Eric Havens discusses new novella The Shadow That Lives There and using horror to confront trauma

Eric Havens // Courtesy photo

Most known for their writing in short films The Stylist and Call Girl, Eric Havens is no stranger to the horror scene.

In 2016, they pivoted to writing fiction and released their first book A Message of Hope from the Terminally Depressed. In 2017, they released their second novel, The Devil and Me followed by a collection of short stories, The Weight in Strangers’ Faces.

Their latest novella The Shadow That Lives There, follows sisters Alison and Blair as they return to their childhood home after their mother’s death. Upon their return, they’re forced to confront the traumas of their past and the looming shadow that still resides there. In just under 200 pages, Havens tackles the horrors of complicated family dynamics, identity, and outgrowing familiar places.

We got to talk with them ahead of the book’s release about using horror to confront trauma, embodying themselves in their characters, and more.

The Pitch: What inspired the concept of the shadow?

In a very basic sense, I think one could argue that the shadow is quite literally a metaphor for anxiety, depression, and the darkness that we’re all scared to confront. I just had the thought of the things we do every day and how there’s shadows that witness this. They’re carbon imprints of things that are going on, but they’re not there. I just thought, what if they were a little more cognizant? What would it manifest as if the shadows were witnesses?

The Shadow That Lives There cover

A lot of the book deals with family dynamics, especially between siblings. How does that parallel to your own life?

It’s a strange thing, because I’m actually an only child, so I don’t have siblings. Honestly, the sisters are two different parts of myself. You can almost see this book as a conversation with myself and those two sides are both very true. They’re both very real experiences but they’re very conflicting, like they just don’t jive together. The parental dynamics are from my own experience. At the time, I was coming into my own confusing sexuality late in life. I always knew I wasn’t heterosexual, but I didn’t know what that meant. I’m old enough where I didn’t grow up with a lot of the phrasing and labels, we have now, it was all very confusing.

What was it like bringing those different sides of yourself to life in the book?

I guess the best word would be therapeutic. It’s something I didn’t even realize I was doing. With how the book is separated, each sister gets their own chapter. So, you get their perception versus the other. I found myself, depending on what chapter I was working on, being like Team Alison or Team Blair and really getting in there and identifying with it. It was a very strange sensation to be like, ‘Yeah, Alison is right,” or “Blair is being a jerk,” and vice versa, and kind of coming to terms with both of those things.

Every day we interact with people and depending on the perception, you’re dealing with the hero or the villain. I kind of came to that within myself. I can remember myself a certain way and it can be true but also be completely wrong.

How does Blair specifically reflect you?

I think every time I write there’s at least one character where I embody myself and like to live in and feel the world through. She was my entry point. I was most comfortable with her early on and I think that’s why I made her a writer. I was making her a lot like me. She was far more confident in her sexuality than I was.

While writing the book was there anything that you found yourself confronting that you hadn’t in previous works?

The very personal thing that was challenging and uncomfortable to confront was the mother relationship because my mother passed when I was 35. It was a very estranged relationship. This book was the closest thing I could find to having a conversation with my mother and letting her know that I recognized that she had her faults, that she was doing her best, and that she loved me.

There are journal entries sprinkled throughout the book, what led you to break up the story with them?

Originally, I was trying to sprinkle in the house of the character, and the history of the house of the character. It kind of evolved into this exploration of different perceptions of everything she knew about the house and everything she’s researched about the house. These journal entries are completely outside of that, like something she didn’t know.  It’s kind of analogous to when families share these experiences in a past environment. Everyone sees them so differently and no one is “wrong” but, no one can quite agree on what the truth would be.

What made you take a horror bend with this story?

I’ve always been drawn to horror. When I was four my mom couldn’t find a babysitter and took me to see the original Halloween 2 in 1981. I was terrified, but I was drawn to it. When I look back, I think horror has always been very important to me because it’s a safe, structured way to confront the darkest, scariest, and most horrific things without dealing with any of the actual danger or trauma. Horror has always been an outlet for me, in the sense that you can watch the most horrific, scary, and traumatic things and then the lights come up. It’s all organized and there’s an ending.

Throughout the book, there are moments where Blair is being suffocated by the shadow. How does that speak to your experience of being in a familiar place like your childhood home and dealing with the anxiousness that may resurface because of past trauma?

I grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri and I’ve had to travel back there a couple of times. I swear it feels like that every time I go there to this day. It’s like a weighted blanket on top of you and this repressed sadness just takes over. So, I knew that feeling very well. It just came to me instinctually. That’s exactly what it feels like when you return to this place where it’s so familiar, and you’ve changed so much but the place doesn’t want you to be different.

How do you hope readers are able to feel less alone and more seen through this book?

In the author’s acknowledgements I write that because there’s all these pieces of like, books art, and movies, where the person makes it and it goes out in the world, and it becomes something else. And it shifts depending on who’s reading it and who’s looking at it. I really hope that people are able to bring whatever their experiences are, and bond to either Alison or Blair, whichever of their background is more relatable to them. I hope they can find some comfort and empathy.

The Shadow That Lives There is out now.