Monday, October 31, 2022
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Cover Runway Sunday
They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!
Saturday, October 29, 2022
What Moves the Dead - Review
Friday, October 28, 2022
National Frankenstein Friday
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Cryptid Creatures: A Field Guide - Review
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Waiting on Wednesday
Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.
On the reality show It's Behind You!, five contestants competing for prize money must survive the night in the dark and dangerous Umber Gorge caves, rumored to be haunted by the Puckered Maiden, a ghost who eats the hearts of her victims. But is it the malevolent spirit they should fear, or each other?
As the production crew ramps up the frights, tensions rise and the secrets of the cast member start coming to light. Each of these teenagers has hidden motives for taking part in the show. But could one of them be murder?
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
New Release Tuesday
Meet the mystical women and nonbinary people from US history who found strength through the supernatural—and those who are still forging the way today. From the celebrity spirit mediums of the nineteenth century to contemporary activist witches hexing the patriarchy, women have long used magic and mysticism to seize the power they’re so often denied.
Organized around different approaches women have taken to the occult over the decades—using the supernatural for political gain, seeking fame and fortune as spiritual practitioners, embracing their witchy identities, and more—this book shines a light on underappreciated magical pioneers, including:
• Dion Fortune, who tried to marshal a magical army against Hitler
• Bri Luna, the Hoodwitch, social media star and serious magical practitioner
• Joan Quigley, personal psychic to Nancy Reagan
• Marie Laveau, voodoo queen of New Orleans
• Elvira, queer goth sex symbol who defied the Satanic Panic
• And many more!
Sunday, October 23, 2022
Cover Runway Sunday
They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!
When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along?
Unnervingly, Hale doesn’t fit the bill of a killer. The first-person narrative that centers this novel reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger but has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Grayson’s world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that he’s working for the one he has feared all this time—and that the book is only the beginning of their partnership.
A History of Fear is a propulsive foray into the darkness of the human psyche, marrying a dread-inducing atmosphere and heart-palpitating storytelling.
Saturday, October 22, 2022
The Icepick Surgeon - Review
Sam Kean's books have been on my TBR for a very long time. So it's a good thing that books don't expire! Because I would have been disappointed if these books slipped through my fingers.
Now, I'm always a little nervous to pick up a new author. Especially ones where they sound right up my alley, and even more so with nonfiction. I don't want it to feel like I'm reading a textbook, or not like the author's writing style. Or, in this book's case, the narrator.
Thankfully I had nothing to worry about The Icepick Surgeon. Not only did I enjoy the way Kean wrote this book, but I enjoyed the narrator, Ben Sullivan. There was something kind of soothing about his voice. It was perfect for while I was opening at my job, or doing household chores.
Sullivan's voice had a way of keeping my attention while not feeling like I was being talked at. Which, might also speak to how well Kean wrote this book. It doesn't feel like a textbook, or like I'm thrown information left and right. Kean weaves these little histories so well that there's never really a dull moment.
And, there's so much research that went into this whole book. Because there is a lot of information in each chapter, but I never got bored. Maybe because some of these things were so horrible that they kept my attention. Maybe because when I thought it couldn't possibly get worse, in some cases it does. But, Kean has weaved all this information, dates, people, and horrid deeds in a way that I managed to keep up.
I even managed to take set this book aside while I was as sick, a little halfway through, and I was able to pick it right back when I was on the mend. All the information just came back to me as Sullivan started talking.
A plus, because I've never had a great memory. So that's how I know this book had my full attention even at work.
My only sort of hang-up with this book is a personal one. I wasn't sure why there was a conclusion and an appendix. The last part personally felt like too much. I had to back up and start it three different times before I just gave up and called the book done.
I don't know, I felt like it could have just been added to the conclusion without the addition of the fraud case and it would have been fine. Something about that last few minutes that I was like, why aren't we don't yet?
But, despite that one thing I'll be picking up another of Sam Kean's books!
Friday, October 21, 2022
Young Adult Horror Favorites
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Vintage Hallowe'en Party Book - Review
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Waiting on Wednesday
Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.
The winds shift nervously on the Kansas plain whispering of travelers lost and buried, whispering of witches. Something dark and twisted has taken root at the Bender Inn.
At first the townspeople of Cherryvale welcome the rising medium Kate Bender and her family. Kate's messages from the Beyond give their tedious dreams hope and her mother's potions cure their little ills—for a price. No one knows about their other business, the shortcut to a better life. And why shouldn’t their family prosper? They’re careful. It’s only from those who are marked, those who travel alone and can easily disappear, that the Benders demand their pound of flesh.
But even a gifted seer like Kate can make a misstep. Now as the secrets festering beneath the soil of the family orchard threaten to bring them all to ruin, the Benders must sharpen their craft—or vanish themselves.
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Something is Killing the Children Vol 5
After a year since we last saw her in Archer’s Peak, Erica Slaughter resurfaces to take on the case of a girl who’s seen a new kind of monster, one with terrifying implications. But Erica’s broken ties with the House of Slaughter and can have deadly consequences. The Order of St. George does not forget nor do they forgive. Even as Erica goes on the hunt, she must keep an eye out for the mysterious figure on her trail in order to survive the coming storm. Erica Slaughter returns after the Archer’s Peak Saga in this volume of the Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated series from GLAAD Award-winning author James Tynion IV (The Woods, Batman), artist Werther Dell’Edera (Razorblades), colorist Miquel Muerto (Bleed Them Dry), and letterer AndWorld Design (Nightwing).
Collecting Something is Killing the Children #21-25.
Monday, October 17, 2022
Book Mail
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Cover Runway Sunday
They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!
Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost-hunting reality TV show. It’s led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin and features a dedicated crew of ghost-hunting experts.
Episode Thirteen takes them to Matt's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This crumbling, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about the bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It's also haunted, and Matt hopes to use their scientific techniques and high-tech gear to prove it.
But, as the house begins to slowly reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of.
A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, correspondence, and research files, this is the story of Episode Thirteen — and how everything went horribly wrong.
HAPPY READING!!
Friday, October 14, 2022
Hanging with Vampires - Review
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Waiting on Wednesday
When 17-year-old Hunter Gifford wakes in the hospital on the night of homecoming, he's shocked to learn he and his girlfriend, Chloe Summers, have been in a terrible car accident. Hunter has no memory of the crash, and his shock turns to horror when he is told Chloe's blood has been found in the car―but she has disappeared.
Back at school, his fellow students taunt him, and his former best friend starts making a true-crime documentary about the case―one that points the finger directly at Hunter. And just when things can't get any worse, Chloe's mother stands in front of the entire town at a candlelight vigil and accuses Hunter of murder.
Under mounting pressure from the police, Hunter takes matters into his own hands by questioning anyone who might know the truth and posting videos to prove his innocence. When Hunter learns he and Chloe were seen arguing loudly outside the dance, he faces a sickening possibility. Was he angry enough to kill the person he loved?
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
New Release Tuesday
Welcome to the United States of Cryptids, where mysterious monsters lurk in the dark forests, deep lakes, and sticky swamps of all fifty states. From the infamous Jersey Devil to the obscure Snallygaster, travel writer and chronicler of the strange J. W. Ocker not only uncovers the bizarre stories of these creatures but investigates the ways in which communities have embraced and celebrated their local cryptids.
HAPPY READING!!
Sunday, October 9, 2022
Cover Runway Sunday
They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!
And they were liars.
For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.
HAPPY READING!!