Alan Wake 2 & All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
Before I blog: I am very happy to announce that my collection of short fiction, Extinct in the Wild, will be published by Pen & Anvil press on November 29th, 2026! I’m hoping to get some events on the calendar, and I’ll announce more here as the publication date nears. Huge thanks to P&A, as well as the places that have published my stories over the years. I can’t wait to share the book with you! Anyway, on to the blog…
Spoilers for Alan Wake 2 and some discussion of All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
Alan Wake 2 is very good. You might've heard that it recently passed 3 million sales, and honestly it's a huge relief to hear about a game studio doing well as opposed to being shut down and sold for parts even after the success of one of their titles. (Word is that the storied studio Don't Nod is going bankrupt, even after the critical success of Bloom & Rage, a game about four teenage riotgrrrls in the 90s who stumble on a supernatural entity, and from that pitch alone I knew there has not been a game more specifically made for my wife and me to play together. Ever.)
AW2 picks up where the last one left off over a decade ago. The titular protagonist is a horror writer who has been missing for ten years, trapped in "The Dark Place," a kind of mirror dimension ruled by a paranormal entity trying to use Wake's creative powers to shape our reality. Our other protagonist, FBI agent Saga Anderson, is assigned to a murder case in Alaska where Wake went missing. He stumbles out of the lake, they meet and are separated, supernatural cult shenanigans ensue. It's a good time. Reviews have focused on the absolutely impeccable atmosphere, the great voice acting, the general vibes. I'll also shout out the accessibility features; you can choose the general difficulty setting, but also turn the "survival horror" elements up or down with more granular selections from the option menu, like playing with infinite ammo.
It takes a lot for me to commit to playing a big ol' AAA game, especially one that has the occasional big difficulty spike–as AW2 does. But my friends convinced me to stick with AW2 by telling me that this one has a lot to say about writing, and about the creative process in general. This is true, even more so than the previous entry. Wake is actively trying to free himself from The Dark Place by writing a story that lets him defeat his demons and get out. But as his story starts to warp reality, it creates real stakes for Anderson, potentially killing her daughter. The game wisely avoids making a blanket statement about the danger or power of tortured artists; the results of Wake's writing are specific to him, since he is a thriller and horror writer, and needs to stay within the bounds of his genre. Because he's already been subjected to horrors, he explains at one point, the story has to honor that. He can't just write a happy ending out of nowhere; he has to write through the nasty stuff.
At the same time, I admit that the game itself also adheres to the genre conventions of survival horror in a way that is…good, in the abstract, but not always my favorite. When you beat the game the first time, it's revealed that Wake has been stuck in a time loop, and has been working his way closer to "The Final Draft." The player needs to complete the game on New Game+ to unlock the final ending. This is very normal for the genre–see also the most recent Silent Hill, for example. It's also one of my least favorite things. I've long maintained that a game earns a reply by being replayable. The revelation that they held something back until you do it all a second time has annoyed me ever since the Reboot PS1 game.
Anyway, All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles was gifted to me at Christmas, and I only just read it now. It rules. The pitch is that it's a gay historical romance and Gothic horror pastiche, but it takes both parts equally seriously. I'm loath to use the word "serious" here, because it's also laugh out loud funny. The protagonist Zeb is incredibly charming, as is his love interest. The scares are genuinely scary and just the right amount of gross. It's the sort of book you can probably read in one sitting.
It also presents a real problem in terms of genre. If it's a romance and a Gothic horror novel, where is it gonna land in the ending? Does our couple ride off into the sunset? Or do they have to have a climatic confrontation with the bad guys, and only win or lose after a good amount of blood and guts? I won't spoil anything, except to say that the book gets my recommendation–even though it does raise this question about genre expectations.
Some folks would argue that the word itself, even the concept, is a useless marketing gimmick. But it also creates expectations, and those expectations are another tool in the writer's toolkit. We like when our expectations are either met satisfactorily or subverted in a way that is both surprising and earned. Spec Ops: The Line often tops lists of Best Video Games ever, and it relies entirely on the player's expectations of military shooters circa 2010. Genre lets the writer know what the reader knows–or what the reader imagines they know.
I don't want to make too much of All of Us Murders. It's a good summer read; it's probably an even better foggy fall read. But I will say that it is the rare mash up that honors its loyalties to both genres being mashed, right up until it can't.
