Interview with Sarah Langan

Sarah Langan is the author of novels The Keeper, The Missing and Audrey's Door. She won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 2007 for The Missing and again in 2009 for Audrey's Door. You can find out more about Sarah at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

When I was a kid, I loved picking up rocks and looking at the bugs living underneath. I think it’s the same instinct. It’s not so much a choice, as a predilection of birth.

What scares you?

Death, sickness, stupidity, bad decisions, the movie Brazil, the book 1984.

Have you ever written something that scared you?

Always. I know I’m doing a good job when I have terrible nightmares about my characters.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

Plenty of women write horror—it’s just packaged differently. Bad horror by men tends to be ultra-violent and sexist; bad horror by women tends to involve sexy werewolves and empowerment (but not the transgressive kind). The former gets called horror, the latter, paranormal romance.  But there are plenty of men and women writing excellent horror right now, that transcends these clichés.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

Living authors? Joyce Carol Oates, Cherie Priest, Liz Hand, Margo Lanagan, Sarah Waters, Sarah Pinborough, Gemma Files, Sarah Monette, Tananarive Due, and lots more.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

Same as it is to men: a writer writes. Every day. No excuses.

What are some of your favourite horror novels?

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates; Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan; The Situation by Jeff VanderMeer; Illyria, by Liz Hand, Houses without Doors by Peter Straub; The Shining by Stephen King; The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; Shakespeare’s MacBeth; Affliction by Russell Banks, and a bunch I’m probably forgetting.

Who is your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

I think it’s a tie between Audrey Lucas from Audrey’s Door, and Lois Larkin from The Missing. Both had very dark sides, and I sympathized with both. I guess, for the sake of theme, I could throw in Susan Marley from The Keeper. I like writing about messed-up chicks with brains, bad pasts, and serious challenges.

Your novels all include interesting and well-developed characters. Have you ever based characters on real people?

I started by thinking about circumstances, and then hone and edit for months until I have a character I believe is real. From there, I head into plot, often cutting the hundreds of pages it took to get there. The characters are their own, and not based on anything but my imagination.

Your books deal with the supernatural. Have you ever had a supernatural encounter? Do you believe in the supernatural?

During the daylight, I don’t believe. At night, I wonder.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry?

That’s too complicated a question for a short interview. I don’t own an e-reader, but I support them, because they make purchasing books more convenient. I’m against piracy unless authors have another form of revenue, like advertising, which I think will happen in the future.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

I hope they get sucked in, and can’t put it down, and when they’re done, they feel like they lived, for a little while, outside their own skin.

What are you currently working on?

I’m neck-deep into my fourth novel, tentatively entitled Empty Houses.

BOOK REVIEW: The Keeper by Sarah Langan

After reading and enjoying Sarah Langan's most recent novel, Audrey's Door, I decided to try her first novel, The Keeper. I didn't like it as much as Audrey's Door, but it wasn't bad for a first novel.

There is something wrong with Susan Marley. The residents of the small town of Bedford, Maine cross the street when she approaches and blame her for all their problems; especially for the terrifying things that dominate their dreams. But it's not just Susan, the whole town is haunted thanks to its sinister past and dark secrets.

I've read a lot of comparisons of this novel to Stephen King. It seems every good horror novel is compared to King (especially ones that take place in Maine) and the author is heralded as "the next Stephen King." But The Keeper is probably the novel I have read that comes closest to King. Langan has descriptive prose (which can at times bog down the story), a few deep characters and TONS of one-dimensional characters who only make a brief appearance, and a dramatic ending where many people die, making up for the rest of the book being slow.

The plot of The Keeper was unique, involving a whole town being haunted instead of the usual house.

The pacing felt odd. For the most part the novel was slow, but for a few chapters an exciting plot development would take place and the pace would be fast, and then go back to being slow. It wasn't really a gradual build-up, it was more like short bursts of excitement and then back to being slow. About halfway through the book, a part titled "Resurrection", which should have been the most exciting part judging by the title, was actually the slowest part and it took me a long time to get through it. I almost gave up on the novel, but I'm glad I got through it because the finale was exciting, gory and had a frantic pace.

The atmosphere was dark and eerie. Imagining the town where every year it rains for seven days straight, gave me chills. And a brief scene when the main character is chased by a monster through a cemetery creeped me out. I was disappointed when the monster didn't make another appearance in the novel.

There are several characters in the novel, the main ones being very well-developed. The secondary characters mostly just provided the gory death scenes and made the town well-rounded and seem more real. Langan even had the ability to make Susan Marley, the supposed villain of the novel, likable.

The Keeper is an interesting novel despite its slow pace and if you can get through the boring parts, you'll be rewarded with the thrilling finale.

Rating: 3/5

BOOK REVIEW: Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan

In the Preface of Audrey's Door, Sarah Langan acknowledges that "Modern haunted house stories build on a rich tradition." And that she was inspired by The Haunting of Hill House, The Shining, Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant. Her novel pays homage to these haunted house stories.

After Audrey Lucas breaks up with her fiance, Saraub Ramesh, she needs to find a new place to live in Manhattan, but can't seem to find one she can afford. Then she comes across The Breviary, a gorgeous building with a dark history and cheap rent. Being an architect, Audrey jumps at the chance to live in a beautifully designed building, despite its sinister past. But once she moves in she suffers horrible nightmares, which include sleepwalking. And not just sleepwalking...building a door while sleeping....

The prose is amazing, with descriptions of The Breviary that make you feel like you are living there yourself. And Langan has written two of the most realistically flawed characters I have ever read with Audrey and Saraub. Although Audrey has a trailer trash background with a bipolar mother and has OCD herself, she has made something of herself and is well on her way to becoming a respected architect. Saraub is Indian and his mother doesn't approve of his and Audrey's relationship, but he wants to be with her despite this fact. Definitely some of the most interesting characters I've encountered lately.

The pace is fairly slow, with not much happening until halfway through the book, but it was still engrossing because of the characters and chilling atmosphere.

The plot isn't anything new - as I mentioned earlier it's an homage to several other haunted house novels - but Langan adds a few original twists. I was incredibly creeped out by the crazy other tenants living in the building.

The one aspect of the book I didn't like was Audrey's nightmares. I realize that her nightmares added to the creepy atmosphere, but I dislike dream sequences because they add nothing to the story. When someone wakes from a nightmare, nothing happens except for being mildly creeped out. And there are a lot of long, vividly described nightmares in the novel. I wish Langan focused more on Audrey's crazy neighbours instead.

Audrey's Door is an absorbing read, but may not be your thing if you value a fast-pace and gore over atmosphere, character development and descriptive writing in your horror novels.

Rating: 4/5