July ScaredyKIT -Beach Reads

Of course beach reads implies you can read anything that you want; lying on the beach, on vacation. You name it.




Other books to consider,

Jaws - Peter Benchley
Beach House - Stine
The Dead Lifeguard - Stine
Candle Bay - Tamara Thorne
The Elementals - Michael McDowell

What will you be reading? What do you recommend.

A tagmash search for fun + horror found Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix in my tbr.

I might also go with a Grady Hendrix book:
How to Sell a Haunted House / Grady Hendrix.

I have a couple of histories of medicine that might fit, too (for a different kind of "horror"!), but I think I'll stick with traditional horror.

I also have one called Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer that came up in a tagmash with "humour", but I want to keep that one to read as a "Christmas" book.

Wow, looks like Grady Hendrix is popular! I am also planning on reading one of his with The Final Girls Support Group.

To go along with the idea of summer vacation, I'll probably read Summer Sons. I also just bought How to Sell a Haunted House, so I'll likely read that as well.

>4 DeltaQueen50: My library has way too many holds on the one I was hoping for, so I might go with the medical history "horror" instead! LOL! Or just find something not on my tbr. We'll see.

Well, with a tagmash of "beach, horror" (I suspect similar to what Kristel did for her suggestions above), I discovered a Stephen King I haven't read that is set on a beach! I'll probably do that one:
Duma Key / Stephen King

>7 LibraryCin:, Yes, Cindy, same thing I did and I think the first book that comes up is Duma Key. I haven’t read it either.

I think I will go with The Saturday Night Ghost Club which is set during summer. Or one of the Goosebumps set at a summer camp.

>9 JayneCM: Jayne, I was surprised how many 'beach' titles R. L. Stine had.

I have requested Duma Key from the library. The estimated time is 2-3 weeks, so that should work out fine!

ETA: I received this today (6-26) (early!) on Audio, so I will commence reading....it is a long one!

I'm going with My Heart is a Chainsaw, which looks like it takes place at a summer camp.

>10 Kristelh: There are! I am going with Welcome To Camp Nightmare, which is Goosebumps #9.
" Next summer you'll stay home ... if you survive!"

I never read the Goosebumps as a kid so this will be my first one ever!

I got this early and hence finished early, Duma Key by Stephen King. King is a hit or miss with me and this was a miss....a BIG miss at 21 hours (801 pages). I struggled to finish this. At 50% in I was thinking "what is the plot?" The only enjoyable thing was that it was set near Sarasota, Florida, of which I am very familiar.

I went with Dumas Key regardless of Tess's >14 Tess_W: message. I liked the fact that it was set in Minnesota and Florida (both places I live). In Minnesota the protagonist lived about 2 hours from me and in Florida about an hour away. I also found it interesting that Edgar suffered a work accident injuring his right hip and leg, broken ribs and a head injury, and an amputation of his right arm. In 1999, Stephen King was hit by a car while walking injuring his right leg, hip, broken ribs and a brain injury. I felt he did a good job of describing the experience of a head injury and in the book the main character paints instead of writing books. Other than those points of interest, the book is paranormal horror. I'm not sure that there is any particular theme in the book. I guess the plot is that if you have a head injury then you might be able to "draw" and also to connect to this paranormal world. I listened to the book at 1.75 speed so I got it done in 3 days. There was plenty of beach walking.

>15 Kristelh: Glad you liked it. I see that the average rating on LT is 3.7, so higher than my 2.5! We had a winter place in Bradenton (Sarasota) for years. We still vacation on Anna Maria Island. Where you from?

I have abandoned my read of The Final Girl Support Group. I wasn't enjoying it at all, in fact it annoyed me. I don't know if I will be able to fit another 'beach" read in this month but I will try.

>17 DeltaQueen50: Oh, that's disappointing. :-(

>17 DeltaQueen50: I also gave up on that one recently. Didn't make it very far in, but did not like the main character at all.

I admit that TFGSG has been my least favorite from Hendrix, but it still had its moments. It wasn't very scary though.

Another book; made of short stories Ghost Summer Tananarive Due would be appropriate for beach read theme.

How to Sell a Haunted House / Grady Hendrix
4 stars

When Louise’s parents die in a car crash, she heads home. She leaves her 5-year old daughter, Poppy, with her ex. To Louise’s surprise, although her father would have left everything to her, rather than her no-good younger brother, Mark, her mother left everything to him. Because their father died first, everything is going to Mark. Except her mother’s artwork. Her mother crafted a lot of puppets. In fact, most of those puppets are pretty scary, particularly Pupkin, whom Louise has been scared of for a long long time. When she heads into the house to take inventory of the artwork that would be left to her (and she will take her time, just to annoy Mark!), she doesn’t realize Pupkin holds a grudge against her.

It was a bit slow in the set up, which was about the first half of the book, but it really picked up over that night Louise spent in the house. Then, there was a twist! What would Louise do now!? I really liked it. Be warned, there are gruesome parts, though. There was a bit of humour, but not as much as I was expecting.

>22 LibraryCin: Ooh, you got me! I’ve got How to Sell a Haunted House requested! Thanks!

Karen O

>23 klobrien2: enjoy!

I also read How to Sell a Haunted House and gave it four stars. Good entertainment value, but not quite as summer-fun as The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.

I have now started Summer Sons, which I also hope to complete for this month's topic.

>22 LibraryCin: I read a Grady Hendrix book too!

Horrorstör was fun, not as scary as I expected, but just imagining spending the night in a closed Orsk (Ikea) store is pretty scary without the horror details. The advertising announcements read by Bronson Pinchot were the creepiest parts.

>26 VivienneR: Haha! Good point about spending the night even in a non-haunted closed Ikea!!

I love Bronson Pinchot doing those ads!

I got another read in: Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. Steamy Southern Gothic queer romance ghost story. I liked it.

During a tag mash of beach + horror, I found a book my husband owns. I read Lord of the Flies by William Golding for this challenge.

>29 lowelibrary: Literally a "beach horror" book. :-)

>29 lowelibrary: what a good one!

> 30 Yes it is a literal interpretation of the theme
>31 Kristelh: It is one of my husband's favorites, but I personally did not enjoy it. I found nothing relatable and the violence was just too much.

>32 lowelibrary:, it's not a favorite of mine but I remember watching the movie in high school. But it never crossed my mine as a beach horror read but its a good one for that tag mash.

Finished Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach by Ramsey Campbell. It was...fine? Definitely not one I'll remember as my favorite Campbell. I think the book's big downfall was an incredibly large cast of characters that too often bled together. Full review written, though.

I read Welcome To Camp Nightmare, one of the original Goosebumps books about a summer camp. As I was reading, I remembered seeing the Goosebumps episode!

Thanks to all that participated in July's theme. See you in August.