UK Book Club discussion

So as the nights draw in, it is time for Horror, Gothic and Ghost Stories. So anything spooky or supernatural will do. I enjoy the occasional chill and have a few possibilities on my to-read list...

For horror, I have the Russian Vampire novel The Nightwatch, or I could go for early gothic classic Carmilla. I also have the period ghost story Dark Echo. Decisions, decisions. What will you be reading?

I'm not sure how Horror or Gothic or Ghostly my choice for October is but I'm going to try A Secret History of Witches which at least will tick the Witch box for Halloween!
I've also got Tide of Terror which is a YA Vampirates book so will cover Vampires also for Halloween.
I guess I really do need a ghostly book to complete the three.

I'm going for Winter Moon by Dean Koontz for this. I quite like this genre so looking forward to it.

Hi,
I am going for more of the classic type:


and may have more...

Maybe some Neil Gaiman eg. The Graveyard Book or the Oct first read The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb...

One book I'll be reading is The Nanny by Evelyn Piper and maybe The Other by Thomas Tryon.

Just finished Vampirates: Tide of Terror It was the second book in a series (I haven't read the first one but it didn't matter much) A fairly decent YA book.
A nice quick read for me despite its 400+ pages. Much needed while I'm self isolating waiting on COVID test results. :(

Wishing you all the best with your COVID test!

Abigail wrote: "Wishing you all the best with your COVID test!"

Yes, all the best, Kate.

Thanks Abigail & Anna, I must have nudged them into action with my comment because after 3 long days of waiting I'm negative!!! Still feel rubbish with whatever flu I have picked up but at least its not COVID! :)

Phew! What a relief. Get well soon.

Great news! (Not that the flu is ever great news, but still.)

:) Surprising how much reading you can get through when you're ill though! Every cloud. ;)

The Nanny by Evelyn Piper was
an excellent horror story. (4.5 stars). My review below

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm not totally sure if the next is actually horror, but one of the ratings classifies it as gothic, so we'll see.

Bone House by Betsy Tobin

The Goodreads blurb calls it a "gothic suspense" so it sounds fine to me Bill. Hope you like it. Sounds too suspenseful for me! But then I wouldn't read an Agatha Christie for years! lol

Kate wrote: "The Goodreads blurb calls it a "gothic suspense" so it sounds fine to me Bill. Hope you like it. Sounds too suspenseful for me! But then I wouldn't read an Agatha Christie for years! lol"

Thanks. :0)

Spooky tooth season. I wrote a quirky ghost story called Timespan about 2 generations of ghosts 👻 meeting after they died!! It's on Amazon the ghosts don't say boo and it's over to you........

It’s maybe stretching the genre a bit, but I am reading a very creepy-spooky Margery Allingham novel, The Tiger in the Smoke. The tiger in question is a ruthless serial killer who has escaped from prison and is cutting himself a swath across London, while the city is in the “smoke”—dense yellow fog bad enough to make natives lose their way and distort sound. It’s quite terrifyingly suspenseful, and as I can take only so much stress and fear right now, I’m going to count it.

Abigail, I'm always lenient and willing to stretch the borders of the genre, so you can definitely count it.

I have just started Dark Echo about a haunted ship... It feels a big shift after my recent 19th century experience.

Kate, so good to hear you've not got the dreaded Covid-19. I hope you're feeling better soon. :)

I'm just starting The Survivor by James Herbert

The Survivor by James Herbert was an excellent quick horror story. (4 stars)

Next in line is a Gothic horror story, The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

I've just finished Dark Echo. I enjoyed it to start with, there's some atmospheric description and plenty of historically accurate details, but sadly as the story progressed, I became less convinced. Too many inconsistencies, coincidences and clichés: how many times did he have to describe the antagonist's 'sardonic laugh'? I just wasn't able to suspend my disbelief and, despite the author's best efforts, I was never chilled. Disappointing.

Well, my spooky Allingham book will have to count. I tried to read another spooky book—All Hallow's Eve by Wendi Sotis—but at 45 per cent I decided that life’s too short. It was all sexual attraction and melodrama. I should have reread Charles Williams’s classic of the same title (but with the apostrophe in the right place).

I might try to squeeze in gothic classic Carmilla over the weekend, as it's very short. Strangely enough, I just found out there's been a film version released this month...

I am going to readDanse Macabre by Stephen King. Because I am late joining this is going to spill over to next month!

Danse Macabre by Stephen King was an unexpected pleasure. I did not realise it was nonfiction as I started (I bought it as part of a set from book buying club years ago!). I almost swapped it but stopped myself as I knew this would result in it being left in the tbr pile for many more years. It is King’s thoughts on the horror genre (books, films, tv, magazines, comics & radio) from 1950 through to 1980. It is not academic, it is his opinions put forward in a balanced and fair manner. It has left me with some great recommendations - because that list needed to grow!!!!