As part of The Colorado Sun’s literature section — SunLit — we’re featuring staff picks from book stores across the state. >> Click here for more SunLit
This week’s bookstore: BookBar, 4280 Tennyson St., Denver
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From the publisher: Like his bestselling novel, “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires,” Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, this book pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream.”
From Becky LeJeune, event buyer/office manager: Someone is killing final girls, and it’s up to Lynnette Tarkington to figure out who before she becomes a victim herself. Each of the final girls in Hendrix’s latest is based on a classic horror movie final girl. Each is feisty and strong–as they’d have to be to survive their respective ordeals. And of course Hendrix’s signature snarky humor is laced throughout the story. It makes for a compelling and highly entertaining read, perfect for fans of ’80s and ’90s slasher films!
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From the publisher: Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a breakup, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
From Amanda Davidson, lead bookseller: Sally Rooney does not disappoint with her newest novel. It has everything you’ve come to love about her work—millennials talking to, sleeping with, and stumbling around with each other. Plus, a main character that is eerily similar to Rooney herself…
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From the publisher: Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.
When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?
From Jude Jeans, bookseller: I love mythology retellings and this one was one of my favorites. It follows the myth of Ariadne, a princess of Crete, who always heard stories of gods and heroes. When Theseus arrives to vanquish the minotaur, her brother, she sees it as an escape. Despite everything the gods, her family, and fate wants of her, she risks it all for love.
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