Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

I’m the friend who takes you to the horror movie you’re scared to see. It’s a role I first occupied reluctantly, after realizing that if I didn’t exert some peer pressure, I’d always be flying solo at the cinema. Such is the reputation surrounding the genre. Many people I know “don’t do horror.”

Sometimes that aversion stems from the misconception that every scary movie is filled with gore — just Saw-era torturefests all the way down. Other times, it’s about a stress response to watching other people in peril. And if someone has a clear bright line they don’t want to cross, I stop evangelising.

But if you tell me something like, “I wanted to watch Hereditary because I love Toni Colette, but it looks so scary,” I’m your wingwoman. I’m coming over. We’ll rent it tomorrow. One by one, my horror-averse friends are getting tempted by the genre’s expansive possibilities. Whether they get pulled in by an arthouse Ari Aster film or a comedic hybrid like M3GAN, they’re second-guessing “not doing horror.” They’re realizing that they’re missing out on dynamic, genre-bending stories about the things that make us tick and the thoughts that keep us up at night. Still, they need someone to push them over the edge. To give them permission to be scared.

When I wrote my novel Patricia Wants to Cuddle, I realised I was essentially replicating my movie going role in literary form. I always envisioned it as a horror story about a reality dating show gone terribly wrong. Death and violence were part of the equation from the start. But I knew that some in my target audience — fellow Bachelor and Love Island obsessives – might not be as into Stephen Graham Jones, Catriona Ward, and Paul Tremblay as I have been these last few years.

Of course, some readers were already on my wavelength. Mary Shelley basically invented modern horror fiction, after all — and thanks in large part to the explosion of weird women’s fiction, the appetite for unhinged female-focused novels is decidedly on the rise. But still, I knew I’d have to get some new noses buried in a horror book. If I billed Patricia as a novel full of blood and guts, some would be turned off from the jump.

But what if I wrote a book about four women trying to survive a manipulative TV production, navigating complicated relationships with each other and with the contemporary social media landscape? What if they each had different reasons for signing up to broadcast their lives on the airwaves? What if those women just so happened to be filming the show on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest? And what if that island had a secret — and very hairy — inhabitant lurking in the dark? Could I tempt some reluctant souls to give that story a chance?

That was how I approached unfolding the story of Patricia. The gore in the book — and it does, eventually, become a bit sanguineous — serves a metaphorical purpose, and by the time the reader arrives there, it hits like an exclamation point. To me, it’s an extension of the inherent violence of reality television, not just violence for the sake of it. And by adopting that slow-boil strategy, I’ve heard from many readers who “don’t do horror” that they can get down with Patricia. The book’s comedic bent helps them soften the horror’s hard edges, empowering them to tackle material that’s perhaps a little more grisly than what they’re used to reading. Before they know it, they’re savoring the kills.

If I have one hope for Patricia, it’s that people enjoy it. That it lives up to the reputation of being unlike anything you’ve ever read. That it’s “bonkers,” “bizarre,” or any other number of astonished adjectives I’ve seen thrown around. But if I can be permitted a second wish, it’s that the book serves as a sort of gateway drug for new horror readers. If a dash of terror can make a reality show into frightfully fun fodder for satire, imagine what it can do to so many other premises. Horror has a lot to say, and so much more to do. 

I’m the friend who takes you to the horror movie you’re scared to see. And now I want to be the author who wrote the first horror book you’ve ever read, but hopefully not the last.

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen (Faber) Out Now

Renee has made it: she's in the final four. But is she dying to win? Renee should be thrilled to have been chosen as one of the final four contestants in The Catch, the world's biggest reality show. But now she, the other contestants, and Jeremy 'the Catch' have arrived on the remote, wooded island for the final show, Renee begins to wonder if there's something wrong. Is she taking a bigger risk than she realised? And as she and the other contestants begin their final challenges, they slowly start to realise that the island they've been taken to is hiding a terrifying secret - one that could make the final Elimination Event all too real.

More information about Samantha Allen and her work can be found on her website. She can also be found on Twitter @slawrites and on Facebook.