ISBN: 9780373210039
I borrowed this book.
Kaylee is a bean sidhe (read “banshee”), a herald of death, though she learns this on the edge of a mental breakdown over her mysterious panic attacks that come when she is close to someone who is about to die. If it wasn’t for class hottie Nash, she would still think she’s crazy, since even though they know her secret her guardians, her aunt and uncle, refuse to tell her anything, and in fact, once locked her up in a mental hospital to try to “help” her.
But something is happening around Kaylee. The people around her seem to be dying, before their time and with no cause at all. When whatever is poaching souls begins to target Kaylee’s friends she and Nash must act to save the people who death is coming for, long before their time.
The two most stand out elements of this book from other YA novels is 1) no vampires and 2) while the adults and teens have issues, none are abusive or negative at their core. In fact, for a refreshing change, Kaylee’s family is (for the most part, there is teen rivalry, but it’s not past “mean”) loving, supportive and caring, it’s the plot that forces her to step up and act instead of letting the adults handle things.
My Soul to Take is simultaneously morbid and beautiful, balancing the dark subject matter without being crushing or nihilistic. In fact, family is a strong theme of this story, making it an excellent book for teen readers’ collections.
While the book does seem slow at times, it builds a textured web of character and world support for the story, setting this series up for a rich future life. For curious readers Vincent has a free prequel story available, My Soul to Lose, on her webpage.
Reviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies by Michael P. Spradlin
Harper, 2009
ISBN: 9780061956430
Available: New
The book’s premise is simple, Christmas carols rewritten as zombie Christmas carols. The book includes such favorites as “Zombie the Snowman”, “I Saw Mommy Chewing Santa Claus”, “We Three Spleens” and “Good King Wenceslas Tastes Great”. There are familiar songs that tweens will find hilarious, and more obscure ones that adults will love as well. This is an excellent gift book, and could be fun for sing-alongs at horror-themed library holiday parties for older kids or adults as well. The illustrations are somewhat gory (rotting bodies, zombies decorating Christmas trees with entrails and bare brains). Being black and white blunts them, but kids under ten or so might be bothered. Still, it’s a great community or group interaction type book that will make people laugh and get new holiday songs stuck in their heads. Recommended for gifts, collections for zombie lovers and older kids/adults.
Contains: Mildly disturbing art, humorous/cartoonish descriptions of violence
19
Jan
ISBN: 978-1935142058
I was given this book to review.
Silver is a tome, one hell of a book, in scope, complexity and power. Twinning a secret religious cult made up of the descendants of the misunderstood Judas and a handful of highly organized acts of terrorism that begins with 13 people burning themselves alive at the same moment in time across the world, Silver pits a team of secretive investigators against a worldwide religious-political threat.
Move over Dan Brown, Saville threads in more flavor, texture and dimension into a story than most authors dream of. Moving from the U.S. to Israel, Rome and Germany and including a vast cast that will make other international thrillers appear pale in comparison, Silver is a hefty read.
The pace is even, but not always speedy and the layered details might not be intriguing to all readers. The emphasis here is strongly on large scope character and world building. Silver would appeal to readers who enjoy more of a mainstream slant to genre fiction, such as those who find Stephen King and Michael Crichton’s detail and character-oriented styles to their taste. Even readers who might find this storytelling method slow will have to admit that Saville backs it up with a lot of plot interest and intrigue and a twist on the Christian theological mythos that’s edgy and new.
From the folks at Apex Book Company.
ISBN: 978-1-60168-141-6
I was given this book to review.
An alien species has landed on our planet, but do to a bloody miss understanding instead of trying to befriend us, they’ve built a city under Philadelphia and now they prey on us, their killings surfacing on our streets as a serial killer working in one small area.
Now that the matriarch of a local family has died her secrets are coming to light, the least of which is that one of her children is a half breed (and telekinetic), her father being one of the people eating aliens.
The aliens look like humans, except for having pointed teeth and red eyes. Furthermore, they’re targeting one small area (and have been since 1960) because they’re trying to punish the people who accidentally killed one of their own, and they routinely kidnap people and keep them in a slaughterhouse of sorts, taking a piece of them at a time for food. And yet in almost 50 years no one has found their underground city, and the police haven’t solved the “serial killer” cases in the tiny area (even though a person at the local university later mentions they have samples of the killer’s blood).
If you can embrace this flawed logic, you’ll find Dark Side of the Moon to be readable and nicely paced. However you’ll also find a cast of characters who are strangely stupid (one keeps close track of her periods, but doesn’t realize she’s pregnant until the reanimated corpse of her mother tells her so despite being 3 months late), absolutely trusting (when the blood doesn’t match any know humans the people immediately assume that means it’s alien), and apparently all involved in a who-can-be-the-biggest-asshole contest. Almost everyone in this book is mean to each other, showing no restraint.
The writing is not bad, but the storytelling leaves the reader with no characters to connect with, many moments of confusion because of logic leaps (like the humans and aliens cross breeding with no apparent problems, and the humans assuming “alien” in the first place) and a lack of any conflict other than; blood thirsty aliens kill and eat the humans, humans fear the unknown and kill the aliens (also, the aliens are much more advanced than us and though they can clone organs, they eat humans out of vengeance).
In the end the family is called to work together instead of continuing to fight each other, and after some tragic events there’s a moral-infused ending encouraging others to always give second (or third, or whatever) chances and everything can end for the better. Except this is a horror novel. So tacked onto the happy ending is a horror ending that mirrors the opening of the book, bringing Custer’s world full circle.
If you love B-style monster or alien stories you’ll probably like Dark Side of the Moon. If wishy-washy science and almost universally mean characters both you, best to skip this one.
Apex Magazine is a free online magazine. Read it here and consider donating to keep further issue coming.
October 2009’s issue of Apex Magazine opens with Alethea Kontis’ “A Poor Man’s Roses”. On the surface this is a tale of a woman held prisoner and milked for the medical boons that her body produces. Beneath the surface it’s a tale of a woman finding her power to walk away from an abusive love, by walking away from love itself.
Peter M. Ball’s “To Dream of Stars: An Astronomer’s Lament” follows, a sad story of a man’s relationship with his dreams. John dreams of being a royal astronomer, but the cost of information of the stars is more than most people under the Queen’s rule can bear. Cruel, but tempered with a folk or fairy tale feel it’s a punishing tale.
“Yellow Warblers” by Jason Sizemore is now a thrice-published tale of the close minded habits of a rural town and how it, when combined with extraterrestrial species, leads t their own downfall.
“Ghost Technology from the Sun” by Paul Jessup, concludes this issue’s fiction section. Another mix of dark fantasy and science fiction it’s an Alice in Wonderland/Jim Jones/zombie tale of the surreal (and in this case largely imaginary) line between the dead and the living and how they feed each other. Another disturbing, but lovely tale, and another mark Apex manages to leave on the images of genre and storytelling.
Also in this issue is “Brain Matter: Must-Reads from Ekaterina Sedi”, an interview with Brandon Massey and “After, Thoughts—A Pantoum” by J.C. Hay, a poetic finishing flourish, reminding readers Apex can find pretty in gutter horror tropes as well.
The November issue, a special international issue, opens with Aliette de Bodard’s “After the Fire”. Set in a reoccurring Bodard world it perhaps has more value to those who have had the pleasure of reading more of Bodard’s work. Newcomers will find a sad story of a ship, one of the last fleeing from the destroyed Earth, weighed down with survivors judged important, and the ghosts of those who were left behind. It makes one want to read more, and perhaps to someday have the opportunity to read more of Bodard’s bits of vision in one collection.
“Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys” by Nir Yaniv is the tale of a hypochondriac to ends up with a real, big problem after a visit to his trusty doctor. It’s an interesting idea, but wasn’t developed enough for my tastes. I would have gladly read more, and wanted a larger understanding of the “disease” creeping through Benjamin.
“An Evening in the City Coffeehouse, With Lydia on My Mind” by Alexsandar Žiljak is the last fiction tale of this issue, a back and forth story of aliens, spyware and porn. Engaging and quick moving it’s a fun must read for SF fans.
Summing up this issue is the editorial, “A Celebration of World SF” by this issue’s editor Lavie Tidhar and an interview with Tunku Halim.
Tir Alainn trilogy book 3
ISBN: 0451459423
I bought this book.
There’s a lot to this final book in Anne Bishop’s Tir Alainn series. Previously the Black Coats crept their way through Arkos and Wolfram, into Sylvania, slaughtering the witches and destroying the pieces of the fairy realm, Tir Alainn, linked to those areas. Their quest to eradicate magic faltered as they moved west and began to encounter Fae and witches who were still strong and tied together, still aware of their linked ancestry. Battle lines were drawn between the Inquisitors and the magic users, with the fate of all women and magic at stake.
In this book an army of men marches to Willowsbrook, where the Master Inquisitor hopes to teach a lesson to those who resist his will before attacking the Mother’s Hills, the secretive wellspring of magic where the House of Gaian still lives. Even the area witches are intimidated by those who live in the hills, and not sure when witches and fae begin to fight back against the Inquisitors, if the wiccanfae from the Hills will crush them all in their effort to destroy the Black Coats.
Again, there is a slant toward happy endings, and feminism. The women are who must be saved as they are more naturally attuned to the magic of the land. They’re also who the Master Inquisitor is out to destroy in a crazy revenge-against-the-mommy-who-didn’t-love-him way. Most of the nastiest creatures to creep out of Bishop’s mind, like the nighthunters, soul-eating, flesh-devouring creatures made from twisted magic, are blunted by Bishop’s storytelling stylings. This keeps the story firmly in fantasy without letting it slip under the influence of horror.
As always Bishop is a glorious storyteller, and has created a world rich enough to dive into. Readers will find plenty to love in this trilogy, and all without a nihilistic, or savage tone.
ISBN: 9781416928157
I purchased this book.
Howliday Inn is the second book in the Bunnicula series. Our favorite vampire bunny is missing in this one, as the Monroes are on vacation and four-legged detectives Harold and Chester are being boarded at Chateau Bow Wow, a facility that seems to be cursed or haunted as the occupants begin to disappear.
Not-terribly-bright, but lovable Harold suspects murder. Clever, but overly paranoid Chester suspects werewolves. Then tragedy strikes, leaving Harold alone to try to stop what’s going on (but he has to figure that out first).
The first book in series had a camp-horror feel, but this one is heavily mystery. The goofiness of Harold blunts any potential darkness in the book, but might be distracting for kids used to savvy, smart leads. With crazy characters, a twist ending and a real bad guy, Howliday Inn is good for budding mystery lovers and pet lovers.