The Genre Bucket

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...