BOOK REVIEW: Women of Darkness II edited by Kathryn Ptacek

Yesterday, I reviewed Women of Darkness, in which I explained that I think this follow-up is better than the original. In her introduction, Kathryn Ptacek explains that the short story collection is comprised of dark tales, "sometimes unpleasant, always unsettling." She's right, I found all of these stories to be unsettling and I believe many of the dark images will remain burned in my memory for years to come. You can read my short biography of Kathryn Ptacek, which I wrote yesterday, here. I will follow the format I used yesterday to review the stories, writing the name and author, one line about the plot and my rating of each story.

The Co-op by Melanie Tem - Mothers in a babysitting co-op share dark secrets. Rating: 4/5

Fruits of Love by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - A historical fiction piece about a woman who is won in a card game by a brutish man. Rating: 4/5

Sarah and the Slime Creature by Resa Nelson - A woman who was sexually abused by her stepbrother when she was young has trouble trusting men as an adult. Rating: 4/5

Just Idle Chatter by Jean Paiva - A boy eavesdrops on his strange neighbours, finding out something disturbing. Rating: 4/5

Act of Love by Kristl Volk Franklin - A young girl is disturbed by witnessing her father's abuse of her mother. Rating: 4/5

Arc Light by Lisa W. Cantrell - A welder overcomes his fear of the dark. Rating: 4/5

The Pit by Patricia Ramsey-Jones - A dog who is forced into dog fighting gets revenge on his cruel owner. Rating: 3/5

A Rainy Evening in Western Illinois by Rebecca Lyons - A man believes he witnessed a horrible car accident. Rating: 4/5

Coming Back by Ginger LaJeunesse - A mother who dies in car accident forces herself to come back to life for her son. Rating: 5/5

I Know What To Do by Yvonne Navarro - A couple moves into a new apartment to find it already occupied by a vicious cockroach that won't die. Rating: 4/5

The Drought by Lois Tilton - A group observing how elephants react to a drought, learn that dehydration makes them crazy - and dangerous. Rating: 4/5

The Nightmare's Tale by Tanith Lee - A historical fiction about revenge. Rating: 2/5

He Whistles Far and Wee by Kiel Stuart - A creepy man sells balloons to children in a tropical paradise. Rating: 4/5

Dirty Pain by Lisa Swallow - A man needs pain - from himself and others - to feel normal. Rating: 3/5

Last Echoes by Janet Lorimer - A woman who loves nursery rhymes moves to an old-fashioned town where they participate in a dark ritual from a nursery rhyme. Rating: 4/5

Daddy's Coming Home by Lynn S. Hightower - Supposedly a man's dead father has come back and he returns home to investigate. Rating: 3/5

A Touch of the Old Lilith by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - A young woman's grandmother tells her all the women in her family have some Lilith in them and will end up killing any man who becomes close to them. Rating: 3/5

Footprints in the Water by Poppy Z. Brite - A man whose twin brother is dead, asks a man who possesses special powers to bring him back to life. Rating: 2/5

I loved the story, Coming Back, it is well-written, emotional and has a very strong female main character. He Whistles Far and Wee gave me the chills while reading it alone at night; the man who sold balloons to children is very creepy. The ending of The Co-op shocked and appalled me. Usually historical fiction bores me, but Fruits of Love fascinated me and taught me something. And I Know What To Do repulsed me; I loathe cockroaches (that segment in Creepshow scarred me for life).

Although the subject matter of each story varies greatly, the quality does not. All of the stories featured in this collection are well-written, have spooky imagery, surprising twist endings and fascinating characters. If you're a fan of dark short stories, seek out this collection.

Rating: 4/5

BOOK REVIEW: Women of Darkness edited by Kathryn Ptacek

About the Editor

Kathryn Ptacek is the author of horror novels, Shadoweyes, Blood Autumn (pictured right), Kachina, In Silence Sealed and Ghost Dance, but has also written novels in several other genres, including historical fiction, romance, suspense and fantasy. She also publishes the Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, a useful tool for writers looking for outlets to publish their work. In 1989, her short story, Each Night, Each Year, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Ptacek was married to late horror author Charles L. Grant. It was announced on January 25 that she will be this year's recipient of the Horror Writers Association Silver Hammer Award for being the volunteer who has contributed the most to the HWA. Ptacek is the editor of the HWA newsletter.

Review

In the introduction to Women of Darkness, Kathryn Ptacek explains how, out of curiosity, she grabbed a few horror short story collections and counted how many featured female authors, finding very few or none, which lead her to publish this "women only" collection of horror short stories.

I decided to do the same experiment, grabbing three random short story collections, finding The Museum of Horrors edited by Dennis Etchison has 4/18, Greystone Bay Vol. 1 edited by Charles L. Grant has 4/14 and Prime Evil edited by Douglas E. Winter has 0/13. I guess it shouldn't come as a shock seeing as how out of approximately 300 horror novels I own, only 20 are by women. Anyway, I'm glad that Ptacek came up with the brilliant idea of publishing an all-female horror short story collection. But I'm less than thrilled with the content. That may have something to do with the fact that I read the second volume first and thought it was amazing - very high quality, creepy stories - therefore was disappointed when reading the first collection. I'm going to write the name and author, one line about the plot and my rating of each story to give you an idea of how much they vary - in subject matter and quality.

Baby by Kit Reed - A childless woman, who is less than thrilled about parenthood, visits her sister who recently had a baby - an odd, creepy baby. Rating: 3/5

Ransom Cowl Walks the Road by Nancy Varian Berberick - A murderer who had died long ago, seems to have come back to life. Rating: 3/5

True Love by Patricia Russo - A historical horror about love. Rating: 1/5

In the Shadows of my Fear by Joan Vander Putten - A man who killed his girlfriend visits her body which he dumped in the ocean. Rating: 1/5

The Spirit Cabinet by Lisa Tuttle - A couple moves into an old house in the UK and realize it's haunted by a ghost, much to the delight of the girlfriend. Rating: 4/5

Hooked on Buzzer by Elizabeth Massie - A young woman punished by shock treatment as a child becomes addicted to it. Rating: 1/5

Little Maid Lost by Rivka Jacobs - A strange man with magical powers befriends a teenage girl who works in her parents' seedy motel. Rating: 2/5

Mother Calls But I Do Not Answer by Rachel Cosgrove Payes - A teenage girl with a harelip becomes obsessed with staring in the mirror, so she can see her friends who live inside. Rating: 3/5

Nobody Lives There Now. Nothing Happens. by Carol Orlock - Ghosts move into a house in a small town. Rating: 1/5

The Baku by Lucy Taylor - An American woman who recently moved to Japan becomes familiar with the legend of the Baku. Rating: 2/5

The Devil's Rose by Tanith Lee - Another historical fiction story about love and its repercussions. Rating: 2/5

Midnight Madness by Wendy Webb - A bargain hunter goes to a store holding a midnight madness sale to find it virtually deserted and eerie. Rating: 4/5

Monster McGill by Cary G. Osborne - A wrestling match turns violent when a wrestler the audience hates goes up against a fan favourite. Rating: 4/5

Aspen Graffiti by Melanie Tem - A woman whose husband going through a mid-life crisis left her, finds out what really happens to men when they leave their wives. Rating: 3/5

Sister by Wennicke Eide Cox - A young girl visits her sister's dead body at the lake everyday, and helps her get revenge on her killer/mother's boyfriend. Rating: 3/5

Samba Sentado by Karen Haber - A woman visiting her sister in Brazil becomes involved in voodoo. Rating: 4/5

When Thunder Walks by Conda V. Douglas - A woman who is accepted as a Navajo jeweler gets more than she bargained for. Rating: 1/5

Slide Number Seven by Sharon Epperson - A woman who works in a lab becomes infected with a deadly disease. Rating: 4/5

The Unloved by Melissa Mia Hall - Twin women rent out an apartment above their garage to a man who doesn't know they share a dark secret. Rating: 4/5

Cannibal Cats Come Out Tonight by Nancy Holder - Two best friends become addicted to eating human meat. Rating: 5/5

As you can see, I loved some of the stories and hated others. Some were painfully dull, but saved somewhat by the shocking twist ending. And others were the opposite: interesting all the way through but letdown by an ending that didn't live up to the rest of the story.

Some of my favourite stories might be worth slogging through the boring ones. I love cannibalism in fiction and loved Cannibal Cats Come Out Tonight, laughing out loud at the boys' list of celebrities they want to eat. Yum I bet Madonna tastes delicious. Also, since I work at a store during hours when it's mostly deserted (I start at 7:00 am), I can relate to the creepiness of being in an empty store, seen in Midnight Madness.

The best part of Women of Darkness is that now I have tons of new women horror authors to add to my reading list. Even though some stories didn't grab me, I would give all the writers another chance because 10 pages is such a short time to gauge an author's writing ability. I have already put a few books on hold at my local library.

Although the quality of Women of Darkness is somewhat spotty, I would recommend it if you can get it from the library or used for the right price.

Rating: 3/5

Women in Horror Recognition Month

February is Women in Horror Recognition Month. Created by Hannah Neurotica, the editor of Ax Wound Zine, WIH Month is to celebrate women in the horror industry.

Some fun events happening in February include Bleed For Women in Horror: Canadian Blood Donation Drive, the Women in Horror Appreciation Film Festival in Athens, Georgia, Women in Horror Con: In Honor of Bay Area Women in Horror in San Francisco, the Pretty Scary Bloodbath Film Festival in Addison, Texas and Ghouls on Film: Women Made Horror Film Fest in Birmingham, UK.

There are also several female bloggers doing something special for WIH Month. Day of the Woman held a poll where readers could vote for the special event. There was a tie between "Exposing my floormates to horror," where BJ-C will expose her best friends to horror films ("what about the opinions of the women who would trade in a shitty Nicholas Sparks adaptation or something starring Anne Hathaway over Bruce Campbell and buckets of blood? Well...WE'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT!) and "If _____ had been a woman," where she will take a famous male horror character and explain what it would be like if he had been a woman. And at the request of other female bloggers, BJ-C will be doing something that lost in the poll: "Horror makeup tutorials."

Dollar Bin Horror is doing "Viral Scream Queen of the Day," where Rhonny Reaper will post about a female horror blogger or website.

Fascination With Fear will focus on women villains in horror, posting one each day and "a paragraph or two on why they deserved mentioning."

Fatally Yours will be posting interviews from various women in horror ("from authors to journalists to makeup and special FX artists to actresses to directors to producers to musicians and so on!") for the month of February.

And here's what I plan on doing for Women in Horror Recognition Month:

Everyday I will review a horror book written by a woman. They will be the same as my usual book reviews, except I will write a paragraph or two about each author before my review. I've been reading like crazy for the past few weeks, realizing that the amount of horror novels by women I have read is appalling. I still have lots to read to make it to 28 - I might just post Monday - Friday.

To keep updated on events happening for Women in Horror Recognition Month, join their fan page on Facebook, or check out their website.

R.L. STINE BOOK OF THE WEEK: Goosebumps: The Girl Who Cried Monster

She's got the monster of all problems!

From the back cover:

SHE'S TELLING THE TRUTH...
BUT NO ONE BELIEVES HER!

Lucy likes to tell monster stories. She's told so many that her friends and family are sick of it.

Then one day, Lucy discovers a real, live monster: the librarian in charge of the summer reading program.

Too bad Lucy's told so many monster tales.

Too bad no one believes a word she says.

Too bad the monster knows who she is...

...and is coming after her next.

My thoughts:

In my post announcing the R.L. Stine Book of the Week, I mentioned that The Girl Who Cried Monster is one of my favourite Goosebumps books, mostly because of the crazy twist ending. And I was lucky enough to find it for 50 cents at a thrift store.

It was just as good as I remembered. Even though it seems all Goosebumps books have the same characters (the main character who has a bratty younger sibling, a platonic friend of the opposite sex, brief appearances from parents and some sort of monster), I could still relate to the main character, Lucy. I remember when I was younger and would have boring summers where I ended up reading the whole time.

The Girl Who Cried Monster is suspenseful and creepy, maybe even too creepy for some children, and it has a very unsettling ending. It only took me an hour to read it because I wanted to see what happened next. Or maybe because it's only 100 pages long with 14 pt. font....

Rating: 5/5

PG gore: "Mr. Mortman held the turtle higher, studying it with his bulging, rolling eyes. He held it up to the sunlight. The turtle's legs continued to move.

Then he popped the turtle into his mouth.

I heard the crack of the shell as Mr. Mortman bit down.

He chewed noisily, several times, making a loud crunch with each chew. Then I saw him swallow once, twice, till he got it down. "

Published in: 1993

Evident by references to: Super Nintendo, a camera which uses film (?) and has a viewfinder (?)

Next week: Fear Street: Secret Admirer

MOVIE NEWS: After Dark Horrorfest 4

After Dark Horrorfest 4 was released in theatres yesterday. Unfortunately, I live in Canada and won't get the chance to see the films in the theatre and will have to wait for the DVD releases. But hopefully you get the chance to see them, and if you do, let me know what you think. Judging by these trailers, they all look interesting.

Dread

Dread, the second in the Book of Blood franchise is a stylish horror/thriller about three college students working on a documentary for school focusing on what others dread in life.



The Final

After receiving a lake-house granted to him in his uncle’s will, Dane and his friends, Jack, Ravi, Andy and Emily prepare for a single night that will leave their tormentors scarred for life…physically and emotionally.



The Graves

On their last weekend together, two girls are lost in a remote part of the Arizona desert where they are lured to Skull City Mine, an abandoned mine town. But they soon learn Skull City is anything but abandoned, and there’s no way out.



Hidden

A man unwillingly returns to the small town he ran from 19 years ago. His cruel mother has recently died, and left him the house he grew up in and soon is entangled up in a series of events that seem beyond anyone’s control….



Kill Theory

Are you capable of the unthinkable? That’s the question seven college students face when they visit a secluded vacation home to celebrate graduation and are put to a horrific test by a mysterious killer.



Lake Mungo

A sixteen-year-old girl drowns while swimming in the local dam. With a verdict of accidental death, her grieving family buries her. A series of clues lead the family to Lake Mungo where her secret past emerges.



The Reeds

A weekend boating trip through the Norfolk Broads becomes a terrifying, deadly ordeal for six 20-something friends.



ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction

A conservative island community is under attack! Port Gamble, WA is being overrun with braineaters, and a rag tag band of rebels try to turn the tide and push the invading hoards of undead back.

MOVIE REVIEW: Ogre

I keep catching bits and pieces of this film and finally sat down to watch the whole thing when it aired on Showcase (the home of Kenny vs. Spenny and Trailer Park Boys!) tonight. I could tell from the beginning that it was a made-for-TV Syfy Channel movie - and made in Canada - but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've had fun watching other Syfy films. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for this film.

Residents of a town make a deal with the devil in the 1800's to grant them immortality. The only catch is that they have to sacrifice one person per year to a hungry ogre. When two young adults stumble upon the community, the townspeople have a chance to save one of their own....

The plot is kind of like The Village meets Pissed Off Bloodthirsty Shrek. It is very convoluted and hard to follow. I don't understand what an ogre has to do with the devil. And the film didn't need the addition of a town magi and spells. Ogre had potential if it had simply been a film about an ogre eating people.

The CGI ogre is awful; it looks ridiculously fake. The ogre bears resemblance to Shrek in that it looks like it should be in an animated film. Oh, that and the fact it's wearing clothes. Can't leave his cave and stomp into town to eat people without getting gussied up in the finest loincloth. Here's a picture in case you don't believe it:

One aspect of Ogre that's good is the acting. It features one of my favourite scream queens, Katherine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps), John Schneider (who most people know as Bo Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard, but I know as the father of teen dramas - particularly Smallville and The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and Chelan Simmons (Final Destination 3).

I would skip this one, unless you want to see an ogre looking all fancy in his loincloth while killing people.

Rating: 2/5

BOOK REVIEW: Urban Gothic by Brian Keene

Being a huge Brian Keene, fan I had been looking forward to Urban Gothic for months before it was released. But it took me almost six months to finish reading it. I got halfway through and gave up. It actually turned me off horror for awhile and made me wonder why I preferred gore and monsters over interesting characters. I don't, what I want is for my horror novels to have it all: fascinating characters that I don't want to see die, monsters and gore. But Urban Gothic focused more on the characters' torture than on their description and development. Eventually I got back to reading Urban Gothic (obviously, or else I wouldn't be reviewing it now) and found the second half to be better than the first.

Three young couples attend a rap concert and on the way home their car breaks down in a bad neighbourhood. When a group of young black men approach them, they become frightened and run away, hiding in an abandoned house. Or so they think - the house is actually inhabited by a family of mutant creatures.

The plot is a familiar one, but I didn't mind because it's a plot I love (almost) every time I encounter it. It's similar to Brian Keene's last novel, Castaways, which was also about monsters killing and eating people, but had a different setting (a tropical island).

The pace moves fairly quick, having the first mutant sighting/teen killing by the end of Chapter One. But the teens' efforts to hide or escape get old fast. Eventually Urban Gothic becomes dull and monotonous, which was the point I stopped reading. But when I picked the book up again months later, I was surprised to find that it wasn't as bad as I remembered. And it introduced a few fresh plot developments (killer mutant babies, for instance), which kept me reading to the end.

As I already mentioned, the area of the novel most lacking are the characters. Keene gives virtually no back story on them, making me careless about what happens to them and wonder why I should read any further. And because of this, I couldn't tell any of them apart. I spent the entire novel trying to identify Kerri from Heather, having to flip back to previous chapters to remember.

But I liked the group of black young men. They were the only interesting, non-stereotypical characters in the story and Urban Gothic would've been better if Keene focused on them more instead of the teens. And I did find the mutants (and mutant babies) disturbing.

It's not a bad novel, especially if gore interests you more than compelling characters. But if you're looking for a good mutant cannibal novel, I would stick with Ketchum's Off Season.

Rating: 3/5

MOVIE REVIEW: The Echo

Since every horror film made in a different language has to be Americanized and remade in the U.S., the Filipino film, Sigaw (meaning "Scream" in English) was made into The Echo.

When a young man (Jesse Bradford) moves into his deceased mother's apartment after being released from prison, he intervenes when a police officer is abusing his wife and child. But after that, things get much worse....

The plot was cliched and has been done dozens of times. And the film was slooooowwww. Nothing - creepy or otherwise - happens until 20 minutes before the end. And by that time I was fast asleep. But I got woken up to see the "scary" ghosts at the end, which weren't scary or creepy in the least.

The one good thing about the film was Jesse Bradford (Swimfan). He looked very sexy in this film. I love when films have a final guy instead of a final girl because there are so few. But even that couldn't save this horribly dull film.

Rating: 1/5

R.L. STINE BOOK OF THE WEEK: Fear Street: What Holly Heard

It was too shocking to tell....

From the back cover:

Do you want to hear a secret?

Holly did. She learned a terrible secret, and now her friends know it too.

Someone wants to make sure they never talk about it. Someone who'll go any length to keep them quiet.

Lying...

Threats...

Even murder.

My thoughts:

I vaguely remember reading What Holly Heard when I was in high school. I couldn't recall the identity of the killer or anything important. I only remembered liking it - oh and Holly and her stylish blue scarf.

I knew who the killer - and the motive - was on Page 4. So every time I read "So-and-so is the killer!" I wanted to scream, "No, it's ____!" I almost put the book down several times because Miriam was so blind. The killer was right in front of her the whole time, but she kept accusing everyone else.

The main character Miriam and her boyfriend, Jed, were possibly the most boring characters I've ever encountered (okay maybe I'm exaggerating, but they were pretty bad). Jed's only interest was basketball and Miriam's only interest was Jed. But I did like Holly, she reminded me of myself a bit. I mean, what girl doesn't love gossip and bad boys?

And what's the deal with R.L. Stine and killing animals? It happened in the last Fear Street book I reviewed (Ski Weekend), and now in this one. I felt so sorry for poor Lizzy and Tilly, Ruth's hamsters. They didn't deserve to die such a gory death. Miriam and Jed, on the other hand....

So far R.L. Stine's Fear Street books have been a disappointment, but I've only read two so I still have hope.

Rating: 2/5

PG-13 Gore: "Ruth's hamsters lay in a puddle of blood. Gaping in disbelief, Miriam took a step closer.
'Ohhhhh.' A moan escaped her throat as she saw their heads.
Their heads.
Their heads had been smashed. Smashed flat.
And their little, furry bodies.
Torn and battered.
Smashed."

Body Count: 4 (Including the two poor, defenseless hamsters.)

Next week: Goosebumps: The Girl Who Cried Monster

BOOK NEWS: Fresh Blood Writing Contest

ChiZine Publications (an independent horror publisher), Dorchester Publishing (publisher of Leisure Horror) and Rue Morgue Magazine teamed up to put together a novel writing contest and the results are in. There are nine finalists, one of which will have his/her book published in paperback by Leisure Books and in hardcover by ChiZine Publications in 2011.

Now that the contest has been narrowed down to nine finalists, readers get the chance to vote for their favourite. Each month there will be a different competition to weed out the contestants.

This month the competition is "Best First Chapter." But - for this month only - although you get to vote, the judges still get to choose the five who move onto the next round. The writer who wins the most votes in January is the "Fan Favourite" and is awarded a one-year subscription to the Leisure Horror Book Club and two signed copies of ChiZine books of his/her choice.

The judges of the contest are: Sandra Kasturi (Co-Publisher of ChiZine Publications), Brett Alexander Savory (Co-Publisher of ChiZine Publications) and Halli Villegas, (Publisher of Tightrope Books). There will also be a celebrity guest judge per round: in January, Monica S. Kuebler (Managing Editor of Rue Morgue Magazine), in March, Jeff Strand (author of Pressure), in April, Nate Kenyon (author of The Bone Factory), in May, John Everson (author of The 13th) and in June, Byan Smith (author of Depraved). Each month the judges' critiques will be posted.

Here are the nine finalists:

• Disunity by Aaron Dries
• The Burning Time by J.G. Faherty
• The Sorrows by Jonathan Janz
• Hell to Pay by Brian Johnson
• Heart of the City by Lisa A. Koosis
• Jack's Inferno by Mike Lamb
• Breed by Sean Logan
• A Fine Likeness by Sean McLachlan
• The Balderdash Lowdown by Robert Stevens

And here are the monthly competitions:

• January: Best First Chapter
• February: No voting, just descriptions of each novel
• March: Best Cover Copy
• April: Best Description of the Novel's "Monster"
  
• May: Most Frightening Scene
  
• June: Best First Two Chapters

Voting for this month ends January 31 and you can find out more here.