Freaky Friday :|: 5

Title: More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Author: Alvin Schwartz
Published: October 1984
Pages: 112
Publisher: HarperCollins
Summary:

(www.bn.com) All those who enjoyed shuddering their way through Alvin Schwartz's first volume of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark will find a satisfyingly spooky sequel in this new collection of the macabre, the funny, and the fantastic.

Is it possible to die -- and not know it? What if a person is buried too soon? What happens to a thief foolish enough to rob a corpse, or to a murderer whose victim returns from the grave? Read about these terrifying predicaments as well as what happens when practical jokes produce gruesome consequences and initiations go awry.

Stephen Gammell's splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozen scary stories -- and even a scary song -- all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark.

If You Dare!

Editorial Review:

Brief, bloodcurdling tales of ghosts, murders, graveyards, and other horrors, greatly enhanced by the ghoulish illustrations. - Horn Book

Ok, seriously, go Google some of the images from this book and tell me you're not going to be seeing those things on the inside of your eyelids tonight. It's sadism at its best, people. Or masochism, depending on which side you stand on.

And it's not too often you find the sequel published before the first installment. Narnia was like that. It could be a BN flub. I have no idea and, honestly, I'm too tired to check right now so I'll just leave it be. If someone else wants to correct it, be my guest.

More Sistahs

Amelia from Book Junkie just handed me the Sisterhood Award. Thanks, hun!

Considering how burnt the hell out I am, I'm going to skip compiling a list of blogs to pass this on to because, knowing my state of mind right now, I'd spell everything backwards or something. I wasn't this burnt out my freshman year of college when I was drunk five days a week and doing my papers at 4 a.m.

Just to give you an idea of what I've been doing, for the month of March I've been taking two eight hour classes a week for three weeks straight plus studying nightly (and daily) to prep for a state-mandated insurance licensing exam I scheduled for myself tomorrow afternoon. It's a requirement for my job and my ears are oozing insurance. Not to mention my characters are getting cranky. I haven't been creative in a month. It's a must-pass for tomorrow.

Just shoot me in the face.

The Ultimate Writers' Retreat

Just a week before Saint Patrick's Day, ten of the hottest YA authors got together, hiked on over to Ireland, hung out in the countryside, chatted, wrote and ate a lot of soup. They didn't stay in a hotel. No. They stayed in a freakin' castle! And here I am thinking the beach house I'm renting in California is impressive. I feel thoroughly inadequate now!

But to be a fly on the wall. With Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth), Ally Carter (Gallagher Girls series) and Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon) among others, who wouldn't want to be part of that crowd? One day, man. One day.

Harlequin Invades YA

Literally. What do you think of when you hear the word 'Harlequin"? Romance, right? A bare-chested Fabio on the cover with some big-boobied woman draped all over him? Primarily, that's what Harlequin does. Romance. But now they're broadening their market into the teen sector.

Now I understand their want to expand but I just don't know how I feel about it. Harlequin means one thing to me and if I see that publisher stamped on the spine of a book, I'm immediately going to put it down because I don't read out and out romances. I just don't enjoy them except for the spork factor. But they say they're not just doing romance but everything else that every other YA publisher does: sci fi, fantasy, realistic, whatever. They even want to get male main characters in there to try and adopt a male readership.

Uh, I don't know. Harlequin is deeply rooted in the romance sector. I don't know one guy that would be caught dead and rotting with a Harlequin book in his hands even if Rambo was on the cover. Let's face it, the publisher name is stigmatized. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I think they're going to have a seriously hard time breaking out of the adult romance, heaving bosom category. And that's not even factoring in the parents that are buying for teens. What are the chances that parents are going to pick up a Harlequin book, even if it's in the teen section, and buy it for their kids?

What do you think? Do you think this could prove beneficial for Harlequin or do you think this is going to be an experiment that isn't going to work to their advantage?

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

First published in 1952.

Narnia . . . where anything can happen (and most often does) . . . and where the adventure begins.

The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his voyage to find the seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne. The journey takes Edmund, Lucy, their cousin Eustace, and Caspian to the Eastern Islands, beyond the Silver Sea, toward Aslan’s country at the End of the World.

Eh. I was nonplussed with this one. A cool story but it was kind of scattered and I’m really starting to see the deux ex machina moments that Lewis uses via Aslan and his actions in the stories. All it seems the children have to do is wish upon an Aslan and something comes along to help them out. It’s getting a little tiresome.

I understand the story is supposed to be scattered all over the place since the children are island hopping but I think because each incident at each island was rounded out so nicely that it was more noticeable for me. I guess I just wasn’t as enchanted with this story as I was with the previous ones. THAHB is still my favorite in the series at this point and I think Eustace really irked me to the point of not enjoying this one and wanting to drown him in the ocean they were sailing on. He was a pain in the ass. I would have liked to seen him change (character, not shape) as opposed to getting told he was a different person after the dragon thing but such is this and the rest of the stories.

And Aslan appearing to the children as a lamb . . . even I think that’s getting beaten over the head with the Jesus references. Not to mention him saying that he’s known by another name in our world and the children will have to know him by that name. Hmmm . . . is it Horatio? Not that that’s a bad thing but the religious references are becoming more and more obvious as the series goes on.

Eh is what I have to say about this one. I guess every series is going to have its lulls.