Tagged: horror
Anthology: At Hell’s Gates by Various Authors
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
When evil overflows from the deepest, fiery pits, the battle will be At Hell’s Gates…Whether you are a zombie aficionado, or you feed on horror, there is something for everyone. We’ve summoned some of the top Zompoc authors, masters in horror, and even some new talent to strike fear into even the most jaded soul. Dare you look, let alone approach, the dreaded gates?
Each skillfully crafted vignette showcases previously created worlds in the individual author’s works. If you’ve ever yearned for more back story or ached to learn what happened to a peripheral character; your wait is over. But, as they say, “Be careful what you wish for”. Once it has been seen, you cannot go back. And once infected; there is no cure.
This collaboration is in honor of the brave men and women in our Armed Services who willingly lay down their lives for our freedom. Words could not possibly express our undying gratitude, so we have banded together, doing what we do best, to show our appreciation. All proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go to The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to serve wounded soldiers and their families. This is for you, those who have truly been…At Hell’s Gates.
[Full disclosure: I was contacted by one of the authors and received a free ebook from them in exchange for an honest review.]
I don’t normally post anything on Remembrance Day out of respect, but I thought this was the perfect book to review as all proceeds go to The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. You can’t pick out a more worthy cause than that.
As you guys have probably picked up on by now, I’m not a big anthology fan. Usually there’s one or two stories by authors I know and like and the rest aren’t very interesting or are pretty poorly written. There have been a few exceptions, but I generally try to avoid reading anthologies for just those reasons. I was a little skeptical reading this anthology because I’d never even heard of any of the authors, but the blurb intrigued me enough that I decided to give it a go. This isn’t just zombie fiction, after all; it also includes stories with other horror elements like vampires and ghosts.
I have to say that I was just blown away by this anthology. There were so many amazing stories in it that I find it hard to name all of my favourites. And in all honesty, I don’t think I could name a story that I actively disliked. There were some that I felt were ‘meh’ but none that I thought were bad and shouldn’t have been included. All of the stories were well written and well-edited, so much so that I have added several new authors and books to my enormous to-read list. Sharon Stevenson’s story Welcome to Hell and Seth by Jacqueline Druga in particular stood out to me.
At Hell’s Gates is a very well-edited anthology. I think I caught maybe one typo in the whole thing, but it’s more than that. The stories were very well put together so as to make the anthology flow. There was a large variety of stories and the order was rotated so that you didn’t have two intelligent zombie stories one after another or a run of three quasi-military survival group stories. Seeing as I read the whole anthology in one sitting, I particularly appreciated this attention to little details like making sure there was a wide variety of stories and that similar themes were spaced out well.
In this anthology there are intelligent zombies, traditional Voodoo zombies and modern Walking Dead-esque zombies. There’s really something for everyone and even if you don’t like zombies, there are plenty of stories that focus on other horrifying creatures like vampires and ghosts. And you certainly can’t deny that the anthology goes to a good cause.
So go out this Remembrance Day and get some excellent new reading material while supporting our troops.
I give this anthology 5/5 stars.
Fairy by Shane McKenzie
(Cover picture courtesy of NetGalley.)
Cecilia will do anything to have a baby. Anything.
Cecilia has tried everything to have the one thing she wants most—a baby. She’s been through every procedure, taken every medication. Nothing seems to work. Her body simply refuses to grow the life she so desperately yearns for. Her jealousy is making her lash out at the pregnant women around her. She’s starting to worry about her sanity.
But all is not lost. There is still one way. And Cecilia will do whatever it takes.
Even if it means inviting an ancient creature into her bedroom.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I know the blurb sounds like it belongs to a crappy erotic novel, but I swear to you that this is straight up horror. It’s actually quite terrifying.
I don’t find Cecilia incredibly sympathetic but she is interesting and held my attention. She’s so desperate for a baby that she’s willing to try anything and she’s especially tortured by seeing new life come into the world as a midwife. It’s hard for her, especially when she runs into her ex-husband with his new pregnant wife. You can kind of see where Cecilia would try something so ridiculous and so horrifying that it’s hard to even read about. I don’t want to spoil too much, but let’s say the ending was very much in character for her.
This is a novella which is good because I don’t think it would be possible to sustain this level of suspense over an entire novel. In the beginning things are only kind of sad, but then the mood gets darker and darker as Shane McKenzie takes the novella to its terrifying (but believable conclusion). The pace is quite fast but not at the expense of readers getting to know Cecilia and feel at least a little bit for her plight.
I like that Shane McKenzie stuck with the darker fairy mythology rather than making this into a shameless erotic novel that has a wonderfully happy ending where everyone goes about their merry way. No, this really is horror and although the ending was rather predictable to my mind, I think it will be a shock for some people who pick this up. If you’re big on horror I wouldn’t recommend it because you’ve probably read a novel just like this already but if you’re a newbie like I am this is a good sample of what the genre has to offer.
Basically, Fairy was everything a horror novella should be: short, dark and terrifying. What more can you ask for?
I give this novella 4.5/5 stars.
The 5 Best Books to Read on Halloween
Yes, it’s that time of year again: time to dress up and scare children! Well, that’s not what Halloween’s all about but for me that always seems to be the highlight of the occasion. Especially when they’re bratty children that put on a tough act.
My personal joys aside, here are some of the best books to read this Halloween (or anytime this year):
1. The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant
No, I will never stop recommending this series. I can’t recommend it highly enough, especially if you love zombie fiction. Like The Walking Dead on TV (or the comics)? World War Z? Any sort of zombie fiction? Then you’ll love these genre-savvy protagonists as they poke zombies, tackle sinister government organizations and rail against how impractical female formal wear is. Or at least Georgia does. Shaun doesn’t really care. Continue reading
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
[Book review by ForTheLoveOfBooks, my first guest poster! –CS]
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.
He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.
There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.
But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the Man Jack-who has already killed Bod’s family…
I personally don’t remember when I became familiar with Neil Gaiman, but I do remember one of my friends mentioning The Graveyard Book as one of the books she was planning on reading. I forgot about it for a while and then when I was on vacation in Sri Lanka last summer, I saw it in a bookstore, however the version that I saw was this one which was published by Bloomsbury. I find the cover of the Bloomsbury version much more appealing; there’s a darkness to it which I find lacking in the American publication. I’ll move on from my usual cover gushing now!
The book takes place somewhere in England and follows the adventures of Nobody Owens, a.k.a. Bod to the Graveyard Folk as he walks between the living and the dead. The story begins when Bod is a baby and his family are murdered by the mysterious man called Jack and continues till he is about 14/15 years old. Jacks always seem to get a bad name don’t they? You’ve got Jack in The Graveyard Book, Jack The Ripper, the list can go on and on. In his time growing up in the Graveyard, Bod encounters strange and fantastical people and creatures. To name a few they are: the Indigo Man, the Sleer, the ghouls, Ms. Lupescu, Liza the witch and the human girl Scarlett.
Plot wise, I enjoyed the story. I liked the darkness of the opening sequence in the book and the illustrations by Dave McKean add to the drama. Some chapters of the book were definitely fillers and sometimes it did feel like they were unnecessary, but regardless they did add a certain charm to the story. The ending of the story caught me by surprise. I didn’t expect a larger scheme of things to be occurring on the sidelines, but the story behind the scenes definitely helps to understand the connection between Jack and Bod. However it felt rushed to me; everything happened in a matter of hours. I also enjoyed the magical concepts Gaiman incorporated into the story such as ‘Fading’ and ‘Dreamwalking’ and I thought they were used well within the situations Bod found himself in.
Character wise, my only complaint is that there was a lack of character development. But then again this is a Children’s book and I suppose character development is not a requirement. I liked Bod’s character, he was sweet, genuine and likable. His parents; the Owens family were also likable characters, but I felt that they didn’t appear enough and I would have liked to see more of them. Bod’s guardian Silas was one of my favourite characters because he was so mysterious. At first I wasn’t too fond of Ms. Lupescu because she was giving Bod horrible food and didn’t seem to like him all that much, however when she appeared in Bod’s hour of need as a ‘Hound of God’ I thought she was awesome.
I personally didn’t like Scarlett’s teenage version. I liked her as a child, but she grew up to be an angsty teenager and I felt that there had been too much time lost between Bod and her that she didn’t quite understand him. I suppose who would teenagers be if they weren’t angsty and driven by hormones? The character Jack was well written; he was dark and scary and everything you want in a villain. The illustrations of Jack were also great because having him appear in front of you visually gave me goosebumps and I felt scared every time he appeared in the story.
Overall, The Graveyard Book was an enjoyable read. The concept of the book is unique and it’s different from my own reading experiences as a child. I personally don’t think I would have read this book as a child because it’s quite dark, but that’s my personal opinion. The book had some great quotes such as “Of all the organs, ‘the tongue is the most remarkable. For we use it both to taste our sweet wine and bitter poison, thus also do we utter words both sweet and sour with the same tongue” and “A graveyard is not normally a democracy, and yet death is a great democracy.” However there was something about the book that fell short for me. I don’t know how to explain it, but maybe I had too many expectations for it.
My Rating: 4/5
Would I recommend it? Yes