Halloween Reading
1. The Accursed, Joyce Carol Oats - I picked this up on the iBooks sale page some time ago, being very intrigued by the description...which was absolutely up my alley. It's a loooong book, and it took a while to get into it. Normally, I'm not daunted by either of those...but.... yeah, I put it down about 25% of the way into it. Life is just too short sometimes.
2. The Replacement, Brenna Yovanof - Oh my...I loved this book more than I can possibly say. When I was in college, one of the first papers I ever wrote for my first ever English (Honors Section) Lit Class was entitled,"Crying For the Monsters." I based it on Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera, using them to illustrate how authors used often sympathetic monsters to make powerful statements about humanity. My teacher said it was a potentially publishable paper. It's been years and years since I read it...but that whole experience of early critical reading of classic horror novels came flooding back when I read The Replacement. Simply put, this is the story about a fairy changeling child...one who survived against the odds when he was left in place of a human child as part of a horrible history of child abductions in a small town. Not going to lie....in the passage when he realizes why he lived all of those years I cried. Really, I wouldn't call this a horror/scary book so much as it's a fairy tale which touches on the darker side of the fey.
3. White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi - I really should have loved this book. The language is amazing, and there were phrases that made my heart sing. Once or twice there was even a scene that thrilled me for its originality. The problem was that it was perhaps too literary for my liking. When I read a genre book, usually I just want to be entertained. If I'm having to work too hard to follow the story because the language is so complicated...well, that's just not fun. I consider myself to be an intelligent and experienced reader...when I struggle, perhaps there's a problem.
4. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black - A unique twist on the vampire plague sort of novel. I really enjoyed the concept of a Coldtown! (A bit surprised at the YA tag, but then I was a super innocent kid when I was in the target YA demographic.) There was a really nice balance between the horrors of the monsters and the horrors that can be caused by stinky humans.
5. House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski - Truth. This book was recommended to me years and years ago. I bought it, and then gave it away when it sat around for a really long time without being read. It kept popping up on best of lists, though so I decided to give it another go. I tried getting a copy from the library - but it stunk so bad of cigarette smoke that I had to return it in a ziploc bag the next day. So I bought my own...and WOW! I'm glad I did! It was a slow read...the sort of thing I worked on all month long...and that was necessary given the format. First and foremost, you should know that this is an 'experimental' novel, with a very non-standard format. Yes, it takes a long time to read, and sometimes the structure can be maddening...but then, that's the point. Every crazy page lends to the overall insanity of the book. It was awesome. (And my goodness, how much work was it to write this beast?!)
7. Bellman and Black, Diane Setterfield (audio) - I love Diane Setterfield, and I loved this book. It was the story of a man who makes one single mistake in his childhood that effects the rest of his life. Truthfully, this isn't a scary book...but it is a heartbreaker. Given that it's a period piece, the real tragedy within seems all the more read because you know that it's exactly the sort of thing that actually happened. It haunts me...far more so than any scary book ever could.
8. Penpal, Dathan Auerbach - The writing is actually quite beautiful. But. I only read through half of it, and then after a quick skim of the rest I discarded it. I have small children. I don't really care for scary books that are realistic and very, very possible.
Annnnndddd....that's when I gave up on my month of scary books.
With one of my Halloween books turning into a very slow (but pleasurable) month-long read, and three others turning into reading fails I decided I didn't want to force the rest of the month into a theme that really wasn't doing it for me this year like it did last year.
SO!
9. Silverskin, Tina Connelly - With this book Connelly competes an amazing trilogy that I absolutely adored. The first was a steampunk/fairy/Victorian take on Jane Eyre...the second, well truthfully I forget that at the moment...this one, well this one wound up using Tam Lin, which is a much-beloved tale in this reader's heart. I absolutely love Connelly's female characters, and I adore the world she's created. This was a real treat!
10. Dragon Haven, Robin Hobb (audio) - So I went ahead and picked up the second book in the Rainwild series! Truthfully, there are some things that bug me about loooong epic fantasy series....and those things are a tad more noticeable when reading them in audio format. (You really pick up on the repetition and the wasted time and the emotional dithering that can happen.) Still love Hobb, though. Even with the flaws I was anxious listening the entire time to find out what happened next! The reader - Anne Flosnik - is really good, too.
11. Bird Box, Josh Malerman - Could. Not. Put. It. Down! Bird Box got a major recommendation from Books on the Nightstand a couple of months ago, and I was saving it for this month. The fact that you never actually see the monsters....well, let's just say it was terrifying in a way that books aren't usually for me. Reminded me in some ways of the movie The Mist. Shudders.
12. Ex-Heroes, Peter Clines - Yeah, this one wound up in my unfinished folder as well. The concept is fun - a band of survivors living on a movie lot after the zombie apocalypse with real live superheros! - but it didn't really do it for me.
13. The Pierced Heart, Lynn Shepard - I had completely forgotten that I had preordered this book, and to my great delight it turned out to be a perfect October read. This is Shepard's third book in a series of Victorian gothic/detective novels that turn on actual writers/books of the time. (Her last book sent me on a grand explorations of biographies of Mary Shelley!) This time around, Shepard takes on Dracula....which you all know is my favorite of all classic horror novels. It was perfect. It was so perfect that it left me a bit dazed. (And darn it! Would it have killed her to have given us an epilogue!!!!)
14. Interview With A Vampire, Anne Rice - File this under, "I can't believe I read this." Sigh. It was on sale for a couple of bucks. I thought why not?! Answer me this, Anne Rice fans, why the heck to do you like this dreck?
15. Dragon City, Robin Hobb (audio) - With the third installment, Hobb pulls her lens away from the small group that she focused on in the first two books and expands back to a larger view of her world. This was a very good thing. That small group had started to feel somewhat claustrophobic.
16. Blood of Dragons, Robin Hobb (audio) - (Fun fact, when the reader is this slow, you can speed up the audio to 1.5x the normal speed with no problem. This allows you to listen to a 70+ hr saga in about 50 hours. yay!) I hadn't intended to listen to the whole thing straight through, but I was so caught up in the story that I HAD to. I honestly don't think this series is Hobb's best work (or maybe now that I'm older and have expanded my reading I'm noticing the errors more?), but that aside it was still a whole lot of fun!
17. Lucky Us, Amy Bloom - I put a bunch of books on hold with my library's digital services, and when they become available, it's either read them or wait another couple of months! Thus...this book, which is completely unlike anything else I read this month. (Books on the Nightstand recommendation) It's a new book that I've really wanted to read for a while, and to my delight it turned out to be just as much fun as I'd hoped!
2. The Replacement, Brenna Yovanof - Oh my...I loved this book more than I can possibly say. When I was in college, one of the first papers I ever wrote for my first ever English (Honors Section) Lit Class was entitled,"Crying For the Monsters." I based it on Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera, using them to illustrate how authors used often sympathetic monsters to make powerful statements about humanity. My teacher said it was a potentially publishable paper. It's been years and years since I read it...but that whole experience of early critical reading of classic horror novels came flooding back when I read The Replacement. Simply put, this is the story about a fairy changeling child...one who survived against the odds when he was left in place of a human child as part of a horrible history of child abductions in a small town. Not going to lie....in the passage when he realizes why he lived all of those years I cried. Really, I wouldn't call this a horror/scary book so much as it's a fairy tale which touches on the darker side of the fey.
3. White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi - I really should have loved this book. The language is amazing, and there were phrases that made my heart sing. Once or twice there was even a scene that thrilled me for its originality. The problem was that it was perhaps too literary for my liking. When I read a genre book, usually I just want to be entertained. If I'm having to work too hard to follow the story because the language is so complicated...well, that's just not fun. I consider myself to be an intelligent and experienced reader...when I struggle, perhaps there's a problem.
4. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black - A unique twist on the vampire plague sort of novel. I really enjoyed the concept of a Coldtown! (A bit surprised at the YA tag, but then I was a super innocent kid when I was in the target YA demographic.) There was a really nice balance between the horrors of the monsters and the horrors that can be caused by stinky humans.
5. House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski - Truth. This book was recommended to me years and years ago. I bought it, and then gave it away when it sat around for a really long time without being read. It kept popping up on best of lists, though so I decided to give it another go. I tried getting a copy from the library - but it stunk so bad of cigarette smoke that I had to return it in a ziploc bag the next day. So I bought my own...and WOW! I'm glad I did! It was a slow read...the sort of thing I worked on all month long...and that was necessary given the format. First and foremost, you should know that this is an 'experimental' novel, with a very non-standard format. Yes, it takes a long time to read, and sometimes the structure can be maddening...but then, that's the point. Every crazy page lends to the overall insanity of the book. It was awesome. (And my goodness, how much work was it to write this beast?!)
7. Bellman and Black, Diane Setterfield (audio) - I love Diane Setterfield, and I loved this book. It was the story of a man who makes one single mistake in his childhood that effects the rest of his life. Truthfully, this isn't a scary book...but it is a heartbreaker. Given that it's a period piece, the real tragedy within seems all the more read because you know that it's exactly the sort of thing that actually happened. It haunts me...far more so than any scary book ever could.
8. Penpal, Dathan Auerbach - The writing is actually quite beautiful. But. I only read through half of it, and then after a quick skim of the rest I discarded it. I have small children. I don't really care for scary books that are realistic and very, very possible.
Annnnndddd....that's when I gave up on my month of scary books.
With one of my Halloween books turning into a very slow (but pleasurable) month-long read, and three others turning into reading fails I decided I didn't want to force the rest of the month into a theme that really wasn't doing it for me this year like it did last year.
SO!
9. Silverskin, Tina Connelly - With this book Connelly competes an amazing trilogy that I absolutely adored. The first was a steampunk/fairy/Victorian take on Jane Eyre...the second, well truthfully I forget that at the moment...this one, well this one wound up using Tam Lin, which is a much-beloved tale in this reader's heart. I absolutely love Connelly's female characters, and I adore the world she's created. This was a real treat!
10. Dragon Haven, Robin Hobb (audio) - So I went ahead and picked up the second book in the Rainwild series! Truthfully, there are some things that bug me about loooong epic fantasy series....and those things are a tad more noticeable when reading them in audio format. (You really pick up on the repetition and the wasted time and the emotional dithering that can happen.) Still love Hobb, though. Even with the flaws I was anxious listening the entire time to find out what happened next! The reader - Anne Flosnik - is really good, too.
11. Bird Box, Josh Malerman - Could. Not. Put. It. Down! Bird Box got a major recommendation from Books on the Nightstand a couple of months ago, and I was saving it for this month. The fact that you never actually see the monsters....well, let's just say it was terrifying in a way that books aren't usually for me. Reminded me in some ways of the movie The Mist. Shudders.
12. Ex-Heroes, Peter Clines - Yeah, this one wound up in my unfinished folder as well. The concept is fun - a band of survivors living on a movie lot after the zombie apocalypse with real live superheros! - but it didn't really do it for me.
13. The Pierced Heart, Lynn Shepard - I had completely forgotten that I had preordered this book, and to my great delight it turned out to be a perfect October read. This is Shepard's third book in a series of Victorian gothic/detective novels that turn on actual writers/books of the time. (Her last book sent me on a grand explorations of biographies of Mary Shelley!) This time around, Shepard takes on Dracula....which you all know is my favorite of all classic horror novels. It was perfect. It was so perfect that it left me a bit dazed. (And darn it! Would it have killed her to have given us an epilogue!!!!)
14. Interview With A Vampire, Anne Rice - File this under, "I can't believe I read this." Sigh. It was on sale for a couple of bucks. I thought why not?! Answer me this, Anne Rice fans, why the heck to do you like this dreck?
15. Dragon City, Robin Hobb (audio) - With the third installment, Hobb pulls her lens away from the small group that she focused on in the first two books and expands back to a larger view of her world. This was a very good thing. That small group had started to feel somewhat claustrophobic.
16. Blood of Dragons, Robin Hobb (audio) - (Fun fact, when the reader is this slow, you can speed up the audio to 1.5x the normal speed with no problem. This allows you to listen to a 70+ hr saga in about 50 hours. yay!) I hadn't intended to listen to the whole thing straight through, but I was so caught up in the story that I HAD to. I honestly don't think this series is Hobb's best work (or maybe now that I'm older and have expanded my reading I'm noticing the errors more?), but that aside it was still a whole lot of fun!
17. Lucky Us, Amy Bloom - I put a bunch of books on hold with my library's digital services, and when they become available, it's either read them or wait another couple of months! Thus...this book, which is completely unlike anything else I read this month. (Books on the Nightstand recommendation) It's a new book that I've really wanted to read for a while, and to my delight it turned out to be just as much fun as I'd hoped!
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