THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY WITH CYNTHIA MURPHY

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of horror…well, all I could think about was the clichés. I LOVE a good tropey horror, whether that’s a book or a movie, so please indulge me while I tell you all about them...
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The Good.
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Local legends, spooky old folklore, library research scenes…give them to me. I love a horror story that’s rooted in something old, preferably something morbid and something that can be solved by looking in the shelves of a dusty old reading room. (Side note: I grew up devasted at the lack of hidden spell books at my local library.) In fact, I love these tropes so much that my debut novel, Last One to Die, contains them all, down to a microfilm scene. I really couldn’t resist.
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Horror that derives from stories we already know truly have the power to scare, whether it’s an urban legend (think Candyman) or something older (I was terrified by Hansel & Gretel as a child, I mean that is one messed up fairytale). I think it’s something about a ‘normal’ story you have grown up with being twisted and turned on its head in the worst possible way. It makes you question everything else you thought you knew…

The Bad.
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Okay, hear me out; jump scares. I feel like this one could be a little controversial and I must caveat this by saying that when a jump scare is done well, it can be truly excellent – that feeling can’t be replicated by anything else. Often though, especially in films and ye olde Point Horror, jump scares and ‘fake outs’ can be relied on a little too much.
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I also have a thing about Final Girls. Again, when done right, the trope is SUBLIME – see Sydney Prescot in the original Scream. Unfortunately, though, there are way too many wimpy final girls who don’t fight back/can’t think on their feet/don’t help themselves AT ALL. They’ve been written in that way and I just don’t think that it’s something we can get away with anymore – if you’re going to write a final girl, make her whip smart and able to escape a sticky situation by relying on herself. Sometimes girls can save themselves.

The Ugly.
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I’m about to take a much more feminist segway into this one because, for me, the worst trope in horror is needless violence towards women.
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Yes, I know, horror is violent. It just is, whether it’s maiming or murder, and believe me, I get it. In my opinion, you can’t really have an effective horror without some element of physical harm, or at least the threat of it. However, when it starts to become gratuitous for cheap thrills and makes women nothing more than pieces of meat to be abused in more and more graphically shocking ways, I have to switch off. I just don’t want to see it. It’s not needed, it is specific to women and it has to stop. There is no space for it in the modern world – well, there never was, but I think we’re all much more educated now. At least I hope so.

Cynthia Murphy is a YA writer from the North-West of England, though her 'real job' is in education. Cynthia has a long-standing love affair with all things scary, reading Point Horrors at primary school before graduating to Stephen King in her teens. Horror movies would be her specialist subject at a pub quiz and as an art history graduate, she has a love for all things pretty, old and very often dead. Last One To Die is Cynthia's debut YA novel.

Follow Cynthia on Twitter  @CynthiaMurphyYa

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Young, brunette women are being attacked in London.

16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived for a summer of freedom, and quickly discovers that the girls being attacked look frighteningly similar to her.

But Niamh is determined not to let her fear destroy her Summer. But can her new friends be trusted?

Will she be able to stay ahead of the attacker?

Or will she be next?
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Packed with voice-driven whodunit storytelling, and a retro slasher-movie feel reminiscent of cult classics Scream and Urban Legend, this dark, pacy, and irresistibly-creepy debut really has something for everybody!

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One of Us is Lying meets This Lie Will Kill You but with a chilling supernatural twist that will keep you guessing until the very end . . .'Chilling, funny and gripping' Emily Barr, author of The Truth and Lies of Ella Black

'A supernatural terror-fest!' Kat Ellis, author of Harrow Lake
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'Point Horror for a new generation' Kathryn Foxfield, author of Good Girls Die First

check out our review of Last One to Die here