Women in Horror Month

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't Look Now is one of the most accessible short story collections of her work I've found. It features a spread of her stories from throughout her career specifically ones that have been adapted in film like The Birds. Du Maurier is from what I have heard, one of the great 20th century deliverer's of chills especially in her short fiction where she was more freely allowed to be deeply unsettling. Due to the contents age I'm not epecting to be terrified but I am hoping these give me more definitive horror vibes than what I got from Shirley Jackson's work. I'm probably going to try and seek out other horror classics by female authors but most likely I will be reading more contemporary works like Michelle Remembers. 

Pocket Books 1981 Paperback Edition

This book is INFAMOUS. Cited by many as the match that set off the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980's and the deeply held belief that Satanist's were at large and wanted young children for their dastardly rituals this book is pure insanity. Completely false but gung-ho to try and make you believe otherwise it is about the repressed memories of the titular Michelle coming to light during hypnosis therapy where she remembers the satanic ritual abuse her mother put her through. This book can be difficult to find in the wild so to speak because of its history and the level of violence physical and otherwise supposedly inflicted upon a child. I found my copy completely by accident for an affordable price at my usual used bookstore and snatched it up. I have been putting this one off because of the damage it inflicted on the field of psychology as well as the level of  violence. But I will be approaching it as pure fiction and I'm morbidly curious to see if it holds up as a terror inducing work or if it's painfully dated. Other contempory works I'm planning on reading are Beloved by Toni Morrison and Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. Both are powerful works by women of color but Toni Morrison is most likely the more familiar name due to her numerous awards on several of her books because of the vividness and rawness in which she discusses race in her fiction. Octavia E. Butler is also an award winner but she is one of the greats of black science fiction and gets unfairly lumped in with afrofuturism which is kind of limiting. She does play with afrofuturism but with dystopian scifi like Parable of the Sower her theme exploration is much wider and harder to pin down. I'm criminally inexperienced with reading works by people of color but I'm trying to include their works in my reading lists given how diverse genre fiction's roster of authors is and continues to be. I have a few other contemporary authors I might try to read this month but I have kind of been in a reading slump so I'm starting small and going from there. Well those are some of the works I'm going to try and get into this month. Will you be trying to participate in Women in Horror Month? Do any of these authors sound like good adds to your TBR? As always the comments are open and for the latest news on posts make sure to follow or subscribe. 'Til next time!