Welcome to the newest Fandible feature – Fandible Picks of the Month! Every month, members of the Fandible crew will tell you about the newest and coolest things we’ve discovered, sharing the wealth with you. Keep reading for new books, websites, and TV shows to look out for.
Fandible Picks of the Month August 2015
80sHorrorNet
As many of you may be well aware, I love horror films (you’ll notice I didn’t say good horror films) and I personally believe that the 80’s bequeathed to the world a very special kind of horror schlock, one that mixes cynical grind-house production with a genuine appreciation for a good scare. So you can imagine my excitement when a friend told me about 80shorror.net, a site dedicated to cataloging every 80’s horror film by year and whether or not it’s free to view on Youtube. For me, it’s not only a trip down memory lane (since I realize that I may have seen a selection of these when I was too young, but what the hell it builds character) but also a guarantee for a great nightmare. So if you’re anything like me and you like it when some zombies had mohawks and people said “boss” without a hint of irony, then go to this site and take a gander. -David
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
If you’re interested in a period drama with a taste of the fantastic, give it a look. -Jesus
Review
I’ve been bingeing on the first, too short, season of Review on Hulu, and I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. The premise of the show is that our protagonist, Forrest MacNeil, is a critic, but not of books or movies or food, no – he reviews life itself. Viewers send in requests wanting to know what certain life experiences are like, and our brave reviewer sets out, experiences them, and then, reviews them. From this simple premise flows some of the funniest television I’ve seen in years, and I cannot recommend this highly enough – especially due to the fact that each review does not stand alone. The things Forrest goes through during each review changes and affects him, his family, and sometimes the world at large, often in hilariously terrible ways. Do note: the humor can be a bit boundary-pushing, so, you’ve been warned. -Daniel
Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire
As some of you might have heard, I work in the publishing business. And while it can slowly drive me insane at times, I do enjoy it. I get money to survive, I get to work with interesting characters, and most importantly – I get to steal all the free books I want (please don’t tell anyone…). A few weeks ago, I was looking through the left over stock and came upon a book called Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire. I read the back of the book, grunted with some semblance of interest, and decided ‘what the hell’. The back said it was about a hitchhiker ghost and blah-blah-blah. I figured it would be good enough to kill a subway ride with.
It was good. Like… seriously. I started the book on a Wednesday, finished it on a Thursday, and then read it again on a Friday. The writing was good, but what really got me was the detail to the lore of the book! It is an exploration of all those ghost stories we’ve heard on the road. They talk about what makes a person a ‘phantom hitcher’ or a ‘Lady in White’ or a ‘Ghost Rider’. It was simply one of the most interesting settings I’ve seen in a long time in a book! So! If you ever see it on a bookstore or on a website, give it a read. It’s clever! It’s cute! It’s creative. It’s my pick for August. -Billy
Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle
If you have an end-of-summer road trip this month, Vivian Apple at the End of the World is the perfect road trip companion. Known by the much more badass name of Vivian Apple versus the Apocalypse in the UK, this YA book is set in the near future where, after a series of terrorist attacks and environmental disasters, a new evangelical religion pops up, the Church of America, and they know that the Rapture is coming soon for the chosen believers. The titular Vivian has never believed in the apocalyptic rhetoric, until she comes home the night after the Rapture to find her devout parents have disappeared, leaving only two person-shaped holes in the roof. Vivian teams up with her best friend Harp, similarly orphaned, and a mysterious new ally, the requisite cute boy, for a road trip across a panic-stricken, post-Rapture United States. This book deals with some heavy questions about faith while lightening the mood with excerpts from a new holy book that praises America and Capitalism above all else. And the best part: for US readers, this is only $2.99 on Kindle this month, ahead of the US release of the sequel. -Angela
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I haven’t picked up Sparrow Hill Road yet, but everything I’ve read by Seanan McGuire is amazing. She also wrote some zombie books under the name Mira Grant – the Newsflesh trilogy which are excellent 🙂