City of the Shrieking Tomb | Patrick Rogers

*Free copy received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

Rick is a photographer who's wandered the world photographing the most beautiful mosques in the world. He's in some of the more remote parts of India trying to get to Bidar to see their mosques. Unfortunately the engine of the bus he's on literally falls out and he's stuck in the town of Humayunpur, which he's never heard of before and has little contact with the outside world. While he's there, he's warned not to go near the tomb, don't even photograph it. A demon lives there and killed the village's imam who thought himself stronger than the demon. Rick's curiosity and skepticism get the better of him and he ends up staying longer than anyone in the village thinks he should.

Review:

This book scared me. I read it late at night with mood music and definitely wasn't going to sleep any time soon. Rogers does a great job of setting up the environment and describing the world. I could visualize everything that was going on and was easily spooked as a result. The vivid nightmares, the haunting noises that woke the entire town, the blood filled stories about the tomb's history. All were really well done.

It was also one of those books that energized me because I kept wanting to reach into the book and smack some sense into the main character. He's seen the scary stuff with his own eyes! He's heard it with his own ears! And yet, he's still driven to photograph the forbidden stuff and stay in the village. He even asks "but does that mean I should leave?" YES! I get that this revolutionizes his work and interest in preserving the masques, but still.

The ending of the book, though, I found really appropriate. I'm really trying not to spoil anything here, but it was one of those "what did you expect?!" kind of endings. In some ways it was heart-breaking, I feel really bad for Rick's friend, Awaz. In other ways it was pretty predictable, if still disturbing.

Really the only thing that didn't quite fit into the book for me was Rick's encounter with Rocket Rajan. He gives a lot of needed exposition but feels so very out of place. His sudden appearance and disappearance don't help and part of me wonders if he was actually a heat induced mirage with a spirit guiding it to give Rick information.

I'll admit, I'm sensitive to the spooky stuff so this probably won't scare those who are well-versed in the horror genre. But I really did enjoy the very different setting, the mystery over gore approach, and the mythology. It was well written and certainly an entertaining read. 4 hoots!

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The Villain's Sidekick | Stephen T. Brophy | Mini-Review

Review:

This book is only about 100 pages, yet in that short amount of time, Brophy creates an engaging, memorable story with a surprisingly sympathetic main character. HandCannon works for The Eye and he's messed up, yet again, against Nightguard (the local superhero). He's given a chance to redeem himself and keep his job, but it's the same weekend that his ex-wife finally lets his little daughter visit him. I absolutely loved that HandCannon was so practical in his approach on everything. He even said he's not the monologuing type, highfalutin type. He is genuinely trying to make the best of the hand he's been dealt. This story ended up having so many things in it: action, mystery, comedy and even horror. I happily give this 4 hoots and encourage you to pick up a copy!

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Monsters Exist | Jesse Deadman & Theresa Braun

*Image and book provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Summary:

A collection of creepy and scary short stories about monsters of urban legends.

Review:

This was an incredibly creepy and scary book. I thought this was just going to be a book of stories similar to what you tell around the campfire. Turns out, a lot of the stories are a lot more gruesome. The book covers monsters I had forgotten to think about. Like the monster under the bed, the reason you don't feel safe sleeping with your hands or feet exposed. There were monsters I'd never heard about and takes on old monsters/legends that Id never thought of. The stories are very intense and and almost always very gruesome. If you're looking for a scary story or looking for a refresher on urban legend monsters, I recommend this collection. 3.5 hoots!

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Children of Lovecraft | Ellen Datlow

Summary:

A collection of short stories inspired by, and written in the style of, H.P. Lovecraft. 

Review:

Not surprisingly this is a book without any happy endings. That being said, this book still had a lot of beautiful tragedy. There was plenty of horror and Twilight Zone style unsettled feelings. There were monsters in human and unrecognizable forms. There was one story in the collection that was so inane and difficult to follow that I actually put the book down for a couple weeks. The rest of the stories, however, were very engaging and I've got another list of authors to look up. This is a good book for fans of the horror genre or Lovecraft fans looking for new authors to read. 

Dr. Potter's Medicine Show | Eric Scott Fischl

*I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Summary:

This book follows three stories that tie together. The first is the story of the travelling show whose participants are tortured, sometimes literally, by Lyman, their illusionist. The second is the story of Ag and Sol, two brothers trying to prove they don't need their mother. Third is the story of Dr. Hedwith, a man trying to find the secret to immortality by any means.

Review:

I'll start with a warning that this book is not for the faint of heart or stomach. More than once I wished I wasn't eating while reading. It starts out innocently enough but there are some scenes that made me think of Red Dragon. So, fair warning, not a book for everyone.

That being said, I actually did enjoy this book a lot more than I thought I would. Yes, the book is full of dark and depressing scenes, but, thankfully, Fischl has a good number of scenes with Ag and Sol. Yes, they're pretty much comic relief, but they're are so well balanced with the darker stories that you never feel like the book is taking itself too seriously or not seriously enough. Fischl has a really good sense of balance with his characters and their stories. 

I also enjoyed how Fischl wrapped things up at the end of the book. There was enough mystery that you didn't know exactly what had happened, but enough loose ends had been tied up that you didn't feel like you were missing out. Not everyone got the ending I wanted for them but I wasn't unpleasantly surprised by the endings they received. It was a really well done book.

If you're in the mood for a darker story where alchemical studies are real, taking place in the post-civil war era, I highly recommend Dr. Potter's Medicine Show. It's a good story with great characters. 

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Monstress | Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda

Review:

This book is truly an exemplification of the term "hauntingly beautiful". Liu's storytelling and Takeda's art style combine to create a world that looks so beautiful, but harbors many dark secrets. And considering the dark things that are open knowledge, that's saying something. I had some trouble at first because I don't like kids getting hurt, even kids that aren't human, but the payoff of continuing was worth it. 

There are a lot of things going on in this book. Many smaller stories entwined in the larger one. Fortunately it's easy to keep track without stumbling over plot holes. If anything, finding out how these stories are linked actually adds to the intrigue. 

This volume is a great start to, what I hope will be, a long series. I want to know more. Plus, I only threatened to not read the second volume if anything happened to my favorite character. You'll know who she is. She's the adorable one. 4 hoots!

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Prince: Legacy of Darkness | Phoenix Garrett Wright

*Book and image provided by NetGalley

Summary:

This book follows the story of Lucifer (a separate entity from Satan) the first vampire, and former seraphim. In the 2060's, a decade or so after the War of Immortals, the witches become bolder in their attacks on the vampires who, led by Lucifer, prefer to be left in darkness and out of humanity's reality, except for when it's time to feed. Lucifer must keep his fledglings in line in an attempt to show a united front against the army of witches and humans with UV light based weapons.

Review:

This is a very long book. If you intend to read it, be sure to set enough time aside for it. To be fair to Wright, I'm not sure how this book could have told the story he wanted while being a shorter book. There is a lot of content here with a fairly good balance between exposition/story telling and action.

Fair warning about the action, this book is not for the feint of heart or stomach. Several scenes involve copious amounts of blood. Then there are the depictions of Hell that left me feeling nauseated. I won't go into details, but  you have been warned. 

I have to admit, I probably won't read the next installment. I read all 600+ pages of this book and never felt emotionally or intellectually invested in any of the characters. The entire book is told from the perspective of Lucifer and it's no surprise he used to manage the Gate of Pride in Hell. He's arrogant and prideful to a fault, but clearly such is the nature of the character. I never feel that any one group, humans, vampires or witches are in the right. They all seem like they're doing the wrong thing, especially when the story is from the perspective of someone who thinks they're all inferior anyways.

Probably my biggest complaint about this book is that there are so many typos and punctuation errors. It may have just been the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) I received, but there were so many spelling and editing errors that need to be cleaned up. 

To be honest, I can only give this book 2.5 hoots. I appreciate what the author was trying to do, and the first half or so of the book was plenty entertaining, but after that it was just all downhill and I just wanted the book to end.

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Whitechapel Gods | S. M. Peters

Summary:

Victorian London has been taken over by two gods, Grandfather Clock, whose law iron, and Mama Engine, whose law is fire. Anyone who acts against the gods is either destroyed by the Boiler Men, soldiers of Grandfather Clock who gave their souls for bodies of iron, or they are taken directly to Grandfather Clock and made a part of his machine. Even those who don't act up are infested with a disease that replaces human parts with machines or they choke to death on the fumes of the machines of the gods. A group is devising a way to kill both of the gods and free London, but there are humans going against gods. 

Review:

Overall, this was a good, engaging read. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it was, but the feel fits the form. You could not write a world like this, where the sun is blotted out, and not have a dark story.

The characters in this world are quite interesting. I appreciated that intelligence was the order of the day with three of the main characters. Intelligent characters make for more interesting stories and at no point did I feel any of the good guys were being dumb. Most of the characters were level-headed enough to handle surprises and make sure the obvious was expected.

That said, the ending was a little predictable and there were a handful of typos that took me out of the story. But it was still an entertaining read.

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Sci-Fi Month: Top Ten Scary Sci-Fi Movies

Hello! I know that I don't usually do "Top Ten" posts, but in honor of Sci-Fi Month, I figured I'd do a list of Scary Sci-Fi Movies. Every movie and game in this list was, at some point or another, too scary for me to watch. A couple of them are still too scary for me. Please keep in mind, I used to be a lot more sensitive to scary stuff than I am now so some of these movies I wasn't able to watch until recently.

1. Jurassic Park: This movie came out when I was in 4th grade and I ended up having to leave the theater during the velociraptors in the kitchen scene because it was just too scary for me. My brother still hasn't let me live this down.

2. Alien: I've only been able to watch this movie in the past year or so. Fortunately I'd seen enough parodies and knew enough of the overall plot that it made it less scary and, therefore, more enjoyable for me.

3. Event Horizon: Funny enough, this was one was never actually too scary for me. I've been able to watch this one since I was in junior high or high school.

4. The Thing: This was the first scary movie my husband used to try to help me get over my fear of scary movies. Funny thing about the clay/animation models they used for the horror effects, they're still incredibly creepy!

5. Dawn of the Dead: I watched this movie in high school and for years, literally years, afterwards, every building I went into I immediately assessed for if there was a sudden zombie outbreak.

6. Resident Evil: This series wasn't quite as bad for me as it could have been. I still had to stop watching after the 3rd or 4th movie, but part of that was boredom.

7. 28 Days Later (still haven't watched): Fast zombies? No thanks. I learned my lesson from Dawn of the Dead.

8. The Fourth Kind (still haven't watched): The ads from this movie kept me awake with a baseball bat all night. I could not sleep until I saw the sun coming up and even then it was rough sleep. I've had "issues" with alien abduction stories since elementary school.

9. Arachnophobia: I actually didn't have arachnophobia until I saw this movie. I used to be quite fascinated by spiders. Then I saw this movie.

10. Mars Attacks: This movie scared the hell outta me. I still cannot even look at the Martians without feeling impossibly creeped out. I know it's supposed to be a comedy, but I was too freaked out to laugh.

So, I clearly don't care for alien and zombie movies. Funny enough, Predator has never scared me. What sci-fi movies scare you?

Blood and Salt | Kim Liggett

*Image and ebook provided for free in exchange for an honest review. 

Summary:

Ashley and her twin brother Rhys go searching for their mother in her home of Quivira, described to her kids as a bit of a hippie/cult town. 

Review:

I'll admit, I kept going back and forth between wanting to like this book and wanting to hate it. A lot of the plot twists were easy to see, the characters were, at most, 1 dimensional, but I still felt it was pretty good read.


There is a lot of blood, a lot of magic, and a lot of creepy scenes that kept me reading. I'm not generally interested in love stories, so I am grateful to Liggett for including some other elements in the story.

If you're at all interested in paranormal romance you'll have a better time with this book than I did. 2.5 hoots.

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The Fold by Peter Clines

When I first submitted my NetGalley request to receive an advanced electronic copy of The Fold, I really didn't think I'd get approved. When I did, I was literally bouncing with joy.* That being said, I received this ebook in exchange for an honest review, so I will be honest in this.

Peter Clines does an amazing job of keeping me excited to read during this entire book. I was actually writing notes of what I thought was going on in a separate notebook. Looking through them, I can easily tell you that, while it was easy to pick up on several things, my theories at the start of this book were definitely off. It was a joy to get all the pieces of the puzzle and put them together as the characters were.**

The pacing of this book is also well timed. It has several parallels to other books by Clines in terms of pacing, but there was one big difference. I let my guard down at one point, just in time to be hit with a twist that left me wondering what happened. After that I paid even better attention to the clues, because Clines definitely gives you the clues you need, if you know where to look. This is made even funnier by the fact that the main character is a regular Mycroft (hence his nickname, Mike) and is also looking for clues.

I did not know at the start of this book that it is a kind of sequel to 14, but it ended up not surprising me when I got to the relevant sections of The Fold. Unlike 14, though, The Fold did have more gore, but it actually gave me a moment of pure terror. The kind of terror that has every ounce of your being saying "this should not be happening!" It also made a few scenes more exciting towards the end because I knew what was going on.***

Once again, Clines does a masterful job with character development and dialogue. I am hoping that they don't make significant changes in this by the time it gets published because the dialogue is memorable, as is. It's so natural and real, I cannot praise it enough. I know people like these characters and these are the kinds of things they'd say.

Overall, The Fold is yet another Peter Clines success. He had me completely immersed in this world from the first chapter. Even if some of the plot points were predictable, Clines kept the story exciting and engaging. This is another Clines book that I'm going to have to get my hands on. 5 Hoots!

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*Don't believe me? Ask my husband.
**Sometimes in advance of the characters, but not by much.
***Seriously, read 14 first!

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Holy wah. It is a good thing that I have been working on building a tolerance to scary stuff, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight...or ever go back to work. Horrorstör is filled with so much of the same corporate speak you hear at almost any job, but the story adds a dark tone on top of my own, and the main character's, cynicism. I doubt I'll be able to attend a company meeting without plotting all the available exits first.*

I picked up this book because there were so many people saying it was incredibly scary, couldn't put it down, etc. You know what? They were right! Admittedly a lot of the scariness is gore based, not my preference, but oh well. There was still plenty of psychological scariness, especially when the Warden took over and you got to read some of his original documentation. His speeches about work and mindless labor as the only ways to reform gives you another viewpoint for when a tough manager is putting you through the wringer. 

This book definitely plays on the idea that crap jobs are soul crushing. That underneath the "We Are Family" mottoes, there is a much darker aspect to the company. The author really plays into it with the furniture descriptions at the beginning of each chapter. They start out innocently enough, but after things really go south in the book, they are a good source of dark humor. Where else are you going to ready such light-hearted descriptions of torture devices? 

Be forewarned, almost every conceivable fear/phobia can be found in this book. There are, of course, the classics: claustrophobia, achluophobia**, agoraphobia, zemmiphobia***, etc. But there are others to be on the lookout for! If you have a phobia of any kind, I'm almost positive you will find some kind of representation of it in Horrorstör!

All in all, I gladly give Horrorstör 4 hoots out of 5. It was an engaging read that had me genuinely scared! 

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*Because I totally never do that anyways...

**Fear of the dark.

***Fear of rats.