Something Wicked This Way Comes - R.I.P. II Challenge

sassymonkey — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:43:53 -0500

I am having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that summer is winding down. I didn't do quite as much as I hoped to this summer. I didn't take the time to really get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and sunshine as much as I should have. I could make all kinds of excuses. I moved to a new city so I had to pack. Then of course I had to unpack. I was busy. I was stressed. I was tired. See? Lots of excuses. It feels as though the summer has gone through some kind of time warp and I'm not sure how that happened. But it has. The local university is prepping for the freshmen to arrive. We've had more days that require sweaters than not in the last few weeks. And there is just something in the air that is saying that it's gone. But the beginnings of fall also bring something fun my way.

In the same week that news outlets are reporting that 1 in 4 Americans polled didn't read a single book in the past year (which, of course, means 3 in 4 did) it made my week to see people flocking to Stainless Steel Droppings to sign up for the second annual Readers Imbibing Peril challenge.

As with last year’s inaugural R.I.P. Autumn Reading Challenge, R.I.P. II is a September 1st through October 31st celebration of all tales gothic, eerie, creepy, and dark. Tales that one reads in the dark of night, experiencing delicious shivers of terror and suspense at each creak of the floorboards or each gust of wind.

Carl has outlined a number of different perils that one could choose - from the Obese Book Peril (think Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), the Short Story Sunday Peril, and the Just a Bit of Peril (for those who like to keep things a bit on the lighter side) among several others.

What kind of books does one read for this challenge? All different kinds! There are the Gothic novels, which by the way, would include Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (sorry, I really do look for any excuse to sit down and visit Jane). Gothic fiction on it's own is really a huge category ranging from early works like Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, to the Romantics like Polidori's The Vampyre, the Victorian's such as Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, to the more modern works such as Daphne De Maurier's Rebecca or last year's bestseller The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (reviewed here). Then you have your Southern Gothic, which truth be told I don't know much but includes the works of Harper Lee and William Faulkner. Then there is Female Gothic, which Emily Moers defined in Literary Women in 1977 as "the work that women writers have done in the literary mode that, since the eighteenth century, we have called the Gothic."

Whew! That's a lot. And that's just the Gothic!

Gothic not your cup of tea? There are certainly others. There's lots to choose from in the fantasy genre, especially if you opt for those with with the real evil baddies. The Lord of the Rings could totally work with this, after all Sauron was a pretty evil badass. If you have tastes at are a bit more modern there's Urban Fantasy. I've recently been reading quite a bit of this thanks to now being able to raid my friend Cat's bookshelf. She reads a lot of this genre (and has finally started a book blog, Beyond Books which is good because as she says, she "eats books like candy"). She was just reminding me the other day that she has three more of Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan books to lend me and I fully intend to take her up on that as soon as I erase the memory of the nightmares the last one I read induced (living vampires are a scary concept y'all).

And don't forget the Young Adult sections! You know I love me some YA! Just the other day I picked up Holly Black's Tithe and I keep thinking that it would be a really good book for this challenge but then I'd have to wait until after September 1 to read it! Some of Francesa Lia Block's books would work for this as well. As would Stephanie's Meyer's Twilight (reviewed here) and its sequels.

Still stumped for books that you think you would enjoy for this challenge? Carl has posted a lot more suggestions on his blog and here are a few participant lists for you to browse:

Nymeth has narrowed it down to a list of five.
Sarah at Loose Baggy Monster (possibly the best blog name I've heard in awhile) has list of possibilities for the Just a Bit of Peril option but will also be reading a few for one of her classes.
Janet of Fond of Snape is doing Peril the First.
Momma Writes About Books is doing multiple perils!

And as for me? I'm still working on my list. I'm on vacation and have an entire week to think and plot and troll around secondhand bookstores. I doubt that I'll be doing the Obese Book Peril....but then again I do have Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell and will be spending and obscene amount of time travelling to wedding in October. Hmmmmm.... So who else is in for some terror and horror this fall? Sign up at Stainless Steel Droppings before midnight on September 3 and you'll be eligible to win the Challenge's first prize!

Contributing Editor Sassymonkey also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

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Something Wicked This Way Comes - R.I.P. II Challenge