The 카지노싸이트 Dark and Fantastic Readers Group discussion

Right now in the middle of Gone Girl

I have just finished The People Next Door by Christopher Ransom.

I am not sure that I understand the bad reviews and ratings for either of Christopher Ransom's books that I have read, The Birthing House or The People Next Door. Both are fair horror novels, both have horrible reviews and both are better than some John Saul or Richard Laymon books that I have read that have glowing reviews.

That being said, I am giving this book 3 stars with a bias towards 3 1/2.

A Colorado family's life is falling apart. Their family restaurant is failing. Their teenage son is running with the wrong crowd and their adolescent daughter is prone to fits and hallucinations. Then a creepy new family moves into the behemoth new eyesore next door. They bring with them a lot of questions...and a few surprising answers.

Just read my first Graphic Novel, The Cape by Jason Ciaramella based on a short story by Joe Hill! I have to say I am very impressed, I did not think I would enjoy a graphic novel, but found it quite entertaining and enjoyable, gave it a solid 4 stars, and will most likely be reading more of this style of storytelling.

I have not read the graphic novel but that is an excellent short story in 20th Century Ghosts.

I am currently reading Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg. It is the book that the movie "Angel Heart" is based upon.

Reading Terminal World and listening to The Rook. The Rook is hilarious. I'm loving it.

I just finished Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg.

I wish I had read this book before seeing the movie "Angel Heart". But, as it has been over 20 years since I have seen the movie, I had forgotten most of the details (except a pretty steamy sex scene with Lisa Bonet (We're not in "Cosby" anymore, Theo! WOW!). And of course, I remembered the ending. That being said, it did not much detract from how damn good this book is!

5 STARS, favorited

Finished Heart-Shaped Box and I really enjoyed it, now giving The Dead That Walk: Flesh-Eating Stories a try.

Marc-Antoine wrote: "Finished Heart-Shaped Box and I really enjoyed it, now giving The Dead That Walk: Flesh-Eating Stories a try."

I read that a couple years ago and it's ok, curious to hear what you think about it when you're done. (Re: The Dead That Walk)

I'm about 1/4 through Come Along With Me

I am reading Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie. I am a Hercule Poirot junky. I go back to Poirot when I am feeling mentally drained. I need a fix.

Also reading The Night Eternal as I don't want my kids seeing the cover of

I just started Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. It is the second book in the Dexter series. Oh, that lovable serial killer!!!

I just finished Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

It is another well written book. I liked it but certainly not to the level that I enjoyed Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I find it frustrating that I am already growing bored with a series (2 books into 7) after liking the first as much as I did. I think the issue lies in the ancillary characters. I am not finding myself liking any of them. In fact, I find myself dreading chapters where our hero has to spend so much time interacting with them. They all seem so desperately needy in one form or another, almost annoyingly whiny!

4 STARS (but closer to 3 1/2)

Just started Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Getting into Them or Us by David Moody, the conclusion to the Hater trilogy. Very good so far.

Reading Ghost Road Blues, so far very good.

Trust

Just finished a couple of books. Both of which were Dollar Bin purchases!

First, Thunderhead, another good book by the dynamic duo Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Nora Kelly and Bill Smithback head out to search for the lost city of gold, Quivira, armed with a long-lost letter written by Kelly's father and a qualified crew of archaeologists and support staff. They delve into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Anasazi Indians and discover the frightening truth.

3 STARS

Second, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. 카지노싸이트 fiction from 1897! HG Wells! What else can you say? Fantastic!

4 STARS

Just started Witch by Barbara Michaels. I found it in the dollar bin at a used bookstore and thought I would give it a run. So far it is a decent ghost story in the gothic horror genre.

The reviews on the book are strong but there are occasional outliers stating that the book is slow starting and one even says "Wondered why characters didn't have cell phones and wrote letters". WOW! Dickens and Shakespeare must be a real bitch to get through for that reader!

I just finished Witch by Barbara Michaels.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book up until the last few chapters and then I was just plain disappointed. The book had a great theme, an old house formerly occupied by a witch, an apparent haunting, an over-zealous, highly religious town population that hated/feared the home's new tenant, a mysterious cellar, etc. The author took the time to develop an anticipation around those things. And then, in the final chapters, seemed to rush to a quick ending with a couple of plot shortcuts and an unlikely familiarity between a couple of characters.

I hesitate to call this book a horror novel. While there were certainly horror elements, those never really took flight. This was more of a Gothic horror that pulled up short and turned into a really shallow mystery with a Brady Bunch ending.

2 STARS

Just started The House That Jack Built by Graham Masterton.

Just started Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green. I picked up the used paperback for $0.50 at a library book sale. The book has some really high ratings from several of my friends. Is great so far.

I just finished The House That Jack Built by Graham Masterton. I picked it up in the $1 bin at a used bookstore.

A dilapidated NY estate becomes the obsession of a NY attorney after he has a life-changing "accident". In pretty quick order, the builder of the estate, who disappeared in 1937 under mysterious circumstances, begins to possess the attorney, and his sadism, gambling and dark behavior follows.

I thought the book was well written but was annoyed by a couple of scenes late in the book. An appraiser turns up with a fairly valuable piece of information that seemed odd to be in his possession. There was also a scene with a cat with a bow on its tail that was a bit strange as well. Still though, not a bad read.

3 STARS

I just finished Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green.

This one went a little further into the sci-fi/fantasy realm for my usual taste but it seemed to work.

Our hero, John Taylor, is a detective, in the noir sense of the word, who "finds lost things". He was born and raised in a hidden, darker side of London, Nightside, where horror and fantasy are the reality. He takes a case to find a runaway that was mysteriously drawn into Nightside by some unseen and previously unknown force.

The story reminded me of a heavier version of Mike Carey's Felix Castor series. Whereas, Castor operates in the realm of reality with the physical limitations of such, Taylor's world does not know these boundaries.

4 STARS

Just started Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie, another Hercule Poirot mystery.

Ken your a machine,,,

Finished with Trust by David Moody and gave it a solid 5 stars....

Still working on The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, The Dead That Walk: Flesh-Eating Stories and Shades Of Exodus

I just finished Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie.

I was not expecting this to be a collection of short stories when I picked it up. Usually, the volumes in this series are labelled "...and other stories". But, the edition that I read is not so labelled. Not that it matters much. I was just looking forward to settling into a full-length Poirot mystery rather than something shorter.

But, what else is there to say! Poirot! Agatha Christie!

4 STARS

I just started The Satan Legacy by William Jessop. It is a self-published paperback that I picked up for $0.50 at a library used book sale. Little or no information about the book or the author. Had to have it added to 카지노싸이트 even. But, it looks to be a nice haunted house story...perfect for the season!

I'm reading The Corpse-Rat King. If the rest of it is as good as the first third, it should be 4 stars easily.

I started Flesh & Bone last night.

I'm just not going to be able to finish The Satan Legacy by William Jessop.

It started out with a lot of good ideas and a promising setting, a small English village, an inherited country mansion with a questionable past and a coven of witches. But, it certainly did not live up to expectations.

There were a couple of inconsistencies in the story line, hard to follow conversations and sudden character mood changes that seemed forced. It was as if the author knew where he wanted to be in the story but wasn't sure how to do it gracefully.

I believe this is the first self-published book that I have read and I can see why the publishers didn't pick this one up. I think an honest set of fresh eyes and a good editor could have done a lot for this novel.

The Last Juror by John Grisham.

I am still working on Flesh Gothic by Edward Lee. But, I picked up The Witches by Roald Dahl this morning for a quick read.

I'm not sure what I read in the past by Dahl, but I had the impression that he wrote in more of a psychedelic style (similar in style to The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury) than this book is written. I was happy to see that this book is not at all written in that style and is actually a damn good read so far!

I just finished The Witches by Roald Dahl.

This book was a pleasant surprise to me. I had formed an opinion from somewhere that Roald Dahl wrote in more of a psychedelic style, like The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, than this book was written. That kept me from looking further into any of his works until I picked up this book for a quick, season-appropriate read.

It turned out to be a really nice read that left me wanting to read more about the adventures of the boy (spoiler avoided) and his Grandmamma.

5 STARS, favorited

Just picked up Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green. This is the second book in the Nightside series. Ninety pages in and it is fantastic!

I am a fan of the Nightside series, Ken. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

I just finished Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green.

I am always amazed at any writer that can put together 200 pages worth of thoughts into a coherent, cohesive and interesting story line. I doubt very much that I have in me what it takes to put together anything that is a fraction as good as the lowest rated books that I have ever read.

That being said, it amazes me further when an author can take those few pages and the few words on those pages and weave not only a theme worth following, but an entire previously undefined world and in such intricate detail that you can picture the writer's thoughts like a movie playing in your mind and the scenes like a painting hanging on the wall.

In his Nightside series, Simon R. Green, has created a secret, dark heart of London where horror and depravity are the norm. He has populated his world with a cast of characters that may be the only beings capable of navigating this strange world. And, he has mixed in a heavy dose of mystery and just enough wit to have you snickering every couple of pages. Fantastic books!

4 STARS

I just started The Game Of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson, a YA fantasy/horror/etc that I picked up for $1 at a used bookstore. I am cautiously optimistic about this book. The reviews are pretty even between readers who loved and those who hated the novel.

Just finished Flesh Gothic by Edward Lee.

Gore, sex and violence. Okay, I'm good with that. All-in-all not a bad book, some original ideas, but in general nothing that really jumps out and says "rate me higher than 3 stars".

a solid 3 STARS

Just started Covenant by John Everson. Its a Bram Stoker Award winner. Hopefully this will be the one to bring me out of my reading funk.

I am trying to finish up So Much Pretty....I started it a while ago but never finished it.

Just finished The Golem by Edward Lee.

This book delves into the Jewish legend of the Golem and into the dark side of Kaballism. It made for an interesting read.

Typically, if I enjoy a book enough that it makes me want to read more by that author, I give a book 4 stars. This book though came up a bit short on a couple measures.

First, one of the main characters is a know-it-all. Damn lady knows everything...each time because she used to date a guy that was a professional in whatever area. That was more than a bit overplayed.

Second, I could have done without the one-sided Al Gore-esque preaching about the wonders of bio-mass fuels. This book was published in 2009, about the time when oil prices were setting record highs and natural gas prices hadn't yet diverged from oil. The world was in love with the myth of the perfect green energy solution and evidently, so was Mr Lee.

Those things aside, I would have given this one 4 Stars. But, I was annoyed enough that 3 STARS is the limit.

3 STARS

Also just finished Covenant by John Everson.

A small town is hiding from the truth about what is living in the cliff overlooking their town and what is driving a plague of suicides from that cliff. Our hero puts together the pieces and finds himself in the middle of a century old mystery.

Full of sex and gore!

I liked it!

3 STARS

I finished The Night Strangers last night and gave it 3.5 stars. I also started Red Rain: A Novel, which I'm about 50 pages into. It's ok so far. Good tension, a couple factual errors that I think I found kinda bothered me at the beginning.

I just finished Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance.

This is a pretty neat YA title. The stories may not have been 100% unique, but, they were fun, reminiscent of the kind of stories that we used to tell each other as kids.

I see that Nance has recently put out a second Daemon Hall book. I will definitely be reading the follow-up.


4 STARS

I have just finished reading Peeper by Loren D. Estleman.

I previously have read Loren D. Estleman's Sherlock Holmes work and was intrigued when I found what appeared to be a noir (hardboiled?) story.

I approached it thinking I was reading something like Sam Spade style noir but it soon became apparent that it would be more like Jack Nicholson in "Chinatown" neo-noir.

The protagonist is a private investigator for whom nothing goes right. Even when things go right, they end up horribly fouled. He finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation for which he soon becomes a suspect.

The book is heavy on doses of witty banter and a really great plot line that was hard to figure until the closing pages.

Very well written.

5 STARS

I have just finished reading The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen.

This is a re-telling of Bram Stoker's Dracula from the point of view of the vampire himself. I thought the book well written but found myself bored at times as it was a little too much of a "re-telling" with multiple excerpts from the original text.


3 1/2 STARS

Just finished Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. What a fantastic book!

My wife saw me reading it and asked if I was getting ideas. I told her not to worry, we just need a weekend away. Not amused!

5 STARS

I have just finished Forests of the Night by David Stuart Davies.

I have been impressed with David Stuart Davies since reading a couple of his horror genre Sherlock Holmes novels. His story lines are tight and his characters are well developed and interesting.

This book is the first in the Johnny Hawke detective series. It is a classic noir / hardboiled novel in the tradition of Sam Spade. Consistent with other Davies works, this one is very well written.

Set in WWII-era London, our hero has set up a private detective agency after being wounded and released from army service. He is drawn into a murder case that has several intriguing twists and turns.

Pulpish in nature, this series has been a fun read.

4 STARS

I just finished reading Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God by Guy Adams.

I love when two of my favorite genres cross, horror and Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Sherlock Holmes, Aleister Crowley and Thomas Carnacki all in one novel. Good show!

The story was pretty decent but I felt a little let down with the explanation of the events.

All-in-all, not bad!

3 1/2 STARS