Mini(bot) Reviews: Bedfellow

I’m thinking that Shipp’s work just isn’t for me.

Book Review: Full Throttle

Here today with a review for a collection of stories from Joe Hill that range from gruesome, to grim, to depressing, and even hopeful and heartwarming.

R.L. Stine Retrospective – Part 3: Superstitious

Here it is, guys, the piece de resistance, the third and final part of this suck-fest, the crown jewel of this shitstorm: R.L. Stine’s debut adult novel, Superstitious! Prepare yourself for adult language in this adult review of this totally for adults book.

Book Review: Her Body and Other Parties

Her Body and Other Parties
By Carmen Maria Machado

My Edition:
Paperback, 245 pages
2017, Graywolf Press
ISBN: 9781555977887

This collection of shorts focuses on women, the lives they lead and the experiences they have, simply because they are women. Many have a dash of supernatural, paranormal or horror elements, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

After reading Help Me Follow My Sister Into the Land of the Dead (a short included in a PageHabit box), I enjoyed the way Machado blended a paranormal situation into our current reality and I was excited to discover more of her work. While I enjoy her tone and style, this collection as a whole underwhelmed me.

Book Review: Into the Drowning Deep

Into the Drowning Deep
By Mira Grant

My Edition:
Hardcover, 440 pages
2017, Orbit
ISBN: 9780316379403

Imagine Entertainment set out to “find” mermaids and film a documentary about it. But after the group of scientists, reporters, actors and film crew set sail on the Atargatis and fail to return, it’s clear they found something. Raw footage surfaces, revealing snatches of what appear to be mermaids murdering and devouring the crew. Imagine does their best to dodge the blame and frame the footage as a hoax, while prepping for another mission. Tory Stewart, whose sister has been missing since the first voyage, signs up to find out what really happened to her sister and get closure, and revenge, if she can. But the crew of the Melusine soon find themselves in more troubled waters than they ever imagined.

If I trust anyone to write a story about bloodthirsty mermaids it’s Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) and she didn’t disappoint.

Book Review: My Best Friend’s Exorcism

My Best Friend’s Exorcism
By Grady Hendrix

My Edition:
ARC Paperback, 332 pages
2016, Quirk Books
ISBN: 9781594748622
Expected Release Date: May 17, 2016

I received this book for free from Quirk Books in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions in this post are my own.

Abby and her three friends rule the school. One summer evening, after horsing around at the lake and then dropping acid together, Gretchen disappears into the woods after skinny dipping. The others find her hours later, hiding in an abandoned building, naked and dazed. The four brush off the incident, but afterwards Gretchen begins to act differently. As her personality takes a drastic change, Abby begins to think back to that night Gretchen spent in the woods and wonders if something supernatural might be going on. Abby watches in horror as her world turns upside down and wonders if there is a way to save her friends.

Hendrix brings back his flair for horror and gore and adds a touch of 80’s culture in this creepy new read.

Book Review: Slash

Slash
By Evan Kingston

My Edition:
Paperback serial novellas, 331 pages total
2013, Evan Kingston

I received these books for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions in this post are my own.

From the book: Alex Bledsoe would rather die than reveal her secret crush. As a star of TV’s #1 family drama, she’s certain coming out of the closet would end her career. Worse still, her one true love is America’s hottest young actress, Lissa Blaine, who just happens to play her older, prettier, and smarter big sis each week on Koop’s Kitchen. Desperate for an outlet each night after filming wraps, Alex closes the shades on her trailer and reads slash stories on internet fan-fiction forums: trashy little tales written by viewers about an imagined romance between her character and Lissa’s. All unbelievable moans and trite whispers, the fantasies are so incestuously metafictional, Alex believes them best taken to her grave—until an anonymous author begins to post violent slash stories. As Alex struggles to decide whether she is turned on or disturbed, Koop’s Kitchen’s real-life actors start dying in suspiciously similar scenes. Sure that the parallels are more than coincidence, she begins to search the stories for suspects and clues instead of steamy caresses. But as she works to catch the killer before he slashes again, Alex realizes that revealing the secrets she’d die to hide might be the only way to save the lives of everyone she loves.

Book Review: Horns

Horns
By Joe Hill

My Edition:
Paperback, 397 pages
2010, HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780061147968

From the back of the book: Merrin Williams is dead, slaughtered under inexplicable circumstances, leaving her beloved boyfriend ignatius Perrish as the only suspect. On the first anniversary of Merrin’s murder, IG spends the night drunk and doing awful things. When he wakes the next morning he has a thunderous hangover…and horns growing from his temples. Ig possesses a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look – a macabre gift he intends to use to find the monster who killed his lover. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. Now it’s time for revenge…it’s time the devil had his due. 

Themed Reads: Do You Read Holiday/Seasonal Books?

Since joining Instagram last year? I don’t actually know when… I’ve discovered the wonderful book community, and then I started blogging and sunk even deeper into the world of bookporn, book recommendations, reviews and endless lists. One of the trends I’ve noticed is that people tend to read books related towards a certain season or holiday – obviously, in October the logical choice is horror or creepy-themed books.

Book Review: Horrorstör

Horrorstör
By Grady Hendrix

My edition:
Paperback , 243 pages
2014, Quirk
ISBN: 9781594745263
Expected Publication Date: September 23, 2014

I received this book for free from LibraryThing (and the publisher) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

From the inside cover: “Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture store in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerrig bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty Showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.”