Monday, February 26, 2018

Women in Horror: Books in the Freezer Podcast


Books in the Freezer Podcast is hosted by booktubers Stephanie from That's What She Read and Rachel from The Shades of Orange about horror books. Each episode is based around a subject, like vampire books, audiobooks, or YA books, and give their book recommendations with a brief description of the book and their opinions about it. Their rating system is based on how scary it is, not necessarily if the book is good or not, which they will cover in their opinion portion. Room temperature is not scary. In the refrigerator is a bit scary and in the freezer is very scary. Of course, scary is subjective and they place few books in the freezer. This image is borrowed from Friends where Joey read The Shining only when he has room in the freezer to keep it safely. After the book talk, they will talk about other horror media they are enjoying in the moment such as movies or video games.

This is the first podcast I've found that is focused on horror books. Stephanie and Rachel are both very knowledgeable about the genre and suggest some classics and some that are bit off the beaten path. Their excitement about the genre is infectious and they articulate their thoughts about each book very well, giving listeners a rundown of what they like, didn't like, and identifying things that might be deal breakers or triggers. During their first full episode, they suggested my personal haunted house picks: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and The Grip of It by Jac Jemc. They also introduced me to new books I'd never heard of that I immediate added to my towering TBR list such as I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reed and The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike.

I don't always agree with their opinions and Stephanie and Rachel don't always agree with each other. They are always respectful, making the podcast approachable, and thorough in their opinions, so listeners can easily see if they might like a book. It's only 11 episodes in and from epusode 1, the podcast had good sound quality, a solid format, and experienced hosts. Most have some growing pains at first and this one sounds amazing from the start. Their website also has all the books and other media they talk about with book covers and descriptions so their recommendations are more easily accessible. My one tiny criticism is that their favorite books (that are also my favorite) such as NOS4A2 by Joe Hill and Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist make a lot of appearances on the show in various episodes. I hope in the future they dig a little deeper to recommend some lesser known books. Other than that, I highly recommend this podcast if you want to find more horror fiction.

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