dreadpiratekel | Entries tagged with horror

What Stalks Among Us
Sarah Hollowell

One of the reading challenges I am doing this year requires reading a young adult horror novel. I used What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell to check off that box. To be honest I probably would have read this one anyway because of the haunted/mysterious corn maze, kind of punny title (corn has stalks …get it?) and time loops, well all those things check off internal “this is going to be good” checkboxes for me.

The plot of the novel is that besties Sadie and Logan decide to ditch a field trip to an amusement park (for valid reasons but I did have a moment of “a school trip to an amusement park and your passing it by!? What?”) and end up choosing instead to explore this random corn maze they come across. This is a horror novel so that is a choice that drives the narrative, even if so obviously a wrong choice. Never go into the creepy seemingly abandoned corn maze! And Saddie and Logan very quickly learn why, in this instance, it would have been best to leave the corn maze alone. Because they find bodies in the corn maze - their bodies, they have stumbled into a time loop and someone/something is in the maze with them and it's killing them. Over and over. And over …

Special shout out to the lead characters that the author has crafted, both Sadie and Logan are great, both are dealing with the trauma of the maze and trauma from other things that have happened in their life. Sadie is our point-of-view character and as a person who plays video games, I appreciated her thinking of the maze as a kind of video game and applying some video game logic to it all. I also enjoyed how she would think about different dialogue options, just like you’d get in a video game.

This is a horror novel, and beyond the fact that there are deaths (a lot of repeating deaths) they aren’t that graphic for the most part. It’s upsetting, but for me, the way the the book also deals with toxic relationships is what was most upsetting, and perhaps the most triggering. It’s handled well - this is about monsters that are made of corn, and time loops and also about how toxic controlling people can hurt your soul.

This book is widely imaginative and atmospheric. I love a good time loop, but this is the first time I’ve read one where the characters encounter remnants of their previous loops, so gold star to the author for that. The corn maze is pretty obviously operating under different rules of time and space and so there are different “rooms” for the characters to explore, populated with various … things. Things of varying levels of creepy and unsettling. Yes, sometimes it got a bit much for me, I applaud the super creepy but there were times when it was just - a lot. Like atmosphere overload, and some of the ideas the book was playing around with didn’t feel entirely fleshed out … but that makes me want to go back and re-read it. Loop around again if you will and see what I pick up this time on my trip through the maze.

CBR 16 link

Lone Women
Victor Lavelle

“On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry had been a farmer. On Wednesday, she became a fugitive.”

This is the story of Adelaide Henry who in 1915 takes off from her home in California in possession of a steamer trunk that has something trapped inside it. Her parents are dead, and Adelaide is headed to Montana, planning to be a “lone woman” and going to homestead for two years before earning the land she has made viable for herself. But the something in that trunk is going to make her plans challenging and also impact the people of the community that she ends up settling in.

Is this book, a horror novel? Or maybe a Western? A Thriller? Historical Fiction perhaps? The answer to all of those is yes. It is those and a lot more. I picked this book up because I thought it was a more straightforward horror story. It is not, but I was not disappointed by its many layers at all. To be clear, there is horror. The thing in the steamer trunk is (minor spoiler alert) not really human. There are ghosts (which may or may not be figments of various characters' minds), and there are villainous people, being villainous for no other reason than because they can. And oh yes, because of racism.

This story centers on female characters, and in particular female characters of colour, who for various reasons have found themselves trying to eek out a living in Ohio. Besides battling the elements, they are also at a disadvantage because of their skin, and their “lone” women status (no men in sight). At first, I was a bit surprised at the lack of … well monsters in the book. Monsters in the typical, claws and teeth way. But there are a lot of people who are, well, for lack of a better word monstrous.

I don’t read many Westerns outside of times Westerns have happened to crossover with horror, or with science fiction so I can’t really speak if the book contains the conventions of that genre. I can, however, confirm it takes place in the Frontier of Ohio in 1915, and it felt “Western” enough to me that I did start at the inclusion of a car in the plot, and then had to remind myself that this was a little later than the cowboy set movies I have watched. It does however feature people (women really) versus the elements, various gangs of outlaws, and people fighting to hold on to what is theirs.

Overall it is an amazing mashup of genres, horror, found family, women out there doing it for themselves, the poison that is racism, and the many ways that family can seriously mess you up …. Okay so some of those aren’t genres, so much as themes tackled in this book. Rarely have I been so pleased to pick up a book that I thought was one thing (horror!) and found it to be so many other wonderful things.

CBR 16 link

This Wretched Valley
Jenny Kiefer

As this is a horror novel I wanted to start with some content warnings. The book contains a lot of gore, blood, and some body horror. There are instances of animal death(s) and, well, people deaths. Lots of deaths! I did not check content warnings before reading (that is on me) and was surprised by the level of body horror.

This is the story of four adults (and one dog) who venture into the Kentucky woods to climb a previously undiscovered cliff face and conduct research about the area. Each has their reasons for heading into the woods. Dylan, a climber, wants to be the first to ascend the cliff and make more of a name for herself. She brings along her boyfriend Luke who will be providing support during the climb. They also bring along with them Luke’s dog Slade. Clay, who has organized this trip, is a graduate student, has discovered the undiscovered spot using technology and this is the driving force of his thesis. Lastly, Sylvia, another graduate student, joins the expedition to assist Clay and conduct research on the area's flora and fauna.

( Into the Woods We Go )

Jaws

Peter Benchley

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before - there is this village on Long Island, and it's summer 1974, and there's this shark and it's killing people. Which is a problem. It’s a problem because a) dead people and b) this coastal village’s livelihood is based on tourism, namely summer tourism and now the tourists could end up as shark food. So, there is a kind of willful ignorance and pretending everything is fine on behalf of village officials because they need that summer people's money. They need them to come and not be worried about ending up shark food. Then there are more shark attacks, and it gets to the point where something has to be done about the shark. So, the local sheriff ends up teaming up with a visiting Marine Biologist and a salty sea Captain whose feelings towards the shark are very Captain Ahab-like. And they go shark hunting.

( And so it goes )

Jaws, I’ve never before read the book that started the whole thing. I was worried that because I know the movie so well, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the book on its own. Oddly, I haven’t read this before. Typically, my first stop when I board the hyper-fixation train is to read the source material if it exists. And yet… So I decided that here in February 2024, the 50th anniversary of the book's publication, I would give it a whirl.

I will not list all the differences between the book and movie; they share the same DNA but the characters are not the same. The plot hits some of the same points but the book has subplots that got tossed for the movie version. For better or for worse. (I think for better…)

I found Jaws to be a mean novel. Our 'heroes' are not especially heroic, and I’m not saying that I’m rooting for the shark, but - the characters are unlikeable. Sure, this is not a shining moment for any of them. It is a high-stress situation where tourists are getting snacked on by a shark, but the characters come off as jerks. That made me want to rush a bit through the book just so I could say, 'Okay, done with these people.' Even the characters that just sort of drift through the narrative are often irritating distractions. As a reader, I found myself eager to get back to the shark.

Minor spoiler, but the why of the shark's behaviour is speculated on; we don’t get a clear answer. At one point in the novel, Hooper (the shark specialist brought in to try and help) discusses how something in the environment could have changed, causing a ripple effect. He gives examples of fish in unusual areas. Keeping in mind that this was written in the 1970s, I still found it very relevant. It serves as a reminder that meddling with nature can lead to chaos for humanity. It also reflects what was happening in Amity; we get a few asides of how the townspeople are coping now that their summer revenue is drying up. The shark has caused a change in their environment, and everyone is being impacted.

The shark has a huge impact on the events of the novel, but there is a lot more going on than just a vicious great white. It felt like maybe a bit too much, honestly. There's class conflict between summer people vs. the winter (all year round) people, a whole subplot with the mafia, marital drama, and through this sea of chaos swims the shark. It was a lot! I like books that have a lot of plot, but I felt like I was encountering subplots from all sides when I had originally come for the man vs. shark story.

The version of the book I read had two articles written by Peter Benchley. In these articles, he discussed what we thought we knew about great whites in 1974 compared to what we knew in 2020. He then added what we knew in 2005. It is made very clear that the actions of the shark in the novel are very fictionalized. Fictional license exists for a reason, and I did find the actions of the fictional shark the most interesting parts of the book and could have done without a lot of the drama the human characters engaged in.

Link to this reivew on the on Cannonball Read Blog.

Dracula
Bram Stoker, Tavia Gilbert (Narrator), J.P. Guimont (Narrator)

The story that Stoker tells, via letters, diary entries, telegrams, and even a few newspaper articles, is about what happens when the undead Count Dracula travels to London and how his activities (mainly bloodsucking and general bad vibes vampire business) interact with the protagonists of the novel.

This isn’t my first encounter with the Count; I read a children’s version as a child and then delved into the actual text during high school. Since then, I’ve consumed numerous other adaptations of this tale. My decision to revisit the story was inspired by reading Reluctant Immortals, which continues the story of Lucy Westenra, one of the Count’s early victims in Stoker’s narrative.

Our main point-of-view characters, whose writings we get to spy upon, are Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, Mina his finance, Dr. Seward who oversees a mental institution, and Lucy, Mina’s close friend. Despite being the character mentioned in the title, we don’t get Dracula’s point of view. In fact, upon rereading, I was shocked by the long stretches of the novel where Dracula was off-screen. His machinations could be felt, and we learn about some of his victims, but the Count himself was not physically present for much of it. It’s fair to say that even while being “off-screen” for a lot of the novel, the Count casts a long, dark shadow. I think it’s a testament to Stoker’s writing that he’s able to pull off this trick.

While I do love epistolary novels, there can be a bit of a lack of suspense at times because you know the characters lived long enough to record their impressions, be it in a diary, telegram, letter, or even a phonograph recording in the case of Dr. Seward. However, there is still tension because some of the characters never reveal their inner thoughts, so their fate remains uncertain. There’s always the sense that once a character finishes their writing, they could be in grave danger.

As an aside about the novel’s writing style, I admired the use of letters and telegrams to convey parts of the story. It’s not a major plot point, but I enjoy it when modern epistolary novels include text messages or emails, so the inclusion of telegrams here made me smile.

For a book first published in 1897, I have to say, it holds up! Sure, its age shows from time to time, but the story’s beats remain compelling. It’s a good story! Revisiting it in its original form after consuming so many other versions of the tale was interesting. My biggest quibbles with the book are:

Specifically regarding the audiobook version I listened to, the voice acting for Van Helsing did not work for me at all.
The story just doesn’t stick the landing for me. The tension builds up to a pretty high level, and then it just… ends. The wrap-up afterward didn’t feel satisfying to me.

Overall, I’m glad I re-read the book. It’s been ages, and it was nice to get a reminder of what happened in the book versus what has happened in various adaptations of the source material over the years.

Link to this post on the Cannonball Read Blog

Midnight on Beacon Street
Emily Ruth Verona

It is October 1993, just after midnight, and six-year-old Ben Mazinski is in the kitchen; there is blood and there is a dead body. So, exactly how did we get here? That is the story that Midnight on Beacon Street sets out to tell. It covers what happened in the lead-up to midnight to Amy (the babysitter) and her two charges, Ben and his older sister, Mira. It doesn’t do this linearly, but rather jumps around in time, revisiting moments from multiple points of view.

I may have been closer in age to Mira than to Amy when 1993 rolled around, but when I was Amy’s age, I was an avid babysitter. I know full well the terror—both of what might be lurking outside those dark patio doors in a house that is not yours and the terror of feeling sometimes like a child who is in charge of other children—that babysitting can bring. This book leans on both things—I mean, right off the bat, a dead body, so you know something outside the norm is happening, and Amy, one of our main characters, struggles with anxiety.

The story manages to rack up the tension as it speeds towards midnight. There are some creepy goings-on (Ben thinks there is a ghost, for starters), and it is not clear what is related to the body in the kitchen and what is not. Additionally, you have characters popping in and out of the narrative. As a reader, you know someone’s body is going to end up in the kitchen, but you don’t know which of these characters it might be.

I initially picked up this book because it was described to me as a love letter to 80’s and 90’s horror movies, and it is! Amy is a movie buff, a very big fan of horror movies in fact, and she drops some movie trivia as the book goes along. The narrative also includes some other 90’s kid easter eggs that were fun to spy. It reminded me of the Fear Street books, but in a slightly more elevated way (no shade to Fear Street; those books are a foundation of my love for horror novels). This novel is a throwback in the best way possible but also has a modern sensibility, as it highlights Amy’s struggle with anxiety in a way that no books from my childhood did. I appreciated that, as a woman who has anxiety and also loves horror movies and novels, even if they freak me out a bit and sometimes add to my anxiety.

Cannonball Read Post: cannonballread.com/2024/02/midnight-on-beacon-street-dreadpiratekel/

Reluctant Immortals
Gwendolyn Kiste

Reluctant Immortals opens with an opening line that is just ... *chefs kiss*; “It's almost sundown in Los Angeles, and Dracula's ashes won't shut up.”

The book is set in 1967 California, splitting most of the action between Los Angeles and the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, with a few spots visited in between. It is the Summer of Love and also yet just another summer for Lucy Westnera and Bertha (Bea) Mason, who are the immortals of the book title. Lucy comes from the pages of Dracula; she becomes a victim of the vampire after he reaches English soil, while Bea is the alleged madwoman and the first wife of Mr. Rochester, locked in the attic in Jane Eyre. The women are living their unlives when they get hit by some unpleasant blasts from the past in the form of their (very toxic) exes making a reappearance.

( And so it goes. )

Pet Sematary
Stephen King

First things first – I am a Stephen King fan. I'm a big King fan and have been since I was a teenager, which was a while ago. A long while ago. I just want all my biases laid out here at the start: I am a fan, and I am predisposed to like his writing style and his works in general. Despite being a pretty big fan, I have not read everything he has written, and this book was 'new' to me.

I put the 'new' in quotations because I knew the basic plot outline of the book. I hang out in Stephen King fan-ish places on the internet, where the plot gets referenced. I grew up going to a video store that, for a very long time (or so it seemed because I found it terrifying), had a big poster for the movie Pet Sematary 2. When the remake of the original movie came out, I skimmed the Wikipedia entry for the original film.

At a very high level, the basic plot of the book is a family's move to Maine due to the father's job (he's a doctor and will be working at a Maine University in the student health clinic there). The family comprises the father (Louis), the mother (Rachel), and two kids (Ellie and Gage), along with the family cat, Church. Their property is situated not far from a local Pet Cemetery (or Sematary, as the sign at the entrance says). With a major highway near the house, the family is warned about the road's dangers for pets. Given it's a Stephen King novel, you can anticipate that bad things start happening, escalating into horrifying events.

( The Rest )

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Page Summary

CR 16 -14 (It's corn [I can't imagine a more beautiful thing])
CR-16-013(Weird West)
CR 16 -11( How Wretched Was My Valley)
CR-16-09-"The great fish moved silently through the night water"
CR 16 -08 (For The Dead Travel Fast)
CR-16-07 -Adventures in Babysitting
CR 16-03 -Wait. So now I have to read 'Jane Eyre'?
CR 16 -02 (Hey, Ho, Let’s Go [or I don’t want to be buried in a Pet Sematary])

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Sway through the crowd to an empty space

Under the moonlight, this serious moonlight

Entries tagged with horror

CR 16 -14 (It's corn [I can't imagine a more beautiful thing])

CR-16-013(Weird West)

CR 16 -11( How Wretched Was My Valley)

CR-16-09-"The great fish moved silently through the night water"

CR 16 -08 (For The Dead Travel Fast)

CR-16-07 -Adventures in Babysitting

CR 16-03 -Wait. So now I have to read 'Jane Eyre'?

CR 16 -02 (Hey, Ho, Let’s Go [or I don’t want to be buried in a Pet Sematary])