Ladies of Horror Fiction Readathon
It is Women in Horror Month! In the spirit of Women in Horror, I have been reading female horror authors almost exclusively. (I do have to confess that I did have 1 day where I read some recent Harlequin Desire titles but otherwise its been all female horror!) Ladies of Horror Fiction has a readathon which features several ways to dive into reading horror more diversely. I just completed all 5 items on their list and have been eager to share what I read.
1) An indie author: Bone Weavers Orchard was about a boy's boarding school that had some eerie things lurking around the premises of the school. The irony of having a male cast for a book that I chose to read for women in horror month was not lost on me. However this was a celebration of Sarah Read's accomplishment of writing such a spooky tale.
2) An author of color: The Between was about Hilton, an African American man, who is going back and forth between the world of the vivid nightmares that he has while sleeping and racist threats by day. I chose this book because it was the February pick for the Ladies of Horror Fiction Readalong. However I read the book way too quickly to be able to fairly participate in the readathon. This was also my favorite book that I read for the readathon. I am a sucker for vivid descriptions of the dream world which the author pulls off eloquently. Also the racial violence that was depicted in the book was handled in a way that brought light to racial inequalities in our culture. This is a conversation that we can't have enough, especially in an age where we have a white supremacist as our elected president.
3) An LGBTQ author: The Red Tree. Since the protagonist of this book was an academic, I thought it was appropriate that her stream of consciousness tended to get very intellectual. However the downfall of this was that there were times where the writing felt rather dense for me. But there were enough points that the prose in this book was so gorgeous that made it difficult for me to consider putting this book down.
4) A book published before I was born: Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott. It is always really fun to read books that are geared more for adults by authors who wrote things I read and loved as a child. Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a story I still find myself returning to at various points in my adult life and I was thrilled when it made #8 in PBS's Great American Reads. When I have learned a little more about Alcott's life it was more of her gothic fiction that she enjoyed writing and Little Women was more of a cash project for her. Her passion really comes through in the collection of novellas in Behind a Mask as her writing style is more mature and its clear that she enjoyed writing about darker material like scandals and terrors. I really loved this book!
5) Something short: Something Borrowed Something Blood Soaked. I have come to have a weakness for collections of short horror stories. This is one that I had heard a lot of amazing things about on Twitter and was able to find a copy of it on Kindle Unlimited. This was finally my excuse to read this full collection. Even though I read quickly, one of the things I love about short stories is that it is something I know I can read in one whole sitting. It is also great to go to a short story if I want to add variety to my life while I am reading something longer. This collection was a delight to read.
Since it is women in horror month, it also inspired me to dive into some of my other reading projects giving me a better focus for choosing something written by a woman horror author.
For my Modern Mrs Darcy book challenge there is the prompt to find a book in translation. I found this delightful book called Red Spectres: Russian Gothic Tales for the Twentieth Century in the horror section at Half Priced books that I could not put down. Since the translator was female, this definitely counts as a female contribution in a multicultural contribution to horror literature.
I am currently reading The Haunting of Henderson Close with the goal of writing a Twin Cities Geek review of it. It might not be published in time for me to tie it in with the theme of women in horror fiction month, however I chose it for being a newly released book by a female horror writer.
This is an excellent project to participate in. I am a fan of encouraging people to read a diversity of voices. I think it is so important to do this because reading is a reflective way of expanding one's worldview. However sometimes the way the necessity of including stories from a variety of socioeconomic perspectives makes people feel ashamed for not reading certain types of literature, often treating literary fiction as superior. The point in which I get critical is the shame that is given for people not being interested in more serious literary fiction if they want to be treated seriously in the conversations regarding diversity in literature. There is no shame in liking things like romance novels, comic books, horror novels, etc. Reading diversely in the types of books that one likes is really more of the approach to building bridges. Otherwise it makes the concept of diversity more of a chore than it really ought to be. Its really all about building relationships and its easier to build positive relationships with people who have shared interests. Since reading is a form of building relationships people should be encouraged to look for multiple perspectives within the genres that they are interested in reading. These days I am reading a lot of horror novels so it matched my personal reading interests enough for me to enjoy participating in this particular reading challenge.
The Ladies in Horror Fiction Readathon was a great resource for developing the tools for reading more diversely in horror fiction. The amount of books that were suggested were enough to begin to wet my appetite. Stephen King and Josh Malermann are talented writers whose work I deeply admire. However it did force me to ask the question as to why it is always white men who seem to get the mainstream attention when it comes to horror writers that get a lot of blockbuster attention.
Also the encouragement to read some new authors is just fun! I know that it influenced my Kindle Unlimited books that I like to read on the weekend. This gave me the perfect excuse to read Twin Lakes, Autumn Fires, Ghost Camera and Claire. I had purchased and read a digital copy of Rust Maidens before deciding to participate in this challenge. I am currently enjoying a collection of horror poetry called A Collection of Nightmares. My personal commitment to expanding the amount of perspectives I read in horror fiction is new, so completing this challenge felt more like a beginning than an ending to broadening my horizons. Reading exclusively ladies of horror fiction is a great way to start this journey.
1) An indie author: Bone Weavers Orchard was about a boy's boarding school that had some eerie things lurking around the premises of the school. The irony of having a male cast for a book that I chose to read for women in horror month was not lost on me. However this was a celebration of Sarah Read's accomplishment of writing such a spooky tale.
2) An author of color: The Between was about Hilton, an African American man, who is going back and forth between the world of the vivid nightmares that he has while sleeping and racist threats by day. I chose this book because it was the February pick for the Ladies of Horror Fiction Readalong. However I read the book way too quickly to be able to fairly participate in the readathon. This was also my favorite book that I read for the readathon. I am a sucker for vivid descriptions of the dream world which the author pulls off eloquently. Also the racial violence that was depicted in the book was handled in a way that brought light to racial inequalities in our culture. This is a conversation that we can't have enough, especially in an age where we have a white supremacist as our elected president.
3) An LGBTQ author: The Red Tree. Since the protagonist of this book was an academic, I thought it was appropriate that her stream of consciousness tended to get very intellectual. However the downfall of this was that there were times where the writing felt rather dense for me. But there were enough points that the prose in this book was so gorgeous that made it difficult for me to consider putting this book down.
4) A book published before I was born: Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott. It is always really fun to read books that are geared more for adults by authors who wrote things I read and loved as a child. Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a story I still find myself returning to at various points in my adult life and I was thrilled when it made #8 in PBS's Great American Reads. When I have learned a little more about Alcott's life it was more of her gothic fiction that she enjoyed writing and Little Women was more of a cash project for her. Her passion really comes through in the collection of novellas in Behind a Mask as her writing style is more mature and its clear that she enjoyed writing about darker material like scandals and terrors. I really loved this book!
5) Something short: Something Borrowed Something Blood Soaked. I have come to have a weakness for collections of short horror stories. This is one that I had heard a lot of amazing things about on Twitter and was able to find a copy of it on Kindle Unlimited. This was finally my excuse to read this full collection. Even though I read quickly, one of the things I love about short stories is that it is something I know I can read in one whole sitting. It is also great to go to a short story if I want to add variety to my life while I am reading something longer. This collection was a delight to read.
Since it is women in horror month, it also inspired me to dive into some of my other reading projects giving me a better focus for choosing something written by a woman horror author.
For my Modern Mrs Darcy book challenge there is the prompt to find a book in translation. I found this delightful book called Red Spectres: Russian Gothic Tales for the Twentieth Century in the horror section at Half Priced books that I could not put down. Since the translator was female, this definitely counts as a female contribution in a multicultural contribution to horror literature.
I am currently reading The Haunting of Henderson Close with the goal of writing a Twin Cities Geek review of it. It might not be published in time for me to tie it in with the theme of women in horror fiction month, however I chose it for being a newly released book by a female horror writer.
This is an excellent project to participate in. I am a fan of encouraging people to read a diversity of voices. I think it is so important to do this because reading is a reflective way of expanding one's worldview. However sometimes the way the necessity of including stories from a variety of socioeconomic perspectives makes people feel ashamed for not reading certain types of literature, often treating literary fiction as superior. The point in which I get critical is the shame that is given for people not being interested in more serious literary fiction if they want to be treated seriously in the conversations regarding diversity in literature. There is no shame in liking things like romance novels, comic books, horror novels, etc. Reading diversely in the types of books that one likes is really more of the approach to building bridges. Otherwise it makes the concept of diversity more of a chore than it really ought to be. Its really all about building relationships and its easier to build positive relationships with people who have shared interests. Since reading is a form of building relationships people should be encouraged to look for multiple perspectives within the genres that they are interested in reading. These days I am reading a lot of horror novels so it matched my personal reading interests enough for me to enjoy participating in this particular reading challenge.
The Ladies in Horror Fiction Readathon was a great resource for developing the tools for reading more diversely in horror fiction. The amount of books that were suggested were enough to begin to wet my appetite. Stephen King and Josh Malermann are talented writers whose work I deeply admire. However it did force me to ask the question as to why it is always white men who seem to get the mainstream attention when it comes to horror writers that get a lot of blockbuster attention.
Also the encouragement to read some new authors is just fun! I know that it influenced my Kindle Unlimited books that I like to read on the weekend. This gave me the perfect excuse to read Twin Lakes, Autumn Fires, Ghost Camera and Claire. I had purchased and read a digital copy of Rust Maidens before deciding to participate in this challenge. I am currently enjoying a collection of horror poetry called A Collection of Nightmares. My personal commitment to expanding the amount of perspectives I read in horror fiction is new, so completing this challenge felt more like a beginning than an ending to broadening my horizons. Reading exclusively ladies of horror fiction is a great way to start this journey.
What a source of knowledge and perspective the Glam Book Gal provides! Her reviews read better than some fiction writers' attempts! Well done, you!
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