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Prattle Peach

@prattlepeach

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Horror comes in many wonderful forms.

Old Gods of Appalachia is a horror podcast/audio drama that combines Appalachian folklore and oral storytelling traditions with cosmic dread. I have been listening to this show for a few years, and in between episodes I look for similar vibes to fill the void.

I love anthology podcasts because they feel like the best blend of losing yourself in a really good book or a movie at the same time. Having no visuals adds the imagination, but great voice acting and sound effects makes the worlds feel more immersive to me.

Old Gods of Appalachia has that exact feeling. It’s Americana, folk horror, cosmic horror, family history, religious dread, coal dust, bloodlines, and the sense that some places are really haunted and will always be haunted.

So while I wait for the next episode, here are some books, podcasts, music, and games that have a similar atmosphere: beautiful, sometimes doomed sometimes hopeful, and full of people trying to survive. 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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4 months ago

**slight spoilers ahead** Mike Flanagan!!! has done it again! I loved this reimagining of Stephen King's Carrie, especially how much emotional depth he brings to a story that I already felt connected to.

One of my favorite things about Mike Flanagan's storytelling is his ability to make you really empathize with characters you might otherwise dismiss. We get glimpses into the lives of Carrie's classmates, including her bullies, and see that everyone is going through something. But unlike her peers, Carrie has been so sheltered that she's just not prepared to navigate the world.

The addition of social media was a GAME CHANGER. It really modernizes the story and makes the bullying feel so much more invasive, but I especially loved the decision to make Margaret White a momfluencer. Horrifying in a modern context and very believable.

I was also interested in the addition of Emmaline, whose role I spent most of the series trying to figure out. I'm not sure yet how I feel about this character addition, but I don't think it detracts from the story.

I would be remiss if I left out all the Haute & Freddy songs throughout the series, there was a Shy Girl piano version that I hope they release because it was so beautiful. I loved hearing their music woven into the show.

If you loved the show, swipe for six books with similar vibes/themes!

An easy five peaches from me. 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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a day ago

Bloomtown: A Different Story is the perfect fall cozy game.

It's a pixel RPG with: dungeon crawling, turn-based combat, little errands around town, relationships with the townspeople, and an old-fashioned setting that feels warm. They captured the vibe of being on summer break, and since I am old and decrepit, I use this game to live vicariously through summer breaks but in fall, where the weather is nicer.

I like that this game has quests but you also have to go knock on your friends’ doors, spend time with people, and repair your relationship with your brother. I haven't played a JRPG before, and kind of did a blind purchase based on the Nintendo games page for my Switch, but I have to say I think I got way more than I bargained for.

The characters are so good. Grumpy Grandpa. The deeply strange psychologist who you sort of feel sketchy about at first. The witches next door!! Everyone feels a little off, like a real small town.

Then, underneath all of that literally underneath the town!! There’s the underworld. Demons. Dungeon crawling. Creepy supernatural stuff and soul pacts.

I also LOVED when I caught a little nod to Pet Sematary, which I had just read for the first time.

The combat is fun without becoming a slog, and I love that you can speed it up while you’re dungeon crawling. It keeps the RPG mechanics satisfying without making the game feel grindy.

There is truly so much to love, the only "con" (please read my sarcasm) is they gave Hugo, the dog, 8-pack abs in his battle mode.

If you like pixel games, cozy towns, heartwarming stories, oddball characters, and descending into a demonic underworld, this is such a good fall game. 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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8 days ago

Medieval Sherlock Holmes, but make it court intrigue, questionable medicine, murder, and a LOT of interpersonal drama.

I had such a fun time reading Mayhem by Keith Moray.

Ralph has the slightly ridiculous ability to walk into a room, notice absolutely everything everyone else missed, and extract exactly the clue he needs. He also spends a considerable amount of time poking around in other people’s affairs, and if he weren’t operating under the protection of the king, I’m fairly certain someone would have "dealt with him" by now.

I really liked the medieval setting, pacing, and all of the smaller dramas happening alongside the mystery. Merek and Peter get romantic complications of their own, and the story feels busy in a way that kept me reading.

Where the book really shines for me is the medicine. The apothecaries, treatments, examinations, injuries, and autopsy/live demonstration scenes have a level of specificity that makes the historical setting feel much more convincing. You can tell Keith Moray is a doctor, as these scenes really come to life.

There’s even a glossary, which is why I wish the Latin dialogue weren’t immediately translated into modern English quite so often. Let me struggle a little! I have a glossary!

Overall it's a fun, dramatic medieval mystery with a detective who is always three steps ahead of everybody else.

Come for the murder. Stay for Medieval Sherlock™ winning again.

Thank you to @boldwoodbooks and @netgalley. I received an advance copy of Mayhem in exchange for an honest review. 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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10 days ago

October reading picks for trying to feel a little spooky but not too spooky! These aren’t too scary and more vibesy like why does the town have a ritual, someone is wearing a costume that is maybe not a costume, and everyone has decided this is all perfectly normal.

I pulled together 10 books that feel like Halloween.

For small towns with deeply concerning traditions, start with Dark Harvest or Halloween Fiend. Both have that very specific “why has no one moved away yet?” energy I love. Would I live there? No! Would I visit? Maybe!

If you want Halloween night itself to go terribly wrong, try All Hallows, Hallowe’en Party, or Daisy Darker, with trick-or-treaters, family secrets, murder, isolated houses, big yikes feelings.

For haunted places and people making BAD decisions, there’s Kill Creek and Something Wicked This Way Comes. One gives you horror writers spending Halloween in an infamous house; the other gives you a sinister carnival rolling into town and offering people exactly what they think they want.

Then there’s the more mythic, weird, old-Halloween side of the list: A Night in the Lonesome October, The Halloween Tree, and The October Country.

And yes, three Ray Bradbury books ended up here.

Which has led me to the conclusion that Ray Bradbury may simply be the patron saint of October.

If your ideal fall read is less “pumpkin spice romance” and more “the cornfield is asking for a sacrifice,” I made this list for you. 🎃

#HalloweenBooks #OctoberReads by @prattlepeach

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15 days ago

What do you like to do when you aren’t reading?

Sometimes I need to take a break from the TBR and enjoy the beach, finding new activities, and new restaurants. 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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15 days ago

She's here!!! October we are so back!

Every year, I look for the perfect fall lip. I like a lil drama, but still wearable enough that I can put it on with basically anything.
This year I think I found it in the MAC x Chappell Roan Viva Glam collection.

I already loved the idea behind it because Viva Glam supports thousands of nonprofits, and obviously I love Chappell, but the colors!! I have both lipsticks and the gloss, and all three are so so so good for fall. You can build them up or wear them more sheer.

For me, the lipstick sets the mood for the activity. How else am I supposed to listen to Troye Sivan’s new album, read about elves, play my spooky games, and work my way through a stack of ARCs without the perfect fall lip?

My TBR (and TBlisten and TBplay) is looking goooood with Mayhem, Peanut, All’s Spell That Ends Spell, A Dirty Job, The Silmarillion, a handful of games, two podcasts, and whatever else derails me before Halloween. I'll be diving into these in more detail throughout the month and I'm especially excited to talk about @goblinspod and @horrorsandbox!

What’s on your October lists? 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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18 days ago

I finally finished it, after being on my TBR since I read Cujo when I was 12 and felt horror for the first time.

Pet Semetary is a family tragedy, in a supernatural but otherwise normal town, with relatable characters who happen to have been exposed to odd things. It reads like something that could happen to your neighbors, or your cousins, or you.

I loved this book because it was a little believable, and very terrible. It is sad and the entire book warns you through backstory and narrative experiences that it's just going to get more and more terrible.

Classic Stephen King long-winded writing that I really love, because you can get into the psyche of Louis and feel like a part of you is having this happen to you, too, but the ending just ramps up and doesn't stop ramping up, right up to reading the last page (darling, anyone?).

5/5 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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24 days ago

I finished Pet Sematary and these are the two pages I earmarked. Yeah I folded the corners of these pages!! I had to because I loved them!!

The first one is before the book even starts. Just this increasingly strange list of people who have written about what they did, followed by people who didn’t write about what they saw: the man who buried Hitler, the man who embalmed Elvis, the people who cleaned up Jonestown.

And then: “Death is a mystery, and burial is a secret.”

Okay! Great!!!! Normal way to start a book!

The second is page 215, and I think this is probably my favorite passage in the whole thing. Stephen King is basically talking about the point where something becomes so horrible that your brain almost has to find it funny, because what else are you supposed to do with it?

There’s something really terrible about the idea that horror can just keep on going and going and getting worse. One bad thing happens, and then another, and then another, and eventually you are somewhere or someone completely insane wondering how you got there.

Which is, unfortunately, Pet Sematary.

I really loved this book. Horrible experience. 🍑 by @prattlepeach

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a month ago

My fall plans are very ambitious this year: work → read → sleep → wake up and read → read some more → repeat

And OF COURSE every part of the schedule requires its own book and comfy outfit that fits the vibe. part of fall is enjoying getting dressed!! and my baggu :)

I work to read (deeply unfortunately, I must,,, work during fall): Rottenheart by Kat Dunn: hamlet!! gothic horror matches every outfit, so naturally this is coming with me everywhere (even in my work bag). I'll be wearing my normies work outfit but best believe I will be thinking about sapphic hamlet.

I read (listen) to sleep: Portrait of a Witch Undone by K.S. Shay: witchy, atmospheric with a very cute romance. it's the perfect audiobook for getting cozy for the night.

I wake up to READ: From the Library of Jurgen Leitner by Premee Mohamed and Jonathan Sims: the ONLY thing getting me out of bed on a crispy autumn morning is a cursed book from The Magnus Archives universe. I have this pre-ordered and I'm counting the days.

Tis the season where I want a book in my bag, an audiobook in my ears and another book waiting on my nightstand. The first day of fall is legally and technically Sept 22, but not in my household, it's right now!! it is today!! by @prattlepeach

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a month ago

HERETIC is my kind of horror for most of its runtime: a small cast, very few settings, and tension through conversation.

The acting is fantastic across the board. Hugh Grant is believable as Mr. Reed, charming, so you understand why someone might keep listening to him, while always feeling like there’s something wrong with him. And both of the young missionaries, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, are just as strong. Their reactions feel believable instead of like characters making obviously terrible horror-movie decisions.

I also loved how much of the horror comes from religion itself. It's not like The Exorcist where we're looking at demons or possession, but questions about belief, doubt, repetition, institutions, and why people believe what they believe. Using Mormon missionaries was especially interesting because the movie can naturally turn what begins as a normal conversation about faith into something much more uncomfortable.

Where it lost me was the ending.
****A little spoiler is ahead but I am trying not to give the whole thing away ****

I wanted Mr. Reed’s obsession to lead somewhere much stranger. The movie spends so long pulling apart religion and promising that he has discovered something underneath all of it that I was ready for some completely unhinged theological revelation. Instead, the ultimate idea felt much more conventional than everything leading up to it.

I wanted the movie to go WEIRDER. BIGGER.

Still, the journey there was smart, tense, well acted, and difficult to predict the first time through.

Probably not a huge rewatch movie for me because once you understand what Reed is doing, I think a lot of the mystery disappears. BUT it is a very enjoyable and solid first watch.

🍑🍑🍑🍑/5

#moviereview #heretic by @prattlepeach

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2 months ago

Portrait of a Witch Undone was such an enjoyable witchy fantasy. I loved Maeve’s journey from being powerful on paper to finding her confidence and trust in herself, especially against the backdrop of messy family expectations, coven politics, and complicated female friendships.

The romance was perfect and didn't overshadow the main character's story, the magic was unique and fun, and the audiobook narration made the whole world feel even more immersive. I also LOVE that there was a splash of horror at some points, it really gives the book an edge.

🍑 4/5 peaches

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance listening copy for review consideration. All opinions are my own. by @prattlepeach

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2 months ago