Many horror books rely on an impending sense of unknown horror to create dread and tension. What is lurking just out of view? Is the character going to survive this? I’m reading a SF book right now where it is clear from the beginning that only one character survives the events of the book. A lot of the book thus far is comprised of flashbacks about all of the characters—how they met, how they all became involved in the events, their relationships. The author does a create job of bringing the characters to life and making the reader care about them. So good that I’ve found the upfront knowledge that they’re almost all going to die (and the one who doesn’t will be haunted and perhaps wish he’d died) goes a long way toward making me dread what is to come. What do you all find more effective in terms of establishing a sense of dread? Unknowns that lurk ‘off screen,’ invisible to both the reader and characters until the final moment, or knowledge that the reader has but the characters do not, so that the reader is watching the characters rush headlong to their doom? There are other examples of the latter but the former seems more prevalent to me.
Interesting question. Knowledge of the outcome usually leads me to a sense of resignation. However Oryx and Crake essentially has that format, and it's still compelling for sure (though not horror). Its effect on me is mostly a hook. I would rather a hook that forecasts the mid-point of a story than the end, leaving some ambiguity of fates but still raising questions like David Byrne. "This is not my beautiful Antarctic research facility."
