Guest Post – The Babadook by Lou Morgan

Throughout the month of October myself and the lovely Heather over at  heatherreviews.wordpress.com  thought we would team up and do a read along with some spooky reads!

We have both been enjoying the Red Eye series published by Stripes Publishing this year so thought these would be ideal for a spooky read along!

Everyone is welcome to join in!

We have a hash tag on twitter where you can keep up to date on our progress and tweet out yours – #RedEyeReadAlong

We also have a Goodreads Group set up for the occasion for even more discussion and to comfort each other when we get scared – you can find the group here

As part of the read along the lovely people at Stripes and the brilliant Red Eye authors have agreed to play along with a weekly spooky guest post throughout the read along!

Today I am honoured to have the lovely Lou Morgan, author of Sleepless, talking to me about a scary film !

**hides under cushion**

Young, rich and good-looking, Izzy and her friends lead seemingly perfect lives. But exams are looming – and at a school like Clerkenwell, failure is not an option. Luckily, Tigs has a solution. A small pill that will make revision a breeze and help them get the results they need. Desperate to succeed, the friends begin taking the study drug. But as the side effects take hold they realize there are far worse things than failing a few exams. “…creepy, claustrophobic and pant-wettingly scary…” Kim Curran, author of Shift. Lou Morgan’s terrifying novel is part of the Red Eye series, perfect for fans of James Dawson’s Say Her Name and Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood.

The Babadook

I’m very, very late to this party, but “The Babadook” is one of the most effective horror films I’ve seen in a long time. If you haven’t seen it, I don’t want to spoil it for you so I’ll stick to telling you that the story revolves around a woman and her son who, one night, find a mysterious new book (Mr Babadook) in the son’s room and read it at bedtime. It doesn’t take long before they find that – as the book promised – you can’t get rid of the Babadook.

The whole film is full of brilliantly shot scenes (and I had to watch the entire second half from behind one of my cats) but there’s one in particular – a single shot – that really set me on edge.  It’s a shot of the hallway and stairs of the house the story takes place in.  That’s it. Nothing happens in it, but it’s so full of menace.  Something *will* happen, you can be sure of that. The simple shot of the stairs is the calm before the storm… and that’s what makes it chilling. It has echoes of “The Exorcist” and “The Shining” about it, and that only adds to the whole effect.

While we’re talking about “The Shining”, if you want a perfect example of how to ramp up tension and terror in a single chapter, get hold of a copy of that book and read chapter 34: The Hedges. Just that chapter. Then tell me that you’re not turning on every light in your house and swearing you will never, ever set foot near a topiary hedge again…

Inspiration for Sleepless

Check out some photos of The Barbican in London where Lou got some inspiration for Sleepless!

About Lou Morgan

Lou Morgan is an award-nominated adult and YA author. Her first novel, Blood and Feathers – an adult urban fantasy – was published by Solaris Books in 2012 and the follow-up, Blood and Feathers: Rebellion, was released in the summer of 2013.

Her first YA novel, Sleepless, will be published by Stripes / Little Tiger Press as part of their Red Eye horror series in January 2015.

She has been nominated for three British Fantasy Awards (Best Newcomer and twice for Best Fantasy Novel) and her short stories have appeared in anthologies from Solaris Books, PS Publishing and Jurassic. She has also written genre novel-related features for magazines including Future Publishing’s SFX.

Born in Wales and a graduate of University College London, she now lives in Bath with her family.

She tweets as @LouMorgan – mostly when she should be writing – and can also be found on Pinterest, Tumblr and Facebook.

Or check Out Lou’s website here

You can also check out all of Lou’s books here

Check out a previous Guest Post by Lou here on Tales talking about the 90’s Point Horror series here

You can also find out more about the RedEyeReadAlong here and the Sleepless Read Along here which includes details of the weekly challenge.

Check out the RedEyeReadAlong Q&A with Lou here

A huge thank you to Lou for stopping by and for Jen at Stripes for organising this with us!

Do join in using the has tag on twitter #RedEyeReadAlong and why not join the Goodreads Group here

You can follow me on twitter using @ChelleyToy or Heather using @hlwrites0490

Happy Halloween!