Camp Zombie

Okay, so this series, in particular, wasn't very impressive with me. But it did keep me up at night. The idea of a Zombie camp counselor, roaming the grounds. Sheesh...just leaves you with an unsettling feeling. Come to think of it, I'm glad I never attended a camp. Maybe this book had something to do with it.

Oddly enough, I've only read the Second Summer.

Ghosts of Fear street

All I'm going to say about this series is that it was something new, before my journey into Christopher Pike. This was like Goosebumps 2.0 and it left a mark on me. While the descriptions got better and the stories were more engaging, I found the dialogue to be a little wooden at times. Not to say that I didn't have favorites. But, like the Goosebumps series, I slowly began to realize that the books were getting...well...goofier.

The ones that did it right, out of the 35 book series, were Who's Been Sleeping In My Grave, The Ooze, and How to be a Vampire

The one thing that I took away from these books was to always make the dialogue interesting.

Also, the covers were pretty out there. Look at the the one above. It's almost like the vampire is a puppeteer or someone who goes (forgive the pun) Bat-s#*t Crazy about reading.

Christopher Pike

Before the Borders in Oak Park closed, I began having a fix for something new. A little over ten years ago, when a Goosebumps fix seemed hopeless and dated, I wandered over to a section, in that same Borders, and spied some young adult horror fiction.

Christopher Pike caught my eye with his book, The Weekend. Here's what I read from the back cover:

The weekend in Mexico seemed like a dream holiday, with an oceanside mansion all to themselves, but someone was taking their revenge. There was the girl upstairs fighting for her life, and the garage explosion that could have killed them all.

First off, whoa. I mean, wtf. So many questions. Who is the girl? Why did they all gather there? Mexico? Sounds dangerous. What caused the garage to explode?

Ironically, I have never read The Weekend. But that didn't stop me from pulling 22 plus titles to the ground as I sat cross-legged, reading only the back cover of each and every one of them. My mother got mad at me for making such a mess but I didn't care. I was addicted to the thought-bubbles exploding out of my head. Now, looking back on it, I can say that Christopher Pike helped me be more intriguing when it comes to writing a back cover summary of a book. I try to raise as many questions as possible when writing a good summary for the back cover, which can take me anywhere from a couple days to a couple months.

In the end, even though I wanted to bring all the titles home with me, I only walked away with a handful...Chain Letter, Chain Letter 2, Tales of Terror and, of course, The Grave.

Chain Letter was a fresh idea, kinda peculiar.

Chain Letter 2 was even weirder.

Tales of Terror was just plain wrong, but I liked it. There was a bit of a Misery-like story in there but I was easy to forgive at that age.

But The Grave showed me a combo of horror, suspense, supernatural, mythology and a dose of the macabre. 90 percent of the book was perfect terror and mystery... the ending was a bit goofy. Oh, and hey, check out the description of The Grave:

An innocent man is attacked by a cult and buried alive. A pretty girl meets a fascinating guy, who hardly seems to blink or breathe, and emits a cool presence. They're both living in a weird realm where life and death mirror each other--where the grave no longer promises escape.

Do I detect some pre-Twilight Edward descriptions?

Goosebumps

Not only is R.L. Stine famous for writing the popular Goosebumps series, he was also a huge chunk of my childhood. Specifically, he and my brother got me into collecting books.

My brother bought 5-10 books in the Goosebumps series...I bought the rest. I'd make a trip to our local Target with my mom and find an entire endcap loaded with new titles. I was in literary ecstasy.

Not only were the stories fresh and weird, they also helped shape my imagination. They fed little into details, giving you just the basic concept and characters and dialogue. This is where I focused more on the setting, drawing vivid pictures in my mind of the landscape, roads and houses. Whenever I couldn't picture something quite right I'd close the book, close my eyes and paint inside my head.

Of course, I can go on and on about my favorites of the 62 classic titles, ( Welcome to Dead House, Monster Blood I,II,III,IV, Let's Get Invisible, The Haunted Mask, Night of The Jack-o-lanterns, A Shocker on Shock Street, Attack of The Mutant) but I would rather want to know what your favorites were and why?

After the last book, Monster Blood IV, the series sat for a while until Stine released a 2000 series version of it with Cry of The Cat... which just wasn't my cup of tea.

Reading all of those books was a lesson in creating your own setting whether they be from memory, real landmarks or just pure imagination.

Later, it became a popular tv show. Only caught a couple episodes in my youth but still, to this day, remember the chilling theme song.

For a man who has sold over 400 million books, I'm happy to see he has done so well. I just hope future generations will go back to the original 62 in the series.

Scary Stories

It's October. That means spring has taken a hike, the hi-jinks are about to begin and somebody's house or car, might be yours, will get properly toilet papered this evening. Oh, also, people will be listening, watching and reading all things horror.

So what am I going to do with 31 days?

Share the best books of the genre I've ever read.

I grew up reading these. Each one was a lesson in real horror compared to the crap that's out there today. I'm all for old school horror. I'm talking about the books that made it hard for me to sleep at night.

Today, I'm reviewing Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz.

After a stint in the navy, Schwartz became interested in writing. Later, he got a degree in journalism. When he set to work, he penned a series of stories to tell in the dark, which were part old folk lore and part urban legends.

From 1981 to 1991 he gave us three books, packed with such memorable classics as The Big Toe, The Hook or The Viper. (Which I know the last one is a little silly and not really scary, "I've come to Vipe your Vindows," granted, but still a classic yarn.)

But what I love most about these stories are the details that aren't being shared. It just makes it that much creepier and certainly a tactic I hope to employ in my stories. If you're looking for a really good example, I recommend The Monkey's Paw. I won't spoil it for you, but I'll just say, you'll be relieved at the end but it will keep you up at night regardless.

There are so many simple, effective scary stories in these four collections. Some are not even 500 words long.

But, then again, some of my favorites are the ones that still terrorize me today such as the bride who accidentally got locked up in a steamer trunk...or The Dead Man's Hand, The Cat's Paw, or countless others.

Also the illustrations were also like something out of a bad dream. If the story didn't scare you, the illustration would.

I know now that the twists, turns and hauntingly mind-bending stories collected within these slim books was the closest I was going to get at that time to Horror and Suspense that matched Alfred Hitchcock.

So here's a salute, to ALA's No. 1 banned book. Great way to kick off the month. Share with your friends...if you dare.