September 2019/Monsterathon Down for the Count

So I'm combining my usual Down for the Count monthly post with my #Monsterathon wrap- up.  I survived!  I read a lot of good books, some planned, some unplanned, terrorized lots of villagers and participated in all of the challenges.  Read on to see what fun I had!  Also, please note not all my reviews are up yet so keep an eye open for the ones you haven't seen - they are coming soon!

GROUP READ: 

Unnatural Creatures - I didn't read the whole book but did manage to read the three selected stories.

CLASSIC CREEPERS:

Bunnicula - I loved revisiting this old childhood favorite. (5/5)

WHAT BIG EYES YOU HAVE

Time's Convert - I enjoyed this one but not as much as the rest of the series. (3/5)

CHIMERA

Death and Other Happy Endings - not really scary unless you count the word death but overall a very solid read. (4/5) - review pending.

REAL MONSTERS

Desper Hollow - A great zombie tale and I had a blast reading it. (4/5)

UNSIGHTLY

Stranger Things: The Otehr Side - Really didn't care for this at all. (2/5)

ANGRY MOB

YOU - So glad I picked this one up off my shelf.  (4/5) - review pending

SACRIFICE

My Sister Rosa - Another one I've owned for years. (5/5).

THE HAUNTS

Appalachian Undead - Another fun zombie read! (4/5)

THE BEASTS:

Magic Breaks - Another enjoyable Kate Daniels read (4/5)

THE CONSPIRACIES 

Only one I had to double up on and use for two challenges.

EXTRA: 

Bunny - Why oh why!  (2/5)

And total villagers terrorized...5,832!!!!

So this was so much fun and I want to thank Chaptercciii over at Booktube for hosting and creating such a fun month of activities!

Monsterathon Challenge #3 - Mad Lib

So for challenge #3, we are visiting a mad lib tale. We were to fill in the blanks using one of our challenge reads which has over 300 pages.  I decided to use the last physical book I read which just happened to be "Bunny."  And yep, my tale ended up just as confusing as the book it was taken from!

I'm calling my tale - Attack of the killer Bunny!

No one ever went into the house on DARK Lane.  Everyone knew it was haunted.  At all hours if the day and night, you could hear LARGE screaming and the sounds of someone or something GRIPPING.

One time, someone insisted they saw a BUNNY looking out at them from the attic window.  Another person said they saw a DUTCHMAN jump off the roof and fly into the sky.

All of the villagers stayed away for fear some monster would come out and DO them.  Until a LATE villager named SMACKIE decided they were going to go in and see what all the fuss was about.

"What makes you think you'll come out alive?" The villagers asked them.

"YES, I HAVE A PLANE TO CATCH NOW" said SMACKIE.

So they turned from the village and BRAIDED up to the house.  The door of the house opened UNCERTAINLY and SMACKIE walked in.

The first thing SMACKIE saw was darkness.  Then, out of the corner of their eye, a MONKEY.  They screamed and STARED into the next room, but something even more terrifying was waiting for them there: a BOOK.

SMACKIE EXPLODED out of the house screaming "OH BUNNY, I LOVE YOU."  This GESTERED all the villagers.

They tried to forget what SMACKIE said but it haunted them for the rest of their days.

The End.

And yes, "Bunny" will be haunting me for some time as well.

#Monsterathon - Read Your Fears Challenge

 So it's time for a Monsterathon Challenge and you know me, I gotta terrify as many villagers as possible so I couldn't pass this one by. 

This challenge involves reading your fears.  I may not have read all of these but I might be doing so in the near future.

So my biggest fear, and I don't really have a lot of them, is snakes.  I am terrified.  I've always joked that I didn't need one to bite me to die, I would probably have a heart attack if I just saw one.  If I even see one on the highway moving around it gives me chills - even though I'm well protected in my vehicle.  And recently there has been a trend with popular artists and series placing them on covers!  

If I do decide to read these, it will have to be on my Kindle so I don't have to look at them!

And for a bonus, I will share that Mr. Barb has a fear of spiders that rivals my fear of snakes.  He's been known to hairspray one to death so he didn't have to get near it (back when you could find hairspray in my house but that's a tale for another day).  I have read part of a trilogy featuring spiders and really loved it so I want to mention it here. I need to read the last two but isn't that what we all say???

So there you have it.  What are your fears and do you often read about them or do you avoid them at all costs???

#Monsterathon Group Read

TITLE: Unnatural Creatures Anthology
AUTHOR: Stories selected by Neil Gaiman
PUBLISHER: Harper Collins
PUBLISHING DATE: April 2013

MY THOUGHTS:  So for the Monsterathon, each team had to read a certain short story for this collection.  In addition, you could then terrorize additional villagers by reading the other teams' stories.  One thing I learned - I definitely think I picked the right team.

Team Beast's assignment was "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" by Frank R. Stockton.  Basically a small town is visited one day by a large griffin, who has come to see his likeliness on the church wall.  Everyone in the village is terrified and the Minor Canon is elected to try to reason with the griffin and persuade him to leave.  I don't want to give a lot away but I will say I really felt sorry for the griffin in this tale and in my opinion he was just a very large, very misunderstood creature.  See, told you I picked the right team.

Team Conspiracy had to read the tale included by Gahen Wilson.  It has at title which can't be pronounced , , and everyone has basically called it "The Spot." In this tale, a grumpy all man becomes obsessed with a spot on his breakfast napkin, which sort of in turn becomes obsessed with him.  The spot moves throughout the house and ends up getting very hungry.  The ending was abrupt and I didn't really enjoy it at all.

Finally, Team Haunts read "Come Lady Death" by Peter S. Beagle.  A wealthy lady is throwing a dinner party and decides she want to invite Death because she thinks the individual is completely misunderstood.  She also thinks it will be quite a feat and her popularity will increase if she can get Death to actually arrive.  Turns out Death does in fact show up, but she has an ulterior motive of her own.  Of this three, this was my second favorite and I liked seeing how everything played out.  I knew Death had something in mind when she arrived, but was still somewhat surprised by the outcome.

So there you have it - my rundown. I do think at some point I'll read the rest of the stories in this novel but since I read another short story collection for the Monsterathon, I felt I needed to focus on some other books instead. 

RATING: The Griffin and the Minor Canon - 4 PAWS
                 The Spot - 2 PAWS
                 Come Lady Death - 3 PAWS

MONSTERathon 2019

So basically my best pal Stormi has convinced me to join another readathon.  COYER ends on Saturday and this one starts on Sunday.  You know what they say, no rest for the wicked.  Be sure to check out her TBR HERE.

MONSTERathon is a new readathon being hosted by Chaptercviii (Chapter Cate) on Booktube.  You can find all the information about the readathon HERE.  In a nutshell there are 3 teams - The Beasts, The Haunts and The Conspiracies.  You initially join a team because this is a competitive challenge.  Each team has an individual story to read and then there are book challenges and post challenges where additional points can be earned.  Each point gained is "one villager terrorized."  Sounds complicated but really it isn't. You can also earn points by read the other people's assigned story.

So this is my official TBR. To be honest, I was able to work a lot of my planned reads in anyway which makes it somewhat easier.

GROUP READ

The Beasts - The Griffin and the Minor Canon

The Haunts - Come Lady Death

The Conspiracies - The Spot

CLASSIC CREEPERS

WHAT BIG EYES YOU HAVE:

This book is over 400 pages and features vampires.

CHIMERA 

This books falls into several genres - fantasy, mystery and weird fiction

REAL MONSTERS

This has actual people doing monstrous things

UNSIGHTLY

A graphic novel or manga

ANGRY MOB

A book recommended by several people

SACRIFICE

A book that's been unhauled.  (BookswithEmilyFox on Booktube)

THE BEASTS 

A book with a monster with animal traits

THE HAUNTS

A monster that is dead or undead

THE CONSPIRACIES 

Featuring alien, robot or sci-fi creatures

So there you have it. As always, the books are subject to change :)