Swamp Thing is Killing the Children - Review

 

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Author: James Tynion IV

Genre:  Horror

Format: Advance Reader Copy

Release Date: February 24, 2027

I don't normally give full reviews for comic books or graphic novels. However, this one is special. Because Swamp Thing is Killing the Children isn't out on shelves yet! When I saw this gem on NetGalley, my ban on not asking for any more advance copies went right out the window! This is hands down one of my favorite ongoing series, and James Tynion IV is one of my favorite authors. In fact, anytime I see something is going to be out by him, instantly added to my TBR. Rarely do I not like something he's created.

So when I tell you I freaked out when I got the chance to read this early, I might have lost my mind just a little bit.

This was absolutely everything I wanted from this comic. Erica has been sent to hunt down this monster whose shape changes depending on the kid it's hunting. It slipped through her fingers, only to latch onto the youngest of two brothers still grieving the loss of their father. Both of them use comics to keep them connected to what they lost. Until, shockingly, the older brother scared the crap out of his little brother when he learned the Swamp Monster poster freaked him out.

So after they fight, the little brother runs off, and then this thing finds him. Enter Erica, who just happened to bump into the older brother. And exactly what I wanted to happen happened.

What I love about this comic is you don't have to read Something is Killing the Children to be able to read this. This stands completely on its own. There are so many battles that Erica fought before volume 1 that I'd love to get a serial arc of some of the monsters she's fought. It would be a wild ride that I would totally buckle up for!

If you've been wanting to pick up this series but aren't sure. Or, if you're already a huge fan of the original series, pick this up. It's fun, creepy, and Erica does kick ass! 

Swamp Thing is Killing the Children hits shelves Feb. 24th, 2027!

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

   

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all do. Sometimes the cover catches our eye and draws us to take a closer look at a book. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

At eight years old, Juliet Godfrey was violently possessed by Bedlam, a vicious demon with a penchant for arson. After several failed exorcisms and a fiery tragedy of the demon's making, Juliet was sent to the gothic halls of the Godfrey Home for Demonic Children and entrusted into the care of famed exorcist Luther Godfrey. There, under Luther's careful instruction, she learns to form an uneasy truce with the demon inside of her.

Twenty years after her possession, a steely-eyed Juliet travels the country as an exorcist, removing powerful (and often violent) demons from their human hosts, and occasionally referring the rare children like her, who are infected with particularly dangerous demons, to Godfrey House.

When Luther Godfrey dies following the disappearance of Seth, one of his troubled young charges, Juliet returns home for the first time in many years to attend his funeral. But upon her arrival, Juliet discovers that Luther left Godfrey House, and the care of all its students, to her ex-boyfriend, her ex-best friend, and her. With the fate of Godfrey House hanging in the balance, the three must set aside their differences, protect Luther's legacy, and find Seth before he attempts a dangerous exorcism that could end his life.

HAPPY READING!!

November Spotlight

 

Nora Pacetti is a new stay-at-home mother, tired but coping while caring for her happy, healthy baby Olivia. But then one morning, something that looks like a feather starts growing out of Olivia's arm. Or at least, that’s what Nora’s mother, Giulia, thinks. Nora thinks her mother has probably spent too much time watching conspiracy videos on YouTube.

Nora’s husband thinks Olivia needs tests, specialists, hospitals. But Nora senses that whatever is happening to her daughter needs to be concealed—and a mother’s intuition is never wrong. Soon sinister people begin asking questions about Olivia, and Nora starts to wonder if there really is something wrong with her baby. But she’s determined discover the truth about her daughter…no matter the cost.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet 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 folks at Breaking the Spine.

An ex-yakuza leader or a tenacious stray cat—who will be the ultimate boss of the house?!

Former yakuza leader Hisahide Matsukata gave up his wild ways for a life of quiet solitude and retirement. Peace eludes him, however, once a new opponent shows up at his turf—a fearsome…stray cat! Matsukata’s home is turned upside down as this boss cat unleashes chaos and cuteness, and there’s no mercy in sight!

Every house has its rules, and guests should always show their host proper respect! So why is this cat knocking things over and drinking Matsukata’s water?! Matsukata has spilled blood for less, but first things first—what fittingly fierce name should he bestow on this feral feline?

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Twenty nightmarish horror tales featuring folkloric beasts, apocalyptic disasters, and psychological terrors are brought together in a collection sure to keep readers up at night, from the very best voices in contemporary Nordic fiction.

Nightmarish tales of mystery and horror, from the best voices in contemporary Nordic fiction.

You know them from the stories whispered around the campfire. Sometimes, they’re dark creatures from tall forests or murky bogs, luring their victims to their death, or the apocalyptic roar of a volcanic eruption. Other times, they’re closer to home: an unsettling new neighbour, or the overly friendly people you meet on the train, or the bureaucrat who thinks he's saving the world.

Nordic Nightmares opens a window into the horror landscape of the Nordic countries, from Finland, Denmark, Greenland, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The anthology is expertly curated to showcase the work of twenty modern masters of horror – the majority appearing in English for the first time – to keep you company during long, cold nights.

HAPPY READING!!

October Wrap Up

So many books this month! Most of them spooky, but a few not so spooky books as well. There were a couple of kids' books that I had on hold that I absolutely wanted to get my hands on. One because it's one of my favorite books as a kid, told from my favorite characters point of view. So I was so excited to get my hands on it. The other was a book I wanted to see if my Gremlin needed for their book collection. They do! 

I also hit my reading goal this month! As of the time of writing this, I've surpassed my goal of 75 books! I'm still working on my page count goal. I'm so close to hitting it this year, and I have high hopes I'll hit it by the end of the year. Also, another BINGO square hit; childhood favorite is officially off my board! I'm so close to clearing the whole board. There are only four squares to go. It's do-able. The question is: can I do it?

  

Books Read: 9
BINGO Books: 1

Pages Read: 1040

Hours Listened: 13 hours 38 minutes

That's the childhood favorites crossed off, and a little trauma left behind. Because what even was that book? That was so much to unpack, but it was another BINGO for me! I'm so close this year. Do you think I'll finish the board?

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

   

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all do. Sometimes the cover catches our eye and draws us to take a closer look at a book. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Protactinium-231 is a body-snatching alien whose crew have burned through the galaxy conquering planet after planet—or at least, they've been trying. They haven't been very successful.

While attempting to conquer the Canada (of all places), Protactinium gets on the wrong side of a god, who strips him of his mind-control powers, transforms him into the weedy, useless Prince Proculo, and sends him to rule over a fantasy kingdom. With no powers, no physical prowess, and no allies, Proculo is forced to put aside his plans for world domination and join the battle between humans and half-human monsters that is ravaging his new home.

After capturing the half-human, half-spider Tantalus, Proculo falls desperately in love with his bristling muscles and sharp fangs. And Tantalus is an eager ally in Proculo's mission to conquer the world. Together, they will be an unstoppable force—against new enemies and old friends alike.

HAPPY READING!!

Happy Halloween!

 

It's my favorite time of the year! I hope everyone has an absolutely lovely and safe Halloween. May you only receive treats, instead of tricks! And it's filled with only the correct amount of spooky. I'll be passing out candy at work to our block party! Then I'm off to watch Halloween on the big screen for the very first time! And then maybe a few spooky movies after! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Episode 13 - Review

Author: Craig DiLouie

Genre:  Horror

Format: Paperback

This one has been on my physical TBR for ages. In fact, I've started it a couple of times, only to put it away a few pages in. Sometimes it's just not the right time for certain books. On one hand, I'm glad I waited for this book because I did like it. On the other hand, I don't think it needed to be this long. There are whole sections that I just didn't care about, and parts where there would have been brilliant tension. Only to be shafted. So really, this was a mixed bag for me. 

Let's get one thing super clear. This book is said to be like The Haunting of Hill House; that is incorrect. It's with a ghost that has more than one timeline involved. It is nothing like Hill House at all. At no point while reading this book was a I scared, or was jumped scared, or worried, or anything of things that Haunting of Hill House made me. This is the book that you yell at the whole time. I was constantly, out loud, asking Why are we going back into the house. Why are we going down the creepy well? All of us have seen Scooby-Doo: stop splitting up!

That is the type of book this is. Listen, I get it, there's a mystery, and I'm nosey. I would totally want to go through those files. I'll tell you what, though. I wouldn't wait two hundred pages for things to go flying around the room to read them. Also, it's totally cool you have Claire, the skeptic who thinks ghosts are dumb and defy science; therefore, they can't be real. We all need one of those people in our lives. We do. However! There was science in that room, woman! SCIENCE! And I'm meant to believe she's gonna wait until a near-death experience to actually look at it.

Cool. Cool. Cool.

Now, I totally get it, you are all crazy, and you wanted to know what the actual hell is going on. So you go down the creepy well. Fine. FINE! But there were a handful of missed moments here. Like the people who where suppose to come help them back out of the well. Why didn't we get their point of view? Just a few pages of them trying to find all the missing people. Because all their stuff is still there. One of them is a single mother. Like, I have many questions.

The ending was fine with what was 'causing' the haunting. It gets four stars from me for the very end of the book. I really loved the open ending and how they got some of the information. It definitely wins points for me there. But as a whole, I've read better epistolary novels about haunted houses and weird time zones. What I will say though was I did like the writing style of this book. So I'll definitely give Craig DiLouie another try. But this one was just okay. I liked it, but not as good as I wanted it to be.

   HAPPY READING!!

October Book Haul

Okay, okay, okay. First, I only get to go shopping with my Mim once a year. Also! I always find treasures when I go to her local bookstore. They are a gently used bookstore, and I always find something amazing. This year it was the Twilight Zone: The Movie book and my Murder She Wrote novel. So there's that, first of all. Second of all, Night Worms happens every month. So, there's that.

Lastly, I went to Goodwill to see if there were any Halloween treasures. Because you never know. Sometimes I find some winners. I didn't find anything Halloween to take home; it did seem like someone's Nana downsized their house. Because I found the motherlode of Agatha Christie and Murder She Wrote novels. Honestly, I could have taken the whole lot. I didn't, but I could have. What I did was pick the one Jessica Fletcher novel I wanted to read, and take all the Hercule Poirot novels. He's my favorite, and I own so very few of his novels.

So it's a lot of books. But one of them was on my TBR already, and one isn't for reading. I just don't know how I'm going to display the Twilight Zone Book yet. The rest, well, my TBR was always going to outlive me. But I do have so many cozy mysteries to read during the dark months. 

HAPPY READING!!

The Faceless Old Women - Review

Author: Joseph Frink & Jeffery Cranor

Genre: Science Fiction / Horror

Format: Audiobook

Welcome to Night Vale was one of those things that, over the years, I completely forgot about. Despite the fact that during its original years I was not only up to date, but I also saw a couple of live shows. The stuff happened, and it fell by the wayside, and I assumed it was finished. Then, wouldn't you know, it came across my Libby app. So I thought I'd jump back into the podcast, and after a few dozen episodes I felt like I could jump into the novels. And I had to start with one of my favorite characters, The Faceless Old Woman.

When it came to this book, I think I knew very little. I had the background of who she was in the "current" timeline of Night Vale. But I refused to read reviews or do any research into this book. I just knew it was about the Faceless Old Women and how she got to Night Vale. Honestly, that was the best way to go into this. The less you know, the better, because anything and everything could be spoilers.

Honestly, this book blew me away. It's told in two different timelines. The first is a current timeline with the Faceless Old Woman living (mostly) in Craig's house. The whole book is told through the Woman's point of view. So we start out with her talking about Craig and his future. She's here to help him have a wonderful future, and all the creepy things she does to give him a "good" life. So I thought that this was going to be a creepy haunted house book with a spirit that wants to be an evil life coach.

Only I could be both right and so very wrong at the same time.

Because remember I said there were two timelines. The second was the woman's past, and that is how she made it all the way to Night Vale from the Mediterranean in the 1800s. This part of the tale is a swashbuckling adventure full of double crosses and near deaths. With a whole lot of Night Vale history hidden in the wings if you know what you're looking at. In fact, I thought I had a few things figured out, and again, I'm really good at being both right and wrong.

What I didn't see happen was how this book wrapped up. Because holy crap. Woof. I don't think I'd ever guess that- that was what was going to happen. I do love the reason she became faceless. How her revenge took her that far and turned her into a nobody in the end. Though I do think she's getting a lovely bit of vengeance. Because I mean, if you can't get them in life, get them in death. It's honestly really cool.

This book also has an amazing cast of characters that you fall in love with. Which makes their deaths that much harder toward the end. I actually stopped working at one point and started on my phone. Only to realize I needed to finish this book, not at home because I was going to need to sit with it. And I was going to need to give it my full attention.

If you've never heard of Welcome to Night Vale, I would say if you like weird, funny horror, check it out. All of the podcast episodes are on Spotify! But honestly, I don't think you need to know everything about Night Vale to jump into this book. While it'll help to know about the hooded figures and a few things when you get to the Craig chapters, you could do without it. But everyone needs a bit of Cecil in their lives.

Also, if you need more reason to read this book. The audiobook is read by Mara Wilson, who did a wonderful job, and I enjoyed it completely.

HAPPY READING!!