The death of Gossip Girl as we know it...

by Brittany Geragotelis

There's a new book coming out later this year that's got me super excited! I mean, so excited that I could just DIE.

The book? Gossip Girl: Psycho Killer

photo credit: Poppy

No, this isn't a joke. Like other reimaginings of classics like, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Slayre and Little Vampire Women, the author who created the famed series Gossip Girl is taking her beloved UES darlings and turning them deadly. I for one am beyond psyched...I mean, would you look at the book cover? Is there anything cooler than that?

In a move that brings her books to a whole new level, Cecily von Ziegesar has taken the book which first introduced us to Blair Waldorf and Serena Van der Woodsen and given it a darker twist. Instead of backstabbing gossip, think actual backstabbing. As in beautiful, popular serial killers!

Now, I happen to have certain connections that have put a copy of the book into my hot little hands and can't wait to check it out. In the meantime, here's a summary of what you can expect:

Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep—sometimes with each other. It's a luxe life, but someone's got to live it...until they die.

So begins Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer, a reimagining of the groundbreaking first Gossip Girl novel, featuring all-new, hilariously grisly scenes and over-the-top gore, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author Cecily von Ziegasar.

Just as in the original story, Serena van der Woodsen returns from boarding school hoping to make amends with her BFF Blair Waldorf—things just haven't been the same since Nate Archibald came between them. But here's where our tale takes a dark turn: Serena decides that the only way for her to make things right with Blair is to eliminate Nate. If that means killing him, well, c'est la vie. The attempted murder doesn't go unnoticed by Blair, however, who isn't about to let Serena kill whoever she wants—not when there's Cyrus Rose and Chuck Bass and Titi Coates and everyone else who's ever irritated Blair to get rid of first...

American Psycho's Patrick Bateman has met his match in Manhattan's newest, most fabulous trendsetting serial killers, Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen.

Now this is some gossip, I'd love to hear about! What do you guys think? Pick it up or leave it on the shelf?

5x5,
B.

Was Peter Pan a murderer?

by Brittany Geragotelis

photo credit: Disney

Okay, okay, so maybe Peter Pan didn't kill any of the lost boys (imagine the story if he had—maybe a little Lord of the Flies meets The Hunger Games I suppose), but police are thinking his creator might have. Cops recently found the mummified corpses of two infants in the basement of an L.A. apartment building. The bodies, which were hidden in a trunk embossed with the initials JMB, were discovered wrapped up in newspapers from the '30s, alongside a membership to the Peter Pan Club in the name of Jean M. Barrie. The name of the Scottish author who penned Peter Pan? That would be James M. Barrie.

Coincidence or conspiracy?

Dealing with the death of children is never easy, but the fact that the same guy who invented the tale of the boy who refused to grow up might also be the one who prevented others to do the same is more than a little creepy. The police are investigating whether this was a crime or if the Peter Pan author was even involved at all. They're hoping that DNA testing and the clues left behind in the trunk will help investigators close this cold case.

But suppose they find that James Barrie did have something to do with the deaths of these two infants...will that change the way people view this beloved story? Would parents still choose to read this fairytale (if that's what it is) to their children, given its back story? Or would the sensationalism that our society seems to feed on send consumers flocking to the stores to pick up their copies? And in that case, how much longer would it be before someone wrote a tell-all entitled, The Peter Pan Murders?

Then again, history (and a few cursed authors) have already painted a much darker picture of Barrie, and Peter Pan still managed to make it past Disney's censors.

What do you think? Would a scandal like this hurt or help Barrie's sales?

5x5,
B.

House of Horrors—Would YOU Live There?

by Brittany Geragotelis

photo credit: Pocket Star

I recently read this article about how the house that inspired the book, The Amittyville Horror by Jay Anson, is up for sale. Now, it's not the same house that appeared in the movie version (that one's in Toms River, NJ), but this Long Island home was the site of some pretty gruesome stuff. Thirty-five years ago, a man named Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his family (six people in all), and after that, future residents of the house claimed there was some paranormal activity going on. Oh, and if you were wondering, the property only costs a measly 1.15 million...go ahead, make a bid. I dare you.

This got me thinking—I'm a big fan of ghost stories and fully believe that stuff like that exists. I've planned and taken several road trips to haunted places just hoping to see something. So, when I first read this story, I was like, "How cool would it be to own the Amittyville Horror house!"

But then I really started thinking about it. Would I really want to live in a place where so many people were brutally murdered? Even if you took away the idea of the house being haunted, wouldn't the vibes in that place be horrible? Would you really want to test fate? So, in the end, I'm not sure if the coolness of the place outweighs the bad mojo you could find there.

What would you do? Would you ever knowingly buy a place like the Amittyville House?

5x5,
B.