My Life In Horror Volume 1 by Kit Power

Published – Out Now

Price - £11.99 paperback £2.99 Kindle eBook

Just how much are we shaped by the entertainment that scares us?

Author, blogger, podcaster and lifelong fan of genre Kit Power sets out to answer that question with a collection of essays that take on the works - and events - that scarred him as a child and young adult. Stephen King’s IT. Hellraiser. The Thing. The Wasp Factory. Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds. Hillsborough. Welding childhood recollection with adult insight and analysis, Power digs deep into his personal reactions and feelings as he attempts to understand his continued fascination with the genre - and the emotion - of Horror.

Collecting the first three years of his work for the 12-time BFS nominated review site Gingernuts Of Horror, with each essay revised and expanded, My Life In Horror Volume One represents one fan’s journey through genre - an autobiography via the medium of pop culture.

Occasionally we get into big debates as to what is a genre? Is alternate history or dystopian fiction actually deep down SF. When does literary fiction transcend a genre or is it just publishers who are terrified of the idea of readers spotting a rocket ship on the cover? If I say horror to most people, they will probably think Stephen King; 18 certificate slasher films and Halloween costumes. But horror we must remember like thrillers are really about the sensation that the viewer or reader will experience when watching or reading. All of this came to my mind as I sped through the excellent My Life In Horror Volume 1 by Kit Power where I was taken on a journey that reminded me that horror is something everyone will experience as we grow up; often in unexpected ways and that all those experiences continue to shape us for the rest of our lives.

My Life In Horror collects a series of blogs written by Kit Power for the excellent horror website Ginger Nuts of Horror the approach is for Power to take key moments of culture that that have influenced their journey to a horror fan, writer and critic.  Now if you think you’re just going to get a series of over familiar horror histories like zombies, vampires and all the other creatures that bump the night – well you’re going to be quite wrong. This is actually a very smart, engaging, and passionate exploration of growing up from childhood to parenthood and a range of cultural highlights across books, film, TV and music all play key roles in shaping a horror fan and how they made sense of our world.

Reviewing is often trying to do three things at once – explain to you what something is about; what the reviewer thought of it and ultimately why this makes things interesting and worth your time to experience yourselves. Power does something even more skilled here there look at how they felt upon their first exposure to these cultural icons and how they feel about the same subject years later. For those of us growing up in the 80s and 90s we may find quite a few similar experiences – the joy of finding Doctor Who’s adventures in book form (and for Power even before they ever saw the TV show); a disturbing series of moments in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that make you doubt that your heroes are always good and true; plus the familiar experience of a kindly/reckless/what the hell were thy thinking relative allowing a kid to watch a film they very probably are a few years too young for watching. Power captures that childhood’s amazement, fascination and the oh so important sense of fear that these often-innocuous experiences created and then also has the ability to explain how these still influence Power’s love of horror and their career to this day. The Doctor is still a hero; Stephen King is still a writing inspiration and certain sounds like chains being pulled will still bring back that inner quiver of fear.

The variety of areas explored allows Power to experiment with form too. It can be serious but its also the amusement of Kit’s younger and current selves having very different reactions to watching The Lost Boys. A perfect discussion commences between them explaining how a teenager sees things for the first time and an adult critic can see the many things now not working. But passion for the subject is paramount and Power’s firm affirmation that Robocop is the greatest movie ever made is articulate, funny and unafraid to wear its heart on it’s sleeve. These sections will bring warmth to your geeky heart. I am not a metal fan but Power’s explanation for how music made them feel; how it enabled friendship in a depressing school and helped create an expression to feelings that they couldn’t at the time describe is informative and cathartic.

The other side of the coin and for me an equally key part of this journey is that horror is not always via artificial media. Power explores the moments that as they grew up, they soon realised meant that the world can be cruel, uncaring, and desperately unfair. Be that realising as a very young child that there were children dying on the news and no one really did much to save them; the music of Queen and the shock that icons can die way too young; or the terror of a school filled with bullies and most impressively how a friendship waxed, waned and ended in a tragedy but then Power with that adult perspective also reminds us many of these issues are ultimately down to a society’s mindset that didn’t care and needs to be really stopped before it hurts anyone else – all experiences influencing their own ethical outlook to this day. Power’s writing is beautiful, self -effecting and ultimately feels truly honest. An ability to show us in just a few paragraphs who they are and over the course of the book we get to get used to their voice: their sense of humour, understanding of horror and their wider life story.

My Life In Horror is a hugely successful intimate tale of how someone discovers and processes the feeling of horror and what that means to us. How it shapes our lives and how our reactions to it will evolve as we too grow up and find different things horrific. I suspect many readers will find similar moments of discovery and self-reflection and thanks to Power’s writing finally get the words to help explain those experiences as well as feel we have had a entertaining face to face conversation with a fellow fan.

Power’s tangible love for the subject pulls you along a fascinating journey into life from the 1980s to today and now I really just need to know when Volume 2 will be ready. A book not just for just purist horror fans but I think one that will be of interest to any geeky soul as many of these experiences are universal. Strongly recommended!