Lynne Truss, author of the best-selling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, has written about her latest book, Cat Out of Hell, for the The Independent. She explains that it’s an “indescribable book of comic horror”, which, she says, is a problem: “Because in the modern world of book promotion, it’s quite important to be able to sum up your book, and I simply can’t.”
“Did I say it was about a missing woman and a talking cat? I did? Oh dear. So I did mention the cat? And you actually want me to say more than that?” Truss writes.
The book is one in a series of commissioned horrors published by Hammer Books, which includes work from various writers including Melvin Burgess, Julie Myerson and Sophie Hannah.
What are the rules for writing a comic-gothic novella? Having been commissioned by the Hammer series to contribute a book, I knuckled down to it last year and produced Cat Out of Hell, in which the mystery of a missing woman is linked to the 85-year history of a talking cat, and there are scary scenes in a variety of locations: a wintry cottage by the sea, an academic library at night, and a car covered in snow. At no point did I consult any books about how to write horror.
Being a long-time fan of the great MR James, and of early gothic novels such as The Monk and Frankenstein, I knew that I wanted to use layers of narration and an innocent protagonist drawn into a story by his natural curiosity. But this was the extent of my conscious plan for the book. Having now just consulted a useful guide entitled Horror Writing 101: How to Write a Horror Novel (by Steve French), I discover that as the source of horror in one’s novel, one can use anything (alphabetically) from an Alien to a Zombie, by way of Creepy Teen, Gargoyle, Possessed Car, and Scarecrow – but it’s too late to learn this now. Mine is about a talking cat, whose name is Roger.
Indescribable or not, Viv Groskop from The Telegraph writes that Cat Out of Hell is “as entertaining as it is addictive” but wonders “if horror fans might be disappointed by this book, because it’s not really horror at all, but a masterpiece of comic writing.”
It has recently become fashionable for non-horror writers to give the genre a go. Last year Hammer Books (a spin-off from the venerable British film studio) brought out stories by Melvin Burgess, Julie Myerson and Sophie Hannah. Lynne Truss, author of the grammar nerds’ bible Eats, Shoots and Leaves is the latest to join the fray.
As Truss’s dedication suggests (“To Gemma, who loves proper horror, with apologies”), there is far more humour here than terror. I wonder if horror fans might be disappointed by this book, because it’s not really horror at all, but a masterpiece of comic writing. Truss expertly mixes up screenplay, emails and a parodic first-person narration, and the result is a novel as entertaining as it is addictive.
Book details
- Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss
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EAN: 9780099585336
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Image courtesy of The Guardian