Are you going to watch Preacher? I sure am.
Fear The Walking Dead will wrap up its season and I’ll be good to go.
Wanted to share some trailers in case you missed them.
Enjoy!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1qUEpO_z0w
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So what do you think? I think this is going to be a great series. Sure hope there’s lots of thrills and chills to keep me watching!
Got any shows you want to recommend for me? I’m always looking for new ones.
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Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts.
Get your scare on!
~~~
It’s Release Day for Santa’s Little Helper!
I’ve been waiting anxiously to tell you about this book. When the author sent me the ARC I dropped what I was reading and dove in. H.D. Gordon writing horror! I couldn’t wait!
Come on in. I dare ya!
And check out the giveaway after my review.
You could win a signed copy!
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Santa’s Little Helper
by H.D. Gordon
My Review
When H.D. told me she had a new story and did I want to read it, I was so excited. When I found out the title and what it was about, I couldn’t wait to get started. A Christmas Horror story. How cool is that!
I’ve read all of her books, and her writing is incredible so I was sure this would scare me. Be one that would make me afraid to read it at night, alone, in the dark. It takes a lot to do that, and when I find an author who can scare me that good, I want to scream from the rooftops, “This book scared me!”
Horror has always been my first love, even when I was young. Books or movies, I devour it. My DVD collection and bookshelves are overflowing with the stuff. With all of those to choose from, you’d be surprised to know that a lot of them didn’t really scare me. Sure, they have there moments, but a really good scare, not that many.
Santa’s Little Helper scared me, a lot. I think part of it was the kids. There are several of them in this story and you’ll get each of their stories as they deal with the surprise.
The surprises mysteriously appear on each of their doorsteps, nothing saying where they came from. Upon opening the white boxes, they each discover a doll, one of Santa’s elves, along with a little red book saying the doll was there to watch over them for Santa.
Right away the kids sense something’s off, wrong about the elves. They each try to get rid of it and some succeed. But they know. The doll will be back.
The terror begins quickly. The elves get to work right away, terrorizing the kids, and scaring me too. A few scenes had me pulling the covers up to my chin, with my hands peeking out to hold my kindle. My elbows were drawn in close to my sides. I was almost in a fetal position, making myself as small as possible.
Then my imagination stepped in. I put myself in their shoes. The were frustrated that the adults didn’t get it. Didn’t feel the wrongness settle into their homes. They didn’t want to come home from school, afraid of what awaited them.
There was one particular scene that reminded of the movie Legion. If you’ve seen it you’ll recall the scene where the ice cream man shows up and transforms. It was scary and the scene in this book is even more so for two young brothers.
They tried reaching out for help and that went very bad for one person. So now they each have to face a doll alone. And there’s a storm coming. Peculiar, Missouri has never seen one like this. It’s almost Christmas. Santa’s little helpers are about to get busy.
How will they fight something that can’t be killed? What do can they do when the one person who can save them doesn’t exist?
H.D. Gordon has proven she can write horror with the best of them. Don’t think because the main characters are young kids that this won’t scare you. Remember Stephen King’s IT? That one still scares me and this book will sit right next to it on my bookshelf. Where it belongs. In the “Scared the s#!t out of me section.”
5 Stars
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
“If the Bible Belt had a buckle, Peculiar was it.”
“…it had been the only good part of the holiday, just a sprinkling of sugar on top of a poo pie.”
“Selflessness is a powerful thing if just because of its rarity, but fear is even more powerful, and in an opposite sense. It is the food of the darkness.”
And this one really hit home with me. I got it. I do this with my reviews.
“Sometimes, you’re so close to the words you can’t see the whole picture they’re forming.”
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Synopsis
He shows up in a white box, with a bright red book under his arm… He wears a jolly grin and hat, a suit with gold bells and green yarn… He watches you for Santa, or so his red book claims… But though his grin is jolly, he’s not here for fun and games…
The children have been chosen, such precious little souls they are… And may the Gods be with them, if they wish to make it very far… For Santa’s Little Helper does not say, but knows important things… He knows when you’ve been bad or good, and what monsters stalk your dreams… He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake…He’s picking out his presents…He’s got some souls to take.
Purchase Links
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The author has a giveaway on Goodreads. She’s offering two signed copies.
Click HERE to enter and Good Luck!
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Other books I’ve read by H.D. Gordon.
Click on the covers for my reviews.
The Joe Knowe Series
The Surah Stormsong Series
The Alexa Montgomery Saga
and two more in this series that I’ve read and reviews will be coming soon..
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H.D. Gordon
H. D. Gordon is the bestselling author of THE ALEXA MONTGOMERY SAGA, THE SURAH STORMSONG NOVELS and THE JOE KNOWE SERIES. She is twenty-five years old and a true lover of words. When not hanging out with her two beautiful daughters, she can be found reading, writing, or just taking in the world so that she can translate it’s beauty and wonders into the written word.
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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew.
Happy Halloween!
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts.
Get your scare on!
Today I have the Book Blitz for Ice Massacre, an event organized by Xpresso Book Tours.
Let’s have some fun!
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I was hoping I could have finished reading Ice Massacre so I could share my review with ya’ll, but I have a little ways to go yet.
I do have a short author interview and an excerpt.
And Ice Massacre is free during the blitz!
Check below for the link to get you free copy.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
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Enjoy the author interview
Give us the tweet-sized version of what Ice Massacre is about.
A teenage girl is sent to battle the hostile mermaids that are driving her people into poverty. A story of love, secrets, and ass-kicking.
What makes Ice Massacre unique?
First, I haven’t seen a lot out there that portrays mermaids for what they really are: flesh-eating sea demons. But I think what also sets it apart is its almost entirely female cast. This island decides to send female warriors to kill the mermaids that plague them, because women don’t fall victim to a mermaid’s supernatural allure. We end up with an all-female war on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Meela, an aboriginal girl who’s never been away from the tiny island she calls home, also has a pretty unique journey of self-discovery. I don’t want to reveal too much. But I think a lot of aspects make this story unconventional.
What’s your favourite thing about the book?
I love Meela’s antagonists. Meela’s a tough chick and she has a lot coming at her from all directions. Writing those opposing forces was so much fun.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The sequel! This is the first in a trilogy, and I’m hard at work on book two: Ice Crypt.
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A mermaid’s supernatural beauty serves one purpose: to lure a sailor to his death.
The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.
Eighteen-year-old Meela has already lost her brother to the Massacre, and she has lived with a secret that’s haunted her since childhood. For any hope of survival, she must overcome the demons of her past and become a ruthless mermaid killer.
For the first time, Eriana Kwai’s Massacre warriors are female, and Meela must fight for her people’s freedom on the Pacific Ocean’s deadliest battleground.
And here is the Prologue!
Somewhere on the Pacific Ocean
The young man aimed his crossbow at the water, ready to fire a bolt of solid iron at the first glimpse of flesh beneath the surface.
“Sir,” he said, “shouldn’t we have seen one by now?”
The captain turned his back to the salty wind, jaw tight. “They know we’re here.”
“So what are they doing?”
He followed the captain’s gaze. Blackness merged with the empty grey horizon in every direction. A long silence passed, filled only by gentle swells lapping against the ship.
The captain drew his own crossbow.
“Forming a plan.”
All twenty men aboard the ship readied their weapons, reacting in a chain until the last man at the stern took steady aim at the waves.
“Make ready your iron, men,” shouted the captain. “We have ripples approaching off the port side.”
A handful of places in the water puckered, as if something lingered just below the surface. The sea was too black to tell.
Then it happened. Fifty, maybe sixty sea demons burst from the water and slammed against the ship. The men wasted no time. They reacted with trained speed and agility as the demons thrust stones and jagged shells into the wood, both to break holes in the ship and to scale the sides. The men picked them off with bolts of iron and watched them fall one by one back into the sea.
But they were outnumbered. Soon the demons were upon the ship, pulling themselves across the deck with bony arms.
The young man had already shot a dozen and the water reddened with each passing second.
Slow scraping sounds threatened him from behind. He whirled around, crossbow ready. Burning eyes met his, and sharp teeth, bared to rip into his flesh. He gripped the trigger, felt the bow tighten—
And the demon was gone. The young man stared into the wide gaze of a girl his own age. With a startled cry, he jerked his aim so the bolt barely missed her.
She held a black shell in her hand, sharp at the edges and ready to use as a club. But she didn’t raise it. She just looked at him.
He lowered his crossbow.
Her blonde hair fell heavily over her shoulders, dripping beads of water down her naked chest and stomach, pooling where her torso joined her tail.
He blinked, but made no other motion—where her torso joined her tail. Scales faded into flesh like some sort of beautiful, green and tan sunset.
She pulled herself closer.
“Stay back,” said the young man, unsure what prompted him to hesitate.
He looked into her eyes—emeralds surrounded by pearl white—where moments ago they had burned red. Her sharp teeth had retracted behind rosy lips. The seaweed-coloured flesh of her upper body was now olive and raised with goose bumps from the icy wind.
“Hanu aii,” she whispered. Do not fear. She spoke his language.
He loosened his grip on the crossbow, studying her. She lifted a frail arm and pushed the hair from her eyes, then motioned him forwards.
His pulse quickened as he stared at the beautiful girl.
“Hanu aii,” she said again, her voice resonating sweetly, as if she sang without singing.
Suddenly, he was kneeling in front of her, level with her luminous eyes. The sounds around him faded but for the soft purr in the base of her throat.
She reached up and held an icy hand to his cheek, not for a moment breaking eye contact. The hand slid behind his head and pulled his face towards hers, slowly but firmly. He inhaled her sweet breath.
“No!”
He flinched. He turned to see the captain racing towards them, aiming his crossbow at the maiden.
The young man grasped the scene around him. The ship was empty. A few stray weapons and barrels bobbed serenely in the water. Blood soaked the deck in places, and even the main mast had a splatter across the bottom.
The captain fired wide. Before he could reload and aim again, the sea demon put a hand on the young man’s chin and pulled his gaze back to hers.
Her eyes blazed red. Her skin rippled into the rotten colour of seaweed. Her ears grew pointed and long like sprouting coral. She opened her mouth to reveal a row of deadly teeth.
The young man screamed.
The demon pulled him against her with more strength than three men combined, and they dove headfirst off the side of the ship.
They disappeared into the blood-red water.
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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!
To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!
Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!
Let’s have some fun!
~~~~
First I want to thank John and Olga for gifting me a copy of Wherewolves. I’m a creature girl at heart and a horror fan foremost so I knew I wanted to read this book.
Let me tell you what I thought!
Wherewolves
by John Vamvas and Olga Montes
My Review
I’m a huge fan of B- movies and this reads like a good one. As I read each scene I easily and gleefully visualized it, every bloody bit of it.
A group of troubled teens are taken into the woods for a survival weekend. The teacher leaves them to fend for themselves. I know. Seen ir or read it before…. you think.
The author brings a lot to the table, introducing you to the characters which consist of the typical jocks, bullies, and geeks. You get to know what drives them, what scares them, before they even enter the woods that night.
As dark approaches, they huddle around the campfire telling stories. It might not be a cozy gathering, but things aren’t too bad. Until they sense something watching them.
This is where the story gets gritty. I love character driven novels and how, when a group is faced with a life or death situation, the dynamics come into play. It takes just a few hours for the fight or flight instincts to consume the teens and chaos to reign once some of the group go missing.
The screaming and snarling from the deep dark of the woods scatters the group and they fear each other as much as what’s stalking them.
The authors brought it all to the table, the fear of the dark, the peer pressure, the teen angst, and the will to survive. This book may have teen characters, but I don’t think there’s much difference between how they acted and a group of adults would act. If you’ve watched Stephen King’s The Mist, you can see how quickly adults succumb to their own fears. In fact, I think the teens might be better prepared for something like this. They aren’t that far from when they feared the bogey man under the bed and may be quicker to believe the unimaginable.
From the title you get a clue to what’s stalking these teens. Feral beasts from your nightmares. These aren’t shifters. They don’t turn into humans and they are horrific in their maniacal glee as they rampage through the group.
I knew what was waiting out in the woods, I knew not everyone would survive, and I knew some would turn on each other and that filled me with trepidation, built the tension to a fever pitch, and had me jumping when my dog suddenly barked at something outside. His own special effects to set the mood for me.
I just love a good werewolf book without the shifter glamour and romance. It was a bloody frolic right to the deliciously wicked ending.
5 STARS
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKmQnzDiKoE]
Synopsis
Using a fun, explosive style, full of new slang and fresh dialogue, WHEREWOLVES is the story of a group of high school seniors, most “military brats”, who are headed for an army-type survival weekend.
The underdogs, Jeffrey and Doris, do not want to go as they fear for their safety among the disdain and cruelty of the popular students. Sergeant Tim O’Sullivan, their teacher, as well as their dysfunctional parents pressure them into going, but it is an unforgivable act by their peers that propels the pair to go. Likewise, Elie, a student resented because of his Arab roots, is even more determined to prove himself this weekend. In the background, a news report cautions of a wanted couple with alleged super-human strength supposedly brought on by a new drug on the streets.
In the woods, the students hike, hunt, camp, and soon act in unity as the forest brings them closer together. But does it? O’Sullivan leaves them alone for the night. The students bond, chant, tell campfire tales, and quickly lose their fears and inhibitions. HOO-AH! Though sexual tensions are high, it soon turns to violence and everything quickly turns sour.
When the kids start disappearing one after the other, the remaining begin to unwittingly “act like the natives” carving spears, ready to face whatever is out there. What has gotten into them?
Amid the blood-curdling growls and the gruesome deaths, the story’s underlying layers are revealed. We see how misconceptions, prejudice, greed, fear, and hatred bring out the worst and best in them.
What is out there? Can it really be werewolves?
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Author John Vamvas
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Author Olga Montes
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So how do you like your werewolves? The shifters that can change back and forth, and retain their human intelligence? Or the beasts that stay in their monstrous form and kill for the thrill?
Let me know and thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew.
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!
Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!
Let’s have some fun!
~~~
The Morning Dew just released yesterday so I jumped right on it and read it last night.
Check it out!
My Review
I’m always looking for the next Edward Lorn story and the minute I heard this was available I hopped over and bought me a copy.
The first thing that happened was I got confused.
The opening was not anything like the book description and I thought I might have got a messed up copy. But then it became clear. I was inside Jimmy’s head as he was playing a make believe game. A fun and interesting beginning and it introduced me to his vivid imagination.
Jimmy and his two best friends are roughing it. They’re going to spend the night in his tree house, no adults allowed. Should be a fun night of loud music, games, and doing what young boys do.
Since losing his mother, Jimmy and his dad have been coping, supporting each other and beginning the healing process. When his dad tells him they have to come inside if the approaching storm begins to thunder, Jimmy agrees with no argument.
It’s not long after the boys enter the tree house that it begins to rain, So far, no thunder or lightning so they get out the games and crank up the music. As the rain continues, they are drawn to the window by the sound of the neighbor’s cows bellowing in pain. When nothing further occurs, the boys go back to their game.
In the morning, the storm is gone and the dew sparkles, so Jimmy is startled when one of his friends crawls out the window onto a tree branch.
What could make him so desperate? What scared him enough to make him leave? Where did he go? The two remaining boys soon see for themselves and now it’s a race to survive the dew.
After the unique beginning to the story, the author doesn’t take long to build an atmosphere of suspense. You know the storm is coming. You suspect something is coming with it. You encounter that something. Then it’s all fear pumping action to the end.
I wish I had as vivid an imagination as Jimmy did. Then I could have had a mental image of the things that came out of the storm. Perhaps it’s better that I didn’t.
You easily become familiar with the characters, the writing flows smoothly, and the ending isn’t predictable. Plus you get some out of this world creatures. All scary good.
4 Stars
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Synopsis
Ten-year-old Jimmy Dougal can’t wait for his sleepover. Twelve hours in the treehouse out back, accompanied by his two best friends, listening to tunes and devouring Fig Newtons… with no parental interference.
During the night, a vicious storm blows in – a storm that terrifies the neighbor’s livestock.
The next morning, all seems right with the world. That is until one of the boys goes missing. Now the two remaining friends must fight to survive…
The Morning Dew.
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You can find my reviews for other books by Edward Lorn HERE.
Edward Lorn is an American horror author presently residing in the southeast United States. He enjoys storytelling, reading, and writing biographies in the third person. Once upon a time, during a session of show and tell, a seven-year-old Edward Lorn shared with his class that his baby brother had died over the weekend. His classmates, the teacher included, wept while he recounted the painful tragedy of having lost a sibling. Edward went home that day and found an irate mother waiting for him. Edward’s teacher had called to express her condolences. This was unfortunate, as Edward had never had a baby brother. With advice given to her by a frustrated teacher, Edward’s mother made him start writing all of his lies down. The rest, as they say, is history. Edward Lorn and his wife are raising two children, along with a handful of outside cats and a beagle named Dot. He remains a liar to this day. The only difference is, now he’s a useful one.
For more about Edward Lorn and his books:
Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Amazon
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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!
Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!
Let’s have some fun!
~~~
You may be thinking, why feature this book, it isn’t horror? Oh, but it is. It’s horrific, savage, and sexy. It’s freakin great!
I used to see the word erotic and instantly shy away from a book. Now that I’ve begun to read outside my normal genres I can’t imagine how many great stories I’ve missed.
Enjoy my review of Crimson Sins
MY REVIEW
I’ve read Madeline’s other books so I knew I was going to get a good read. But holy smokes, this book was above and beyond what I expected.
First, I’ll warn you, this is for mature readers only. The author writes a very visual story which includes some gory violence, torture, and sex.
I’m a fan of character driven novels and my favorites were the three brothers, Bastian, the oldest, then the middle one, Nolan and last but not least, the youngest, Rory. They are close knit and always have each others back, which is good as they tend to get themselves in trouble. They all share something too. They all need to feed on human blood, else they begin to rot and become zombie monsters. That’s a new one for me.
Then there’s big bad Daddy, Ronan. He’s your worst dream come true and would win worst father awards hands down. His idea of a good time is rape, torture, and killing, as ugly as he can make it. His sons often suffered at his hands.
When I first met Morgan, I was thinking, ‘what’s a nice girl like you….’ Then I discover she’s a necromancer and doesn’t even realize it. I understood then why she came to this families attention.
Morgan and Bastian fall in love and horror comes calling. It calls in the form of Ronan. Daddy wants Morgan for his own and woe the one that stands between them, even his own son.
As I anguished over the fate of the characters, suffered alongside my favorites and loathed the evil one, I feared the ending. There is no cliffhanger. This is a stand alone book. And what an ending.
I’d recommend you set aside some time before you start reading Crimson Sins. Once you start, it will be very hard to stop. Filled with rich, come to life descriptions from a sewage filled alleyway, to sexual scenes that will leave you breathless and blushing, to scenes of brutality that will make you cringe, this is by far the best book yet by the author. She tells it like it is and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Bravo Madeline.
5 STARS!
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Here’s a couple scenes to wet your whistle and they are just from the beginning!
Bastian
Chills ran down his arms and coaxed tendrils of necromancy magic from deep within. The air glittered as the veil between the living and the dead vanished. Ghosts drifted up from the pavement….His control vanished…
Bastian and Morgan
In slow motion her hand lifted. She moved to touch him. Closer still. Air crackled between them. Frozen, he stood there and watched, too caught up in her spell to even breathe. A spark of necromancy magic danced from her finger. Crimson. Just like the streaks in her hair. Just like his father. Necromancer. Death.
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Synopsis
Created in Darkness and born of Death, three brothers carry a deadly secret.
One lethal enough to have the dead outnumber the living. Necromancer. Biohazard. Zombie. The abomination inside Bastian Hale demanded constant payment—fresh blood. Without it, he’d rot from the inside out and become little more than a mindless monster. Some called him a living vampire, others considered him contaminated. One woman would call him hers.
Morgan Cross never understood the innate necromancer power running through her veins or why ghosts and zombies sought to ruin her life. When someone’s deadly obsession throws her into Bastian’s arms, their pasts come back to haunt them and she must avoid the one thing she was born to do—claim him as hers.
WARNINGS: violence, gore, mention of rape, torture, images of past abuse, spanking
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About Madeline Pryce and her books
Blog ~ Amazon ~ Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Madeline Pryce on Facebook ~ Madeline Pryce – Author on Facebook
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Other books by Madeline Pryce
Click on the covers to read my reviews
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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!
Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!
Let’s have some fun!
~~~
Shiver me timbers, have I got a creepy one for you.
For today I’ll be telling you about The Whaler
by Steve Roach
My Review
Set in the 1800’s, a time when whalers spend as much as two years on board wooden ships, harvesting the blubber and oil from their kills.
A young man seeking passage home enters a bar. While asking the barkeep about available berths, an old salt with one eye tells him he knows of a ship. It just so happens his son is a captain and will be setting out in a few days. While they wait for him to arrive, they get to know each other.
The young man is curious about how the old man lost his eye and he obliges. Thus begins the tale of Captain Grice, the cruelest, most vicious whaler known on the seas.
“The only time I ever saw him crack a smile was when he was knee-deep in whale blood.”
When the crew spots an old whale, probably already dying, they harpoon it. Then Grice does what he loves best. He jumps upon the dying whale and hacks and slashes at it with his ax until he can swing it no more.
This is no ordinary whale though. It harbors something deadly. Welcome to the belly of the beast.
The author did his research. I can’t imagine how awful it was. The stench of death, the hardship, the endless sea, no horizon in sight.
And he gives you a real villain in Captain Grice. The man was evil. He wasn’t like Ahab, obsessed with a single whale. He hated all of them and reveled in their suffering.
As the old man told the rest of this tale, I could picture the scene. The lights would dim, background noise would fade away, and his raspy voice would chill you to the bone.
Classic horror is what this is.
4 Stars
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Click on these link for more about Steve Roach and his books.
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!
Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!
Let’s have some fun!
~~
With the new year here, I’ve started implementing my new plans for my blog.
While I’ll still be doing my memes and posting for book tours and giveaways, I’m going to be doing a lot more reviewing.
I asked you to help me with this. Below are the 5 books I’ll be reviewing for the 5 Fridays in January. You’ve let me know which one you want me to review first. The book with the most votes for my first 2014 Freakin Fridays review was The Little Mermaid of Death!
There is a link further down in the post for my review if you missed it.
Your next pick was Spooky Short Stories. You can check out my review further down in this post.
And your next pick was The Monster Man of Horror House which I’ll be reviewing now along with the next choice Days With The Undead!
I had a glitch and had to miss my Freakin Fridays post last week so making up for that now.
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The previous week’s choices!
The Monster Man of Horror House
by Danny King
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My Review
Every town has one. That mysterious person. A recluse. You can’t help but listen to the rumors about him. His very aloofness invites it.
John Coal has been having trouble with a group of teenage boys. They pull pranks, destroy property, and torment him. At first, he’s at a loss, wondering, “Why me?”
Then it hits him. He’s that creepy old guy in the creepy house. The odd one that everybody whispers about. People cross the street to avoid contact.
The gang of boys continue to plague him so he figures he’ll give them what they believe. He’ll be the monster man.
So he sets the bait, making it easy for the boys to get, and adds one more thing to entice them further into the house. Then he springs his trap and the boys end up in his cellar, scared and shaken.
Who knows what horrible plans he has in store for them. They should have minded their own business.
John Coal has quite a history. He’s dealt with things we only dreamed about in our nightmares. Drawing on his past experiences, he goes to extremes to teach these boys a lesson.
The author threw me for a loop from the moment John trapped those boys. I didn’t have any idea whether John was just a grumpy old loner or something else. I quickly found out. I can see why he’s called the monster man now.
I had to stretch my imagination a bit about the elaborate trap John set. But as I learned about his past, it became easier to believe and them I was all in to the end.
A good read for a dark and stormy night.
3 Stars
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Days With The Undead
by Julianne Snow
My Review
This was a bit different for me. The story is narrated by Julie as an ongoing journal on the internet. She is recording everything that has happened to her and her 4 friends starting three days after the outbreak, as they go on the run, seeking someplace safe from the zombies.
Right away, I liked how the author addressed people’s reactions to the news of the flesh-eating outbreak. Many just went about their daily lives. That is, until the zombies came calling.
Some of the towns they passed through were untouched, while others were ravaged. They had to be careful not only of the zombies. There were pirates out there, goons who would as soon shoot you as help you. They want what you’ve got, plain and simple.
While telling her tale, Julie begins relating each of her friends stories. What happened to them when the outbreak occurred and how they came to be together.
If you are going to survive, you have to get tough, keep your group small, and keep moving. No stopping to help anyone, and no letting someone join the group, no matter what.
It’s easy to think, but harder when they’re faced with some choices.
Zombie fans know that things happen. Not everyone can survive. You expect losses. But don’t you wish it didn’t have to be that way?
By writing this as a journal, Julianne did an excellent job. I was actually picturing the scenes, nodding at some things, and hoping the zombie apocalypse stayed what it is. Fiction.
You can learn a lot about surviving the apocalypse by reading Julie’s journal.
I was going to give this 4 stars but the ending bumped it right up to 5! I read it several times and it floored me.
5 Stars
~~~
Your previous choices were:
Spooky Short Stories
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
***
Your first choice!
The Little Mermaid of Death
by Kevin Richey
And for next week!
#1
Cold Blood
by Donna Ansari
As the winter holiday season descends on New York City, vampire Emma Hammond is anticipating celebrating with Tammy and David, her witch and werewolf roommates. But when an odd Christmas ornament unleashes waves of the undead from her neighborhood graveyard, Emma finds herself as an unwilling shield between ravenous zombies and an unsuspecting city. Even worse, despite having everyday dealing with supernatural creatures, Emma finds that she has an unnatural aversion to the shambling dead, and must get to their source and stop the invasion before she’s forced to cancel her holiday party!
***
Stay tuned for February. I’ll be giving you some new choices!
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!
Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!
Let’s have some fun!
~~
With the new year here, I’ve started implementing my new plans for my blog.
While I’ll still be doing my memes and posting for book tours and giveaways, I’m going to be doing a lot more reviewing.
I asked you to help me with this. Below are the 5 books I’ll be reviewing for the 5 Fridays in January. You’ve let me know which one you want me to review first. The book with the most votes for my first 2014 Freakin Fridays review was The Little Mermaid of Death!
There is a link further down in the post for my review if you missed it.
Your next pick was Spooky Short Stories. So here is my review.
Don’t forget to explore the next three books afterwards and choose which one I should review next week! Just leave me a comment:)
~~~
Spooky Short Stories
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Four contemporary spooky short stories:
Ghost Brother… So what happens after you die? Do you go to heaven, or hell? Or do you go to a special place fashioned just for you based on the life you’d lived in the real world? Based on how you treated people? What you did to them? And do ghosts exist? Do they roam the earth and plague the living, persuade them to do things they shouldn’t do? Two brothers and their tale follow; their journey through life and death. Do you believe in ghosts? Some do.
Running with the Train… Sarah has always been lonely. Searching for a love she’s begun to believe will never come. Her family and friends depend, need her…but they can’t give her what she wants. True, eternal love. Like the wolves have. So she goes on an adventure of a lifetime to the Grand Canyon; rides the train from Williams to the South Rim and sees these huge wolves running alongside in the evening twilight; scurrying unbelievably below on the Canyon’s ledges among the trees. She’s told there are no wolves but she hears their haunting cries. No one else sees or hears them. Just her. Has her loneliness made her crazy?
The Banshee and the Witch… What would you do to live forever, stay young forever? To find true love again? And if you were a white witch with the magical powers to make it happen…and the secret of how to do it, would you? So when the banshee comes calling for you one rainy dark night you’ll do what you have to do to get what you desire the most. More time.
Too Close to the Edge… Artist Penelope had been looking forward to going with her husband, sister and brother-in-law to see the Grand Canyon…even though she was terrified of heights and, when she got there, couldn’t bear to get too close to the edge. She watched people balancing on one foot, acting foolish, taking photos, oblivious of the death waiting below them. It scared her. Especially when a woman relates a story of a small child that fell into the Canyon the day before. Over the edge. Then she sees a young girl go over the rim and no one will believe her. For there was no child that had died–that day anyway. Was she seeing things that weren’t there, or was there another explanation?
My Review
At first I was thinking Running with the train was my favorite. Then I thought the Banshee and the Witch. Then I thought..well you know how that goes. I can’t pick a favorite as each of these stories are unique unto themselves and very, very good.
Ghost Brother
A man wakes up in a graveyard one night. He has no memory of how he got there or why.
He trudges home but finds he can’t get in his house, so he sits and contemplates, trying to recall what happened.
Bobby’s dead brother, Gerald, has haunted him for a long time. He’s evil incarnate and goads Bobby into doing some really bad things.
Now Bobby’s done something truly horrid and it’s time to face the music.
I’m always up for something dark and twisted. This story sure is. I tried to guess ahead as to what had happened to Bobby, but when I reached the end of the story, I was way off.
The author pulled one over on me. Not bad Kathryn, not bad at all.
Running With The Train
This one has a mystical feel to it.
Sarah is unlucky in love and all she does is work. Wanting something, but not knowing what, she takes a vacation, going to the Grand Canyon by herself.
Things start getting mysterious while she’s on the train. She sees something, shadowy figures, running alongside the train. But nobody else sees them.While enjoying the view at the South Rim, just before dark, she meets a compelling, and very handsome man. Something about him draws her and she talks with him, telling him about herself. As quickly as he appears, he is gone.
She encounters this man again, and he tells her why he came to her and what he wants. Now she has a choice to make. But what about her family. They need her.
I felt some folklore in this one. The author built up the mystery, making me anxious to see the wonder she would reveal to Sarah and to me.
I couldn’t wait to get to the end and find out what choice Sarah made.
The Banshee and the Witch
Another good one.
Cleona is a witch. The most powerful witch. She has lived a long time.
She’s loved well and lived well, but she’s not ready to leave this world yet. She wants more time.
When the banshee comes calling, she knows she doesn’t have much time left. She’s able to use her magic and send the banshee away several times, but soon that won’t work anymore. There are consequences to using her magic this way. Her familiar, her cat, warns her of this.
So the next time the banshee comes, she has to try something else, something clever.
This was such a fun story. I really like witches. And Cleona’s familiar,Precious, has attitude and all the sass and independence of a cat too. Their exchanges were comical and gave me a few chuckles.
The ending was unexpected. The author caught me completely by surprise. I think you’ll like it too.
Too Close To The Edge
This tale isn’t scary as much as it is haunting.
Penelope has always been afraid of heights. She gets close to the edge and vertigo sets in, along with an irrational fear.
The trip with her husband, along with her sister and brother-in-law, to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon was a step toward getting past her fear. It proves difficult as she sees others clowning around, teetering near the edge, with this it can’t happen to me attitude.
When she spies a little girl, alone, leaning out to clutch a flower, her fears are confirmed when the girl teeters, then slips over and out of sight.
I liked that Penelope tried to get past her fear, to confront it and vanquish it for good.
What she experiences on the rim is haunting and wonderous at the same time.
The very end of the story made me smile. It was perfect.
5 Stars
***
Last weeks choice!
The Little Mermaid of Death
by Kevin Richey
Tired of her life with the other swamp hags, Ariel strikes a bargain to obtain a mask so realistic she could pass for human. But can she trick anyone into marrying her before the mask deteriorates—and all without saying a word?
Here are the books to choose from for next week. Let me know which one I should review next!
#1
The Monster Man of Horror House
by Danny King
Local oddball, John Coal is the town oddball. Old, crotchety, pungent and solitary, he lives in a scary old house that is almost as rundown as he and sees out his days shuffling around the streets harvesting his neighbours’ skips for scrap.
The local kids take great delight in plaguing him morning, noon and night but they’ve chosen the wrong old coot to mess with because John Coal is no ordinary man. He knows where the bodies are buried. He’s been to the outer limits. He is a keeper of dark secrets. Murder, monsters, demons and bi-polar vampires, he has seen them all and lived to tell the tale.
Now, if he is to rid himself of his woes he must dig into the deepest recesses of his past and use these terrible experiences to convince his tormentors he’s not just an old man to be pushed around.
He is John Coal – the Monster Man of Horror House.
***
#2
Cold Blood
by Donna Ansari
As the winter holiday season descends on New York City, vampire Emma Hammond is anticipating celebrating with Tammy and David, her witch and werewolf roommates. But when an odd Christmas ornament unleashes waves of the undead from her neighborhood graveyard, Emma finds herself as an unwilling shield between ravenous zombies and an unsuspecting city. Even worse, despite having everyday dealing with supernatural creatures, Emma finds that she has an unnatural aversion to the shambling dead, and must get to their source and stop the invasion before she’s forced to cancel her holiday party!
**
#3
Days with the Undead
by Julianne Snow
It’s a journal of survival.
Five people set out to escape the Undead who have risen too close to home. Join the emotional and physical struggle as they began on the third day after the awakening of Brooks VanReit, as they are recorded from the point of view of Julie, a former pathologist and part-time survivalist.
Each entry is geared toward helping those who want to help themselves and maybe give a few that don’t a swift kick in the ass.
Join our group of survivors on their journey through these Days with the Undead.
~~~
So tell me. Which one should I review next?
Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.
Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!
Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!
Let’s have some fun!
~~
With the new year here, I’m ready to implement my new plans for my blog.
While I’ll still be doing my memes and posting for book tours and giveaways, I’m going to be doing a lot more reviewing.
Last week I asked you to help me with this. Below are the 5 books I’ll be reviewing for the 5 Fridays in January. You’ve let me know which one you want me to review first. The book with the most votes for my first 2014 Freakin Fridays review is The Little Mermaid of Death!
Enjoy my review and leave me a comment about which of the books below I should review next week!.
~~~
The Little Mermaid of Death
by Kevin Richey
Tired of her life with the other swamp hags, Ariel strikes a bargain to obtain a mask so realistic she could pass for human. But can she trick anyone into marrying her before the mask deteriorates—and all without saying a word?
**
I won this book from a giveaway at I Smell Sheep.
Thanks so much Sharon and thanks Kevin!
My Review
Ariel isn’t like the other swamp hags. Sure, she still lines up for her share of flesh from an unfortunate victim, but she likes pretty things. She collects trinkets and squirrels them away under a rock in her nest beneath the stagnant bog waters.
One day, while setting a trap, she spies a beautiful man. Her world changes. She wishes she could be pretty, be human, and have love in her life.
When she has a chance, she takes it, hoping to get someone to fall in love with her before the power of the mask wears off, revealing the hag beneath.
Kevin Richey has written many of these Zombie Fairy Tales. This is the first one I’ve read and I’m so hooked now. I’m going to have to read them all.
I’m a fast reader and finished this in about 40 minutes with only one break to answer the phone.
Not for the sensitive stomach, this is gritty zombie fiction.
I liked Ariel. I liked that she had a wish for something different, for a human life. The author put a good twist on this one. While the mask made her look human, she had to get someone to fall in love with her without speaking a word.
I had high hopes for Ariel. I wanted her to succeed, but it was always in the back of my mind that this was a zombie fairy tale. I didn’t know if they had happy endings.
I had a lot of fun finding out.
If you like fairy tales and zombies, you’ll like this new spin on the little mermaid.
4 Stars
**
About Kevin Richey
Kevin Richey lives and writes in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of Zombie Fairy Tales, a series of short stories set in a dark fairy tale universe plagued by zombies, and the forthcoming Unloved Ones series, a YA urban fantasy series about seven vampire siblings who have one year to reduce their family to a single member, by whatever means necessary.
You can also now get the complete tales in one omnibus with a 13th tale exclusive to the set.
**
Here are the books to choose from for next week. Let me know which one I should review next!
#1
The Monster Man of Horror House
by Danny King
Local oddball, John Coal is the town oddball. Old, crotchety, pungent and solitary, he lives in a scary old house that is almost as rundown as he and sees out his days shuffling around the streets harvesting his neighbours’ skips for scrap.
The local kids take great delight in plaguing him morning, noon and night but they’ve chosen the wrong old coot to mess with because John Coal is no ordinary man. He knows where the bodies are buried. He’s been to the outer limits. He is a keeper of dark secrets. Murder, monsters, demons and bi-polar vampires, he has seen them all and lived to tell the tale.
Now, if he is to rid himself of his woes he must dig into the deepest recesses of his past and use these terrible experiences to convince his tormentors he’s not just an old man to be pushed around.
He is John Coal – the Monster Man of Horror House.
***
#2
Spooky Short Stories
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Four contemporary spooky short stories:
Ghost Brother… So what happens after you die? Do you go to heaven, or hell? Or do you go to a special place fashioned just for you based on the life you’d lived in the real world? Based on how you treated people? What you did to them? And do ghosts exist? Do they roam the earth and plague the living, persuade them to do things they shouldn’t do? Two brothers and their tale follow; their journey through life and death. Do you believe in ghosts? Some do.
Running with the Train… Sarah has always been lonely. Searching for a love she’s begun to believe will never come. Her family and friends depend, need her…but they can’t give her what she wants. True, eternal love. Like the wolves have. So she goes on an adventure of a lifetime to the Grand Canyon; rides the train from Williams to the South Rim and sees these huge wolves running alongside in the evening twilight; scurrying unbelievably below on the Canyon’s ledges among the trees. She’s told there are no wolves but she hears their haunting cries. No one else sees or hears them. Just her. Has her loneliness made her crazy?
The Banshee and the Witch… What would you do to live forever, stay young forever? To find true love again? And if you were a white witch with the magical powers to make it happen…and the secret of how to do it, would you? So when the banshee comes calling for you one rainy dark night you’ll do what you have to do to get what you desire the most. More time.
Too Close to the Edge… Artist Penelope had been looking forward to going with her husband, sister and brother-in-law to see the Grand Canyon…even though she was terrified of heights and, when she got there, couldn’t bear to get too close to the edge. She watched people balancing on one foot, acting foolish, taking photos, oblivious of the death waiting below them. It scared her. Especially when a woman relates a story of a small child that fell into the Canyon the day before. Over the edge. Then she sees a young girl go over the rim and no one will believe her. For there was no child that had died–that day anyway. Was she seeing things that weren’t there, or was there another explanation?
**
#3
Cold Blood
by Donna Ansari
As the winter holiday season descends on New York City, vampire Emma Hammond is anticipating celebrating with Tammy and David, her witch and werewolf roommates. But when an odd Christmas ornament unleashes waves of the undead from her neighborhood graveyard, Emma finds herself as an unwilling shield between ravenous zombies and an unsuspecting city. Even worse, despite having everyday dealing with supernatural creatures, Emma finds that she has an unnatural aversion to the shambling dead, and must get to their source and stop the invasion before she’s forced to cancel her holiday party!
**
#4
Days with the Undead
by Julianne Snow
It’s a journal of survival.
Five people set out to escape the Undead who have risen too close to home. Join the emotional and physical struggle as they began on the third day after the awakening of Brooks VanReit, as they are recorded from the point of view of Julie, a former pathologist and part-time survivalist.
Each entry is geared toward helping those who want to help themselves and maybe give a few that don’t a swift kick in the ass.
Join our group of survivors on their journey through these Days with the Undead.
~~~
So tell me. Which one should I review next?
