Posts tagged with horror
Revelations, by Melissa de la Cruz
I have an intense, long-standing, slightly guilty love for vampire stories, which allows me to tolerate literature I wouldn’t otherwise touch with a ten foot pole. This love might not be powerful enough...
Flora's Dare, by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Middle series installments frequently feel like stopgaps, but Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora’s Dare, the sequel to 2007’s Flora Segunda, is in all ways exceptional. As the story opens, fourteen-year-old Flora has discovered that her formerly crazy father was actually a lot easier to live with back when he was nuts...
Speaking of movies...
...Will Smith has signed on to star in a prequel to the blockbuster I Am Legend (which was based on a novel by acclaimed horror/sci-fi writer Richard Matheson). According to Variety, the film wil...
Acacia, by David Anthony Durham
As David Anthony Durham’s sprawling epic fantasy Acacia opens, Leodan Akaran, the ruler of Acacia, has begun to question the secret arrangement that ensures his empire’s prosperity: a horrify...
Wake, by Lisa McMann
Lisa McMann’s debut novel Wake has a lot going for it: a great premise, an intriguingly dark atmosphere, and a plausibly screwed-up heroine. Unfortunately, it’s way too short, it’s currently...
But wait, there's more
I just finished reading Kelley Armstrong's The Summoning—her first young adult novel, as well as the first book in a projected trilogy—and I thought it was awesome: totally fun, totally exciting, ...
Gaiman gets choosy.
Neil Gaiman—who's obviously in full promotion-mode for his upcoming novel The Graveyard Book—has compiled a list of his 10 favorite "New Classic Monsters" for Entertainment Weekly. I’m not sure I...
Succubus in the City, by Nina Harper
Welcome to part two of our paranormal romance series, featuring reviews of the second installment of a young adult vampire series and a book about the exciting lives of New York succubae...
50 Ways to Hex Your Lover, by Linda Wisdom
We’ve received a number of supernatural romance novels recently, featuring everything from witches to succubae to cat-people from space, so we’ll be posting four reviews over the next two days. Ke...
Darkside, by Tom Becker
Tom Becker’s debut novel Darkside opens with a kidnapping: thirteen-year-old Ricky Thomas is abducted from the middle of Trafalgar Square in broad daylight, and, strangely, none of the hundreds of...
Black Hole, by Charles Burns
Charles Burns’s graphic novel Black Hole is lyrical, meticulously illustrated, and thought-provoking. It’s also creepy, stomach-churning, and unnecessarily grim. Delicate flowers might want to s...
Black Magic Woman, by Justin Gustainis
I love monster movies, which is why I’ve always been surprised that the 2004 film Van Helsing was so bad. It had vampires, werewolves, witches, and Hugh Jackman—how could such abundant awesomenes...
Blood Brothers, by Nora Roberts
As someone who has never learned to appreciate delayed gratification, I was pretty excited about the one-book-release-per-month schedule Nora Roberts adhered to for her last trilogy, 2006’s...
Freakout ahoy!
Bestselling Japanese horror/mystery author Miyuki Miyabe has a new book out. Here's the publisher's description of The Devil's Whisper:"The three deaths come in quick succession: one girl jumps f...
Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr
Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr’s debut novel, is a YA gothic fantasy that falls somewhere between Holly Black’s gritty, atmospheric fairy tales and Stephenie Meyer’s angst-filled Twilight series. Marr’s book has its weak spots, but this modern Tam Lin adaptation is more than entertaining enough to overcome them...
Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead
Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead’s first book aimed at young adults, is 100% pure slinky fun. This stylish goth-lite novel isn’t breaking any new ground, but Mead's fiercely devoted heroines make her book a welcome entry into the overstuffed teen vampire genre...
Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson
Kat Richardson’s Poltergeist (sequel to 2006’s Greywalker) is a sharp, sinister urban fantasy that blends storytelling with Seattle history. Painstakingly researched and intelligent, this series is perfect for fantasy/horror fans looking for something more than a spine-tingling cheap thrill...
No Humans Involved, by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstong’s most recent book, No Humans Involved, is the first installment of her Women of the Otherworld series to feature a character without name-taking and ass-kicking magical powers. In fact, necromancer Jaime Vegas has decidedly mixed feelings about her “gift”—on one hand, it allows her to work as a successful celebrity medium; on the other, ghosts are constantly hanging around...
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home, by Joss Whedon
When we first heard that Joss Whedon was going to write a comic book series that would serve as the eighth season of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show, we weren’t sold on the idea. The first f...
Gregor and the Code of Claw, by Suzanne Collins
Gregor and the Code of Claw, the final installment in Suzanne Collins’s Underland Chronicles, is the most unsatisfying book I have read this year. It’s not a bad book—Collins’s characters...
My Dead Girlfriend, by Eric Wight
At first glance, the first volume of Eric Wight’s My Dead Girlfriend has two things going for it—glowing recommendations from Meg Cabot and Joss Whedon—and one major strike against it: cover art t...