May ScaredyKit: Surviving the Horror

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Who knew? There is actually a Horror sub-genre entitled Survival Horror. When things go very bad, survival is often the key to success. Whether it’s a strange disease that has spread bringing death and zombies to your door, a curse that has been placed and you need to find out how to lift it, or a crazed killer has you in his sights, staying alive and giving yourself time to figure out what to do is your number one priority. This month we will be reading books that highlight survival, how people not only cope but learn to overcome the overwhelmingly horrible conditions that they are faced with.

Most horror stories will fit this theme plus you could also look at post-apocalyptic stories about surviving the end of the world as-we-know-it or fast-paced thrillers with the main character facing danger and lots of twists. Have fun with this topic and let us know what you are going to be reading.

Please remember to add your books to the Wiki which can be found here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2023_ScaredyKIT#February:_Historical_Hor...

To help you out I have listed a few books that are from the Goodreads List of Survival Horror Books:

One by One by Ruth Ware
The Troop by Nick Cutter
The Walking Dead Graphic Novels by Robert Kirkman
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
Near the Bone by Christina Henry
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Final Girls by Riley Sager

And, a couple more:

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I am planning on reading The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn and Siege by Rhiannon Frater.

I've enjoyed C.J. Tudor books and wonder if The Burning Girls is would fit "survival".

What a great topic! I will have to look at my TBR and see what I have that would fit, but I love this.

>3 VivienneR: I think any book where someone is still standing at the end will fit. The Burning Girls sounds good!

>5 DeltaQueen50: Glad to hear it. Thanks, Judy.

>1 DeltaQueen50: You have the wrong author in your post. Final Girls Support Group is by Grady Hendrix. Final Girls is by Riley Sager. Both would fit this challenge

>7 VioletBramble: I have corrected the list. Thanks for letting me know. :)

A few options for me:

The Wall / Jeff Long
Old Bones / D. Preston, L. Child
An Unwanted Guest / Shari Lapena

I think Embassy of the Dead will fit this.

Love this topic! One I would recommend is The Girl With All The Gifts which I think DeltaQueen may have originally recommended a few years ago? Not sure if my memory is correct there!

I am thinking The Stand as I am currently doing a Stephen King readalong (but I will draw the line at IT - I don't think I can do that one!)

I'm going to plan on reading The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan--it's a new release I've been anxious for, and definitely fits the bill!

>11 JayneCM: I did love The Girl With All the Gifts and also The Boy on the Bridge by the same author. :)

I picked up The Shuddering yesterday and read it pretty much in one sitting. Non-stop horror and it truly is all about surviving!

I've settled on The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. It sounds like a good fit.

Also fitting this KIT is The Girl with All the Gifts and Bird Box, and A Gift Upon the Shore, all good reads for me.

Embassy of the Dead by Will Mabbitt is a children's paranormal. A living boy mistaken for a dead one, Jake has to work with two ghosts, and a ghostly fox, to find a way to keep the Embassy of the Dead from putting him in the Eternal Void. Not so scary, but a good story.
I'm going to see if I come up with a stronger survival story for this month.

There is a bit of survival in this one so I am going to count it here; Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger. This is a YA book. Elatsoe has to deal with the land of the dead and to be able to return to the living. It's horror, mystery, and ancestral stories.

I started The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, but I just couldn't do it. I made it about 7% in on the audio and decided this was not going to work for me. I was not enjoying the audio narrator or the main character. I will have to see if I can find something else for this one.

I've read The Final Girl Support Group, and it wasn't my favorite from Hendrix. If you can find Horrorstor from him, it would fit the survival theme nicely, and it's non-stop action.

>20 mstrust: That was the first one of his that I read and really enjoyed it. I think I might give Bird Box a try. That one has been on my wish list for a while now.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Hig survived the pandemic that has killed most people including his family and friends. Now he lives in a hangar with his dog, Jasper, and a volatile neighbour, a former soldier called Bangley. They manage to get by, even with the occasional forays of scavengers, and Hig is able to fly his Cessna short distances to salvage whatever might be useful.

Not only did the fragmented sentences and abbreviated writing suit the story perfectly, it was beautiful, poetic. And Heller knows the outdoors well and can impart the feeling and beauty of wide open spaces. I'm not a fan of post-apocalyptic stories but really enjoyed this one.

I have completed Siege by Rhiannon Frater. This Zombie story is all about surviving!

June's thread is up:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/350893

I read The Last Kids On Earth by Max Brallier. It was ok - not very impressed with how the female character was portrayed, but I would say she proves them wrong later in the series.

I read Superstitious by R.L. Stine for this challenge. Technically the main character survived so it fits.

I read How To Sell A Haunted House, which is not the ghost story I thought it would be. Instead, it has a sister and brother fighting to survive their dead mother's homicidal puppet and doll collection.

>27 mstrust: Whoo! Nightmare fuel.

ETA I just put it on my library list.

I read Last Day by Luanne Rice. I did not choose this book for this kit, but after reading it I think it fits! It is the story of the abduction of a mother and two daughters and the stealing of a painting from their art gallery. The mother was killed. The two daughters struggled, until, mysteriously one of the daughters was killed and the painting (which had been recovered) was stolen again! It was a "slow" race against time to find those responsible so as to save the remaining daughter's life.

An Unwanted Guest / Shari Lapena
4.5 stars

I see this as a cross between The Shining (isolated inn in the mountains during the winter) and And Then There Were None (only two staff, along with 10 guests in the isolated inn… and people are being murdered). James owns the inn, and his son Bradley helps out; because of the storm, they are the only two staff around on this cold wintery weekend. The guests: Candice is an author; David is a criminal defense attorney; Ian and Lauren are a fairly new couple, Henry and Beverly are a longer-married couple having trouble in their marriage, Matthew and Dana are planning their wedding; Gwen and Riley are long-time friends trying to reconnect. They all come with their own baggage and secrets. Who could be slowly murdering the others…?

I loved the cold wintery setting of this one! And I loved (what I saw as) the combo of The Shining with And Then There Were None. Although there were a lot of characters to introduce, I was able to figure them out pretty quickly and was interested from the start. I wasn’t sure if there would be a twist at the end (or how that would happen), but there was one and I think it was done well!

Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin: I didn't select this book for the theme, but I think it fits. It is a strange town horror/speculative story. In this unnamed town, isolated from the rest of the world, life seems idyllic, but every now and then, a mother disappears. It's always a mother. No one knows why they vanish--they call it their "affliction"--but they accept it as a necessary part of their life in the town, which has to be better than life elsewhere. The story is narrated by Vera, whose mother is one of the vanished and who grows up to become a mother herself, and one day senses that she too is disappearing. And then she makes a choice. The story reminded me a lot of Shirley Jackson, particularly The Lottery, and of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin.

>31 sturlington: This sounds wonderfully creepy - and I love Shirley Jackson. Off to see if my library has it.

So, I did end up giving Bird Box a go and I'm glad that I did. Really enjoyed this one. Grabbed me right from the get go and had me on the edge of my seat right up to the end. One of the best horror books I've read in a while.

I just looked at the wiki and it seems like May's topic was a good one for a lot of us, as several people rated their reads as higher than 4 stars. Yay!

Thanks to everyone for participating in our "Survival" month!

>34 sturlington: The ratings are very interesting - I guess we were in the mood for some heart-thumping chills and thrills!

Wolvercraft Manor / Cas E. Crowe
4.5 stars

Saige has been gone from her childhood home on an island for years, but her brother wants to get married there. The last time Saige was there, she saw her mother kill herself. Saige also “sees” things (i.e. ghosts) and because of this her father had her institutionalized. What the rest of her family doesn’t realize is that Saige really is seeing these things. It’s not all in her head. She is very anxious about returning.

Once there, she finds that her brother’s best friend from when they were younger, Jasper, is also there. He is a musician and will play at the wedding. What the rest of the family doesn’t know is that Saige and Jasper were not only in a relationship, they were engaged until Jasper just up and left without a word.

When Saige starts seeing ghosts again, it seems that Jasper is able to see them, as well, so the two embark on trying to figure out why all the ghosts are there and how to stop them from what appears to be a curse on the house and anyone who marries into the family.

While I feel like I gave a lot away, I don’t really think it’s too much, as so much more goes on in the story. The atmosphere of the book is very very creepy and very well done. The haunted old mansion. A storm that has them trapped. The ghosts are very scary and quite well-described so this book may not be for the squeamish. It was fast-paced. I also really liked the relationship between Saige and Jasper, though (not surprisingly) Saige had a hard time with Jasper, him having abandoned her way back when.

I'm just stopping by, embarrassingly late, to say that I FINALLY wrote a review for The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan. I've read it twice now--once in June and then again in August--and I'm not exaggerating to say it may be my new favorite book. If you like horror, let alone ecohorror, you should pick it up. Full review written!

>37 whitewavedarling: Thanks for the recommendation. I especially like fiction set in Toronto as I live not too far away and it's one of my favourite cities, so I'll seek this one out.
Also, don't worry about being "embarrassingly late". I too didn't get to some of the CAT and KIT challenges earlier but still hope to complete them before the end of the year.