Kevin Johnson | William Morrow | 13 October 2026 |
- Author Kevin Johnson
- Publisher William Morrow
- Published 13 October 2026
- Pages 288
- Format Paperback, audiobook
- ISBN 9780063459458
- Subgenre Christmas horror
In Yule, Maine, it is always Christmas and Santa Claus is worshipped as a god. When children start to vanish everywhere except Yule, a sceptical reporter with no love for the holidays goes digging.
Kevin Johnson’s debut novel, ‘Twas the Night, is out now from William Morrow, and it takes Christmas somewhere very dark indeed. To mark it, he has written a guest post for Ginger Nuts of Horror about the 90s horror that raised him. It is a fine time of year for it. The festive season has already given us You Better Watch Out and ‘Til the Yule Log Burns Out, so a town that worships a far from saintly Santa fits right in. But before Yule, Maine, there was a bowl cut, a book fair and a video shop over the fence. Here Kevin tries to work out how one boy ended up with a whole bookcase of Goosebumps.
Kevin Johnson cannot say why he loves horror, only how it got in: Goosebumps, probably from a book fair, Saturday nights with Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Mulder and Scully, and a Blockbuster one fence jump away. For a kid growing up in the 90s, he suggests, horror was simply everywhere.
People often ask me why I love horror so much.
I mean, strangers don’t ask me. That would be weird, and very presumptive.
But family members and friends and colleagues who learn about my rabid passion for the genre, especially those who steer clear of anything scarier than “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” always want to know why I get such enjoyment out of something so macabre.
And the answer is…
I have no freaking idea.
Why do people like a certain type of food or drink? Why do some people love hot summers? Why do others prefer cold winters? Some people love dogs. Some people love cats. Some people love Madame Web.
I haven’t personally met any, but I’m sure they exist.
Of course I can go on and on about the specific tropes I love in horror, the pleasure I get in feeling truly terrified, the sheer joy in discovering some new monster or demon, the jump scares and grossouts and morbid depravity and dark humor and dismemberments and incantations and everything in between.
But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully understand or explain why I’m drawn to horror. However, as I think back on my first forays into the genre, I’m confident I can explain how I got into horror.
Growing up in the 90s, horror was all around me. No, I’m not talking literally, although my haircut was pretty traumatizing. A bowl cut AND frosted tips?! Nice.
I’m talking about a little series of books called Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, the first one, Welcome to Dead House, published in 1992. To be honest, I don’t remember which Goosebumps book I read first, or how I got my hands on a copy, although I suspect a Scholastic book fair may have been the culprit.
Regardless, what I do remember is devouring every book in the series until I had an entire bookcase filled with nothing but Goosebumps and their immaculate covers. Sure, my parents may have been slightly disturbed, but whatever! I was reading, wasn’t I?
But Goosebumps was merely my gateway drug into horror. I needed another fix, something more potent, something I could see, something that spoke to my primal urge to disappear into the woods and tell scary stories for the rest of my days.
I’m talking, you guessed it, about Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which was the first instance of appointment television for me. Dawww. I remember hopping on the (not orange) couch every Saturday night and being absolutely terrified of creepy clowns, perennially cold ghosts, pool monsters, googly eyeglasses… and loving every second of it.
Not to be outdone, Goosebumps got a TV adaptation of its own, so I never missed an episode of that either. I still find myself humming the intro music from time to time because my life is very sad.
I also stumbled on The X-Files, which was like Are You Afraid of the Dark? for adults! Here I thought all adults were lame. Not Mulder and Scully, that’s for sure. Once I found it, I was obsessed, a loyal fan to the bitter end, no matter how many times the air dates changed or the leads were recast (Robert Patrick forever!).
Even though the 90s are often overlooked when it comes to horror films, with a few meta slasher and rainy Morgan Freeman exceptions, the 90s did mean easy(ish) access to decades of horror classics, even if that access was somewhat limited.
It was the era of Blockbuster Video.
My best friend just so happened to live a fence-jump away from our local Blockbuster. While the rest of our classmates were spending their weekends galactic bowling, skating at roller rinks, playing laser tag, going to parties, and all sorts of other social gatherings (yuck!), we preferred to roam the horror aisles of the neighboring Blockbuster.
This is where I discovered Evil Dead, Phantasm, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and, basically, whatever VHS tapes (that’s right kids, videos!) were still in stock and properly rewound.
So there you have it. Maybe I was drawn to horror because horror was everywhere, in books, TV shows and accessible movies, all part of growing up in the glorious 90s. Maybe I didn’t have a choice. Maybe it was destiny.
I guess that leaves me with one final question:
To all my fellow 90s kids…
How are you not into horror?
Get the book
‘Twas the Night by Kevin Johnson is out now from William Morrow in paperback and audiobook.
Keep reading on Ginger Nuts of Horror
The Horror of My Life: Yuvashri Harish on Kill Your Darlings and YA Horror
The Advent Calendar: A Christmas Horror Review
21 Days of Fear by Hervé Commère Review: An Advent Calendar of Dread
About Ginger Nuts of Horror
Ginger Nuts of Horror is an independent horror review and culture site based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Edited by British Fantasy Award nominee Jim McLeod, it publishes horror book reviews, film reviews, author interviews, features and cover reveals. Ginger Nuts of Horror won Best Inclusive Film & Book Review Platform at the SME News UK Enterprise Awards 2026.
