It happens to us all…
We fall in love with a character. Maybe it’s not the main character. Maybe you don’t even like the book. But for some reason, you want him, or her, or it, back again, even if you have to put up with people, places, and things you’d rather never experience again. “Love” might not be the exact feeling you have for that character, even. It’s possible to feel that way about some villains, like, for instance, the mayor of Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
That’s probably why I kept reading Game of Thrones. Martin doesn’t really have one main character, and just when you think you hate one completely, there’s a total turnaround in the character. So when the characters start dropping like flies, there’s always another connected story to entangle you. My son heard a comment about Martin killing off all his characters and said, “Oh, does he write The Walking Dead? My friend says everyone on The Walking Dead dies, too” (a second grader watching The Walking Dead is mind-bending to me, but that’s another soapbox).
I like good world building and good genre fiction that plans to explore the nooks and crannies of an imagined world or universe (the Liaden universe created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, for instance, or the Dark Tower books by Stephen King). It’s easier to excuse a less-than-successful story, when there are many others to fill things out (I find this to be true of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover books, for instance). But sometimes there is not as much chance that you’ll run across the same characters regularly, and when they’re gone, you can’t necessarily expect them to reappear in the next book. And then you miss them.
I would say that right now it’s more likely now to find a series with one main character who narrates the story (in romance or in YA fiction you often find alternating points of view, but from a core of main characters) and, frankly, sometimes the main character, or the one who is supposed to be most sympathetic, is the one you wish weren’t there. In Maggie Stiefvater’s The Dream Thieves, the characters I loved were Calla and Persephone, who have very minor roles in the book. In Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, I keep reading partly because I love Jenks and Matalina, and want to find out what will happen with David and Ceri. Rachel’s mother is also a fantastic character. I want to know what happens with them. Rachel, the point of view character? Her, I could live without.
When a character you love, or love to hate, disappears from the story, or the series, or your life, of course you miss him, or her. When the story’s done, and you loved the world it was in, it’s hard to return to your daily life. That character is still there in the pages you turned, in the imagined world the author created, unforgettable. As hard as it is to tear myself away, I know I can always return… but it will be time to put my kids to bed before I know it, and someday soon, even though the characters I loved on the page will still be there, the ones in my life will change, and I’ll never get this day back.
What worlds do you visit? What characters do you miss?
<
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. This is a good choice for reading aloud with your school-aged children.
Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie. I know Agatha Christie’s books aren’t horror (mostly) but if you want to curl up with a mystery, you can’t go wrong with Hercule Poirot.
Halloween Man by Douglas Clegg. Douglas Clegg is a very talented horror novelist. I haven’t read his books, as his novels can be quite graphic, but this one has also been described as eerie and compelling.
Hallowed by Bryant Delafosse. This is a YA paranormal/horror title, and I can’t claim to have read it, but I have heard good things about it. Yes, there are plenty of YA paranormal reads, but this one is set right around Halloween.
Halloween edited by Paula Guran. This anthology includes both reprints and original stories related to the holiday, including stories from such notables as Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe. One reviewer on Amazon noted that the Bradbury story does not appear in the ebook version of this book, as Bradbury was very opposed to ebooks, although I know he did release a book in ebook format before his passing… so I don’t know if that is still the case. It is well worth looking up!
Halloween: Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre edited by Paula Guran. This is NOT the same anthology as the one I listed just above– it is more recently published. While the first one had stories by many of the giants of the genre, this one has a different collection of authors, who cover a wider breadth of the genre. These include such excellent writers as Maria V. Snyder and Carrie Vaughan as well as authors more solidly identified with adult horror such as Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and John Shirley.
Black and Orange by Benjamin Kane Ethridge. Black and Orange is also the recipient of a Stoker Award. We reviewed it 
Halloween by Melanie Jackson. Not every book about Halloween is a scary one. This one tells of the adventures of four ten year olds out trick or treating for Halloween. Set in the 1960’s, this is a book that might be enjoyed more for its nostalgia value (if you were a kid at that time) or for reading with an older child.
Mischief Night by Paul Melnizcek. This is a novella from Bad Moon Books’ series of Halloween novellas, now also available on Kindle. It’s a nice little haunted house story. You can check out our review 
A Hallowe’en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writers Over the Centuries edited by Lisa Morton
Horrorween (Orangefield Series) by Al Sarrantonio. Orangefield is a town inhabited by Samhain, Lord of Death. Other books in the series include Orangefield, Hallows’ Eve, and Halloweenland. We’re awfully close to the end of October to power through all of them, but maybe you can make a resolution to try them out next year…
Gods of the Nowhere by James Tipper. The protagonist here is a disabled teenager, which is pretty interesting, as you don’t find many disabled protagonists in horror fiction. And he has a Latina friend, also an unusual find in horror fiction. It’s been described as a creepy and original take on Halloween. This is not a children’s book– maybe an older teen would appreciate it, though.
Halloween Spirits: 11 Tales for the Darkest Night edited by Lisa Morton. I know I said I would only mention Lisa Morton once, but this is an interesting collection of short stories that (mostly) tie in to Halloween, and are intended to get you into the Halloween spirit. These are not (mostly) stories about trick-or-treating, which is what we normally associate with the holiday, but, especially if you’re short on time, this book is a nice way to give yourself small doses of holiday excitement throughout the month of October. The authors include Kealan Patrick Burke, Scott Nicholson, John Palisano, Jeremy Shipp, and Nate Kenyon, to name just a few. It’s also an inexpensive way to get into the spirit– available only as an ebook, it’s just $2.99 at Amazon right now.
Follow Us!