The Genre Bucket

After complaining as much as I did in my review of Book of Three  I thought it was only fair to discuss the fantasy subgenre I do enjoy: Sword and Sorcery. Coined in the 1960's as a way to describe what made Robert E. Howard and other writers stand separate in their fantasy output from what people referred to as High Fantasy ie Lord of the Rings, Sword and Sorcery simply put is fantasy made immediate. But what does that mean? Essentially High Fantasy focuses on all encompassing world significant battles of good versus evil whereas Sword and Sorcery is marked by the battle an individual may fight against a monster for instance, and the consequences that could affect them from that fight. By paring down the stakes to the effects on an individual those stakes become that much more real to the reader and consequently more visceral. Focusing in on an individual also gives room to flesh that character out with believable flaws and strengths. High Fantasy falls into the trap of Mary Sue c...

I have a confession to make. I enjoy fantasy but I find it intrinsically boring. In many ways all fantasy blends together for me especially since I'm familiar with the patterns mythos and fairytales work within due to having read some Joseph Campbell and his works on comparative mythology, as well as my general knowledge and interest in folklore and mythology. The real genre fatigue for me though comes from the fantasy genre specifically overusing high fantasy tropes familiar to most people from Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This year I decided to try and participate in Fantasy December which is a practice in reading circles to read works from the Fantasy genre in December since it lends itself well to the season. I had always been mildly interested in Disney's The Black Cauldron film and thought hey, it's based on a book series this could be fun. Judging by the movie it's going to be harmless kids fantasy but could be a light, entertaining treat. I was wrong. I ...

Hello wonderful humans. You asked for it. You voted for it on my instagram @genrebucket. That's right, I'm going to review Young Adult Horror on this blog now! So what does that mean? Essentially Young Adult Horror from the 1980's through the late 1990's will be reviewed on here around every other week. Keeping in mind I'm no longer a teen girl (teen girls were actually the predominant audience for these books) I will be rating these using a scale of 15 teen girl points. These points will come from 3 categories each worth a max of 5 points each. These categories being likability/relatableness of the main character, the level of annoyingness/likability of the supporting characters, and the quality of WTF moments. Ah the 90's. The era of landline telephones, thriving malls, and teens making money watching kids of adults they barely know. This is the world of R.L. Stine's The Babysitter 4. The final volume in R.L. Stine's Babysitter  series for Point Horror...

Although I'm getting to this review a little late I thought it was important to talk about my final read during Epic November,  Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon. There are many comments online about its similarity to Stephen King's The Stand but I would argue that 1987's Swan Song should instead be viewed as its more violent, fantasy inspired cousin. Saying that, I have to preface that I have only seen The Stand's miniseries production. I was planning on reading it back to back with McCammon's novel but to McCammon's credit after finishing what could be called one of his finest novels, I needed to move on to something lighter. So what is Swan Song actually about? Similar to Stephen King's novel/doorstop (depending on who you ask) it's about the end of the world or more succinctly what humanity becomes in its aftermath and the powerplay between good and evil. Drastically different from King's work the apocalypse comes from all out nuclear war hinted at...

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A gaggle of school children on the cusp of puberty in the 1960's try to find out what happened to a missing fellow kid during the summer only to become embroiled in supernaturally tinged horrors in their small town. No this is not Stephen King's 1986 doorstop It I'm instead describing Dan Simmons 1991 doorstop Summer of Night . Dan Simmons has recently re-entered humanity's consciousness with the AMC adaption of his novel The Terror  and if like me, you devoured the far superior source novel you would have found out about Summer of Night with a quick search for a list of Simmon's back catalogue. Although many people's initial response would be to punt this 600 page paperback into the cash grab King knock off bin if you stop and give it a chance you'll find a story although similar in some beats far more affecting and rich in presentation. Taking place in fictional Elm Haven, Illinois we follow a group of boys from...

Almost everyone knows The Amityville Horror. Whether from the countless spoofs done by the likes of The Simpsons  or the highly successful 1979 film, that it almost feels ad nauseum to discuss the plot of this work that has become such a pop culture behemoth. What I will discuss instead is how mind-numbingly boring the source novel is. Like most people I watched the 1979 film and aside from the eye candy of James Brolin and Margot Kidder the movie itself is a decent little late 70's horror treat. It's not especially scary by today's standards but it has a few solid set pieces and is genuinely creepy in parts. That creepiness is enhanced by the fact that this is a likable family, you feel bad they are experiencing this when all they want is their part of the American dream. Then there's the book. Written by Jay Anson it's his first of only two novels he wrote in his lifetime and you can tell. The writing itself is simplistic, almost written for young adults and the b...

Like many people I became introduced to author Thomas Harris through the 1991 movie adaptation of his novel The Silence of the Lambs. It's a powerhouse of a movie with a brain searingly memorable and iconic performance from Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. I loved the movie so much that I looked up the author and found out that Lambs was actually a sequel to a prior novel called Red Dragon. Not entirely convinced yet to read the books I tracked down the 2002 film adaptation (there's a 1986 adaptation called Manhunter but it's too hard to find) and sat down to watch. Red Dragon the film was fantastic. Not as amazing as Lambs but it would be hard to even try to be on that film's level. Instead it's better to view the movie as stand alone even if it involves Lecter albeit briefly. Dragon is actually a prequel and follows Will Graham who barely survived his encounter and capture of Lecter being pulled in to help on the capture of another serial killer. This book ...

America was an infant in comparison to Europe's long, dark history that gave rich background to its supernatural and gothic tales. Not to be outdone Washington Irving would become one of America's first great writers and write some of our first supernatural tales of note. Everyone knows Irving for two specific stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hallow (1820). Unfortunately, these stories have been anthologized to death which realizing this, Penguin's American Supernatural Tales wisely chose his The Adventure of the German Student (1824) instead. The story of a German exchange student in Paris during the height of the French Revolution who has an encounter with a beautiful woman on a dark and stormy night is a bite sized bit of spookiness. Told by a narrator who seems to know just enough about the young man to pull us into his frame of mind, this is a brief but decently effective spooky story. Any modern reader will probably pick up where the story is going...

In Shirley Jackson's seminal The Haunting of Hill House three individuals are gathered at the request of a supernatural researcher to see if they can document paranormal activity at the infamous Hill House. But is it really that simple? The point of view we as the reader inhabit, is the crumbling mindscape of Eleanor Vance, who is selected by researcher Dr. Montague because of the poltergeist activity of raining stones that happened after the death of her father when she was twelve. Whatever instability triggered the event has only worsened in Eleanor as even before setting foot in Hill House her thoughts are disconcertingly childish and fixated on fairytale fantasies. She is a woman ruled by unfillment and guilt and increasingly close to the edge of what could be called saneness. This adds up to my core question when reading the book. Is Hill House actually haunted or is it simply haunted by Eleanor Vance? This has been the question that has launched numerous academic papers and d...

Somedays it's all a little too much. You're tired, maybe you had a pissy day at work, all you know is you want to be comforted. Many people turn to the aptly named comfort food to start feeling better. Everyone has one, that one dish that while nothing fancy immediately brings you back to your childhood. Maybe it's the special casserole your mom always made, roast chicken pieces, or a good ketchup slathered meatloaf. John Saul's Cry for the Strangers very much reminds me of that meatloaf. Dell's 1986 edition of Saul's 1979 novel John Saul is one of many authors who got chunked into the same bucket as Stephen King although at one point during the horror boom everyone was either the next Stephen King or had a blurb from King praising their work. But unlike his contemporary Dean Koontz, who desperately wanted to be Stephen King, John Saul was perfectly content in his own corner. Part of this contentment had to have come from the fact he had a formula and an in...

Ah the TBR or rather To Be Read Pile, the bane and reason for the avid readers existence. Like many avid readers I start out with grand plans at the beginning of a month to read a crazy number of books but plan to read and actually read are very different categories. As such, here's the round up of what my TBR pile has in it for the month of September. The excellent reissues of American Supernatural and Hill House Poor Penguin's American Supernatural Tales and Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson they have yet to be read by me. To be fair American Supernatural Tales was planned by me to read over at least 2 months since it chronologically covers America's supernatural short stories from the 1800's to the present. But unfortunately, I haven't found a spare moment to start it. I'm hoping to at least read the opening story before month's end but we'll see. As for Hill House I honestly, put it in the pile to read something classy. The last few bo...

This may have been my fault but I went into reading The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz with high hopes. After all it came on the scene pretty close after the big three of the start of the horror boom ( Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, The Other ) and even had a well received movie adaptation. But hot damn this book was hard to get through. Following the partial formula of Rosemary's Baby that you should never trust a realtor in New York when it comes to apartments, we follow the ordeal of beautiful model Allison Parker who after returning to the city following her father's death finds the perfect Brownstone to start over in only to be beset by sinister forces. The 1976 Ballantine Books Paperback Honestly? I hated the main character and felt fed up with her behavior by the middle of the book. She's a neurotic mess with a domineering jerk of a boyfriend I will get to later in this review. Don't get me wrong I understand she's supposed to be tortured, she is por...

To preface, the book I'm about to review is in no stretch of the imagination politically correct, restrained in its depiction of violence, or striving at all for realism in how law enforcement performs its job. Saying this, I am now going to review the insanity that is William W. Johnstone's Night Mask. In the likely case you don't know who William W. Johnstone is he was the author of numerous paperback original horror and thriller novels for Zebra Books during the horror boom of the 1980's through early 1990's. Johnstone is somewhat notorious for his extreme conservative viewpoint, worship of the second amendment, and over the top plot scenarios. This brings us to Night Mask.  Zebra Books original 1994 paperback Jumping on the serial killer bandwagon that would eventually kill the horror boom, Johnstone's Night Mask follows homocide detectives Leo Franks and Lani Prejean in their hunt for a predator who is using subliminal radio messages to lure his female...

In Adam Cesare's breakneck publishing debut Tribesmen,  a barebones cast and crew headed by a sleazy film director, travel to an out of the way island to film an exploitation movie and get more than they bargained for. A loving tribute to the insanity that was Italian gore flicks like Cannibal Holocaust, Cesare takes several important cues from those movies besides the violence. The most important of which is the pacing. He keeps characterization to a minimum in order to notch up the frenzy of his novella sized story. This, for the most part, works. We essentially are handed cue card snippets of characterization that in broad strokes tell us the island is cursed, the director only cares about himself, who to root for, and who will probably die. Black T Shirt Books 2019 Edition That is the singular problem with the novella though. If you have seen any amount of horror movies especially slashers, there aren't any surprises in the narrative. Saying that, the novella is still ...

As I wrote in my previous post I suggested a good way to get in the spooky spirit starting September, was to pick out a horror short story collection and something considered a classic in the genre. But like most avid readers I run into the problem of what do I read now and what do I save for Halloween month? There are no perfect answers to this question by any means, but the sub categories I try to fill in my Halloween reading list is a haunted house story, something wildly controversial, a killer animal narrative, and a loss of innocence/growing up novel. Two of the most infamous "real" horror novels The Amityville Horror is the supposedly "true" story of the Lutz family moving into a home where a family slaying occured and shortly after being beset by terrifying supernatural forces. Although the haunting aspect has been debunked from what I have heard it's still a chilling what if and I think it will be perfect mood reading. Michelle Remembers is extra ...

Everyone is different but for me, personally, September is my greatest excuse to deep dive horror. Be it the year's newest horror movies or a great scary read the countdown to Fall and Halloween is my happy place. If you're new to the horror genre you may ask what's a great way to get into horror that doesn't involve Stephen King? My answer will normally be find a great horror short story collection. The 2013 Edition of Penguin's Horror Anthology When looking for an anthology my tip is to look for one that doesn't rely heavily on well known authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving etc., female authors are included, and out of print authors you might not discover otherwise are included as well. Penguin's American Supernatural Tales checks off all those boxes and I'm looking forward to reading it through out September. Another way I get into the spooky spirit is by reading at least one book in the genre considered a classic in September. This c...