Rachel Smith's Blog: Guinea Pigs and Books, page 42

Um, ew.

25. The Troop – Nick Cutter

There is a guinea pig mentioned in this book. That mention is not positive. It is, instead, super gross. Not unlike the majority of this story. Now, I am not a fan of the youths, but, I wouldn’t wish anyone this Lord of the Flies but way more disgusting fate. All they did was go on a scout trip to an island. It’s not like they knew it would get so gooey and slippery and be so thoroughly icky.

Yes, Horace, that guinea pig really got the bad end of bioengineering. As did several other animals in the parts I very much skimmed and wish I had never seen.

“Early texts present Samhain as a mandatory celebration…”

…And I consider art posts a mandatory invasion tactic on occasion. I’ve just done several paintings in the near and recent past that are super Fall appropriate and they’ve made it onto the two sites where I allow for them to be printed on things and stuff that you can invite into your home for a fee linked right here: Threadless and Redbubble. All you need to do is click on the image that suits your needs best and an array of products are available via a pull down menu or just by scrolling down. Sometimes there are blankets. It’s how the Druids would have wanted it, obviously.

 

Speaking of places where the Druids decorated, I set my Folk Horror series featuring my current pigs in the lonely fields and slightly apparent woods of England. I’ve read several books set there recently and the whole “isolated village/isolated creepy children” thing really appeals to me and guinea pigs are really good at it. It’s also present in In the Mouth of Madness, another of my favorite films involving an isolated village. Also, the pigs look really cute in sweaters, which makes them better at being deceptive.

 

Hen Wen is thinking about how she could enter that painting and become her creepy isolated child self and worship trees more effectively.

 

Here’s Salem next to the obligatory ram skull portion of his Folk Horror painting.

 

Thorfy is interested in the grass, like all guinea pigs. They love wheat grass.

 

Snuffy took one look at her painting and was on her way. She’s ready to stare and scare.

 

One of the true classics of Folk Horror will always be The Wicker Man, and I know my classic pigs Finny, Peregrine, Horace, and Ozma are the right pigs to parody it, although Finny is clearly taking his role just as seriously as Christopher Lee did. His last name should have been Summerisle.

Finny Summerisle & Friends

 

And then my most Halloween-appropriate of the recent past:

Enter Three Pigtches: Ozma, Peregrine, and Merricat are up to a little hocus pigcus.

 

Also, I found several gems in the History.com article about Samhain I was reading and from which I quoted my title, including information about Lady Gwyn and her black pig (relatable), men in Wales throwing burning pieces of wood at each other, dumb supper, and a snippet about Ireland’s version of Samhain including a military element with thrones and also super harsh punishment for using your weapons or committing a crime, that being death of course, not just being stuck in a corner with someone you don’t want to talk to for the whole party. Oh, and this quote: “Failure to participate was believed to result in punishment from the gods, usually illness or death.” Yep.

“What kind of goat sorcery is this?”

63. Hex – Rebecca Dinerstein Knight

I have now read three books called Hex. This is the one I liked the least. I expected it to be clever and instead it was really familiar in that “self-pity and bad decisions on a college campus/don’t you know your place in society is not with the rich academics” way. So many reviews were so positive and the whole poisonous plants angle sounded like it would be a fun twist on a campus novel, like what if someone did something with the poisonous plants (perhaps creating a hex…) and didn’t just wallow in their failures while making more failure-suited decisions, but it really didn’t make much of a difference that Nell was into plants. It was just normal academia bullshit but with some descriptions of poisonous plants.

This picture of Peregrine with her light up pumpkin through the cardboard haunted house window is more dynamic and has more witchy energy and more poison(ous glare) than this entire book. Peregrine’s dissertation would have been killer.

Benny and perhaps a jet

18. Rot & Ruin – Jonathan Maberry

If there’s any author who can be easily trusted to bring zombies to YA in a solid, respectable style, it’s Jonathan Maberry. Rot and Ruin, and the rest of the series, are very YA in that there is much drama and emotion coming out of those 15 year olds, but there is enough action and post-apocalyptic world intrigue to keep up a nicely paced plot.

Benny Imura is our just a little bitter about losing his parents to zombies main character and his older brother, Tom Imura, is a total badass who goes after zombies in the “Ruin” aka the not safe part of the world. Benny doesn’t think Tom is all that cool because he totally did not save their parents – but, because Tom is a zombie hunter-dude and they have some issues, they must team up to go on an adventure and learn how to be a family again while Benny learns some shit about what’s really going on out in the wasteland and who his brother really is. Very YA, but very not saccharine or annoyingly predictable.

Ozymandias went on adventures that involved imitating a mountain goat on an armchair, as opposed to zombie killing in a wasteland, so he is not exactly ready to become a bounty hunting apprentice. Yet.

 

3. Dust & Decay – Jonathan Maberry

Let’s leave Sanctuary! You know, considering what Sanctuary is like in this story and the Walking Dead, well, I just don’t think that anyone save Quasimodo should ever be looking for any place called that. It’s like when you come across words like “patriotism” that mean very different things to very different people. Moving on, this one’s a journey story and that means I’m likely to be pleased with it. Stuff has to happen when going on journeys through zombie-filled wastelands with your badass brother and your best friends.

Without the emotional set up of Rot and Ruin, this wouldn’t have been possible, but I liked this one better than the first one. For one thing, there’s a rhino. I love rhinos because we are similarly stubborn and nearly extinct. But even without the rhino, Dust and Decay is twisty and exciting and fun to read.

The Oz-venture on the back of this chair continues.

 

6. Flesh & Bone – Jonathan Maberry

I swear, every time the world ends or even is supposed to end, some jerk with charisma finds a way to amass some followers and if one looks at the whole mess from the outside, it’s easy to ask, “Really? That guy?” But in Flesh and Bone “that guy” is quite scary and used to be a serial killer (Is there really a “used to be” in that arena? I feel like if you’re not in jail, then there’s no incentive to stop- yeah, no.) The world of the Ruin greatly expands in this third installment, which also brings down some serious heaviness on the characters and the relationships between them and also a military presence.

Ozymandias was always keen to improve his climbing skills. Pumpkins are a much more challenging surface to conquer than chairs.

“Naqui. Niyoli. I enter. I live.”

46. Goddess of Filth – V. Castro

This ruled. Five girls in San Antonio get together for one last night of hanging out together before they go their generally separate ways – but, as with all impromptu and otherwise séances in books and movies, what happens changes everything. In this case, the spirit who shows up is very female and very ancient. So it’s more empowering to be possessed by her and less “the sow is mine,” like a lady human is just a vessel.

Fernanda, the one who is stuck in the most uptight and sheltered of households, is supposed to be going to college until she’s possessed by the ancient spirit and basically learns to have more fun the hard way. She learns a lot about herself and what she actually wants, as opposed to what’s been basically assigned to her. Of course, that’s not without a lot of stickiness and things going awry since an ancient goddess is not going to be bound too much by modern cultural standards of basically anything.

Lourdes, the one who is sort of the group’s organizer and is also the one who asked for an “old spirit” to come during the séance…so it’s totally her fault, anyway, also leads the charge to figure out what can be done to help Fernanda and does the finding of the expert so they can have a research scene. Research scene! This one does not disappoint. Neither does the resolution to the possession and it was really refreshing to see a story of possession where it’s not a regular old Christian demon.

Goddess of Filth is a novella and quite short considering how much goes on, but it did not read as too rushed to me and mostly just gave me another author to make sure I keep updated on in V. Castro.

Snuffy’s much like an ancient goddess in that she does what she wants and exerts her power by doing things like eating the fun house entrance.

October Reader’s Advisory Adventure

One of the things I enjoy when Halloween is on the way is the proliferation of book lists for October reading – for scary reading, for fall reading, for Shirley Jackson-esque reading, for creepy reading instead of scary reading, etc. I read horror all the time, so, October lists are really a good way for me to find books I haven’t heard about already or a better description that makes me want to actually read books I have heard of. However, I’ve never done an October list myself…until now.  I have some sections for different kinds of October reading and they may all be familiar territory, like many of the October lists are for me, but keep in mind the main reason I’ve decided to create this list is as an excuse to post way more pictures from my piggie pumpkin photoshoots across the ages.

Like this one! It’s Finny!

 

First up is a short list of collections of short stories that are season suitable, each title is a link to the post I made about the book:

October Dreams – Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish, eds. – A huge – HUGE – collection which even has its own list at the end.

October Dreams is a great collection for exploring all literary things Halloween like Salem explores my graveyard set up and notes he is the same size as the hearse.

 

Women of Darkness – Kathryn Ptacek, ed. – A great one with all female authors.

There are many ladypigs of darkness in my herd, but here’s Ozma literally in the dark.

 

Silver Scream – David J. Schow, ed. – This one has some doozies.

Jump into a short story collection like Snuffy jumping into the fun house with Thorfy.

 

Part 2, the second short list, this time of Young Adult from the olden times of 1989, 1990, and the year 2000, that take place over Halloween and of course, are flawless in every way:

Trick or Treat – Richie Tankersley Cusick – When you move into a house where someone got murdered, this is what happens on Halloween.

Danger Crumples used to live in a house where someone was murdered and is flawless in every way.

 

The Halloween Party – R.L. Stine – Where nicknaming goes awry. Also, this post has a photo of Twiglet from the very first pumpkin photoshoot I ever did.

Twiglet’s mother, Pammy, during the first pumpkin photoshoot.

 

Amy – Samantha Lee – Who needs to research US Halloween? This author, but it’s also fun.

“You mean it’s not about endlessly having your picture taken with small gourds in stuff made for cats?” Snuffy’s close.

 

Short list the third, books that were creepy enough, but did not entirely give me the suspensefuls so I had to finish them right away or seriously creeped me out:

The Ring – Koji Suzuki – The movie was very scary, the book was not as much. Get away from my TV.

Summer of Night – Dan Simmons – My favorite of his that I’ve read, also a good read for summer, but, whatever.

Murderface and Pickles were ready for the first pumpkin photoshoot. To be intimidating, but still cute.

 

Borderland – S.K. Epperson – That poor goat.

The Keeper – Sarah Langan – It’s harder to breathe just thinking about this one.

Salem is very dignified in front of this haunted house because he didn’t get too scared by these books.

 

And finally…the final list…books that actually did scare me (for whatever reason) or made it to the part of my brain that won’t let me stop reading out of needing it to end and be less paranoia inducing:

Skin of the Soul –  Lisa Tuttle,ed. – Yes, this is a short story collection, a very well edited one that got under my skin.

Ladies are really good at writing horror stories. Peregrine knows why, so do I.

 

My Best Friend’s Exorcism – Grady Hendrix – Totally suspensefuls inducing, also confusing because I do not trust Phil Collins to work in this way. Also, my main issue with this book is solved in Goddess of Filth by V. Castro, which is also a tale of possession and the review goes up this month.

Horace is not paying attention while Ozma is trying to ask him how he feels about Phil Collins.

 

Long Lankin – Lindsey Barraclough – This is newerish YA, but it was super damp and creepy.

Hen Wen is stately in the face of possible damp.

 

The Ritual – Adam Nevill – Speaking of damp… This is another old school ancient kind of horror.

The Ritual can only be accompanied by a corpsepaint pig, so, here’s Thorfy in a coffin shaped loaf pan. We’re very serious here.

 

The Graveyard Apartment – Mariko Koike – I know a scary basement and this had one hellaciously scary basement and a solid level of dread.

For Snuffy, eating the coffins is a good way to get rid of the potential graveyard based menace.

 

Hex – Thomas Olde Heuvelt – This is the best book called Hex I’ve read and it had the most witchiness, which I don’t think is a coincidence.

Why yes, we did get the witch hat cat scratcher from Target this year for one of the photoshoot set ups. Thorfy nibbled it first.

 

Wylding Hall – Elizabeth Hand – This is so short and so scary it is hard for me to understand why it is so scary. I know it’s not just my personal experience with musicians.

Danger Crumples thinks I need to just let that go and solely be ensorcelled by guinea pigs. Done.

 

The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson – This is my number one, my Duke of New York, of being scared and not being able to sleep and having nightmares after reading. The Haunting of Hill House is terrifying and it’s not obvious how much so until you try to fall asleep after reading it or do fall asleep after reading it. There’s so much dark there. Shirley Jackson and this book are considered classics of horror for good reason. There is honestly no overrating when it comes to Shirley Jackson. She’s the good stuff. And as a side note, my attached review of this mentions nothing about how scary it was to read for me. I got stuck on being short and talking about how good the dialogue is and the wit – and that is part of how this book gets so scary, it’s got wit that distracts from the scary stuff winding its way into your head.

My first Shirley-character named pig, Merricat, my other A number 1, Duke of New York. Plus you can see part of Pere’s nose, she plays Shirley in a painting I haven’t been able to get an image sorted of for the computer yet.

 

Thus ends this adventure into reader’s advisory.

Happy Halloween Season from this librarian and the peegs past and present! Here’s Thorfy in the coffin loaf pan (again).

“It leads to places that would shock sex offenders in the Texas Department of Corrections.”

58. The Beige Man – Helene Tursten

A retired policeman’s car is stolen and it leads to the exposure of his sordid underbelly, a shootout in sunny Tenerife, and many unfortunate facts about child sex trafficking being learned by everyone. Oh, and there were murders too. This one has a lot going on and the story hums along nicely since Detective Inspector Irene Huss is there to lead and cut the misogynistic comments off at the pass.

I really like the title for this one, too, there are many stories about people who have some sort of hidden life no one expects, but describing a man like the retired policeman as seeming like a “beige man” is great. I often find beige as opposed to finding layers of color under the cover of beige, so, that was an enjoyable narrative switch up for me. I never expected the story to have so much going on with that title.

Pammy and Twiglet could never be described as beige. They were both brown with ticking and caramel-colored undersides and a lack of sordid enterprises.

Laura Purcell’s bio mentions she has guinea pigs, so I’m really glad her books are so good even if guinea pigs are not mentioned.

112. The Poison Thread – Laura Purcell

I read this book in what felt like 10 seconds. It was intriguing and sad and weird and just a really great story of a murderess who wasn’t really a murderess at all. She thought she was, she thought she deserved to sit there in prison picking pitchy ropes apart, but Candice DeLong would not have anything quippy to say about her, as Ruth is not really much of a Deadly Woman. Dorothea, Miss Phrenology, aka the other narrator besides Ruth the murderess who is like really good at sewing – like really good -, let’s just say she’s not the Candice DeLong of the Victorian era. She thinks she’s a profiler with her interest in everybody’s skull bumps, but she’s mostly an unreliable rich kid with some delusions.

The details included in The Poison Thread are merciless and in different hands, they would have weighed down the story. Purcell picks and stitches and dirties her way through Ruth’s world as she tells her story to Dorothea and it’s so disappointing to watch as Ruth unknowingly ends up where she is. She has horrible circumstances and because she still has those unfortunate needs like food and a place to sleep, she totally gets played by everyone around her who is just a tad more ruthless than she is. And also by the conventions of the time – that arsenic green really is a truly beautiful color. I can understand why everybody wanted their dresses made in it and their wallpaper that color. I’ve been looking for the next best paint myself and have some close matches; they’re just not quite as deep and deceptively dangerous.

Finny and Pere never had to worry about being well fed, not even while in the throes of terminal illness or aging.

“Rachel? No one gets your references.”

58. The Mary Shelley Club – Goldy Moldavsky

Rachel Chavez, imaginary teenager, and I have similar taste in horror movies. I’ve definitely seen some she hasn’t, but I recognized snippets of plots and references and bits and pieces all throughout The Mary Shelley Club before they would name the movies (if they named them) and it was very fun. The line I chose as the title is also very accurate of me most of the time…almost all of the time. I very rarely get to be around anyone who knows what I’m talking about even 50% of the time, so it’s such a relief when I am around someone who does, which is also Rachel Chavez’s experience in The Mary Shelley Club.

There was no way she wasn’t going to finagle her way into that club, even if it did turn into a test of endurance that almost got her killed and did get other people killed; well, it is challenging to keep friendships and boyfriends if they lie to you. Sometimes people fight for those who have no interest in anything but manipulating them some more as high school is the kind of place where narcissists test their wings. And Rachel isn’t the kind of student who is in the school she’s in because she has money and will never have to worry about her future or getting away with murder. Technically, she already didn’t.

Snuffy is chattering at Thorfy because she knows he’s about to ruin her lounging. He could just appreciate her doing something she’s amazing at, but no, he must ruin it because he’s not doing it. Boars.

“I could help you, but I’d rather stand here and record.”

70. The Lost Village – Camilla Sten

This book has some of the elements I like best – it’s a tight setting, there aren’t millions of characters and perspectives to consider in one chapter, it’s just these people and the missing people, all in the same location and dealing with the creepy circumstances happening in the past and the present. And mold. And injuries. And the haunting spectre of the past. And before anyone can even haunt anything, a handsome stranger priest shows up and then suddenly no one is in the town of Silvertjarn anymore.

Sten mentions in her notes that the book is also dealing with different women’s experience of mental illness – including one who cannot tell her own story and is a target of that handsome stranger priest in the past. This was also a very appealing aspect to me, as I find a lot of horror in group mentalities and targeting women who aren’t like everyone else, regardless of whether it’s being done out of ignorance or because you want to be a member of the cult in good standing.

I can say that this did not scare me anywhere near as much as The Blair Witch Project did when it came out and I saw it in the theater; however, I like the conceit of making a documentary about an isolated and mysterious location and having things go horribly wrong and that’s done well here and in an interesting way. There’s also the parallel of outsider women being the easiest targets to accuse of witchcraft, which is always a challenge to the Christianity of the villagers, going on in The Lost Village and Blair Witch (although that movie really indicates they were right to be worried about her).

Also, as someone who has read a lot of Scandinavian and Nordic crime novels, I really appreciate having some of that area’s horror. There isn’t enough of it getting translated as far as I can tell, I would like some more.

Pere had a habit of facing the corners of her house and every time I saw it I would ask her not to Blair Witch because it’s too scary. Here, Horace has convinced her to face away from the couch corner, a marked improvement.