Difference between revisions of "Newest Horror Reviews"

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|isbn=0241384435
 
|isbn=0241384435
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1789090873
 +
|title=Dread Nation
 +
|author=Justina Ireland
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Horror
 +
|summary=''Two days after I was born … the dead rose up and started to walk on a battlefield in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg ''
  
{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15"  <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
+
Dread Nation narrates the unconventional life of Jane McKeene who was born days before the dead began to walk the streets. An event which is interrupting the civil war between the states altered American history forever. In the changing world, minorities are forced into conscription and under the new Native and Negro Re-education Act children are placed in combat schools where they are trained extensively to destroy the dead once and for all. For Jane and other girls like her, there is however the opportunity for a better life by being employed as an attendant. With deadly capabilities and perfect etiquette, attendants protect those higher in society and are valued above all else.
<!-- Ireland -->
+
}}
|-
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{{Frontpage
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
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|isbn=1471407764
[[image:1789090873.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789090873/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
|title=The Twisted Tree
 +
|author=Rachel Burge
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Horror
 +
|summary=Martha's world has changed. Blind in one eye after falling from a tree, she wakes with a disturbing gift. She can read people through their clothes, secrets tumble from the weave, revealing insights she doesn't really want, and knowledge she doesn't understand. She flees to her grandmother, Mormor's cabin, seeking answers no one is prepared to give and stumbles into a  world of menace.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1788950720
 +
|title=Whiteout (Red Eye)
 +
|author=Gabriel Dylan
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Horror
 +
|summary=Are you up for a sleepless night or two? If so, read on!
  
 
+
Charlie is on a school trip, skiing in the Austrian mountains. He's not having much fun. A miserable home life has given Charlie a bad attitude reputation and he's not a popular kid. Charlie tends to go off by himself - not always a safe thing to do if you're staying in a ski resort - and this is what brings him into contact with one of the ski guides, Hanna. Hanna herself doesn't have the happiest backstory and this forms a connection between them.
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
}}
===[[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland]]===
+
{{Frontpage
 
+
|isbn=9386897385
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
+
|title=Nothing Lasting
 
+
|author=Laura Solomon
''Two days after I was born … the dead rose up and started to walk on a battlefield in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg ''
+
|rating=3.5
 
+
|genre=Horror
Dread Nation narrates the unconventional life of Jane McKeene who was born days before the dead began to walk the streets. An event which in interrupting the civil war between the states altered American history forever. In the changed world, minorities are forced into conscription and under the new Native and Negro Re-education Act children are placed in combat schools where they are trained extensively to destroy the dead once and for all. For Jane and other girls like her, there is however the opportunity for a better life by being employed as an attendant. With deadly capabilities and perfect etiquette, attendants protect those higher in society and are valued above all else. [[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland|Full Review]]
+
|summary=We never know the man's name but let's call him ''Boyo''. It's what his mother used to call him, not least because he found it annoying. When we first meet Boyo his mother is alive, if not ''living'' as most people would understand it. She spends her days watching daytime television and drinking.  Housework is a foreign country.  When she dies she's not missed, firstly because she'd spent a couple of years in a mental hospital, but mainly because her ghost continues to haunt Boyo.  She wants him to achieve something in his life: what she has in mind is that he could be a famous arsonist.
 
+
}}
<!-- Burge -->
+
{{Frontpage
|-
+
|isbn=1538761858
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
+
|title=The Anomaly
[[image:1471407764.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471407764/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
|author=Michael Rutger
 
+
|rating=5
 
+
|genre=Horror
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
|summary=Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones within an X-Files episode, for the Youtube era. Join the intrepid (if rather inept) team of internet adventurers as they head out on yet another search for ''an anomaly'' only to (spoilers) actually find one. Imagine if, instead of being scared by their own acting, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding actually found something; that is the starting point of this book. Deep in a cave within the Grand Canyon our team of adventurers find themselves trapped in a Stephen King plot with added levels of paranoia and conspiracy thrown into the blend.
===[[The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge]]===
+
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
+
|isbn=1683690122
 
+
|title=We Sold Our Souls
Martha's world has changed. Blind in one eye after falling from a tree, she wakes with a disturbing gift. She can read people through their clothes, secrets tumble from the weave, revealing insights she doesn't really want, and knowledge she doesn't understand. She flees to her grandmother, Mormor's cabin, seeking answers no one is prepared to give, and stumbles into world of menace. [[The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge|Full Review]]
+
|author=Grady Hendrix
 
+
|rating=5
<!-- Dylan -->
+
|genre=Horror
|-
+
|summary=The night manager of a Best Western, Kris Pulaski is washed up and unhappy. Few know of her past as guitarist of 90's Heavy Metal band Dürt Würk – a band once tipped for greatness, but destined to obscurity after lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career, rocketing to stardom as ''Koffin''. When a shocking act of violence turns Kris's life upside down – she is forced to look back to a past she has tried to forget – and to a deal Hunt made that may have sabotaged more than just the band. In a journey that will take Kris from a dusty hotel to a hellish music festival, she's determined to face the man who ruined her life. But with dark forces rising and threatening everything Kris holds dear, will Kris be able to defeat the odds? Or will Hell truly be unleashed on the Earth…?
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
+
}}
[[image:1788950720.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788950720/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21
+
{{Frontpage
]]
+
|isbn=ETDWB
 
+
|title=Even The Dead Will Bleed: Book 3 of Tell Me When I'm Dead
 
+
|author=Steven Ramirez
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
|rating=4.5
 
+
|genre=Horror
===[[Whiteout (Red Eye) by Gabriel Dylan]]===
+
|summary=In the third and final part of the ''Tell Me When I'm Dead'' series, Dave Pulaski is headed to Los Angeles – seeking revenge and retribution. With the events of book two still weighing heavily on Dave, he struggles against the rage burning inside him and saves Sasha – a young escapee from the secret testing facility. As events come to a climax, and Dave finds himself pursued by both an ex-military sociopath and a group of scientifically engineered humans who flay their victims alive, the stakes are higher than ever before – will Dave make it out of this alive? And what kind of world will he have left?
 
+
}}
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] 
+
{{Frontpage
 
+
|isbn=DIAYG
Are you up for a sleepless night or two? If so, read on!
+
|title=Dead Is All You Get: Book Two of Tell Me When I'm Dead
 
+
|author=Steven Ramirez
Charlie is on a school trip, skiing in the Austrian mountains. He's not having much fun. A miserable home life has given Charlie a bad attitude reputation and he's not a popular kid. Charlie tends to go off by himself - not always a safe thing to do if you're staying in a ski resort - and this is what brings him into contact with one of the ski guides, Hanna. Hanna herself doesn't have the happiest backstory and this forms a connection between them. [[ Whiteout (Red Eye) by Gabriel Dylan  |Full Review]] 
+
|rating=4.5
 
+
|genre=Horror
<!-- Laura Solomon -->
+
|summary=Still battling the zombie hordes who first appeared in ''Tell Me When I'm Dead'', Dave Pulaski thinks his prayers have been answered when the Black Dragon Security team show up to rescue him and his wife Holly. But things only get worse – with the virus mutating, and the infected getting smarter. When Dave discovers the truth behind the contagion it will drive him past all limits of faith or reason – but will he be able to manage to deal with this knowledge whilst protecting Holly and those closest to him?
|-
+
}}
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
+
{{Frontpage
[[image:9386897385.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9386897385/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
|isbn=TMWImD
 
+
|title=Tell Me When I'm Dead: Book One of Tell Me When I'm Dead
 
+
|author=Steven Ramirez
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
|rating=4.5
===[[Nothing Lasting by Laura Solomon]]===
+
|genre=Horror
 
+
|summary=A recovering alcoholic, Dave Pulaski has had a long road to recovery, but finally feels like he's getting his life back. Then - a plague hits the town, turning the majority of the population into flesh-hungry monsters who crave the taste of humans. Fighting to survive - Dave's urge to hide away and drink is strong - will he fight to live when the chances of survival are so slim? With the hordes of the undead growing and the security forces outnumbered, it seems that hell has arrived for Dave...
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
+
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
We never know the man's name but let's call him ''Boyo''. It's what his mother used to call him, not least because he found it annoying.  When we first meet Boyo his mother is alive, if not ''living'' as most people would understand it.  She spends her days watching daytime television and drinking. Housework is a foreign country. When she dies she's not missed, firstly because she'd spent a couple of years in a mental hospital, but mainly because her ghost continues to haunt Boyo.  She wants him to achieve something in his life: what she has in mind is that he could be a famous arsonist. [[Nothing Lasting by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
+
|isbn=1788542304
 
+
|title=The Monsters We Deserve
<!-- Rutger -->
+
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
|-
+
|rating=4
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
+
|genre=Horror
[[image:1538761858.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1538761858/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
|summary=Two hundred years ago, bad weather, bad company (well, the kind that is also mad, and dangerous to know), a spooky reading list and a few chance topics of discussion all led a young woman to start writing her first, and definitely her most famous ever, book. The narrator of this novel has brought himself to a remote Alpine building, in the centre of that first novel's world, to revisit it in honour of its bicentenary. He hates it, for he sees it as badly written and with some unwelcome biases. He seems to only be there and doing this for the publisher to whom he addresses a lot of the script we read. But what if some greater force wanted him there too?
 
+
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
|isbn=Clements_Coffin
===[[The Anomaly by Michael Rutger]]===
+
|title=The Coffin Path
 
+
|author=Katherine Clements
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
+
|rating=4.5
 
+
|genre=Horror
Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones within an X-Files episode, for the Youtube era. Join the intrepid (if rather inept) team of internet adventurers as they head out on yet another search for ''an anomaly'' only to (spoilers) actually find one. Imagine if, instead of being scared by their own acting, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding actually found something; that is the starting point of this book. Deep in a cave within the Grand Canyon our team of adventurers find themselves trapped in a Stephen King plot with added levels of paranoia and conspiracy thrown into the blend. [[The Anomaly by Michael Rutger|Full Review]]
+
|summary=Maybe you've heard about Scarcross Hall? Hidden on the old coffin path that winds from the village to the moor top, the villagers only speak of it in hushed tones - of how it's a foreboding place filled with evil. Mercy Booth has lived there since birth, and she's always loved the grand house and its isolation, but a recurrence of strange events begins to unsettle her. From objects disappearing through to a shadowy presence sensed in the house, mysteries come to light that can only be solved by Mercy unearthing long-buried secrets. And will a dark stranger help Mercy protect everything she has come to love or tear it from her grasp?
 
+
}}
<!-- Hendrix -->
+
{{Frontpage
|-
+
|isbn=Tudor Chalk
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
+
|title=The Chalk Man
[[image:1683690122.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690122/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
|author=C J Tudor
 
+
|rating=5
 
+
|genre=Horror
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
|summary=''The Chalk Man'' follows a group of friends haunted by an eerily terrifying spectre, conjured during one fateful summer. By the time the new term begins, friendships will be fractured, and a girl will be dead. But who is the killer; is it The Chalk Man, whose dusty white grip squeezes ever tighter, or someone much closer to home? Thirty years later, Ed has tried to forget about that summer, about all the poisoned, sinister memories of The Chalk Man. However, someone seems determined not to let him and when the letters start to arrive, the past follows, plaguing him and dredging up the fever dream nightmare of the summer of 1986, populated by fairs, ra-ra skirts and death. Driven deeper into the mysterious events surrounding Ed's sleepy suburban life, the reader cannot help but wonder; who is The Chalk Man, and will he ever let Ed go?
===[[We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix]]===
+
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
+
|isbn=Hill_Strange
 
+
|title=Strange Weather
The night manager of a Best Western, Kris Pulaski is washed up and unhappy. Few know of her past as guitarist of 90's Heavy Metal band Dürt Würk – a band once tipped for greatness, but destined to obscurity after lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career, rocketing to stardom as ''Koffin''. When a shocking act of violence turns Kris's life upside down – she is forced to look back to a past she has tried to forget – and to a deal Hunt made that may have sabotaged more than just the band. In a journey that will take Kris from a dusty hotel to a hellish music festival, she's determined to face the man who ruined her life. But with dark forces rising and threatening everything Kris holds dear, will Kris be able to defeat the odds? Or will Hell truly be unleashed on the Earth…? [[We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix|Full Review]]
+
|author=Joe Hill
 
+
|rating=5
<!-- Ramirez -->
+
|genre=Horror
|-
+
|summary=Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and cataclysmic weather. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty.
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
+
}}
[[image:ETDWB.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/ETDWB/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
{{Frontpage
 
+
|isbn=Jester_Forever
 
+
|title=Forever After: a dark comedy
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
|author=David Jester
===[[Even The Dead Will Bleed: Book 3 of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez]]===
+
|rating=4
 
+
|genre=Horror
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
+
|summary=Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat.
 
+
}}
In the third and final part of the ''Tell Me When I'm Dead'' series, Dave Pulaski is headed to Los Angeles – seeking revenge and retribution. With the events of book two still weighing heavily on Dave, he struggles against the rage burning inside him and saves Sasha – a young escapee from the secret testing facility. As events come to a climax, and Dave finds himself pursued by both an ex-military sociopath and a group of scientifically engineered humans who flay their victims alive, the stakes are higher than ever before – will Dave make it out of this alive? And what kind of world will he have left? [[Even The Dead Will Bleed: Book 3 of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez|Full Review]]
+
{{Frontpage
 
+
|isbn=Hendrix_PBHell
<!-- Ramirez -->
+
|title=Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s
|-
+
|author=Grady Hendrix
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
+
|rating=4.5
[[image:DIAYG.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/DIAYG/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
|genre=Horror
 
+
|summary=Demonic possession, murderous babies, man-eating moths… for these books, no plot was too ludicrous, no cover art too appalling, no evil too despicable. Now horror author Grady Hendrix risks his soul and his sanity (not to mention the reader's!) to relate the true, untold story of a fascinating and often forgotten era in publishing.
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[Dead Is All You Get: Book Two of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez]]===
 
 
 
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
 
 
 
Still battling the zombie hordes who first appeared in ''Tell Me When I'm Dead'', Dave Pulaski thinks his prayers have been answered when the Black Dragon Security team show up to rescue him and his wife Holly. But things only get worse – with the virus mutating, and the infected getting smarter. When Dave discovers the truth behind the contagion it will drive him past all limits of faith or reason – but will he able to manage dealing with this knowledge whilst protecting Holly and those closest to him? [[Dead Is All You Get: Book Two of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez|Full Review]]
 
 
 
<!-- Ramirez -->
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
[[image:TMWImD.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ESNCNG4/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
 
 
 
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[Tell Me When I'm Dead: Book One of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez]]===
 
 
 
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
 
 
 
A recovering alcoholic, Dave Pulaski has had a long road to recovery, but finally feels like he's getting his life back. Then - a plague hits the town, turning the majority of the population into flesh-hungry monsters who crave the taste of humans. Fighting to survive - Dave's urge to hide away and drink is strong - will he fight to live when the chances of survival are so slim? With the hordes of the undead growing and the security forces outnumbered, it seems that hell has arrived for Dave... [[Tell Me When I'm Dead: Book One of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez|Full Review]]
 
 
 
<!-- Sedgwick -->
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
[[image:1788542304.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788542304/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
 
 
 
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick]]===
 
 
 
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
 
 
 
Two hundred years ago, bad weather, bad company (well, the kind that is also mad, and dangerous to know), a spooky reading list and a few chance topics of discussion all led a young woman to start writing her first, and definitely her most famous ever, book. The narrator of this novel has brought himself to a remote Alpine building, in the centre of that first novel's world, to revisit it in honour of its bicentenary. He hates it, for he sees it as badly written and with some unwelcome biases. He seems to only be there and doing this for the publisher to whom he addresses a lot of the script we read. But what if some greater force wanted him there too? [[The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick|Full Review]]
 
 
 
<!-- Clements -->
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
[[image:Clements_Coffin.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472204271/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
 
 
 
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements]]===
 
 
 
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
 
 
 
Maybe you've heard about Scarcross Hall? Hidden on the old coffin path that winds from the village to the moor top, the villagers only speak of it in hushed tones - of how it's a foreboding place filled with evil. Mercy Booth has lived there since birth, and she's always loved the grand house and its isolation, but a recurrence of strange events begins to unsettle her. From objects disappearing through to a shadowy presence sensed in the house, mysteries come to light that can only be solved by Mercy unearthing long-buried secrets. And will a dark stranger help Mercy protect everything she has come to love or tear it from her grasp? [[The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements|Full Review]]
 
 
 
<!-- Tudor -->
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
[[image:Tudor Chalk.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0718187431?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0718187431]]
 
 
 
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[The Chalk Man by C J Tudor]]===
 
 
 
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
 
 
 
''The Chalk Man'' follows a group of friends haunted by an eerily terrifying spectre, conjured during one fateful summer. By the time the new term begins, friendships will be fractured, and a girl will be dead. But who is the killer; is it The Chalk Man, whose dusty white grip squeezes ever tighter, or someone much closer to home? Thirty years later, Ed has tried to forget about that summer, about all the poisoned, sinister memories of The Chalk Man. However, someone seems determined not to let him and when the letters start to arrive, the past follows, plaguing him and dredging up the fever dream nightmare of the summer of 1986, populated by fairs, ra-ra skirts and death. Driven deeper into the mysterious events surrounding Ed's sleepy suburban life, the reader cannot help but wonder; who is The Chalk Man, and will he ever let Ed go? [[The Chalk Man by C J Tudor|Full Review]]
 
 
 
<!-- Hill -->
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
[[image:Hill_Strange.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147322117X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147322117X]]
 
 
 
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[Strange Weather by Joe Hill]]===
 
 
 
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
 
 
 
Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and cataclysmic weather. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]]
 
 
 
<!-- Jester -->
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
[[image:Jester_Forever.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1510704361]]
 
 
 
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester]]===
 
 
 
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]]
 
 
 
Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. [[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester|Full Review]]
 
 
 
<!-- Hendrix -->
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
[[image:Hendrix_PBHell.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1594749817?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1594749817]]
 
 
 
 
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
===[[Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s by Grady Hendrix]]===
 
 
 
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]]
 
 
 
Demonic possession, murderous babies, man-eating moths… for these books, no plot was too ludicrous, no cover art too appalling, no evil too despicable. Now horror author Grady Hendrix risks his soul and his sanity (not to mention the reader's!) to relate the true, untold story of a fascinating and often forgotten era in publishing.
 
  
 
Read the synapse-shattering story summaries!<br>
 
Read the synapse-shattering story summaries!<br>
 
See the horrific hand-painted cover imagery!<br>
 
See the horrific hand-painted cover imagery!<br>
And learn the true-life tales of the writers, artists, and publishers who gleefully violated every literary law but one – never be boring. [[Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s by Grady Hendrix|Full Review]]
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And learn the true-life tales of the writers, artists, and publishers who gleefully violated every literary law but one – never be boring.
 
+
}}
<!-- Kehlmann -->
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{{Frontpage
|-
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|isbn=Kehlmann_Left
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
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|title=You Should Have Left
[[image:Kehlmann_Left.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/I1786484048/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
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|author=Daniel Kehlmann and Ross Benjamin (translator)
 
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|rating=4.5
 
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|genre=Horror
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
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|summary=Our narrator is a screenwriter, tasked with coming up with a sequel to his hit movie ''Besties'' – a film which helped pay for a house, but which his actress wife keeps letting him know, isn't art. To concentrate, the family – he, the wife, and their four-year-old daughter – have rented a large, modern house at the end of a horrid, hairpin bend-filled road, in a charming alpine landscape. But things aren't right. The couple are at loggerheads too much, things keep unsettling our narrator, and the sole shopkeeper for miles around is ready with the Hammer Horror styled warnings of strange events. Quickly we see the book's title in all its galling clarity – but it isn't too late to get out… is it? And out of what, exactly?
===[[You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann and Ross Benjamin (translator)]]===
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}}
 
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Move on to [[Newest Humour Reviews]]
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
 
 
 
Our narrator is a screenwriter, tasked with coming up with a sequel to his hit movie ''Besties'' – a film which helped pay for a house, but which his actress wife keeps letting him know, isn't art. To concentrate, the family – he, the wife, and their four year old daughter – have rented a large, modern house at the end of a horrid, hairpin bend-filled road, in a charming alpine landscape. But things aren't right. The couple are at loggerheads too much, things keep unsettling our narrator, and the sole shopkeeper for miles around is ready with the Hammer Horror styled warnings of strange events. Quickly we see the book's title in all its galling clarity – but it isn't too late to get out… is it? And out of what, exactly? [[You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann and Ross Benjamin (translator)|Full Review]]
 
 
 
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Revision as of 15:24, 29 August 2020

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Review of

Dark Waters by G R Halliday

4star.jpg Crime

Twenty-two-year-old Annabelle Whittaker made her second mistake when she opted to drive down the private road in Glen Turrit. It was a long road through some breath-taking scenery and she could push the car to its limits without fear of being caught speeding. When the blond child stepped out in front of her she instinctively jerked the steering wheel and hit a tree. When she came round after the accident she couldn't work out where she was, but it obviously wasn't a conventional hospital. She'd made her first mistake some time ago, although the realisation wouldn't be obvious to her for a long time. She'd made it when she chose to have her father buy her a pale blue BMW M4. Full Review

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Review of

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

5star.jpg Horror

Women, by and large, have always been the subjugated sex. Throughout history they have been confined to mere bit players who occasionally help hold up the powerful man and let nothing stand in his way. Grady Hendrix's new novel The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires gives women their due. It is an ode to the strong selfless housewife. Hendrix illustrates this by having them go toe to toe with a predatory male vampire who moves in to their quiet cul de sac. Full Review

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Review of

A Window Breaks by C M Ewan

3.5star.jpg Thrillers

Tom Sullivan and his wife Rachel are having problems. It's not just the usual growing apart after more than a decade of marriage. Their son, Michael, was killed in a car crash some months before: he was driving his father's Audi and at sixteen wasn't legally entitled to drive. Not only did he kill himself when the car rammed into a tree, but he also killed his girlfriend, fifteen-year-old Fiona Connor. Tom can't think about Michael without a sense of shame and guilt. Rachel is broken, but she wants to forgive Michael. To give some space, Tom's moved out of the family home, but stresses to his thirteen-year-old daughter, Holly, that it is only a trial separation. Full Review

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Review of

Orphans of the Tide by Struan Murray and Manuel Sumberac (illustrator)

5star.jpg Confident Readers

In the last city on Earth, anyone can be the vessel of The Enemy - the god who drowned the world - who has come to wreak havoc on the last of humanity. When a mysterious boy is pulled from the corpse of a whale, the citizens immediately believe him to be the Vessel - all except for young Ellie Lancaster, a girl inventor. As the ruthless Inquisition prepares to execute the boy, Ellie must prove that he is innocent - even if it means revealing her deepest, darkest secrets... Full Review

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Review of

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

5star.jpg Horror

Two days after I was born … the dead rose up and started to walk on a battlefield in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg

Dread Nation narrates the unconventional life of Jane McKeene who was born days before the dead began to walk the streets. An event which is interrupting the civil war between the states altered American history forever. In the changing world, minorities are forced into conscription and under the new Native and Negro Re-education Act children are placed in combat schools where they are trained extensively to destroy the dead once and for all. For Jane and other girls like her, there is however the opportunity for a better life by being employed as an attendant. With deadly capabilities and perfect etiquette, attendants protect those higher in society and are valued above all else. Full Review

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Review of

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

5star.jpg Horror

Martha's world has changed. Blind in one eye after falling from a tree, she wakes with a disturbing gift. She can read people through their clothes, secrets tumble from the weave, revealing insights she doesn't really want, and knowledge she doesn't understand. She flees to her grandmother, Mormor's cabin, seeking answers no one is prepared to give and stumbles into a world of menace. Full Review

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Review of

Whiteout (Red Eye) by Gabriel Dylan

4.5star.jpg Horror

Are you up for a sleepless night or two? If so, read on!

Charlie is on a school trip, skiing in the Austrian mountains. He's not having much fun. A miserable home life has given Charlie a bad attitude reputation and he's not a popular kid. Charlie tends to go off by himself - not always a safe thing to do if you're staying in a ski resort - and this is what brings him into contact with one of the ski guides, Hanna. Hanna herself doesn't have the happiest backstory and this forms a connection between them. Full Review

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Review of

Nothing Lasting by Laura Solomon

3.5star.jpg Horror

We never know the man's name but let's call him Boyo. It's what his mother used to call him, not least because he found it annoying. When we first meet Boyo his mother is alive, if not living as most people would understand it. She spends her days watching daytime television and drinking. Housework is a foreign country. When she dies she's not missed, firstly because she'd spent a couple of years in a mental hospital, but mainly because her ghost continues to haunt Boyo. She wants him to achieve something in his life: what she has in mind is that he could be a famous arsonist. Full Review

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Review of

The Anomaly by Michael Rutger

5star.jpg Horror

Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones within an X-Files episode, for the Youtube era. Join the intrepid (if rather inept) team of internet adventurers as they head out on yet another search for an anomaly only to (spoilers) actually find one. Imagine if, instead of being scared by their own acting, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding actually found something; that is the starting point of this book. Deep in a cave within the Grand Canyon our team of adventurers find themselves trapped in a Stephen King plot with added levels of paranoia and conspiracy thrown into the blend. Full Review

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Review of

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

5star.jpg Horror

The night manager of a Best Western, Kris Pulaski is washed up and unhappy. Few know of her past as guitarist of 90's Heavy Metal band Dürt Würk – a band once tipped for greatness, but destined to obscurity after lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career, rocketing to stardom as Koffin. When a shocking act of violence turns Kris's life upside down – she is forced to look back to a past she has tried to forget – and to a deal Hunt made that may have sabotaged more than just the band. In a journey that will take Kris from a dusty hotel to a hellish music festival, she's determined to face the man who ruined her life. But with dark forces rising and threatening everything Kris holds dear, will Kris be able to defeat the odds? Or will Hell truly be unleashed on the Earth…? Full Review

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Review of

Even The Dead Will Bleed: Book 3 of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez

4.5star.jpg Horror

In the third and final part of the Tell Me When I'm Dead series, Dave Pulaski is headed to Los Angeles – seeking revenge and retribution. With the events of book two still weighing heavily on Dave, he struggles against the rage burning inside him and saves Sasha – a young escapee from the secret testing facility. As events come to a climax, and Dave finds himself pursued by both an ex-military sociopath and a group of scientifically engineered humans who flay their victims alive, the stakes are higher than ever before – will Dave make it out of this alive? And what kind of world will he have left? Full Review

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Review of

Dead Is All You Get: Book Two of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez

4.5star.jpg Horror

Still battling the zombie hordes who first appeared in Tell Me When I'm Dead, Dave Pulaski thinks his prayers have been answered when the Black Dragon Security team show up to rescue him and his wife Holly. But things only get worse – with the virus mutating, and the infected getting smarter. When Dave discovers the truth behind the contagion it will drive him past all limits of faith or reason – but will he be able to manage to deal with this knowledge whilst protecting Holly and those closest to him? Full Review

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Review of

Tell Me When I'm Dead: Book One of Tell Me When I'm Dead by Steven Ramirez

4.5star.jpg Horror

A recovering alcoholic, Dave Pulaski has had a long road to recovery, but finally feels like he's getting his life back. Then - a plague hits the town, turning the majority of the population into flesh-hungry monsters who crave the taste of humans. Fighting to survive - Dave's urge to hide away and drink is strong - will he fight to live when the chances of survival are so slim? With the hordes of the undead growing and the security forces outnumbered, it seems that hell has arrived for Dave... Full Review

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Review of

The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick

4star.jpg Horror

Two hundred years ago, bad weather, bad company (well, the kind that is also mad, and dangerous to know), a spooky reading list and a few chance topics of discussion all led a young woman to start writing her first, and definitely her most famous ever, book. The narrator of this novel has brought himself to a remote Alpine building, in the centre of that first novel's world, to revisit it in honour of its bicentenary. He hates it, for he sees it as badly written and with some unwelcome biases. He seems to only be there and doing this for the publisher to whom he addresses a lot of the script we read. But what if some greater force wanted him there too? Full Review

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Review of

The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements

4.5star.jpg Horror

Maybe you've heard about Scarcross Hall? Hidden on the old coffin path that winds from the village to the moor top, the villagers only speak of it in hushed tones - of how it's a foreboding place filled with evil. Mercy Booth has lived there since birth, and she's always loved the grand house and its isolation, but a recurrence of strange events begins to unsettle her. From objects disappearing through to a shadowy presence sensed in the house, mysteries come to light that can only be solved by Mercy unearthing long-buried secrets. And will a dark stranger help Mercy protect everything she has come to love or tear it from her grasp? Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Tudor Chalk/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

The Chalk Man by C J Tudor

5star.jpg Horror

The Chalk Man follows a group of friends haunted by an eerily terrifying spectre, conjured during one fateful summer. By the time the new term begins, friendships will be fractured, and a girl will be dead. But who is the killer; is it The Chalk Man, whose dusty white grip squeezes ever tighter, or someone much closer to home? Thirty years later, Ed has tried to forget about that summer, about all the poisoned, sinister memories of The Chalk Man. However, someone seems determined not to let him and when the letters start to arrive, the past follows, plaguing him and dredging up the fever dream nightmare of the summer of 1986, populated by fairs, ra-ra skirts and death. Driven deeper into the mysterious events surrounding Ed's sleepy suburban life, the reader cannot help but wonder; who is The Chalk Man, and will he ever let Ed go? Full Review

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Review of

Strange Weather by Joe Hill

5star.jpg Horror

Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and cataclysmic weather. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together, never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty. Full Review

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Review of

Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester

4star.jpg Horror

Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. Full Review

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Review of

Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s by Grady Hendrix

4.5star.jpg Horror

Demonic possession, murderous babies, man-eating moths… for these books, no plot was too ludicrous, no cover art too appalling, no evil too despicable. Now horror author Grady Hendrix risks his soul and his sanity (not to mention the reader's!) to relate the true, untold story of a fascinating and often forgotten era in publishing.

Read the synapse-shattering story summaries!
See the horrific hand-painted cover imagery!
And learn the true-life tales of the writers, artists, and publishers who gleefully violated every literary law but one – never be boring. Full Review

Kehlmann Left.jpg

Review of

You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann and Ross Benjamin (translator)

4.5star.jpg Horror

Our narrator is a screenwriter, tasked with coming up with a sequel to his hit movie Besties – a film which helped pay for a house, but which his actress wife keeps letting him know, isn't art. To concentrate, the family – he, the wife, and their four-year-old daughter – have rented a large, modern house at the end of a horrid, hairpin bend-filled road, in a charming alpine landscape. But things aren't right. The couple are at loggerheads too much, things keep unsettling our narrator, and the sole shopkeeper for miles around is ready with the Hammer Horror styled warnings of strange events. Quickly we see the book's title in all its galling clarity – but it isn't too late to get out… is it? And out of what, exactly? Full Review

Move on to Newest Humour Reviews