I'm excited to be joining in another Bookish Blog Hop!  Each day, bloggers answer questions about themselves and the books they ar...


I'm excited to be joining in another Bookish Blog Hop! 


Each day, bloggers answer questions about themselves and the books they are reading. 
Yesterday, we were over at the Upstream Writer Blog hosted by Leslie Conzatti where we talked about books we own but haven't read yet. 


Today's prompt is:

 A Book With A Body Positive Theme!



Horror is frequently misogynistic, filled with scantily clad women who are voted most likely to die first by the hands of the killer. These highly sexualized women tend to be blond and thin—shallow "bimbo" types—who are the epitome of what the male viewer is supposed to idolize.  Horror movies have long portrayed female characters as either the "whore", who is essentially punished for her sexuality, or the "virgin", the remarkably less-attractive modest female who often gets to be the "final girl", as if that behavior makes her the only one deserving of surviving.

For years, horror fiction followed that same formula, but we have recently seen a reversal of this line of thinking (and writing). Horror has become progressively more feminist. We have gotten much stronger female protagonists who are clever and much more than their physical appearance, catapulting us (and rightfully so) beyond the bimbos of horror. Even with this new found more progressive view, there's honestly not a whole lot of body positive horror novels out there with fat protagonists. By this I mean, stories where the characters are more than their size, where fat just happens to be what they are without affecting WHO they are. Because of this, I'm very excited about a new anthology releasing soon called Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology, edited by Nico Bell and Sonora Taylor.


From the submission site, the description reads:
It’s time to reclaim the “f” word. Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology is dedicated to empowering fat characters within the horror community. Give us your rage over weigh-ins, your detest over detox cleanses, your rebellion against diet culture. Give us bad-ass characters who own their size and never apologize for taking up space. This is a horror anthology, so be sure to have your character in some kind of horror story--but, we are open to what that story is! We welcome haunted houses, ghost stories, creature features, splatterpunk, serial killers, witches, monsters, you name it. Just make sure your story features at least one fat protagonist. Fat people are often degraded in literature, especially in horror. It’s disheartening to see someone’s natural body be portrayed as disgusting and inherently bad. Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology aims to give that trope the heartiest “fuck you” that our big selves can muster. So go on, send us what you’ve got!


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Here's what the others had to say:


Leslie Conzatti -- www.upstreamwriter.blogspot.com


I don’t really actively seek out body-positive books, but I do appreciate when the theme crops up in the narrative of any book I’m reading! 


However, one book in particular that I can think of to fit this theme is The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake. It’s important to me because it was given to me by a fifth-grade student who knew how much I love books and writing, and she loved the book herself because of how much she related to the main character. 

The theme of body positivity in this book pertains to the matters of race, and skin color. The main character, Maleeka, is taunted at school because she looks different… until a teacher arrives at the school who has a very obvious blemish on her face, but she doesn’t seem bothered by it. The teacher shows Maleeka how to love the skin she’s in, no matter what it looks like. It’s a very sweet and impactful little book!




Jo Linsdell -

 www.JoLinsdell.com

A book that fits this theme that I’ve been meaning to read since I watched the film adaptation of it is Dumplin‘ by Julie Murphy.

About the book:

Now a popular Netflix feature film, starring Jennifer Aniston, Danielle Macdonald, and Dove Cameron, as well as a soundtrack from Dolly Parton!

The #1 New York Times bestseller and feel-good YA of the year—about Willowdean Dixon, the fearless, funny, and totally unforgettable heroine who takes on her small town’s beauty pageant.

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body.

With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any girl does.

Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

Vidya Tiru -

LadyInReadWrites (Instagram | Twitter | Facebook )

While I don’t specifically go looking for books with any theme in mind, including today’s theme of body positivity, I am glad when I read books that address these tough issues. We need reads like this, for they help throw light on the issue itself while addressing how we can make things better.

I read quite a few books that dealt with the subject of body image in the past year. A couple of my favorite reads among those include Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe. Both these YA reads tackle many issues along with the theme of body positivity; and each one does it beautifully without overplaying anything. I am sure you will love Charlie and Moon just as much as I did.

Another book I want to recommend here is a nonfiction read for younger readers, and aptly and simply titled Love Your Body.

Book description for each listed book (excerpted from Goodreads):

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega: A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.

How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe: A romance starring a Mexican American teen who discovers love and profound truths about the universe when she spends her summer on a road trip across the country.

Love Your Body: This book introduces the language of self-love and self-care to help build resilience, while representing and celebrating diverse bodies, encouraging girls to appreciate their uniqueness




Be sure to check out the other days of the hop!!










I don't know about you but I'm so excited for some of this month's new releases. Paranormal, sci-fi, creatures, apocalyptic...th...




I don't know about you but I'm so excited for some of this month's new releases. Paranormal, sci-fi, creatures, apocalyptic...they are all here!

Take a gander below at this month's roundup of anticipated horror releases for February 2022. 


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...

And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich

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. 

The Black by Paul Elard Cooley

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? 

FEVER DREAM BY SAMANTA SCHWEBLIN

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.  


SEALED BY NAOMI BOOTH

A pregnant woman escapes to the mountain to escape a skin-sealing epidemic but the mountains aren't the safe place she expected.
The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas

Huge mutant cockroaches make up the bulk of this 80's novel. 
That's it. That's all you need.

The Swarm by Frank Schätzing

The ocean and its occupants take revenge on humans. 

Mists and Megaliths by Catherine McCarthy

Ten supernatural stories span themes from gothic to cosmic, folklore, and myths. 

Cold Storage by 

Publication date: October 5th, 2021 Links:  Amazon  |  Goodreads Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and deci...





Publication date: October 5th, 2021


Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town. Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him.

By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to. Set in a dark-mirror version of post-war England, Starling crafts a new kind of gothic horror from the bones of the beloved canon. This Crimson Peak-inspired story assembles, then upends, every expectation set in place by Shirley Jackson and Rebecca, and will leave readers shaken, desperate to begin again as soon as they are finished. 

Read now
 


The Death of Jane Lawrence is a bit of a genre meld: part Victorian-style romance, part gothic horror, with a good splash of the magical realism. It's a odd mix, no doubt.  The first half of the book is traditionally gothic, even if it's based in a world of alternate history. Lindridge Hall is every gothic manor house. The grounds ill-kept, overgrown with vines, dead shrubberies. Inside, it's much the same, with a Winchester House vibe with fake doors, odd hallways, and a locked cellar door. Of course, the house comes with its share of secrets and so does her new husband, Augestine. 

The second half of the book is where things get really odd. I can't say too much without giving away the plot, but think how Mexican Gothic flipped things on its head. You go in expecting a dark past, apparitions, and other gothic accoutrements according to formula but what you get is so much more. Old friends of Augustine's appear at the Hall, bringing metaphysical elements and magic into play. Jane's (and Augestine's) sanity is frequently in question and as she spirals down and down, it gets weird. but in the best way.

I can say without doubt that I loved sensible Jane Shoringfield. Living in a time period where she MUST get married, she makes a list of all the eligible bachelors and lists them off by how likely they are to let her continue with the life she has without disturbing it. She's determined by her careful selection that Dr. Augustine Lawrence is that person. She only has to convince him, which she does, with logic that includes their marriage as a business arrangement. Having spent a lot of time reading Harlequin romances, Jane is exactly the bluestocking kind of character I would choose. Fiercely independent, inquisitive, and ever questioning, she's a force to be reckoned with.

I think those that go in expecting a cut-and-dry gothic ghost story are going to be disappointed with the transcendental twist, but I highly enjoyed it. I favor books that stray outside of the tried and true formula and this one certainly did. 



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...

picture of the full moon with words Howl at the moon | 20 books of werewolf fiction

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:
Book covers for The Wolf's Hour, Wolf Land, The Wolfman, Sharp Teeth
 by Robert R. McCammon

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

 by 

The Wolfman by Nicholas Pekearo

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. 

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

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. 
Book Covers for Mongrels, the Last Werewolf, Wolf Hunt, Cycle of the Werewolf
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

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. 

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
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. 

 by Stephen King 

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. 

Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand 
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.

Book Covers for Throw me to the Wolves, Sisters of the Moon, Moon Called, Misfit Pack, Clean Sweep
Throw Me to the Wolves by lindy ryan

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. 

Sisters of the Moon by Alexandrea weis

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. 
   Read my review here

Moon Called  by Patrica Briggs

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. 

Misfit Pack by Stephanie foxe

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.

Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews

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.
book covers for The Girl in Red, Of Snow and Scarlet, Curse of the Wolf King, For the Wolf

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

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.


Of Snow and Scarlet by Katherine MacDonald

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. 

Curse of the Wolf King  by tessonja odette

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?

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten 
As the second daughter of the queen, it's her turn to be sacrificed to the Wolf of the Woods. Not everything is as it seems though. This tale melds Little Red Riding Hood and Beaty and the Beast for a slow burn fantasy romance. 
book covers for Sisters Red, Wolf Skin, For the Wolf

Sisters Red by 
Wolfskin by 
Red Wolf by 

 In order to get more done this year, I've started doing mini-reviews of somewhat like books.  These are primarily reads picked up from ...


 In order to get more done this year, I've started doing mini-reviews of somewhat like books. 

These are primarily reads picked up from KU and a few from Netgalley here and there. Any direct requests will not be a part of the mini-reviews series.

Today's mini-reviews are 3 eco-horror books that I read late last year: The Hungry Earth by Nicholas Kaufmann, Mexican Gothic by Silva Moreno-Garcia, and Mass Hysteria by Michael Patrick Hicks. 





Sakima, New York, a sleepy, idyllic city nestled in the Hudson Valley, a place where everyone knows each other, families look after the highly prized community garden, and the crime rate is so low that Dr. Laura Powell, the police department’s medical examiner, spends most of her time tending to her own private medical practice.

That changes drastically the day a local high school student is found dead, an apparent suicide. Called in to perform the autopsy, Laura uncovers a strange growth inside the body, composed of a mysterious substance she can’t identify. Enlisting the aid of her scientist ex-boyfriend, Booker Coates, Laura launches an investigation that leads to a horrifying discovery.

Something deadly has taken root in Sakima, an organism whose toxic influence spreads like a disease through the population, dangerously altering minds and dominating wills, a ruthless intelligence that demands obedience. As more and more townspeople fall under its control, forming violent mobs to seek out those who remain uninfected, Laura and Booker must find a way to stop it before they become its next victims. But how can they stop something they don’t understand?

Publication date: October 5th, 2021

My Thoughts...

The Hungry Earth is no doubt a homage to the small-town horror novels of the '80s and early '90s. If I hadn't known when it was published, I would think that I would have picked up this novel at a thrift shop or used bookstore. It's that kind of good. There's plenty of fun body horror with mushrooms bursting eyes from sockets and when not doing the deed themselves, the infected helps them along. The synopsis is straightforward and you won't find very many surprises when it comes to the fate of characters or the plot, but that's the beauty of it. It's a mycelium Invasion of the Body Snatchers when the townspeople hear the call and are unable to resist. They are missionaries, evangelists for the God of Dirt.  It's a mycologist's nightmare. There's nothing scarier than fiction with its basis in fact and The Hungry Earth is a suspenseful, eco-horror that turns into the best kind of '80s horror at its core. 






After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind. 


Publication date: july 30th, 2020

My Thoughts...

I always dread reading books that have such a good following because I am usually in the minority of loving it. Mexican Gothic was one of those books that kept getting the hype everywhere I turned but thankfully, it did not fall to the popularity curse. 
 
This is a very mystery-driven plot. The eerieness of both the setting and the unknowns of the characters added to the overall feel of the novel. So many gothic checkmarks are hit with this story yet we are still given a wonderfully feminist MC in Naomi. She handles all that is thrown at her with remarkable aplomb. The expected debutant is at odds with the untrusting, independent character that we are given. The house, as in many gothic fictions, is remarkably its own character as it should be, and the worrisome behavior of those in the house only added to the mystery. 

On the same level of novels as Rebecca, Mexican Gothic is atmospheric and evasive.  It's definitely a slow burn, but once the stone starts rolling, it will crush anyone who stands in its way. 




It came from space…

Something virulent. Something evil. Something new. And it is infecting the town of Falls Breath.

Carried to Earth in a freak meteor shower, an alien virus has infected the animals. Pets and wildlife have turned rabid, attacking without warning. Dogs and cats terrorize their owners, while deer and wolves from the neighboring woods hunt in packs, stalking and killing their human prey without mercy.

As the town comes under siege, Lauren searches for her boyfriend, while her policeman father fights to restore some semblance of order against a threat unlike anything he has seen before. The Natural Order has been upended completely, and nowhere is safe.

…and it is spreading.

Soon, the city will find itself in the grips of mass hysteria.

To survive, humanity will have to fight tooth and nail. 

Publication date: August 10th, 2017

Brutal is the only way to describe this novel by Michael Patrick Hicks. This is one of those that you don't need to see the trigger warnings on. Assume that if it's a trigger, it's in this book. Necrophilia, bestiality, gore, animal death, child death...the list truly goes on and on. I distinctly remember listening to this while out for a walk and the words that came out of my mouth were "Oh hell no". Truly, if you have any triggers, scroll on by. You have to be able to take a true unflinching look at yourself to see exactly what you can handle. Hicks doesn't waste any time taking you into the graphic depravity of the human mind. Savage and unyielding, this extreme horror is not a story for the faint at heart.