To me it sounds like you’ve gone above and beyond in creating a place where people can find trigger warning if they need to. I don’t think that we need to slap warnings on books in the same fashion that something like the MPA does with films. I think most authors and reviews already point these things out and it just takes a little research to find that information. I think it’s nice that you’ve created a resource for those who need it, but I don’t think that you need to do anymore than you’ve already done.

Just my two cents, but I think a lot of this stems from the fact that horror has had to work within the subtext for much of its existence and also that it’s not getting a bit of a mainstream resurgence with the whole “elevated” horror thing.

Horror has always been elevated, but it’s message has been highly subtextual for a very long time. Take something like the queerness in The Haunting being highly coded to Theo openly being a lesbian on The Haunting of Hill House. Couple the fact that a lot more can be openly said with the popularity of highbrow horror and a general audience that might not be super familiar with horrors history and I think you have some filmmakers who don’t trust their audience to get what they are trying to do so they do a shit ton of hand holding. Instead of just leaving a lot of stuff up to the viewer to get or interpret Flanagan verbally tells the audience what he wants them to know. I’m his effort to make elevated horror he’s just making super easy and digestible horror. That’s not necessarily a bad thing depending on what you like.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (The Sundial along with everything else she wrote is great)

Beloved by Toni Morrison (I’m counting it as horror)

The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (In The Dream House is also worth the read)

Carrie by Stephen King

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (is there’s a book that feels more like autumn)

I completely agree!

She was mostly a wannabe writer who jumped on the moral panic that was floating around at the front of the satanic panic. I think she had a pretty strong desire to be known and that resulted in her doing pretty much anything to get published including wildly misrepresenting how drugs work.

Edit: Unmask Alice really digs into how she came to write it and how the world bought into it. It also bright covers some of her other “journals”.

The book is nothing more than anti drug propaganda written by a sad and lonely Mormon youth councilor who IMO was searching for attention. There’s nothing in that book that makes sense or is accurate.

Check out Unmask Alice if you want to see the story behind it and Jays Journal