Let the Right Book In

Shadow is serving out the last days of his prison sentence when he learns that his wife, Laura, has died in a car accident. Upon his journey home he encounters the mysterious Mr Wednesday who offers him a job as a bodyguard. "There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous." Okay, so American Gods and I got off to a rough start. I enjoyed the first 50 pages or so, I was intrigued, excited to see what was coming next... and then for some reason, the following 150 pages started to bore me slightly and I felt a lot of confusion as to what the actual point of the story was. BUT THEN, BUT THEN!! It really picked up and I was sucked into this world that Gaiman had created. This is why I don't DNF books - I easil...

312 days later and I have completed this mammoth collection of Poe tales and poems. Considered to be the master of tales filled with mystery and/or the macabre, Poe delivers a range of short stories and poetry that are all contained within this collection. "Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door - only this, and nothing more." My rating for this collection may seem harsh, but let me explain... When Poe is good, he is GREAT. But when he is not... it is torture and absolutely unbearable at times. I have zero intention of revisiting about 75% of this collection. In comparison, I'm pretty sure I would be happy to revisit the majority of Lovecraft tales at some point in the future. A lot of readers will compare the two, but for me, when comparing their complete bodies of work, there is no competition. I was actually surprised by the number of non-horror stories I found. I had assumed Poe primarily wrote these chilling stories fi...

An ancient demon lurks beneath the town of Morganville, an unholy creature conjured into existence by the tragedy at the Heller Home for Children. And it wants the souls of the townspeople... "A place possessed... by an unholy being named MOLOCH." Well, this was a DAMN good time! If you're a fan of 80s horror, then this is a book you need to pick up. The perfect homage to all the things we love about 80s horror - but the only difference between this and quite a lot of 80s horror is that this is very well written *shade thrown* Newman is a fantastic writer, he creates a family and characters that you really care about from the get-go. The stakes are high and you really do feel tense as Newman ramps up the pressure. You know that NO character is safe, and I really love that in a book. I hate when you're reading and you just know a certain character will get out of a sticky situation because the author doesn't have the balls to kill his darlings... ...

On the first day of May each year, one hundred boys will take part in “The Long Walk”. Breaking the rules results in warnings. More than three warnings and you’ll get your ticket and you’re out of the race. “They walked through the rainy dark like gaunt ghosts, and Garraty didn’t like to look at them. They were the walking dead.”   I’ve felt for quite a while now that my top 10 Kings are pretty solid – before reading this I had about 13 or 14 left to read and none of them really seem like possible contenders (apart from maybe The Green Mile). In particular, I never thought a goddamn Bachman book would break the top 10 (we have a rocky relationship me and Bachman). And yet here we are! The Long Walk didn’t just break into the top 10, but the top 5!   From the outset I thought The Long Walk would just be another dystopian novel (I say “another” quite loosely as surely this was one of the first?), but boy was I wrong. Below the surface, this book touches upon so...

The Triwizard Tournament is being held at Hogwarts this year, a competition that hasn't been held for a hundred years. Two other rival schools of magic will take part as Harry is forced to take part following the mysterious introduction of his name into the Goblet of Fire... "What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does." Oh Hagrid, you sweet cinnamon roll. He has a bit of a tough time in this one (when does he not, to be honest), but still manages to retain his dignity and come out stronger on the other side. I'm really feeling more appreciative of Hagrid on this re-read. I couldn't deal with how sad I felt when he was considering resigning from his post at Hogwarts following all the scandal after the Daily Prophet article. He got all sad and upset, and when Hagrid is upset, you bet your ass I am upset!! Anyway, I went on a bit of a Hagrid detour there... back to the book itself. I thought my big reread of 2018 would help ...

14 more horrifying tales from the master of darkness and body horror... These are the stories written on the Book of Blood. "What the boy had said was true. The dead have highways. Only the living are lost." When I read Books of Blood Volumes 1-3, I was completely blown away by how much I loved pretty much every story in there. I'd find it very difficult to fault that collection in any way! Although Volumes 4-6 were still AMAZING, there were a few stories that I less excited about, and will no doubt forget quite quickly. Short story collections are difficult to review, especially when they're SO GOOD, as I just want to gush about each individual stories and all the reasons I enjoyed them... but hey, we'd be here all day. So I thought I'd just highlight my absolute favourites (which is nearly all of them...) The Body Politic is an insane story where human hands have decided to rebel and depart from their owners' bodies. I realise this so...

On a Christmas Eve shopping trip to London, Naomi becomes separated from her dad, Charles. Days later her murdered and mutilated body is discovered. But is she really dead? "There was something on the carpet, just outside the old nursery door, Naomi's door. A length of blue ribbon. I didn't touch it, of course. It might still have been warm." It had been a while since I had read a REALLY good horror book - and this one delivers. Ages and ages ago this was recommended to me by someone on bookstagram, they said it was the scariest book they'd ever read - so, of course, this piqued my interest. I looked it up on amazon and saw that the author was from Belfast, and this was the sign I needed to order it ASAP (Belfast is quite local to me). My overriding thought finishing this book was - WHY isn't Jonathan Aycliffe better known?! The first half of Naomi's Room was downright chilling. Shivers running down your spine. Sleeping with the lights on. R...

20 short stories exploring the dark underside of religion, marriage, love, fear, regret, and hunger in a world that spins just slightly askew on its axis. "I made a mistake." Holy cow. First of all - Ronald Malfi can WRITE. Make no mistake about that. The stories themselves may have ranged in quality throughout this collection, but the standard of writing remained HIGH. He's definitely an author I will be reading more of - potentially starting with his novel December Park, which I ordered within reading about 50 pages of this collection. Malfi grabs your attention from the get-go with an absolute scorcher of a story in The Dinner Party. One you won't forget in a hurry, The Dinner Party is one of the craziest and most shocking stories I've ever read. Malfi is not afraid to go DARK, and that's something I look for in my favourite horror books. As Clive Barker says, "Good horror fiction deals with taboos. It must always go to the limits of what...

An impenetrable and transparent barrier inexplicably falls down over the small town of Chester’s Mill, cutting it off from the rest of the world as its inhabitants are left to fight for survival. “When the dawn was still long hours away, bad thoughts took on flesh and began to walk. In the middle of the night thoughts became zombies.”   Under the Dome was always one of those King books that I dreaded. Reviews were not always so favourable on Instagram with a lot of people claiming it had one of King’s worst endings… so I really was expecting the worst. However, I was very pleasantly surprised. Now admittedly that may be due to having the ending semi-spoilered for me prior to reading, but even if that wasn’t the case, I’m pretty sure I would still have liked it.   I’m a huge fan of when King takes a small town and really fleshes it out – I love when he expands upon the different families and relationships, and even the doggos. Under the Dome has a massive cast, ...