The Perfect Date by R.L. Stine
Honestly this ending was top-notch. Reminds me a bit of Tales from the Crypt honestly. I was not expecting it and I thought it was cleverly done. Sometimes i forget that R.L. Stine besides doing tons of teen horror, liked to play around with twist endings. Some of his Fear Street books did not end on a “happy” note. I liked the characters in this one and I was wrong about who the mysterious girl was and how she came about.
The Kolchak Papers: The Original Novels by Jeff Rice
I like to find the original literary sources for movies that I like (see past reviews of Strangers on a Train, Rosemary’s Baby, Breakfast at Tiffany’s), so I was happy to find out that an old television show from my childhood, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, actually started life out as a book. The Kolchak Papers: The Original Novels includes the first two novels that introduced intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak, who has a flair for detecting the supernatural. They first debuted in 1970 and are now […]
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
CBR14Bingo: Bodies (dead bodies, aliens inhabiting human bodies, people going from cyberspace into a body for the first time, etc.) I was obsessed with Neil Gaiman’s work from high school through college and then burned out and haven’t read anything by him in probably 10 years, so when I saw this in the bookstore I initially didn’t think I was going to get it. But when I picked it up and started reading the first story, I remembered that I liked that one, and it […]
Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden
Sorry but this was just a solid 3 stars. I think the biggest issue is that Arden tried to rewrite The Smiling Man and based on the first book in the quartet it never squared. We also didn’t get a lot of time with our trio of Ollie, Coco, and Brian together. The ending also just felt very rushed. Finally, the whole book was pretty short. I got to the 80 something mark and the remaining part of the book was excerpts from the first […]
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
Wow, that a fun retelling of “Carrie” by Tiffany D. Jackson. She did her own spin on it, and incorporated many different elements that make it more updated. I have to say though, I wish that Jackson had followed along with how King chose to end Carrie. The ending on this one didn’t really work for me and it was honestly not realistic. It took me out of the story a bit. “The Weight of Blood” follows a podcast that decides to take on the […]
Poison Ivy: Thorns by Kody Keplinger
A few spoilers below: Poison Ivy: Thorns by Kody Keplinger is a solid story about a young girl coming of age and learning about pushing back. Pamela (Ivy to be) is abused in many ways: a classmate, her father, and even herself. The elements that make Pamela into Poison Ivy are actually logical and heartbreaking. After all, you be “mind raped” by your classmate (having lies told about you, being harassed in the hallways), your principal saying to you, “now now little girl, don’t dress […]
