31 Days of Horror: Day 30 Penultimate Thoughts and Last Minute Reading Suggestions

I have many things still to post, but alas, I am just about out of days, so today’s post is another catch all.

• OMG, did you see the SNL horror movie trailer parody this past weekend? No?!? Click here right now then.
• Flavorewire also had this list of 15 Fantastic Horror Films Directed by Women that are worth your time.
• Or, if you would rather true horror “6 Real Serial Killers More Terrifying Than Any Horror Movie,” from Cracked.
• "The Ten Best Horror Movie Soundtracks" from The Dallas Observer.  Sometimes the music alone is scary enough.  In fact, my husband creates a scary music playlist each year to play on our front porch to add to the trick or treating experience for those who come to our house.
• Cassie Carnage’s House of Horror has been running a feature this month where she asks 20 Questions for Horror Authors. If you like horror, you will love to see into the brains of horror authors, but even more importantly, if you DON’T like horror, this feature will help you to appreciate why your horror loving patrons do love it.  It can only make you a better RA Librarian.
• Everything ever on the award winning Blogging For a Good Book that has been tagged Horror.  They also use the tag Scary Stories.  I have linked both just incase there is something that gets missed.
• From Epic Reads, “12 Creepy YA Books That Should Be Made Into Horror Movies,” or you can simply read them.
• YALSA’s Offical Horror Genre Guide for Teens. Although I appreciate this, I think it would have helped more librarians and readers if it was published on Septmeber 21st instead of October 21st.
• Don’t forget, since 2010, Neil Gaiman has been the inspiration behind the All Hallow’s Read idea that instead of candy, give someone a feee book for Halloween.  Here is the official site.

I also have 2 more tales of favorite scary books from BPL employees:

I still think that the scariest – not the most significant, not the most well written – but the scariest story I ever laid eyes on was written in 1798 by Charles Brockden Brown and is called Wieland, or The Transformation. It is the story of a seemingly normal man who slaughters his family in a fit of what he claims to be demon possession. The chapter devoted to his testimony of the killings is particularly chilling. He becomes, in essence, the narrator and rants in a madness that is awful and graphic to the point of dementia. The early American use of English compounds the impact. It is easy to see how the use of killer-as-narrator influenced later American writers like Edgar Allan Poe.  -John

[Note from Becky: You can read John’s suggestion for free right now by clicking here.]

When I was in middle school and high school, I loved Lois Duncan's creepy suspense novels.  Her characters were always normal kids who stumbled across something dark and dangerous.  My favorite was Down a Dark Hall. The main character Kit is accepted to an exclusive boarding school - so exclusive that she is one of only four students.  Though she can't quite put her finger on it, she knows instinctively that something is very wrong at Madame Duvet's Blackwood Boarding School.  Soon, Kit discovers the truth about why she and her fellow students were accepted to the school and what exactly Madame Duvet intends for them.  —Tara

An editorial note: I had a few book reviews I didn’t get to this month, both because I just didn’t write the reviews and because I am still reading the books.  So in November and December, I will be back with more reviews.

Look for 31 Days of Horror 2013 to end tomorrow morning with an awesome post that took massive will power from me to save it for the final day.

Have a safely horrific Halloween.