Rock Reads: Halloween Edition
by Kevin Wierzbicki
This spooky season cuddle up with a good boo, er, book; there's no better way to keep the ghosties and ghoulies at bay and have a great time doing so. We think you'll like the titles we recommend here and we start with a book that'll guide you in making some eerie cocktails! All titles are available at Amazon.
"The Turn of the Screwdriver" - Iphigenia Jones - (Ulysses Press)
Here's a book that's not only fun-filled; it's pun-filled too! With the subtitle "50 Dark & Twisted Cocktails," "Turn of the Screwdriver" presents drink recipes that are inspired by books by horror masters such as Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Rice, Mary Shelley and dozens of other legendary authors. That means you'll learn how to make drinks like The Picture of Dorian Grey Goose, inspired by Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which yes, is made with Grey Goose vodka (or your favorite) along with vermouth and the oh-so-mysterious absinthe. Or how about a tasty The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mudslide, a Kahlua and Baileys treat that's inspired by, you guessed it, Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." And the delicious hits just keep on coming, with cute names like "The Heart is a Lonely Mixer," the beer-based "Franken-Stein," "The Haunting of Highball House," "The Count of Monte Cristal," "Rosemary's Baileys," "Transylvania Terminator" and many other horror-inspired libations. There are more than a dozen drink recipes that are inspired by more modern works of fiction too, like The Sloe, Sloe Woods (from Carmen Maria Machado's "The Low, Low Woods"), Tequila is the Flesh (from Agustina Bazterrica's 2017 work "Tender is the Flesh") and the rum drink called The Ghost in the Graveyard Book that's inspired by Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book." Each recipe includes a brief synopsis of what the book that inspired the concoction is about and there's a picture showing what your finished drink should look like so you know what kind of glass to serve it in. Our favorite? Well since you asked, it's the extra frosty The Legend of Slushy Hollow, based on the classic Washington Irving horror story featuring Ichabod Crane, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Trust us, you won't be sleepy after drinking a couple of the rum, lime juice and honey-based grogs!
"True Ghost Stories: Jim Harold's Campfire Volume Six" - Jim Harold - (Jim Harold Media)
Here's the sixth book from Harold that features contributions from participants in his popular "Jim Harold's Campfire Podcast" where listeners call in to tell him about their paranormal experiences. While some of the entries are frightening and the kind of thing you're glad didn't happen to you, they are not the sort of tales you'd repeat around the campfire to scare the kiddos or the more squeamish of the group. Rather they are recollections of mysterious occurrences that seem to have no earthly explanation. Take for example the tale Marissa from Florida relates about how, when she was a little girl, the image of a woman emerged from her bedroom closet on a regular basis at night, spookily beckoning Marissa and her brother to come to her. Of course mom never believed the kids until she too saw something. In the story of "The Protective Poltergeist" Matt from Missouri is freaked out by a voice that awakened him at night when no one was around, only to find out that he was roused from his sleep to help the family dog that had eaten rat poison, so maybe it was an angel at work. There are stories of shadow people, Ouija board experiences, curses, unexplained visions and sounds, ghosts and specters and many stories of very haunted houses. All of the entries are fairly short and most are just two pages, so the reader can get through a bunch of stories in a brief time and Harold has sequenced the chapters to keep the subject matter varied. Perusing these interesting tales might even provoke a memory on the reader's part that can be shared with Harold on a future podcast.
"Epitaphs from the Abyss #4" - Various Creators - (Oni Press)
Here's the latest scare-'em-to-death entry from the comics/graphic novel specialists at Oni Press: the fourth entry in their "Epitaphs from the Abyss" series.
The issue is presented as an EC Comic, a nod to the beloved imprint that most notably originated the "Tales from the Crypt" comics. Found within are three all new tales, the first of which is "Dead from Exposure," written by Jay Stephens and with artwork by David Lapham and Nick Filardi. "Dead from Exposure" tells the story of a guy who hosts a paranormal podcast who's looking for a story and finds it in a roadside cafe when a waitress tells him about the local legend of the bog-ape. He ends up trekking out into the Ontario wilderness to debunk the story, but... The segment ends tragically but not in the way you would think. "The Perfect Pearl," written by Amy Roy and with artwork by Claire Roe and Brittany Peer tells the story of how a woman's string of pearls mysteriously grows shorter and longer, a phenomenon that continues for years, until one day... The final segment of "Epitaphs from the Abyss #4" is written by J. Holtham with artwork from Leomacs and Inaki Azpiazu and is called "Under the Influence" and is about a substance called LVL Up that's pushed by an influencer who claims it will "crank your metabolism, supercharge your workouts and increase your drive." Well now what could go wrong? Turns out, quite a bit. The three strange tales of terror are appended with a couple of pages of letters from fans in this nice collectible.
"What Would Wednesday Do: Gothic Guidance and Macabre Musings from Your Favorite Addams Family Member" - Iphigenia Jones - (Ulysses Press)
Those of a certain age will remember Wednesday Addams as the odd little girl from the corny television show "The Addams Family" while younger folks are enamored with the Wednesday Addams character, she of psychic abilities and sleuthing proclivities, as portrayed by Jenna Ortega in the Netflix show "Wednesday." So which Wednesday is the one handing out advice in this charming and very entertaining book? According to author Jones it is both yet neither; she has encompassed bits of each personality in her prose here, which is presented in the form of answers to and commentary on (made up) questions posed to the composite Wednesday. A question submitted by 'Animal Admirer,' a youngster, wonders what she has to do to get her parents to approve of letting her have a pet. Wednesday's response suggests being more responsible with household chores, like picking belladonna from the poison garden without being asked, cooking dinner in the cauldron and cleaning up the plates when finished playing with the food. While the answer is macabre there is actually good advice contained within: Just try to be pleasing to the parents (and be a little bit manipulative.) And that's how the whole of "WWWD?" goes as Iphlgenia Jones/Wednesday Addams dishes out advice filled with wit, wisdom and whimsy for questions such as "How Can I Attain the Gothic Look?," "How am I Supposed to Manage Having My Cousin in the Coffin Next to Me for Two Whole Weeks?" and "How Can I Tell if a Girl Likes Me?" which garners the two word reply "She Doesn't." There's plenty of good fun to be had in "What Would Wednesday Do?"
