Bad Glass by Richard E. Gropp

Pub date: September 25, 2012.

Author website.

Something has happened in Spokane. The military has evacuated the city and locked it down. Even so, disturbing rumors and images seep out, finding their way onto the Internet, spreading curiosity, skepticism, and panic. For what they show is-or should be-impossible: strange creatures that cannot exist, sudden disappearances that violate the laws of physics, human bodies fused with inanimate objects, trapped yet still half alive. . . . 

Dean Walker, an aspiring photographer, sneaks into the quarantined city in search of fame. What he finds will change him in unimaginable ways. Hooking up with a group of outcasts led by a beautiful young woman named Taylor, Dean embarks on a journey into the heart of a mystery whose philosophical implications are as terrifying as its physical manifestations. Even as he falls in love with Taylor-a woman as damaged and seductive as the city itself-his already tenuous hold on reality starts to come loose. Or perhaps it is Spokane's grip on the world that is coming undone.  

Now, caught up in a web of interlacing secrets and betrayals, Dean, Taylor, and their friends must make their way through this ever-shifting maze of a city, a city that is actively hunting them down, herding them toward a shocking destiny.  (netgalley.com)

BAD GLASS is something different.  In a good way.  It's part horror, part apocalyptic, part science fiction and fantasy, hitting on every thread that each of those genres can unwind.  I had moments reading this book that actually made my stomach churn.  Of course I was eating lunch at the time and vomiting all over the lunch room table at a place I've worked at less than a week would certainly leave an impression.  Not a good one.  I really like where I work so I breathed through it.

In terms of character I felt it was a little thin.  I didn't really have any motivation to care about any of the characters and when things really started to happen I felt more like I was watching the news than I was invested in reading a novel.  The emphasis of the story was on Spokane.  It was the antagonist here, as the blurb says, hunting them.  Literally.  I LOVED Spokane and I talk about it as if it were a fleshy type of character.  It was the most dynamic thing here, morphing itself to engulf the more static characters.

Taylor was your typical hard ass, stand-offish girl that leads by example.  Not unlikable but she wasn't anything I warmed to.  Then her character took a major shift towards the end and I don't think it quite fit.  It was too out of character and felt more like a contrivance to catapult the story forward than anything else.  I didn't mind per se because I was still interested in the story but it was a point of contention.  I'm not a fan of characters deviating for the sake of plot.

Amanda is one character one day and then goes off the deep end the next without much segue, throwing another shock factor into the spokes of the plot.  Charlie was endearing, being the youngest of the group.  He was the techie, helping the rest of the gang keep in contact with the outside world all the while continuously searching for his parents whom he KNOWS are still in town.  Floyd is hung up on the death of his brother, Mac's a clingy dick from the beginning and Dean himself wants to believe he dissolves into the town with the rest of them but I didn't buy it.  He's there for less than a week, put through all kinds of shit for the sake of his art but won't simply walk away when things get really bad (and everything will gladly get out of his way to walk and once he gets out of Spokane all the craziness will stop but nooooooooo).  He sacrifices his life for Taylor, whom he's known A WEEK but will not return the affection nor even much of a hint that it's reciprocal, because he just can't leave her.  No.  I don't buy that either.

I don't buy it as much as I don't buy Taylor's character shift.  Dean's very presence beyond the first few days felt forced, his reasons for staying insubstantial at best.  Eventually it stopped being about his photography and started being about Taylor, again a stand-offish girl that would barely look at him.  I'm going to keep driving right past that tag sale and move on to the next one.

Spokane on the other hand was a living, breathing character consuming all the others, eventually literally.  The things that happen within the city, whether they just happen to the surroundings or to the people themselves, were so incredibly vivid that I could almost feel all of the panic and worry and wonder at what was going on.  From the weird bodily mutations to nature bucking it's own trend, I believed it all.  It was the most vivid part of the story.  If it weren't such an integral part, if the story focused more on the characters than on the surroundings, I would have lost interest pretty quickly.  But I kept reading for Spokane.  I wanted to see what the hell was going on with it.

I almost expected the ending to crap out.  I don't know why but I was anticipating the whole thing ending up being a dream.  It was alluded to.  I'll spoil it for you: it's not.  Thank god.  I would have been so incredibly pissed off I don't know what I would have done.  You get an answer but it leaves a lot of whys hanging out there and you still don't REALLY know what's going on by the time the story ends.  You have an idea and I think it's enough to satisfy the curiosity that the plot brews but there's definitely room for more.

BAD GLASS is, atmospherically, a great blend of horror and apocalyptic, the latter really just on the edge of the world about to go to hell in a Pinto.  There are some truly terrifying moments and the way Gropp wrote all of the changes it really plays with your mind and you won't know what to think about everything that's happening.  You'll start to second-guess things and you'll be trying to figure it out right from the moment Dean gets into the city and starts seeing these things first hand.  It's light on character development but the city itself is such a huge personality in the book that it'll just overwhelm everything else.  Really I don't think there's room for much else in terms of the other characters.  And I'm okay with that.

Ban Factor: High - Swearing, m/m sex, drug use and the world going to hell.  Not a good combination for the banners.

Funhouse by Diane Hoh

Published July 1, 1990.

Author website.

When the Devil's Elbow roller coaster goes off its track and several teenagers are hurt, everyone thinks it was just an accident. So no one listens when Tess says she saw someone tampering with the track. 

But one person knows it's true. That person is playing a deadly game - and is going to make sure Tess doesn't stand in the way. Tess soon finds she's being terrorized, with threatening notes, menacing phone calls, slashed tires, and nasty pranks. When another "accident" occurs in the Funhouse, Tess is sure that she was the intended victim. Who is committing all these horrifying acts? And why? 

Tess is just beginning to realize that the Funhouse can scare you ...to death.  (goodreads.com)

There are few things more awesome than cheese and FUNHOUSE certainly fit that mould nicely.  Not only that but I love reading un-updated works if for nothing more than the outdated styles of dress.  Boys in cutoff jeans?  Ha!  But I remember it.  Most of it would probably be pretty innocuous to the younger readers now simply because the descriptions aren't too detailed but every once in a while you'll get the little nugget of nostalgia that'll have you going 'yup.'  Love it.

FUNHOUSE combines two of my favorite things: horror and boardwalks.  Thanks Lost Boys.  You rear your mulleted head once again.  There just always seems to be something sinister underlying a carnival-like atmosphere.  I'm pretty sure it's the clowns.  Are the looking at the same cover I am?  So going in it had the proper ambiance for me to be nice and cozily happy.

The thing about a lot of these old school cheesy YA horror books is that there really isn't any supernatural involved; they're mostly thriller but the way they're written it could go either way.  This particular novel utilized pseudo-flashback pieces that involved a diary and insinuated at maybe a haunting.  Personally I think that's just enough to pull it all together.

Another common theme in the cheese is the novel having at least one character that you desperately wish would get hit by a bus.  They're just total shitbags that you can't help but wonder why they have friends at all.  Trudy was that person in FUNHOUSE.  She's just an all around nasty, negative human being that any normal person would probably drop like a bad habit.  But I guess because she's rich and all their daddies work together she's automatically lumped in with the rest.  Sucks for the rest of them.

Tess is the kind of heroine that I wish I saw more of in today's YA.  She has Sam (her perhaps/maybe-boyfriend) constantly trying to protect her but she's so adamant that she can take care of herself that I couldn't help but go yeah!  Granted she takes it to a point of it being a fault, especially when the events start getting drastic and her life appears to really be in danger but she wants to stand on her own two feet.  She don't need no man to protect her!  Yes!  Aside from that she is strong, wanting to solve the mystery behind all of these events even in the face of doubt and ridicule.  Everyone else things it's a string of unfortunate accidents (of course) but Tess knows better.  There are too many elements going on for any of it to be coincidental.

Hoh is one of the better old school YA horror writers.  She doesn't pander to her audience and just lets the story tell itself.  None of the dialogue feels contrived and the characters feel real to me.  Of course there's a bit of the melodrama going on and the entire plot centers around a bunch of rich kids but they're not obnoxious about it.  They don't flaunt their parents' wealth.  It's not a motivating factor in the story; they all just are and who their parents are just happen to be who their parents are.  It's not a card to play, which I liked.

FUNHOUSE is a great addition to my cheese library and one I'll probably re-read at some point in the future.  There's a classic feel to it, aside from the fact that the roller coaster is named The Devil's Elbow.  How . . . threatening?

Ban Factor: High - Teenagers are ruthlessly targeted by some unknown entity for deliverance of dire pain.  Oh no.  We just can't have that.  It's too much for them to take.

The Infects by Sean Beaudoin

Pub date: September 25, 2012.

Author website.

Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of other juvenile delinquents on an "Inward Trek." As if that weren't bad enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. As in any classic monster flick worth its salted popcorn, plentiful carnage sends survivors rabbiting into the woods while the mindless horde of "infects" shambles, moans, and drools behind. Of course, these kids have seen zombie movies. They generate "Zombie Rules" almost as quickly as cheeky remarks, but attitude alone can't keep the biters back. Serving up a cast of irreverent, slightly twisted characters, an unexpected villain, and an ending you won't see coming, here is a savvy tale that that's a delight to read -whether you're a rabid zombie fan or freshly bitten-and an incisive commentary on the evil that lurks within each of us.  (netgalley.com)

There really isn't much that Sean Beaudoin can do wrong.  His novels have a definitive signature that screams THIS IS SEAN BEAUDOIN.  It usually involves some level of noir, exceptional find-fuckage and a snarky cynicism that is like the brand of Sean on all of his books.  THE INFECTS fit nice and snugly into this mould although I have to say it's the least mind-fucked of the SB books I've read.  In fact it was downright tame in comparison to the likes of FADE TO BLUE.  But that doesn't mean it was bad.

Yes, THE INFECTS is a zombie novel but it's not your standard zombie novel.  It's not really a world-wide pandemic of zombie proportions and the zombies have a habit of evolving, thinking, picking the more favorable pieces of your body to eat as opposed to just chomping at random.  There are different levels of infected, from the full-on zombie to something a little more human to a lot more human to total meat sack meal.  This isn't a simple zombie novel despite the humor that Sean involves.  Yes, it's funny, but he's taken zombie lore and expanded it to something a bit more terrifying than just having to deal with your regular ol' shambling zombies.

Of course THE INFECTS has all the seriousness of a Simon Pegg movie, background events being carried out in a rather hilarious background humor fashion while the SERIOUS things happen in the foreground.  Never mind the guy running around with a severed arm in his mouth.  WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?  It is truly a Sean Beaudoin novel for that reason, along with the demented reality that takes it that many more steps away from being grounded.  It's not just a chicken restaurant but it's what everyone thinks of when they think of a chicken restaurant, the menu showcasing full servings for fried random chicken parts and a chicken surprise pack with some kind of unhealthy gravy mess.  It is as much of a satire as a satire can be even moving beyond the restaurant.  LIFE has elements of the familiar with added doses of ridiculous to elevate the story into the absurd but still managing to keep it relatable.  Everyone wants to survive the Zomb-A-Pocalypse, right?

Nick/Nero is the spearhead of the group, much to his chagrin.  His only objective is getting to Petal.  People just happen to want to follow him around while he completes it.  He's not comfortable with it but he makes due.  With Sean's books you don't necessarily have likable or unlikable characters; they either are characters or aren't.  It's all in the way they're written, that satirical pulp style that makes caricatures of everything, to one extent or another.  So you'll either think the characters are too far out there (like the twins) or they're readable (pretty much everyone else).  Unless they get killed.  And Sean has no qualms about putting the kibosh on the pulses of any of his characters.  So be warned: if you favor one more than the others, it'll probably end up with some teeth in its neck.

Reading this, though, I couldn't help but think there was some kind of message here, about over-processed and genetically engineered food, unhealthy eating habits, complacency in what we're being forced fed.  Messages aren't something I picked up on in other Sean books so it took me aback a bit.  Couple that with the relatively toned down (for him) style and I think it was a bit different from what Sean usually writes.  Not as wild and with more of a purpose, however slight.  Still incredibly enjoyable but veering off the path a little.

THE INFECTS is not your typical zombie novel, filled with atypical zombies and anti-heros and an ending that will make your head spin.  Sean's snark is not for the faint of heart and the satire is for those only able to take big blasts of the absurd at a time.  The level of mind fuck is lower than in previous books with the story being far more straight forward and the characters being more contoured and easy to grasp.  The subtleties of it are what will make you laugh, hidden in a well-timed background element in a greater scene.  It forces you to pay attention because you'll miss snippets of gloriousness if you're just reading it for what the surface provides.  If you like trippy, off the wall tales riddled with snark that will make you laugh and gag in the same sentence, you'll most likely love THE INFECTS.  It brings with it the familiarity of the zombie trope but Sean just comes right on in and fucks it all up.  But in a good way, like always.  And that's why I keep reading him.  Not only is he a fantastic storyteller but his voice is so epically unique that you can't help but latch onto it and drool love all over it.

Ban Factor: High - Zombies, lesbians, zombie sex, rabid fried chicken . . . what's in this book that the banners WON'T throw a shit fit about?

Sleepless by Thomas Fahy

Published August 11, 2009.

Author website.

SOMEONE ELSE WILL DIE SOON she tells herself. 

SOMEONE ELSE WILL DIE AND I WILL BE RESPONSIBLE. 

A few days after the first time you walk in your sleep, you kill someone. That's how the end begins. 

Emma Montgomery has been having gruesome nightmares. Even worse, when she wakes up, she isn't where she was when she fell asleep. And she's not the only one. One by one the students of Saint Opportuna High start having nightmares, and sleepwalking. And the next morning one of their classmates turns up dead. 

Something is making them kill in their sleep. Emma and her friends need to band together, to keep themselves awake until they can figure out what's behind the murders--before anyone else dies.  (goodreads.com)

There's a reason that NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, despite all of it's cheesiness, is, at its very core, frightening: because Freddie attacks people in their dreams, in their sleep, when they're at their most vulnerable.  SLEEPLESS also tapped into that inherent attack method and it's why I think, even despite my ultimate disconnect with the story, it's still scary.  Sleeping is something a person just can't not do.  You have to sleep but that's also where you're being attacked and there's nothing you can do to prevent it.  Anyone that doesn't think that's scary to at least some degree is lying.  Liars!

Don't get me wrong; I liked SLEEPLESS.  But there was something there keeping me from really connecting with the story, most likely the way it was told.  It was third person limited and flipped between Emma and Jake throughout the book but it wasn't necessarily the POV that did it.  I think it had more to do with the mechanical, almost dry execution of the story that kept me at bay.  It kept me interested but I've been interested in newspaper articles too.  It was more of a recounting of events with little effort at trying to make me scared.  For a horror novel that's a pretty big deal.  I WANT to be scared when I read horror.  That's why I read it.  Yeah, it's masochistic but quite frankly I liked being scared.  If horror doesn't scare me then it's failed it's most integral part.  I couldn't even feign frightened.  Yes, the things happening to the kids was scary but I didn't feel it.  I just read the story and carried on.

The New Orleans event laced throughout the book dragged on a bit too long without coming to its useful point.  I get the technique but I don't think it worked to the story's advantage here.  Of course it kept me reading but I was more annoyed with it toying with me than anything else.  I wanted to know HOW it was relevant and it kept teasing me for chapters.  I was irked.  It ultimately wove itself in but it didn't end up being what I thought it could be.  It slid down a more more cliched route that ended up being a bit contrived.  No vengeance or cover-ups or anything like that.  The ending was really ho-hum and a bit of a disappointment.

I liked Emma and Jake as characters.  They were both probably the best parts of the book.  They were just really well-fleshed out characters that I felt came alive on the page.  I believed their actions, their words and how they made everything unfold around them.  It worked.  I think SLEEPLESS could have been an amazing horror story if the rest of the elements around Jake and Emma were as finely tuned as they were, not to mention the story would have been better if it ended up being something BIGGER than what it was.  Again, disappointment, but Jake and Emma were good, with Emma taking the lead despite everything going against her.  She was the glue of the group, making things happen instead of waiting for them to happen.  If I knew I was about to kill someone in my sleep I'd like to think I'd take the same initiative and do something about it instead of just cowering in the corner.  No cowering for Emma.  Always a plus.

I think someone not as attuned to horror would find SLEEPLESS far scarier than I did but seeing how desensitized to it I am it fell kind of flat in the scare department.  I wish it were scarier for me because it would have been amazing!  I liked almost everything I was reading.  All that was missing was me being scared.  But it had just enough elements (like the execution of the voice) going against that amazingness to bring it down to something that was decent to read but didn't instill the horror like it should have.  It will make you think twice about sleeping, and watching slides, I'm sure but the ending didn't lend itself to anything greater than another teen horror cliche.  I liked it but that's about it.

Ban Factor: High - Kids are dropping dead all over this novel, not to mention there's some boob grabbing of the unmarried variety as well.  The banners would squeal.

Beyond by Graham McNamee

Pub date: September 11, 2012.

Author website.

Jane is not your typical teen. She and her best friend Lexi call themselves the Creep Sisters. Only Lexi knows why Jane is different from anyone else: Her own shadow seems to pull her into near-fatal accidents. Jane is determined to find out why these terrifying things happen, and to overcome her shadow enemy. Her sleuthing with Lexi connects her own horrors to the secret history of a serial killer.  (netgalley.com)

Hooray for YA horror!  Love it.

BEYOND taps into an aspect of horror that involves genuine creep factor.  It's not about how much gore the scary thing can create but just how scary it can be in and of itself.  Personally a shadow, YOUR shadow, that tries to kill you is pretty high up there.

Jane has been subject to a slew of horrific "accidents" all of her life, the most recent of which involve her shooting a nail out of a nail gun and into her head.  All because of her shadow.  Death has surrounded her her entire life.  Literally her entire life.  She was a still born that was resuscitated.  And for as long as she's known her shadow has been there trying to get her to kill herself.  I don't want to give too much away because I think the reasons behind all of these incidents are truly creepy and give new meaning to a near-death experience.  It's not all bright white light and happiness for some people.

Jane's a solid character that you can immediately get on board with as a reader.  Despite all of her insane accidents, and despite the rumors attached to her as a result, she leads a relatively normal life in terms of her own views of it.  She's not paranoid or overtly macabre.  She's grown so used to being so close to death that she's developed a nonchalance about it.  Almost a boredom.  She wants it gone already.   She wants to lead a REAL normal life, not just one where she tries to toe around a piece of her that's actually trying to kill her.

Lexi is the objective third party in the equation.  She fills in the gaps with Jane's lack of vision thanks to her sleep deprivation.  She serves a purpose, really.  I didn't like her nor dislike her.  I really didn't feel much either way.

But kudos to no love triangle and really no relationship at all!  Much to Jane's chagrin but that plays too much into the plot so I won't divulge.

BEYOND is another good addition to the YA horror market, adding in a decent ghost story where there's definitely a hell of a lot of room for it.  It'll make you look twice at your shadow and wonder what it's doing behind your back.  The notion of it thinking at all is pretty horrifying if I'm honest.

Ban Factor: High - Horror gets filed automatically high.  In this instance it's thanks to a killer shadow, a nail in a brain and a creep that buggers boys.

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Pub date: August 7, 2012.

Author website.

It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.  (netgalley.com)

Now my main issue with GIRL OF NIGHTMARES is not turning into a blithering fangirl idiot in this review.  But that's going to be really hard because it's horror and YA and unforgiving and AWESOME.  I'll try, though.  I'll try.

This time around Cas, for the first time ever, is trying to be a normal teenager.  He has stayed in the same place for nearly a year and will even renew his tenure at his current high school.  A never for him.  As a result he's attempting to date (thanks to Carmel) and move on from the whole Anna issue.  Except she's not letting him move on.  Cas starts seeing her everywhere and it gets to a point where he starts questioning his sanity.  Lucky for him his marbles are all where they should be and something far deeper, and grander, is going on around him.

Blake doesn't spare punches in GIRL OF NIGHTMARES.  While it doesn't have the feel of "truer" horror (as in the genuine scare factor involved) to me there's still an unyielding, unforgiving horror to her storytelling that'll slot it in with the rest nicely enough.  Blake is unforgiving with her gore, the trials she puts her characters through and the means they need to meet in order to achieve their ends.  And she does it with such well-timed snark that I'm in awe of it.  It's not forced, it never feels like a contrivance and it fits in genuinely with it's surroundings.  Said snark is used sparingly but in just the right moments that it hits perfectly and it left me giggling more than once.

I had an issue with Cas referring to Anna as his girlfriend.  That's just a level of morbid that surpasses even my rather effed up capacities.  And it's also rather sad that the only girl Cas felt he could have a connection with was a murderous dead one.  I felt sorry for him on a few different levels but at least the entire story was realistic about it.  Yes, he referred to Anna as his girlfriend.  Creepy.  But it didn't delude anything.  There was no talk about bringing her back to fleshy life so her and Cas could live happily ever after.  Cas knew she was dead; Anna knew she was dead.  Different planes of existence.  Full stop.  Patrick Swayze got off back in Albuquerque.

I also had problems with Cas's mom and whether I was supposed to think of her as a good mom for letting Cas do his thing or a bad mom for letting him do his thing.  Probably one of the main reasons for them having to move so often was if they stayed in one place Cas's mom would have the Department of Children and Families wedged so far up her ass she wouldn't be able to walk.  At the rate he keeps ending up in the hospital (he tripped and fell into a campfire?  might as well just make him walk into doors too) all signs would start to point to child abuse.  But he's Cas and following in his dad footsteps and this is the family business blah blah blah.  But I really wanted his mom to be a real mom and be like, "EFF THAT.  You're grounded."  She wasn't though.  She made her candles and enabled his behavior and cleaned his wounds.  I don't know how I feel about that.  She fit the story and if there were a contrivance here she'd be it.  Luckily for the story as a whole I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to tuck it back.  She's not very prominent and I was so caught up in the action that I wasn't able to dwell on it long enough anyway.

There were tears at the end so beware.  It was shocking.  I kept trying to guess where it was going to go but, as you know, I kind of suck at that so I was nice and surprised by the ending.  It was unexpected and refreshing in that it didn't pander to the "norm" in YA.  All the more reason to love Blake.  She writes her story and everyone else be damned.  This is it and nothing else.

GIRL OF NIGHTMARES was an excellent continuation of the ANNA series.  Well worth the wait and not at all disappointing.  Just the right amounts horror, gore, fear, tears, snark and sass, GIRL OF NIGHTMARES hits all the right places at all the right times.  YA needs more horror and I'm so incredibly happy that Blake is a contributing factor to even that imbalance out.  It's nominally free of romance (except for Cas's, um, issue, I guess) but it has some hidden angst found in the likes of Thomas and Carmel, the comic reliefs in what is otherwise a pretty dark story.  I have no doubt GIRL OF NIGHTMARES will be a hit and will have people salivating for more ANNA.

Ban Factor: High - We see things getting tortured.  Shit comes back from the dead.  There are swears.  It's all over, folks.

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Seance for a Vampire by Fred Saberhagen

Published October 2010.

Author website.

A seance held in an aristocratic London home goes horribly awry when one of the undead nosferatu appear. The resulting chaos leaves one of the fraudulent spiritualists dead, Sherlock Holmes missing, and Dr. Watson alone and mystified. With time running out, Watson has no choice but to summon the only one who might be able to help--Holmes' vampire cousin, Prince Dracula.  (goodreads.com)

I've never read any SHERLOCK HOLMES stories before so when SEANCE FOR A VAMPIRE came across my inbox for review I opened up a little bit and took it in.  The topic alone (vampires!) drew me in and it was a style I was willing to try out since I wasn't all that familiar with it.  Why not, right?  It could be something I ended up liking.

While I liked the quirkiness of the plot (kind of hard not to picture Downey Jr. and Law in the Holmes/Watson roles, respectively, since I've seen both movies, weird, I know) and it's particular kitsch and drier sense of humor the voice ultimately was not something I could get involved with.  There wasn't anything inherently bad about it.  I thought everything I read was really well-written, the humor was great, the scenes were painted wonderfully.  But the style of writing, the tone of voice, just isn't for me.

I ended up not finishing SEANCE FOR A VAMPIRE because of that.  Again, it wasn't bad, what I read.  I just couldn't connect with the story's tone.  If you're into stories from that era (I'm looking at you, Austen fans, just without the romance, really, but there are vampires) I can pretty much bet you'll like something like this.  I at least liked the characters and have I mentioned the humor?  All great.

But stories in this mindset I'll be avoiding from now on.  Take this plot and set it in a more modern tongue (but you can keep the humor as is, I like the quirk) and I'd be all over it.

Ban Factor: High - Vampires and Spiritualists.  That's pretty much all you need to know.

V Wars by Jonathan Maberry

Pub date: May 29, 2012.

Author website.

A sweeping, threaded narrative of the global phenomenon known as the Vampire Wars! Mankind is silently infected by a millennia-old bacteria unknowingly exhumed by a scientific expedition in Antarctica. Now, in some rare cases, a person’s so-called “junk DNA” becomes activated, and depending on their racial and ethnic heritage they begin to manifest one of the many diverse forms of the “others” that are the true basis for the legends of supernatural creatures. These aren’t your usual vampires and werewolves — it goes much deeper than that.  (netgalley.com)

V WARS is actually more of an anthology centered around a single spine of a plot.  Maberry is in the middle of it all, weaving the basis of the world with JUNK, ESCALATION, SPECIES, GENOCIDE, EMBEDDED and LAST BITES.  JUNK takes up the biggest chunk of the story, centering on Michael Fayne, aka Patient Zero (not Joe Ledger).  The guy that started it all.  I only know Jonathan for his zombies but let me tell you he can do vampires too.  I just LOVED the science behind it, how it was basically a virus that activated dormant, or junk, DNA in our genetic code giving humans vampire tendencies.  Unlike zombies most of these guys blended into society so you would have no idea if the person standing next to you on the subway is leering at you because you're hot or because they're hungry.  To pun terribly, it's a more evolved pandemic than something like a zombie virus, as that's what people with the mutations come to think of themselves as.  Evolved.  They've moved on to the next phase of humanity.

Each subsequent story of Maberry's moves on to how the reaction to this virus would escalate in the world, the breakdown of the species (which I loved because all of these authors delved into some seriously off the beaten path vampires, the variety was awesome), deeming the mutants enemies of the state by the government and thus sanctioning their slaughter, the vampires teaming up to fight back and then vampires hiding in plain sight.  These stories were sprinkled along the book, mixed in with other authors and they created an excellent complement to everything else going around.  Everyone really wrote so well within Maberry's imagined world that while the voices differed the stories seemed authentic.  Seriously loved it.

Nancy Holder authored ROADKILL about bikers defending the border and then ultimately losing their grip on reality and who is really the enemy.  I liked this one for the ambiance.  The story didn't hold me so much as its setting.  I could feel the grit and the grime of the desert and it ground out the unreality of the situations into something tangible.  Probably because I've been to Arizona and could actually picture it.  Made it all the more real.

John Everson wrote LOVE LESS about a talk show host that's pretty much a closet sociopath.  I liked this character for her ingenuity but that's where it pretty much ended.  She wasn't sympathetic although she presented a really interesting variety in the vampire species going around.

Yvonne Navarro wrote EPIPHANY which was quite possibly my second favorite story in this compendium.  Also set in Arizona, it focuses on a seventeen-year-old Native American girl still living on the reservation and ostracized from her society in part because her parents were nonconformists to their world but also because she was raped.  She begins to morph into a kind of snake-like vampire that was just super crazy from the beginning.  She even adopted slightly snake-like features (if you're thinking Voldemort you've gone too far) and made a pretty good job for herself because of her, um, talents.  Between the setting and the fantastic character in Mooney, I didn't want this particular narrative to end.

Scott Nicholson wrote HEARTSICK, a short I wasn't all that impressed with.  Loved the lore of the Raven Mockers that would eat people's hearts but the characters were a bit too stereotypical heehaws for my liking.

James A. Moore added STALKING ANNA LEI which had a not-so-appealing vampire (something kind of cat-like) but a great plot.  A brother is on a mission to find his sister who he thinks was kidnapped by an ogre-looking vampire.  Except this nasty vampire is leaving a blood trail that points right back to the MC.  Definitely suspenseful and an author that's rather unforgiving with his characters.  I liked it.

Keith RA Decandido wrote THE BALLAD OF BIG CHARLIE which deviated from the truer vampire line just a bit to add in shapeshifters.  Charlie is a Bronx DA who also happens to be a werewolf.  This is the story that, for me, really zeros in on something more political in terms of equality.  Is Charlie even human anymore?  Should he be allowed out of the house?  Is he safe?  Obvious parallels to society's current issues with gay people and their rights, or minorities, or any people in adversity really.  It takes place an extended amount of time after the zero event so society has had a chance to thoroughly react to the issue and polarize itself.  I normally don't like moralizing but I was okay with it here.  It didn't seem contrived and fit really well with the story as a whole.  This one probably came in a solid number three from the top for me.

And last but not least Gregory Frost wrote VULPES about a Romanian scientist getting exposed to the virus in Antarctica but it doesn't go where you think it might go considering her home (as people's mutations depend on their heritage).  She is actually the antithesis to the vampires, a protector of mankind.  A great way to end the book, really.  Her line of mutation is the medicine for the vampire virus.  It's not pretty but with the "bad" mutations come the "good" ones that'll help protect society.

With the ridiculous mix of vampire lore going on in V WARS, there is definitely something for every vampire lover in here.  From the scientific aspect (which I found believable) to the emergence of little known vampire species (and the authors' willingness to deviate from the beaten and cliched path) and the various effects it has on the world, V WARS kept me entertained from beginning to end.  This is a serious Christmas gift for at least a couple of my die hard vampire-loving friends.  And I'm not talking about Twihards either.  They can stuff it.  These vamps would devour Edward whole, pound his granite glitter skin into eyeshadow and hand it out at strip clubs.

Ban Factor: High - Vampires, gore and sex.  This one's not for the kiddies.

HP Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror

Published May 1, 2012.

Publisher website.

H.P. Lovecraft is known as one of the key founders of modern horror, cited as a major influence by many prominent authors, such as Stephen King. In collaboration with renowned Lovecraft historian and literary caretaker Robert Weinberg, IDW is bringing you the definitive Lovecraft comics updated for a 21st century audience. Adapting "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Hound," a new vision of Lovecraft emerges, courtesy of Joe Lansdale and company!  (netgalley.com)

I am truly a terrible horror fan because I've never read any of HP Lovecraft's works.  Not a one.  I know OF them.  Just haven't indulged.  So a visual of THE DUNWICH HORROR?  Yes, please.

There wasn't anything about this comic that I didn't like, really.  It's a first in a series and it sets up the story really nicely.  The Dunwich Horror itself is a killer inter-dimensional being (another thing I know about Lovecraft, he was all about other dimensions) that's invisible in our world.  And it definitely got some creep factor on with the art.

Of the story itself there's just enough dialogue there to set the story up.  There isn't too much dumping and you get enough to know just enough of what's going on and what's left in the dark is pretty horrifying.  You don't know too much about the characters at this point but I would hope they'd get on with it quick since they're dying already!

The art had some squick factor going along with it.  Lovecraft is pretty gruesome stuff and this comic was not shy about putting that onto the page.  But don't confuse it with gore.  That's not what I would call it.  What you do see is horrifying and I can still see it when I close my eyes but it's not overwhelming to the point where it cancels itself out.  For me too much gore and it ruins it.  Too much gore means that's where the emphasis is because the story itself kind of sucks.  Not with THE DUNWICH HORROR.  The gross that you see compliments the story that you're getting.  It's symbiotic.  And cramps the heart a little.

A definite read for any horror fan, this first book of THE DUNWICH HORROR will certainly get those spiders crawling up your arms and will probably make you spiral into a state of paranoid psychosis.  I mean, an invisible, inter-dimensional being tearing people apart?  Not even air is safe!

Ban Factor: High - With people getting ripped apart and big bad nasties that you can't even see?  Far too much for impressionable young minds.

30 Days of Night, Volume 1 by Sam Kieth

Published April 17, 2012.

Author website.

Fright-master Steve Niles returns to the creation that launched his career for an all-new 30 Days of Night series, with warped genius Sam Kieth handling the art duties. Features an all-new cast of characters being introduced to the world of 30 Days of Night for the first time!  (netgalley.com)

I always love a good comic and it's 30 DAYS OF NIGHT so how could this go wrong?  It didn't but that doesn't mean I'm a super fan now either.

This is actually the first 30 DAYS story that I've read so I know I'm coming into it pretty late.  I've seen the movie but I'm pretty sure it doesn't do the comic justice.  So my ignorance aside I did like the story about the website host trying to find vampires and biting off more than she could chew, pun intended.  And the vampires turning on vampires conspiracy going on.  It was all very intriguing and it definitely got me interested in wanting to read more.

But I was kind of turned off by the art.  I just felt it was substandard and didn't provide the story the additional oomph that I think far better artwork would have garnered.  I didn't think there was much depth to the drawings and they ended up being mediocre compared to others that I've seen.  Frankly I'd expect better in such a popular series.  It could have been my on-screen reader.  I did have some issues setting it to a decent-enough size to read the text well enough but it didn't appear to be affecting the images too much.  I'm pretty sure the images were kind of off all on their own.

As a noob to the whole 30 DAYS OF NIGHT series I liked what I read in this volume.  I was interested in the whole works before but I'm even more so now.  Not thrilled with the art, like I said, but it wasn't enough to turn me off the work entirely.  Just kind of blah in comparison to the rest of it.  It's got it's gore, it's horror and for this uber-vampire fan (of the non-sparkly variety) it had the fangs.  I absolutely appreciated that.  A must-read for any true vampire fan that appreciates that vampires are rather ruthless and should probably be feared more than lusted after.

Ban Factor: High - Gore and vampires.  Lots of gore and lots of vampires.  And backbiting, of the literal and figurative sense.  Not nice at all.

Last Stop by Peter Lerangis

Published March 20, 2012.

Author website.

It’s been six months since David Moore’s father disappeared. After months of strange behavior—baby talk, forgetfulness—he simply vanished forever. The Public Guardians searched Franklin City, but they couldn’t turn up a single clue. David is beginning to give up hope when his subrail train stops between stations at the abandoned Granite Street platform. On the other side of the glass he sees a crowd of people. In the middle is his father, waving.

When a psychic suggests that David may have the power to see into another dimension, he and his friends scour the city in search of a portal to the other side. To learn if his father is alive or dead, David will need to discover the secrets of the abandoned station. (netgalley.com)

I just wanna hug Open Road for re-releasing all of this epically awesome cheese. I'm loving it. And LAST STOP is at the top of the cheese pile in a good way.

It's a quick read in more of a middle grade way than in an old school YA way but aside from the age of the MC (13, I think) it could definitely pass for one of your Diane Hoh's or insert your favorite old school YA horror writer's name here. It's got a creepy element to it that'll have you thinking one way but end up on a completely different path by the end of it. I really liked the twist, the explanation as to why David was seeing what he was seeing and it definitely made me want to keep reading in the series. It had me asking, "where is this going, exactly?"

Like a lot of the other old school YA cheese I've been reading the characters aren't immensely likable, especially David's female friend, whose name escapes me at the moment. But they end up having this rapid growth spurt once the story really picks up that kind of washes away their childishness from the beginning and hands them this wisdom that's required to make it all the way to the end.

The whole psychic element that the blurb talks about I felt ended up being really contrived but I was easily able to overlook that for the greatness that is the rest of the premise. I like how it ended up not going where I thought it was going to go. I liked how it opened up these crazy new doors because of that derailment (no pun intended) and now it has me jonsing for the next installment. Thankfully this series is an older one so the titles are available now. But that doesn't erase the giddy of Open Road re-releasing them. It's like having a Christmas present that you already know about but you're still genuinely surprised to see it anyway.

LAST STOP is one of the few cheese books that I think the majority of people will genuinely like for something other than its cheese factor. The ending is the real beginning and it's such an effective hook that I'm mentioning how I want to keep reading the series for what, the third time now in this review? That's something.

Ban Factor: Medium - It could end up on their radar for children bucking the system but its innocuous enough to skate by them. This is one of those titles that they'd probably have to actually READ in order to get a feel for it and we all know that's not going to happen.

The Invitation by Diane Hoh

Re-publish date: March 27, 2012.

Author website.

For the high schoolers of Greenhaven, Cass Rockham’s fall party is the social event of the year. Each October, students wait by their mailboxes, praying for the gilt-edged invitation that grants entry into theinner circle of the most popular crowd. And now Cass has planned her finestparty yet, with a new sauna, a hot band, and no parents for miles. But to make this party really killer, Cass tops it all off with a sinister twist.

Nerdy Sarah Drew is shocked when she and her friends receive invitations to Cass’s affair. For years she’s steered clear of the popular kids, and now they want her to come to their party? Sarah is wary, but her friends talk her into coming with them. But she regrets it quickly, for at Cass Rockham’s mansion, the only party favor is death. (netgalley.com)

I’m all for the re-emergence of cheese and Open Road Media has a market for that. They’ve been re-releasing older YA titles as of late and, knowing me, I’m pretty quick to gobble them up. They usually end up being short reads, concise and to the point without much depth to them. Lead-up to mystery, solve it, story ends and that’s pretty much it. THE INVITATION didn’t let me down in this regard.

The issues that I generally have with these titles is that the characters are a bit too stereotypical and they’re written so that they portray teens to how adults feel they are. The mean girls fit nicely into a little box and a character’s brattiness is usually running a bit higher than what it probably should be. What makes that last part worse is that the story doesn’t delve too deeply into the character’s head so the personality isn’t explained away or as a reader you do know what’s going on but it’s usually pretty petty. The antagonists in THE INVITATION fit this moniker. They’re one dimensional and stereotypical, one being the mean girl to an extreme and the other being a straight up crazy bitch. If this were in any other recent YA horror I’d scoff at it. But cheese gets a pass. Because it’s cheese.

The cast of protagonist characters is pretty large but they fit their own molds just like the villains with a couple that probably could have been removed entirely and the story would have been none the wiser. The characters with the most emphasis, Ellie, Sarah and Shane were of course the stand-out characters, except Ellie ended up fading into the background towards the end. I would have liked to have seen her stand up a little more, break out of her self-deprecating shell a little more but it is what it is. Riley, Sarah’s love interest, played a bit part and love was had at the end. Because it needed to end on an up note.

The biggest issue I had with THE INVITATION was the sex of the major antagonist. Once that person was introduced I went whole chapters without knowing what the sex of the villain was, despite the character actually being present on the page. Initially it was male just with a feminine name, Leslie (right up there with Shannon and Kim as male names, ugh). Even in the flashback Leslie was still androgynous. I couldn’t place the sex. I got so confused that I had to flip back earlier to see if I missed something, some tell-tale sign that this person was male or female. Nope. It started off male and ended female. I know it’s an uncorrected proof but that’s pretty major. It was halfway explained by a confusion of people but even after that it still didn’t make sense, especially with how the story was unfolding. I’d have to call that sloppy.

Overall it wasn’t as big of a fright as I would have liked. Cass was far creepier doing what she did to the outcast group of kids she invited than the real antagonist was simply because she was so heartless. I would have liked that route better than the crazy person at the end. Not my favorite cheese read but it sits nicely in the cockles. I’ll take it.


Ban Factor: Medium - It really could go either way. The violence is pretty minimal, there's nothing paranormal about it and the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end. I can see this one scraping by the censors.

Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry + Giveaway!

Published October 25, 2011.

A prison doctor injects a condemned serial killer with a formula designed to keep his consciousness awake while his body rots in the grave. But all drugs have unforeseen side-effects. Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up. Hungry. Infected. Contagious. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…but a bite. (goodreads.com)

I continue to be amazed by the awesomeness that is Jonathan Maberry. He writes zombies like none I've ever seen. But it's not just the zombies. It's the lives of the people around the zombies, and even the lives of the zombies themselves. He knows what he's doing so well that if there's room for improvement, then I'm a natural blonde. I am continuously struck dumb at the end of Maberry's novels, in complete awe of the awesome that they are. From ROT & RUIN to DUST & DECAY and now DEAD OF NIGHT. I have the first two Joe Ledger books in my pile and I look at them longingly. But once those are read, my Maberry library dwindles and I'm left with little else. That's a sad day.

DEAD OF NIGHT is written in alternating viewpoints using mainly Dez, Billy Trout and Doc Hartnup as the rotating POVs. Dez is the hot white trash cop that's a total hard ass and will sooner kneecap you than compliment you. Billy is a reporter just striving to get a hit when he stumbles onto this mess. And Doc who unintentionally at the forefront of the apocalypse and hating every minute of it. We get peeks through other eyes and while those moments are small, they're no less significant. Each provides valuable insight into the greater story. Without it all, each and every piece, the story would be missing something. Thankfully it's not.

The thing is, even with all of the characters that we do end up bouncing around to, they're all written so uniquely that it's impossible NOT to tell them apart. They each pop off the page in their own singular way that all you have to do is read a few words from that particular chapter and you'll immediately know whose head you're in. Really, it's phenomenal.

And then there's the heart factor. One of the best parts about Maberry's ROT & RUIN series was how he humanized zombies. In DEAD OF NIGHT he takes it a step further and puts you behind the eyes of the single-minded corpses to see what's really going on. And it's truly horrifying. The deal with this strain, it detaches the conscious thought from the body, letting the parasite control the physical while the mental still belongs to the person. It is horribly, horribly, horrifying to be looking through Doc's eyes as he's doing things he can't control and begging for a real death. Not to mention a bit nauseating. I would not recommend reading this one while eating. I keep making that mistake.

The best heart, though, is Dez's. You see her as the immovable rock that she is in the beginning and slowly all of the horrors around her break through her defenses and you see her crumble only to build herself back up just as quickly. She's such a moving, dynamic character that it's hard not to like her. Yeah, she's a loud-mouthed bitch that shoots first and probably won't ask questions later but there's hope in her, buried pretty deep. But it's there. And as the story goes on it crawls its way out and really, the end is pretty touching. There were tears on my end. I won't lie.

I can't forget the human horror in the story. These apocalyptic tales are bound to have them. Enter the military and martial law and all that comes with it. Even though that part was pretty much expected, I didn't care. I loved every second of it. Because in reality, I believed it. I believed everything Maberry wrote. Seriously. This guy writes guns and battle and form like he's done it all himself (and I'm pretty sure he's done a lot of it). No cocking triggers for this guy! I was able to see, feel and hear it all. I'd get so sucked into the story's reality that I'd lose chunks of time and actually lift my head disoriented. How many books can do that to you?

If you love zombies, Maberry's got the front-running mark in that category. I've read three of his books so far and they're all astounding. DEAD OF NIGHT carries on his awesome writing, his eye for specifics and his insane character development to the next level. How he keeps hitting these marks he sets with his own books I have no idea. But I continue to be surprised bythe epicness that is Jonathan Maberry every time I read one of his books. Really, you'd think I'd expect it. But to say Maberry surpasses my expectations is like saying Pamela Anderson's boobs aren't that big.

Giveaway time!!!

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Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersley Cusick

Republished October 4, 2011.

Martha wants to be happy for her father. She likes his new wife-even if she's a terrible cook-but she doesn't understand why they had to leave Chicago and move to this horrible house in the country. It's big, broken-down, and miles from anywhere, alone in the woods with nothing on the property but an overgrown cemetery. But at night it doesn't feel empty.

Conor-her new, weird stepbrother-chose Martha's new room for her. It's dark and drafty, and no matter how she tries to fix it up, she can't sleep easily there. At night, whispers come from the closet, filling Martha with a sense that something terrible happened here. She's right. Not long ago, the house was the site of a gruesome murder. When Conor and Martha's parents leave town on their honeymoon, the two teens will find out why the dead don't rest easy at the old Bedford house. (netgalley.com)

Hooray! 90s YA cheese is re-emerging! My evil plan is working! What?

Yes, TRICK OR TREAT was originally 90s cheese of my now major obsession. No, it's not a total turd like some cheese is. I was actually really surprised reading this and realizing just how well it transcended time. Initially I thought it might have been updated but with the mention of records, cassettes and VHS tapes, my fears were eased.

I am always super giddy for horror and sometimes that eagerness comes around to bite me in the ass. Not this time. While TRICK OR TREAT may come off as your standard haunted house story, the twist at the end will have you totally creeped out. I certainly didn't see it coming. Then again I'm not really adept at spotting those kinds of things in advance so take that as you will.

Martha comes off a bit insufferable, a drama queen and a definite whiner to begin with so it's really not a surprise when no one believes her when she starts complaining about the creepy house and her cold bedroom. And Conor is a bit of a creep factor. He's really elusive and isn't straight forward when he speaks. Some people might find that mysterious. I pegged him as a baby serial killer. Enter the absentee parents that leave their teen kids alone in a house for weeks while they honeymoon (brilliant!) and you have the beginnings of a super horror story.

So while Martha comes off as a bit ingratiating eventually I did get past her initial complainer attitude and start to sympathize with her plight. The house was affecting her so badly that it was starting to show physically. And still no one believed her. But by the time people started seeing the forest for the trees, it might have been a little too late. Or was it?

TRICK OR TREAT is one of those old school YA horror books that actually has some genuine creepiness to it. Chances are you won't want to read it in the dark. Or during a thunder storm. Or around Halloween. Because who knows what you'll see when the lightening flashes on that old, dying oak in your front yard? Or equally creepy lawn element? TRICK OR TREAT is a good piece of nostalgia that transcends the current YA market and injects some honest to god horror back into the YA world. I love it. I need more.

Ban Factor: High - Horror and crazy bitches. A deadly combination.

YAckers Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Published September 29, 2011.

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it's the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.

Soon "Rippermania" takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn't notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities. (goodreads.com)

It was a pretty much general consensus that this book was full of love. While we all had our minor quirks with it, overall, we were falling just short of fangirling.

Of course, I think we need to start with the initial reactions. Melissa was all like, "MJ's certainly outdone herself this time... One of my favorites of hers (which means the fact that I impulse bought it so she could sign it wasn't a waste. Thank heavens)." Then I said, "I will say that I want to place this book on the floor, open to the middle, and roll around on it like a dog rolls around in the grass, goofy ass smile and all. Is that weird.?" To which Laura affirmed, "Nope, your reaction is completely normal. There's a hell of a lot of awesome in it." Of course, I was super excited about "No love triangle. OMFGBBQ a YA novel WITHOUT a love triangle!" Melissa backed me up with "OMFG I can figure out but BBQ??? And you're right: I didn't even think of it that way, but that is one bit of awesomeness there."

Laura then wanted to get into the scary - "I DO NOT read scary books, watch scary movies, think scary thoughts or go out in the dark because I am a giant wuss but I wanted to read this book even knowing that it was about Jack the Ripper. AND IT WAS SCARY. Not in a blood and gore way but in a wtf-ghost-of-Jack-the-Ripper-is-killing-people-and-now-I-have-a-NEW-thing-to-be-afraid-of kind of way. I WAS SCARED STUPID WHEN- "Jack" suddenly appeared behind Rory when she was climbing back in through the dorm window. He was so calm and polite and smiling that I think that scared me more than anything. I like my evil to be diabolical and chaotic so that it's easily recognized- I don't want it to be nice to me.

So what part SCARED YOU STUPID?"

Melissa's response - "I think the whole final scene in the subway station. Sure it was the same-old showdown that you see everywhere, but I was terrified. That, and the whole atmosphere of not knowing who the Ripper was. Scared the pants off me."

Then I said - "It takes a lot to actually scare me so I wasn't really scared reading this one but I was waving the horror banner for it. The pivotal moment for me was when Jack swung Boo right in front of the car and he's all like don't lie to me bitch or people will get hurt to Rory. Pure genius. I love authors that are unafraid to do what needs to be done for their story. Up until this point, I felt that Jack had a soft spot for Rory. Nope! It made him all the more terrifying. As if him slicing people up wasn't bad enough. When that element of "no one is safe" finally hits the pages, it elevates the horror story for me into someone amazing." Melissa backed me up again with - "Agreed! MJ said, when I saw her in TX back in Oct, that it's the author's job to make your character suffer. She obviously practices what she preaches." I agreed with - "I love her for making her characters suffer. Nothing says crappy writing like characters getting everything easy. Johnson went above and beyond to make her characters work for their ending."

Sya jumped in with her two cents - "I found the whole thing very creepy, but a lot creepier BEFORE the idea of Shades appeared. Jack The Ripper gives me the willies, anyway and the writing was suitably atmospheric. I liked how MJ combined this with the whole fish out of water thing and I thought the school life side of things was really nicely written. My only complaint would be that it reminded me massively of a series I'd recently re-watched called Whitechapel, which dealt with a Ripper copy cat. Some of the scenes were (inevitably) so similar that I felt I was reading my own copy cat. I understand that when dealing with the whole copy cat thing that's the whole point but it did lead to me feeling it had all rather been done before. However, I suspect that Whitechapel was only shown in the UK (although you should ALL look it out as it's brilliant) and therefore this wouldn't bother US readers."

Of course, where would a discussion be if I didn't get off on a ramble about something technical? "What really pulled me in about Name of the Star was the setting. Having been a study abroad student, I could relate to Rory so well, from the weight of her luggage to being the "only one" with an accent. I think outside of the story, Johnson captured the subtleties of setting perfectly and ended up sucking me in even more. I could still feel the damp rain, taste the weird food (sorry, Sya! some of it is strange, like the Brits' affinity for beans on everything, and they're not the brown sugar beans!) and just the little things that Rory craved from home and cherished, like her cheez whiz. The setting as a whole, for me, just hugged the plot in its tight embrace and blended everything together all seamless-like. Everything just rang true to me.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the setting?"

While I kind of threw a bit of a dud into the questions pot, some of my fellow YAckers did have things to add. Like Melissa, who said "Um. Not that I can put in so eloquent of words. My thoughts are along the lines of: The setting? Yeah, it rocked. Actually I'm not a setting person; I get into plot and characters more and let the setting fade into the background. And I feel like MJ is such a character person: hers pop off the page and into real life. (I seriously have a crush on Spencer from Suite Scarlett) And in this case, I thoroughly loved Rory and Jaz (that was her name, right?), and the setting more than supported that love."

Then Laura proceeded to frighten me a little - "Now, y'all know I like to do the good talkin' when every I can. It don't always come out all eloquent like but when we hicks go cross the pond there we still try to act like we have at least a bit of home schoolin'. MJ was very generous letting Jack be as nice and polite to Rory as he was. We all know that ain't how it would have happened because ain't many dead English serial killers out there that speak southern . . .So no, I don't have much to say about the setting. Well, other than, EVERYTHING is scarier when it takes place in a strange boarding school." Then Jillian jumped in with "I too liked the setting part of the story. It was what mainly pulled me in the story. I do love places with such a rich history!"

Jillian then threw down with a few questions, starting with "Did anyone else read this book MAINLY for the Jack the Ripper-ish premise? I have to be honest; it was what made me even interested in reading it! Sooooo what pulled YOU in the most?"

Sya was the first to get in on that - "I was definitely attracted to the book due to the Ripper premise - I think it's a mystery that still obsesses much of Britain and is truly creepy. I wasn't sure about the whole ghosty mythology - I thought it was a little rushed." Melissa added "I didn't actually know that much about Jack the Ripper before reading this book. I'm not into the whole serial killer thing. If it wasn't MJ, I wouldn't have read it. And even then, I wouldn't have been as interested in reading it if I hadn't heard her speak at the Austin Teen Book Festival. So, really: MJ herself pulled me in the most. Once there, though, I was completely hooked." Jillian came back in and rounded it out with - "I have to agree that I thought the ghost mythology stuff was rushed! I felt like it was just like, 'surprise! this is a story about paranormal stuff!' I sort of wish it was just about Jack the Ripper and an actual and new serial killer on the loose! In my opinion only of course! not that MJ's premise wasn't good.. because it obviously was . . .For some reason Jack the Ripper's one of those figures in history that's always been extra intriguing to me! I mean, how can such an evil person, who did evil things, got away with his crimes? Mystery crimes have always been really interesting to me, so maybe that's why I was highly intrigued with its premise"

Jillian followed up her first question with - "If you could change anything about the Name of the Star, what would it be? And what did you think of the characters? I personally would change the characters and their development! For some reason, I thought they lacked a bit and I couldn't really find myself empathizing with them or even rooting for them!"

Sya was the first off the line - "I'd have more time spent on the mythology of the whole ghostie thing - I thought it all felt a bit rushed. I quite liked the characters, although a few of them (particularly whatserface Ghostbuster/fake student - sorry, I don't have the book to hand and her name for the moment escapes me) seemed a little depthless. I liked Rory, though." I was right behind her with "I don't want to be that person that says I wouldn't change anything so I'm going to say Boo (that's her name, Sya!). She was just a little . . . much to me. Plus it made the segue into the Shades a little brash and abrupt and I think they let Rory in a little too quickly but even that's a reach for me to say. I just loved this book so." Melissa added "My biggest complaint was that the whole ending in the bathroom was a bit... anti-climatic and unconvincing. But that's it. Really." And Laura brought up the rear with "I thought Boo was needlessly annoying and I could have done without her. I was also unimpressed with Rory's "love" interest- if you could even call him that. No chemistry what so ever. I wanted her to fall for the library ghost :) What sold everything for me, aside from it being a really kick ass, freaky serial killer ghost story, was Rory. She was loveable, likeable and extremely cool. I'm currently reading another story by MJ (Let it Snow, Sya Bruce!) and I think writing kick-ass leading ladies may be her strong point."

A good place to end our YAcker review would be with Jillian's final question - "What would be your favorite thing/s about the Name of the Star?"

I was the first eager beaver here - "Just the way it made me feel. I've been in Rory's shoes, an American living in London's East End so I felt everything she did. Plus the story was pretty awesome too." Sya was next with "The whole Jack the Ripper aspect being put into a modern context. Like I said previously, it's been done before but still works. More serial killers in YA - MORE!" Laura was right there with "I liked that it was scary! I never read anything even slightly scary (remember that I'm a wuss) and not only did I read it but I couldn't put it down. Such is the power of its awesome. I'm so big and brave now that I could shovel-decapitate zombies, or better yet, go to Walmart at 5pm." Melissa popped in and said "I find MJ to be hilarious. Seriously. I like all the little asides and snide comments. Character and setting be dammed; I like that MJ makes me *laugh*." Jillian said "My favorite thing would be the Jack the Ripper idea too as well as the setting!" With Sab rounding out the discussion with "I second the Jack the Ripper twist too, specially the first half when you still don't know that there are ghosts involved. It was very exhilarating and thrilling! and scary as hell."

So yeah, you think we all liked it? After the turd that the first book ended up being, it was a wonderful early Christmas gift for us all to get to read this amazing book. If you haven't read THE NAME OF THE STAR yet, put it on your Christmas wish list and FedEx it to Santa ASAP. It's definitely a must read!

YAckers involved in this discussion -

• Sya at The Mountains of Instead
• Laura at A Jane of All Reads
• Sab at YA Bliss
• Jillian at Random Ramblings
• Melissa at The Book Nut

Ban Factor: High - Ghosties will do it. Not to mention the graphic detail of the murders.