“He had come to grips with himself and faced reality. He did not like the human female.”
Another #PaperbackFromHell checked off the list, and this one “He had come to grips with himself and faced reality. He did not like the human female.”
Another #PaperbackFromHell checked off the list, and this one was quite the reading experience. I chose to make Wild Violets (1980) my next vintage horror paperback because the title seemed fitting for macabre Spring reading and I wasn’t wrong—plenty of floral imagery and outdoor settings.
Kramer Willinger is a young man who suffers from something not too far off from an Oedipus complex after the death of his father. He develops incestuous, lusty feelings for his mother after taking the phrase “you’re the man of the house now” a bit too literally. His mother Alice loves her son but is wary of something wrong with him. She is non-verbal—communicating through sign language—and suffers from memory loss, not remembering her husband’s death—did she kill him or was it an accident? Stemming from Kramer’s traumatic adolescence, as well as a constant rejection from and fear of the opposite sex, he equates women to the wild violets in his mother’s garden–sweet smelling, beautiful, enticing yet deceitful—and blames them for his emotional/mental troubles. And thus, his villain origin story has come to fruition and Kramer becomes a serial killer, one who praises himself as clever and strategic while hiding under the guise of a charming upstanding citizen.
As is expected from pulpy horror novels published in the 70’s and 80’s, this book is full of misogyny—violence, lots of vivid descriptions of women’s bodies to appease the male gaze, even a touch of disdain for women’s liberation from male characters. The author, Ruth Baker Field, also seems to have made this her only published work and I couldn’t find any information on her—assuming the author is actually a woman and not a man using a pseudonym. In spite of the "ick" I got from many moments in this book, I actually found this to be a page-turner I couldn’t put down. Compared to the contemporary splatterpunk genre with it's gore, perversity and violence, it was actually pretty tame. (plus, after reading Chandler Morrison’s Dead Inside, almost nothing scandalizes me anymore).
If you like your horror a little on the pulpy side, are fascinated by the serial killer psyche, male characters with mommy issues, or if you even manage to find a used copy of this book out there in the wild, see how you fare!
**TRIGGER WARNINGS: s*xual assault, r*pe, misogyny, incest, violence, animal death (a wild bird is brutally killed)...more
“Children are very wise intuitively; they know who loves them most, and who only pretends.”
This book was wild!!!! I know I'm decades late to the party“Children are very wise intuitively; they know who loves them most, and who only pretends.”
This book was wild!!!! I know I'm decades late to the party as far as starting this series but I have finally arrived and I'm hooked on this hot mess! Unlike so many of my peers, I knew absolutely nothing about this story going in. I was completely blind to what was going to happen and it was my understanding that many readers who loved this series were adolescents, so I assumed this would be a sinister yet tame Young Adult thriller. I was SO wrong.
This story begins with four children learning their beloved father has died in an accident and they will all be penniless unless their mother finds a way to financially support them. She resolves to take her children to live with their wealthy grandparents whom they've never met due to their mother being estranged. The mother tells the children that she hopes to inherit their grandfather's wealth by seeking his forgiveness for a dreadful sin she committed in the past. But she will only be able to get that money if the grandfather is kept in the dark about the fact that he has grandchildren. So the children are kept hidden in their grandparents attic for what they hope will only be a few days, just until the grandfather--who is deathly ill--passes away. But as the story progresses, the children start to realize that their hiding place has become their prison.
What I anticipated to be a mature version of The Boxcar Children ended up being so much darker. I found myself simultaneously enraptured and appalled at what these children went through. If you're like me and this popular series somehow flew under your radar, now's as good a time as any to start!
Finished reading my first #PaperbacksFromHell of the year and I have to say, while it was entertaining, suspenseful, graphically violent and explicit,Finished reading my first #PaperbacksFromHell of the year and I have to say, while it was entertaining, suspenseful, graphically violent and explicit, it was also very much a product of its time. I’m talking racial slurs, misogyny, and definitely content that requires trigger warnings. But did I still like it? Yes!
The Nightrunners (1987) is pretty much about a maniacal gang of teenage serial killers/rapists who have had a history of terrorizing the countryside of Galveston, Texas. When Clyde Epson, the gang’s leader, is apprehended and later commits suicide in prison, his second-in-command Brian Blackwood is devastated. That is until his old buddy returns to him in a dream as (get this) a ventriloquist dummy perched on the knee of a frightening entity known as the God of the Razor. Answering now to dark supernatural forces, Brian must do his dead leader’s bidding by attacking and cutting out the heart of their last victim—a survivor by the name of Becky Jones, a woman who was once their high school teacher.
While there were many (many) unpleasant moments in this book I could’ve personally done without, it had a lot of things going for it that I gave points for. The multi-perspective storytelling, the fast pacing, the shock to the senses I anticipate in splatterpunk, the mix of psychological with the supernatural (Is the God of the Razor real or is the villain in our story simply descending into madness due to grief for his gang leader? How will the lasting effects of Becky’s trauma be overcome?) In just under 250 pages, we’re given a violent crime thriller mixed with supernatural horror and it’s a messed up ride.
This is only my second book by the great Joe R. Lansdale (my first being a novella called Prisoner 489) and seeing that this is a very early work of his, I can only assume they get better and better. I know I’ve got a lot of material to cover before deciding if this author is for me, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t held at the edge of my seat with this one!
**TRIGGER WARNINGS: rape, racial slurs, animal cruelty, assault on an elderly person...more
"Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive, sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to."
I love how--in spite of this book"Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive, sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to."
I love how--in spite of this book starting out with our protagonist Dolores confessing to police about the murder of her husband--I felt like I was sitting in a cozy living room being served tea (both literally and figuratively) as an old woman tells a long, compelling, grisly story. I loved how as Dolores tells her audience this story, it darkens but there is still so much wit and humor throughout. I wanna be this woman when I grow up. All. The. Stars....more
This book is a fun, unholy time (if you can stomach the misogyny, homophobia, and the fact that the pr3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4 stars for Goodreads!
This book is a fun, unholy time (if you can stomach the misogyny, homophobia, and the fact that the protagonist's boyfriend is an absolute asshole. Ah, the 70's.)
A young woman burdened by a dark past, an apartment listing too good to be true, strange neighbors (including...*clutches pearls*... LESBIANS!), a blind priest, and the gates of Hell, all wrapped up in 200+ pages of an occult horror classic.
And yet, my favorite part of this book is the birthday party for the neighbor's cat....more
This was a wild, gory, fast-paced, hurricane of suspense! If you enjoyed Jack Ketchum's Off Season, you'll probably love this. But be warned, this is This was a wild, gory, fast-paced, hurricane of suspense! If you enjoyed Jack Ketchum's Off Season, you'll probably love this. But be warned, this is NOT for the squeamish. This book is full of graphic and triggering content. ...more
“If we find that all our efforts have failed and someone buys the house, we shall set fire to it and burn it down. We will do this at night, before it“If we find that all our efforts have failed and someone buys the house, we shall set fire to it and burn it down. We will do this at night, before it is occupied. In another time they would have plowed and charred ground and sowed it with salt. If it should come to that, I do not think we will be punished. I do not think we will be alive long enough."
Prepare for a brain-dump of all my adoring thoughts about this book:
Folks, I have never devoured and loved a book so fast in my entire life. Alright, so that’s not entirely true, but it’s been so long since I’ve adored a book so wholeheartedly to the level of wanting to shove it into the hands of anyone I come across.
This book has now joined Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House as one of my favorite modern-classic horror novels of all time. And it didn't need pages of blood and gore to make the list.
THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR is a southern-gothic horror novel about a newly built, contemporary home that rocks the foundations of a very quiet, prominent neighborhood in 1970's Atlanta, Georgia. This is a haunted house story experienced from the perspectives of its neighbors, mainly the next door neighbors Walter and Colquitt Kennedy who are hellbent on ridding their street of the house’s influential evil, brick by brick. Why? Because terrible, unspeakable things always seem to happen when people move in.
Why do I personally think this book to be as brilliant as it is? Well, where Hill House in Shirley Jackson’s well known masterpiece is openly brooding, menacing, and even ugly, the house that author Anne Rivers Siddons dreams up is beautiful, unique, modern, enviable, and inviting–all the worse for the unfortunate victims that are lured by its façade. The house is not some centuries-old, isolated mansion built near a graveyard. It dwells in a pristine, friendly neighborhood. No cobwebs to dust, no creaky doors and floorboards, no demons or ghosts to exorcize. All the better to mislead each inhabitant that walks through the door and makes themselves comfortable. And that’s unsettling, the fact that this seemingly charming home is wearing a mask. However, similarly to The Haunting of Hill House, the true origin of the house’s evil is a mystery--even though the readers and the characters are witnessing the birth of an unknown malevolence in Siddons' house as it is being built from the ground up. I freaking love that.
But I didn’t just fall in love with the book’s steady pacing, unsettling atmosphere, subtle eeriness, and growing paranoia. I loved Siddons' memorable characters, the domestic details, the polite American Southern-ness of it all. I also consumed this book within the confines of my own newly-moved-into home and felt an extra vulnerability while reading. I LOVED THIS BOOK. And I don’t think I could gush enough without this review turning into an essay. So I’ll stop here and just recommend this book to lovers of southern gothic fiction, unconventional haunted house narratives, and/or horror novels with subtle scares and lasting impacts....more
Now that I've officially read my first Clive Barker novel....my soul thirsts for MORE!!!!!! (I also now have a desire to re-watch Hellraiser).Now that I've officially read my first Clive Barker novel....my soul thirsts for MORE!!!!!! (I also now have a desire to re-watch Hellraiser)....more
I came across this gem of a book while skimming through the horror section of my local used bookstore and when I read the synopsis, my immediat4.5/5⭐️
I came across this gem of a book while skimming through the horror section of my local used bookstore and when I read the synopsis, my immediate thought was, “teenage girl as mad scientist? YES PLEASE!” I spent my weekend finishing this book and I have to say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! • Brainchild is about Lois Wilson, a brilliant high school senior with a passion for behavioral science. When her father suffers a near-fatal stroke that changes the family’s sense of normal, Lois can’t help but use the unfortunate event as an opportunity for her biggest scientific study yet. Unbeknownst to her family, they are her new guinea pigs. • At first I couldn’t see how a brainy teenager could be so threatening in a horror novel. But as I discovered Lois’s talent for manipulation and deceit, I began to fear for the people around her! As a protagonist (or I guess antagonist?), I found Lois to be absolutely fascinating! While the people around her believed her to be snobby, arrogant, cold, and unfeeling, I personally couldn’t get enough of her. I hung on her every word. My only complaint was that the ending was a little anticlimactic. • I was also surprised to learn this book was featured in “Paperbacks From Hell”! If you haven’t read it yet, find yourself a copy and get to it! ...more
Nina The Wandering Reader
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