The Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe

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Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Genre: Horror, Short Story
Rating: 1 star.

Blech! Not my kind of horror at all.

The first-person narrator is a man who starts off well but soon descends into seeming madness, probably fuelled by his alcohol dependency. One of his victims happens to be his pet cat Pluto, but maybe he went too far. What happens next? Is it real or is his mind playing games with him?

This is for those who believe horror has to involve mutilation and gore and animal abuse and ad-hoc killings. The ending provides a minor saving grace but most of the proceedings are horrid.

The main character wasn’t convincing despite the first person. The main source of creating fear is through macabre incidents that don't spring logically from the story.

I suppose I should be more lenient considering this was written in 1845, but I've read far better stuff by Poe, and this one seriously didn't match up. Give me “The Tell-Tale Heart” any day over this one - it has a far better psychological case study than this one.

Horror obviously means different things to different readers. I prefer atmospheric horror. You might prefer gore. If you do, you'd love to know that this story is in the public domain and hence can be read online for free. If you want to give it a try, I read it on THIS LINK.


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