Sponsored by Lit Stitch: 25 Cross-Stitch Patterns for Book Lovers.
Inside Book Riot’s Lit Stitch, you’ll find a number of badass, bookish cross-stitch patterns. Some of these are for bookmarks, others are for wall decor, and still others can take on a whole host of finished outcomes. What they have in common is their literary bent—the patterns speak to all manner of literary-minded book lovers, who are happy to display their nerdier sides. And what better way than through your own cross-stitch art to hang on your wall, prop on your desk, or even gift to friends and family. And most, if not all, are beginner friendly and can be completed in a few hours—instant stitchification!
My boyfriend and his two best friends are Eagle Scouts, and yet I still would not go camping with them. I told them it was because I’ve hit my quota on sleeping and shitting on the bare ground (which I have done plenty in my younger and more vulnerable years), but really it might be because why would I want to sleep on the ground when my whole species has evolved so that I won’t have to do that? Not to mention, if something happens involving The Wild, I would feel about myself the way I feel about the Final Girl when I’m watching a horror movie and she’s like, “What was that noise??” and the boys are all like, “It’s your imagination! Chill out!”
Reader, in case you don’t know this about me, I have zero chill, and I have accepted that, and made peace with it, and moved on with my life. And for that reason, I will sleep in the house like a normal-ass person.
Don’t get me wrong: I CERTAINLY appreciate the survival skills and will insist that “Eagle Scout” goes on anyone’s resume who has that title. But I’m not going to, like, just, like, walk into the woods and tempt fate.
To their credit, and my younger self’s credit, too, there is a sort of comfort in learning about the dogs running wild at the site of Chernobyl, or the dolphins swimming up canals. It’s kind of nice to see nature flourish in the absence of humanity. That’s what I thought about the Area X in the film adaptation of Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation. I mean, that’s what I thought at first, before it turned into a fever dream and Tessa Thompson turned into one of those evil topiaries from The Shining. But in general, it’s also kind of horrible to think about the planet without us on it, because in our understandably egocentric view, what is the planet without us? Like, who would be here to care that nature was so beautiful?
In the books listed here, not only does the natural world bloom to its full potential, but nature fights back specifically against humans. By the way, you’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s weekly newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil through this realm of hell, nature.
Earworm: “All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone” by Explosions in the Sky
New Releases:
Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay
In the title story alone, shoots of a new plant infiltrate the home of children, but in all of these stories, there’s an element of the natural becoming overtly territorial, and it is soooo creepy. If you haven’t checked out this book yet, definitely do that–plus Tremblay has another forthcoming release, Survivor Song!
“The Bad Graft” and “The Tornado Auction” from Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell
I know, I know: I can’t shut up about this book, but Karen Russell has out-Karen-Russelled herself in this collect. The story “The Bad Graft” talks about a Joshua Tree spirit possessing a girl, and “The Tornado Auction” happens in a rural future where farmers cultivate the weather, and that obviously does not go well. If you ain’t picked up this book yet, do yourself a favor. And then message me all of your extreme reactions because I clearly need to process the experience of reading it.
Cryptkeepers:
The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell
Oghi wakes from a coma bedridden and disfigured by the car crash that killed his wife. His caretaker is his mother-in-law, and though she says she is continuing the work her daughter did on their home’s garden… Oghi notices that, actually, she is pulling up the vegetation and obsessively digging holes.
Crota by Owl Goingback
In this retelling of a Native American myth, the town sheriff goes to investigate a double homicide unlike any he’s seen before. The bodies have been torn apart. Though many assume a bear as the killer, Crota, a cryptid from the natural pre-historic world, is at hand.
Harbingers (FKA News):
Hold the phone: the new movie about the Shirley Jackson novel starring the inimitable Elisabeth Moss, just released their trailer! Click here to view the first trailer of SHIRLEY.
According to Emily Alford at Jezebel, “(T)he thing missing from much of both Jackson criticism and adaptations is her work’s simplest theme: madness is born of too much time alone.”
Mike Flanaghan, director of The Haunting of Hill House Netflix adaptation, is dusting off some Christopher Pike paperbacks….
Are people reading more horror during quarantine? Click here to see what the BBC thinks.
The Dutch are responding to disease by inventing new ways to swear at each other. Apt, people. Apt.
Why do readers still sympathize with unsympathetic narrators of Lovecraft’s writing? Scott Kenemore at CrimeReads suggests it’s because they “tend to encounter clues that point to the fact that humans—their hopes and dreams, their institutions and religions, and most certainly their accomplishments—don’t, for lack of a better word, matter. That the universe doesn’t give a damn what we do, and that our opinion of ourselves is a case of vast overestimation.”
Click here to find out how having kids can change your life… and your horror fiction.
Protect your library the old-fashioned way, with curses.
Speaking of witchcraft, see this IG video of Madeline Miller talking about Circe’s witchcraft…
What makes a book more thriller? More sci-fi? More horror?
Pandemic time reminisces a lot on Gothic literature… and here’s how.
Learn about comics themed on vampires through the ages here.
Click here and enter to win a 1-year subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Click here and enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore.
Until next week, follow me @mkmcbrayer for minute-to-minute horrors or if you want to ask for a particular theme to a newsletter. I’m also on IG @marykaymcbrayer. Talk to you soon!
Your Virgil,
Mary Kay McBrayer
Co-host of Book Riot’s literary fiction podcast, Novel Gazing