Feral and Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction by Women by Sadie Hartmann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I nabbed this book off the “New Releases” shelf at my local library, for the superficial reason that it had a very cool cover. But when I peeked inside, I knew I had to check it out. It’s jammed with review/synopsis of many, many, many books, from classics that have been around a long time through current releases. There’s bonus material, too, such as the essay, “On Feminist Fiction” by Alexis Henderson, which is a lovely thought-piece that muses on the nature of the genre from a variety of angles. Very good food for thought.

I read with a notepad close by, often scribbling down the title of a book I’m interested in reading. Since the book has limited itself to women authors only, it’s able to give broader coverage to that field. No offense to the men, but it’s sure nice to have the space to be introduced to women authors I wasn’t aware of.

And it’s a beautiful book, inside and out. I’m a bit of a formatting nerd and couldn’t help smiling at the lush page layouts.

If your TBR pile is getting low (as if that’s even possible) or if you just really want to indulge in spinetingling storytelling, this is a valuable guide.