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RIP IV Challenge

RIPIV

After finding The Victorian Chase-Longue funny, rather than scary, I am in the mood to find a book that will really frighten me. I saw that Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting the RIP Challenge and so jumped at the opportunity to commit to reading a few.

The idea is to read as many books from the following categories as you can between now and Halloween.

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural
.

I am going to read these books:

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveller’s Wife is one of my favourite books, so I have been looking forward to the release of this book all year.

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro
Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog couldn’t decide whether The Strain was better than Catching Fire (Hunger Games Trilogy) or Little Bee / The Other Hand. The dilemma was too intriguing for me to resist. I am really looking forward to finding out which is the best!

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
I found this book in a charity shop recently: Three Gothic Novels: The Castle of Otranto, Vathek, Frankenstein. The Castle of Otrano is said to be the most Gothic of the three. It was first published in 1765. I am really looking forward to finding out what one of the first Gothic novels is like.

I may read another one or two, if I find anything interesting that fits in, but I hope to read the three above very soon.

Have you read any of these ?

Are you planning to join the RIP Challenge?

39 replies on “RIP IV Challenge”

I am so glad that you are joining in! I just finished The Strain and will be doing a review soon. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I think it will be a really good read for the challenge.

Sometimes it is the fun elements of those old gothic stories that make me enjoy them the best. They have the melodramatic mood, etc. which can seem quite cheesy by today’s standards, but I honestly enjoy that aspect of them.

I read Otranto a few years ago and it definitely gives you an idea of the trappings of gothic literature.

Thank you for the welcome!

I’m pleased to hear that you enjoyed The Strain. I’ll keep an eye out for your review.

I’m reading Her Fearful Symmetry right now. I won’t give anything away, but will say it’s perfect for RIP!

I really want to read The Strain. I just love Guillermo del Toro’s work! I’d like to read Otranto too.

Thank you for commenting on my blog for the first time! I am very jealous that you have a copy of Her Fearful Symmetry – I can’t wait to read it!

I’m pleased to hear that Guillermo del Toro has some other good books – I hadn’t heard of him before. I’ll look into them if I enjoy The Strain.

We’re all in it together! I can’t WAIT to read your reviews on these. Anything written by the dude that directed Pan’s Labyrith has a vote from me. And the real, honest-to-goodness Gothic novels…sweet! This is just a challenge you’ve got to do!

I hope to read The Strain next week, so it won’t be long before the first review. I look forward to reading yours too!

Well, I am a complete boob. I thought the challenge lasted a year, not two months. J. Kaye pointed it out to me. Boy am I in trouble! Going to have to move some priorities around now!

LOL! At lot of people have long lists to chose from – I just thought you were doing the same. Nevermind – I’m sure you can read them all in the next year if you like!

I’ll be joining in this challenge too and will post my intentions once Persephone Reading Week is over. Her Fearful Symmetry will definitely be on my list though!

I’d love to read We Have Always Lived In a Castle, but don’t own a copy yet. I hope to get one soon, but it may be too late for this challenge. I look forward to hearing what you think of it though.

I have the new Penguin copies of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House pre-ordered for early October, so that I can read them for the challenge.

It is great to know they are re-printing them. The only copies I could find before were so expensive.

I’m glad you’re joining too, Jackie! We just can’t resist this one, can we? 😉
I look forward to your review on Her Fearful Symmetry.

As for now, I can’t decide what to read, yet!!

I love old-timey gothic novels. I read The Castle of Otranto in high school – I found it on Project Gutenberg and made the font fantastically small and printed it out in the school library. And read it during calculus. I cannot calculate how fast a pool is filling up by using integration or whatever, but I can tell you that The Castle of Otranto is extremely gothic and rather silly. (In a good way!)

LOL! I love the idea of you reading it during calculus! I never read in other lessons – I was too busy finishing my homework (so I rarely had to do any when I got home) and passing notes!

Jackie – I can really relate to your thoughts on The Victorian Chaise-Longue. I haven’t read it yet but funnily enough I am reading The Castle of Otranto at the moment and feeling the same thing. Amusing but not scary. I haven’t finished it though so perhaps it will take a different turn. I look forward to your review.

And I think I have yet another challenge to join!

I haven’t. I’ve got Mist in the Mirror here, so was thinking about that one. Have you read it?

Karen – Thank you for commenting on my blog for the first time. I love strange! I’m very intrigued by it now.

I’m noticing a lot of people have Her Fearful Symmetry on their RIP lists. I’m reading The Time Traveler’s Wife right now because I loved the movie when I saw it last week. I’m very interesting to see what everyone thinks of this newest book of her’s. Enjoy the challenge.

I really hope that you are enjoying The Time Traveller’s Wife. Everyone seems to love Her Fearful Symmetry, so I am really looking forward to it.

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