Between the Covers - Book Review #4

This week's book review is brought to you by this cute, cuddly cat from The Dallas World Aquarium. I've got three picks for you.

1) I discovered Valerie Laken at my local library's fundraiser book sale. When I read she teaches at the university where I started graduate school, my interest was piqued. Dream House, her debut novel, started out relatively slow. If you're willing to stick with the story, the plot does pick up after about four chapters. Its cover blurb is misleading. I thought I was purchasing a ghost story, but it wasn't much of one. It was a great study in character development, though. The writing is good, but honestly, after reading it and putting it aside, the story hasn't stayed with me the way good ones do. Dream House follows a young couple through their troubled marriage and renovation of a house once owned by a family with a dark history of domestic violence. After being released from prison, a mysterious man befriends Kate, the woman of the house, and offers to help her renovate, but he has a secret himself. He used to live there and he knows what happened the night that tore his family apart forever. I'd say this book is worth a vacation read, but don't expect any gothic grandness, paranormal experiences, or a seriously profound ending.

2) Teeth: Vampire Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling was better than Dream House. This young adult collection of tales entertained me. A few stories stuck with me well past when I closed the cover. Genevieve Valentine's Things to Know About Being Dead was a lovely take on Asian vampires. I truly enjoyed the female character in Christopher Barzak's Gap Year, struggling with the coming of age debacle after high school. Delia Sherman delivered a unique perspective from a family of circus performers and lovely collection of cats, my very favorite story in the anthology. And Tanith Lee's Why Light? proved to be a great love story. I recommend this one for all ages and I've been introduced a new author, so thank you kindly, Ms. Datlow and Ms. Windling.

3) Then I read Patricia Cornwell's From Potter's Field, a Kay Scarpetta novel that did not disappoint. I love the Kay Scarpetta series because she's a strong female character who doesn't wimp out for love, sticks to her principles, and works well under pressure. Also, it helps that the other characters are interesting and the subplots aren't boring either. The murders never fail to entertain with their details too. This one deals with the case of a young woman found naked and frozen, propped up beside a fountain in a New York park during the holidays. Scarpetta is on the hunt for the sadistic Temple Gault, a character her readers are very familiar with by now, one that's eluded and traumatized her family, friends, and coworkers, leaving a trail of bodies behind him to shame Hannibal Lector. Will she catch him this time? Read and find out.

As always, happy reading and happy writing to all!

Between the Covers - Book Review #3

The book gods smiled on me this week. I have three books to share with you and no bad reviews.

1) Emma Bull's Finder is a wonderful YA novel set in Bordertown, the land originally created by Terri Windling. (Bordertown is the town between Fairy and our world where humans, elves, and half-bloods exist.) Orient is a finder with a secret. He came to Bordertown after committing a terrible crime in our world. Now he's been commissioned with his friend, Tinker, to find the person who is selling a dangerous drug to humans. The drug "supposedly" will turn a human into a TrueBlood so they can cross the border into Fairy, but in reality, people are dying terrible deaths. This book is filled with wonderful, quirky characters and moves fast. I recommend it.

2) Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner promises to entertain young adults and adults alike. Her take on the world of the Fae and the war between humans and faeries is original and creative. In the town where Liza lives, humans fear magic after The War. Plants and trees left behind by the Fae attack and kill without warning, but in another town, humans have learned that magic is a gift that can be controlled. When Liza's magical talents begin to manifest, she knows she must run away from home before her father kills her like her baby sister. She discovers an entire town filled with people with magical abilities and the secret of what really happened to her mother, a dark secret that will lead her to St. Louis, Missouri and through The Arch into the destroyed world of Faerie. It's been a long time since I've read such an inventive book about Faerie. You will not be disappointed with this one.

3) Tom Piccirilli's The Deceased is brilliantly written. Where other authors use gore simply for shock value, Piccirilli weaves a visceral tale of the gothic and supernatural. It's a whole new animal. Author Jacob Maelstrom returns to his childhood home where ten years ago his sister beheaded his entire family with an axe. Jacob hid in his closet for three days before anyone found him, but he doesn't consider himself a survivor. Haunted by the memories of that night and wondering what happened to his family's heads, as they were never found, Jacob returns to the scene of the grisly murders in hopes of coming to grips with his violent past, but will he cope with the secrets he uncovers? I cannot say enough good things about this novel. It's a must-read for any horror fan. Beautifully written and very emotionally gripping, you have to get this book.

Between the Covers - Book Review #2

Today's book reviews are brought to you by the late Tatsu, my beloved bearded dragon and fashion model of many lizard harnesses. In the spirit of Halloween, I pulled out his wizard pic, one of my favorites. Miss you little man.

I have three picks for you today: John Connolly's The Gates, Sara Rosett's Mimosas, Mischief, and Murder, and Derek Armstrong's Madicine. Don't be scared! The Bad Book Fairy didn't make a visit to my house this week. They're all BOO-tifully written. Mwahaha!

1) The Gates is the perfect Halloween book. John Connolly's writing is reminiscent of the snarky, intelligent humor of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Samuel Johnson and his dachsund, Boswell decide to get a head start on trick-or-treating. At 666 Crowley Road they discover Mrs. Abernathy and a few friends aren't themselves any more. They've been possessed by demons and have opened a portal to Hell. The Great Malevolent One and his minions will soon be freed by All Hallow's Eve. Samuel desperately tries to get any adult to listen to him, but as you can imagine, his mother thinks he's telling stories again. The only adults who will listen to him are the scientists working on the wormhole computer experiment that caused the portal. But will they make it to Samuel's town in time to stop Satan from walking the earth?

This book is delightfully devilish. The cast of demons are both creative and lovable. I even have a soft spot for Mrs. Abernathy. She's such a devious, scheming character. You have to admire her drive to stop Samuel and his friends from foiling her demented plans. And there's a sequel available now. How great is that? I love when a good story doesn't have to end. Don't miss this pick. It's worth the read.

2) Sara Rosett is a newly discovered author for me. Her female sleuth, Ellie Avery, is a lovable mother and crime solver. This cozy is just as good as Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series. The only criticism I have is that I found Ellie Avery's organizational tips at the end of chapters jarred me from the story and didn't seem to really anything to my reading. In Mimosa's, Mischief, and Murder, Ellie Avery travels with her husband and children to visit relatives in Alabama, but their vacation soon turns deadly. Her husband's grandfather has passed unexpectedly and while planning the funeral, Ellie and Mitch discover that Grandpa Avery was hiding some valuable letters from a popular local author who doesn't speak to the media. Someone wants those letters enough to kill, but who is it? Is it part of the family or a stranger? This book moved fast and had a few twists and turns that made it interesting. It's not a dark mystery, but I recommend it for a good escape.

3) Derek Armstrong's Madicine is a relevant fictional commentary on greed, biological warfare, and science ethics. Ada Kenner is a virologist who discovers a new strain of virus engineered to eliminate the violent gene in humans. If it worked correctly, the virus would eliminate all violence from its test subjects, but it doesn't. It causes an even greater violence to sweep through the continents as Ada and her team race against time to discover a cure and figure out who has manufactured this deadly biological weapon before it gets into the wrong hands. This book jumps from country to country to tell the story, which at first seems disjointed, but quickly makes sense. This is not a light read, so if' you're tired, you might try something else. The plot is complicated and well-written. I recommend this book. It ranks up there with Michael Crichton's work.

As always, happy reading and happy writing to all! And a very haunted Halloween!

Bookin' It Reviews - #2

This week's book review is brought to you by the lovable bat cat, Toshio.

I have five selections.

1) Inferno was okay, not my favorite anthology edited by my favorite editor, Ellen Datlow. The concept was interesting. She wanted to edit a collection of horror stories not themed. She succeeded at this, but I just didn't find myself reading many of the stories and being really excited about them. I liked that the collection didn't include your typical horror monsters like vampires and werewolves. The stories are not bad; they just weren't really my favorites. The author selection was a good one; it included Lucius Shepard, Jeffrey Ford, Glenn Hirshberg, and Lee Thomas.

A few stories did stand out. I really liked Bethany's Wood by Jeffrey Ford, which was about a child's reunion with his "back from the dead" author mother. I also enjoyed 13 O'Clock by Mike Driscoll and The Suits of Auderlene by Terry Dowling, but my top pick from this anthology would have to be The Keeper by P.D. Cacek. I have never read any of the author's writing and found their short story about a young girl holocaust survivor very disturbing. It was the only story in the book that really lived up to Ellen's quote in the introduction, "Perhaps you will have one of those great memories that will stay with you always, a memory of something dark, dangerous, and brooding." I did with that one, but not the others. It takes a lot to disturb or scare me. Maybe, I'm just jaded after reading horror for so many years. I recommend this as light reading for horror enthusiasts.

2) Midwinter by Matthew Sturges was a good read. This is the first book in the Fae series. The plot didn't strike me as groundbreaking, though it is well written. Mauritane is a prisoner and former captain of the Seelie Army. He's recruited by Queen Titania on a secret mission to save the empire from destruction. After picking his band of travelers from the prison, a beautiful emissary from a foreign land, a nobleman, and a human physicist who is looking for a stolen human child, they set off across the dangerous Contested Lands with Queen Mab's Unseelie Army approaching the border. The characters are quite lovable, but I've seen them all before. I was expecting  a little more from this one than I got. Still, I have the second book waiting to be read on my desk. I'm not willing to give up on the series, just yet.

3) The Gathering, a YA novel by Kelley Armstrong, is quite refreshing. I wish I read this as a young adult. Maya, an adopted teenage girl, lives with her family in the small medical-research community of Vancouver Island. Her father is the park ranger for the local park and Maya's grown up loving the mountain lions that roam the forest. But something strange is happening. The mountain lions are becoming bolder, approaching humans, and threatening their safety. What is the cause for this unusual behavior and what does it have to do with the strange cougar paw birthmark Maya bears? I recommend this one for young adults and adults. It's refreshing to read about something besides werewolves and vampires for a change.

4) Neverland by Douglas Clegg blew me out of the water. I cannot rave enough about this amazing piece of horror. This novel is brilliantly creepy and violent. It takes you inside the deviously demented mind of teenager Sumter Monroe who introduces his cousin, Beau, and the other cousins visiting Gull Island off the coast of Georgia, to Neverland, the creepy shack on his grandmother's property containing their god, Lucy. Lucy urges the children to lie, steal, and offer animal sacrifices. Ultimately, she demands the supreme sacrifice for any god -- a human life. But will Beau be able to stop Sumter? And who is Lucy? What dark family secret lurks inside that shed? I could not put this book down. Any fan of the horror genre must read at least one Douglas Clegg novel.

5) The Abandoned by Douglas Clegg turned out to be just as good. This is one of his Harrow novels, a series surrounding the supernatural occurrences at the abandoned Harrow mansion, a dark and sinister house. Teenagers go there to drink, party, and make out, but one summer night in June, a group of misfits gets more than they bargained for -- the mutilated body of a child's corpse stolen from the morgue is found in the family graveyard adjacent to Harrow Mansion. Some speculate it's an offering to open the gates to a world of nightmares in the Harrow mansion. In fact, if you live in the quiet town, you don't want to fall asleep. And make sure you don't wake up those sleeping soundly around you or you just might become part of the house's plot to maim, slaughter, and terrorize the good citizens of Watch Point, New York. I finished this book in less than a day and would read it again in a heartbeart.

As always, happy reading and happy writing to all!