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Book Review: The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition by Becky Siegel Spratford

Since Monster Librarian has been around for quite some time, we actually reviewed reader’s advisory reference books in horror before there were many reader’s advisory books on the horror genre and even before social media became all-consuming. Most of these are on a page on our original website titled “Librarian Resources”. It’s pretty sparse, because anything published after 2014 will be found on this blog instead of the original site, and there really wasn’t much in existence then. What was once a fairly restricted community of readers and writers has grown like crazy, and the past few years have really boomed in terms of providing all kinds of helpful resources.

So it was a very big deal when Becky Siegel Spratford wrote a second edition to The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, which was published in 2012. This month I saw her announce that the third edition will be coming out next year (wow!) so I’m republishing our review of the second edition now. She has kept it updated through her blog  RA for All: Horror.  If you visit now, Becky is counting down the days until the announcement of the titles for the HWA’s summer reading program, Summer Scares, for 2020.

With the horror genre having expanded its reach and audience considerably I will be curious to see the changes in the third edition!

 

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The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition by Becky Siegel Spratford

American Library Association, 2012

ISBN-13: 978-0838911129

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition, is the updated version of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, part of the American Library Association’s Reader’s Advisory series on genre fiction,. That is, the major professional organization for librarians endorses this as the authoritative text on reader’s advisory in the horror genre. The author, Becky Siegel Spratford, is a reader’s advisory librarian with a particular interest in the horror genre, and in promoting horror in the library– and is someone I admire very much. Updates for this edition can be found at her blog, RA for All: Horror. 

        The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition is an important book for a couple of reasons. First, because it’s published by the American Library Association, it is likely to reach a wide audience of librarians, and because it’s part of an established series on readers’ advisory, it has credibility as a resource for librarians who may not know much about(or like) the horror genre that other resources may not have. That opens a door for connecting a lot of people to books they may like. Spratford does a nice job of providing a concise history of horror, introducing some prominent authors, and addressing the classics. Spratford also mentions that many horror readers prefer to read only within one subgenre (such as werewolf books), and has set up the book to provide annotated lists for recommended titles in popular subgenres,. She also includes a chapter on horror resources and marketing, which does a very nice job of offering tools and strategies for growing and promoting library horror collections, not just during October but throughout the year. This is a topic that really needed (and needs) to be addressed– horror readers don’t just read horror as Halloween rolls around, and if your horror novels are shelved with the rest of the fiction they may not even know what the library has. I’m glad that Spratford specifically addressed this in her book.

        However, there are aspects to the book of which librarians should be aware. Spratford chose to define horror as “a story in which… unexplainable phenomena and unearthly creatures threaten the protagonist and provoke terror in the reader”.  That’s a very narrow definition. I recognize that for purposes of writing a reader’s advisory guide it’s necessary to set limits of what qualifies as belonging to a genre, but reader’s advisory librarians attempting to serve horror readers should be aware that many horror readers don’t require there to be a supernatural or unexplainable element in their reading. Because of the way she defines horror, Spratford’s breakdown of subgenres is sometimes problematic. For instance, in her chapter on “shape-shifters”, she included not only werewolf titles but killer animal books, and these two types of books appeal to different audiences. Many killer animal books have no supernatural aspect at all, such as Cujo, Stephen King’s novel about a rabid dog terrorizing his neighborhood (Spratford writes that Cujo “comes under the spell of demonic forces”, but that is not the case). Her chapter “Monsters and Ancient Evil” also combines in one list books that will appeal to different audiences- Lovecraftian fiction and more modern monster novels. In addition, Spratford leaves out the notable category of human horror. Books in this category aren’t literary novels of psychological suspense- they display the worst of human nature, without needing to employ the supernatural. Usually they have graphic gore, violence, and sexual situations (such as in the work of Wrath James White). This category doesn’t fall under Spratford’s definition of horror, and so it isn’t addressed in the book. Spratford  is covering a huge amount of territory in a limited number of pages, but it would really have benefited users, and readers, to have these particular issues dealt with, and hopefully we will see that in the next print edition. In addition to covering a wide variety of authors and subgenres, Spratford addresses whole collection reader’s advisory and mentions several categories of books outside the genre that horror readers might also enjoy, I especially appreciated her mention of nonfiction, as there are a lot of appealing nonfiction titles that horror fiction readers will probably never find on their own.

        Horror is a very difficult genre for both collection development and reader’s advisory. It doesn’t get much respect, or even recognition. The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition, although not a perfect tool, does a great job providing resources to librarians serving horror readers. Highly recommended for purchase by public and academic libraries.

Review by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Women in Horror Month: “She’s a librarian, ok?”

Hi, my name is Kirsten Kowalewski, and I am a librarian.

I am currently living in a state where the governor just attempted to use tax dollars to start a state-run news service and is recommending cutting library funding. The past two weeks have also been the culmination of a year of hostility from the governor and the state board of education toward our elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is, like me, trained as a librarian and school media specialist and is a certified teacher.  The state legislature is stripping her of her powers and assigning them to the state board. When Indiana Senate president David Long was asked about it, he implied that she wasn’t up to the job. “She’s a librarian, ok?” This has left me steaming.

The Librarian Avengers are putting you on notice, Mr. Long.

So, what’s all this got to do with women in horror?

A number of awesome librarians have contributed to promoting the horror genre and keeping this website alive. Many of them are women, and all of them are amazing. I have been lucky to work with Becky Siegel Spratford (author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror Fiction), Patricia O. Mathews (author of the reader’s advisory guide Fang-tastic Fiction), Lucy Lockley (also known as the RAT Queen), Kelly Fann, Julie Adams, and others, and to connect through the site with Heather Whiteside Ward. If you want horror fiction to thrive, and its audience to grow, you’ve got to have the librarians on your side, and (whether it’s right or not) a lot of librarians are women.

In conclusion, I give you Evie Carnahan, Librarian Most Likely To Break A Mummy’s Curse:

 

 

Don’t underestimate the librarian. It could be your last mistake.

Women in Horror Fiction: Women in Horror Month– Introducing “Shelley’s Daughters”, by Colleen Wanglund

 

February is officially Women in Horror Month, and while it began with a focus on women in the horror film industry—including actresses, writers, directors, and others working behind the scenes— our goal is to expand this focus to include female horror authors. There are so many women writing horror, some famous but many who are not well-known. Their work is not published and pushed by the major publishing houses; most female authors are published by small houses and in some instances, they self-publish (hooray for the internet!).  And yet, time and again, “Best of” lists continue to be made up of male writers.  Are the women any less worthy?  Is their work not as good as their male counterparts?  Hell no!  We don’t know why female horror authors, for the most part, are overlooked, but we hope to remedy that. So, here at Monster Librarian, we are going to make an active effort to promote women in horror not just by occasionally publishing interviews, but by compiling an index of published women horror writers from Ann Radcliffe to the present.  It’s an ambitious project, but there is no resource that really addresses this topic: in her Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror Fiction, Becky Siegel Spratford was able to spotlight only five women writers, although I know she would have liked to include more.  Colleen Wanglund and I are going to be spearheading this project, which we’re calling “Shelley’s Daughters”, If there are people who would like to contribute, you can contact  me at our general email address, monsterlibrarian@monsterlibrarian.com, or at kirsten.kowalewski@monsterlibrarian.com. And now, some words from one of my favorite women in horror, and partner in crime (or at least in promoting women writers of horror), Colleen Wanglund.

 

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Women in Horror Month

by Colleen Wanglund

I am a woman in horror; I am one of Shelley’s Daughters, and I am proud to be able to say that.

I was exposed to horror at an early age, both books and movies, thanks to my parents. When I was in high school I wanted to be a writer, but life got in the way and I got sidetracked. At the age of 39, I was asked to write a book review as a favor for a friend of mine. The book was Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head (2009 Coscom Entertainment). That began my journey back to being a writer. And I cannot thank that friend enough as he has also become a sort of mentor. For years I’ve written book reviews, eventually branching out into film reviews, and the genre I’ve always written about is horror. I have dabbled in fiction here and there, but only recently have I begun to seriously write horror fiction. I won a horror fiction contest for unpublished writers with my short story “Slugs”, I’ve recently sold a short story titled “The Mad Monk of St. Augustine’s” to an upcoming anthology, and I’m working hard on finishing up a novella based on Japanese Pinku (exploitation) films.

But why the love affair with horror? One answer is that I have many fears in this life and horror allows me to face some of those fears at a safe distance. I can put my fears and anxieties to paper as a sort of therapy. It has the potential to help me wrap my brain around some of the horrible atrocities committed by humans all over the world and throughout history. I also find horror to be the most “real” genre out there. Everyone suffers tragedy—in varying degrees, mind you—and horror can act as a catharsis for the feelings associated with those tragedies. We can relate, empathize, or sympathize to what is happening on the page (or on the screen).

As a society horror brings people together to face our collective fears, whether real or imagined. Serial killers, monsters, ghosts—they all represent something for everyone. And I’ve said before that I think women have a unique perspective to bring to the table when it comes to writing horror. We are more emotional and I believe that translates well to the development of characters and the situations they may find themselves in. We live our own horrors in childbirth, letting our children out into the real world, love and loss. We are viewed as the weaker sex, depicted as needing saving, yet at the same time we are expected to be strong for the people around us—our children and loved ones. We are the caregivers and that doesn’t stop because the apocalypse is upon us.

I would like to eventually see Women in Horror Month become unnecessary, but for now it’s needed.  All too often women are being overlooked in a genre they—we—love, and that’s just wrong. I think my main objective is to get the reader to see that gender shouldn’t matter in writing horror stories.  What should matter is the story itself.

 

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Stay tuned and see what we come up with next to promote “Shelley’s Daughters”, and the women of horror fiction!