2016 Roberta Reads Horror! (luvamystery65)

January: Early modern horror: 1950-1980

My pick: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin



I finished my first Horror book of they year, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. I always thought this book would be scary. It's more creepy than anything. Very creepy actually. Glad I read it.

February: Horror in translation

My pick: Let Me In (Also goes by Let the Right One In) by John Ajvide Lindqvist



I have the audio of this one so I will go with that format.

March: Women authors

My pick: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson narrated by Bernadette Dunne



It's one I own and I can cross it off my ROOT challenge.

Second pick: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley narrated by Dan Stevens



Also, one I own and can cross off for my ROOT challenge!

April: Slashers, serial killers & the like

My pick: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes



LOVED THIS!!!

and then maybe I was unable to read this one but I did pick up a used copy! Maybe later or maybe next year.

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

May: Non-fiction

My pick: Deliver Us: Three Decades of Murder and Redemption in the Infamous I-45/Texas Killing Fields by Kathryn Casey



I've had this on my shelf for about two years and this is a local story.

June: Stephen King & family

My Pick: The Fireman by Joe Hill



This was my first Hill and I enjoyed it. Will read more by him.

Also, listened to Apt Pupil by Stephen King



I found this novella to be very disturbing.

July: Graphic novels + children's/YA

My Pick: Outcast, Vol. 1 & Outcast, Vol. 2 by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta





This was good, not great. I've not read The Walking Dead, so this is my first Kirkman. I will read Volume 3 before I decided to continue or not.

August: Pre- through post-Victorian Gothic

My Pick: The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons



Fun read, but not a typical Gothic novel. I missed more of the ghost, hauntings, frights and foreshadowing from the other gothics I have read.

September: Paranormal

My Pick: The Shining by Stephen King



This was so creepy and really good!

October: Hauntings (/ghost stories)

My Pick: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James narrated by Emma Thompson



Nice story. Is it real or just imagined?

November: Diversity in horror

My pick: White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi



It's one I own and I can cross it off my ROOT challenge.

This was very bizarre but I liked it. It got better as you read it. I can see why people compare this to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

I also read The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle. I LOVED it.

December: Short stories

My pick: The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Horror by Joyce Carol Oates



I found most of these stories much more creepy than scary. I might actually be afraid to meet Oates. ;-)

Wow! You're already up and ready. :) I'm impressed. Good luck with Rosemary's Baby! :)

>13 saraslibrary: Howdy Sara! I was off around Christmas and decided to get going since I worked NYE and NY day. I was really torn between reading Ghost Story by Peter Straub and Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. I am pretty spooked about RB so I decided I NEED to tackle it. ;-)

>14 luvamystery65: I hope you enjoy it. Happy new year!

>14 luvamystery65: Howdy-howdy! :) Hopefully work was good on NYE and NY day. I only did a half day on NYE and spent today just catching up on errands. Back to work tomorrow though. LOL @ I was pretty spooked about RB so I decided I NEED to tackle it. Spoken like a true horror fan. ;)

>15 sturlington: & >16 saraslibrary: I couldn't put it down! Not scary but very definitely creepy. I loved the ending.

>17 luvamystery65: You've already read it? That was fast! Was it really short like The Stepford Wives? If you have any plans to read Danse Macabre, it's one of the books Stephen King focuses on in his 'Horror Fiction'.

Edit: Doh! I'm repeating myself - I've already mentioned that he does the same for Ghost Story.

>17 luvamystery65: That's what I liked best about it, that it's creepy and gets under your skin. I think you really start to feel as paranoid as Rosemary. Glad you liked it.

>18 Moomin_Mama: I don't know about Stepford Wives but it's fairly short, I think about 200 pages. It was a pretty typical length for the time though.

>20 .Monkey.: My copy of The Stepford Wives is a mere 123 pages long. It's one of the thing I liked about the era - authors knew when to wrap up a story.

It was about 240 pages. I really couldn't put it down. The writing just flowed and yes, you do start to feel as paranoid as Rosemary. He builds her up slowly acquiescing to the smallest things. When she discovers she was raped but kind of brushes it aside I knew we were in for trouble. She had some gumption in the end but it really didn't surprise me that she gave into being the baby's mother. I am so glad I read it.

>21 Moomin_Mama: It's one of the thing I liked about the era - authors knew when to wrap up a story. I agree with you on that point! I am reading the Spenser series by Robert B. Parker and the Navajo Tribal Police series by Tony Hillerman right now. Both series get the story told without going on and on and on. Today's books are so bloated.

Ah so Stepford is practically half as short then, more of a novella even! Personally I much prefer longer novels, I like something to sink my teeth into, I've never been fond of short stories. But if they're done exceptionally well where they actually manage to get a full story in, then I don't mind as much. :)

>21 Moomin_Mama: and >22 luvamystery65: I am so with you on this. I feel like everything is super-sized these days: meals, movies, books. It has to be an author I really like for me to take on a book more than 500 pages, but right now I'm preferring books around 250-300 pages.

>23 .Monkey.: Of course, there are always exceptions! If the book is so well written and exciting that I just race through it, I'd definitely prefer it to be epic length.

Haha, while 300 is pretty much my minimum preferred count. My ideal is 350-450, 300-500 being the larger "this is good" range. I dislike when things have less than 250 pages, it means there's no real character development, no world building, no detail! I still read plenty that falls under it, like most of Agatha Christie's mysteries, and various older sci-fi/horror/thrillers. But they're quick light snacks, a couple hours one afternoon and they're done, fun, but nothing to 'em. And if they're longer than 500, I don't mind a bit, so long as it's a good story that's keeping me interested. A couple years ago I read a 700something page novel in a day and a half because it was full of action and intrigue, couldn't put it down. Large page counts don't scare me at all, only small ones! LOL.

>22 luvamystery65: You've hit the nail on the head there - 'bloated'. That's exactly it. I have no preference when it comes to book length, but there is no excuse for a book to be too long unless the writing or the story and plot is up to it. Nowadays it seems like even the crappiest books are huge.

>25 .Monkey.: 700 pages in a day? How? Shorter books must seem like short stories to you :)

And a half! Hahaha. I pretty much did nothing else those days aside of breaks for eating lunch/dinner. xP And yep, basically! Lol. Anything under 200 is, like I said, just a quick snack. Actual short stories just have so little to them, they need to be phenomenal for me to enjoy them. :P

I don't mind a huge book but it has to be spectacular. Really, if it's over 500 pages everything should be relevant. One of my favorites is The Count of Monte Cristo. It's big but everything matters. I think with some of the older books, because they were serialized, it was easy to take them as they came. Today it's all in one and it doesn't always work. I love a short book that packs a punch and Rosemary's Baby was just right. I am a fan of short stories though, so that may skew my opinion.

My next month's pick is right under 500 pages. We shall see what my opinion is of that one.

>27 .Monkey.: Sounds like a perfect day to me - just reading with breaks for food :D

So I finished my March pick yesterday. I listened to the audio of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. She really knew how to create a tense atmosphere.

I've decided to reread (or rather listen this time around) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

I loved the audio of Frankenstein narrated by Dan Stevens.

I'm currently reading The Killing Lessons by Saul Black. It's about a serial killer(s) and would fit perfectly for next month. I decided to read The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes for April based on the bookshop ladies. They never steer me wrong.

They also recommended Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge and Five by Ursula Archer (Poznanaski). I have plenty of serial killers in my future including two that I have for non-fiction May.

I read The Fireman by Joe Hill. It's my first Hill and I'm very pleased. There were shades of The Stand but it turned out very different. I liked the ending. I also thought the characters were a bit more fleshed out than in The Stand. I will definitely read more by Hill.

I listened to Apt Pupil by Stephen King. I found it very disturbing, but well done.

This month I read the first two volumes of Outcast by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta. This is my first by Robert Kirkman. I have not read The Walking Dead. I liked this well enough, but didn't love it. I will read Volume 3 and decide with that if I want to continue with the series.

For August I will read The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons. I am going to follow a tutored read from 2013. Here is the link if anyone is interested. http://www.librarything.com/topic/161142

I'm only halfway through my Gothic pick for August. I'm enjoying it but I haven't had time for it. This long weekend is perfect to wrap that up.

Then on to The Shining by Stephen King for September.

>21 Moomin_Mama: Finally reading this thread now! Re: The Stepford Wives, it's one I want to read this year and haven't gotten to it yet. Good to know it's short, so it should be easy to fit in!

>23 .Monkey.: I'm not a big fan of short stories, either, but novellas are usually ok for me.

I finished The Castle of Wolfenbach for the August Gothic. It's a bit atypical of Gothic novels as it was written in contemporary times and some of the action took place in England. It wasn't scary at all. The "haunting" took place in the beginning and then we were done with hauntings and castles altogether.

I tried reading 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. I just am not feeling it right now. I did listen to Turn of the Screw by Henry James and I'm listening to Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, which features a few ghost, but they aren't the main villains.

I finished two books for November, White is for Witching and The Ballad of Black Tom. Enjoyed both. Really liked LaValle.

For December, I've started The Doll-Master by Joyce Carol Oates.

Finished The Doll-Master by Joyce Carol Oates. It was creepy, not scary. It's my first Oates so I don't have anything else to compare it with. I'll definitely try more by her.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have successfully completed my challenge this year!