Horror Sub Genres

There are four main book categories:

Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction and Drama.

In this blog, we're going to zoom in on Fiction.

Fiction can be split into two categories:

Popular Fiction - Plot-driven fiction written with a particular audience in mind. It normally fits into a specific genre and can already have a firm fan base.

Literary Fiction - Character-driven writing, which is valued for its complex form, language or style.

We are going to zoom in on Popular Fiction which has five main genres:

Romance, Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Thriller & Suspense, and Mystery & Crime.

In today's blog, we are going to discuss the sub-genres of Horror.

Horror has been told for as long as we could tell stories. There's something about being scared which captures an audience and makes us desperate to finish the tale. Horror is a story which makes you feel pain and intense fear or dismay.

Child in peril - Involving the abduction or persecution of a child.

Comic Horror - Mix the gore with dark humour.

Creepy Kids - Children begin to turn against the adults.

Dark Fantasy - A horror story with supernatural or fantasy elements.

Dark Mystery - Inspired by detective tales, set in an urban underworld of crime and moral ambiguity.

Hauntings.- Ghosts, demons or poltergeists.

Historical - Horror which takes place in a recognisable period of history.

Magical Realism - Extraudinary forces or creatures pop into an otherwise normal, real-life setting.

Psychological - Based on the disturbed human psyche, often exploring insane or altered realities. An example of this is Clock Work Orange by Anthony Burgess.

Religious - Horror that makes use of religious icons and mythologies.

Sci-Fi Horror - Sci-Fi with a darker, more violent twist.

Supernatural Menace - A horror tale where normal rules of existence do not apply.

Young Adult - Horror aimed at a teen market with protagonists the same age or slightly older than the reader.

Zombie.- Dead people.

Erotic Vampire - A horror tale making use of the newly trendy link between sexuality and vampires.

Fabulist - Derived from "fable," an ancient tradition in which objects, animals or forces of nature are anthropomorphized to deliver a moral lesson.

Gothic - A traditional horror depicting the encroachment of the middle ages upon 18th-century enlightenment.

Quiet Horror - Subtly written horror that uses atmosphere and mood, rather than graphic description, to create fear. An example of this is a woman in black by Susan Hill.

Splatter - A fairly new form of horror which cuts right to the gore.

Weird Tales - Inspired by the magazine of the same name, a more traditional form featuring strange and uncanny events.

I hope this helped you find a new genre to read, or to sub categorise your book.

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Sources Kristen Martin - Determining the genre of your book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ZfSAzaGUc

Writers Digest - Sub Genre Descriptions https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/genredefinitions