The Saucy Wenches Book Club

People had the mistaken idea that Poe wrote fantastic stories about the supernatural, when in fact he wrote realistic stories about abnormal psychology.
The Outsider by Stephen King

For the last few months, I’ve had a voracious hunger for harrowing post-apocalyptic dystopias. It’s one way of drowning out the din around me, or at least distracting myself, for a while. It can be maddening, inspiring, cathartic, and strangely soothing.

This was the genre I loved in high school and college, titles like 1984, Brave New World, Alas Babylon, Lucifer’s Hammer, and The Stand. They explored the best and worst of innumerable possible paths through devastation triggered by nuclear war, asteroids, toxic pollution, or aliens — leaving survivors to begin again without government, technology, and infrastructure, or to weather the rise of authoritarian, totalitarian, and fascist regimes. The latter was my least favorite post-apocalyptic theme.

As I discovered new stories, I pounced on them: The Postman (the novella, NOT the movie), The Handmaid’s Tale, The Hunger Games, The Passage, Station Eleven, and a lengthy list of more.

I’ve been wanting to revisit my old favorites, but r…

“We did not ask for this room or this music. We were invited in. Therefore, because the dark surrounds us, let us turn our faces to the light. Let us endure hardship to be grateful for plenty. We have been given pain to be astounded by joy. We have been given life to deny death. We did not ask for this room or this music. But because we are here, let us dance.”

― Stephen King, 11.22.63

That was what was missing back there in Las Vegas, he decided — simple love. They were nice enough people and all, but there wasn’t much love in them. Because they were too busy being afraid. Love didn’t grow very well in a place where there was only fear, just as plants didn’t grow very well in a place where it was always dark.
... love is what moves the world, I’ve always thought ... it is the only thing which allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always seems to want to pull them down ... bring them low ... and make them crawl ...
~ The Stand, Stephen King

Show me a man or woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call “society.” Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.

~ Stephen King, The Stand

“She had always consciously or unconsciously formed fear into a simple equation: fear = unknown. And to solve the equation, one simply reduced the problem to simple algebraic terms, thus: unknown = creaky board (or whatever), creaky board = nothing to be afraid of. In the modern world all terrors could be gutted by simple use of the transitive axiom of equality. Some fears were justified, of course (you don’t drive when you’re too plowed to see, don’t extend the hand of friendship to snarling dogs, don’t go parking with boys you don’t know – how did the old joke go? Screw or walk?), but until now she had not believed that some fears were larger than comprehension, apocalyptic and nearly paralyzing. This equation was insoluble. The act of moving forward at all became heroism.” 

Stephen King's'Salem's Lot

2015 was an interesting reading year for me. Alarmed by the amount of time I’d disappeared into Outlander books over the last few years — not that there’s anything wrong with that! — in 2015 I vowed to read a few other things. I was determined to check some books off my TBR list, surprise myself from time to time, let my intuition guide me to stories that would resonate with Real Life, and last but not least, reward myself by revisiting my other favorite fictional world, the one in Dublin rather than the Scottish Highlands.

As I look back at my literary year, I’m delighted to realize that I accomplished all these goals and enjoyed every single book along the way!

I actually survived reading no Outlander books the entire year!! (I’m not going to say how many times I watched the Outlander TV episodes. Or what percentage of my Facebook news feed is Outlander. Or that I plan to reread AT LEAST the first three books before season 2 begins in April.) Oops, I did read Finding Fraser (review…

Life turns on a dime. Sometimes towards us, but more often it spins away, flirting and flashing as it goes: so long, honey, it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it?

If you're like me, you're going to be looking forward to Halloween and alllll the scary movies that will be on TV, all the Halloween-themed episodes of your favorite shows, and best of all, the books. Rereading my favorite horror reads on All Hallow's Read is one of my favorite things. 

I talked about my favorite classic horror must reads here. And now I'm going to tell you about some authors who make scaring you into an art. You'll have plenty of time to get these books in time for Halloween! 

Click through... if you dare.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there...and still on your feet.

The Stand byStephen King

A Wench Review

I hadn't read a new Stephen King book in years. Sure, I reread old favorites, but I never picked up anything new. I don't know why. People complained about them too much maybe? I was too in love with his older work to bother with something new? Maybe just laziness? Whatever the reason, Revival caught my eye a few weeks before it was to be released. And I clicked the preorder button on Amazon. 

When it showed up on my Kindle, I was excited and so ready to jump in.

Click through to see what I thought of my latest foray into King's one of a kind mind.

(This review will be mildly spoilery. Be warned.)

"I think most people who have suffered great losses in their lives - great tragedies- come to a crossroads. Maybe not right then, but when the shock wears off. It may be months later; it may be years. They either expand as a result of their experience, or they contract. If that sounds New Age-y -- and I suppose it does -- I don't apologize. I know what I'm talking about. 
Charles Jacobs had contracted."

Revival by Stephen King.

"In the movies this sort of character is known as the fifth business, or the change agent. When he turns up in a film, you know he's there because the screenwriter put him there. But who is screenwriting our lives? Fate or coincidence? I want to believe the latter. I want that with all my heart and soul. When I think of Charles Jacobs - my fifth business, my change agent, my nemesis- I can't bear to think his presence in my life had anything to do with fate. It would mean that all these terrible things- these horrors- were meant to happen. If that is so, then there is no such thing as light, and our belief in it is a foolish illusion. If that is so, we live in darkness like animals in a burrow, or ants deeps in their hill.

And not alone."



Revival by Stephen King.

No, honey. Maybe you can put the things from the Overlook away in lockboxes, but not memories. Never those. They’re the real ghosts.

― Stephen King, Doctor Sleep

Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.

~ Stephen King, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”,
Different Seasons

My Favorite Villains!

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines antagonist as:
One who contends with or opposes another: an adversary, opponent.
Anyone who enjoys reading fiction knows that, in order to have a great story, you need a great antagonist. The protagonist—the main character, the hero or heroine, the good guy, the one you root for—is nothing without a fitting adversary.

After the jump, I'll share some of my favorite unforgettable villains.

“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them—words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That’s the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.”   - Stephen King, The Body (Different Seasons)

Last week, I wrote about several discoveries that Wench Merit and I made when we investigated the inspirations behind some of our favorite stories and characters. We found so many interesting little tidbits that I couldn't type them all up before our deadline, so we're picking up this week where we left off.


We all know that a single, often unnoticed incident can set into motion a contorted, far-reaching chain of events, reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg device, which perfectly illustrates this concept. Just ask the guy whose electricity goes out during the night: his alarm clock fails to go off, so he oversleeps, rushes out the door half dressed, arrives late to his big meeting, realizes he has forgotten both his pants and his presentation (and his lunch, his phone, his evening theater tickets), and sees his day go completely down the toilet from that point. A key element in many movies is that one tiny misstep, that one overlooked detail, resurfacing at the end to bring down a c…