Here is my conversation with Dr. Amy Jane Vosper, a good friend of mine I had met through Ottawa Horror as a rabid film fan. You may recall Amy as The Glamour Ghoul as we have talked on Typical Books a few times before, although only in video. Today, we talk about the books she read while researching genre film theories and the shift in how females are portrayed and how women enjoy horror films. From her bio at Trent University, “Vosper’s PhD dissertation combined psychoanalytic film theory with original empirical research to investigate women’s multidimensional infiltration of horror as a genre, as a fan culture and as a productive process. Her research interests include horror, feminism, psychoanalysis, spectatorship, early Hollywood cinema, political economy, French New Wave cinema and studies of fan culture and fandom”.

Read more with Amy : https://offscreen.com/view/film-fear-and-the-female

And peep her bio here : https://www.trentu.ca/culturalstudies/node/55

This is part of the two-hour Monthly Magazine available to Patron bookworms

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

Here is my conversation with Dr. Amy Jane Vosper, a good friend of mine I had met through Ottawa Horror as a rabid film fan. You may recall Amy as The Glamour Ghoul as we have talked on Typical Books a few times before, although only in video. Today, we talk about the books she read while researching genre film theories and the shift in how females are portrayed and how women enjoy horror films. From her bio at Trent University, “Vosper’s PhD dissertation combined psychoanalytic film theory with original empirical research to investigate women’s multidimensional infiltration of horror as a genre, as a fan culture and as a productive process. Her research interests include horror, feminism, psychoanalysis, spectatorship, early Hollywood cinema, political economy, French New Wave cinema and studies of fan culture and fandom”.

Read more with Amy : https://offscreen.com/view/film-fear-and-the-female

And peep her bio here : https://www.trentu.ca/culturalstudies/node/55

This is part of the two-hour Monthly Magazine available to Patron bookworms

✮✮✮✮✮✮

Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

What brought on this light conversation of a wretched topic you ask? Two things crossing my desk at once; a vile little tome that I now treasure covered by fellow booktube host,  @Plagued by Visions and a favourite podcast with Dr. Lee Mellor talking about last year in crime covering The Bedsit Murderer. These two things rambled around in my mind and parallels were drawn...   

Read the Necrophiliac https://amzn.to/3KzTNGs  

or learn more about the Bedsit Murderer 

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

Do we need star ratings for books? Are stars full of it, as opposed to the other way around? That was a bad sci-fi joke, I admit, but this tag opens a really important discussion that has been on my mind. How do you or how should we review books? 

Channels Mentioned here are  @Harpies in the Trees,  @Plagued by Visions,  @Books of Blood,  @The Bookubus  and  @Gunpowder, Fiction & Plot  

1. Tag other booktubers

2. How do you know you’ve just finished a good book? Is it a thinking or a feeling response? 

3. When you begin to form your review/rating - what is the first question you ask yourself? 

4. Do you do star ratings? Why? Why not? 

a. If YES: i. Explain your star rating system – what does a good book get in your rating system? ii. Is your star rating consistent? ie. are all your 5-star books better than all your 4-star books? 

b. If NO: i. What language do you use to convey the quality of a book in your reviews? ii. Does this form an informal rating or ranking? 

5. Do you believe every book has its perfect reader? Does this contradict the idea that a book can be “bad”? 

6. What book that you hated have you recommended? 

7. What makes a book good, bad or great by your evaluation? 

8. When evaluating the quality of a book do you have specific criteria or aspects of the book, such as character development, that you consider? Does this change if you are writing an in-depth review vs. just thinking about the book for enjoyment? 

9. Do you consider star ratings or average ratings when choosing books to read/add to your TBR? 

10. Who on BookTube does reliable and interesting reviews of books that you know you can use to decide if a book is for you or not. What makes their reviews so good? 

11. Does that/those booktuber(s) use different language than you to evaluate and review the overall quality of a book? 

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

So many different horror books coming out in January, debut novels, anthologies, creatures, haunts, you name it!

00:00 - New Horror Books out in January 2022

00:15 - The Hay Bale by Priscilla Bettis https://amzn.to/3I1elp8

00:33 - Women in Trouble by R. Saint Claire https://amzn.to/3nmeBXY

00:50 - There are more horror books out in January than there were in December

01:11 - New horror from HWA authors

01:25 - The Devil Makes Three by Lucy Blue https://amzn.to/3K76GI3

02:21 - The Squatter by Jonathan Dunne https://amzn.to/3njLHrC

03:19 - Paused by Stephanie Ellis https://amzn.to/33o1yye

04:31 - Beulah by Christi Nogle https://amzn.to/3GkTDjK

05:18 - Hold My Place by Cassondra Windwalker https://amzn.to/3zSE4xx

06:13 - The Wakening by J G Faherty https://amzn.to/33cMvaW

06:55 - Generation X-ed edited by Rebecca Rowland https://amzn.to/3tk1kmE

07:55 - Mastodon by Steve Stred https://amzn.to/3ruPfsv

08:39 - Check typicalbooks.com/newhorror for more!

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked Slewfoot, with only a few things to take me out of 1666 Connecticut.

00:00 - Today we will get into Slewfoot by Brom https://amzn.to/3zA6z2A

01:01 - A tale of bewitchery

01:50 - The setting and people

03:02 - The VVitch meets A Midsummer's Night Dream

04:23 - Abitha and her husband

06:30 - A peek inside the book

09:00 - It's good to own land...

10:11 - Skipping church? That's a paddlin'

11:22 - It may even be more horror than fantasy

12:12 - Have you read Slewfoot?

Slewfoot by Gerald Brom was a gift to me, and an anticipated read all in one. Abitha, the lead character, as a near-shunned Puritan woman and the cover art had me deeply intrigued. What I did not expect was the level of whimsy and fantasy found here, and while normally it’s not my cup of tea, this fit so nicely into my vision of a magical occurrence at this time, that I would certainly read more like this. 

I’m new to Brom, save casual noticing of his art, so his style may not come as a surprise to fans. Meeting Abitha and the bible quoting townsfolk was as intriguing to me as the creatures that step from the forest to turn her life upside down. Newly widowed, fighting a land claim, and practising healing arts made Abitha’s life in 1966 Connecticut feel very real to me. Then, there is Slewfoot. The imagery linked to the myth is lovely and enchanting as all the rest.

A cross between Robert Eggers’ film ‘The Witch’ and A Midsummers Night Dream.

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

Do you use a ranking app? I picked the top ten books from 48 I read according to Goodreads. 

This episode relies on visuals, but I've done my best to describe what viewers are seeing. 

Find them all at https://bookshop.org/shop/typicalbooks

Want more? Thank you! Subscribe for the monthly magazine episodes and member-only podcasts https://anchor.fm/typicalbooks/subscribe

There is a proper Tier Ranking here : https://tiermaker.com/create/horror-books-1437625 

Narrowing it down to 10 books took a bit of thought, and I was glad to use Photoshop to sort them visually! 

An overview, the sorting, the ranking, then afterward I list each book for your future shopping list ~ enjoy, and let me know if you hit your reading goal or plan one for next year! 

00:00 - Ranking the books I read this year

00:49 - Not every book is on Goodreads

01:23 - What raking app do you use?

02:13 - The Ranking begins with 52 books

02:28 - Removing books that are not horror or true crime

03:01 - Moving books into categories

04:10 - A book is a book

04:20 - Deliniating horror, extreme and in-between

04:41 - Piling books the e-easy way!

04:59 - Notable omissions

05:41 - Finally sorted, now to pick out ten books

07:04 - Ranking my top ten books

08:35 - The top two books I read this year

08:58 - The top 10 in order

10:35 - The top ten books of 2021 expanded

12:58 - Do you rate your books or plan for next year?

13:43 - All 52 books: A recap of each title

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

With a birthday so close to Christmas, I prefer everything about that, especially the books! 

It is the perfect time of year, being so snowy and cold here in Canada, to curl up for a week with this stack of great books. 

Find them all at https://bookshop.org/shop/typicalbooks

Want more? Thank you! Subscribe for the monthly magazine episodes and member-only podcasts https://anchor.fm/typicalbooks/subscribe

With so many gifts, books I am reading right now, and one I picked up for myself, I figured a bookish haul video was in order. 

See the series on  @Books of Blood  https://youtu.be/7dMvFba1H7g

00:00 - Holiday Horror Haul and Current Reads

00:18 - Slewfoot by Brom https://amzn.to/30OEgRh

00:32 - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce https://amzn.to/32ux7Gk

01:30 - More on Slewfoot to come

02:10 - Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk https://amzn.to/32hvjAr

02:34 - A few Authortube ideas for 2022

03:34 - The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop https://amzn.to/32qnKah

03:59 - Horror home for the holidays...

04:32 - Mütter Museum: Historic Medical Photographs https://amzn.to/3sqGIJa

06:36 - Halloween novelization by John Passarella https://amzn.to/3qiRb6y

07:33 - Halloween Kills shirt from Fright Rags

07:45 - The Order of the Good Death mug https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/ 

08:12 - The Terror by Dan Simmons https://amzn.to/3H0ZRVP

11:05 - Rape of a Normal Mind by Chris Cobb and Rob Avery https://amzn.to/3ee2ur9 

14:41 - What are you reading over the holidays?

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

Music by ænorex ▹ https://aenorex.com music used by permission of the artist

Slob and The Slob are two extreme or splatterpunk horror books published at either end of the subgenre's timeline. 

Want more? Thank you! Subscribe for the monthly magazine episodes and member-only podcasts https://anchor.fm/typicalbooks/subscribe

The Slob by Aron Beauregard from 2021 https://amzn.to/3EZswtY

Slob by Rex Miller in 1986 https://amzn.to/3s8JuSU

Note that Slob is not easy to find. I was lucky to find one for under 10 dollars at Thrift Books.

Both have elements of extreme, dark, and gory horror fiction. Your content advisory of choice can guide you past brutal scenes, bodily violence, gender-based violence, morally questionable ideas, and elements often found in very dark horror.

00:00 - Slob and The Slob - Extreme and Splatterpunk horror

00:20 - The Slob was a Splatterpunk Award nominee

01:58 - Why talk about both books?

02:18 - Slob was a 1986 Bram Stoker Award winner

04:39 - Differences in writing styles

06:22 - How the gore stacks up

08:15 - Splatterpunk or Extreme? Or both?

09:11 - Have you read either of these books?

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.

There is a theme of haunted or psychically sensitive young women in these books! 

And graphic covers with eye-catching red. Always a great colour choice for horror.

00:00 - New Horror Books for December 2021

01:50 - The Stoning by Amanda Johns https://amzn.to/3oGNAzJ

02:39 - The Rat King: A Horror Collection by LP Hernandez https://amzn.to/3IEXLg8

04:12 - Azalea House by Clare Castleberry https://amzn.to/3IEyyT3

05:22 - Pulse by B.A. Bellec https://amzn.to/3GxHPdD

06:55 - The Spiral by Nikki DeKeuster https://amzn.to/3GxHQhH

08:17 - Touched by Shadows by Vaughn A. Jackson https://amzn.to/3yjeeBN

09:19 - Find more new horror  books https://horror.org/newreleases/ 

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Welcome to Typical books; horror fiction unbound - I am Lydia Peever, horror author and co-host of the horror film podcast Dead Air and creator of the horror booktube channel Typical Books. If you want more, head over to Patreon for extended and bonus shows!

Typical Books is one of the Top 35 Canadian podcasts! Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts, and youtube channels in several niche categories.

If you are looking for something new to read, some insight or reviews of horror you have read, or even talk from a writer’s perspective, I hope you enjoy this little podcast.

Check out the Youtube version by searching Typical Books, or visit me at typicalbooks.com.