• Wed. Oct 9th, 2024

CYBILS Finalist: Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke

ByPam

Oh how I struggled with Slasher Girls & Monster Boys! I don’t like scary things so I was extremely reluctant to read SG. I even waited until the last possible moment to read this book as part of the judging.

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys edited by April G. Tucholxe

I’m here to say that I *might* be a convert. To be sure, I read psychological thrills occasionally in adult books so it’s not like I’m totally devoid of any knowledge of scary things in books (after all there was a time when I loved Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights).  So SG contains scary shorts inspired by movies. These short stories are written by some of the top YA authors of our time.

Some of the stories left me scratching my head. Some stories left me clutching my cat for comfort and some left me disgusted. That’s what’s good about short stories; there is a range of ability and emotion that will change from story to story.  Some of the shorts were infinitely better than others, like literary scare the pants off of you masterpieces. And some were commercially light romps. You never knew from story to story which each one would be.

The two that stayed with me the most are the one about the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Note to self: do NOT go into the woods. EVER.  My second and equally favorite was the one with a fat girl and a knife (author’s words, not mine). I hope I never run into Jonathan Maberry cuz I think he eats people’s brains for breakfast.

You’ll have to read the short stories yourself. With the light on.

And your wooby.

And possibly an attack dragon for safety.