Miss Jaye's
Bookshelf

This story starts out like a ghost story before it descends into a disjointed paranoia...in the best way possible. This book is the first one that has really spooked me in a long time. I am a fan of Paranoia horror - think The Stepford Wives, Karyn Kusama's The Invitation, Rosemary's Baby, etc., and this book completely delivers on this. I had to stop reading, go to bed, and finish in the daytime. I live alone and I have a creepy basement - this was a definite "must read i

An unchaperoned trip to Fear Island leads to a terrible accident, a vow of secrecy...and just a little light misogyny. Spoilers ahead. The third book in the Fear Street series introduces a new spooky location into the world of Shadyside: Fear Island. Della and her five friends in the Outdoors Club (really - that's the best we could come up with to justify a planned camping trip?) are disappointed when the club's advisor, Mr. Abner, announces that he has a family emergency an

"Between truth and madness lies ecstasy. Or perhaps between ecstasy and truth lies madness." Before this book, I had never heard of The King In Yellow. I was talking about which books I should read next on a livestream, and when I read the description of this book, some excitedly mentioned that this was related to a 19th century work about a cursed play. Published in 1895, Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow is a collection of short horror stories about a madness-induci

In the second book I've read from author Nick Cutter, the horror of biological warfare takes a ride with another horror that is much less fantastical: other people. I'm definitely enjoying Nick Cutter's work. The Deep was a fantastic blend of underwater scifi horror mixed with Lovecraftian horrors and paranoia; in The Troop, Cutter still takes some big swings - the main conflict surrounds a bio-engineered threat taking over a small island currently inhabited by a scoutmaster

On the surface (pun intended), this book is an underwater horror story but it brings in elements of cosmic horror, body horror, ghost stories, and so much more. This is the first book by Nick Cutter that I've read, but it definitely won't be the last. In The Deep, Cutter has created a manifestation of terror that is so compelling, so utterly effective, that I can't recall anything like it. This book melds a bunch of different kinds of horror, or elements of horror at least,

The second outing in the Fear Street world brings us new mysteries to solve, and some returning characters. The Fear Street series is just good fun. In this second installment, we are introduced to main character Meg; the main characters of these novels function in a similar way to the final girl in a slasher film, which makes it even more interesting that the very first title in the series featured a male protagonist. Too much to go into here, but definitely keep an eye on

I've decided to start reading through my collection of Fear Street and Christopher Pike books. Gotta love a good, strong hit of nostalgia! I was obsessed with Feat Street as a kid - I had no problem earning my Book It pizza certificates and meeting the book report quotas as long as RL Stine kept pumping out new spooky tales - and pump them out he did! In my current collection, I have 84 different volumes, and while my collection covers most of the bases, including offshoots

I read these Golden Girl Find Your Fate Jr books as research for an upcoming video, but I was surprised at how violent they were! I'm way behind on some of my vintage toy videos that I had planned to have up before the end of 2025, but life do be life-ing! But as I seem to have found my stride again, I decided it was time to finally tackle a video that has a lot of complexity, but that I'm really excited about: a Golden Girl lore video! For those of you who have missed out on

The 30th anniversary edition of this classic work shines a light not only on the history of Barbie as a pop culture phenomenon and a successful product line, but also gives us a glimpse of a time when toys reigned supreme and there was more hope and joy in the hearts of both children and collectors. Released in a 30th anniversary edition in 2024, M. G. Lord's classic Forever Barbie is the ultimate history book for the Barbie enthusiast. Early on in the book, I was worried t

I know, I know: I'm late to the party in loving the work of horror author Gretchen Felker-Martin. But now that I've discovered her work, and have read the second of her three available novels, I'm very excited to see what else she comes up with. I'm not sure how far into it I'll go, but this is your obligatory spoiler warning. Black Flame is my latest foray into her work, and I was even more engrossed in the story than I was with Cuckoo . In that work, things get pretty go

I discovered Stephen Graham Jones with My Heart Is a Chainsaw , which I desperately need to reread before starting on the other two books in that trilogy, a fantastically bloody homage to 80s slashers and final girls. He has a couple of novellas that I've picked up on my various trips to the Horror aisle of Barnes and Noble, and over Christmas I decided to dive into one of them, Mapping the Interior , and finished it within the day. As always, spoilers ahead. Jones gets righ

Like any good book person, my TBR pile ("to be read" for those who don't stack books around like furniture, planning but never quite succeeding to finish one before buying another) grows by at least three every time I make it to a Barnes and Noble. I love a sniff around a used bookstore, and never seem to come home empty-handed. All this to say, I have managed to pick up all three of Gretchen Felker-Martin's novels, Cuckoo , Manhunt , and Black Flame on different trips wit