
Is there a found footage horror novel book that you really like, or maybe one that I mentioned that you don’t like at all? Let me know! Thanks for reading if you made it this far!