It's time again for another box on the Scaredy Cat Bingo Challenge , which consists of 25 reading prompts on a bingo board. Not playing...
Today's prompt:
under the sea
Jaws. Leviathan. DeepStar Six. Sea Fever.
Deep Blue Sea. The Shallows. Cold Skin.
The list goes on and on. There are tons of movies about ocean monsters, real or imagined and it's no surprise. According to Oceana.org, more than 80% of the ocean remains unexplored. It's no wonder that so many people have thalassophobia, or a fear of the ocean. The ocean can be a scary place with its dark, deep, and unknown depths. The fear of what's could be waiting unseen under the surface is not a new fear, prompting sightings and legends of sea monsters for millennia in various cultures. Today's prompt takes a look at horror fiction for its inspiration.
For this prompt, pick a book with watery horrors down below.
Ready to take the plunge? 
A boat filming a mockumentary in the Mariana Trench is found floating drenched in blood. They send another ship seven years later to discover what happened to the original crew.
Ariel has teeth, lots and lots of teeth.
The Mariana Trench strikes again, this time as the only possible cure for the 'Gets a strange plague reeking havoc on humanity causing forgetfulness and the eventual loss of autonomous bodily functions—you know like breathing. (You need that.) Topside, communication with the underwater research station is lost and a few souls brave the Deep to discover what happened.
Groundhog's Day meets Outbreak on a cruise liner.
Where's Bill Murray or Dustin Hoffman when you need them?
The Fisherman is a memoir of two widowers, both grieving huge losses, as they go on a fishing trip to Dutchman’s Creek, located in the Catskill Mountains. They stop at a diner and rando dude who tells them the story of Dutchman's Creek and begs them not to go. Honestly, it sounds like a huge snooze fest until you get that it's a bizarre and extremely violent alternate reality with monsters, the undead, and a god-like being granting bad wishes like a psychotic genie.
Alien lifeforms called the Yrr are influencing the oceans' creatures to rebel against mankind as payback for the way we have treated nature. It's probably a pretty good read but I can't get past the fact that they are all called the Yrr.
Alien pirates? Yrrr!
More of a sci-fi thriller than horror, Sphere is about finding a presumed alien vessel (obviously sphere-shaped) on the seafloor and they send down scientists to investigate. Lesson learned: if Dustin Hoffman shows up, run.
The shipwrecked, vacationing passengers of the ill-fated freighter, Morris, are picked up by the H.M.S. Pandora and sail into a cruise of metaphysical terror, madness, and death.
That's it. That's the whole synopsis. You're welcome.
That damn Mariana Trench again. Not killer mermaids or a forgetfulness virus. This time we get a big ass shark, the Megalodon. Spotted by a Navy diver on another mission, dude freaks out—understandably as I think we all would upon seeing a big ass shark (and some of us seeing any ass sharks. Me. I'm talking about me.) No one believes him because they are extinct. Duh. Because he's not very smart, he goes back in the water and they start believing him when people are getting crunched. They spend the rest of the novel trying to make it go kaboom. However, like Sharknado, there is a sequel...and another...and another...and...another.
Weird shit happens on the Titanic and true to history, this version sinks too. A maid survives the sinking and after a brief stint in an asylum, decides to go on its sister ship turned medical hospital, The Britannic, with absolutely no medical training because why the hell not? Is Annie the maid crazy or is there something supernatural going on here? At least we won't have to argue that Jack could have fit on that door with Rose.
Sorrow's brother Henry disappears so off she goes to the small seaside town of Tidepool to find out what happened to him. First off, who names their kid Sorrow? That's just setting her up for failure and that's before the bodies start washing up looking like chew toys for giant ocean monsters. This is the kind of book where you constantly scream at the protagonist to get the hell outta dodge but they say "You're not my mom" and stay.
Stuck on a boat surrounded by air and sea monsters, survivors of a flooded kingdom are struggling to exist. One of them, a woman named Iraxi is extremely pregnant and like most pregnant women, doesn't really want to be pregnant anymore except for very different reasons. She resents everyone, including her unborn er, thing. The ship reeks, the people reek, and being pregnant also reeks.
This anthology is part of Eerie River Publishing's It Call From series with "twenty brutal tales of horror from the deep blue sea." There's killer kelp, menacing mermaids, elder gods, family curses, and all things in between.
The Kelping by Jan Stinchcomb is number nine in Unnerving's Rewind or Die series. Those of you expecting a horror-filled flesh-eating mermaid tale might find it a little tame. What's inside these 67 pages is a more insidious tale of mermaids infiltrating a sleepy little seaside town.
People are shipped off to an island with a Faraday cage prison to reflect on being trolls on social media. It's a peaceful place, except for—you know—the whole evil monster bit.
The Devils shallows by Debra Castaneda
Salt marshes are weird places anyway but add an urban legend about the Slough Devil and it's extra weird. Adam doesn't believe in monsters, but that's okay, the monsters still believe in him.
Now we get to the Little Mermaid retellings. C'mon, I had to toss a few in.
Set in 1860s Denmark, Evie (the witch) meets a mermaid with the face of her dead friend. They fall for a couple of princes and Evie has to help her new friend keep her legs. Life's full of tough choices, isn't it?
No dinglehoppers here! This Ariel is ripping the hearts out of princes every year on her birthday in this retelling. Happy Birthday! Argh. ☠ One day she pisses off Mommie Dearest the sea Queen and gets turned into a filthy human as punishment. She has to return with the heart of Princey Siren Killer or stay human forever.
Sticking more closely to the original by Hans Christian Andersen, this one is dark as it should be. No singing or friends named Flounder. Matter of fact, a girl has no name...nor does anyone else. It's just The Little Mermaid or The Prince.
Well, there you have it. 18 book choices to check off the Under The Sea box on your Scaredy Cat Bingo card. If you haven't started playing yet, check out the board and jump in at any time.
This year I'm going to try to focus more on tracking my reads for the Scaredy Cat Bingo Challenge , which consists of 25 reading prompt...
This year I'm going to try to focus more on tracking my reads for the Scaredy Cat Bingo Challenge, which consists of 25 reading prompts on a bingo board.
Not playing yet?
Today's prompt:
Feed Me, Seymour
Eco horror calls for us to take a look at what we are doing to the environment and make changes.
For this prompt, pick a book with ecohorror themes.
Here are just a few to get you started:
Ecohorror-themed fiction and poetry make up this anthology of 50 authors. Plants, animals, weather phenomenon - it all has a turn.
The author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World takes on the short story in this collection. Themes vary but the titular Growing Things is ecohorror.
Yes, that Annihilation. The movie with Natalie Portman is based on this book by Jeff VanderMeer. A expedition of 4 women is sent to Area X to succeed where eleven before then failed. Area X is waiting for them.
Another story with a human-free zone, this one established as a way to combat global warming. A team of adventures goes into the Virgin Zone as it's called, but nature has other ideas for them.
Part lush gothic, part ecohorror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia builds a mysterious and eerie landscape as socialite Naomi travels to High Place after an odd letter from her cousin. This one surprisingly is ecohorror with a great twist.
A group of teen girls in quarantine at a boarding school fight to survive against their own mutating bodies and the wilderness of the island due to a contagion called The Tox.
Another movie adaptation here, The Ruins follows a group of friends on vacation in Mexico as they go on an archeological dig deep in the forest and discover an ancient evil.
In 1845 Sir John Franklin led many men in search of the Arctic's fabled North West Passage. Dan Simmons' version of what happened to the 129 men on the expedition is chilling (pun intended).
Silla and Nori are sisters running away from an abusive home in London and into the countryside to leave with their aunt but the woods are creeping closer each day.
This time we take to the sea and an oil drilling platform but something lives beneath and it's pissed.
Two dozen weird and wild stories about fungi going from bizarrely whimsical to horrific.
This dystopian novel has evolution moving backward. The government is capturing pregnant women and holding them through their delivery but why?
A young mother is dying in hospital with a young boy at her side but he's not her son. She can't see or move and David tells her it's because of the worms.
Of course it is.
A pregnant woman escapes to the mountain to escape a skin-sealing epidemic but the mountains aren't the safe place she expected.
Huge mutant cockroaches make up the bulk of this 80's novel.
That's it. That's all you need.
The ocean and its occupants take revenge on humans.
Ten supernatural stories span themes from gothic to cosmic, folklore, and myths.
A fungal organism buried in a subterranean basement has found its way out and is mutating.
This year I'm going to try to focus more on tracking my reads for the Scaredy Cat Bingo Challenge , which consists of 25 reading prompts...
This year I'm going to try to focus more on tracking my reads for the Scaredy Cat Bingo Challenge, which consists of 25 reading prompts on a bingo board.
Today's prompt:
Howl at the Moon
For this prompt, you'll need to read a book with shapeshifters. I've chosen werewolves specifically but any shapeshifter counts.
For horror lovers, there are plenty of wolfy reads out there!
Here are just a few to get you started:
This WWII alternate historical drama has a little bit of everything: Nazis, spies, werewolves. Can't decide whether to read horror or a spy thriller? The Wolf's Hour means you don't have to choose.
Creature feature at its best, Wolf Land starts the night before a 10-year high school reunion. Scary enough, right? Now add in an attack by a stranger who just happens to be a werewolf. The victims of the attack are finding themselves changing and the small town of Lakeview is in danger.
Marlow Higgins is Dexter with hair. His wolfen dark passenger is sated by killing but he only chooses those who do harm. When a serial killer stalks his town, he goes after the killer but it doesn't go quite as planned.
Side note: Nicholas Pekaro found out his book would be published and was killed three days later in the line of duty as an NYPD Auxillary policeman.
In a world taken over by werewolves, what is a love-sick dog catcher to do? Especially when his crush is a lady werewolf who has left her pack. Sharp Teeth is unique in that it's written in free verse.
Mongrels follows young Toby and his family as they travel across the American South in this coming-of-age tale. Always on the outskirts, Toby's tale subverts the typical werewolf tropes.
Jacob Marlowe is the last of his kind. After 200 years, he's ready to end it all but fate and love have other plans.
A killing every full moon plagues this Maine town. (It's always freaking Maine isn't it?) Cycle of the Werewolf was adapted into the film Silver Bullet later on.
Transporting a werewolf cross-country. What could go wrong? The first of three books, Jeff Strand's special brand of humor brings a darkly humorous addition to the werewolf genre.
Love urban fantasy?
There are SO many shifter books out there but here are a few of my favorites.
Cursed by a witch who murdered her entire family, Britta heads back home when the witch's remains are found in the house where it all began.
Taken to an abbey on a deserted island, Durra is told this odd place is now her home. Tending to the nuns and their many cats, Durra starts searching for answers about the abbey and the creatures she hears howling outside her window.
Mercy Thompson is a Volkwagon mechanic and a coyote shifter. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf that she loves to taunt. The first of thirteen books, Moon Called has shifters, gremlins, vampires, and more.
Attacked in the park one night, Amber finds herself changing. Bitten wolves are looked down upon even if they didn't choose it. She and two others changed against their will bind themselves together to form a new pack. However, Amber has to fight in the Trials to keep the title of Alpha or her pack will be disbanded. This five-book series is will have you rooting for the underdog.
Running a Victorian B&B is no joke in a normal world, but what happens when your clientele is more than human? The first of a five-book series, this world has a lot of magic, intergalactic monsters, and a bit of romance.
Is red more your color?
Check out these fairytale retellings.
This post-apocalyptic take on Little Red Riding Hood casts Red not as a damsel in distress, but as someone who might just eat you up herself.
A white wolf saved Andesine as a child. After the wolf turns out to be an omega hiding from his former pack, Andesine finds herself returning the favor and getting caught in the middle of something much bigger than herself.
This twisted fairytale is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, not Little Red Riding Hood but there's still a wolf involved. Gemma is captured by a Fae King and in order to gain her freedom, will help him break his curse. But when the curse is broken, he'll return to his wolf form. Is it worth it?
Scarlett is a wolf hunter as is her sister Ruby. While Scarlett seems to be born to the job, Ruby isn't so sure this is what she wants. Sibling bonds and rivalry come into play when Ruby starts to have ideas about the woodsman Silas, Scarlett's only friend.
Apprenticed to the witch of the forest to become a forest warden, Rose breaks the curse of a man shackled in the body of a wolf. When wardens go missing, she must uncover who is behind the disappearances before her mentor goes missing as well.
The woods around Oakvale are dangerous, but when you are the wolf, the woods are a little less dangerous if you know what you are doing. Charged with protecting the occupants of the town, Adele is following her calling but it may cost her her future.
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