So, this year, for the first time in a few years, I have been reading horror fairly consistently. I say to myself - RIP challenge - and then start reading the book.
Currently on the pile to be read I have:
Manitou Blood by Graham Masterton (his version of vampires, I haven't seen this before. The Manitou by him was one of the scariest books I read, a few years ago)
The Best Horror of the Year Vol 1 - ed Ellen Datlow (it comes highly recommended, replaces the horror part of Year's Best Horror and Fantasy collection she did with Terri Windling. I just bought it this week, and not sure I can wait for RIP!)
Swan Song - Robert McCammon (reread from 20 years ago) - very excited to reread this again.
Darkness - Two Decades of Modern Horror - ed Ellen Datlow - another collection, this time of her collection of the best horror short stories published between 1984 and 2005
Under the Dome - Stephen King - Uncle Steve! horror! big book to get lost in!
Drood - Dan Simmons - Dickens, madness, and terror. Yum.
A Dark Matter - Peter Straub - a magic ritual goes wrong, and twenty years later someone tries to find out what really happened. Another yum.
Hell House - Richard Matheson - I've seen the movie several times (The Legend of Hell House) but never read the book. I decided it was time to right this wrong. I know it will scare me, as the movie scares me (most delightfully and shiveringly). How long until RIP starts???
Out of the library I currently have:
Haunted - James Herbert - a reread, it turns out, but again it's been at least 15 years since I read it
The Ghost Writer - John Harwood (based on Daphne's review a few years ago)
I have read this year:
The Unseen - Alexandra Sokoloff (review here)
The Red Tree - Caitlin R Kiernan - This is a chilling haunted house read. Actually, haunted tree by a house book. Young woman escapes unhappy romance to hide out in house in the woods.....a house with a terrible history of people disappearing in and around it. This book features a scary relationship with a roommate and downward spiralling of insanity. Very scary in places. Highly recommended.
Handling the Undead - John Ajvide Lindqvist - one of my favourite books this year so far. A book about zombies, but also about the loved ones who try to cope. What would you do if suddenly the dead started to come to life? What if your loved dead ones were stirring? This book is about three recently come back to life people, and the repercussions on their families. It's also about Stockholm, and society, and how they cope with the dead and newly returned. It's also about what makes a person a person, that mysterious living part of us that goes when we die. The worst things about zombies is that they are shells because this mysterious part is not brought back (in any zombie fiction.) But could you resist seeing your loved one, one more time? Just to touch them? Hope that spark is there?
Apartment 16 - Adam Neville - I just finished reading this last week. What a fun horror novel, and so very frightening. A lot of horror fiction relies on the unstability of the narrator. It's as if horror can't come into our sphere until we give it an opening, usually because of madness in some form. I disagree with this. I don't think instability is a precursor to good horror fiction. I think there is horror all around us, and in our natures, and the trick is to make it believable without relying on madness. That said, in Apartment 16, madness is at the center of the horror. An artist long ago created obsessively pictures of the vortex, the swirling darkness that we go to when we die (that he believes anyway). It's a disturbing vortex, filled with the true faces of people, all hideously deformed and distorted - their vices and desires, their lack of spiritual light, becomes their consignment to this swirling hell. What he eventually creates though, is an entrance for that hell, in his apartment - Apt 16. Apryl, the niece of an aunt who turns out to have a connection to the artist, inherits her aunt's apartment in the same building where the artist lived. The book is about how she learns about the artist, and her aunt, and how the power of evil, and that morbid fascination does have its own strength. This was a horrifying picture of madness, gripping, and sad in some ways. Mostly, a book to read with the lights on and someone around to remind you things are normal where you are......I will not forget how mirrors are used in this book, for a long time, either.
The Passage - Justin Cronin (review here)
Button, Button - Richard Matheson (short story collection) - The title is from the first story in this short story collection. It was made into a movie recently called The Button. I didn't see the movie. I did enjoy the short story very much - it is perfect, the story of what happens when a stranger calls and offers money in exchange for a life. Would you push the button? Eerie. Most of the stories are not quite as frightening as this one, which calls up the dark side of human nature, but the collection is enjoyable and nerve-tingling in places.
Horror books I would like to get for RIP:
Koko - Peter Straub
Feed - Mira Grant
The Dark - ed Ellen Datlow
Haunted Legends - ed Ellen Datlow
The Thirteen - Susie Moloney ***Canadian author, wrote The Dwelling a few years ago, a disturbing and very good haunted house book that has scenes that still bother me today. The Thirteen just got published and I'm on the library waiting list, so I might see this next year.....
I'm not sure what has me reading horror this year, though I am enjoying it very much. Apartment 16 is really terrifyng. The Unseen is one of the best haunted house books I've read in a long time. Handling the Undead took the zombie story and turned it upside down. It is haunting and beautiful and exactly what examining horror should be, from all sides - the victims and the zombies, who are also accursed. The Passage is excellent.
I have a few other books ready also for RIP, but I want to save them for a surprise so when I go to do my post in the next few weeks, I will have something to add to the list!
Are you busy getting ready for RIP? What are you thinking of reading? Are there any horror or ghost story books you really recommend for this challenge? Let me know. As you can see, I'm always looking for new and good horror to read.
As we head into fall soon - and already our leaves are starting to change colour here, which is very early for us - I'm thinking about ghost stories and horror, and what I really enjoy about them. Why do I read them? Why do you, dear Reader? Do you like being thrilled? Scared, safely in the comfort of your home? Do you like that eerie frisson of chill running over your skin when you read a particularly scary line or scene? I know that I am always on the lookout for this. It's delightful and shivery at the same time. There is nothing like a good chill.
I also find that horror tales are cautionary. They remind me of what not to do. Don't go into the unknown house alone. If lights keep flickering on and off and you get chills and the sense you are not alone, you're not! Horror also tells me what to do/not to do when I find myself in a scary situation. The edge that horror has though, is that often it's from deep within our subconscious, so we can't control these deeper urges, or we are overtaken by events that we are powerless to do anything but try to survive. The best horror shows us a way out, reminding us that there is a price to pay for going to the edge of the dark, where terror and truth lie. It's also exciting, and a safe way to confront our darkest fears.
Showing posts with label Canadian ghost stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian ghost stories. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Blue, and Bluenose Ghosts
I try not to mention my work here on my blog because this is where I consider my real life is. There are times, though, when work interferes with my life, and the last six months have been very difficult for me. I've tried to keep my blog up, but I haven't been able to get to all of your blogs as much as I have in the past, and I just wanted to say - I haven't forgotten you. I am attempting to get to all of you more often, but sadly it's not anywhere as often as I'd like it to be yet. I don't know when things will get better and I think after last week, I've lost hope that work will improve any time soon. So I am feeling blue, and in keeping with that mood, here are two ghost stories from Bluenose Ghosts. The last one made me cry , so be forewarned:
today's Bluenose Exerpt:
Mrs Hirtle came honestly by her ability to see things. Her mother had the same faculty for she had been lying in bed one night when she felt a cold hand come down and pass over her face. She sat up in bed greatly startled to see her aunt standing over her. The aunt said, "Fare thee well." Mrs Hirtle's mother was not frightened enough by the occurrence to call the family but, in the morning when she came downstairs, she announced that her aunt was dead. Word came later that this was so.
At Annapolis Royal a woman of English descent was given a visual warning. She had an eleven-month-old baby, to all appearances in perfect health. "One night I was awakened from my sleep and saw a little white coffin in front of the bed. I woke my husband and said, 'I'm afraid something's going to happen to my baby.' He laughed at me, supposing I'd been dreaming. The next day for no known reason my baby died in my arms."
I have been reading Duma Key for much of the long weekend, and am not finished yet - it's 600 pages long- but I am thoroughly enjoying it. Uncle Stevie has returned to form! Very creepy - in fact, it could be creepier, but I think he was trying out something new with this book. More thoughts when I'm done.
Star Trek was fabulous this weekend. I'll write more on that tomorrow too. Mostly this was a quick post to say hi and thinking of you all and wishing there were an extra 4 hours a day just for blogging and reading!! Then I could get to you all, and read some more!
Thanks for listening.
today's Bluenose Exerpt:
Mrs Hirtle came honestly by her ability to see things. Her mother had the same faculty for she had been lying in bed one night when she felt a cold hand come down and pass over her face. She sat up in bed greatly startled to see her aunt standing over her. The aunt said, "Fare thee well." Mrs Hirtle's mother was not frightened enough by the occurrence to call the family but, in the morning when she came downstairs, she announced that her aunt was dead. Word came later that this was so.
At Annapolis Royal a woman of English descent was given a visual warning. She had an eleven-month-old baby, to all appearances in perfect health. "One night I was awakened from my sleep and saw a little white coffin in front of the bed. I woke my husband and said, 'I'm afraid something's going to happen to my baby.' He laughed at me, supposing I'd been dreaming. The next day for no known reason my baby died in my arms."
I have been reading Duma Key for much of the long weekend, and am not finished yet - it's 600 pages long- but I am thoroughly enjoying it. Uncle Stevie has returned to form! Very creepy - in fact, it could be creepier, but I think he was trying out something new with this book. More thoughts when I'm done.
Star Trek was fabulous this weekend. I'll write more on that tomorrow too. Mostly this was a quick post to say hi and thinking of you all and wishing there were an extra 4 hours a day just for blogging and reading!! Then I could get to you all, and read some more!
Thanks for listening.
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Lost in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and Bluenose Ghosts
I was going to post about Carl's RIPIV challenge, but I am having problems narrowing down my list! I have 3 books at the library waiting to be picked up, and 15 books I pulled off my shelves!!! so tomorrow I will choose a list of what I'd like to read...I have begun reading one book, Bluenose Ghosts by Dr Helen Creighton.
This is a way cooler cover than the one I have. I have the first paperback edition from 1976 with a blue cover, and this edition was just released this year. If I'd seen this version, *sigh* I love the cover, suddenly I am afficted with booklust again even though I own a copy!!!
Helen Creighton was a Canadian folklorist, and collected Maritime (which means the east coast, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland for us) folktales for over 50 years. This is organized into chapter headings such as : Forerunners, Phantom Ships and Sea Mysteries, Ghosts Helpful, Harmful and Headless, Haunted Houses and Poltergeists, and Ghosts as Animals and Lights. These kinds of stories, related by the living, about what they've experienced of the paranormal or unexplained, always give me delicious chills and half-frighten me just reading them. Lovely! One idea for the challenge that I have from this book, is to give a quote from it - hopefully every day through September and October, at the very least every time I post. So here is today's excerpt:
Through the tutelage of the Hartlan men I understood for the first time the meaning of a strange event in my own life that had occurred not too long before. This had happened just prior to the death of my eldest brother's wife. It had been a long illness, one that was very hard on both the patient and her family. We turned to anything that would distract the children, and one evening three of us sat in the drawing room playing cards. Suddenly we were interrupted by a loud knocking. We all heard it and stopped playing. I made the obvious remark, "There's someone at the door." "There can't be," Kathleen said. "There isn't any door on this side of the house." That was quite true, for the house was built on a hill, and that side, although on the first floor, was high above the ground. Nevertheless to satisfy me Barbara went to the nearest door. "There's no one there," she said in a tone which inferred this was no more than she expected. We were mystified but I forgot about it until the Hartlans took on my education. Then I realized that what we heard were the three death knocks. These are heard in certain houses or by certain people and they come as warning of approaching death. Whether my sister-in-law died on the day following the knocks or a few days later, none of us could recall. Kathleen remembers the incident, but Babara was too young. Certainly at the time we all heard it - three slow deliberate knocks that insisted on our attention.
This is a way cooler cover than the one I have. I have the first paperback edition from 1976 with a blue cover, and this edition was just released this year. If I'd seen this version, *sigh* I love the cover, suddenly I am afficted with booklust again even though I own a copy!!!
Helen Creighton was a Canadian folklorist, and collected Maritime (which means the east coast, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland for us) folktales for over 50 years. This is organized into chapter headings such as : Forerunners, Phantom Ships and Sea Mysteries, Ghosts Helpful, Harmful and Headless, Haunted Houses and Poltergeists, and Ghosts as Animals and Lights. These kinds of stories, related by the living, about what they've experienced of the paranormal or unexplained, always give me delicious chills and half-frighten me just reading them. Lovely! One idea for the challenge that I have from this book, is to give a quote from it - hopefully every day through September and October, at the very least every time I post. So here is today's excerpt:
Through the tutelage of the Hartlan men I understood for the first time the meaning of a strange event in my own life that had occurred not too long before. This had happened just prior to the death of my eldest brother's wife. It had been a long illness, one that was very hard on both the patient and her family. We turned to anything that would distract the children, and one evening three of us sat in the drawing room playing cards. Suddenly we were interrupted by a loud knocking. We all heard it and stopped playing. I made the obvious remark, "There's someone at the door." "There can't be," Kathleen said. "There isn't any door on this side of the house." That was quite true, for the house was built on a hill, and that side, although on the first floor, was high above the ground. Nevertheless to satisfy me Barbara went to the nearest door. "There's no one there," she said in a tone which inferred this was no more than she expected. We were mystified but I forgot about it until the Hartlans took on my education. Then I realized that what we heard were the three death knocks. These are heard in certain houses or by certain people and they come as warning of approaching death. Whether my sister-in-law died on the day following the knocks or a few days later, none of us could recall. Kathleen remembers the incident, but Babara was too young. Certainly at the time we all heard it - three slow deliberate knocks that insisted on our attention.
I think I will copy a tale every time I post, throughout Carl's challenge! See if I can give you chills, dear Gentle Reader.
And, this gives me another book for the Canada 3 Book Challenge!
I am lost in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I am on page 209, after starting the book yesterday morning on the bus. If I hadn't been so tired last night I would have read more, but I sadly fell asleep as soon as the children did! Such is my exciting life with young children. I am amazed at how good the translation is - it reads almost as if it were written in English first. Mikael Blomquist is a quiet intelligent hero, and Lisbeth Salander is an extraordinary character - she literally jumps off the page, alive, exciting, and dangerous. Blomquist has just begun his enquiry into the Vanger family. I love the island he is staying on, and that it's three hours north of Stockholm, so we get to visit some of the Swedish countryside/seaside again. It's also set in the depths of winter, so I will remember this when we reach 0 degrees Fahrenheit, that we aren't the only country that gets that cold! The storytelling is really good - I simply do not want to put this book down. We have heavy rain today, perfect reading whether - unfortunately, I am booked on a date with my daughter: we are going to see Walking With Dinosaurs late this morning, at the Palladium! It's playing for 4 days only, and our youngest child is a little too young - the dinosaurs are very large in this production, and loud, and didn't want to go - but Holly-Anne is so excited she leaps whenever she things about it!
How can you tell when you love books? when everything seems to take you away from reading one!! I love dinosaurs, I know I will thoroughly enjoy this show and day out with my daughter, but I resent that I can't just read my lovely book all day!
And, this gives me another book for the Canada 3 Book Challenge!
I am lost in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I am on page 209, after starting the book yesterday morning on the bus. If I hadn't been so tired last night I would have read more, but I sadly fell asleep as soon as the children did! Such is my exciting life with young children. I am amazed at how good the translation is - it reads almost as if it were written in English first. Mikael Blomquist is a quiet intelligent hero, and Lisbeth Salander is an extraordinary character - she literally jumps off the page, alive, exciting, and dangerous. Blomquist has just begun his enquiry into the Vanger family. I love the island he is staying on, and that it's three hours north of Stockholm, so we get to visit some of the Swedish countryside/seaside again. It's also set in the depths of winter, so I will remember this when we reach 0 degrees Fahrenheit, that we aren't the only country that gets that cold! The storytelling is really good - I simply do not want to put this book down. We have heavy rain today, perfect reading whether - unfortunately, I am booked on a date with my daughter: we are going to see Walking With Dinosaurs late this morning, at the Palladium! It's playing for 4 days only, and our youngest child is a little too young - the dinosaurs are very large in this production, and loud, and didn't want to go - but Holly-Anne is so excited she leaps whenever she things about it!
How can you tell when you love books? when everything seems to take you away from reading one!! I love dinosaurs, I know I will thoroughly enjoy this show and day out with my daughter, but I resent that I can't just read my lovely book all day!
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