If you want to join the horror book club (now known as the 'Terrifying Tales Book Club') then click this invite link or scan the QR code:

https://discord.gg/JU9PcFYdF

The first poll on which book we'll read will be about queer authors and/or queer characters, and will be posted in a few days to let newer members to make their vote count.

I'm happy to announce that I'll be posting the invite link to this blog and in the horror media community this 🎉 Saturday, June 13th! 🎉

We will host a monthly/bimonthly book club where we run a poll to see what book we will read, have active discussions on what we've read, as well as occasionally hosting movie nights, and possibly playing video games.

I just finished 'Tender is the Flesh' and I'm floored. The book is about a man who works at a meat processing plant, but due to a virus being spread by animals, people have been driven to cannibalism.

The nearly clinical dehumanization of the 'heads' and the way that you almost fall into the normality that is cannibalism is unsettling, but familiar to how actual animal butchery is done. The only negative I can see about this book is that the writing gets a bit stale at times but overall I'd happily read this again. It's definitely a book where you have to sit with yourself and process the ending for a while. Tbh, my housemates are cooking dinner rn and idk if I can eat meat after finishing this book. It feels too familiar.

My rating:

♥️♥️♥️♥️🖤

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone brand new to horror but if you think you can stomach it, I'd definitely give it a read.

Trigger warnings: (spoilers)

So fun fact about me: vampires are a special interest of mine, which makes what I'm about to say really painful. I couldn't finish 'Interview with the Vampire' by Anne Rice. 'IWTV' follows the story of Louis, a plantation owner turned vampire, retelling his life story via an interview set in modern times. It's a classic and understandably so. It's dramatic, almost romantic, the characters are flawed yet alluring, and has a huge following, especially since the movie and TV show aired. (All of which I've seen and adored.) However, Anne Rice's writing style is just plain bad. Now keep in mind, I'm in no way comparing the book to the movie/tv show. In my option, the book, movie, and TV show are all telling different stories and should be seen as such.

The story itself has good bones and I tried really hard to like it but I just couldn't get past the choppy writing. If it was written by another author, I honestly think I'd love it.

My rating:

♥️🖤🖤🖤🖤

DNF, but might be convinced come back to it

Trigger warnings from what I read: (spoilers) If anyone who's finished the book wants to provide more trigger warnings, feel free to do so in the comments

'The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires' by Grady Hendrix

'The Troop' by Nick Cutter

TBR:

'The Wasp Factory' by Iain Banks (splatter punk, read at your own risk)

'Annihilation' by Jeff VanderMeer

'Horrorstör' by Grady Hendrix

'Leech' by Hiron Ennes

'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson

'NOS4A2' by Joe Hill

'What Moves the Dead' by T. Kingfisher

'The Brides' by Charlotte Cross

'Camp Damascus' by Chuck Tingle

'A God in the Shed' by J-F. Dubeau

'The Only Good Indians' by Stephen Graham Jones

'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver

The Darktower series by Steven King

'IT' by Steven King

Like so many other trans people, I absolutely fell in love with 'Hell Followed with Us'. It's about Benji, a trans man surviving in a post- apocalyptic world all while escaping an evangelical cult and slowly seeing himself turn into a literal monster. Don't get me wrong, this book has its flaws and clichés but for me, they were easy to skim past to get back to the 'meat' of the story. The romantic subplot was very soft and it was nice to root for people to fall in love in the middle of such a dark and dreary world.

My rating:

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Finished it in 2 days, had my hooked from the start.

Trigger warnings: (spoilers)

'Incidents Around the House' is a horror novel set in the perspective of a little girl who's imaginary friend may not be so imaginary. It has such an interesting idea of how a point of view can drastically change the way a typical horror book is presented. However, I couldn't drag myself past the first 50 pages. I really wanted to like this book but honestly, I was bored to tears. I hated the way it was written and the monster, Other Mommy, would barely be considered to be unsettling, imo. The idea of seeing something horrific through the eyes of a child has so much potential and it was so disappointing to see it flop.

My rating:

♥️♥️🖤🖤🖤

DNF, but may try reading it again

Trigger warnings: (spoilers) If anyone who's finished the book can provide more in the comments, that'd be appreciated.