Halloween Book Review: Shutter

Shutter

By Courtney Alameda
***

“My people are condemned to wander this eternal twilight” 
― Courtney Alameda, Shutter

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book. There were a few things the characters did that bugged me (Why do characters always keep vital information to themselves? SHARE WITH THE CLASS, PLEASE.). Mostly I think this would fit into horror-lite. It wasn't incredibly scary, but there was plenty of gore. I honestly think if this was made into a movie, I would have been unable to watch it. As it was, I had no problem reading the story...well, I wasn't keen on reading it right before bed, mostly because it was just a dark story, not because it needed to be put in the freezer.

My biggest problem with this book was that I just wasn't in the mood for it. October has been a very finicky reading month for me, and I've picked up and put down several books. So I probably would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't been in such a reading funk.

Pros - no love triangles, cool friend relationships, and a romance that began before the book (so there's some element of history there - no instalove). Also, cool world-building.

Cons - occasional teenage obnoxiousness (see above re: sharing vital information), bad-dad, and partial open-ending without confirmation of a sequel.

Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) 
By Kendare Blake
****

“Move, hunt, kill. Like lather, rinse, and repeat.” 
― Kendare Blake, Anna Dressed in Blood

From Goodreads: 

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.


From Me:

I read this book for this month's FYA Book Club selection. It was described to me as a cross between Supernatural and Scooby Doo, which I can totally see. Cas (come on, Cas?!) is very Dean-like, if Dean's mom lived instead of his dad, and he had no Sammy to hunt with him. Cas is cool. I like Cas. Anna's pretty cool, too, for a BAMF dead girl from the fifties. I love how she changed from ghost-girl to ghost-hulk depending on the situation - it made her a really fascinating character.

Blake pulls no punches when it comes to violence, like for reals. If you have a weak stomach and are easily squicked out, you may want to skim some of these sections. Things get pretty darn gruesome from time to time, and they're hard to stomach. But, as always with me, it's the horrible things that people do that cause me more trouble than the things the monsters do.

Great Halloween option for weenies like me who don't like straight-up horror. Spooky, creepy, eerie: yes; gross, violent: sometimes; scare me into putting the book in the freezer: no.

Book List: YA Horror for Halloween

Book List: YA Horror for Halloween 

Current and upcoming YA titles that put the OoooOOooo in spooky!

I don't know what it is about autumn that makes readers reach for eerie novels, probably something to do with the colder days and longer nights, plus that weirdest of holidays: Halloween, but that time is right around the corner. In preparation, I've created a book list of teen novels and series starters that are either straight-up horror or just moderately creepy and are currently available or coming soon:

Ghost House, by Alexandra Adornetto (published 8/26/14)

Famous Last Words, by Katie Alender (9/30/14)

Bad Girls Don't Die, by Katie Alender (available now)

Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake (available now)

“Move, hunt, kill. Like lather, rinse, and repeat.” ― Kendare Blake, Anna Dressed in Blood

The Diviners, by Libba Bray (available now)

Through the Woods, by Emily Carroll (7/15/14)

Servants of the Storm, by Delilah Dawson (8/5/14)

Of Metal and Wishes, by Sarah Fine (8/5/14)

Into the Grey, By Celine Kiernan (8/26/14)

I Hunt Killers, By Barry Lyga (available now)

“A river of images and thoughts and feelings, dirtied and polluted so that no one could drink from it without gagging.” 
― Barry Lyga, I Hunt Killers

Ten, by Gretchen McNeil (available now)

Mary: The Summoning, by Hillary Monahan (9/2/14)

Amity, by Micol Ostow (8/26/14)

Asylum, by Madeleine Roux (available now)

“It was a house for those who could not take care of themselves, for those who heard voices, who had strange thoughts and did strange things. The house was meant to keep them in. Once they came, they never left.” 
― Madeleine Roux, Asylum

Feral, by Holly Schindler (8/26/14)

Party Games: A Fear Street Novel, by R. L. Stine (9/30/14)

Welcome to the Dark House, by Laurie Faria Stolarz (7/22/14)

Of Monsters and Madness, by Jessica Verday (9/9/14)

Fiendish, by Brenna Yovanoff (8/14/14)

The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff (available now)

“You presume to name those who have no name. We are pandemonium and disaster. We are the dancing, gibbering horror of the world.” 
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

Book Review: The Monstrumologist

The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist #1)   *****

by Rick Yancey

“He knew the truth. Yes, my dear child, he would undoubtedly tell a terrified toddler tremulously seeking succor, monsters are real. I happen to have one hanging in my basement.”

Sometime during the mid-to-late 1800s in the north-eastern US, we meet Will Henry, a 12-year-old who recently lost his parents in a fire. His father's former boss, Dr. Warthrop, took Will Henry in and made Will his assistant. But Dr. Warthrop isn't your typical doctor; he's a Monstrumologist. Monsters are real and Dr. Warthrop hunts and studies them.

The story opens on a grave robber knocking on the doctor's door. It turns out he found more than he bargained for in the grave of a recently deceased young woman. He found not one body, but two, and brings them both to the doctor. The unexpected body is headless, with a huge mouth in its torso, eyes near its shoulders, arms so long they practically skim the ground and end with barbed claws. It's an Anthropophagi, a monster that feeds on humans (preferably the living variety).

Thus begins the story of Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop as they try to find the rest of the monster's 'herd' (for lack of a better word), discover how they made it to America (they're not native to North America), and try to stop the Antropophagi before they kill again. It also begins one of the grossest stories I've ever read. This story is a cross between a monster-hunt and a forensic/medical drama - at least in the descriptions of bodies and patients and wounds and puss and other grody things.

While the story wasn't fast-paced, it was solid and still had plenty to interest the reader (if they have the stomach for it). While Will Henry is a 12-year-old during this book, that doesn't limit the story to the middle grade/tween ages - I'd totally recommend it to the older teen/YA age, as well.

I'd recommend this book to middle school and high school students (and adults) who enjoy forensic TV shows, monster and zombie books and movies, and have a strong stomach. That being said, it may be a bit too gruesome for the younger end of that age-group, so act accordingly. Seriously - don't read this book when eating; you'll regret it.

Book Review: The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
(*****)

From Goodreads:
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

From me:
Even though the book started out dark and creepy, I felt like the story was more fantastic and adventuresome, rather than dark or scary. Throughout the book, Bod was constantly not afraid of the things that most of us would be. Ghosts are his family, a graveyard is his home - that being true, a school bully is nothing to fear. To me, I found the overall theme to be fearlessness and the importance of really living your life, which is something I need to embrace a little more often. A great read for both children and adults.