The Bloodcurdling Book Club

With its languid storytelling and inversion of Gothic tropes, Bernard Taylor's THE REAPING is an exercise in patience with a supremely satisfying payoff.  In this episode, we discuss folk horror, the rejection of the maternal, and the importance of a good book cover. On this podcast we talk blood, guts, and spoilers so listener discretion is advised.

Elizabeth Engstrom's WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US has been called everything from dark and soul crushing to a "paperback from hell" but we call it one of the finest literary explorations of trauma in recent memory. In this episode, we discuss what makes a monster, how trauma gets replicated, and what it means when monstrosity cloaks itself as maternal indifference. On this podcast we talk blood, guts, and spoilers so listener discretion is advised.

This week's hair raising read is 2021’s THE WOODS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING by Stephanie Perkins. The novel's setup is deceptively simple. College bound best friends Josie and Neena embark on a last hurrah camping trip only to find themselves terrorized by two killers. But while this IS a story of survival, it is also a poignant look at the emotional complexities of friendship and what it means to fight for others just as hard as you fight for yourself. On this podcast, we talk blood, guts, and spoilers so listener discretion is advised.

This week's hair raising read is 2021’s That Weekend by Kara Thomas. The story of three friends who embark to a lake house only to have one return with no memory of what transpired, this story delves into issues of survivor’s guilt, the destructive power of secrets, and the unreliability of memory.  On this podcast, we talk blood, guts, and spoilers so listener discretion is advised.

This week's hair raising reads are 1989’s The New Girl and 1991’s Lights Out, two titles from RL Stine’s famed Fear Street series. With the much anticipated Netflix adaptations set to drop in July, we thought the time was right to revisit this groundbreaking entry in youth horror literature. A time capsule of questionable sexual politics, these books helped to establish a template of horror authors still follow today. On this podcast, we talk blood, guts, and spoilers so listener discretion is advised.

This week's hair raising read is 2013’s SUMMERVILLE by D.T. Neal. The story follows three friends who are planning to dive for some expensive brandy bottles they believe are sitting at the bottom of a South Carolina River. When the group encounters a hitchhiker who they decide to offer a ride, a series of events are put into motion that leaves no one unscathed. Part southern gothic and part eco horror, this novella takes some big swings but do they pay off? Listen to the latest episode of The Bloodcurdling Book Club to find out!

This week's hair raising read is 1983’s THE DOLLHOUSE MURDERS by Betty Ren Wright. This juvenile classic is the story of Amy, a young girl who escapes the fatigue of being her sister, Louanne’s, caregiver by fleeing to help her aunt prepare to sell her grandparents' abandoned home. There she discovers a dollhouse that is the exact replica of the family home. But when the dolls begin to move of their own accord, Amy is thrown into a bloody mystery where some secrets are just not meant to stay in the past. An effective read that introduces the horror genre to young readers, this book remains relevant for its depictions of generational trauma and its deployment of uncanny dopplegangers.

Every good slasher deserves a sequel and such is the case with Cameron Roubique's Kill River 2. Having endured the carnage of the previous novel, the story follows our Final Girl back into suburbia and asks some uncomfortable but important questions about what it really means to survive a traumatic event at a young age.

Billed as a slasher film in book form, the story follows four campers who stumble upon an abandoned waterpark in the middle of the woods. What follows is a heart pounding game of cat and mouse with twists we did not see coming. But did it successfully capture the shlock and gore of 80s horror or did it get lost in the nostalgia? Dawn and I are deep diving into how Roubique’s story interacts with slasher conventions in some surprising and and effective ways on this episode.

The Bloodcurdling Book Club is a new podcast coming May 1 that deep dives into horror literature and thinks through why we are so obsessed with dark and disturbing literature. We hope you'll join us!