Book News and Reviews

Author: Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Book: Locke and Key - Welcome to Lovecraft

Genre: Graphic Novel/Fantasy

Julia Rating: 10

Comments:  I have always liked comics - but the graphic novel is pretty new to me.  I am a fan of Joe Hill and I bought this novel because of the enjoyment of his previous books.

I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the character development and the realism of the novel. It starts out introducing the characters, then progresses to a life-changing incident that causes the Locke family to move to Keyhouse in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. (A nod to the horror genius HP Lovecraft? I think so.) Anyway, Keyhouse has its own secrets, one upon which Bode, the youngest of the Locke family, stumbles.  

Welcome to Lovecraft is the first of the Locke and Key series, and I can’t wait to read the next in the series.  I highly recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy and isn’t too disturbed by graphic violence (think Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box or Scott Sigler’s Infected). 

Sorry I haven’t posted this month.  Last month’s Horror Month really burnt me out. Now it’s Nanowrimo and my life has been so crazy, I’ve hardly gotten any actual writing done. There’s more about that on my other blog.

All things must pass, however, and I’m getting my blogging routine in.  You can look forward to a new review this weekend and at least one review per week after this.  Thanks for sticking by me and following my blog!  Keep the comments coming and let me know if there’s anything you think I should be reviewing.

Author: Neil Gaiman

Book: The Graveyard Book

Genre: Supernatural/Horror/YA

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: Neil Gaiman’s newest book - The Graveyard Book - is considered to be for children, but I beg to differ.  The main character - who’s name is Nobody - grows up during the duration of the book, but I think that’s the only thing that makes it a YA book. 

Nobody Owens (so named because he is “nobody but himself”) has been raised in a graveyard by ghosts.  His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Owens and his guardian is a mysterious creature of the night named Silas.  When Silas has to travel, the werewolf Miss Lupescu takes care of Nobody. 

During his life he has many adventures of which most children wouldn’t even dream.  He run into goblins, watches ancient traditions reenacted and has a man hunting him for unknown reasons.  It’s an exciting, fun and adventurous book.  I hope Neil Gaiman makes more of a series out of it, but I kind of doubt he will.  I know I want to read more about Nobody!

Hey it’s Halloween!  Yay!  If I had thought about it, I would have made the “Happy Halloween” post the 100th and final one for Horror Month. But, I didn’t and now we’re on post 102. Oh well.

So far, we’ve been through some great books, some awesome and groundbreaking authors. I wanted to take a breather to say happy Halloween and thank you for following me on my journey through a horrific October.

Now, as a word of apology, I couldn’t read the last two books on my list in time. The first one was World War Z by Max Brooks. I mentioned in my Horror Month postthat I am deathly afraid of zombies. I tried reading this book - I really did - but the first night I read it I had about 3 hours of sleep due to all the zombie nightmares. So, I put it down in favor of a good night sleep. My boyfriend has taken it up (after all the books I recommend, he takes up the one I can’t even read. Men.) and says it’s really good.

The second book is Deadly Night by Heather Graham. I’m in the middle of reading it, but I just won’t be able to finish it in time.

Since I’ve been bad and read a book I found much more exciting and desirable early on in the month, my Halloween book review will be the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Look forward to it in my next post!

Author: Laurell K. Hamilton

Book: Strange Candy

Genre: Horror/Fantasy/Sci Fi

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: I really bit off more than I could chew here.  When choosing books, I thought, “Hey, it’s a book of short stories - let’s shake things up”.  I had never read Laurell Hamilton before and I didn’t know what a fantastic writer she was. 

Strange Candyreally is, well, strange.  But it really contains candy for the imagination.  I truly loved this book.  There are Anita Blake shorts, a story set in Anita’s world, two stories of Sidra Ironfist, along with a horrific sci fi story and several other gems. 

From this book I’ll be checking out the Anita Blake series.  I’m really excited.

 Author: Stephen King

Book: Duma Key

Genre: Horror

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: As you can tell, I am a Stephen King fan.  I believe that Duma Key is the most recent King novel and I loved it.  It was a slow starter, but I think it was worth it.  There is tons of foreshadowing in this one, it was incredibly suspenseful… making you wonder who was going to die and when through the majority of the book.  

There were factors of Carrie in this one - not just that it’s about a telepathic-type story.  Throughout Carrie there are newspaper articles, but throughout this book there are emails interspersed.

The story is about a man named Edgar Freemantle - a construction executive/millionaire - who suffers a traumatic brain injury when his truck is crushed by a defunct tractor.  He becomes estranged from his wife and, under direction from his psychologist, moves to Duma Key in Florida.  There he discovers a painting ability he never knew he had.  As the ability grows, things start happening - both on the Key and off that make Edgar believe he can paint things into existance. 

Little does he know - there is a force on the Key that becomes more powerful the more he develops his ability… and that’s all I’m going to tell you. 

If you want to read Duma Key, buy it off my website - It’ll send you directly to Amazon, but I will get a little commission off of your purchase.

Author: Robin Cook

Book: Acceptable Risk

Genre: Medical Thriller/Horror

Julia Rating: 8

Comments: Acceptable Risk is my first Robin Cook novel. He writes medical thrillers about truely terrifying medical situations, which could actually happen.  That is what Acceptable Risk is about.  A medical doctor (Edward) decides to create a new mind-altering drug from a mold found in the basement at his girlfriend’s (Kim) ancestor’s home.  Kim’s ancestor was declared a witch (named Elizabeth) during the Salem witch trials and there appeared to be irrefutable evidence that she was, in fact, a witch. 

While Edward goes ahead with his research on the drug, Kim finds out more and more disturbing things about Elizabeth.  Kim thinks some of the things Elizabeth did was because of the mold which she was eating in her food.  Then, Edward decides to take the drugs himself to test efficacity.  It seems to work, but a series of attacks in the neighborhood make one wonder - are there acceptable risks to the new wonder drug?  If so, how acceptable are they?

I really liked the story, but I think it started out far too slow, there was too much explaining and the dialog was strained.  But, the book dragged me along and made me want to know what was going on.  So, all in all it was a decent thriller.

Also, I found this book has been made into a movie.  If anyone has seen the movie, let me know if it’s any good.

Author:Mary Roach

Book: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Genre: NonFiction

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: It’s a month of firsts! I rarely read nonfiction, and if I do it’s always about something I’m actually studying for a reason. Never have I read an entire book of nonfiction for no reason but to read it. I’m glad that out of all the nonfiction books I could have read, I chose Stiff. 

Mary Roach is pure genius.  She breaths new life into the macabre and often dry subject of cadavers (pun intended).  I’ve never been interested in dead bodies beyond murder mysteries and CSI, but now I’m blurting out facts at inopportune moments constantly. Thanks Mary!  LOL

Seriously though, Stiff is the book of facts about cadavers you never knew you wanted to know.  I highly recommend it.

If you want to buy Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, why not buy it on Amazon through my blog? I don’t get paid for reviewing books, so help me by buying books from my site - once you’ve read them I’d love to know what you think!
 

Author: Dean Koontz

Book: The Darkest Evening of the Year

Genre: Horror/Suspense/Thriller

Julia Rating: 9

Comments: I have to make an admission to start out with. I’ve never read Dean Koontz before horror month, so if I am missing some kind of a theme (aside from an affinity for golden retrievers) that is obvious to his long-time readers, please let me know.

I really liked The Darkest Evening of the Year, but from the beginning to about half way through it reminded me of an evaluation my boyfriend gave one of my short stories: “You got confused there in the middle, but you made it in the end”.  At the beginning of this book, Koontz introduces several major characters: the mysterious but lovable Amy Redwing, the boyfriend - Brian McCarthy, Nickie the golden retriever and a mysterious person introduced as Moongirl.  It takes a while for you to realize that they all have something to do with each other.  Maybe I’m just slow - and I don’t think I am - but the story didn’t delineate what was important and what wasn’t at the beginning.

Later in the book you find Amy Redwing has a history.  She currently saves golden retrievers, but she once was a young orphan raised by Catholics and has even had a relationship  with a man before Brian - the boyfriend.  Boyfriend Brian also has baggage, and once that is explained, the connections make sense.  Nickie the golden retriever also seems to have a history - supernatural though it is.

I think the other problem I had with this book is that Moongirl is such a cruel b**** that I could hardly read the sections with her.  You just want to take a knife to her and save everyone else the trouble.  That’s a good thing, of course, because it means Mr. Koontz did fantastic characterization and made a true villain, but it was hard to read.

All in all I recommend The Darkest Evening of the Year. If you’d like to purchase The book through Amazon, buy it here, via my blog. Since I don’t get paid to do this, each purchase from Amazon helps me spend more time reviewing books for you!

Before I start my little blurb about Howard Phillips Lovecraft I wanted to apologize for being absent and not completing out my week of author reviews last week.  I had an issue with my shoulder and couldn’t type for a couple days, then was super backlogged.  So, sorry.

So now, to H.P. Lovecraft.  I know that he is one of the premier men of weird fiction (which includes horror, sci fi and fantasy), and Stephen King even said he is “the Twentieth Century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale”.  However, I have not found an H.P. Lovecraft story that really struck me as frightening or anything but… well… weird. However, I found an H.P. Lovecraft spin-off that I really enjoyed.

So, unfortunately I don’t have any recommendations on this one.  He’s a very interesting writer and I’ve actually found his bio to be more interesting than the stories he wrote, but that’s just me.