It's Wednesday, so you know what the means. Reader Advisory class! Woo hoo!

This week all my little readers were given the task of reading something from the Horror genre. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a wussy reader when it comes to horror. Last year I took one for the team and read a book that scared the bejesus out of me. This time I cheated a bit and made sure I got something that wouldn't be quite so frightening, and as a special bonus for me it was a book that has been languishing in my TBR pile for freaking ever.

My book for this week was Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton. To vampires, Anita Blake is The Executioner. A professional animator (not the Disney kind) and vampire hunter, Anita spends a great deal of her time raising or killing the things that go bump in the night. Although she has no love for vampires, Anita finds herself investigating the murders of several vampires at the request (and arm twisting) of St. Louis's most powerful vampire. The first novel in the Anita Blake series introduces readers to an interesting world filled with vivid characters. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Anne Rice will be drawn to Hamilton's take on modern day vampires. This book is recommend to readers who enjoy a good vampire story, as well as anyone who enjoys reading urban fantasy. This book is a perfect selection for readers who want to try Horror, but aren't quite ready for more hardcore authors.

While reading this book I kept going back and forth on whether or not it could be classified as Horror. Nearly every genre guide I've consulted classifies Guilty Pleasures as Horror, it had a majority of characteristics that define a Horror novel, and yet I wasn't sure if I would call it Horror. Why? It didn't seem scary enough to me. Granted, I knew when I selected it that I was picking one of the wussier, but I still expected to find it somewhat frightening (especially since I am a big chicken). Truth be told, there was only one scene in the book that freaked me out and inspired several not so fun nightmares. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book and wants to read it, but I will give you a clue. It involved rats. Big, almost human sized, rats.

I just got the shivers typing that in.

So my big question for tonight will be a two-part question: How scary does a book have to be in order for it to be considered Horror? And to go along with that, how much does a reader's own fears or tolerance for frightening situations impact the success of novel as a Horror story to them?

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