The 5 Boys Who NEVER CAME BACK!!! (Scares Us)

We're back, batches!  Follow along as Katya and I tackle the tragic tale of the 5 Boys Who Never Came Back ...

We start out the episode shouting out to our Suspiria episode ... check it out ...

Katya suggests that we use our episode about "The Lottery" to teach the children ...

We push my play (some more) ... (Click here to buy one of your very own!)

Someone needs to compile all our potential band names that we come up with for us.  That someone is not me, and probably not Katya either. #theimpericalbetters

Then, leading into our reader-chosen topic (shout out to Joanna!), we reference our episode on the Dyatlov Pass and the film adaptation we haven't seen ...

Huh.  It was giant glowing-eyed ice monsters all along.

All right; buckle up, kitty cats.  Here ... we ... go!!!

THE DISTURBING TALE OF THE 5 BOYS WHO NEVER CAME BACK ...

Follow this link to Strange Outdoors, a blog about "mysterious stories" (and this one qualifies ...) -- it has maps and photos and some videos that will shed a bit more light on the story for you.

Here's the link to the original story in the Washington Post.

The cover of the Night Creatures volume from The Enchanted World!

Rawhead and Bloody Bones.  This is the worst!

Black Annis, the hag who skins children!

Nadilla, the vampire ghoul!  This book was advertised  on television a lot when I was a child, and I vividly remember this particular illustration.  It's freaky as hell that she isn't even looking at him as she attacks him!

Episode Two: Winning THE LOTTERY Scares Us

Find out why winning the Shirley Jackson lottery is so much more rewarding than others of its kind by clicking here.

Happy Halloween from This Place Scares Us!

Happy Halloween, kitty cats!  Here are a few things that scare us, some from past episodes, some from THE FUTURE (!), and some ... eh, they're freaky. 

Yick.  The poor dead girl from the opening of It Follows, the subject of our premiere episode (click here to listen!).  This is only one of many reasons you shouldn't wear high heels to the beach.

Ol' shaggy, the subject of Stephen King's Silver Bullet, who is definitely a werewolf and not some kind of angry hell bear.

Who is this fanged fiend and why isn't the blood of the innocent keeping him forever young?  Find out in Episode 7, forthcoming ...

What horrible thing lurks at the threshold of Theodora's bedroom?  Ask Shirley Jackson, the mistress of the macabre and the author of The Haunting of Hill House as well as "The Lottery", the subject of Episode 2. 

You'll like Mr. Barlow ... and he'll like you.  (We'll cover 'Salem's Lot, I promise.)

And a little hint about our forthcoming episode, debuting November 12th ...

Clinkies!

Episode 2: The Lottery Scares Us

Our second episode (click here to listen!) focused on the horrors of Shirley Jackson's classic short story "The Lottery", a world where your friends and neighbors will happily stone you to death (with real stones!) so long as they're not the ones on the receiving end of said stones. 

Jackson is known for creating a claustrophobic sense of dread within her stories, often focusing on women whose sense of identity disintegrates, sometimes right out there in the daylight, or in otherwise perfectly ordinary circumstances.

I'm a huge fan of Jackson, as, if you've been listening, you know by now, and part of the fun of being a Jackson fan is collecting the variety of editions of her work.  Here's a sampling of the different covers in Shirley Jackson's oeuvre:  

The Popular Library editions, which are among my favorites, because the covers are so expressive, or in the case of The Bird's Nest, just so damned weird.

One of my holy grails, the original cover art for The Haunting of Hill House, my favorite of Jackson's novels, and probably my favorite novel of all time.

Amazing cover art for the first paperback edition of Jackson's final novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.  I'd love a poster of this someday.

And finally, speaking of The Lottery, here is the beautiful edition I finally acquired last summer.