Gyre experiences the cave at a level of remove that by its very nature introduces errors, misunderstandings, and omissions. It leaves her completely at the mercy of her handler, Em, who can control Gyre’s body and influence - or completely change - what Gyre sees. It renders her environment via sonar in an attempt to keep her concealed from unknown threats, but in doing so introduces room for computer error or lost information.
It keeps her safe from dangerous falls and manages any medications she might need, but it also requires surgical installation. The suit introduces as many problems as it does solutions. She goes down alone, with only a high-tech suit and a voice in her ear to help her survive. In The Luminous Dead, my first novel, we follow a young woman named Gyre down into a treacherous cave.
And a book’s potential for intimacy in its narration can be turned and twisted to surprising effect. Just as a long tracking shot can summon up dread, the coldness or closeness of the narration can affect our perception of the actions going on in the story. Where books can shine in a way wholly their own, though, is in perspective. A jump-scare can be mimicked somewhat by the abruptness of a transition, but it’s just as likely to be confusing as frightening. We can also borrow from the successful tactics of movies, with variable success. And while length can be its own tool (would House of Leaves been as effective as a snappy novella, instead of having long meandering footnotes that are suffused with atmosphere and throw confusion over the specifics of the plot?), it can also drag and delay and bore.Īuthors use prosody and character voice to create atmosphere, and little tricks of language to signal things are about to get bad. The chances of a reader devouring the whole book in one go are slim, and even in a best-case scenario, the early moments are divorced from the finale by many hours, softening the impact of parallelism and callbacks. A novel is longer than a movie, and slower too, each detail taking more time to communicate. Movies hold attention well and are short enough to be consumed in a single sitting.īy contrast, books have less to go on: we can only somewhat control the pace at which our audience consumes the story, through tricks of tension, chapter length, complexity or simplicity of prose. Visual and auditory content is powerful, immediate, and lends itself well to layering.
Horror movies have a hundred tools to create tension and fear in the audience: sound cues, lighting, the speed of shots, the suddenness of reveals.
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