American Gothic Author’s Stories Would Be Better As TV Shows

Brom’s stories often center around taking a classic, often innocent story, and showing a more depraved and vile version. For example, his stories contain dark and disturbing versions of Santa Claus, Peter Pan, and even Toy Story.

His novels are great; there is no denying the tales are detailed and rather unique. However, there’s just something a little off about each one. I started with Krampus by Brom, before moving on to The Child Thief, Slewfoot, and Lost Gods, with the hope to make it to some of his older books soon. 

I’ve loved reading all of them, and have recommended Brom to several people I know. However, the agreement seems to be the same. There are moments when the stories are almost too dense with imagery and details on the appearance of everything. 

Considering Brom is primarily an artist, focusing on the visual aspects makes a lot of sense. Even the emotions and details of the world are done with a focus on the visual. I’ve noticed that listening to audio books of his stories often works better for me, because I can sit and visualize it, instead of focusing on reading.

However, I know not everyone is a visual reader. In that case, I think Brom’s works would be even harder to read if you can’t really see all he is describing. 

That’s why I think taking it a step further and turning Brom’s books into TV shows would be the best. It would allow the visuals to come across, without all of the dense details to lose the reader. Not to mention that as long as they were given the proper care, they would be visually stunning. 

Because Brom is an artist, his books all have accompanying illustrations. Generally, somewhere in the book, and often on the covers, there are illustrations done by him on some of the prominent characters in the tale. For example in Slewfoot, the cover is of the main character, and then there are images of the three creatures that pester her, and the monster of the story, Slewfoot itself. 

I can even take it a step further and solidly say that while I think a TV show would do better than a movie to tell his stories, Guillermo del Toro would be the perfect artist to work with Brom’s novels. The style of Pan’s Labyrinth fits well with Brom’s themes and art. 

In fact, I’m not the only one to think this. Andy Davidson, the author of The Boatman’s Daughter, mentioned something similar when describing Slewfoot, “If Quentin Tarantino and Guillermo del Toro got together to pen a tale about Puritans and witches, they could only hope the fruits of their labors would equal Slewfoot. I loved this book. A roaring, bloody, beautiful work of pure imagination.”

If you want to check out Brom’s books, Slewfoot and The Plucker are currently his highest-rated, and great places to start. Evil in Me also releases on September 17, 2024.

Source: Brom Art