Michelle is a Library Assistant at our great library, and she wanted to share the following about her favorite genre – a timely anecdote for the Halloween season:
My favorite genres are apocalyptic, dystopian, and horror, so a question I get asked a lot is “Why do you like to read that stuff? Isn’t life stressful enough?” Well, yes, and that’s exactly why I do read them. Sometimes real life can seem to have impossible hurdles, unending battles, and overwhelming odds against success. Despite wanting to be an engaged citizen, I can find myself turning away from the world in order to save my dwindling hope and, sometimes, sanity.
That’s where books with eldritch monsters, civilization-ending calamities, and unimaginably cruel societies come in. Because those grim and terrifying worlds are so much worse than ours, and yet … the characters press on. Even in the face of mind-numbing fear, they cling to those they love and they do what they must. And if they can face all that and still keep going, then I can face the much smaller hurdles of my world.