“Captain Crozier comes up on deck to find his ship under attack by celestial ghosts. Above him–above Terror–shimmering folds of light lunge but then quickly withdraw like the colourful arms of aggressive but ultimately uncertain spectres. Ectoplasmic skeletal fingers extend toward the ship, open, prepare to grasp, and pull back.”
The Terror opens with this lovely, [...]
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In this collection, ten old-fashioned ghostly stories are connected by their unwilling and frequently-appalled narrator, the unfortunate Kyle Murchison Booth. Awkward, insomniac, painfully shy, the archivist participates in just one badly-orchestrated necromantic ceremony and now the dead won’t leave him alone. He finds skeletons entombed in his museum’s basement; he’s plagued by specters at his [...]
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Listen, my children, and you shall hear… Whoa, hold it right there. This is one Paul Revere story that is not fit for children’s ears or eyes. Revere: Revolution in Silver is scary, gory, and sort of sick, actually. That’s not meant as criticism, just a warning to anyone who might confuse this dark graphic [...]
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We wrap up the week with another Sondheim musical, one that will be getting a bit of attention this holiday season. Soon to be released on the big screen, Sweeney Todd is the story of a London barber who, with the help of friend Mrs. Lovett, turns those he dislikes (and other random Londoners) into [...]
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Here, let me go ahead and give you an excerpt from the best passage of the book. This will save you the chore of reading the rest of the review:
Melinda [the cow] raised her head and uttered a low, haunting howl. The rest of the herd joined her in a bloodcurdling moan that seemed to [...]
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Posted in Books, Characters, Fantasy, Historical fiction, Horror, Jessica's Picks, Language Focus, Literary fiction, Plot, Sense of place, Setting, Travel on November 20, 2007 | 3 Comments »
“My dear and unfortunate successor,” begins the letter, “It is with regret that I imagine you, whoever you are, reading the account I must put down here.”
“My dear and unfortunate successor,” begins the second letter, “I take some comfort today in the fact that this date is dedicated in the church calendar to Lucia, saint [...]
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A terrifying thunderstorm rips through the hot summer evening. A man, his wife and their five-year-old son hole up in the basement of their house as bright lightning flashes outside, trees crash around and into the house, and thunder roars. When the family surveys the storm damage the next morning, they see a thick, startlingly [...]
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A good book really can change the way you look at the world. Before I read World War Z, for instance, I never sat on a beach and wondered: how would I defend myself, right now, if zombies came staggering out of the surf?
Thanks a lot, Max.
Subtitled “An Oral History of the Zombie [...]
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In the wake of Silence of the Lambs, many people discovered Red Dragon, Hannibal Lecter’s first appearance in Thomas Harris’s writing. Between the two of them, there was enough explosive thrills and criminal horror to feed the nightmares of the most devout action, mystery, or thriller reader. Then Harris brought Lecter back in, [...]
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I’m not sure what I liked best about The Ruins. It could be that Scott Smith has made a wonderful study of how people relate to each other under conditions of extreme danger, fear, and psychological pressure. Or it could just be that this is the perfect fast-reading horror novel to joyfully scare the willies [...]
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