theweirdladynextdoor

[theweirdladynextdoor]

10 Weird Movies to watch just for the heck of it

1.       Troll 2 (1990)      

Pg-13 1hr 35min

 Just see it.  It’s so incredibly awful that it turns around and does that thing where before you know it, it’s good.

 2.       Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

R 1hr 28min

 I saw this movie when I was fifteen.  It was genius then, and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it now.

 3.       Zardoz (1974)

R 1hr 45min

 This is a basically unwatchable saga with Sean Connery in his glory days.  Super weird and bizarre.  

 4.       Gummo (1997)

R 1hr 29min

 Ouch this movie hurts to watch.  But goddamn you, Harmony Korine, if you didn’t capture the depraved underbelly of this country.

 5.       SLC Punk! (1998)

R 1hr 37min

 Perfectly encapsulated ‘90’s punk social scene gem.

 6.       Donnie Darko (2001)

R 1hr 53min

 This little nugget of a movie is so beautifully done that I fully buy into the time travel concept and the ‘80’s music.  Plus Jake Gyllenhaal rocks the casbah in it.

 7.       Tusk (2014)

R 1hr 42min

 Easily the most disturbing movie on the list and arguably of all time.  And I have “The Electric Grandmother” on this list.

 8.       The Labyrinth (1986)

PG 1hr 45min

 David Bowie singing nonsensical songs about babies and colorful muppets?  Yes please.

 9.       The Electric Grandmother (1982)

Unrated 1hr

 I don’t know how to distill into words the horrifying feeling I get when watching this movie.  I distinctly remember seeing it as a kid at a very young age.  Watching it as an adult is even creepier.

 10.   Class Action Park (2020)

Unrated 1hr 30min

 Hands down one of the most hilarious and batshit insane movies on here.  I will watch this movie any time any day. Also, Chris Gethard does commentary in it, and he is brilliant.  It’s a documentary about a theme park that never should have existed but did.  

[theweirdladynextdoor]

Just Read: This Will be Funny Later by Jenny Pentland, (2022)

There’s just something extra weird about this celebrity memoir.  For one thing, celebrities go through a lot of shit that no one else does. We’re all like, but they get to be famous and wealthy for the rest of their lives!  In reality, they deal with a lot of weird crap.  Constant paparazzi, the online hack factory, questionable coping methods, pressure to look flawless constantly, and a barrage of unnatural situations.  These things can make life harder than we mere plebes would think.  Sure, they might get to have a family breakdown at a macadamia nut farm in Hawaii, but that doesn’t make their pain less real.  

Imagine, if you will, being Roseanne Barr’s daughter through her rise to fame.  Imagine an emotionally abusive Tom Arnold as your stepdad. Imagine the circus that would follow you from place to place as you tried to go about daily life.  Imagine you are going to be shipped from school to school like a ping-pong ball across the country.  Imagine that you have trouble flourishing.  Imagine that you get sent to multiple hardcore wilderness survival placements.  Imagine that every summer you go to fat camp and that you never really get to spend time with your mom at all. Take all of this, throw in mental illness, and you have a cornucopia of weird memoir fodder.

Jenny Pentland goes through all of this and way more.  Typically, I don’t get super excited about celebrity memoirs.  They’re usually pretty standard.  They grew up famous or famous-adjacent and stayed famous. Big whoop.  Lemme guess, they did drugs and got arrested for some stupid crap. They spun out of control.  But now they’re sober and they paid a lot of money to have some ghostwriter prepare their manuscript.

Not so with this book. Jenny Pentland not only wrote it, but she wrote the hell out of it.  It has some familiar celebrity memoir tropes, but honestly, this book made me hurt for her. Her life gave her ptsd as an adult. Her life gave her depression, panic disorder, body issues, and a rare ferocity.  Her life was unhealthy in so many ways.  It packs a wallop of a punch and I know I will come back to it one day. If I were asked if the book were comparable to “The Glass Castle,” which is kind of the unicorn memoir about a weird life, I would say times ten.  It’s “The Glass Castle” times ten.

[theweirdladynextdoor]

[theweirdladynextdoor]

Not for Everyone: A grand list of 143 weird books

This is my meticulously curated list of 143 of the weirdest books I’ve ever read.  Weird here can mean subject matter, the way it was written, or just that it’s off the beaten path.  It certainly does not include every weird book out there.  But it is a start if you are interested in reading weird lit yet have no idea where to begin.  I encourage you to dig in... if you dare.

 1.      Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl, (2010)

2.      Ghost Story by Peter Straub, (1989)

3.      My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers by Helen Morrison and Harold Goldberg, (2004)

4.      The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, (1977)

5.      Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist by Sophie Crumb, (2010)

6.      The Farm: Life Inside a Women's Prison by Andi Rierden, (1997)

7.      On the Bus: The Complete Guide to the Legendary Trip of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and the Birth of Counterculture by Paul Perry, (1997)

8.      The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, (1959)

9.      Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club by Anne Allison, (1994)

10.  The A-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Harold Schechter, (1996)

11.  Not Without my Daughter by Betty Mahmoody, (1987)

12.  Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, (1915)

13.  Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheta Schreiber, (1973)

14.  Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania by Andy Behrman, (2002)

15.  You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas by Augusten Burroughs, (2009)

16.  Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk, (2008)

17.  Pimp: The Story of my Life by Iceberg Slim, (1967)

18.  Black Hole by Charles Burns, (2005)

19.  My Lobotomy by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming, (2007)

20.  Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, (2006)

21.  Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson, (1966)

22.  The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, (1968)

23.  Hardcore Mother by Maxon Crumb, (2001)

24.  In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick,  (2000)

25.  House of Leaves and The Whalestoe Letters by Mark Z. Danielewski, (2000)

26.  Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff, (2008)

27.  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson, (1971)

28.  I Like You: Hospitality under the Influence by Amy Sedaris, (2006)

29.  Stranger than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk, (2004)

30.  SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris, (1998)

31.  Trout Fishing in America/ The Pill vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster/ In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan, (1989)

32.  The Long, Hard Road out of Hell by Marilyn Manson, (1998)

33.  Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, (1959)

34.  She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb, (1992)

35.  Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris, (2010)

36.  Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin by Norah Vincent, (2008)

37.  The Cannibals of Candyland by Carlton Mellick III, (2009)

38.  The Sallie House Haunting by Debra Lyn Pickman, (2010)

39.  The Demonologist by Gerard Brittle, (1980)

40.  Off Season (Dead River #1) by Jack Ketchum, (1980)

41.  Room by Emma Donoghue, (2010)

42.  The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, (1989)

43.  The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson, (1949)

44.  When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase, (1987)

45.  Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, (1981)

46.  Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, (2009)

47.  The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison by Pete Earley, (1992)

48.  Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer by Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, (1989)

49.  Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt, (2002)

50.  The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo, (2006)

51.  The Complete Grimm’s Fairytales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, (1812)

52.  Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries by Jon Ronson, (2012)

53.  Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson, (2001)

54.  The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson, (2011)

55.  Life After Death by Damien Echols, (2012)

56.  The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain, (2005)

57.  Damned by Chuck Palahniuk, (2011)

58.  Party Monster: A Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland by James St. James, (1999)

59.  What Cops Know by Connie Fletcher, (1990)

60.  Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford, (1978)

61.  I’m Down Mishna Wolf, (2009)

62.  Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres, (2005)

63.  Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert, (2007)

64.  Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory, (2003)

65.  Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover, (1999)

66.  Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players by Stefan Fatsis, (2001)

67.  Napalm & Silly Putty by George Carlin, (2001)

68.  Crimson Stain by Jim Fisher, (2000)

69.  Are you my Mother? A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel, (2012)

70.  The Complete Persepolis by Satrapi Marjane, (2003)

71.  Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, (1962)

72.  Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein, (2015)

73.  Drinking at the Movies by Julia Wertz, (2010)

74.  Calling Dr. Laura by Nicole J. Georges, (2013)

75.  The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef by Marco Pierre White, (2006)

76.  Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan, (2014)

77.  American Splendor Presents: Bob and Harv’s Comics by Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb, (1996)

78.  My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf, (2012)

79.  Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes go Hilariously Wrong

80.  Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters, (2011)

81.  Chicken: Self Portrait of a Young Man for Rent by David Henry Sterry, (2002)

82.  Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh, (2013)

83.  You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from A Prison Fish by Jimmy A. Lerner, (2002)

84.  Over Easy by Mimi Pond, (2014)

85.  Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney, (2012)

86.  SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, (1967)

87.  The Gallery of Regrettable Food: Highlights from Classic American Recipe Books by James Lileks, (2001)

88.  Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, (2014)

89.  My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, (2016)

90.  A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, (2015)

91.  This House is Haunted by Guy Lyon Playfair, (1980)

92.  The Sarah Book by Scott McClanahan, (2015)

93.  Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place by Scott McClanahan, (2013)

94.  The Black Hope Horror: The True Story of a Haunting by Ben and Jean Williams, (1991)

95.  $2.00 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, (2015)

96.  The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel, (2017)

97.  True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray by James Renner, (2016)

98.  The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People’s Temple by Jeff Guinn, (2017)

99.  Conversations with Ed and Lorraine Warren by T. Sealyham, (2011)

100.  Educated by Tara Westover, (2018) 

101.  North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Unusual Family, and How I Survived Both by Cea Sunrise Person, (2014)

102.  I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, (2018)

103.  Son of a Grifter: The Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America: A Memoir By The Other Son by Kent Walker and Mark Schone, (2001)

104.  Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud by Elizabeth Greenwood, (2016)

105.  The Contortionist’s Handbook by Craig Clevenger, (2002)

106.  Selp-Helf by Miranda Sings, (2015)

107.  The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman and Bruce Sterling, (1992)

108.  Strays: A Lost Cat, a Homeless Man, and Their Journey Across America by Britt Collins, (2017)

109.  My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, (2018)

110.   A Father’s Story by Lionel Dahmer, (1994)

111.  The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and Its Analysis by Ian Brady, (2001)

112.  Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, (2015)

113.  IT’S ME Edward Wayne Edwards: The Serial Killer You’ve Never Heard of by John A. Cameron, (2014)

114.  We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix, (2018)

115.  The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein, (2017)

116.  The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain by James Fallon, (2013)

117. Rising out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow, (2018)

118.  Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych E.R. by Julie Holland, (2009)

119.  The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy by Elizabeth Kendall, (1981)

120.  High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips, (2009)

121.  Hell’s Gate: Terror at Bobby Mackey’s Music World by Douglas Hensley, (1993)

122.  From Cradle to Grave: The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning’s Nine Children by Joyce Egginton, (1989)

123.  In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, (2019)

124.  Love as Always, Mum xxx by Mae West, (2018)

125.  Solutions and other Problems by Allie Brosh, (2020)

126.  The Serial Killer Cookbook: True Crime Trivia and Disturbingly Delicious Last Meals from Death Row's Most Infamous Killers and Murderers by Ashley Lecker, (2020)

127.  Trixie and Katya's Guide to Modern Womanhood by Trixie Mattel, Katya Zamolodchikova, (2020)

128.  American Animals: A True Crime Memoir by Eric Borsuk, (2018)

129.  The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, (2020)

130.  Couple Found Slain: After a Family Murder by Mikita Brottman, (2021)

131.  Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson, (2021)

132. You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin, (2021)

133.  Yearbook by Seth Rogen, (2021)

134.  Today a Woman went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories by Hilma Wolitzer, (2021)

135.  Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, (2021)

136.  Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar, (2021)

137.  A Killer by Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind by Ann Burgess, (2021)

138.  Tiger King: The Official Tell-all Memoir by Joe Exotic, (2021)

139.  The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes, (1981)

140.  Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration by Christine Montross, (2020)

141.  The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, (2014)

142.  Murder Book: A Graphic Novel of a True Crime Obsession by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, (2021)

143.  Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead by Bill Griffith, (2019)

[theweirdladynextdoor]

“The Amityville Horror” by Jay Anson (1977)

Rating: Crazy Weird

  This is the book that started it all.  I was browsing in my small local library one day when I was about 10yrs old.  It was 1990 and up to that point the scariest thing I’d read were Garbage Pail Kids cards. Maybe an R.L. Stine book or two. The point is, not much.  My mom kept us pretty sheltered as far as age restrictions for movies and reading material.  I never saw a PG-13 movie until I was twelve.  Even then, I think it was a Bette Midler movie named “Stella.”

One can imagine that I was pretty starved for interesting and weird culture.  Living rurally in the ‘90s, pre-internet, one had to learn how to entertain oneself. We had an Atari, a land line, and 3-4 tv channels.  Books were a boon.  

Twelve was also the age when my mom let down the book restrictions. I could now read “The Amityville Horror,” which fascinated me like no other book ever has.  Back then, I knew nothing about hauntings and horror.  

It’s startling enough to see the cover of the book with it’s devil’s tail lettering and “A True Story” label.  I had never seen anything like it.  I read the story with relish and came back to it time and time again.  By the time I saw the movie adaptation I was in my late teens and not as affected as I was while reading the book.

Over time, and for myriad reasons, I became utterly fascinated with anything to do with hauntings and especially the Amityville case.  There are just so many sides of the story that have been deemed manipulated, speculated, and unprovable.  It makes it hard to take it seriously.  But at the root of Anson’s book is a tale that’s crazy weird.  It’s undeniable.

 Go forth and read this one if you haven’t, weirdlings.  It’s a classic.

[theweirdladynextdoor]

The Weird Scale

I’ve decided to rate things like this:

1. kinda weird- not your average subject material, technically qualifies as weird

2. way weird- beyond most people’s sense of normal, solidly strange

3. crazy weird- so weird you have to tell a friend.  Fringe weird.

4. freaky crazy weird (which is also a girl band in some alternate reality)- Shocking, legendary weird.

5. what planet is this from weird- Truly mind-bending, no holds barred, the weirdest.

[theweirdladynextdoor]

Welcome to The Weird Lady Next Door!

If you are a fan of ridiculous, genre-bending, punk rock, revolutionary, and just plain weird books, you’ve come to the right place.  I am your person.  

 I have been reading the strangest books I could get my hands on since the early ‘90s.  Horror novels, books about cults, anything to do with serial killers, odd crimes, weird places, hauntings, trauma, psychopathy, the bizarre, American celebrity culture, poetry, graphic novels, cop culture, rap culture, the absurd, unusual family dramas, etc.

 If this is your jam, then read on.  I am going to make this blog into a place to talk about weird books, culture, and movies.  Eventually, I am going to review and rate books, movies, and ephemera on a scale of 1-5 in weirdness.

 Join me as I venture off into ramblings about strange things that were, strange things that are, and strange things yet to come…