Let the Right Book In

Retired cop Bill Hodges is haunted by an unsolved crime where innocent people were waiting for entry into a job fair when a lone driver plows through the crowd in a Mercedes, injuring and killing many. When he receives a letter from the perp threatening another evil act, Hodges becomes hellbent on preventing such horror happening again. "Everybody likes the ice cream man." I could read true crime until it made my eyeballs bleed, but there's just something about crime fiction or detective stories that don't really appeal to me. So to know that King's Bill Hodges trilogy is kind of a cat-and-mouse detective story didn't fill me with much excitement. But let's cut to the chase - overall, I really enjoyed Mr Mercedes, but it is nowhere near being King's best. It's a page-turner and you constantly want to know what happens next, which propels you through the story. From the get-go we do know who the killer is, and that removes some of ...

The story of the aging Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze, whom he lovingly thinks of as Lolita. “I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita.”   Probably one of the most difficult reviews to write, as reading Lolita had many ups and downs and conflicted feelings! However, I feel like I need to preface my review by saying that I was NOT having a good mental health week during the time that I read Lolita and I think that was probably the cause of a lot of my grievances. So, I’m sorry to use this tired cliché, Lolita, but it’s not you, it’s me. When I started Lolita I had a very vague idea of what the storyline involved, so safe to say I was quite taken aback by the explicit content, especially when its pertaining to such a young girl, or as Humbert likes to call her, a “nymphet”. On that note, if I never hear of the word “nymphet” again for as long as I live, I’ll...

Baxter is a sociopathic bull terrier who is on the hunt for his perfect master, as he plots the demise of his current owner... "What if some morning as the old woman stood at the head of the staircase she were suddenly to feel a weight thrusting against the back of her legs? ... What would become of me if she were found unmoving at the bottom of the stairway?" Days later and I am still thinking about this book. I even gave my boyfriend a detailed description of the events in the book (which I'm pretty sure he loved - let's not ask him though). I just honestly did not expect SUCH a great story, in fact I'd never even heard of Hell Hound nor the author before - thank god for The Nocturnal Reader's Box, eh!? What I really enjoyed about this was the fact that the story is told from a number of different POV's - we have the POV of the dog, Baxter, and then a number of the humans that come into contact with him. This book started off being quite hum...

A non-fiction book that focuses on horror fiction throughout movies, film, television and radio, and what is it about the genre that captivates so many horror enthusiasts. "We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and toward another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other." The Master of Horror discussing the genre of horror?? Sign me up! This was admittedly better than I expected - I expected a stuffy essay that would be a chore to read at times. Luckily, this wasn't really the case at all. I'm a huge fan of when King talks directly to his Constant Reader, whether it be in his introductions or his afterwords, or even in On Writing. He has such a knack of pulling you in and making it feel like it's just you and him, chilling, sharing a coffee while he divulges all his thoughts and opinions. Just me and King sharing a caramel square. The huge downside of Danse Macabre is that it is outdated - this was released in 1981, ...

A collection of stories based on American folklore written with the intention of giving you the creeps or making you jump with fright. The stories are accompanied by delightfully disturbing illustrations provided by Stephen Gammell. "In the dark and the gloom, it is easy for someone listening to imagine all sorts of strange and scary things." Anytime I post these books on instagram, people lose their shit. It seems that everyone overseas (and by overseas I mean America or Canada) can attribute all their childhood nightmares to the stories and illustrations found within these collections. A lot of people also say that these books were almost like their gateway into horror. Sadly, I did not have such an experience growing up *sad face*. Quite honestly I had never even heard of these until I saw them on instagram - and then I WANTED them. But they're quite tough to find over here! Luckily, I won a giveaway hosted by one of my BG buddies, Sadie, and now I have 3 o...

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. She goes home on a Friday and doesn’t speak to anyone until she goes back into work on Monday. She has her weekly phone calls with Mummy and is perfectly happy with the lack of social interaction in her life. Unless maybe she isn’t. “If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.” Is it strange that my first thought is to liken Eleanor Oliphant to Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm?? And by that I am referring to her hilarious social commentary. She says what she thinks and comments on those social conventions that she finds a bit…strange. And I love her for that alone! I just needed to get that thought out of the way first. This is in no way the usual genre of book I read these days, but ever since September last year I have been asking s...

The unusual occurrences in the MacNeil house could easily be explained away – rats in the attic, misplaced furniture - but the disturbing changes in Regan MacNeil’s behaviour could not. Doctors are unable to diagnose what could have caused this shift in personality, so Regan’s mother turns to Father Damien Karras, who is suffering from his own lack of faith. “We mourn the blossoms of May because they are to whither; but we know that May is one day to have its revenge upon November, by the revolution of that solemn circle which never stops – which teaches us in our height of hope, ever to be sober, and in our depth of desolation, never to despair.” I’m finally writing a proper book review for one of my favourite books of all time after reading it for the third time. But let’s go way back to the start… The Exorcist was pretty much my gateway into reading horror. Growing up I hated horror, you couldn’t have paid me to watch a horror movie – I blame my brothers forcing me to ...