I often hear the comment that for horror fiction to really work – that is, grab and hold a reader to the end of the book, the reader has to suspend disbelief. The job of creating a story that makes suspending disbelief possible falls to the author, of course. Let’s face it, horror fiction frequently involves plots that are often ridiculous, and authors must make them “work” for the reader.

When I read horror (which is, well, a good part of the time), I find that continuity of character within this context makes the story believable. Plots that are constructed well are necessary, of course, but the characters need to be grounded in a natural and human way. The emotional and behavioral reactions of the main characters must remain inherently true to themselves. There has to be a baseline level of character depth that sets the stage for the character action later in the book. The emotional responses need to be consistent and logical given their personalities.  When this doesn’t happen, we can’t trust the characters, and quite frankly we can’t trust the author to lead us honestly through frequently bizarre twists of plot development.