ORIGINAL Horrible Histories Book Tag

In honour of reaching 300 followers, I think it’s time to bring an idea that’s been brewing in the back of my head for months to fruition. So, with apologies for the basic graphics (I’m struggling to get my head around using Canva), allow me to introduce the Horrible Histories book tag!

As is only fitting, I’ll give you a bit of history on Horrible Histories first for the benefit of those who haven’t heard of it. Horrible Histories started out as a book series written by Terry Deary. Deary hated the way history was taught in schools: kids forced to learn boring sets of sanitised facts about kings, queens and other powerful people with all the interesting bits left out and nothing about how ordinary people lived, ate, had fun, buried their dead, went to the toilet, etc. So, he wrote the Horrible Histories books as an antidote to classroom history – history with all the gory parts left in.

Kids (and adults) loved it. The series became a British institution and has been turned into radio shows, films, plays and TV adaptations. My brother owned the full book collection when we were kids and we both loved reading them. The series had a hand in forming our love of history and likely played a big part in forming my morbid sense of humour.

The TV series this tag is based on is the BBC series that ran from 2009 to 2015 and is objectively the best version. Seriously, if you haven’t already, go and watch it!

Rules

• Link back to the original creator (The Corner of Laura) and link back to this page (otherwise, the original creator won’t get a notification).
• Thank whoever tagged you and link back to their post
• (Optional) Use the graphics and linked videos (or, if you’re a HH fan, swap them for some of your favourites!)
• (Optional) Tag 5 or more other people.

It tried really hard to emulate old childrens’ classic and be a Wizard of Oz meet Alice in Wonderland kind of book that it forgot to tell a good story. It didn’t help that this is kind of a book within a book and you probably need to have Middlegame next to you to pick up all the hints. I know I certainly didn’t and, as a result, I didn’t much enjoy this book as much as I’d hoped.

Long and twisty with lots of POVs and lots of plots going on in the background. It’s a marvel that Nahri can keep her head above water and little wonder that Ali keeps getting tangled up in them.

Scarecrows are creepy and it was a great decision to make them the monsters but I just couldn’t be more than slightly unnerved by this story. There was a lot of potential to be scary but it just wasn’t realised.

The title says it all really. It’s full of answers to the most out-there questions about death that you probably never even thought of asking like ‘what happens to the body if an astronaut dies in space’ or ‘does the seller have to tell you if someone died in the house you’re buying’ or ‘will my cat eat my eyeballs if I die suddenly at home’.

Poor Alyce. She wasn’t bad. Everyone just made assumptions when they saw the result of her actions out of context. You can’t say she didn’t try to make things better for herself, though.

Weird is definitely the word in this world but the weird twist at the moment when the book throws history out the window takes the cake!

I could binge these books all day! I cannot get enough of Nick and Charlie’s love story!

Text prompts:

• Shouty Man: A book that tried way too hard
• Bob Hale: A long twisty tale
• Scary Stories: A horror book that didn’t scare you
• Stupid Deaths: A book with lots of black humour
• Historical Paramedics: A character who has good intentions but makes this worse
• Historical Crime Squad: A book with a weird twist
• The Songs: A seriously addictive book/series

I tag:

• Elli @ AceReader
• Jess @ Jessticulates
• Lucy @ Bookworm Blogger
• Sabrina @ Notes from a Paper Plane Nomad
• Chelsea @ Your Bookish Friend
• Zezee@ Zezee With Books
• Ross @ The Royal Bookshelf
• Elaine Howlin
• Bookfarager
• The Orangutan Librarian
• And you if you love history with the gory/interesting parts left in!

I hope to see you again very soon.