I’ve always been fascinated by things that scare me. I remember the cold finger that would slither down my spine when the Unsolved Mysteries theme song trilled on television and the stony dread that settled in my stomach as I read Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by flashlight under a mountain of protective blankets. I grew up thinking vampires and serial killers lurked behind every corner, and my fascination with terror, horror and the macabre has never left me. This fascination led me to study Gothic fiction and horror films in college and I soon got the reputation of being “that monster girl.”
Monster Scholar is a newsletter where I critically examine the strange and unusual. This includes horror and true crime in literature, media, and popular culture. It’s the next evolution of my popular horror blog that I launched in 2009 (which you can still read here) as an English doctoral student.
The incredible amount of time and energy that I spent writing and researching my articles contributed to my blog's success, but working so hard for no compensation was unhealthy and unsustainable so I sadly stopped writing in 2012.
Fast forward to the present, I’m a doctor now (but don’t ask me to diagnose your rash) and I still have things to say about the relationship between the Gothic, horror and true crime genres.
If you’re interested in:
Spooky and kooky fandoms.
Monsters, cults, and killers.
Gothic subculture and fashion.
Reviews of macabre films and disturbing documentaries.
In-depth examinations of genre trends.
Crackling wit and puns galore.
Then this newsletter is for you!
What Readers Say
Monster Scholar is just that, a scholar of the genre, and writes with unparalleled style and grace.--B-Sol, Vault of Horror
[Monster Scholar] is one hell of a horror writer. —BJ-C, Day of the Woman
Monster Scholar writes about her love of monsters in horror films and books and does so with incredible knowledge and finesse. Seriously, its insanely ridiculous how much she knows about monsters, their mythos, and where they fit into the overall bodies of work in both cinema and literature. Test her knowledge, I dare you.--Cortez the Killer, Planet of Terror
Well executed, painfully researched, and often witty.--Pax Romano, Billy Loves Stu
As her name suggests, your Host has a deep understanding of Horror's past and can make it howl in present day - or night. Always worth rising from the tomb for.--Mykal, Radiation Cinema!
