Book: Deadly Night

Genre: Murder Mystery/Fantasy

Julia Rating: 10

Julia Comments: I finally am getting around to reviewing Deadly Night by Heather Graham as I promised for horror month.  Deadly Night is the first in The Flynn Brother’s Trilogy and I, for one, enjoyed it.  The book contains murder, suspense, mystery and the supernatural.  It’s one of those books where you don’t know if there really is a supernatural element in it until the end. 

The book starts with the three Flynn brothers (who are private detectives) inheriting a large estate in New Orleans from a long lost relative (Amelia).  The eldest brother, Aidan, has pursued a run-away in the area and finds an old bone.  He and his brothers bring the police in to investigate and then head out to take a look at their inheritance.

The Flynns don’t know it, but a young local lady named Kendall Montgomery took care of Amelia until the old woman’s death is at the house, reliving some of it’s ancient secrets in a dead woman’s diary. 

In a happenstance meeting, the Flynns run into Kendall at their new plantation.  They find they have mutual friends and end up meeting quite a lot.  From the moment the Flynns meet Kendall on, there is no rest around the plantation.  Ghostly apparitions appear, people disappear, construction occurs and a freeloader living in one of the slave’s quarters is discovered.  Also, Aidan Flynn cannot shake off a deep attraction for Kendall – and she for him. 

When all is said and done, murders and a murderer is discovered, old ghosts are laid to rest and construction is completed.  But not without a cost.

As I said, I really enjoyed the book and recommend it.  If you want to, buy it at Amazon by following this link

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!

Author: Joe Hill

Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural, Other…

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: This book of short stories is a fantastic piece of work by Joe Hill. And…(at least in the audio book) there’s a secret story in the back.

I’d say my favorite short that is in this compilation is Best New Horror, a story of a man who edits the volume Best New Horror each year. He gets a submission that quickens his blood, one that he simply must have. However, finding the author of the story proves to be difficult… and what the editor finds is unexpected and horrifying. I love it because of the ending, which I will not spoil, but it’s truly a must read.

My next favorite is an ultra short called Dead-Wood about ghost trees. It’s hard to explain, you’ll just have to read it… you can go to audible.com and hear that one for free – it’s the one that got me excited about buying this book.

Another great story is the last one – the one that is hidden much like a “secret song” that one used to find on CD’s. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but let’s just say it’s about a father and his typewriter.

The last story I will mention here is the one the book is named for, called 20th Century Ghost. About a girl who haunts a classic old theatre called the Rosebud. She was beautiful in life and makes for a lovely, shocking sight to all that see her.

I really recommend this book to anyone who loves ghost stories. As Christopher Golden says in his introduction, they are not all horror stories, but gems from an author who represents promise fulfilled.

Title: Blood Sucking Fiends

Author: Christopher Moore

Genre: Fantasy

Julia Rating: 9 (for humor)My Comments:
This book had me laughing my socks off. I read it while on vacation in Italy (on the plane, then in Rome between tours). I probably should have read Roman history or something instead, but this book was so darn funny! It’s about a girl named Jody who becomes a vampire because this really old vampire assults her and makes her one – a game he plays every once in a while. She has to find a way to survive – though the bad guy (the old vampire) doesn’t want her to. In the process she meets C. Thomas Flood (Tommy to his friends) and they hook up.

Christopher Moore has some wonderful and wacky characters in this book that are so much fun. Also, he describes San Fransisco like a pro – and since I’m from there, I love it.

The only negative thing I could say about this book as that the composition isn’t great and sometimes it’s hard to follow along. But, because it was so funny, I give it a nine.

The Author: Stephen King

Julia Rating: 6 out of 10

My Comments:
This was a decent novelette. It did get a little boring and sometimes I find Mr. King’s need to put a sex scene or something about sex in almost every one of his books annoying, especially when it’s not really applicable to the story. Also, this is kind of an “under siege” type of book, and it gets a little bit boring at points. The story keeps you going in true Stephen King style, however it’s a little slower than I’m used to.

The basic idea is that a young family in Maine are split up (father and son in the grocery store and mother at home) when a strange mist comes into town, bringing all sorts of terrible monsters along with it. No one knows where it came from, but it’s ripping their world apart literally and the father and son have to fight for survival. It’s well written (of course) and is gripping and interesting.

The ending was… different. I liked it, but it’s not the sort of ending I usually like. I don’t want to spoil it here, but if you’d like to comment and want a spoiler, I’ll give one to you.

A note on the movie: I have to put this in here. If you are interested in this story, DO NOT go see the movie. The movie is terrible. This applies to all those people who say “Oh, I’ll just go see the movie”. My boyfriend is that kind of guy and he hated it too. Just don’t do it. Life will go on.

Also, don’t judge this book by its movie. The book is about 4 trillion times better than the movie. AND, if you’ve seen the movie, the book doesn’t end that way. The ending of the movie sucked. The ending of the book was decent.

The Genre: Sci Fi/Fantasy (mostly Fantasy)

Julia Rating: 10 (out of a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest)

My Comments:
A fabulous compilation of short stories and poetry by a modern master.
I loved reading this compilation of Fantasy, Sci Fi and Supernatural stories by Neil Gaiman – he is one of my personal favorites.

A fun feature of this book is that with each story comes author commentary, which is great for writers and readers alike.
Writers constantly get asked the question, “Where do your ideas come from?”. This book is not only a great compilation of stories and poetry, but also delves into the answer to that question – at least as far as Neil Gaiman is concerned. Neil Gaiman’s commentary gives you a peak into his interesting, dark and somewhat twisted mind.

Joe’s book was an excellent novel, his characterization was fantastic and I honestly would love to hear/read more of his work.