Trajectories of Horror and (Impossible) Care in Sophie White’s Where I End

Abstract

This article seeks to provide an initial account of care horror, expanding on Eugenie Brinkema’s proposition of reading horror as concept by contrasting it with approaches found in care and disability studies. Through a close reading of Sophie White’s 2022 novel Where I End, this article will illustrate how violence and care are both systematized through the formal modes of horror; then, it will focus on how those formal modes can be read to reveal the structural lack of interdependence motivated by systemic injustice that renders good care impossible. Finally, it reflects on whether or not said impossibility of care can be reclaimed and if it should be reclaimed at all.