Book 71 of 2009: The Resurrectionist by Wrath James White

Wrath James White starts us off into the world of The Resurrectionist by vividly exploring a scene where a young boy listens intently from outside his parents’ bedroom door as they fight. The boy continues to listen as his dad beats up his mom and he even listens as his dad kills his mom. Then he decides to call the cops. Once the cops arrive, even more chaos takes place as the boy is escorted out to a cop car and the cops go in to see what has taken place. He watches them one by one stagger out of the house getting sick and finally he runs back into the house to find his father dead, shot by the cops, and his mom skinned alive by his father's hand. He climbs over to his mom and starts giving her mouth-to-mouth. Slowly she starts to breathe again and then her skin starts to rejuvenate. The cops come back in then and can't believe their eyes. The woman sitting with him can't possibly be the woman that was just lying there skinned alive, can it? But he claims it's his mommy. What special powers is it this boy holds and what else could he possibly use those powers for in the future?

The Resurrectionist delves deep into the life of one very demented and warped individual. The main character, Dale, has so many "issues" that as a reader it's hard to decide whether to sympathize with him or hate him for what he is doing to the victims in the book. I was honestly torn throughout on my opinion of him, yet leaned more to the negative side because it was just hard to fathom any person could do the things he was doing to other beings. White has written a novel so graphically depicted and so intense that you actually feel like you're "living" the nightmare that is taking place within the pages. I would recommend those with a queasy stomach to pass this book by and move on to a more "user-friendly" horror book as White does describe extremely graphic scenes of mutilation, torture, and rape, which might offend some readers. To those that can handle it, however, this is a must read! I was unable to put the book down once I opened it up and I think any lovers of extreme horror will feel the same. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Contains: Gore, Rape, Sex, Mutilation, Torture, Adult Language, Adult Situations

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 70 of 2009: My Soul To Take by Rachel Vincent

The adventures of Kaylee Cavanaugh continue on from Rachel Vincent's prequel story, My Soul to Lose, in this first novel of the Soul Screamers series. Kaylee thinks she's died and gone to heaven after sneaking into an eighteen-and-over-club and earning the affections of one of the hottest guys in school, Nash Hudson. But then someone really does die, and ironically, it is someone that Kaylee had predicted was going to die, before Nash and her best friend, Emma, pulled her out of the club during a "panic attack". Somehow, Nash knows that it was not just a panic attack, and is able to soothe Kaylee when she was on the verge of shrieking, but how? Shortly after the first girl dies, a second does. Kaylee feels like there is something seriously wrong going on and that she should somehow try to stop it. Of course, Nash wants to help out and for whatever reason, he seems to know even more about what is going on than Kaylee.

Rachel Vincent has been on my "must read immediately upon release" list for a while now with her Shifters series and having now read both My Soul to Lose and My Soul to Take, I think it'll just be any books that come out by her that go on that list. Vincent is an amazing writer who is coming out with creative new plot ideas for the paranormal genre. There are plenty of vampire, werewolf, and zombie stories out there, but Vincent is going beyond those, picking out and using some of the less common elements. I applaud her for that, and appreciate it, as some of the others, while enjoyable, can get stale at times. My Soul to Take allows us to get to know more about what is going on with Kaylee as she learns about herself. There are some emotional scenes in the book both for Kaylee, getting a handle on who she really is, and also due to the deaths that are taking place within the book. This novel crosses over many genres... paranormal, mystery, romance, and horror, so it is a good blend. Young adult readers, as well as many adults, will find Soul Screamers a unique and fascinating series and will be eagerly awaiting the next book. I know I am. Highly Recommended.

Contains: Mild Adult Language, Adult and Teen Death Scenes

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com is a review I did with Rachel.

Book 69 of 2009: B Is For Bad Poetry by Pamela August Russell

No Review to follow... sorry! I just read this quickly while in a bookstore one day. So I don't have the book in my possession to really write up a really good review of it. I found some of the poems in it to be highly amusing, but then some fell very flat. It was amusing for the time being as I read it, but nothing I would've bothered spending my money on, especially considering it was a hardback.

Book 68 of 2009: Swarm of Flying Eyeballs by Gina Ranalli

Squid Salad Press' second bizarro release, Swarm of Flying Eyeballs, comes from one of the top-selling authors in the genre, Gina Ranalli. In Swarm, the summer school students of a local school are going on a local field trip to a blueberry field. Ron, the poor guy that has to tend to the blueberry fields, watches as the bus pulls up and is a bit disgruntled, since back in the day when he was in school he never got to go on field trips during summer school. Soon, the kids are all picking berries until all of a sudden one of them starts to scream! Ron goes to check on the girl who was screaming, and next thing, both Ron and the girl that was previously screaming are both running and yelling "EYEBALLS!" But what are they talking about? Only the mind of Ranalli and those that have read Swarm know for sure and honestly, I'm not even sure the readers know exactly what Ranalli has in mind once this book comes to such a twisted end. Swarm has the feel of a fun B-horror movie and I could picture the film rolling in my head as I was reading it. The characters that Ranalli has created are brilliant. They vary in age from young kids, to teens, to adults. The weird thing is... it seemed liked a lot of the time the young kids, such as Natalie, our heroine, had more smarts about her then those that should have had more maturity. Of course,, I guess that is how things do seem to be in a lot of real life instances, so Ranalli probably hit that dead on! It's the underlying things such as that, and Ranalli's quirky writing style, that make this such a powerful read. Highly recommended for all fans of the bizarro genre, or even those readers that are hesitant about the genre and just want to consider "dipping their feet in".

Contains: Mild Violence

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Books 65-67 of 2009: Silent Night 1-3 by R.L. Stine

R.L. Stine's omnibus collection, Silent Night, contains all three of his Silent Night stories about Reva Dalby. The trilogy is part of his successful teen series, Fear Street, though the majority of the books take place in surrounding areas of Fear Street.

Silent Night, the first story of the trilogy, starts the omnibus off and introduces us to several of the main characters, including Reva Dalby and her daddy, who happens to own Dalby Department Stores. It's Christmas season and he is needing extra help in the store so he has asked Reva to recruit some of her friends to help out in the store. She, being a bit self-centered, decides that this is the perfect opportunity to gain the attention of one of the guys at school she has a crush on and also to play pranks on a few other people that she doesn't like. Once everyone is hired in, however, the pranks seem to start on Reva! It seems like someone is stalking her and it might be a bit more harmful than the pranks she had planned for her daddy's new employees. Whoever is stalking her seems to be out for... blood!

Silent Night 2 takes place the winter after the first Silent Night and, obviously, Reva has survived the adventures of the first book. She's even promised to be a nicer person due to everything that happened to her, but everyone knows that it's hard for a person to change themselves that drastically, right? In this second installment of the Silent Night series, Stine has set-up a new challenge for Reva to face, kidnappers! Why you ask would anyone want to kidnap a bratty teenager like Reva? Don't forget... she is the rich daughter of the owner of the Dalby Department Store!

In the final installment of the Silent Night trilogy, Reva is home from college and has brought her roommate to stay with her for the holidays. Her daddy has asked her to work the store again for the season, but after the last two miserable Christmases she's hesitant yet gives in. Reva's cousin, Pam, has a special request for Reva as well now that she's home. She and her friend have been making special scarves and would like to sell them at the department store and figure if Reva likes them, then she can convince her daddy to do it. Reva not only LOVES the scarves, she convinces her daddy to sell them at the store by telling them that she was the one that designed them! This infuriates Pam, but she doesn't speak up as she figures it's the only way she will get to sell them at the store. Reva is excited because she also has conviced her daddy to let her have a fashion show at the store and whatever she wants, she gets. Only, at Dalby's Department Store... she tends to get a little more than she bargains for every time and this time it seems to be murder after murder, but who is doing it and why?

As a teenager I read the Fear Street series consistently. It was how I got my start reading horror. I love Stine's writing style and find his books suspenseful. Even reading the Silent Night series today, I still feel that his writing style is superior to many of the teen horror authors out there. I had guesses throughout the books as to what was going to happen at the end, but I was never quite sure. These books, along with the rest of the Fear Street books are great books for all pre-teen and younger teenagers to read if they are wanting to start into the horror genre. They have just enough "scare factor" in them that the kids will enjoy, without all the gore and adult themes that parents would not want them reading yet. (Of course, us "young at heart" also enjoy these quite a lot still as well) This trilogy in particular is a great one to read around the holidays since it's based around Christmastime and also has a lot of Christmas elements going on within the story. Highly Recommended.

Note: I reviewed this as a combined collection, but the books are also available as individual books titled Silent Night, Silent Night 2, and Silent Night 3

Contains: Some Death Scenes, Some Alcohol Use

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 64 of 2009: Devil's Marionette by Maurice Broaddus

Want to re-read before reviewing this one...

Book 63 of 2009: My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Lose is the prequel to Rachel Vincent's new novel My Soul to Take. At the start of My Soul to Lose, Vincent introduces us to Kaylee Cavanaugh and her best friend, Emma. They are on a trip to the mall and plotting revenge on Kaylee's ex. Unfortunately, while wandering around the mall, Kaylee has what Emma assumes was a "panic attack". Emma pulls her away from the crowds of the food court where the attack first hit her and led her down to Sears. Kaylee was feeling better until she spotted a boy in a wheelchair who appeared to have shadows wrapped around him and then she began to shriek. Next thing Kaylee knows, she finds herself in a psychiatric ward, trying to find a way out and also a way to explain the shadows to herself.

Having been a fan of Vincent's adult Shifters series I was curious to see how her writing style would hold up in the young adult genre, and I have to say I am quite impressed. My Soul to Lose is a great introduction to the Soul Screamers series and leaves you wondering what is going on with this girl, Kaylee. It is also a great introduction to Rachel Vincent that may eventually lead younger readers to discover her adult books. This is a novella, but has a lot packed into it. Several characters in the Soul Screamers world are introduced and you get a bit of background on what has been going on with Kaylee. Readers don’t need to read this prior to reading My Soul to Take, but I think it helps you get more in touch with the characters. Highly Recommended.

Contains: Mild Adult Language

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 62 of 2009: Orgy of Souls by Wrath James White and Maurice Broaddus

Review to follow...