Paige —
The Bachman Books by Stephen King
Read the book before you see the film and experience the true, drawn out desperation of The Long Walk.
Back in the Stephen King heyday, he wrote under the pen name Richard Bachman, publishing a set of 6 stories, all written with what King calls a “low rage and simmering despair”. The three stories in this collection, although quickly recognised as King’s work, exemplify this separate Bachman rage. The Long Walk is my my personal favourite amongst all of King’s work, a bleak story of youthful desperation. However, the exhilarating addition of Roadwork and The Running Man make this collection worth every penny spent. Get ready to spend hours engrossed in the mystery, the suspense, and the fear of The Bachman Books.
Ellie —
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
Thanks to V. E. Schwab, vampires are so back! This time they’re beautiful, moody and queer. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil spans centuries and continents, following the interweaving lives of three women. The story begins in 1532 Spain with Maria – a wild, hungry girl who dreams of escape and refuses to be under the control of the men in her life. In 1827, a young woman named Charlotte is shipped off from her family estate to London with a broken heart. Lastly, in 2019, Alice has moved from her home town in Scotland to America for college, aiming to leave her old life behind.
Schwab’s book is both poetic and dark, exploring the lives of women who yearn for something a little bit more than what they’ve had. At the heart of the story is both queerness and the feeling of suffering under the weight of society’s expectations. I won’t lie, this book gave me more than I was expecting from a vampire novel in the best way possible.