Blood, Guts & Gore Plus Witches in Store…
Come a little closer, my pretty! It’s the witching hour around here, and my cauldron (er, brain) is whirling with everything that goes bump in the night. Let’s start with a gruesome Word Wars, then head into a spooky content roundup to get you in a spirited mood. And speaking of spirits, don’t miss this week’s PS featuring a bewitching cocktail.
Disemboweled vs. Eviscerated
Spooky Recos to Watch, Read and Share
Do you get a thrill from a good scare? Or do you prefer a sweeter version of spooky? My list of Halloween-inspired content offers a mix for all tastes.
The Pomegranate Witch
Written by Denise Doyenn, Illustrated by Eliza Wheeler
This gorgeously rhymed children’s book has become a Halloween tradition at my house. Get a taste with the stanzas tripping across the first few pages:
“Beyond the edge of town,
where streetlights stopped and sidewalks ended,
a small boy spied a farmhouse in a field long untended—
and before its sagging porch, amid a weedy foxtail sea,
found the scary, legendary, haunted pomegranate tree.
The gnarled tree loomed high and wide; its branches scraped the ground.
Beneath there was a fort, of sorts, with leafed walls all around.
Its unpruned limbs were jungle-like, dirt ripplesnaked with roots,
but glorious were the big, red, round, ripe pomegranate fruits.”
Witchy battles ensue, and the ending makes for a spirited discussion. You’ll have to read it to find out more!
Not sure who loves this book more — me or my kids? Toss up.
Coco
Venga, vamos! It’s my favorite time of year to watch Coco. I love the story, the alebrijes, the fact that Frida Khalo makes an appearance, and the music, of course. Ayayaya, the part where he performs “Un Poco Loco,” me encanto!
[Grito!!!] “What color is the sky, ay, mi amor, mi amor? You make me un poco loco, un piquit-it-ito loco! The way you keep me guessing, I’m nodding and I’m yessing, I’ll count it as a blessing that I’m only un poco loco!”
David S Pumpkins
Do you know this ridiculous Tom Hanks SNL skit from 2016? That’s the year my oldest kiddo was born, and this is the first official year he’s watched it – about 20 times! It’s worth a watch (the kid has good taste!).
The Haunting of Hill House
This mostly psychological thriller scared the begeezies out of me (in the best way). I never watched the second season, I just don’t see how it could top the first one. Great story, great cast, super spooky premise that plays with one of my personal favorite themes, which is the idea that time is a slippery, slippery devil and all of our once and future selves are hanging out inside of us in some kind of freaky dogpile. It’s on Netflix if you haven’t seen it, or if you’re ready for a re-watch.
True Blood
Ohhhh, Sookie & Bill, a timeless love for the ages. Readers, I’ll readily admit I have a thing for vampires. Again, playing with our concept of time, and leaning into the spirit world that’s very real in Louisiana. This show is a total package for me: I’ll lump it in with magical realism, which is a Latin literary tradition where a fantastical world is created juuuust adjacent to reality which aids in your willingness to suspend your disbelief and imagine these characters, this magic, could actually be happening. Plus the appetites of vampires are erotically compelling and satisfying to watch.
The Radleys
More vampires… a (dysfunctional) family of them this time, populating the pages of Matt Haig’s novel. This is a fun romp that asks what if vampires were real and decided to opt out of the whole blood-sucking thing? I mean, technically they’re immortal whether they drink blood or not—what could go wrong? And then your vampire progeny goes through puberty, oops. Apparently, this novel has just been made into a movie of the same name. I can’t vouch for the storytelling on the silver screen, but the novel is a fantastic read (as are all Matt Haig’s titles I’ve read).
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
This classic novel was first published in 1897 by Archibald Constable and Co. in a print run of 3,000 copies bound in plain yellow cloth with the title printed in simple red lettering. Mere weeks before printing, Stoker’s working title was The Un-Dead, which does not have quite the same ring. 127 years later, this immortal story is still going strong. I’ve read it a couple of times, and it’s as compelling to the modern reader as it was to Stoker’s contemporaries. The likes of Arthur Conan Doyle wrote to Stoker to tell him “how very much I have enjoyed reading Dracula. I think it is the very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years.” Perhaps the best review comes from the author’s mother, Charlotte Stoker, who told her son that “No book since Mrs Shelley’s Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror…” So listen to (his) mother and pick this dusty old gem for a reread or a first read—so worth it.
My dog-eared copy featuring a bare-breasted Mina…
Midnight Mass
Netflix series
Yes, more vampires—and this one might be the most compelling of all. It marries religion, love lost and found, redemption, addiction and the occult into a dark brew that slakes all my thirsts. In it, a guilt-ridden man returns to his hometown on a fictional remote island off the coast of the northeastern US. He reconnects with his family, a former flame and entertains the notion of faith as part of his journey into a church basement for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. To say much more would ruin the eerie reveals embedded in this very original psychological thriller that’s as much about human connection and the flaws of organized religion as it is about ancient vampires.
This story will really sink its fangs into you.
The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe’s creepy classic published in 1845 is now in the public domain, so you can read it for free online. I recommend you do—and give yourself the shivers. Before this poem was published in New York’s The Evening Mirror, then subsequently picked up by other papers, the impoverished poet existed on mainly bread and molasses. Another gross-out fact, at least from the modern-day perspective, is that Poe’s girl-wife (he married his cousin when she was 13 and he was more than twice her age) died only two years after the poem was published.
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
‘’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.’
Edgar Allan Poe, in the black-and-white flesh.
Boden postcard
This last one is a bit of marketing whimsy from the British clothing company, Boden. Clever copy and eye-catching imagery match up with a tiered offer that totally makes me want to buy a new petite dress before things get spooky.
As a gal with a penchant for bright colors and graphic patterns, this is my kinda place.
PS…Pink Pineapple Postcard!
Content creators, writers and editors are hiding in plain sight everywhere—in this little postscript section, I’m bringing in friends and connections who I admire to get a peek inside their “write brains” and also find out what book is currently showing up on their bedside table. Today, special thanks to the vivacious Cara Nicolas for graciously handwriting her answers and snail-mailing her Pink Pineapple Postcard back to me.
Let me know if you’d like to be featured! We’d love to have you!
