The Horror Book Club

CHANGE OF DATE! We will be going to the BFI Imax on Saturday 15th November, 1.30pm screening.
Please note, everyone is responsible for purchasing their own tickets: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/imax/Online/mapSelect.asp

OK so not strictly speaking horror, but it's a King and we have to see if it beats the Arnie adaptation. We'll be going to see this along with The Constant Readers (All Things Stephen King) book group.

Blurb follows:
In the near-future, "The Running Man" is the top-rated show on television, a deadly competition where contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins. Desperate for money to save his sick daughter, Ben Richards is convinced by the show's ruthless producer to enter the game as a last resort. Ratings soon skyrocket as Ben's defiance, instincts and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite, as well as a threat to the entire system.

Just in time for Christmas, some poetry! There is a version of this read by Sir Ian McKellan on YouTube if you would prefer to listen, rather than read this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1raSUYAr0s0

Here’s the summary from Amazon:
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is one of the best-known and best-loved poems in the English language. It is the longest major poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and was written in 1797-98 and revised in 1817. The mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in different parts of the poem.

The meeting will start at 7pm and finish between 9.00 and 10pm (BST), with breaks in between. This one will be online only due to the difficulty in booking venues in the run up to Christmas! I will post the Zoom link on this page about 10 minutes before the meeting is due to start.

We love to have something creepy and weird to read over Christmas, so let's all enjoy this short classic! There are free versions available on Kindle and YouTube.

Here’s the summary from Goodreads:
A manuscript is found: filled with small, precise writing and smelling of pit-water, it tells the story of an old recluse and his strange home - and its even stranger, jade-green double, seen by the recluse on an otherworldly plain where gigantic gods and monsters roam.
Soon his more earthly home is no less terrible than his bizarre vision, as swine-like creatures boil from a cavern beneath the ground and besiege it. But a still greater horror will face the recluse - more inexorable, merciless and awful than any creature that can be fought or killed.

The meeting will start at 7pm and finish between 9.00 and 10pm (BST), with breaks in between. Just a reminder that the pub lets us to use the room at no charge so please do purchase drinks/food from the bar. Bringing in your own food from outside the pub is not allowed!

A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.
What more could you want?

Here’s the summary from Goodreads:
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest since Margot can remember. When Margot isn't at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.
But Mama's want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, little Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires and make a bid for freedom.
With this tender coming-of-age tale, debut novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire and animal instincts - and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.

The meeting will start at 7pm and finish between 9.00 and 10pm (BST), with breaks in between. Just a reminder that the pub lets us to use the room at no charge so please do purchase drinks/food from the bar. Bringing in your own food from outside the pub is not allowed!