Gearing up for Halloween

So, the polydactyl's older sister is helping tonight! Yep, she was chasing the mouse earlier. (The mouse, not a mouse, btw.)

Anyway, seeing as how Halloween is now officially one week away, it's time for me to get down to business. I love Halloween. It's totally selfish, too. I love watching horror movies and I love that there are still a few networks that plan their programming according my taste just this one time of the year. I also love handing out candy. I'll have to find something to do with the dog this year since I think she terrifies children being overprotective of me. Not really sure what instills this sense of dominance over everyone she perceives to be a threat to me, but anywho. 

I cleared my review schedule (not really, it just worked out this way) and am devoting as much of the week as I possibly can to reading horror! Yep. So I thought I'd start you out with what I am reading today (Friday). 

I just started reading James Herbert's The Rats. You know you'll all be Herbert converts by the time I'm done with you. The Rats was Herbert's debut novel and was originally published in 1974. It was adapted for film in 1982 and stars absolutely no one I've ever heard of. Guess it was a smash hit. 

Now, as you might have guessed, The Rats is a book about killer rats. Here's some of the info from the Wikipedia entry on the title. 

"[The Rats] was Herbert's first novel and was notorious for breaking the set boundaries of the horror genre then by including graphic depictions of death and mutilation... It was deemed far to graphic in its portrayals of death and mutilation and that the social commentary regarding the neglect of  London's suburbs was too extremist. However, many consider the novel to be social commentary influenced by Herbert's harsh upbringing in immediate post-war London. The underlying them of the novel is lack of care by government toward the underclass and a lack of reaction to tragedy until it is too late."

Hm, something to think about while you read about rats who have a taste for human flesh!

The Rats is a rather short read at just under 200 pages. The book was reprinted in 1999 and is available through most bookstores (special order of course) and is followed by Lair and Domain (both also still in print). 

Twenty-four of Herbert's works have been printed over the course of his thirty-two years as a published author. I hope for the genre's sake that he has many more years and books ahead of him.