This “Scary” Short Story (and others)
Reminded me of one of those stories from Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark, those books that 9-year-old Morgan used to read and then brag about reading (in the dark). Just like those stories I read in the dark, Don’t Look Now has a uncanny twist at the end (the dwarf woman??). Sort of like a punchline--an “I got you” moment. Like John in the story, the reader gets slashed in the throat with the realization that they’ve been following the narrative of a rather unfortunate idiot.
I’ve never really found horror writing scary.This is possibly because I’ve enthusiastically watched so many horror films that I’ve sort of become a bit desensitized. However, I did enjoy the twist at the end and I was rather surprised.
The other thing it reminded me of--and this is extremely different from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (except maybe not really) was James Joyce’s Dubliners. As soon as I started reading I kept getting this strange sense of Joyce. There’s definitely similar themes of ominous/morbid settings and regular people that somehow reach grim but somewhat useless epiphanies by the end of the story--usually on how they’ve failed their life--which I guess is the same with John at the end of this story.