Happy Halloween!!! And thank you for stopping by to share in my Bookish Nightmares & Wicked Scares. I am so happy to work with Penguin Teen (PRH Partner) in showcasing a wicked read for the month of October. I chose A Semi-Definitive List Of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland and although this book may have a low scare factor I have decided to kick things up a notch and list the things that we book lovers have nightmares and wicked scares about. Let me know how many on my list that you recognize and which ones do you have that I haven’t listed. I am eager to find out.
This was depicted quite well on an episode of friends when Joey and Rachel switch their favorite reads and Joey asks Rachel how her reading is coming along. LOL!
Joey: Hey, Rach, how you doing with The Shining?
Rachel: Oh, Danny just went into room 217.
Joey: Oooh, the next part’s the best, when that dead lady in the bathtub…
Rachel: Oh, no, meh-nah-nah-nah, come on you’re gonna ruin it!
Joey: All right I’ll talk in code. (to Ross and Chandler) Remember when the kid sees those two blanks in the hallway?
Chandler: Hmmm, that’s very cool.
Joey: Oh, all blank, and no blank, make’s blank a blank blank. Oh no-no-no, no, the end when Jack almost kills them all with that blank, but then at last second they get away. Aww!
Rachel: Joey! I can’t believe you just did that!
Chandler: I can’t believe she cracked your code!
Rachel: All right, okay, Laurie proposes to Jo, and she says no, even though she’s still in love with him, and then he ends up marring Amy.
Joey: Hey! Mine was by accident! All right, the boiler explodes and destroys the hotel, and kills the dad.
Rachel: Eh. Beth dies.
(Joey recoils and gasps in horror.)
Joey: Beth, Beth dies?
Rachel: Um-hmm.
Joey: Is that true? If I keep reading is Beth gonna die?
Chandler: No, Beth doesn’t die, she doesn’t die. Does she Rachel?
Rachel: What?!
Ross: Joey’s asking if you’ve just ruined the first book he’s ever loved that didn’t star Jack Nicholson?
Rachel: No. She doesn’t die.
Joey: Then why would you say that?!
Rachel: Because, I wanted to hurt you.
3. Your non-bookish friends refuse to read a book you recommend and proclaim “Why should I read the book when I can just watch the movie?”
4. Spending sacred reading hours on what will end up being the WORST book you’ve ever read. WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT CRAP?
5. Getting trapped somewhere and not having any reading material on hand. And feeling miserable about all the wasted seconds. WHY DIDN’T I JUST BRING A DAMN BOOK?
6. Having to put a glorious book down at the best part because you’re expected to do “real life” things that don’t really matter. Because only your current story matters.
7. And just being absolutely positive that NOTHING WILL NEVER BE THE SAME after you have read the most amazing book of your life and you’re convinced you will never find one just as perfect.
9. Or detest that book that a friend suggests to you, and then ending up hating them. Because that’s the only resonable response.
But at least with this we need not suffer from Abibliophobia: A Book Lover’s Greatest Fear. Running out of materials to read.
THE END
A SEMI-DEFINITIVE LIST OF WORST NIGHTMARES
by Krystal Sutherland
Ever since Esther Solar’s grandfather met Death, her entire family has been doomed to suffer one great fear in their lifetime—a fear that will eventually lead each and every one of them to their graves. Take Esther’s father, for instance: He’s an agoraphobe who hasn’t left the basement in six years. Then there’s her twin brother, Eugene, whose fear of the dark goes far beyond the things that go bump in the night. And her mother, Rosemary, is absolutely terrified of bad luck.
As for Esther, she’s managed to escape the curse…so far. She doesn’t yet have a great fear because she avoids pretty much everything. Elevators, small spaces, crowds—anything that might trigger a phobia is off-limits and is meticulously recorded in her semi-definitive list of worst nightmares.
Esther thinks she has it all figured out, until she’s reunited with an old elementary school classmate—and first crush—Jonah Smallwood. The encounter leaves her stranded at a bus stop and swindled out of her phone, all her cash, a Fruit Roll-Up she’d been saving, and her list—not to mention her dignity. But the theft is also the beginning of an unexpected friendship between the two, one that sends the pair on a journey of self-discovery as they try to break the curse that’s consumed Esther’s family. Together they face their greatest fears, one debilitating phobia at a time, only to discover the one fear they hadn’t counted on: love.
KRYSTAL SUTHERLAND
Author Bio: Krystal Sutherland is the author of Our Chemical Hearts. She was born and raised in Townsville, Australia, a place that has never experienced winter. Since then she’s lived in Sydney, where she edited her university’s student magazine; Amsterdam, where she worked as a foreign correspondent; and Hong Kong. Krystal has also interned at Bloomsbury Publishing and was shortlisted for the Queensland Young Writers Award. She has no pets and no children, but is fond of naming inanimate objects: in the Netherlands she owned a Dutch bicycle called Kim Kardashian, and a small, inflatable velociraptor called Herbert.
I currently live between Palo Alto and Sydney with my boyfriend.