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REVIEW: THE CELLAR BY RICHARD LAYMON


THE CELLAR
RICHARD LAYMON
GENRE: HORROR

SYNOPSIS

Visitors flock to see the Beast House with its blood-soaked corridors and creaky doors. Armed with video camcorders, these poor souls enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper they go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. Don't even think about going into the cellar.




THE BEAST HOUSE:

Your first look:
an obvious tourist trap

Your guide:
a bizarre old woman who claims her husband and children were butchered there years ago, and further darkly hunts that others have since disappeared

Your fate:
If you are--
Man: a swift and savage death
Woman: a sexual enslavement beyond your wildest fantasies or nightmares




MY TAKE



Oh boy! I was so not prepared for what this book contained. So please be forewarned BEFORE you decide to pick up a copy of The Cellar. This book had it's good and bad points.


I like the overall idea Laymon had with the Beast that lives in the house. I think the “tourist trap” angle was pretty good as well. I liked the characters in the story and was a quick read—I finished it in one day. The Cellar was interesting and kept my attention. Some parts of the book were predictable and maybe even a bit clique. What I really, I must stress REALLY, didn't like was the character Roy's obsession for little girls. Those parts made me nauseous and very uncomfortable. I was definitely cheering when Roy got what was coming to him. What really surprised me about this book was as I was nearing the end, in my mind I thought I knew how it would end, but I was completely wrong. All in all, this was an interesting read.

 

REVIEW: IN COLD BLOOD BY TRUMAN CAPOTE


IN COLD BLOOD
TRUMAN CAPOTE
GENRE: NONFICTION/TRUE CRIME

SYNOPSIS

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.





MY TAKE



Before this book, I had never heard of the Clutter murders; never heard of Holcomb, Kansas; never heard of Perry Smith or Dick Hickock—after reading this book I will never forget.

I found this book to be a very sad journey. The Clutters were truly good people—the kind of people you would want as neighbors or friends. They (father, mother, daughter age 16, and son age 15) were murdered senselessly.

In Cold Blood is one of those special books that will stay with you for a very long time. If you like to read true crime, you must read this book.




 

KINDLE FREEBIES FOR 7/18/12

CHECK OUT THESE GREAT KINDLE FREEBIES!

(Make sure the offer hasn't expired before downloading)



By: Stephen Prosapio (Noble Publishing)
Genre: Fantasy
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 Sales Rank: 131
 File Size: 538 KB
 Print Length: 294 Pages
Also Categorized As:
  Fiction => Horror => Occult
Product Description:
Zach Kalusky, host of Sci-D TV's Xavier Paranormal Investigators, is ecstatic when he's given the opportunity to explore the most haunted site in Chicago for a Halloween Special: Rosewood Asylum, a place long made off-limits by the local government, plagued by decades of mysterious fires and unexplained events. It's Zach's dream investigation- but there's a catch: the network forces Xavier Paranormal Investigators to partner with the more dramatic-but less ethical-Demon Hunters. Now, Zach must fight for both his show's integrity and his team's loyalty while trying to protect his own secret: that he, himself, is possessed.
 
 
By: Cidney Swanson (Williams Press)
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Disabled
 Sales Rank: 187
 File Size: 296 KB
 Print Length: 302 Pages
Product Description:
ONE DOZEN FLIGHTS OF FANTASY--most at 99¢--LIMITED TIMESee the special Amazon sale page at bit.ly/FoFantasy
GET THE ENTIRE RIPPLE TRILOGY FOR UNDER $6--LIMITED TIME starting 7/17/12 Sixteen-year-old Samantha Ruiz has a lot on her mind. The crush who kissed her but changed his mind. The BFF who thinks Sam is in an abusive relationship. The Nazi-geneticist who wanted Sam dead but now wants her ALIVE. All this, and she's still dealing with a tendency to disappear into thin air. When Sam learns of her nemesis Helmann's Nazi-like plan to re-establish a Thousand-Year Reign, she's determined to fight him. Along with Will and Mickie, Sam flees to France to meet Sir Walter--their best hope for stopping Helmann's brave new world. Unfortunately, Sam isn't any safer in France. Someone invisible is following her, and now Sam must figure out how to hide from an enemy she can't even see.
 
 
By: John Corwin (Raven House)
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Disabled
 Sales Rank: 427
 File Size: 482 KB
 Print Length: 303 Pages
Product Description:
Justin Case and women do not mix. Man boobs, a love of Kings and Castles, and being tight with the "nerd" crowd certainly don't win him any points either. After rescuing Katie, his crush, it turns out she might not be the girl he thought she was, while Elyssa, the school's Goth Girl, turns out to be more. Can high school get any more confusing?

Determined to improve himself, he joins a gym and meets a sexy girl that just oozes a "come hither, Justin" vibe. Until she attacks him in the parking lot, and Justin realizes she's no ordinary girl but a being with supernatural speed and strength. After a narrow escape and an excruciating migraine headache, he wakes up with supernatural abilities all his own: speed, strength, and the ability to seduce every woman he sees.

While that might sound like the perfect combo for any hormonal teen, Justin is a hopeless romantic who wants his first time to be special. Is that too much to ask for? But he doesn't know what he is or how to stop his carnal urges. One thing is clear: If he doesn't find answers there are other more sinister supernaturals who would like nothing better than to make him their eternal plaything and do far worse than kill him.
 
 
By: Daniel Pyle (Blood Brothers Publishing)
Genre: Horror
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Disabled
 File Size: 230 KB
 Print Length: 37 Pages
Also Categorized As:
  Fiction => Horror => Occult
Product Description:
Bruce has lost everyone he ever cared about—even his cat.

Now he thinks he’s finally alone in the house, but something is about to come clawing its way out of the plumbing to prove him wrong.
 
 
By: Richard C Hale (Three Thirty A.M. Publishing)
Genre: Genre Fiction
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 File Size: 496 KB
 Print Length: 319 Pages
Product Description:
Frozen Past - A Thriller

Luke is only fourteen. Eliana is his whole world and for a fourteen year old, the burden is immense. You see, Eliana is being stalked. Stalked by a madman who wants nothing more than to see her dead. The madman knows things that no one should know and sees things that no one should see. He tells them if they say a word to anyone, they will both die. And Luke can't let that happen.

Eliana's past is catching up with her and Luke must do anything to save her. Anything.
 
 
 
 
 

WHAT ARE YOU READING THIS WEEK?






This week I'm reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (True Crime genre). I'm only a few pages in so I really don't have an opinion of it yet. I'll have the review posted when I'm finished.

What are you reading this week? Let me know by commenting below! Happy reading!
 

Monday Kindle Freebies 7/16/12

MONDAY KINDLE FREEBIES!

(Make sure the offer has not expired before downloading)



By: Jeff Bennington (Nexgate Press)
Genre: Horror
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 File Size: 443 KB
 Print Length: 336 Pages
Also Categorized As:
  Fiction => Horror => Ghosts
  Fiction => Horror => Occult
Product Description:
REUNION is a #1 Amazon Bestselling Ghost Story with Suspense, Mystery and the Supernatural.

Twenty years after a school shooting, six of the victims gather to heal their wounds. Their lives have been torn apart by varying degrees of post-traumatic stress disorder after David Ray changed everything the morning he went on a shooting rampage. Discover what drove the killer to do what he did and join Tanner Khan and the survivors of the Crescent Falls massacre as they reunite in the haunted school to unravel a dark secret from their past.
 
 
By: T. K. Varenko (CreateSpace)
Genre: Romance
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 File Size: 268 KB
 Print Length: 215 Pages
Also Categorized As:
  Romance
Product Description:
Luella, fierce, strong vampire,
Falls for a pretty human catch
Sent on her fiancé's desire
To celebrate they are engaged.

This unexpected turnabout
Is doomed to come to a dead end:
Her human sweetheart's dead to shroud;
Her fiancé's avenged for that;

And she is punished for blood treason,
Banished into a mortal child,
Whose human body is a prison
For all her powers to bind.

Her memories obliterated,
She is to find her love at last
Who proves to be too much related
To the misfortunes from her past.
 
 
By: Georgia Cates (Georgia Cates)
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Disabled
 File Size: 423 KB
 Print Length: 248 Pages
Also Categorized As:
  Romance
Product Description:
I was tantalized by the mystery of her. The leech inside me came out to find prey, but found none in this enigmatic girl. The close proximity of her essence didn’t entice the monster within, so what did that make her? I had more questions than answers, but one thing was unmistakable; although she released me from her embrace, her hold on me remained.

Cruel circumstances turned Curry Brennan into the wretched monster he hates and refuses to accept, but when an expected turn of events releases him from the bond of his obsessive maker, he returns to the home he knew 161 years earlier and finds the return of happiness and joy in something he didn’t know existed. Puzzled by his growing attraction to Chansey Leclaire, a human, he is unable to resist the captivating relationship that threatens to reveal his existence as a vampire. He eventually discovers the reason he was destined to find what he didn’t know he searched for and is faced with the cruel realization that the living and the immortal undead will always be separated by one thing. Eternity.
 
 
 
 
 
 

REVIEW: THE DEATH OF JAMES DEAN BY WARREN NEWTON BEATH


THE DEATH OF JAMES DEAN
WARREN NEWTON BEATH
GENRE: NONFICTION

SYNOPSIS

Drawing on the inquest manuscript and other previously unpublished material, Warren Beath cuts through the welter of conflicting reports and rumors to provide a taut reconstruction of Dean's final hours.







MY TAKE



Before this book, my knowledge of James Dean was very limited. I had seen Rebel Without a Cause many years ago. I knew Dean had died in a car accident before the movie was even released. That was the extent of my knowledge of the late, great Mr. James Dean.

I was prompted to buy this book because I wanted to know more about the alleged “curse” of James Dean's car. I was a bit saddened that only a couple of pages actually discussed the “curse” of Dean's 550 Porsche Spyder. The first half of the book discussed a lot that happened September 30, 1955—the day James Dean died. Many conflicting reports, witness statements, etc. The second half of the book dives into Dean's loyal following and those obsessed with the crash that killed him.

Overall, this was a decent read for those like myself with limited knowledge of James Dean.




 

Kindle Freebies 7/14/12

Here are some great free e-books for your Kindle. 

(Be sure the offer has not expired before downloading)


By: Frankie Rose
Genre: Romance
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 File Size: 726 KB
 Print Length: 393 Pages
Also Categorized As:
Product Description:
Everyone has a soul.

Some are just worth more than others.

Farley Hope was seventeen when her mother disappeared. In the last six months not much has changed, except that her eighteenth birthday came and went and still no sign of Moira. Her life is just as complicated as it always was: since her father died in a car crash before she was even born, she’s officially parentless, and to top it all off she’s still suffering from the hallucinations. Mind-splitting, vivid hallucinations- the kind prone to induce night terrors and leave you whimpering under your covers like a baby.

The last thing on her mind is boys. Farley is on break from St. Judes’ when she meets Daniel. It’s not some casual run in at a party, or even a blind date with friends, though. Daniel is the guy stalking her in his 1970′s Dodge Charger; the guy standing at her window in the LA lunch hour traffic, determined on dragging her out of her truck.

The moment Farley lays eyes on Daniel, everything changes. However, regrettably for Farley, her life isn’t set to change for the better. She is drawn into a world that will shake apart everything she thought she ever knew. There are truths out there that she must learn: who her father really was, and what it means to have his blood flowing through her veins; that a person’s soul is their only real currency, and there are people who would do anything to take hers; that loving someone can hurt so much more than hating them; but, most importantly, when your future is predestined, there is little you can do to change it.

Farley Hope is prophesied.

Her coming has been awaited for hundreds of years.

She is destined to end the tyranny of the Soul Reavers.

To do so she must die.
 
 
 
 
By: Christina Leigh Pritchard
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 File Size: 338 KB
 Print Length: 256 Pages
Product Description:
The Doctor said I should be dead.

My heart beat furiously. I looked up at the flashes of lightning in the sky. Yes, I should be dead.

Why wasn’t I?

Short Synopsis:

Seventeen year old Lisa Brown’s life is falling apart. First, her mother and father divorce, then their house forecloses and now, her mother has decided to commit herself to a psychiatric hospital.

If that weren’t enough, she must leave sunny south Florida to attend a boarding school full of geniuses in cold, Lynn, Massachusetts. The city where the locals chant “Lynn, Lynn, city of sin; you never come out the way you went in.”

And, they aren’t kidding. Lisa must live in a tiny shack with two strange teenagers, a dog named Pig who growls when you look at him and a cat named Rat. “Mind the cat,” everyone says. What the heck is wrong with this place?

Lisa thinks she’s landed in her own house of horrors with the anti-social Alex and his facetious sister Ally. But, the real drama begins the day she is struck by lightning…

Watch the book trailer! http://youtube/yRdrGVinWdQ
 
 
 
By: Steven Jay Griffel (Schiller & Wells, Ltd. - A Division of Stay Thirsty Media, Inc.)
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 File Size: 703 KB
 Print Length: 225 Pages
Also Categorized As:
Product Description:
#1 Amazon Best Seller in Music (March 2012)
#3 Amazon Best Seller in American Drama (March 2012)

Successful middle-aged publishing executive David Grossman risks everything to fulfill a promise to a woman he has not seen in forty years. When teen sweethearts and now aging Baby Boomers David and Jill reunite after four decades, sparks fly fast and furious, despite his long marriage to Allison and Jill’s reputation as a famous, former lesbian.

Jill Black, a “one hit wonder” Hollywood screenwriter, is consumed with a last chance to write and direct her own film. Success will reinvigorate her career. Failure will end it. When a pompous studio “suit” begins to undermine her authority and threatens to kill her project, the pressure forces her to spin from rage to murderous madness as she ensnares David in her plans.

Love and betrayal. Revenge and redemption. For some it ends happily. For others it all comes undone in this fast-paced drama of Baby Boomers trying to hang on to their lives, their families, and their Woodstock dreams. A riveting debut novel of suspense and humor, masterfully told by Steven Jay Griffel.
 
 
 
By: Ian Woodhead
Genre: Horror
Price: FREE
Product Details:
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
 Lending: Enabled
 File Size: 239 KB
 Print Length: 110 Pages
Also Categorized As:
  Fiction => Horror => Occult
Product Description:
Breakspear Gardens was the roughest housing estate in the north of England. Smackheads, car thieves, burglars, violent ex-offenders, the estate had them all.

The residents thought they had seen every type of subversive human behaviour, but even they weren’t prepared when the dead began to walk.

In the midst of this sudden explosion of zombies craving for live human flesh, A few locals manage to stay alive long enough to discover that the estate has been cut off from the outside world by gun toting soldiers.

Can they avoid their recently dead friends, family and neighbours from trying to consume them to find an alternative way out of the estate?

Praise for The Unwashed Dead

For me, five stars aren't enough. Why? Because Woodhead's tale makes the kind of social commentary that made Romero king. Highly recommended - Dave Jeffery. Author of Necropolis Rising.

He creates a very subtle aura of dread and menace that explodes across the page when the zombie carnage hits full throttle – Chip Fehd – Buyzombie.com

Tightly written and fast paced, this creepy read is filled with wit, humor and tension – Christopher Beck. Author of Lonesome Night

This is good-value, home-grown zombie fiction - something fans have been screaming out for – Sean T Page. Author of The Official Zombie handbook (UK)

This story is the first book in the Zombie Armageddon series and continues with Walking with Zombies.

03 March 2012.
A new version has been uploaded that addresses the few errors found in the older file.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Book Haul June-July


BOOK HAUL JUNE-JULY


I have gotten some great books since the last book haul was posted in May. Yes, I am behind! Since there are so many, I won't bother with posting pics, I'm just listing them. If I've read and reviewed a book from this list, it will be linked to the review.

I got these from Thriftbooks.com

  1. The Host / Stephenie Meyer / Sci-Fi
  2. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Poems / Edgar Allan Poe / Poetry, Horror, Classics
  3. The Death of James Dean / Warren Newton Beath / Biography of Death
  4. The Wolfman /Jonathan Maberry / Horror
  5. Summer of Night / Dan Simmons / Horror
  6. The Reapers / John Connolly / Horror
  7. Ghost Road Blues / Jonathan Maberry / Horror
  8. The Wolf's Hour / Robert R. McCammon / Horror
  9. Red / Jack Ketchum / Horror
  10. It / Stephen King / Horror
  11. Every Dead Thing / John Connolly/ Horror
I got these from a local used bookstore:

  1. Intensity / Dean Koontz / Horror
  2. Black House / Stephen King & Peter Straub / Horror
  3. The Hellfire Club / Peter Straub / Horror
  4. Lost Souls / Poppy Z. Brite / Horror
  5. The Visitor / Jere Cunningham / Horror

I got this one from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart:

  1. He Is Legend / Christopher Conlon / Horror Anthology

I got these from Hastings:

  1. One More for the Road / Ray Bradbury / Horror Anthology
  2. The Association / Bentley Little / Horror
 

REVIEW: PET SEMATARY BY STEPHEN KING


PET SEMATARY
STEPHEN KING
GENRE: HORROR

SYNOPSIS

When Louis Creed & his family move from Chicago into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son--and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly cat.

The road in front of their home frequently claims the lives of neighborhood pets. Near their house, local children have created a cemetery for the dogs & cats killed by the steady stream of transports on the busy highway. Deeper in the woods lies another graveyard, an ancient Indian burial ground whose sinister properties Louis discovers when the family cat is killed.


MY TAKE



I don't know why I put off reading this book for so long...wait, yes I do—the movie scared the crap out of me! While shopping at a used book store I came across a first-edition copy of Pet Sematary and couldn't snatch it off the shelf quick enough.

There are many elements that make Pet Sematary work so well. Besides being well-written, great character development, wonderful pace, and no plot holes; this novel plays on many fears of the normal every day person. Many parts of this book sent chills down my spine (and that is really saying something from me).

This is one of the best horror books ever written in my opinion (and probably many others as well). If you haven't read this book yet, you are really missing out! Absolutely a MUST read!





 

REVIEW: THE LOST BY JACK KETCHUM


THE LOST
JACK KETCHUM
GENRE: HORROR

SYNOPSIS

It was the summer of 1965. Ray, Tim, and Jennifer were just three teenage friends hanging out in the campgrounds, drinking a little. But Tim and Jennifer didn't know what their friend Ray had in mind. And if they'd known, they wouldn't have thought he was serious. Then they saw what he did to the two girls at the neighboring campsite--and knew he was dead serious.

Four years later, the 60s were drawing to a close. No one ever charged Ray with the murders in the campgrounds, but there was one cop determined to make him pay. Ray figured he was in the clear. Tim and Jennifer thought the worst was behind them, that the horrors were all in the past. They were wrong. The worst was yet to come.


MY TAKE



This is my fourth Ketchum novel, and I have yet to be disappointed. Jack Ketchum can create some of the most realistic and disturbing characters.

The Lost literally starts off with a bang and definitely gets your attention. You immediately know who the bad guy is—and that guy is Ray Pye. He shoots two young women (while his friends Tim and Jennifer watch) at the beginning of the book. One dies and the other is on life support. Four years later, the second victim dies, and it seems Ray has gotten away with murder.

After this episode in the beginning of the book, there is a lot of character development and interaction. With the partying, the teen girls, he is on top of the world (I guess those crushed beer cans in his boots help). Ray gets what Ray wants, and when he doesn't, things end very badly.

This was an awesome book and highly recommended!


 
 
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