The Girl Next Door/ Jack Ketchum/ 370 pages/ Horror

David lives in what seems to be a happy neighborhood to grow up in. Nice homes, lots of boys in the area his age to hang out with. However, happy home life is not the case for Meg and her sister Susan. Their family was in a car accident causing the death of both their parents and they must move in with their aunt Ruth and her sons. Shortly after arriving to their new home they are imprisoned in the basement where Ruth allows the neighborhood boys to torture Meg and if Meg doesn't behave Susan is punished.
This book was extremely disturbing and grusome. If you are sensitive to that I do not recommend you picking this book up.
I think this book was very well written and accomplished what it intended to do. Jack Ketchum wanted his readers to be uncomfortable reading this in order to make an impact. It was an excellent example for us to listen to those around us who come to us for help and for us to get help fast. If David went to get help from the beginning he could have stopped things before they escalated to the point they got. Because of the content, I didn't have an enjoyable time reading this but at the same time I could not stop reading and I felt like it is a good story that makes an impact and sticks with you. One that I won't be forgetting anytime soon with lessons I want to keep. If you're looking for something disturbing and horrific for Halloween-time you may want to try this.

Firestarter/ Stephen King/ 564 pages/ Horror

          Andy and Vicky were participating in a drug trial for extra cash when the two met and fell in love. The trial they were volunteering for was being held by a government agency called The Shop. Soon the two discover their new abilities and are on the run from The Shop. They end up having a daughter named Charlie who shows to also have her own powers- the ability to create fires with her mind. When The Shop learns of Charlie they have even more motivation to track down the family and use her strength for themselves.
           I was really excited to read this novel, it sounded like such a fun story with a chase and super powers! However, I did not like this book. I think the story was good but the way it was formatted was odd. It was told in flashbacks back and forth to present time for the characters. If the story was told normally beginning to end without the jumping I would have liked it a lot more. There also was quite a few slow parts that easily could have been cut or condensed which pains me to say because I love Stephen King's writing and have never wanted less from any of his books so far. This one though was a bit dull at parts. If I had gone in with not as high expectations I would have enjoyed it more but because this is a more popular title I was expecting a lot and it didn't deliver all that I wanted. It also is labeled everywhere as horror but I didn't feel scared at all. Maybe that is just different for everyone, but to me there just wasn't anything that happened to cause anyone to be nervous or fearful for the characters.  Even though the timeline and plot disappointed me a bit, the characters didn't. I thought the characters had great personalities and it was easy to see their struggles and what they were feeling throughout. Especially Andy McGee, if anyone watches Stranger Things he reminded me so much of Jim Hopper who is one of my favorite characters from that show.  Over all I would give the book a 3 out of 5 stars, it was entertaining just wasn't all I was hoping for.

Christine/ Stephen King/ 640 pages/ Horror

            When Arnie and his friend Dennis are driving home one day they see a '58 Plymouth Fury for sale. Once Arnie sees the car he is in love and has to have it. Dennis (and everyone else in Arnie's life) doesn't have a good feeling about the car and tries to convince him otherwise but Arnie buys the car anyway. As time goes on Arnie begins changing. He's rude and lashes out more easily. He is constantly spending time with his car, Christine, "fixing her up" and although the car is improving no one ever sees him working on it. Arnie's mood continues to decline and as this goes on, many people that circle his life are being found dead.
           This was one of my favorite Stephen King's so far. I thought the characters were very well crafted and the town felt so real and easy to picture. This was one that I kinda rolled my eyes at thinking there was no way it was going to be scary, but it proved me wrong. There were times where I had to put the book down and step away because of gore or even just the descriptions of Christine and how alive she felt. Definitely left me spooked to walk across a parking lot alone at night. 

Thinner/ Richard Bachman/ 423 pages/ Horror

             Billy Halleck is living a good life as a wealthy family man. He has all that he wants in life plus some extra weight that he is constantly being warned about. One day while out driving he accidentally hits a woman who was jaywalking. Because of Billy's connections he gets off without punishment for the accident. The woman's magical father doesn't care for this and curses Billy. Soon Halleck is rapidly losing weight no matter how much he eats and begins to worry for his life.
              After reading the description for this one I wasn't really sure about it. Seemed like one I would start and lose interest in but I couldn't stop reading this book. I had to know how he was going to get his weight loss to stop and even though this doesn't sound like a scary idea for a novel it really was gripping. I loved the ending because it was not what I was expecting at all. Definitely a book that had me holding my breathe at times.

Rose Madder/ Stephen King/ 608 pages/ Horror

          After fourteen years in an abusive marriage, Rose Daniels leaves her husband, Norman. Her first step is to find a place he won't find her and start her life over again.
          Rose meets new people, finds friends, gets her own apartment, a job, and meets a new guy, Bill. Even with all this that she has built for herself she still is nervous of Norman finding her. He is a cop and is very good at hunting down who he is looking for. As we follow Rose and her new life we also follow Norman and see his mind as he mentally unravels while searching for his wife.
           This novel had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was an incredible novel with a terrible villain that had me checking over my shoulder while reading. The fantasy in the novel is a little out there but still interesting. Before starting, I was thinking this was going to be boring since it's not like other King novels but I was very wrong. I would recommend looking into this one if you are looking for a mystery/horror novel to try.

Asylum/Madeleine Roux/313 pages

                                                                 Asylum is the story of three young adults who have enrolled
                                                            in a 6 week summer school before college that takes place in an
                                                            institution with dormitories that are attached in what use to be
                                                            part of a sanitarium.  Daniel is the main character.  He is a
                                                            typical teen with worries about fitting in and having friends but
                                                            after arriving at the asylum also questions his sanity--so many
                                                            bad dreams, de ja vu, disappearing emails and sleepless nights.
                                                            Abby is the pretty, artistic one who pairs up with Dan but seems
                                                            to have past ties to the asylum--maybe an aunt was once
                                                            confined there?  Jordan is the tad rebellious one--just
                                                            announcing that he is gay and then not going to the summer
                                                            school his parents arranged for him!  Sometimes our trio are exploring off limit places and find things they shouldn't--other times they are trying to be good and doing exactly what is expected of them and weird things just happen.
     This is a very unnerving story.  There are mind games at play that make it hard to know what is real--and just when you think you have it all figured out, there is one more clue that shows you that you really have NOTHING figured out!
     Good story.

Anna Dressed In Blood/Kendare Blake/316 pages

                                                               Anna Dressed in Blood is a young adult horror story that deals
                                                          with Cas Lowood's quest to seek out the ghost Anna Dressed in
                                                          Blood and (using the anthem that was his father's before him)
                                                          dispatch her to the afterworld.  Anna has murdered many, many
                                                          people--any that wandered into her house--and needs to be
                                                          stopped.  Of course, she doesn't go willingly and during the
                                                          process Cas learns Anna's story and the mission changes to one
                                                          of "saving" Anna.  Then trouble shows up in the form of a flesh
                                                          eating ghost that killed Cas' father!
                                                               This is a great YA book.  I loved all of the characters and the
                                                          situations were scary but somehow believable!  There is love,
                                                          suspense, mystery and fun in this story and you can't wait to see
                                                          how it is going to end!

Psycho/ Robert Bloch/ 208/ Horror

I think just about everyone recognizes this book. I am a huge chicken when it comes to horror but, after watching the movie and not thinking it was too bad I decided to read the book.  It was a very quick read and I enjoyed it, although I did find it a little bit dated in regards to the handling of the mental health. The characters were pretty stereotypical, and the relationship between Mary and Sam seemed like just a relationship of convenience. Overall I didn't think it was that scary, definitely creepy, and I would not recommend reading it while you are home alone.

It / Stephen King / 1,138 pages

It is a 1986 horror novel by Stephen King, and is one of his longest books written to date.

Georgie Denbrough was always afraid of what could be lurking in the basement, but when he was playing outside after a heavy rain in Derry, Maine in 1957, he learned too late that It was not in the basement, but in the sewer drain; he was killed as a result.  27 years later, in 1985, after a man named Adrian Mellon was said to be killed by something that looked like a clown, a resident of Derry calls his childhood friends-- "The Losers"-- to come to Derry to destroy It once and for all. Jumping between summer of 1958 and 1985, The Losers have to deal with the psychological tortures It puts them through, a psychopathic childhood bully and escaped convict, and the reasons they forgot EVERYTHING that happened in Derry, including the very existence of Derry.

There were a lot of ups and downs in this book, and I mean a lot; therefore, I'll start with a few of the downs.

Downs:
First off, I wasn't agreeing with Richie's character voices, as a lot of them come off as racist.  I mean, okay, one could argue that It was 1958 when nothing was politically correct, but still.

Another flaw is that the book sometimes flows away to another story almost irrelevant to the plot, mostly backstories to minor characters, but on the flip side...


Ups:
... they all manage to connect to the same problem that is It.

Okay, as someone who usually listens to audio books, I don't really review the narrators, but I'm going to say It right now: Stephen Weber's performance was phenomenal.  I'm serious.  I haven't heard a narrator that really kept me at the edge of my seat since, well, ever (I guess it's my first time).  As for the voices, he gives a distinct voice to each character (especially "Stuttering Bill" Denbrough) that would make Jim Dale proud.

Also, this book isn't really about a scary clown--if I could describe this story using a pie chart, only 9% of It would show the clown.  I'd say a more appropriate definition is that It's about one's worst nightmares, whatever It may be, coming to life to kill them.

Another part that I had both ups and downs about was the ending.  It became a lot more supernatural than just something with various forms, and I almost asked myself, "This is the same book, right?"  But that's kind of the fun of It.

Overall, I'd recommend It to anyone who either has the time to read the whole book or has the time to listen to all 35 CDs (I promise, the latter is worth It).

Blue Exorcist Vol. 1 / Kazue Kato (Japanese author) / 202 pages / Color in the title

Rin Okumura was always a rebellious orphan, but when he’s jumped by a gang, a blue flame he never knew he could use reveals that not only is he half-human-half-demon, but he is the illegitimate son of the Devil himself.  After his father kills someone close to him, Rin vows to get his revenge on him and joins the True Cross Academy to become an exorcist.  His teacher is his more intelligent, somehow-whole-human, younger twin brother Yukio; hilarity ensues (for the most part).  The first demon they had to exorcise was within a girl’s legs, making her immobile, because it had tricked her into thinking it was her grandmother’s spirit.  This girl, Shiemi, joins the True Cross Academy alongside Rin thanks to a kind conversation they had with each other.

Another recommendation I got, and my first impression was more towards Miss Kato’s illustrations and the careful detail she put into them, especially with the architecture—that alone is worth a peek into the book.

The Ritual/Adam Nevill/418 pages/Movie Adaptation

I stumbled upon this book quite by accident and was incredibly happy to hear that Netflix had recently released a film adaptation.  The Ritual is a horror romp through the woods with a distinct Blair Witch feel.  Four former classmates, Hutch, Dom, Phil, and Luke, reunite for a hiking holiday among the Arctic Circle forests in Sweden.  When Dom twists his knee in a fall, their leader Hutch makes a last minute decision to cut through a swath of virgin forest.  Upon entering the woods, the hikers are greeted with a gruesome spectacle, as the remains of an animal are hung up like a welcome banner in the trees.  Undeterred, the men shuffle past and into a nightmare, where a creature, seemingly out of some dark fairytale, relentlessly stalks the small band.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite some major flaws.  For one, the story is told in the third person and for the first chapter or so, you are lead to believe that Hutch is the main character, but then there is an abrupt shift to focus on Luke, which continues throughout the duration of the narrative.  There is a tension between Luke, who is perceived as a freespirit, and the rest of the group, who have all led more traditional lives.  It's one-dimensional at best, but does fuel Luke's development into a pure lone wolf character and his determination to survive.  The reader is also stuck with Luke, every step of the way.  Confession time:  I am used to the break-neck pace of young adult novels, where no one stops to dwell for more than a sentence or two on internal monologue or setting description.  Nevill will make you experience the creeping fear, mounting tension, and physical discomfort right along with the main characters and it never lets up for a moment.  Ultimately, this is the story's saving grace as you are never left to ponder Luke's motivations or thrown any cheap devices to reveal more information than is necessary.

Well worth the read for the horror genre.  Now excuse me, while I go scare myself senseless and watch the Netflix adaptation.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane/ Neil Gaiman / 181 pgs

I enjoyed my second foray into horror much better than my first. This is an interesting little tale about a boy who lives on the edges of a sometimes magical, sometimes dark fantasy world that is unknown to almost everyone else around him. He is befriended by a neighbor girl a few years older than him and becomes unwittingly drawn into her family's fight to contain some dark creatures that are threatening the human world. Things get pretty tense as our narrator (whose name I don't think we ever learn) is attacked from all sides. While I thought this story was well done and entertaining, I found myself wishing the narrator was a few years older. For one thing, he seemed to know an awful lot for a 7-year-old, including the word "chitinous." But more than that, I couldn't stop feeling doubly horrified that all these terrible things were happening to such a young child. It was easier for me to imagine him being ten instead of seven, and that made me feel mildly better:-)

Heart-Shaped Box/ Joe Hill / 376 pgs

I decided to step outside my usual reading genres and give horror a try. I've always loved horror movies but never really got into reading the books. A colleague recommended this one. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

Jude Coyne is an aging rock star, sort of an Ozzy Osbourne-type, who decides to buy a ghost off an eBay-like site to add to his occult collection. I thought this was a fantastic concept for a book but the execution just didn't work for me. I didn't care for Jude and while I could see that the ghost elements "should" be creepy and scary, they just weren't for me. I spent the first 2/3 of the book kind of wishing the vindictive ghost would get Jude, even though I wasn't terribly invested in the ghost either. The latter half held my interest a little better but I found the ending--and the fact that those closest to Jude paid more of a price than he did--unsatisfying. I'm told many, many people love this book, however, so others may enjoy this more than I did.

A Head Full of Ghosts / Paul Tremblay / 286 pgs.

A creepy and engrossing novel about a preteen named Marjorie Barrett, who begins to show signs of schizophrenia.  As her outbursts become more bizarre and frequent, Marjorie's father turns to a Catholic priest who suggests performing an exorcism.  At the same time a reality television show gets wind of this story and approaches the family in order to document it all.

Is Marjorie really crazy? possessed? or just looking for attention?  It's hard to parse out what really happened with this girl and her family.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War / Max Brooks / 342 pgs

This is the second time I've read World War Z, although this time I listened to the Audie-award winning multi-cast audio book. The first time I read the book, I was taking a Reader's Advisory class in 2012 at Mizzou and needed to read two horror books, a genre of which I'm not terribly fond. However, a classmate recommended the book and I LOVED it. It started a bit of an obsession I still have with zombie books. Since then, I've read Rot and Ruin, Warm Bodies, The Girl With all the Gifts, and probably a couple of others I can't remember.

World War Z is set up as a series of interviews that take place a decade after the end of a decade-long war with the undead. The main character is writing a book that will present the human element to the story of the war. He interviews the doctor who first learns of a new sickness when treating a patient in rural China, an opportunistic pharmaceutical marketer who sells tons of placebos during the early days of the infection, an astronaut who spent most of the war on an orbiting space station, a helicopter pilot who was caught in the middle of invested marshes of Louisiana, the retired politician living as a farmer in Vermont, a Japanese computer nerd turned samurai, a South African experienced in making tough emergency contingency plans, a Russian soldier, and a whole lot more. In the audio book, these characters are played some extremely recognizable names like Jeri Ryan, Mark Hamill, Simon Pegg, F. Murray Abraham, Alfred Molina, Nathan Fillion, Martin Scorsese, Bruce Boxleitner, and Rob Reiner.

I am fascinated with the world-building that Max Brooks created in this book, especially how the geo-politics changed. Countries change names and change governments. Since it was published ten years ago, there are a few things that you will encounter that are a bit dated (such as a mention of a still-living Nelson Mandela), but it's still a really great book and I highly recommend it.

The Girl With All the Gifts / M.R. Carey / 407 pgs.

By far, this is the best book I've read this year. I think it outshines all of the books I read in 2015 too. I went into this unsure exactly what the book is about, but within the first couple of chapters, the big reveal occurs. Nonetheless, I think I will keep the reveal a secret and do what I can to talk about the book without giving it away.


First off, this is a dystopia. The book takes place in the near future after a cataclysmic event occurred about twenty years before. It is about a 10-year old girl, Melanie, who lives in a cell and waits to be collected every day to be taken to school. The soldiers strap her to a wheelchair while Sgt. Parks keeps a gun trained on her. Despite this odd arrangement, Dr. Caldwell calls her a genius. Melanie loves one thing very much, her teacher, Miss Justineau. What Melanie, or anyone else, doesn't know is that she, Sgt. Parks, Dr. Caldwell, and Miss Justineau will all have to band together and run for their lives.


The story is so rich and the author did an amazing job with the scientific research that was needed to complete the book. The genre he wrote in has already been done to death, but he brought something very new and unique. Very highly recommend!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies / Seth Grahame-Smith / 319 pgs.

I picked up the audiobook for my #ReadHarder challenge to read a horror book. Horror is not usually my genre, although I find I really like books about zombies (World War Z, Rot and Ruin, Warm Bodies). Who would ever think? You have no idea how much I enjoyed listening to the audiobook of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! I highly recommend it! The narrator does all the voices so very well with her highly posh 19th century British accent.


The movie is coming out in just a few days and I definitely plan to see it. If you haven't seen a trailer yet, or figured from the title alone, the author took Jane Austen's classic and added about 30% more content, all related to zombies and the training to kill them. All of the Bennet sisters have been trained in the best dojos in China on the art of killing and the preservation of honor. Those much more wealthy than the Bennets (like Mr. Darcy) have received their training in Japan. Together, in Hertfordshire, they battle the undead, as well as try to figure out love and romance, in Edwardian England.

Wytches (vol. 1) / Scott Synder / 200 pgs.

This graphic novel is everything you are looking for in a Horror comic.  It's bloody, cryptic, creepily atmospheric, and leaving the read with a sense that something really bad is going to occur at any

moment.

The story is about a family that had some untold past tragedy and are moving to a remote, little town in order to start over.  Of course, this pleasantville-esque town holds secrets and a sordid past.  There is something in the woods, and it needs to be fed....

The Burning Air / Erin Kelly / 321pgs / Thriller / Horror

  I was drawn to this book by a review I had found on a blog. The author was talking about books that stayed with him long after it had been finished. This guy was right. Burning Air creeped me out so much that I can't remember it without a shudder.

  The MacBride family is a well-positioned part of Saxby University. They are respected within the community and people look to them for leadership. Then there is Darcy, a small awkward boy who has been tutored by his mother in the hopes of making it into the University on scholarship. Their future depends upon him. Then the unthinkable happens: Darcy isn't given the scholarship and his life is changed forever.
  The book is divided into several narrators. We have Lydia, Sophie, Darcy, Rowan who bring a different view point to the events. What happens to one character is viewed differently by others and interpreted yet again by someone else. This brings the horror of what Darcy does and plans to do to a new level of uncomfortableness. Darcy dedicates his life to bringing the MacBride family to his brand of justice and he goes about it with compelling malevolence.
  There were several times I wanted to stop reading. I was completely unnerved by what Darcy did with his life. He was totally unemotional and amoral about everything. All his energy was directed toward the completion of his goal. A totally unsympathetic character. Anyone who wants a read that needs all the lights on for several days this is it.

6 Degrees of Reading: The House at Midnight by Lucie Whitehouse, The Good Girl by Mary Kubica, The Silent Wife by A.S. Harrison.

Interview with the Vampire / Anne Rice / 368 pages / November Challenge (horror)

This first novel of Rice's Vampire Chronicles presents the vampire Louis telling his story to the skeptical human reporter Daniel.  The tale winds its way through New Orleans and Europe, from Louis's vampire birth in 1791 until the early 20th century.  The book hints at many sexual themes, but none of the relationships are explicitly described.  Louis tells of attractions to two older male vampires, a human female, and even a 5-year-old turned vampire by his maker, Lestat.  The novel primarily chronicles events in Louis's vampiric life and his feelings about those events.  He begins as a young man (he is 25 when he is turned) grieving for his brother.  He is excited by the new perceptions he gains as a vampire and seeks out all the beauty of humanity, taking in music and art and literature.  As he finds it necessary to kill humans rather than animals, he becomes more and more disturbed by his vampiric nature and begins to believe he is forever damned.  The novel inspired the 1994 film, Interview with the Vampire, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.  It can be surmised that Stephenie Meyer has drawn on Vampire Chronicles for her Twilight series; many of the descriptions of vampires' skin and perceptions and the theme of guilt in some vampires over taking human life are similar.  The next book in the series is The Vampire Lestat.