Category Archives: Horror

books, Horror, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

The Immortality Thief (The Kystrom Chronicles 1) by Taran Hunt

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5.

Surprisingly, this book pulled at all of my heartstrings. Even though it’s monster horror in space, it made me care about the characters. Well, at least the main ones. 

I mean, you can’t help but feel sorry for Sean, who survived the destruction of his whole city and saw his family and everyone he knew lying dead at the hands of the Ministers. I understand why he clings so desperately to Benny, even though they have absolutely nothing in common apart from that tragedy that defined their childhood. It’s not a healthy relationship and clinging to it is slowly destroying both of them.

I was also impressed by the sheer capacity for compassion Sean has, even after everything he went through. Or maybe because of it? He saw so many people die that now he tries to do everything in his power to help other in need, because he doesn’t want any more deaths. And once he is stuck on the ship full of monsters with two people who, in his eyes, are responsible for the Kystrom massacre, he doesn’t immediately classify them as enemies. He has the moral strength to overcome that anger and see them for what they are – people.

I also liked Tamara and Indigo and how we progressively got to know more of them and get glimpses of humanity from the emotionless Minister and the battle-hardened soldier. They have to collaborate to survive long enough to recover data that is vital for both their races survival. In the case of the Ministers, that meaning is very literal.

The setting itself is the stuff nightmares are made of – a derelict ship left by a dying star. So vast, so dark and silent… and full of monsters that are very very hard to kill, because the scientists who created them were experimenting with immortality. And now those monsters are angry with their creators. For creating them in the first place, for the horrors they were subjected to during that creation, and for abandoning them to die on this ship without a second thought. It reminded me a bit of the video game Dead Space, which I never could finish because I’m a chicken.

There is a lot to love about this book, but there are a few flaws as well. The flashbacks, even though they serve a purpose of explaining Sean’s frame of mind, get annoying after a while. I wish the author could have found other means of passing the information to the reader. The characters other than our main trio are two-dimensional at best, and Benny was so devoid of redeeming qualities it was almost caricatural. 

The story also started dragging towards the end. It was like the author kept putting away the resolution and throwing more and more obstacles in our characters’ way. They had already been through so much though, that I experienced danger fatigue. I just wanted them to be done with this ship one way or another.

All in all though, I really loved this first book in a new series and I will check out the next one, especially considering the twist at the end.

PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Ghost Story, Reviews, Urban fantasy, YA

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co 1) by Jonathan Stroud

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Stars: 5 out of 5.

I watched the Netflix series based on these books and liked them, so I decided to check out the original works as well. Especially since there was a lot less backstory and worldbuilding in the tv series then I would have liked. Well, I’m glad I picked up the books, even if they are technically YA. This is quality storytelling, and I loved every minute of it.

I also noticed that while the tv series follow the first book almost word for word when it comes to the events that happen, they are a lot less effective at describing the character motivations. I honestly thought that Lockwood was a pretentious ass when I watched the series. And an ass who constantly puts others in danger to boot. Well, I’m glad to say that he isn’t like that in the books. Reckless, yes. Excitable – definitely. But also brilliant, smart, and with nerves of steel. I actually liked his character in the book while in the tv series I found him mildly irritating at best. 

Same goes for George. The way he is and the way he behaves in the book is much more natural than how they portrayed him in the series. And I’m not against race-swapping characters, but they could have found an actor who fit George’s description a bit better. After all, the fact that he is overweight and not particularly handsome weights heavily on his character and his behavior. That’s where a lot of his insecurities come from. And that opportunity was completely lost in the tv series.

Also, is it me, or is the book a lot more scary and more… cinematic, shall we say? I mean the Red Room episode in the series just made me shrug, but when I was reading about it in the book, I literally had shivers. That whole night in the most haunted house in England was extremely well-written. And showed all the team members at their best, especially Lockwood and Lucy. The whole Annie Ward story was also better presented than in the TV series, in my opinion. 

I also loved that we get a lot more backstory on the Problem and more examples of the Visitors, as well as how everyday life is in a world where nights aren’t safe, and ghosts that the majority of the population can’t see can still seriously harm and even kill them. I would like to know more about this. I also would like to know if this Problem is only local to England or if it spread to the rest of Europe as well. It was mentioned that it had started in London and was slowly spreading into more rural parts of the country over the last fifty years, so maybe it hasn’t made it across the Channel just yet. 

I’m sure I will get answers to at least some of my questions if I continue with the series, which I most certainly will!

books, Horror, Reviews, Zombies

The First Days (As the World Dies 1) by Rhiannon Frater

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Stars: 2 out of 5

This was rather disappointing. I’m always on the lookout for a good zombie story, and this one had promise. The first chapter sure packed an emotional punch. Two women thrown together by circumstances and desperately trying to survive in a world gone mad overnight. It looked like it would be a bloody and scary romp through rural Texas fighting zombies and finding strength and friendship in each other. And it was just that for the first 100 pages or so. But once they rescue Jenni’s stepson and join the other survivors, thigs quickly degenerate.

All of a sudden, instead of being decisive, smart and brave, these girls just give up all of their initiative to the first male figure they encounter. It’s like they switch off their brains and switch on their hormones. Big man will protect me! I don’t have to think anymore. I just have to spread my legs! Jenni is the biggest offender on that front. And the whole story becomes this weird love square between Katie, Jenni, Travis and Juan. Did we really need that? The world is literally ending around them, why do I have to read about who hooks up with whom?

Not to mention how false that reads. I mean Katie just witnessed her beloved wife, the one she literally describes as her whole world, become a zombie and try to eat her face off. That was not even a week ago. And suddenly she has strange feelings for Travis and is doubting her sexuality? What happened to loss and grief and time to process the enormity of what happened? Jenni witnessed her abusive husband kill and eat both her children and barely escaped with her life. Yet as soon as she sees an attractive man, she switches off her brain and starts thinking only with her nether parts. But the least said about Jenni the better. Her characterization is problematic at best.

That’s another issue with this book – characterization. It’s inconsistent.  Characters do and say things that sometimes wildly clash with how they behaved before and what they were said to believe in. Some plot points and arcs don’t do anything to advance the plot and are there only either for shock value or to add some zombie gore. Like that whole adventure to rescue Jenni’s stepson, what was that about exactly? He fades into the background almost as soon as they reach the refugee camp and has no further role to play in the story. Heck, the dog has more page time than the kid, and more personality.

And it feels like the characters worry more about who will sleep with whom than the more pressing matters, like how to secure food and other supplies. What will happen when electricity goes down and running water dries out. They should be planning raids on nearby stores and pharmacies, and securing a source of running water. They should be thinking about hygiene and how to prevent the spread of diseases that will inevitably follow. Even the common flu can kill. Not to mention dysentery, which they are all likely to get if they don’t figure out a safe way to preserve food and boil the water they drink. I know, I know, I’m asking too much, but I was looking forward to a good zombie survival book, and instead I got this…

At least I crossed another book off my TBR list, I guess. And this one has been sitting on it since 2018.

books, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews, Zombies

Z2134 by Sean Platt and David Wright

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Stars: 1 out of 5

This is the second book I try by these authors, and I am less then impressed once again. Though to tell the truth, this seems to be a reprint of a much earlier work, which is probably why it is so bad. I mean, I gave Pattern Black 2 stars where this one barely scrapped a single one.

This book is tries very hard to be a cross between 1984, The Hunger Games, and the Walking Dead. Unfortunately, it does this very poorly, so neither of those three components really work. On a personal note, I was there for the zombies. Unfortunately, there are too little zombies in this book. They barely serve as a plot device. So that added to my disappointment with the book. If you come to it with a different lens, you might enjoy the battle of the “little man” against the tyrannical regime. I didn’t.

Probably because those parts of the story are also rather poorly realized. Subtle this book is not.  The author has to telegraph every action, every plot point, and every plot twist in the book. It’s like he doesn’t trust the reader to get it, unless he is hammered on the head with it. This gets annoying really fast. I can get a hint. I don’t need everything spelled out for me. 

It also devalues the events in the book, because that plot twist about City 7? That could have had such a big impact if it wasn’t telegraphed from a high mountain several chapters ago.

I also couldn’t care less about the characters, so nothing that happened to them was particularly shocking to me. I know I was supposed to root for Jonah in the Darwin Games, but I didn’t know him from Adam at that time, so I didn’t really care if he won or if Bear killed him. Honestly, the little we had of Bear’s backstory made him a lot more compelling as a character. And the least said about Ana, the better, because she is a typical YA dystopia heroine, and I stopped reading YA years ago precisely because I couldn’t stand that stereotype. 

I would also like to point out that this book is not a complete story. It ends in a cliffhanger. Nothing is resolved, nobody is saved or even achieved their goals. There is no resolution or even payout for investing hours of your time into this story. If you want to know what happens to the characters, you will have to pick up the next book, I guess. Unfortunately, I don’t care enough to do so.

PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Horror, Reviews

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

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Stars: 4.5 out of 5

This is how vampires should be written about! If you like your Twilight type of glamourous vampires who glitter in sunlight, this book is definitely not for you. The vampires Joey describes here are monsters. They are cruel, they are hideous (unless they put the glamor on), and they have very questionable morals. They are also “alive” and interesting.

The author also accomplished a seemingly impossible feat – he showed us all the horrors that these vampires inflict upon unsuspecting humans… then made me care about the monsters. Because we get to know them. We get to know their stories and their interactions. Because they don’t usually “peel” the people they prey upon. Granted, it’s not because of some high moral imperative not to kill, but purely because of sense of self-preservation. Kill enough people, the authorities will notice and come investigate. They your underground home is crawling with cops and there is an angry mob topside ready to kill you with pitchforks and burn you. Not to mention that sunshine is deadly to these vampires.

Plus, the children are truly horrifying. I mean even in the beginning, when we don’t know anything about them, there is something profoundly unsettling about these little vampires. Something that makes your skin crawl. Kudos to the author for instilling this subtitle feeling of wrongness and slowly cranking up the intensity. I was truly horrified by the end of this book, especially considering the ending.

Also, this book is dark and unapologetic. Nothing is sugarcoated here. So if you are squeamish, you might want to skip some of the descriptions. When I said that these vampires were monsters, I wasn’t exaggerating. Theirs is a cruel world where the strong survive because they are willing to be ruthless and eliminate the competition, but also where a monster can find a broken family they can count on. That’s why the final betrayal in this book hurts so much, because Margaret’s group were family, as dysfunctional as that family was, and seeing their fate was heartbreaking. 

I am not usually into vampires, but I loved this book. I think I might checkout other book by this author, because I liked his “voice” and his style.

books, Horror, Reviews

Lockdown (Escape from Furnace 1) by Alexander Gordon Smith

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Stars: 5 out of 5

This was terrifying y’all! 

My problem with a lot of horror books is that the characters in them are either not fully realized or so unpleasant that sometimes you wish the monsters got them, so it’s hard to root for them. Not so in this book. The author has a knack for writing reliable characters that feel real. Are they good people? Not by a long stretch, but neither are they bad people. They are kids. They are teenage boys trapped in a nightmare and left to fend for themselves. Of course there will be acts of extreme cruelty involved.

The premise itself is terrifying in its inhumanity. Imagine locking away children, since some of them are barely 10 years old. For Life. With no possibility of appeal and parole. In an underground prison. And they are never allowed visitors. As far as humanity is concerned, the prisoners cease to be human and become property as soon as they cross the gates into Furnace. What should have happened to society for the public to think that a prison like that was normal or even welcome? What happened that parents would agree to something like that? That human right activists aren’t up in arms and railing against this?

So the children stuck in Furnace have no hope, and no future. That in itself would be terrifying. No wonder they form gangs and lash out against each other – they are all desperate and, frankly, they don’t have anything to loose anymore. Now add to that the cruelty of the guards and their indifference to the violence happening between inmates. Oh, and things worst then guards prowl the halls at night, and sometimes they take prisoners. Those taken never come back, or if they do, they are changed. 

Like I said, just the premise would have made for a terrifying book, but what distinguishes it from other horror stories and YA books is that the author has a knack for writing relatable characters. I got to know and care for Alex, Donovan, Zee, and a few others. I grew to like them. So the sheer terror of their everyday existence in Furnace hit closer to home. They weren’t just two-dimensional characters destined to die in horrible ways just to add to the horror factor. Those were kids I cared about. I mean even Morty being taken was hard. The loss of another character closer to the end of the book was a real gut punch. 

The action is also pretty tight in this book. There are no slumps, and the sense of dread grows the closer you get to the ending. And while the ending provides some kind of resolution to the immediate issue of the book, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The most important of them being – where they actually able to escape and what will they do now that they did?

I am definitely invested in the characters and the world this author has created, so I will be picking up the next book in the series. In fact, I put the whole series on my TBR list.

books, Fantasy, Horror, Reviews, Urban fantasy

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

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Stars: 5 out of 5

I am continuing my dive into my TBR list. This book was languishing on my list since 2014, and I’m really not sure why I didn’t read it sooner. I even had the ebook on my Kindle and all that… Anyway, I finally got to it and I’m happy that I did.

Neil Gaiman is an absolute master at writing books about children that are interesting for both children and adults. I loved his Coraline and the Graveyard book. They were engrossing and at times horrifying, but also very genuine. Same happened with this book. 

The author has a rare gift of capturing the magic of childhood without turning it into something extraordinary. In fact, the very ordinary way he describes some rather extraordinary (and often terrifying) things that happen to his characters is what makes his books so impactful. This books brings me back to my childhood, when the world was new and I didn’t know the rules, so even most ordinary places could be magical doorways to other world. A tree in the backyard could be a castle and the pond at the end of the lane could be an ocean.

Children see a lot more then adults do, because they haven’t accepted the norms society and adulthood imposes on them yet, and adults readers should be reminded that there still wonders in this world that science and technology cannot explain. And that those wonders aren’t good or evil, they just are. They behave in accordance to their nature, and they don’t particularly care about human norms and rules, so interacting with them is always a gamble.

I loved that our protagonist is just a little boy who loves to read and is more comfortable in his own imaginary world with his books than with other children. He isn’t a genius. He isn’t the chosen one. He is just a kid who stumbles into something extraordinary and tries to cope with it the best he can. He isn’t particularly brave or strong, but he has enough courage to stand up for himself and say it when the situation doesn’t feel right. And standing up to an adult, especially if that adult is your parent, is the most terrifying thing in the world when you are a child. Most of us forget that when we grow up. 

That’s why the most terrifying experience in this whole story wasn’t even Ursula or the hunger birds. It was the fact that his father tried to drown him in the bathtub. Whether he was enthralled by Ursula or she’d just played on his baser instincts doesn’t matter. When the person who is supposed to protect and support you tries to kill you, it shatters something inside of you. I’m glad the Hempstock snipped that night out of his memories.

All in all, this is a wonderful story about the fact that the extraordinary lives next door to us, you just have to look carefully for it. Question is, do you really want to venture down that lane?

books, Horror, Reviews

The Passage (The Passage 1) by Justin Cronin

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Stars: 2 out of 5

I am a sucker for an end of the world as we know it book. That’s probably why I regularly dip into zombie books, even though finding good ones becomes a challenge. So the Passage was right up my alley. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a slog of a book.

The main issue is that this book is way too long – at almost 900 pages, it’s a doorstopper if I ever saw one. Which means nothing happens in a hurry. In fact, I would say that the events progress at a glacial pace.  And while that works well in the first part of the book, where the author sets up the story and introduces the characters, it absolutely kills the narrative later on. In fact, I spent 3/4 of this book skimming over endless descriptions and inept dialogue to get to the few exciting parts.

As I said, the first part of this book is the strongest, with the most developed characters and a sense of urgency. Unfortunately, it’s also the shortest. Just as we get to the end of the world, the book jumps 100 years ahead and introduces a whole new set of characters and goes into painstaking details to describe the Colony and everything that happens there (spoiler alert – it’s not much). So we get about 300 pages where absolutely nothing really happens. It wouldn’t be that bad if the characters were interesting, but they are not. They feel flat and one-dimensional. I didn’t care for any of them even by the end of the story. Even some of them dying just elicited a shrug as a continued to skim ahead. 

It doesn’t help that Amy, who is supposedly the center of this story and this chosen child, is a non-entity. She is more a plot point or a magical McGuffin then a person. We don’t know what she thinks. We don’t know what she wants or likes. And we don’t know why she is so exceptional in the first place. What differentiates her from the other Twelve? Why did she keep her humanity when they transformed into something else? Never explained. We never get to be privy to her thoughts and motivations. We only see her through the eyes of other characters, and half the time what she does and says doesn’t make sense. And no matter how much other people tell you that she is exceptional and important, I don’t see it. 

There are also so many threads introduced in this book and never fully explored or even used. Like the vials with the modified virus. Why introduce that as a possible weapon against the Twelve only for Amy to destroy them 50 pages later? And everyone acting like she did them this huge favor by doing so. In fact, everything this child does is treated lie gospel by the other characters, like she is some sort of messiah that can’t do no wrong, when nothing in her behavior supports that. That’s what happens when the author tries very hard to persuade the reader of something but does a bad job showing it.

My final gripe with this book comes from the heavy handed attempt at spiritualism. It’s implied that Amy was special even before the virus (the episode with the animals at the zoo). It’s implied that it was God’s will to destroy the world.  And for Amy to save it later. When? No clue, she sure didn’t do it by the end of this book, even after 900 pages. So we have some characters who do completely irrational things because they “hear God’s will” or “feel that it’s the right thing to do”… and other characters just follow along. If it was me and I was asked to follow somebody across vampire-infected country from California to Colorado, I would at least ask why. And the explanation that there is a 100 year old signal that is talking about a “her” that might be the kid that just brought death and destruction to my home wouldn’t be enough to persuade me. 

This book had so much potential, but I feel like it was squandered. 

books, Horror, Reviews

The Hollows by Daniel Church

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DNF at 50 %.

This had so much promise! A small town cut off from the rest of the world by a snow storm. Mysterious creatures attacking its inhabitants. A lone policewoman trying to keep order and make sure as many people survive this as possible… Yup, the description was right up my alley, so I went into this book with a certain amount of excitement.

And the beginning was good. Ellie discovers a body and realizes it’s one of the residents. Apparently he froze to death and there are strange markings next to his body. That’s creepy. The introduction to the monsters was also creepy and frankly terrifying. Those are the stuff of nightmares, alright. I wouldn’t want to see one of them outside my window at night.

But that’s about where the positives end for me. The book is way too long for its own good. It drags. The story meanders at a leisury pace when it should be rushing along revving up the suspense. I mean I quit reading right after our first real glimpse of the Tatterskins, and that was at 50% if the book. And I would have tried to stay with the story if the constant distractions were useful to deepen the character relationships or tell us more about the town. But it really doesn’t. 

My second problem, and the one that ultimately made me call it quits, is the fact that all characters are caricatures of themselves. The bad people are so villainous, they don’t even feel like real people, like that one inbred family at the farm. The good ones are good, but one-dimensional. I couldn’t tell you what Ellie looks like or what her story is. Yes, there is mentions of her loosing her son, but never in much detail. Other villagers just blend into one indistinctive mass of people.

But what made me throw the towel was how the wife of the second cop was portrayed. I understand that we aren’t supposed to empathize with her. I understand that the protagonist doesn’t like her. But why did she have to be portrayed as an arrogant screeching harrigan who cares more about her car being totaled and tearing Ellie a new one than the fact that her husband is missing and presumed dead? Unless she is so heartless that she was planning her husband’s murder and the monsters just happened to hasten things, this is an extremely unnatural reaction. That was so jarring to me that I closed the book and never looked back.

There is a good story somewhere in there, it’s just buried under excessive wordcount and poor characterization.

PS: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Horror, Reviews, science fiction

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

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 Stars: 5 out of 5

This was a surprise winner for me. I picked it up on whim and because the cover was so cool. I didn’t expect much of the story apart from space horror. I got that alright, but I also got surprisingly a lot of heart.

Imagine for a moment that you are on board of a generation ship that is running out of resources and no matter how many times you do the math, it all points to the same thing: we won’t reach Earth before our air and food runs out. Add to that that the ship is traveling through a literal minefield deployed by two unknown alien species at war with each other. The humans are just collateral damage in this battle, but it hurts the ship and their chances of survival all the same, because we don’t have the technology to detect and avoid the mines. Then add to that the fact that they unknowingly picked up a hitchhiker or two when they left the colony. And those hitchhikers are fond of human flesh. Yes, the sum total is one terrifying ride.

What I didn’t expect, is that this short novel, more a novella, would be populated by fleshed out characters I would sympathize and root for.  Jacklyn “Jack” Albright is an amazing character. She feels real. She has her flaws and insecurities and moments of pettiness or self-doubt, but she is also courageous and willing to do the right thing even if doing so means facing off with a terrifying monster that tears people apart like they were paper cutouts. She is trying her best to keep her crew together and prevent her ship from falling apart after each space mine, or “engagement” they encounter. She is overwhelmed and terrified, but she still tries everything she can to face the new treat when it arises. That’s what a true captain is, unlike her father who chose to abandon them in this trying time. 

As I had mentioned, the book is very short, and I devoured it in a lazy afternoon reading session. And I ended up loving the story and all the characters and wanting to know more. Like why had the colonists decided to attempt a doomed voyage back to Earth? What had gone wrong in the new colony? Especially since the existence of the native species was just speculation, from what I could understand. Who are those spacefaring aliens waging war across the stars? They seem to have technology eons above what humanity can master.  I really hope that the author will revisit this universe in her future books. 

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.