#BookRoundUp-Horror Focus

This week has been the first I was back in placement since July, so that means 4a.m starts or night shifts (7-7.30)

As a result my reading has suffered , and my crafting as you battle the constant exhaustion of the change in hours, long days travelling and lots of new things to learn- not complaining, it is super interesting just that it takes a while to pick up the pace!

These are the books I managed to finish this week, I am taking part in approx.  1000 Instagram challenges but will blog about them next week.

Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersley Cusick

This was a nice surprise in that I got this as Kindle Unlimited title and as an Audible customer could listen to the audiobook for free!

The reader is perfect, she manages to capture the voices of the teenage narrators as well as the creeping tension of the story.

This is part of the HeyLittleThrifter Halloween PointHorror/Goosebumps readalong, and this 1989 title is actually pretty compelling and scarier than I remember!

Martha has been relocated to a new home with her detestable step-brother Connor after their parents have married. Within days of arriving, both parents leave the teens alone to go on a work trip and strange things begin  to happen. The phone rings and an odd voice asks for someone who does not live there, shadows and outlines of a man are seen in the windows, the scarecrow in the garden is strung up and stabbed with knives on their porch. And then Martha finds out that the girl who used to live there was murdered. And Martha’s bedroom that will never get warm? That is where the murder happened….

The story is easy to listen to and I think the main character of Martha could have been quite annoying but actually she is really well portrayed. She is a lonely teen stuck in a house she doesn’t like with a step brother that she doesn’t know. And no one believes her that someone is trying to scare her. Definitely worth trying, the Kindle Unlimited free month covers this and other Point Horror titles.

‘Trick or Treat’ Audiobook

Underground by SL Grey

This was a library book I liked the sound of because it has good vibes with the current season of American Horror Story.Big fan of Sarah Lotz(half of SL Grey) so thought I would try this collab with Louis Greenberg as well).

A virus is threatening to wipe out mankind but for the lucky few, they have paid well to gain access to the Sanctum, an underground living facility that can withstand nuclear attack.

Various families and couples race to the Sanctum and get themselves in with barely time to spare and anticipate sitting out the end of the world in luxury. However….take one beleaguered businessman, a redneck Christian family , a Korean blended family, a widower with his daughter and her nanny, a power couple and an elderly couple with their daughter and tensions are about to erupt. They may be technically safe underground but are they safe from each other?

The tension mounts beautifully as the ‘chosen few’ find that corners have been cut, none of them really know each other and the man behind the whole Sanctum, the only one with the exit codes turns up dead. And there is a interloper underground. I absolutely loved this book, it keeps you turning to the very last page. Can’t wait to read more by SL Grey  !

Pet Semetary by Stephen King

The classic horror novel by Stephen King is part of the Slow Readers Club Halloween readalong alongside ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson.

I have read this maybe 15 times since I was a teen and as with most of King’s books, your perspective changes and what you focus on is different. As a young teen I remember clearly the death of Victor Pascow and the more bloodier details where as an early 40’s mum , my concern is for Missy Dandridge and Ellie and the heartbreaking things that happen to both. The central tenant of this book is what you own and what comes back to you and sometimes, things are better left where they are.

Louis Creed and his family move to Ludlow,Maine for a fresh start with his wife, Rachel, and 2 children,Ellie and Gage as well as Church, the cat. Concerned about the speed of trucks passing by the house, he is warned by his neighbour,Jud Crandall, to get Church ‘fixed’ to stop him wandering. This fails to curb Church and Jud finds Church in his garden, killed by a truck. Luckily Gage and Ellie are vacationing with Rachel’s parents-no fans of Louis- and Jud tells Louis about the Pet Semetary which is on the land behind the Creed place. He takes him to the land just beyond, an ancient Micmac burial ground and shows Louis where to dig. The next day, sure it was all a dream, Louis wakes to find Church is back, but he smells weird and is no longer the friendly, cuddly cat he used to be. He might have brought something back with him-in protecting his daughter from the realities of death, Louis and Jud set in motion a series of events with unfathomable consequences.

Terrifying, gory and full of heart and real life events, you really grasp how good King’s ear for dialogue is,in Pet Semetary  ,his characters are fully fleshed and real. 100% recommended but this is not an easy read.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This is part of the jobis89 Halloween readalong, reading this at any point in October, ready for Halloween.

There is a very good reason why this is a perennial classic-it is a possible to read and re-read it and gain a different perspective on the tale of a doctor who tried to outcheat god and death.

Essentially a tale which begins with letter’s to the sister of the captain of an expeditionary ship exploring the North Pole. Against impossible odds he and his crew have pulled a barely alive man from a sledge, abandoned on an ice floe. As he recovers, Captain Robert Walton hears the most strange and disturbing tale….

Victor Frankenstein is supposed to a romantic hero but as I get older I feel so much more sympathy for the creature and the people that Victor’s toxic actions create. He behaves selfishly and with no care towards his creation,he acts arrogantly in order to usurp his teacher at Ingolstadt University and cheat death. It’s quite gruesome in parts and remembering that a girl of 18/19 wrote this is quite incredible. The story of Mary Shelley is so sad and tragic and poignant that reading Frankenstein after reading about her-I would urge anyone with a passing interest in gothic literature to do so-resonates very powerfully.

Join me next week when I talk seasonal readalongs/Instagram tags!

If anyone has a good one for November/December please comment below!