This audiobook is why I shy away from audio. While the narrator was great, he locked me into more of a country bumpkin living in a podunk town image than I think I would have thought of while reading it. Every night, a creature terrorizes the town of Strang collecting its sacrifices except for one night, Halloween, where the sacrifice is human and done by lottery. It was amusing and Hunt really paints the town and it‘s people for you. Pick.

https://pseudopod.org/2022/09/30/pseudopod-830-the-honey-witch/ For those of you wishing to just dip your toes into horror try this lovely sapphic romantic horror short story. If you love poetry, sensory overloaded language that makes you inhale, taste, and hear things as you listen, give this a try. A beekeeper high in hills gets a visitor and after the visitor leaves there is an accident. What seems like tragedy finds its way to love and 👇🏼

So my goal this October is to post each day with either a short story or novella. This wasn‘t in the database but it‘s sooo good. 1945, in a small village in Germany, a farmer, Uwe discovers a body outside his farm near the woods that looks like it was attacked by a vicious animal. There starts a tale about werewolves, toxic masculinity, and facism. It‘s easy to say those three things but the way Alma weaves her story through Uwe‘s thoughts 👇🏼

Jesus Christ, I shouldn‘t be here, tears streaming down my face, on a Friday afternoon in the laundromat after a short story about an author at a con who accepts accidentally put in the basket hallucinogenic laced cookies that allow her to see ghosts of her past that lead to forgiveness from her mother who died from cancer, but here I am. Happy Friday, Littens! 😭Lol

2 sisters head to a feminist retreat hoping to regain some sense of power and direction. What they will find is an act of violence that will attract cosmic intervention to adjust the scales of balance against the time of men. I thought the art and story were great. I put up the other books because violence against women by men in these books takes something from these women and transforms them into these “monsters.” Idk. Something doesn‘t sit 👇🏼

The artwork in here is beautifully creepy!

https://pseudopod.org/2022/09/09/pseudopod-827-she-works-in-the-office-where-the... I was driving back from Albuquerque today and this was soooo good. Such a simple concept with so many layers that hit me in the feels. First lines: Dezra works in an office where 1000 people died. Well 1082. People round down. No one‘s told the ones who died. -and if you don‘t like listening the link also has the transcript. Enjoy.

Happy 75th, Stephen King! My favorite book of his is Salem‘s Lot. But I also give him a lot of credit for my love of the short story. My favorite of his is Crouch End which can be found in Nightmares and Dreamscapes. A family vacationing in London. Parents take off to go look around and find them selves in Crouch End, a place that doesn‘t seem quite right or part of this world. You learn from the first couple paragraphs that the wife is the 👇🏼

https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/stephen-king-author-facts. I had no idea one of his dreams was to write a Jason Voorhees novel, which makes me love him even more. His 75th birthday is tomorrow on the 21st and even though I know a lot of us have posted a lot about him maybe we can post a memory we have of reading him or a story of his that we love tomorrow. Thanks, Littens.

This was so creeptastic! Junji Ito delivers 4 tales that are the perfect marriage of story and artwork. I really enjoyed Weeping Woman Way and Madonna. Those two not only got under my skin but made my horror heart so happy. Pick!

Um, who can take crying and make it into a horrific graphic story masterpiece? Junji Ito, that‘s who. This whole story was bonkers. And it‘s just the first story in the collection. Pumped for the rest.

This is my new favorite, “I see myself” book. Edgar Gomez writes about growing up Latino and gay in a very readable, hilarious and poignant way. From cockfights in Nicaragua with his uncles, to trying to hide himself away in Florida so that his family can feel comfortable, to his coming out during his high school, to the Pulse nightclub massacre, to him passed out with a pizza at a DragCon in L.A, there is so much to learn from this book. Pick!

I loved this book.

Oof, this book,😭😭😭. Jealous women curse a young, beautiful woman and turn her into a mermaid. She‘ll live in the ocean for 1000s of years until she meets this one fisherman named David off the coast of a Caribbean island. After getting caught by white men, David will rescue her and for a short while she will turn back into a woman. Lots to discuss in here- love and friendship, colonialism, how would we treat something truly special? 😭pick!

A pack of werewolves exists in the small town of Cherry, Nebraska. One of the pack will meet his end but not before endangering the pack‘s way of life and the small town. This was that small town book, full of secrets, with lots of drama, with humor to break it up. I never felt scared, but I cared for these people and their neighbors. As with all short good books, I just wished the author had expanded on just about everything and everyone. Pick.

I remember reading this short story in 7th grade and thinking how odd. I‘m staying at a casino hotel and started walking their well lit perimeter and 1000 steps short of my goal got stopped and was asked to stop walking and go inside. I started at 10 pm but it wasn‘t like I was stopping to look in people‘s cars ya‘know. “It looks creepy.” Is the reasoning I got. Which is funny because drugs get dealt in casinos all the time, money laundering, 👇🏼

In a moment of levity, the quiet barkeeper speaks up for the local pack of werewolves who are trying to convince the new sheriff of a small town to let them be in peace. Lol

I will read anything Ali Hazelwood writes. Listen, there‘s nothing new in here because the story is totally predictable and you know where it‘s going and how it will end. But her quirky character with such humor and cat puns, OH THE PUNS!!! just make you fall in love with the story. Bee, a neuroscientist gets picked to co-lead a project at NASA with THE guy from her past. The one she always thought hated her. See what I mean. A total enemies 👇🏼

Sausage referencing: even though the single woman in a room full of bros has the brilliant idea, it‘s not ok until the Alpha bro gives his ok. This book is great.

I loved The Love Hypothesis so I was excited when a friend bought this for me yesterday. 2 pages in and I‘m already chuckling at a joke that brings together Pretty Woman and the life of Marie Curie. Lol

This was the perfect, creepy, it‘s raining outside book to read tonight. Hurricane Sadie comes a little too inland and strands over 300 mostly college aged students at an amusement park. Before you know it, there is so much violence and bloodshed in their quest for survival despite there being plenty of supplies. Told in an interview format, I felt I was put right in front of all the action. Really enjoyed the talking points it brought up. Pick!

I‘m at the part in my current read where theatric stoners in the Circus section of Fantastic Land use their smarts to dress up their section of the park really gory to deflect the most violent offenders of the park giving them a safe cover which makes me nostalgic for Weaveworld where the 4 magic families wove themselves into a rug to protect themselves from a murderous Angel. People using what they got to stay alive. Good for them.

Ok, sooooo, this is not for everybody. Imagine if Quentin Tarantino and Rob Zombie had a LatinX cousin who loved the Creepshow series, but wanted them with more grit, grime, blood, and brujeria. That‘s this book. I really enjoyed this. Mario has just lost his daughter to cancer and a wife to grief. Maybe one last job with a cartel will set him up with enough money to find a reason for living again. A pick!

Lol.

I feel like I got baited by the promise of a gay relationship in this book. To be fair, I got one but it was not the one I was expecting. Andres, a population studies professor, goes back to his suburban hometown to take care of his aging parents while he thinks about his husband‘s infidelities. It so happens to coincide with a 20th year reunion. This book was all over the place in a very good bookclubby way. Andres, while telling you the 👇🏼

Lola has just had dinner with friends and on her way, runs into an ex. Over the next few weeks she‘ll run into a lot of them. I think to enjoy this book you need to have a bit of cynicism. Crosby writes Lola with great wit, and she has these metaphors that just boost the thought and story. I lol‘ed a lot. If you liked Chuck Palahniuk‘s Choke, this is its younger half sister, the one who grew up on the East Coast and lives in New York City. Pick!!

Beth is house sitting near the beach when her and Mike have a one night stand. The same night, meteors fall and nothing will ever be the same. They wake up to humanity under attack. They make their way to the beach where they get stranded and their circumstances Just. Keep. Getting. Worse. There‘s humor, there‘s suspense, there‘s evil vines, but the win here is how Jones makes you like and root for these deeply flawed and human characters. Pick!

Was listening to the Summer Horror Reads episode of The Books in the Freezer Podcast and this one came up in passing. It‘s really good so far.

I really like some of these stories. There is a man who is about to propose to his girlfriend at the top of a Ferris wheel while a disgruntled divorcee falls asleep flying his Cessna. Guess what happens?! A wedding is visited by a tornado. A man is trapped in an earthquake. Fracassi writes some scary natural disaster stuff. I could feel that tornado. The only critique I have is that some of his writing borders on tries too hard. Just pull 👇🏼

I got to hear Daniel Kraus read from this book and I was hooked. He writes himself as this journalist, who feels like an ethnograpgher, who investigates the Burger City poltergeist. I found this to be quite sad. I think the real horror came from the hopelessness you feel from these teenagers working a fast food joint in rural Iowa and the statistics the journalist in Daniel Kraus keeps supplying you with. A pick but a real downer of a one.

So earlier this year I got to go to StokerCon in May where I got to nerd out on all these wonderful horror authors I‘ve read this past year. I tried to read the nominees before I went and this was definitely a standout of the bunch. She won for best single author short story collection and deservedly so. If Lovecraft had a long lost great granddaughter, Gemma is her. She writes these threads of sentences that at first seem superfluous. But by👇🏼

Due to a mixed up delivery of a box of chicks, hot buttoned up Harrison Fletcher, newest owner of the Bar and Bookshop, will meet hot, pushes buttons, farmer Finn. One is afraid of dying, the other, afraid of giving his heart to someone who will just leave. This was nice but let me tell you. It stays on a low, low, simmer all the way throughout. This pot never boils. So even though it‘s a weaker entry in the Vino and Veritas series, still a pick.

Roderick has moved back to Vermont after he left his, in the closet, Country superstar boyfriend. He needs a job which he gets at a bakery. He needs a place to stay which he gets by way of his moody coworker Kieran. This was good and angsty, and cute when Roderick teaches Kieran how to cook. But can Roderick, who describes himself as gay AF, survive going back into another closet for love? Good stuff. 👇🏼

So this is a lot of good things all mashed up together. There is this ripoff of the Bachelor called The Catch. They are down to the last 4 girls and the Catch himself. They head to a remote island location off the Pacific Northwest to shoot the finale. This book was so smart. It harpoons the “reality” show aspect in here so well. There‘s “reality” and real life drama, a lesbian romance, and some really scary moments that include a Bigfoot. Pick!

Imagine you, the reader, is in a relationship with Paul Tremblay. One night, you both decide to do something hot and masturbate in front of each other. You start and both of you are excited and all smiles. But then you notice him noticing himself, his smooth flat belly, his dad thighs. You can see him thinking about how hot it is that he used to be that picked on nerdy scrawny kid but now he‘s a math teacher who writes best selling books. A 👇🏼

This is very much a bookclub horror book. So many layers to it. So many angles. There is a T. rex virus that renders men into violent, feral creatures. All that‘s left in the world are women, trans women, and trans men. Instead of trying to just survive together, a group of TERFs try to eradicate trans people. All the characters were complex and diverse. This book was deeply affecting and I urge every one to read it.

It‘s that time again.

Did you know that mushrooms are the sex organs of fungus? I had no idea, until I listened to an episode of the podcast, Ghoulish, where Nicholas Kaufmann revealed that his editor rejected a book of his but gave him a mycological book called The Entangled Life from which he wrote this fungus packed apocalyptic horror book that starts in a small New York town. He did a great job of balancing the coloring in the people of the small town and the 👇🏼

@AmyG Thanks, AmyG, for this package on VDay! I started the book last night and finished it this morning. So readable. It made me think of that movie, Cobra, with Stallone. Anyways, what a great book about two less than perfect fathers who avenge the murders of their sons who were gay. So much grit, so much of me flinching, saying ‘Jesus!!!‘, so many reveals. What a great book. Thanks again, AmyG!

I think McQueen has more than decent writing chops. However, I think the the construction of this story needed work. This is about a Black woman named Mira who is going to her white friend, Celine‘s wedding which is being held at a plantation house where all kinds of horrors were done to slaves. McQueen has very valid things to say about allyship and the through line of slavery into the present. The story just didn‘t work for me. Thanks Jenni 👇🏼

Thanks for the tags, Cassie and Andrew. I‘m hoping to finish this one up this weekend. Pretty decent so far.

My favorite 2 stories are in the back. The Last Porn Star, V Castro‘s final girl story, and Truck Stop, her very weird story. The thing I realized is V‘s stories aren‘t scary stories for us but the bad guys. Which isn‘t bad it‘s just not what I‘m used to. Once in a while she gets stuck in tell not show. Other than that I really enjoy V Castro‘s unabashed sexuality and her Chicana culture that comes through in every story. Insert grito here.

Super excited to get to this shorty story collection. 1991-92 I remember the cholas at my middle school. Always dressed in black, a lot of Raiders attire, the shhh shhh noise of their black and grey, puffy Raiders jackets in the halls during cold days. The heavy makeup on point, the hair, The Hair!! with the bangs standing straight up in the front like some badass fan. The attitude. So excited for this first story.

@Chili thanks for picking this for our group. I really enjoyed it. Those crazy twins. Lol. It made me think of Clive Barker who I‘ve been thinking about a lot lately. This will be on its way to you tomorrow, Jenni. @sprainedbrain

😭Margie, thank you so much! You shouldn‘t have but I so appreciate it and it‘s made my day. We‘re getting snow later so the socks will definitely come in handy. I look forward to all three books. LOVE the Stephen King bookmark. And girl please, I‘ve been to the gym 23 times in January and gained 3lbs, mostly cause MickeyD‘s is right next door. Lol. So this candy is most welcome. Thank you so much, Margie! ❤️

This book reminds me of one of my favorite movies ever, Monsoon Wedding. The picture top right is of the niece, Ria, who the night before the wedding reveals that one of the uncles, the rich one throwing his money around, had molested her when she was a girl. The father of the bride, a different uncle comes to take her home where the day of the wedding he tells the rich uncle to leave. He believed her. Such a powerful moment. In this book, 👇🏼

It‘s been nice belonging to a library again. Last time I was around there were no ebooks, so notifications like this are a delight.

So this is a five huge star read for me. Alice, a trans woman who sees ghost in every wall of every place she has lived for the past 3 years, and Ila, a cis woman who now actively participates as a Terf, were once part of a trio of friends who went into a hateful, full of rage, antiSemitic, haunted house and were the only two to leave. They have different views of what actually happened and will have to meet again to try and find peace. This👇🏼

Hey, Sue. I came home from work last night and it was here. Thank you so much! I‘ve been seeing nothing but love for this on here by a lot of people I like and what you wrote on the card makes me want to read it that much more. Thank you again, my friend, and hope you‘re staying warm. ❤️