Literary Criticism
Critics of the series noted that while the Point Horror series did not attract much serious attention, Gillian Avery noted that the series was "invariably structured around oppositions" in that teen horror novels "does not 'put an end to the opposition between the real and the imaginary' but, instead, affirms the distinction". Roy Fisher wrote that the series embodied and represented "the fears and anxieties of young people about their lives in general and about school in particular". Others noted the series' similarity to Stephen King, saying that there "was little difference between the approach and design... other than length".
Will Davis of The Guardian attributed the decline of the series to higher standards from teen readers and the series' lack of real-life issues.
The series has received negative criticism for its portrayal of female characters. Mary Hilton wrote in her book Potent fictions that many young readers viewed the female characters as the ones who get "upset, killed, or dumped".
Read more about this topic: Point Horror
Famous quotes containing the words literary and/or criticism:
“The want of an international Copy-Right Law, by rendering it nearly impossible to obtain anything from the booksellers in the way of remuneration for literary labor, has had the effect of forcing many of our very best writers into the service of the Magazines and Reviews.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)