Difference between paranormal and horror

From your description, it sounds like horror to me. Your query will show that it's of the paranormal variety.

Satchan said:

Historical fiction. A novel is fiction, by definition.

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Why would it be historical fiction? I don't want to beat a dead horse but that implies to me that an author did a lot of time period research, and it could have happened, but definitely didn't. I guess I'm just looking for the word non-fiction, because the book I had in mind is classified that way. Some genres are so broad and some are just so confusing. No wonder I suck at categorizing my stuff.

"Non-fiction novel" was a term first popularized by Truman Capote to describe In Cold Blood, his account of a real-life crime written in the style of a novel. It's pretty much gone out of fashion now, displaced by "narrative non-fiction" as the term of choice.

Novels based on the lives of actual people are usually called "biographical (or autobiographical) fiction" when the person isn't an important historical figure, "historical fiction" when the person is. So a novel about the life of Abraham Lincoln's law partner is "biographical fiction," whereas a novel about the life of Lincoln himself is "historical fiction."

Another fiction-based-on-facts category is the roman à clef, which depicts real-life people and events in a slightly fictionalized way. Primary Colors is one of the most famous recent US novels in that subgenre.

James D. Macdonald said:

"Paranormal" is subject matter. "Horror" is the effect it has on the reader.

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This. ^^^