The three Hs of my Spring Into Horror reading: Hollywood, Howling and Honorable Mention

One of the scariest things about my reading for this year’s Spring Into Horror readathon (hosted by Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading) was how out of control my library loans were, causing me to deal with either my renewal number reaching it’s limit or certain titles not being renewable at all!

Nevertheless, I was able to finish two out of the three books that were set aside for this challenge, starting with Chuck Tingle’s Bury Your Gays, set in a very modern day Hollywood indeed.

Misha is a successful screenwriter whose TV and film credits have garnered him much acclaim, not to mention an Oscar nomination for the quirky short film he created on the side.

However, the big studio executives producing his current hit show are insisting that he use the title trope against the female leads of the series for the season finale. Sick of that particular pop culture prejudice,he refuses only to be met with the strangest intimidation campaign ever.

Various characters from his horror/sci-fi catalog of work appear to be stalking him and his friends. Thinking at first that this is being either a studio stunt or deranged fans, Misha is annoyed at first. Yet, it all too quickly becomes way too real and much too elaborate for the average corporate boss to pull off.

Can Misha write his own happy ending or will this cinematic showdown destroy any chance of a sequel?

I don’t want to give too much away but this book is eerily prescient in its depiction of corporate Hollywood embracing high tech without considering the serious consequences of recklessly diving into these uncharted waters. 

Yes, there are some heartfelt moments as Misha looks back on what inspired him to create the various monsters literally pursuing him and a touch of twisted humor as well. However, the fictional menaces imaged by Misha are incredibly creative and terrifying all at once.

If even a hint of such fright fiends were to be depicted on screen, quite a few fresh nightmares would be born. Of course, the worst villains are behind the cameras…

Tingle has a new novel due out this summer (Fabulous Bodies) and I’m looking forward to that as part of my regular reading. In the meanwhile, this meta take on Hollywood’s true horrors is hauntingly great, with some X-Files energy to boot:

After that, I picked up Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison. 

Rory never planned to go back to her hometown, having a rather solid good single girl life in the big city. Yet, when her pregnant twin sister Scarlett asks her to be with her due to the father of her impending child being out of the picture, Rory can’t really say no.

Early on in her visit, she’s driving back home late at night and gets into an accident that may have caused her to hit a dog in the road. Upon investigating, Rory discovers all too late that it wasn’t a dog out there…

Recovering from that incident, she soon realizes that she’s now a werewolf with no hope of a cure. On top of that, her mother is coming for a visit and that’s just as bad as being bitten by a supernatural creature.

The already complicated issues of her life become even more so as she struggles to deal with some personal demons and a potentially serious romance with a former high school crush as well as seeing if she can control her full moon frenzy before her sister’s baby is born.

Thus is the second book that I’ve read by Harrison and I don’t know why it took me so long to give her work a try. Her emotionally complex characters and the fearsome situations they find themselves in have realistic depictions that refuse to shy away from the otherworldly (or body horror  for that matter but not in excess) are smartly written and compelling reads.

Plus, her werewolf metaphors for women dealing with their outward appearance and inner rage are well crafted with a sense of snark that any Buffy fan(like me) would appreciate there:
 

Sadly, I didn’t have time to read Ava Morgyn’s The Bane Witch before the end of April but I will save it for the fall.

Part of that was due to my library loans getting out of hand yet I did manage to finish a couple of those books before too much time ran out. Since one of them happened to be a light murder mystery, I thought it deserved a honorable mention here.

Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library is a debut novel by Amanda Chapman, set in modern day New York where literary expert Tory Van Dyne runs the title establishment and for the most part, has a relatively quiet life.

That is, until an elderly woman claiming to be Agatha Christie suddenly appears in the section of the library that’s a recreation of the Queen of Crime’s own parlor. 

Mrs. Christie(who prefers using the the surname of her last husband Mallowan for this particular occasion) has been allowed to return to the mortal realm in order to help Tory solve a mystery , one that doesn’t seem to have happened just yet. A knock on the door from her ditzy cousin Nicola changes all of that and leads Tory down a precarious path that she thought would only be available to her in the pages of a book.

Is this appearance of the world’s greatest literary detective most fortunate or oddly convenient at best? Can Tory save the day with or without the assistance of Mrs. Christie before the final chapter arrives for all involved?

This is such a charming read, light and lively with the right amount of pathos when needed. Tory and her new found group of amateur crime solvers that includes a clever pre-teen and her dog as well as Tory’s well attired assistant, form an engaging alliance that should continue for a few more books to come(Yes, a second entry entitled Mrs. Christie & The Mystery in the Mews is set for release this October!).

If you’re interested in a blend of Agatha Christie with Only Murders in the Building (which is name checked in this book btw!), this is definitely your cup of crime solving tea to enjoy:

My thanks to Michelle Miller for another round of great reading and my hope that everyone else had a hauntingly good time here.

I’m hoping to do better in June with the Sci-Fi Summer challenge, especially since my TBR is going to be fully science fiction this time around (fantasy is also included here).

One of my picks is an old school Star Wars novel where the romance between Princess Leia and Han Solo is the major plot point and this should be fun. I know Star Wars Day was yesterday but the force can be with you at any time, it seems to me: