Through the Woods

One of the most fascinating things about reading horror is figuring out what personal dread is haunting the author's mind. For Junji Ito, it's that viral infectious evil entity that you can't escape, like a stench of the idea of the spiral. Stephen King has got a thing for the creepy nature of childhoods spent in small towns. Emily Carroll clearly has a thing about body snatchers. Changelings, possession, the slow creeping dread of realizing that someone close to you is not who they used to be.

The only story in this collection that I read before was His Face All Red, and its still probably my favorite. It's the most open-ended of the stories, and perfectly encapsulates that body snatcher fear, while also incorporating some Tell-Tale Heart style guilt and paranoia. The rest of the stories have a similar tilt. A girl waits for her father to return while each of her siblings slowly disappear, a new bride hears the voice of her deceased predecessor coming from the floorboards, a young woman watches as her best friend is taken over by a strange entity. All are stories about people left alone in strange and haunting scenarios, who see things that no one else can. Carroll also has a thing for outcasts, the people who are never good enough, not well-liked or remembered. The most vulnerable among us.

Carroll is not only fantastic at telling creepy stories but using every bit of her artistic ability to support their frightening nature. Her style is classical and deceptively simple, with a gothic and abstract flair. I will never get tired of her work. I wish I could write something this spooky.