Reading Groups

Beyond the Tropes: Horror in New York City with Marc Abbott

$135

3 Sessions

Out of stock

3 Sessions Sundays, 1:00 pm EDT - 2:30 pm EDT September 29 to November 17, 2024

Online via Zoom

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Meeting Dates:
9/29, 10/27, 11/17
Held Online via Zoom

In this group, we will look at three classic horror stories set in New York City across three decades (’60s, ’70s, ’80s) and discuss how they reflect the time and place of their settings. We will explore various themes and topics, including the dread and terror felt when moving to a new place, doubles and duality, and descents into madness. The tropes that weave these stories together tell a larger story as well. From overbearing neighbors to “it’s too good to be true” apartments to the desire to be on top at any cost, these three novels helped change the landscape of horror.

In Rosemary’s Baby, Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling-actor husband Guy are thrilled to move into the Bramford, a sought-after Manhattan apartment building prized for its Victorian details and gargoyle facade. Life seems to improve even further when Guy lands a major role and Rosemary at last becomes pregnant. But as her pregnancy takes frightening turns, Rosemary begins to question if her neighbors’ heightened interest is strictly innocent, or if their motivations—and those of Guy himself—portend terrifying consequences for her and her unborn child.

In American Psycho, Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom, expressing his true self through torture and murder.

In The Sentinel, aspiring model Allison Parker finally moves into her dream apartment: a brownstone on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. But her perfect home quickly turns hellish. Allison begins to hear strange noises from the empty apartment above hers and, before long, uncovers the building’s demonic secret.

What to read before the first meeting: Please read Rosemary’s Baby in preparation for the first session.

What to expect from this reading group: This course is conversational—all participants will have a chance to engage in the discussion.

Reading List:

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz

Capacity: 20

Please note: All virtual classes are recorded. Please click here for information about our recording policy.

Led by

Marc L. Abbott

Marc L. Abbott

Marc L. Abbott is a Brooklyn-native horror author. He is the co-author of Hell at Brooklyn Tea and Hell at the Way Station, the two-time African American Literary Award-winning horror anthology. His horror short stories are featured in the anthologies Blackened Roots, A Woman Unbecoming, Soul Scream, Even in the Grave, and the Bram Stoker-nominated horror anthologies New York State of Fright and Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign. He is a 2015 Moth Story Slam and Grand Slam Storyteller winner and an award-winning actor. When he is not leading reading groups for The Center for Fiction, he teaches writing to students at Dr. Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School. Find out more about him at www.whoismarclabbott.com.

About this series

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