The Horror Aficionados summer challenge has begun in May this year, yay! So I went through my tbr-list and tried to make a smaller list of the books that are somewhat related to summer activities - only to sadly realize that the books I want to read are usually way too grim for the usually lighter summertime. I was still able to scrape together a few titles, mostly books about the sea, the seaside, swimming, but also one about open-air band tours, one theme park and one about camping. I usually try to not overdo it and pledge to read about five books, this year I'm shooting for more and hope it works.
Here are my chosen summer challenge books:
Chlorine by Jade Song
Although I don't feel particularly strong about mermaids one way or the other, except that time Hans Christian Andersen broke my heart and made me ugly cry as a child, I feel compelled to read this. And yes, the breathtakingly beautiful cover art does play a role in my wish to read it. The story is about a young swimmer whose whole world revolves around her training and team for which she may be under a little bit of pressure.
In her heart of hearts, she wishes to become a mermaid and is ready to endure as much pain as necessary to make that wish come true. Do I sense body horror?
The blurbs throw around concepts like coming of age, transformation, sapphic love, and that all sounds very good to me.
Sleep Alone by JAW McCarthy
I was recently watching the Woodstock '94 performances on youtube, I saw them on TV back in the day and seeing it now as an adult I was staggered by what idiots the bands we fan-ed after actually were. I especially felt bad for the roadies who had to incessantly run around, clean after, even be chased after and have guitars and keyboards smashed on their backs, ouf...
It was a nice coincidence then that I stumbled upon this little novella which is exactly about roadies, or rather about a merch seller (don't know if that counts as roadie) for a perpetually touring band consisting of hungry succubi leaving a trail of dead bodies behind. I'm reaaaallly excited about this because it just sounds awesome and I hope it does justice to this wonderful premise.
Maeve Fly by CJ Leede
This has already been one of my most anticipated novels of the year and it is of course just wonderful that it fits the summer challenge too.
We follow Maeve Fly who works as an extra in a Disney-like theme park by day. By night, though, she does some bar hopping where she plays her favorite literary heroes. A fun hobby. But things turn around when her best friend's brother moves to town and for him, she will be acting the part of a very special, but also dangerous character straight from the pages of American Psycho.
Need I say more? At this point the only thing I'm a little scared of is that I'm expecting a lot from this book and thus can be easier disappointed, and that it is published by tor nightfire, whose books are fun and all, but tend to be not very scary or extreme. Publication day is June 6, I-can-not-wait.
Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
Another "most anticipated" of the year. Another twisty psychological horror from Ward. The protagonist retreats into a seaside cottage to write his last novel ever. And what a novel it is - the highly autobiographic scandal material includes how he and his friends found a body during one of his New England summers and of how his best friend stole his memoir and turned it into a bestseller.
Although this sounds like a pretty standard horror-mystery, I can't wait to see what Catriona Ward has in store for us, because in her books nothing is ever what it seems.
The first early or advanced reviews have started trickling in and the rating still looks very good, so I'm very optimistically sure I will enjoy reading this.
Black Lake Manor by Guy Morpuss
The descendants of one particular man in Canada all have the ability to be able to once in their lives unwind the events of the previous six hours.
Against this backdrop plays a locked room mystery at a party at the Black Lake Manor: part-time police
constable Ella Manning, a raging storm
coming in, trapped guests and a murder case. Ella solves the case, but when someone uses their gift to turn the last six hours back, she solves it again with different results. A fiddly, almost mathematical puzzle just the way I like them!
I reckon the premise is a little far-fetched with the six hours and all, it is still an interesting concept and to be honest the only reason I picked this up is that the cover blurb says "Agatha Christie on steroids!", so how could I have resisted that description?
Help! A Bear is Eating Me by Mykle Hansen
There was a time I used to read a lot of bizzarro fiction, I dug it a lot. But as time went by I'm not sure what happened, but the flame died down and I felt like the best part of these often small but pricey books are the hilarious titles but the stories themselves don't do them much justice.
Help! A Bear is Eating Me is left to me from that phase of my life, a book I started reading and at first it was quite shocking and amusing, but it failed to hold my interest in the long run. The novella centers on a very rich and unlikable man who gets stuck underneath his car while out in nature and he is stuck in such a fashion that a bear who threatens him starts nibbling his foot. The story is told all the while the bear eats the narrator, so the title is actually quite literal. I'm giving this a second chance in this summer challenge and hope I'll like it more this time.
Sacculina by Philip Fracassi
Fresh out of prison and first thing Jack does is collect his brothers, his father and his menacing best friend, lol, jump on a fishing boat and into the arms of Lovecraftian horrors. I admit this sounds very unfortunate and let's hope Jack survives.
I have read one single story written by Fracassi and that story haunts me to this day even though it's been years since I read it. So I'm very optimistic that there is some crazy things happening which make this seemingly dull premise exciting.
As to the one story which still haunts me, "My Love, Do Not Wake" is about a neglected wife who, after her husband who always sleeps with his back to her gets a haircut, discovers a whole new husband on his backside. And he's much nicer.
The Sea of Ash by Scott Thomas
I have actually started reading this book before it was announced that the summer challenge begins earlier this year, but for another challenge, namely the Shine and Shadow Book Bingo for a prompt that orders "Read a book that somebody else tells you to read." So I asked Whitney to give me a book because I know she's a horror fan and she came up with the cosmic horror The Sea of Ash, of which I had never heard of before.
What a shame for me because it's absolutely delightful. The book follows three men, a doctor from the past who helped a woman who emerged from the sea give birth to her baby (but it's not really a baby), a man in Victorian England who summons some kind of creature into a mansion and finally a biograph who follows the traces of the two men in the present time.
I have to admit to my shame that while reading I have managed to mix up the characters which left me really confused, so I plan to start anew and read it properly and not while I'm commuting or anything.
The Insatiable Volt Sisters by Rachel Eve Moulton
The story of sisters Beatrice and Henrietta Volt who were separated because of the divorce of their parents and a reunion because of a funeral, sounds really good to me.
Real reason I picked this up is twofold - first the cover description that says "enthralling fable about monsters real and imagined and the sometimes painful bonds of sisterhood" and I feel that.
Second reason is that Gus Moreno, who wrote the wonderful novella This Thing Between Us, blurbed it "nightmare fuel" and I'll completely trust Moreno on that one.
This is the plan, my friends. I have three and a half months time and need to be finished by August 31, but as I said before I'm confident that I can make this. Join me with your own summer books if you will!
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