Good Ol' Genre Classification Question

Deadeyemouse

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I'm having a bit of trouble really nailing down where my book will fall in the ever opinionated, marketing driven spectrum of genre description.

In my head, it has been a horror comedy from the beginning. It plays on dark themes like hauntings, fear, abuse, and oppression but also exploits the absurd of the situation and the character's general sense of humor and friendship to tear down the horror. Pretty much, the synapses of it all is captured in a line at the beginning: "what I’m trying to convey here is that life is absurd. It is funny, it is dumb, and then its gets very, very real."

We have deep elements of the supernatural and toying with magical elements that would also classify it as paranormal fiction, but it pays far more homage to stories like Poltergeist, It, Insidious, and Amityville than the likes of the Supernatural tv show or Dresden Files. Then again, it doesn't really take itself seriously enough to play in either horror or paranormal Fiction. Heck, the current title is "The Paranormal Life of Jonathan Young Presents: The Beast From Between Worlds That Even The Devil Fears & The Peach Tea O’Christ." Yet, as with many of my favorite horror comedies, it is as about being funny as it is about paying true and real homage to the horror genre it is working within. When the comedy drops away, the characters are depressed and lost, they are being attacked by something they don't understand and those moments are given their due.

I guess what I'm trying to get to is the question of, what genre fits? Is Horror Comedy an effective or marketable genre these days? Has it ever been outside of the occasional hit?
 

VeryBigBeard

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I'm not super-familiar with the horror genre, but assuming this is a query-related issue, I'd generally say it's horror but make sure the query shows the humorous style. And perhaps find a couple good comps that showcase that particular sub-genre, as well.

That will likely open more doors. Genres exist more for readers than writers; most stories will fit into more than one, use elements from more than one, etc. Some will blend them more actively, but that would usually be part of the core of the book and, again, something you can show in a query/blurb/etc. So if you think horror readers would potentially like your book, call it horror.
 

Feidb

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I'd simply stick to horror, then when someone asks, explain the plot. They'll figure it out.

My icky bug(horror) stories are also full of humor, but I just call them icky bug and let the agent/publisher/reader figure out the rest for themselves. It's going to end up on either the general fiction or science fiction/fantasy shelves in the bookstore.
Marketing? Amazon? The last time I looked, there was a horror literature and fiction category, but nothing more specific than that.
 

fenyo

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We can't really say if it should be horror or comedy and I think that you will need to see if it has more horror or comedy in it.

I think that a comedy can definitely have a good amount of horror in it and still be considered a comedy, but if you want it to be a horror story you can't have it be full of comedy and still having it be considered a proper horror.
 

MoonTheLune

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Honestly I think that if you write a big enough horror story, there's going to be comedy that comes out of it. It's required to break the tension. Plus the atmosphere sets up comedy to be the least expected: something that always makes jokes funnier.

Having humour in a horror story doesn't take away from the horror. I would tend towards categorizing your work based on what will warn sensitive readers of what is the thing you're most worried they might be turned off by. Nips the whole issue in the bud.

Nobody will complain about reading a joke in a horror novel. But you can certainly bet someone will complain about reading horror in a comedy novel.