Horror Annotation: Bird Box by Josh Malerman

BIRD BOX

By Josh Malerman

SYNOPSIS: 

What is happening out there?

Nobody knows what is doing it or why, but when you open your eyes outside you go violently, self-destructively mad.

In a world where everyone has become agoraphobic, and sight is a curse, what price would you pay to maintain your sanity? What about the sanity of your children?

Malorie has raised her children in the safety of the house, alone, but the time has come to venture blind along the river, toward a rumored safe house. Along the way she and her young children will have to face the terrors of the unknown, while overcoming the crippling memories which serve as a constant reminder of what happens to people who open their eyes.

CHARACTERISTICS/APPEAL:

·      Mood: The mood is dark and suspenseful. The horror in this book comes not from what is explained but what is left unexplained. Like the characters, we are left with the psychological terror that we inflict on ourselves when we can’t picture what it is that we are supposed to be afraid of, or understand it’s motivation to harm us.

·      Violence: This book has a moderate amount of violence. The majority of the horror stems from the unknown; however, when there is violence, it is graphic. Violence is inflicted by the human’s driven mad, the animals who have taken over the outside, and the “creatures.”

·      Relationships: The characters of this book are driven by the relationships that they develop with one another in these apocalyptic times. Those relationships contain the power of redemption, of safety, and of joy or conversely, can be damning, just as maddening as whatever is outside.

·      Pacing: The pacing of the book is inconsistent. Certain sequences are packed with action, suspense and fear, while others tend to move at a more leisurely pace while building the narrative.

·      Setting: This story is told from three settings, all of which include their own horrific implications. The first setting is “the house,” the second the river, and the third, the illustrious safe house. The author constantly rips the reader from the comfort of one setting to the next, adding to the anxiety inducing tone of the book.

READ-A-LIKES:

·      I am Legend by Richard Matheson

·      Threshold by Caitlin R. Kierman

·      Autumn by David Moody

·      Hater by David Moody

·      The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith   Donohue

·      World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters

·      Cell by Stephen King

·      The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

·      Blindness by Jose Saramago

WATCH-A-LIKES:

·      The Walking Dead (TV Series)

·      I am Legend (Film)

·      World War Z (Film)

·      The Road (Film)

Prompt Response: Week 6

Let's set people up with a blind date with a romance material! All of the excitement of a blind date without any of the awkwardness or fear of being out with a psycho...or at least not without knowing it! We can wrap each piece, be it book, audiobook or movie in craft paper, with just a cut out where the barcode is, and write a quick and mysterious description highlighting some of it's most appealing factors on the paper, including those that would entice reader's/listener's/viewers from other genres, such as choosing romances which also feature historical fiction elements, or those that also feature supernatural elements.

To make it even more fun, we could encourage people to post pictures of them on their blind date using a hashtag such as #PGTPLblinddate, and encourage them to be as kitschy as possible... you want to take a picture of you and your romantic read at an Italian restaurant, on the beach, or bathed in candlelight with a chick flick...go for it!

Some great examples of libraries that have already done this are the Chicago Public Library and the St. Thomas Public Library.

Photo courtesy of: http://chicagopubliclibrary.tumblr.com/post/42435195162/blind-date-with-a-book-what-a-fun-idea-from-the

Kirkus Style Review

Broken Monsters

A dark and disturbing account of a misguided artist who terrorizes Detroit with gruesome installation pieces.

The Artist is slowly unraveling, losing touch with reality, and sinking into the decay that is overtaking Detroit. As the Artist’s mind unravels, his mediums become increasingly macabre, and displays of murder victims bodies, fused with those of animals are becoming commonplace. Told from multiple perspectives, this engrossing, slow-build features the perspectives of the Artist, a detective, a photographer, a scavenger, and an innocent, each with a role to play as the murders unfold and the Artist comes to terms with his creations. Upon the final violent climax, one is left wondering what is more horrific, the gruesome murders perpetuated by the artist, or the depressing desolation of Detroit that serves as a breeding ground for so much evil.

This brooding work shakes you, forcing you to consider the motivation behind a seemingly evil mind, and see the dreadful beauty of his creations. Powerful and imaginative, this book transports you to the fusion of a rotting, abandoned city, and a beautiful spiritual plane just beyond your grasp. 

Prompt Response: Week Five

I don't often rely on reviews for my personal reading, as I would rather make up my own mind through my personal reading experience. However, there are certainly exceptions! If a book hasn't intrigued me, yet I am hearing lots of chatter about it in the library, from my friends, on social media, etc., than I will turn to reviews to see if I can be pulled in after all. Also, if I am reading a book and find that it is losing me, surprising me, or I absolutely love it, I will sometimes look to a handful of reviews to see if others agree with me. Like Erin, when I am reading a review, anything that is too long will instantly turn me off to reading through it! Additionally, I am only interested in reading reviews from sources who will also publish negative reviews. I don’t focus on the negative, but overly positive, fluff reviews fail to provide an accurate description of the title, and to help to determine it’s value to me as an individual reader, as well as to me as someone who recommends books to others. When seeking out reviews, I tend to look to GoodReads, Library Thing, and the New York Times Sunday Book Review. However, I am excited to have so many additional sources to utilize from the resources provided in this class!

In reading the reviews of the e-book, I wasn't particularly encouraged to add it to a collection, or to read it myself. The Amazon review was particularly off-putting; I have never been interested in Amazon's Book Reviews because there is no credibility and often times I find that the reviews speak to why the book was good or bad for the individual writing the review, rather than objective description of the appeal or lack there of, of the book. Although the two blog reviews were more useful, neither was perfect. The first blog review was very plot-heavy in describing the book, and yet gave no appeal terms or descriptors to explain why or why not this would be a good book to have in a collection and/or to recommend to a reader. The second blog review was much more thorough in describing the appeal elements, but failed to describe any of the plot or include any snippets from the book. My overall opinion is that this book fails to live up to the Romantic Suspense genre (Where was any description of the frame, pacing or any other characteristics of Romantic Suspense?) and would not likely be one that I would purchase for a collection; I would need more information about the description of the plot and the elements of appeal, and unfortunately, given the decided lack of reliable reviews for e-book only materials, this would not likely be easily accessed.

The caliber of reviews for “Angela’s Ashes” was far higher, and included appropriate and balanced amounts of information about the plot and the appeal of the title. Based upon these well-written and thoughtful reviews, which objectively described the book, I would without question add it to a collection.

The fact that it was so easy to decide that the e-book wasn’t worth purchasing, based upon incomplete reviews, and that “Angela’s Ashes” was such a clear purchase, based upon the breadth of complete reviews, is a disappointing reflection on the process and culture of book reviews. This process is particularly disappointing for e-books, which may be deserving of better reviews than they receive; the result of the lack of reviews for e-book only titles such as this, is that they are judged based on the review rather than their content, and thus not purchased for a collection. The victim is thus the reader, who very well might love and benefit from this or other e-book titles being available. This proves that there should be a more balanced amount of attention paid to reviews for any and all genres as well as perceived level of literary relevance.

Secret Shopper

I had a very positive experience as a Secret Shopper. I told the (very friendly and positive) librarian that I had read Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects and Gone Girl and really enjoyed both of them. I also told her that in general I really liked dark, twisted reads and was open to any authors, I just wanted a similar tone. The librarian asked me about whether I wanted to base our search on those book titles, or on Gillian Flynn as an author. Having read all Flynn titles, I told her that I was interested in looking at related reads to Flynn as an author. She then asked me if I had read any Jodi Picoult books, and when I explained that I had but had never been very impressed with her works she said no problem, and at this point, she pulled up novelist. The librarian was very thorough, and while using Novelist, she didn't just use it to look up some options for me, she also explained how the database worked and showed me how to access it with my library card! I found this to be really awesome! Her enthusiasm was obvious and I walked away with a new understanding of how to use a tool rather than just a new book to read. Using Novelist she searched for Gillian Flynn and we read through the list of related authors, and read through the descriptions of each one's work. At this point, we talked about the authors that sounded interesting to me based upon these descriptions and wrote down a list of possible options. She was very honest with me and told me that it might take reading a few book descriptions by these authors, as she felt that sometimes the Novelist author descriptions were spot on, but sometimes they were inaccurate. The librarian then took the list of authors that we compiled and cross checked them with the library's catalog to see which authors had works in the catalog, and in the library that day. This list included authors Erin Kelly, Andrew Klavan, Peter Abrahams, and Claudia Pineiro. At this point, the librarian actually did not suggest any single title, but instead told me where to find these works in the library and had me go look for books by these authors. Although it would have been nice to walk away with a book recommendation or to have been shown where these books were, it was a very busy day in the library, and there was a line of people behind me, and although these factors may have contributed to her not recommending a single book, I never felt like she wasn't giving the interaction her all, and walked away knowing about 4 new authors to explore!

Week 3 Prompt Response: Exploring RA Resources

1) The Reader's Advisor Online: By finding Laurell K. Hamilton in the Author list alphabetically, and clicking on her, a list of her books was returned. This brought me to the Anita Blake series, which was already listed in numerical order. This made it easy for me to locate the fourth book in the series, The Lunatic Cafe.

2) AllReaders.com & Amazon.com: This was a tricky one! I really didn't know where to begin to answer find a book for this scenario. I started with AllReaders.com, and found it really helpful that it provided a Review, Plot & Themes, Setting, Writing Style, and Related Titles. However, I couldn't pin point a way to search for more fast-paced books. So I found my way over to Amazon and started my search with Prodigal Summer and looking at related books who other customers liked, reading their descriptions, and reading the reviews that people left. Based upon all of these factors, Kingsolver's book, The Lacuna: A Novel is an option which is written in the same style, as the patron wanted, but is gripping and exciting.

3) The Reader's Advisor Online & LibraryThing: Well, I thought the last one was tricky! I am quickly learning how much searching goes into just one recommendation. I used The Reader's Advisory Online to search Historical Fiction and narrow that down by Asia. I then looked for books written about Japan and which were characterized by sweeping and visual descriptions of Japan. I would suggest The Tale of Marusak, which is an historical autobiography that delves into Japanese Culture and History. Based upon further investigating this title in LibraryThing it comes well recommended and seems as though it would fit the readers needs.

4) AllReaders.com: After putting Well Schooled in Murder in AllReaders.com I found several related titles, notably Something Wicked. This is also a murder mystery but like the patron's example, includes only 10% violence, and will likely not to be too creepy.

5) AllReaders.com: I used World War Z to search for related zombie books, and after sifting through duds that were described as boring, I found, The Rising to suggest.

Personally, I tend to find books to read in several main ways: Goodreads, recommendations based upon my reading trends from Amazon, Buzzfeed Books, The New York Times book lists, personal recommendations from readers that I trust, and last but not least, the sheer joy of walking into a library or bookstore and taking a hefty amount of time to get lost in the shelves and allow titles and covers to call to me!

Thank you Erin for sharing that comprehensive list of RA Resources! I am excited to have so many different options for helping patrons find what they are looking for :)

I'm Kate :)

Reading IS my hobby, my life, my passion! I learn from reading, I've been saved by reading, I escape through reading, I reset through reading, I've been changed through reading. I have done my fair share of stumbling around, reading books that didn't appeal to me, trying to find that book, the one that moved me, stuck with me long after it was done, that I reread just to get lost in it again. This blog was created for my Reader's Advisory class, and I am excited to embark on this semester long journey, to learn how to help others find the right book when they need it!

Curious what I'm reading? Check out my Goodreads profile.

Happy Reading!

My Reading Profile!

I wouldn't say I have much time for reading, but I sure do love it! I make the time between appointments, stolen moments, staying up way too late...you know the drill. I feel a constant rush to read as quickly as possible because my appetite is insatiable and I want to read ALL THE THINGS! The result is a complete lack of ability to commit, so its typical for me to be reading about a million things at once, all from different genres, without any seeming sense or order.

My favorite genres to read are:

• Horror
• Fantasy
• Historical Fiction
• Literary Fiction
• Psychological Suspense 
• Thrillers
• Suspense
• True Crime
• And I dabble some in Non Fiction

Right now, and this is real, I am reading:

• Night Film by Marisha Pessl
• One of Us by Tawni O'Dell
• The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood
• Hitler's Furies by Wendy Lower
• Chasing the Ripper by Patricia Cornwell
• Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
• What We Talk About When We Talk About God by Rob Bell
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski 
• Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
• In the Woods by Tana French
• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Lolita by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• And sadly, I am sure that I am forgetting some that are sitting around my house and in my Kindle.

My favorite authors include Gillian Flynn, Marisha Pessl, Chuck Palahniuk, and Lauren

Beukes because my favorite books tend to be those that are dark and twisted, that scare me and make me question how I look at things!

I find books that I want to read by browsing reviews and book lists, and joyously relaxing by browsing the shelves at my library, looking for titles and covers that draw my attention.

I am not much a fan of romance, although there have been exceptions and I am SO over vampires! I also don't like mysteries very much, I like the idea of figuring them out but tend to find them a little cheesy.

Know something I should be reading? Tell me :) I love hearing about what others love to read.