The Genre Bucket

For my first read in Women in Horror Month I decided to dig out After Louise by Teresa Crane from my mystery purchase pile. Some explanation is needed here. I try to buy most of my books in person at used book stores but every couple months I will buy stuff online and when I do I try to buy stuff I have been looking for but can't find at stores or I will buy books I can't find any information on and am intrigued enough to buy because it's under 5 bucks. After Louise is the latter situation and it's fascinating. There is almost no information online about the out of print dark romance line this was part of and it appears to be a UK only paperback original. Paperback originals as mentioned previously on this blog, were novels written explicitly for the cheap paperback market and almost never released as hardbacks. Fontana's Nightshades line appears to be a failed dark romance line for this market and after reading Crane's novel I'm surprised it failed. Featuri...

Happy late Valentine's everyone! To celebrate the holiday I decided to read the seasonal "classic" Broken Hearts by R.L. Stine. Due to events I will explain there will be SPOILERS in this review but I will not reveal the final twist. Also I am not the target audience for this book so teen girl points are back into play! What are teen girl points you ask? As outlined in my first YA Horror review on here this book will be judged using 3 criteria for a total of 15 points. The criteria being for 5 points each: Is the main character likable/relatable?, Are the supporting characters annoying or likable?, And most importantly how good is the WTF moment? Now that is out of the way let's get to the review. Archway's 1993 Paperback Edition Broken Hearts is essentially about 3 sisters, a pair of twins named Josie and Rachel and their baby sister Erica. In the last days before school starts they go horseback riding with a mutual friend, Melissa and a horrible accident ha...

Happy February everyone! Now many people think February is just commercial holiday month with Valentine's Day or they are more historically and socially minded and paying respect to Black History Month which is also observed in February. But what I'm excited about in February is Women in Horror Month! The month of February is the active culmination of the spotlighting and support that the grassroots Women in Horror Month group does all year for women in the field of horror. You can pay respect to these women in many ways and definitely check out Women in Horror Month or Ladies of Horror Fiction online to get some ideas on participation. For me personally, I flip between watching female directed horror like Eve's Bayou or Near Dark and reading horror by female authors. This year I have chosen to read horror by female authors and specifically, do a mix of classic and contemporary. New York Review Books 2008 Paperback Daphne Du Maurier is one of the horror greats and Don...