Let the Right Book In

When I received this book in my first Nocturnal Reader's Box, I was very intrigued. It's quite an interesting premise - five different novellas, written by five different authors, but all focusing on the same building, called Irongrove Lodge. I thought the best way to review it was to take each story individually, as some were far better than others... First up was Maggots by Nina Allan, and this was a very interesting one. It focuses on Willy Randle, a young man of university age, who has a perfectly normal life until one day after a fall, when he begins to have altered perceptions, starting to believe his aunt is not herself. He then decides he must investigate what is happening and therefore delves deeper into the mystery and secrets surrounding Irongrove Lodge. This was a good story to open the book with, in that it sucked me in and left me wanting to know more. A criticism of this story, however, is the writing itself - it was just not very good. Overall, I rated ...

Wraith is actually a prequel to Joe Hill's novel, NOS4A2/NOS4R2, and what a delightfully creepy story! It opens with a little backstory about Charlie Manx, which was just awesome. I totally wanted to know more about the origins of Charlie Manx. It then quickly switches to the main story, involving two prison guards and a group of convicts who are trying to escape. However, their plans quickly go awry and one of the convicts contacts Charlie Manx - someone who is known for helping people disappear. Little do they know they're on their way to Christmasland... My favourite thing about this graphic novel was, of course, the illustrations. They were mind-blowingly awesome. Often I would just sit and stare in a daze. It was literally like Charles Paul Wilson III crawled into my brain and encapsulated exactly how I imagined Christmasland to be and then put it on the pages. It was beautifully creepy and macabre, and so sinister. I'm in love. The story itself was fun, ...

My box finally arrived - albeit slightly later than most people's, therefore I had already been spoilered a few times on Instagram - sad face. Damn postal service!! But that didn't make me any less excited for this box. This month's theme was Paranoia, so let's delve in, shall we? First of all, the most important part...the books! I have to admit, I already knew from Instagram that one of this month's books was American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, so I was REALLY excited as this is one of my favourite movies, but I've never read the book. So when I was unboxing...imagine my dismay when I didn't see American Psycho - I saw The Silence of the Lambs instead! Fair enough, that should be a decent read too, but I was all set up for American Psycho and felt a little deflated - maybe half of us were getting American Psycho and half getting The Silence of the Lambs? But NO! This was actually a hideaway box made to look like a book! And American Psycho was...

Bag of Bones focuses on the story of Mike Noonan, a best-selling writer who's wife unexpectedly passes away. Following her death, Mike suffers from writer's block and begins to have nightmares concerning their lakeside house, Sara Laughs. Mike decides he must go back to their lakeside house in order to confront his fears. Upon his arrival, he meets a beautiful single mother and her daughter, only to find out that a crazy millionaire wants to obtain custody of the young girl, who is his granddaughter. Mike decides he must help the young mother and daughter, but other sinister forces are also at work... "And perhaps the greatest blessing was that we never knew how short the time was." I truly believe that no one can depict grief like King can. Between this and Lisey's Story, King seems to have a unique talent for describing those feelings of loss and the process of grief itself. And that is part of the reason why I love King so much, it just feels like h...

Unless you have lived under a rock (or in a hole in the ground), you will have heard of The Hobbit! So there isn't much point in me giving a brief synopsis, but for the sake of completion... The Hobbit focuses on the adventures of a hobbit called Bilbo Baggins, who is invited to take part in a journey to help some dwarves travel to the Lonely Mountain in order to reclaim their treasure. However, the treasure is currently being guarded by the dragon, Smaug. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." And so began my journey back into Middle Earth. This book has always been one of my favourites since childhood. However, it does bring back some dark memories of losing my uncle's beautiful leather-bound edition he had let me borrow... but the less said about...

Night Shift was Stephen King's first short story collection, released way back in 1978 and it contains quite a lot of his more popular short stories that ended up becoming movies. The prime examples being Children of the Corn and Sometimes They Come Back. “The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real. I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.” King is often hailed as the master of the short story. Prior to this collection I had only read Nightmares & Dreamscapes and The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, and I did really enjoy them, but found it odd when people would comment things like "Oh it was good, but it was disappointing compared to earlier ones". Well, now I get it, guys!  Now I get it. You can quite literally feel King's hunger for story-telling throughout the entirety of this collection and given these stories were written at the very start of his care...

It's a question I frequently get asked on instagram - what is your favourite Stephen King book? And inevitably, I give them my top 3 and these 3 picks just roll off the tongue. No thought involved. So then I thought...why not challenge myself to pick a top 10? And here we are! I decided not to include the Dark Tower series in my consideration, it's hard to compare single novels in this series to other standalone books, so just remember that the Dark Tower is quite literally, the best reading experience I've ever had (will probably ever have) in my entire life. So I have not forgotten about Roland and co. Let me know in the comments if you agree/disagree, or if a certain book is missing (perhaps I just haven't got around to reading it yet!). 1. Pet Sematary In all honesty, I'm not sure this book will ever be topped. There was just something very unique about this reading experience for me. As a fan of horror movies, I'm often left lying awake at night ...