Tag: horror

Categories
books and reading

When Things Get Dark

Title: When Things Get Dark

Editor: Ellen Datlow

Genre: horror short story

Thank you NetGalley for this book.

I’m not a short story collection person. I try again and again, but I just can’t get into them. Well, that all changed with this book. Maybe it’s just horror collections that I need to read. I love Stephen King’s. And I’ve been trying to read more thanks to the encouragement of the Books in the Freezer podcast, who has mentioned Ellen Datlow several times. So, when I saw this on NetGalley, I figured it was worth a try. And I’m so glad because there wasn’t a single miss in this entire collection.

From Goodreads: Legendary editor, Ellen Datlow, collects today’s best horror writers in tribute to the genius of Shirley Jackson. Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, and more.

A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by, and in tribute to, Shirley Jackson.

Shirley Jackson is a seminal writer of horror and mystery fiction, whose legacy resonates globally today. Chilling, human, poignant, and strange, her stories have inspired a generation of writers and readers.

This anthology, edited by legendary horror editor Ellen Datlow, will bring together today’s leading horror writers to offer their own personal tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson.

Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, Cassandra Khaw, Karen Heuler, Benjamin Percy, John Langan, Laird Barron, M. Rickert, Seanan McGuire, and Genevieve Valentine.

I’m not well-versed in Shirley Jackson. I love The Lottery (click on the link to read. First published in 1948) and was fortunate enough to teach it, as well. My students LOVED it. And I’ve read The Haunting of Hill House, but that’s about it. I definitely need to branch out. That said, anything inspired by her must be amazing. Every time I started a new story, I thought there was no way this one was going to be as good as the rest. I was wrong. They were all outstanding. Josh Malerman’s was my favorite (not a shock. I love his work). But really, each and every one of them was sufficiently creepy. This collection is a must-read for horror fans.

Categories
books and reading

Pearl

Title: Pearl

Author: Josh Malerman

Genre: horror

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

My love for Josh Malerman has no boundaries. I’ve loved everything he’s written: Bird Box, Goblin, Malorie, Inspection, A House at the Bottom of the Lake, Unbury Carol, and Black Mad Wheel. And now Pearl, which is an absolutely delicious, demented, disturbing book. And I loved every minute of it. Telepathic pig. Sold.

From Goodreads: Go to the farm just outside of town and you’ll hear it. A voice. Inside your head. Or is it?

Come to me…

A voice that makes you want to pick up that axe over in the corner of the barn. And swing it. And kill.

Feed us. Feed us now.

It is the voice of Pearl.

Sing for me. Sing for your precious Pearl…

I mean, come on. A telepathic pig who wants you to kill? Genuis. And because Malerman is such a good writer, it’s not cheesy or poorly written. Pearl is horrifying. The pig is so creepy with his one bad eye and sitting like a human. The events are grotesque and bloody. The characters are torn down and put back together by Pearl. And when Pearl gets into your head, there’s no stopping him. This book was just so absurd and hilarious. And so much fun.

Categories
books and reading

Disorder collection

Title/Author: The Best Girls/Min Jin Lee

Anonymous/Uzodinma Iweala

Ungirls/Lauren Beukes

Loam/Scott Heim

Will Williams/Namwali Serpell

The Beckoning Fair One/Dan Chaon

Genre: horror/thriller

These Amazon short stories are just so great. I’ve never read one that was awful. I like some more than others, of course, but they are a lot of fun. I was particularly excited about this one because they are horror-ish stories, which I love. Some are more graphic than others, but all are definitely worth reading.

From Goodreads: The Best Girls: An excellent student from a poor, traditional family in Seoul, the narrator has absorbed the same message her whole life: Only a boy can provide the family with dignity and wealth. Not her. Not her three sisters. Receiving approval only for uncomplaining sacrifice, she has resolved to take on her family’s troubles. She is a good girl. And she knows what good girls must do.

Anonymous: He’s a well-traveled consultant arriving home at a metropolitan airport. He’s also become accustomed to extra scrutiny for his brown skin and many-stamped passport. But when he’s whisked away, isolated, and chained in a stark white room without explanation, his reality crumbles. Because what he doesn’t know is the most damning evidence against him.

Ungirls: Actor and sex worker Nats is experienced at putting on a show. However, her new gig supplying intimate whispers for growgirls takes her to a place darker and lonelier than she could have ever imagined. The lab-grown dolls can respond to pleasure or pain; their synthetic heads contain only the simplest AI to prevent any pesky robo sex doll uprisings. But just because growgirls don’t have a brain, doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice…

Loam: Forty years ago, triplets Miriam, Louise, and Edward were swept up in a case of rural mass hysteria. Coerced into fabricating unspeakable lies about their first-grade teacher and her adult son, they were complicit in destroying two lives. Ever since, they have believed they are being followed by a presence still seeking retribution for their childhood sins. Unless their guilty consciences are conjuring as many monsters as their innocent minds once did.

Will Williams: Ever since high school, somebody’s been playing the echo game on Will Williams. A look-alike with the same tattoos and the same name has been following him. Starting by implicating Will in petty crimes, and escalating to offenses with serious prison terms, he’s undermined every attempt Will has made to get his life on track. Now, drifting from city to city, Will’s doing everything in his power to outrun his shadow.

The Beckoning Fair One: Ever since they were orphaned, Tyler has kept close tabs on his sister, Shannon. He has to, considering her weird and risky obsessions. Now she has a new one: an inexplicable crush on an odd-looking stranger. And what Shannon wants from her unwitting “honey boy,” Tyler can’t begin to fathom. Not until he follows his sister into the darkest corners of her desires.

The Beckoning Fair One was definitely my favorite, and it was also the most insane of them. I had no idea where it was going. Also, The Best Girls was a slow burn, but oh my that last line. I was floored. If you have Amazon Prime, be sure to check these collections out. There’s something for everyone. I absolutely love them.

Categories
books and reading

The Final Girl Support Group

Title: The Final Girl Support Group

Author: Grady Hendrix

Genre: thriller/horror

Thank you Netgalley for this copy!

Wow, did Grady Hendrix knock it out of the park again. I’ve only read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, which I also loved, and definitely need to back to his previous books. I couldn’t read this one quickly enough. I was dying (pun intended) to get to the end. Lynette, the main character, is a final girl. Meaning she was the last girl standing at the end of slasher-movie type event, but a real-life one. Of course, they made movies about the girls and the horrors they lived through, but these survivors have found each other and attend a monthly support group.

From Goodreads: In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized–someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

Don’t confuse this book with Final Girls by Riley Sager, which is just an okay book. They follow the same basic concept, but that’s about it. Lynette is a badass in this book. And she is jerked around by every other character in various ways, but she keeps standing to protect those around her. The other final girls have their own quirks, but all are survivors. One in particular, though, embraced the dark side, which was my favorite part of the book because of the creepiness. I thought this book was fantastic. It’s suspenseful, horrifying, and such a fun read.

Categories
books and reading

Full Throttle

Title: Full Throttle

Author: Joe Hill

Genre: horror short story

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: an author who shares your Zodiac sign

I’ve read a lot by Joe Hill. The Fireman was my favorite, but I also enjoyed Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2. I’m not a big short story fan, but I’m trying to read more. My strategy is to pick a book and read one a day, while I’m also reading other novels. It actually works well for me, and I’m definitely going to use this for my Stephen King story collections that I haven’t gone through yet.

From Goodreads: A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns.” In “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain,” two young friends stumble on the corpse of a plesiosaur at the water’s edge, a discovery that forces them to confront the inescapable truth of their own mortality . . . and other horrors that lurk in the water’s shivery depths. And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in “Throttle,” co-written with Stephen King.

There are some memorable stories in this collection. One is told entirely through tweets, which was excellent. One was formatted in a stair step fashion to mimic the plot. Another was told about an event from multiple perspectives of people on an airplane. “In the Tall Grass” was also co-written by Stephen King, and I know it’s also a Netflix movie, but I definitely will not be watching that. This story is so horrific, but great, but it’s one I know I won’t be able to stomach actually seeing. Overall, this was a great collection with some really creative stories, some really gruesome stories, and some really heartfelt stories. So far, Joe Hill hasn’t let me down.

Categories
books and reading

Audition

Title: Audition

Author: Ryu Murakami

Genre: horror

Shout out to Devin from the Book in the Freezer podcast for this recommendation! I don’t read a lot of Japanese books. I know a lot of people like Haruki Murakami, but he’s not really up my alley. A little too out there for my taste. But when Devin recommended this one, it sounded really interesting. Clocking in at under 200 pages, I flew through this book in one day. And oddly enough, the horror doesn’t happen until the very end, and then BOOM. completely, utterly, terribly horrifying.

From Goodreads: In this gloriously over-the-top tale, Aoyama, a widower who has lived alone with his son ever since his wife died seven years before, finally decides it is time to remarry. Since Aoyama is a bit rusty when it comes to dating, a filmmaker friend proposes that, in order to attract the perfect wife, they do a casting call for a movie they don’t intend to produce. As the resumes pile up, only one of the applicants catches Aoyama’s attention–Yamasaki Asami–a striking young former ballerina with a mysterious past. Blinded by his instant and total infatuation, Aoyama is too late in discovering that she is a far cry from the innocent young woman he imagines her to be. The novel’s fast-paced, thriller conclusion doesn’t spare the reader as Yamasaki takes off her angelic mask and reveals what lies beneath.

I got to page 168 before anything awful happened. The book is mostly about the auditions and Aoyama falling for this woman, which is still a really captivating story in and of itself. I had no problem getting hooked into his thoughts and their relationship. But when the horror hits, be prepared. It’s intense and graphic. I had to skim a bit, honestly, because it was just a bit too much for me. Murakami has a handful of other books, all of them around 200 pages, and I will definitely be checking them out. This one was great and will be one I remember for awhile.

Categories
books and reading

The Book of Accidents

Title: The Book of Accidents

Author: Chuck Wendig

Genre: horror

Thank you Netgalley for this book!

I’ve been meaning to read Chuck Wendig for awhile. I follow him on Twitter. I own Wanderers. I just haven’t gotten around to it, yet. But when I saw this one available on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to read it. Topping out at over 500 pages and heading for vacation for a week, this book took me forever to read. But if I had had more time, I would have gotten through it much faster because it was excellent.

From Goodreads: Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there.

Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures.

Long ago, something sinister, something hungry, walked in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania.

Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver.

And now what happened long ago is happening again . . . and it is happening to Oliver. He meets a strange boy who becomes his best friend, a boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic.

This dark magic puts them at the heart of a battle of good versus evil and a fight for the soul of the family—and perhaps for all of the world. But the Graves family has a secret weapon in this battle: their love for one another.

I’ve been reading so many thrillers lately that I forgot this was a horror book at times until something, well, horrifying happen. It also reads a lot like a thriller with a mystery to solve. This book is full of great characters and a really creative plot. What I really appreciated was that things that happened early on in the book that didn’t really make sense were fully explained by the end. The entire plot came together well. I’m glad the horror genre is getting more of a spotlight these days. A lot of people judge the books as just “gross” or “graphic,” but this one had a great plot, a lot of heart, and was well-written. I really enjoyed it.

Categories
books and reading

The Burning Girls

Title: The Burning Girls

Author: CJ Tudor

Genre: mystery/thriller/horror

Thank you Netgalley for this book!

Holy smokes! (pun intended) What a crazy, great book. Let me make it clear that before I even finished this one, I requested The Chalk Man from my library. I was just so impressed with this book and its multiple plots that wove together so well. The book has so many layers of mystery all were so well-written and cohesive. I’m so glad I got to read this one. Oh, and Tudor makes a reference to my favorite band, The Killers, so I immediately tweeted my thanks to her, and she replied. So cool! Hi again, if you are reading this, Ms. Tudor! =)

From Goodreads: Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself.

Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping to make a fresh start and find some peace. Instead, Jack finds a town mired in secrecy and a strange welcome package: an old exorcism kit and a note quoting scripture. “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.”

The more Jack and daughter Flo get acquainted with the town and its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into their rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo is troubled by strange sightings in the old chapel, it becomes apparent that there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

But uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village where everyone has something to protect, everyone has links with the village’s bloody past, and no one trusts an outsider.

What I loved most about this book was that the story is really about the vicar’s past, the town’s past, and the town’s present, all at the same time. You learn more about Jack and why she left her previous post. You learn more about the martyrs from centuries ago and the girls who disappeared decades ago. And you learn about the townspeople and just what they have to hide. What I found interesting was that the story is told in first person from Jack’s perspective, but some chapters are told third person about Flo. I can’t say I’ve read a book that switches between first and third narrator like that. It didn’t confuse me at all, and I really appreciated the uniqueness of that. This book was great, plain and simple. I can’t wait to dive into The Chalk Man soon!

Categories
books and reading

Different Seasons

Title: Different Seasons

Author: Stephen King

Genre: story collection, horror, psychological thriller

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A book that has the same title as a song

You can’t beat old school Stephen King. I’ve been digging through his old works that I’ve yet to read and just find the early stuff to be so rewarding. Last year I read Night Shift and was blown away by the story collection. Not a bad story in the entire book. The same goes for Different Seasons and its four novellas. You’re probably familiar with two or three of them.

From Goodreads:

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption–the most satisfying tale of unjust imprisonment and offbeat escape since The Count of Monte Cristo. Apt Pupil–a golden California schoolboy and an old man whose hideous past he uncovers enter into a fateful and chilling mutual parasitism. The Body–four rambunctious young boys venture into the Maine woods and in sunlight and thunder find life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. The Breathing Method–a tale told in a strange club about a woman determined to give birth no matter what.

Three of these have been turned into movies, two of those are classics. Shawshank Redemption is one of the best all-time movies, and the story itself was fantastic. The movie features some entire passages of dialogue from the novella. Red, the narrator, is actually an Irishman in the book, but I couldn’t help but hear Morgan Freeman’s voice. The movie fleshes out the plot, but overall the similarities are fantastic. I loved it.

Also, The Body is the movie Stand By Me, which is a movie I’m not as familiar with, but I believe is still a great adaptation. I remember a lot of similarities between the two. And it’s just a beautifully written story. The friendships and heartbreaks of childhood. This novella was, in my mind, a precursor for IT.

Apt Pupil is the most horrifying thing I’ve read of King’s. Scary clowns, vampires, haunted hotels, just don’t scare me. They aren’t real. And most of his books have enough of a supernatural element that they are unrealistic enough not to terrify me. But Apt Pupil, written in the early 80s is about a teenager obsessed with Nazis. I read Rage, which is about a school shooting, and it was pretty terrible subject matter. But Apt Pupil takes the terror to a completely different level.

The last story isn’t enough to be a movie (I say that now, but Lawnmower Man certainly wasn’t movie caliber and that happened…) but I still enjoyed it. Unlike the others, this had a touch of supernatural or mystery to it, but it was also just a bit of a ghost story, so who knows what really happened.

I’m loving going to King’s older works and digging through them. I’ve read so much of his new stuff, which is great, but it’s like listening to The Beatles. There’s the early stuff, the middle starting to get weird stuff, and there’s the super crazy late stuff (my favorite). With King there’s the super crazy early stuff, the middle cocaine fueled stuff, and then the lighter newest stuff. I’m pretty sure the super crazy early books are my favorite. They just never disappoint.

Categories
books and reading

Cabin at the End of the World

Holy. Smokes. This book!!! Definitely in my top reads of the year. I couldn’t put it down. This book is my third book by Paul Tremblay A Head Full of Ghosts (which I liked okay) and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, which I thought was great, but this one is his best, so far. I absolutely loved it.

From Goodreads: Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault.” Three more strangers arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

Absolutely no spoilers because this book would be completely ruined by them, but the tension presented and the horror this family faces, both physical and psychological, is so terrifying. The story is told from multiple characters, which makes the plot even more awful because you see the events from so many different perspectives. I can’t really go into more, however. Tremblay is just a high school math teacher who happens to write books. At this point, I’m confident he could quit his day job and be just fine. I can’t wait to read his newest, Survivor Song.