Continuing our new holiday tradition, next up we have my recommendations for fellow blog team member Maya. After conducting extensive research, including scouring Maya’s previously published posts, I’ve come up with some bespoke picks for her enjoyment. For those among you who may enjoy horror with a supernatural/paranormal tinge, graphic novels, Kate Beaton, and the like, these choices just might do double for you. I hope there’s something here that you haven’t already heard of and that interests you, Maya! Since Maya is an undisputed horror fan (with several blog posts in evidence), I had to include a horror novel in my gift of recommendations. This one was on Book Riot’s 2024 Summer Scares List, which is an annual tradition the website has in collaboration with the Horror Writers Association in the US and several other book and/or library-related organizations. What better way to play to Maya’s steadfast and unceasing love of summer and hatred of winter then to pull from this list. It aims to boost the popularity of the horror genre for readers at any age and for all seasons. Too often the spoopy and gothic are linked to Halloween, the colder months, and autumnal vibes. Check out the list linked above if you’re interested! There’s books for adults, young adults, and middle grade. Such Sharp Teeth is about Rory Morris. After a move back to the place she was born and an encounter with a man from her past, she gets in an accident with a wild animal, or so she thinks. Paranormal transformation ensues, along with romance.
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Spooky Stories for Scaredy Cats

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I am not a fan of horror. And yet…there are definitely spooky stories out there that, despite my self-proclaimed scaredy cat status (I dare you to say that three times fast), I enjoy! I don’t seek them out, necessarily…but much like Wikipedia research rabbit holes, I get lured in by one thing or another and then I’m hooked before I know it.
Before we jump into a list of recommendations though, I was curious as to why we’re drawn to horror at all. According to this article by The Washington Post, “[horror offers] a combination of an adrenaline rush and an opportunity to learn about dealing with scary situations in a safe environment”. And according to this more recent article by Crime Reads, “[horror] provides us with a distraction from the terrors of the real world” but that “there’s something beyond distraction and catharsis that horror gives us. The gift of control.”
That makes sense to me, but I still like my scares to be slight, so I’ve put together a non-exhaustive list of movies, shows, and books that I can recommend if you, like me, are horrified by horror, grossed out by gore, and scared of suspense…and yet can’t help but be curious of the creepy.
(Can you tell I’m having a lot of fun with alliteration?)
Continue readingSomething New for Spooky Season
For the keen-eyed, you may have noticed a trend when it comes to my reading recommendations. I am a huge lover of (most things) horror, and Spooky Season (aka October) manages to bypass my usual hatred of anything distinctly Not Summer. But while vampires and ghosts and werewolves (oh my!) are all well and good, there’s one aspect of the horror genre that often gets overlooked when the leaves start changing color and the pumpkins come out.
Have you ever wondered about what things lie just beyond the outer rim of our collective knowledge, in the places we’ve never explored? Have you ever wondered if the things that live there ever wonder about us? Have you ever wondered if they’re interested in looking for us and messing around in our insignificant affairs? Cue my favorite kind of chilling scare: existential terror, eldritch and cosmic horror flavored. It basically boils down to this thing is here, you will never be able to know why it does what it does, be worried about it. Eldritch and cosmic horror finds its roots in the unknowable, the fathomless, and the incomprehensible, but oddly enough, it’s the type of horror that really makes you think and, at least in my opinion, is the most human and introspective. Horror, most of the time, is something that is grounded in metaphor (you only need to look at the close connection the LGBTQ+ community assigns to werewolves to get a sense of it) and can often reveal the things we’d rather not talk about. But when you’re feeling small and so very out of your depth, you can really get into the meaty truths of being a person and the strange world we live in. Plus, fear in media and literature has always been an exercise in empathy. Things won’t be scary unless you can actually feel for the character and their story.
Granted, eldritch and cosmic horror isn’t without faults being tied so closely to the works of H.P. Lovecraft (you can read up on it in this great CBC interview that briefly covers the history of the genre and how his works are being referenced in the current day). Still, there are tons of new voices changing and adding to the mythos that make it a welcoming (but still a very scary) place for all. If you want to read up on your modern eldritch and cosmic horror history, check out Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, which had a large hand in its resurgence, along with some other nods to it from the film world including Alien, Watchmen, and more.
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