book reviews
Book reviews for horror fans; weather a sleepless night with literary accounts of hauntings, possessions, zombies, vampires and beyond.
Reed's Literary Horror Review of "Extinction Peak" by Lucas Mangum (2020)
I'd like to point out that I never finished Jurassic Park because the meat and potatoes of that book bored me to tears. I tried multiple times, but there was just something too dry, too clinical about it. Perhaps it was the wording or the plot format, but it always felt like far too long before raptors started eating people. As I've stated that I'm a hard customer to please; being severely ADHD as well as being easily bucked from my reader's trance. If either issue arises in my readings, it's likely to stop my reading altogether.
By Reed Alexander5 years ago in Horror
Overview of Goosebumps Welcome to Dead House
Enter at Your own Risk... Amanda and Josh think the old house they have just moved into is weird. Spooky. Possibly haunted. And the town of Dark Falls is pretty strange, too. — But their parents don't believe them. You'll get used to it, they say. Go out and make some new friends. — So Amanda and Josh do. But these creepy new friends are not exactly what their parents had in mind.
By Jared Gutwein5 years ago in Horror
Coraline: The perfect horror book for kids
'Coraline' is a novella written by Neil Gaiman that was first published in 2001. It was adapted into a critically acclaimed stop-motion film in 2009. Now Gaiman is a household name amongst fans of fantasy fiction and rightfully so, with incredible works like the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, and The Graveyard Book, to say the least. With an ever-growing fanbase and multiple screen adaptations, let's have a look at the children's novella that helped catapult Gaiman into the spotlight.
By Paul Heder5 years ago in Horror
'IT' by Stephen King book review
'IT' is in King's top 5, without a shadow of a doubt. A lot would call it his best, over other classics like 'The Shining' and 'Misery'. It's macabre, nostalgic and terrifying but this doesn't mean it's without its flaws. Let's talk about IT.
By Paul Heder5 years ago in Horror
Book Review: Queens of the Abyss: Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird
Watch out. I'm about to get petty. “Queens of the Abyss” was something by Mike Ashley I was patiently waiting for and when it came out, I had already pre-ordered it. When I began reading it, I was really happy to see that there was a story by Mary Elizabeth Braddon - the writer of books like “Lady Audley’s Secret” and the horror story “The Shadow in the Corner”. When I started reading it, I noticed that not all of the tales were very much ‘weird’ especially in the context of what the book is stating it as. When I read the other tales, not all of them matched up to the Mary Elizabeth Braddon story I read in terms of the contextual weird. The ‘weird’ portrayed by the story by Mary Elizabeth Braddon refers to what is suggestive and supernatural rather than something that is blatant and simply existing which were so in other tales such as the stories by Marie Corelli.
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Horror
Unsafe Words by Loren Rhoads
Tagline: Once you’ve done the most unforgivable thing, what will you do next? Book Description Provided by the Author: In the first full-length collection of her edgy, award-winning short stories, Loren Rhoads punctures the boundaries between horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction in a maelstrom of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Ghosts, succubi, naiads, vampires, the Wild Hunt, and the worst predator in the woods stalk these pages, alongside human monsters who follow their cravings past sanity or sense.
By Spirit Guide Communication through the Art of Divination5 years ago in Horror
Editorial Report – A Haunted House. Virginia Woolf. 1921
Virginia Woolf’s 1921 shorty story - A Haunted House, is a well written ghost story, with a strong central theme. Whilst it is not gothic, it is clear that the piece has been influenced by Poe, with Woolf’s use of poetic devices and descriptions. This is a perfect example of how Woolf has tried to experiment with genre expectations, whilst not deviating much from her central plot. The themes of love, loss, struggle and connection are explored well in this short story, with a twist on the ‘ghost story’ genre.
By Rebecca Smith5 years ago in Horror
