Scary


Human Flesh Bound Books [The Truth]

I’ve always heard the rumor that Harvard University has a book bound in human flesh. How creepy is that?!

I just wonder why and how….but then that’s such a dark and scary path to start to follow.

However, BookRiot’s Elisa Shoenberger wrote a post called “THE TRUE HISTORY OF HUMAN FLESH BOOKS AND OTHER TALES“!

Human flesh bound books, also known as Anthropodermic bibliopegy, is a very grisly practice and isn’t something out of a horror movie!

One of the weirdest reasons in the article is to make the book more collectible. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d want to have a book bound in that…..otherwise I’d be worried about ghosts or something!

Super creepy (and gross) but check out the really interesting article…because as morbid as it is, it’s interesting as well.


Halloween Apparel [Spooky Season]

Spooky season is the perfect time to get some new clothing or just figure out something simple to wear. Not everyone gets to dress up and have tons of ghoulish fun on the 31st.
Zazzle is one of my favorite sites with some fantastic products, many which are made by regular people who are just super creative. Even you can go on there and design something to make it special just for you and your friends.
Check out these cute designs that I found that are funny and creative for the season! I know I’m always looking for something for the season and with all the options you can’t go wrong!
Links below are affiliate links.

The Haunting of Hill House [Netflix – TV Show Review] 25

Starring

Carla Gugino – Olivia
Michiel Huisman – Steven Crain
Victoria Pedretti – Nell Crain
Henry Thomas – Young Hugh Crain
Oliver Jackson-Cohen – Luke Crain
Elizabeth Reaser – Shirley Crain
Kate Siegel – Theodora Crain

Summary

“Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.”

From IMDB.com

Review

I’m going to start with my overall opinion before I get into the nitty-gritty details, which I don’t normally do.

Overall, I really did enjoy the show. It was the perfect mixture of psychological horror, true horror and small jump scares and a deep back story. So, as a show I thoroughly did enjoy it. However, as a show by the title of The Haunting of Hill House, I really didn’t enjoy it as much.

Not like the book at all.
This show is supposed to be based, or loosely based, on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley JacksonTo me, besides some of the names, the name of the home and maybe a few of the small details, the show wasn’t the book whatsoever. In the beginning, I had this feeling that they were going to be connecting it somehow to the book or making it fit into the story. However, I was slightly disappointed when I found out that was not the case. There were some moments that harped back to the book but for the most part, it was just a horror story about a family in a haunted house.

Could have changed the name and it would have been just as good!
The name of the show could have been changed, so it wasn’t affiliated with the book, and it would have been so much better. To many people, the name won’t matter as they won’t have read the book and they most likely won’t have seen the original movie. They may have seen The Haunting with Liam Neeson, which was a little closer to the TV show, but even then, it was quite far off. If they had changed the names of some of the characters and maybe the name of the house, and kept the entire story, I think it would have been better. Maybe some people would have said ‘Oh, this reminds me of…’ versus, ‘I don’t see how this is connected to…’. But making the connection to the book helps to boost shows, even if it’s only loosely connected to it.

Visually it was stunning.
I think the visuals and the way that it was filmed was so good though. It was atmospheric and the lighting really kept you in the mood of this spooky situation. The weather was also used to add to the scare factor. The entire show was filmed in this grey/black/dark green-ish kind of color and many of the situations occurred during the night, or if it was day, it was a grey day.

Quite a few jump scares – good stuff!
The show overall wasn’t terrifying in the way that movies can be, but each episode had it’s own moment that made you jump a little. The music was the key to tell you that something was coming, but more than once it still made me jump. I really enjoyed that because, to me, TV shows sometimes give tension but not the scare. So I did like that touch, but if you don’t like those kind of things then this might not be the show for you. Although it’s perfect for Halloween-season.

Psychological issues or real ghosts?
You did have this constant question going on if the situation was all in the families head and that the family was nuts, or if there was actually something going on. There were references to the psychological situation where you make up a monster to compartmentalize and deal with a scary or traumatizing situation. What added to this was that one of the siblings never saw anything in the house. You knew that there was something going but you didn’t really know how much.

Please no season 2.
While I really did enjoy this season, I do hope that they just finish it and don’t make a second season. If they do, it had better play on the house but with a different story line. They really milked this story for all it is worth. Each episode was 1 hour long and sometimes it really did drag and I just wanted the episode to be over. Admittedly I was binging it, but I skipped through a few parts where it was just senseless conversation that didn’t add to the story at all.

In summation, I enjoyed the show as a show. But as a show related to the book, I felt like it was kind of a reach to connect it to that book, honestly. Do I recommend it? Yes, I do. I think the show is definitely worth a watch. But if you are a fan of the book and think that it will be like that, then prepare to be slightly disappointed.

I give this show 4 out of 5 teacups!

4 Teacups

Happy Watching!


The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson [Book Review] 19

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

Summary

“First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

As it’s spooky season, I had to give some of the classics for this season a read. I’ve read all the basics like Dracula , Stephen King books, Clive Barker booksand many others. But this one, I hadn’t read. 

I recently started a small book club with my mum, so we read books together, and as we were going to be quite busy this month, this was the perfect book – it’s not too long and not exactly a difficult read.

Spooky without being scary.
As the book is quite old, their idea of scary is not our idea of scary, which was kind of nice. I wasn’t reading this book and absolutely terrified or questioning if I could read it at night. It was just a classic kind of scary read, like Dracula. So as an autumnal read, this one fits the bill perfect. I’d say 15 and older could give this one ago, if they can get around some of the strange writing styles.

A little slow but picked up suddenly.
Now, since it’s an older book, I have to be careful with this comment. Books now are written at a much faster pace to appease the reader. This one had a very slow beginning that had you questioning exactly when something was going to happen. You were nearly halfway through the book before you even made it to Hill House and 3/4 of the way through before the strange stuff started happening. It made the read a little slow in a sense, but you also wanted to get through it faster to find out what was going to happen and when.

Nothing like the modern movie The Haunting.
In early 2000’s, a movie with Liam Neeson and other famous actors came out called The Haunting which is based off of this book. I went into this book thinking it was going to be like the movie. This movie is a common one many have seen, so I’m going to say now that if you think it’ll be like the movie, then you’re wrong. It definitely had some parallels and the overall idea was similar, but it wasn’t the same for the most part. The ending especially.

Eleanor is a little odd, just naturally.
What adds to the book is the fact that the main character is quite…out there. She’s odd so even from the beginning you just seem to be thrown off from the way she speaks and thinks. It actually puts you off balance as a reader. The speaking patterns are all over the place, which seems to confuse you. While you were reading it can be a little confusing, as her thought processes is like a roller-coaster, but afterwards you realize that it adds to the whole story!

Kind of shocking the ending.
You had this idea of how it was going to end and it didn’t end that way at all. Don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil anything, but just be prepared to not be ready for what happens. You think you can figure it out and then boom.

Overall, I absolutely loved the book. Even though it was a little slower, it’s a classic and such a good read. It’s not needed around Halloween but it’s great for autumn in general. It’s bite sized, so no need to worry about it being a massive reading commitment.

I easily give this book a 5 our of 5 teacups!

5 teacups

Spooky Reading!