Category: Articles

The Ghosts of Old Finch Road

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Updated October 3rd, 2020

If you were ever to run into a ghost, which story would you tell them? Would you give them a ghost story? Today’s prompt is by Camilla @ Reader in the Attic and asks us to tell a local urban legend. Gather round friends, for today I’m telling you the story of Old Finch Road.

Everywhere has its own urban legends and stories, but when I was trying to think of what would count as a Toronto urban legend, I came up short. Casa Loma should have had something creepy happen in it. It’s begging for a ghost, but nothing. Just a guy who built a house.

For fictional books, there’s always the scariest story I’ve ever read or the best books about facing death.

For nonfiction? Forget any ghosts in Casa Loma. Instead, I’m going to tell you the story of the Ghost of Old Finch Bridge.

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Facing Death: My Top 5 Nonfiction Books About Death

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Death is a part of life. There’s no escaping it and while some people dread death and others embrace it, we’re fascinated by it. For example, think of the last movie you saw without a death in it. Even Disney movies kill off their villains most of the time.

So lately, I’ve been reading a lot about death. I was always fascinated by the True Crime side of things, but never really thought about what it would be like on the other side. Books about death or facing death can take on all sorts of feelings. Usually they fall into two camp: the serious and the irreverent.

For obvious reasons, I find the irreverent more fun. While they can still be terrifying and unnerving, they take the edge off a bit. I’m not including adventure nonfiction in this list, but if you’re looking for those, you can find them here.

So, which books should you look at to learn more about death? Continue reading →

Battle Royale: The Book that Launched a Thousand Copies

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[book-info number=”1″]

I don’t really need to tell anyone what a Battle Royale is. Thanks to Fortnite and before that, the Hunger Games, everyone knows what it is. People are dropped into a death map. They need to kill each other. The last person standing wins.

Simple, right?

Only kind of. Battle Royale is a Japanese novel from the nineties written by Koushun Takami. It was groundbreaking in its time not just for the writing, but the shock factor of it. The book was criticized by some for its violence. Where the Hunger Games feels futuristic enough to give us some distance, Battle Royale doesn’t allow it. This isn’t meant to be a comfortable topic that’s made into PG-13 movies. Even in movie form, Battle Royale doesn’t shy away from its horror.

Each year, a single class participates in a Battle Royale. It’s a shock tactic to control the children who are growing too wild for their parents. The class is picked from a lottery and there’s no guarantee that any child will be safe as they grow up. Therefore, everyone’s at risk.

The kids we follow this year? They’re in 9th grade. To put that into perspective, they would be around 12 to 13 years old when they were brought to the island.

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