Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 November 2017

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Release Day Review!!! - Strange Weather by Joe Hill





strange weather title image




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Title: Strange Weather

Author: Joe Hill

Genre: Novellas, Anthology, Horror

Release Date: 24th October 2017

Amazon: UK - USA















Premise:


Strange Weather is a collection of four novellas or short novels by writer Joe Hill.

Snapshot, Loaded, Aloft, and Rain are connected by bizarre weather events, providing a backdrop - or a catalyst - to the events which unfold.




Wednesday 22 March 2017

Review Time! - The Voices of Martyrs by Maurice Broaddus

The Voices of Martyrs title image




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Title: The Voices of Martyrs
The Voices of Martyrs book cover

Author: Maurice Broaddus

Genre: anthology, short stories

Genre (of individual stories): historical fiction, contemporary, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, vampires, urban fantasy, horror, dystopian, magic realism

Amazon: UK - USA








A few starting notes:


I received a free digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. NetGalley provides review copies from publishers in exchange for fair and honest reviews.

Honestly, I like me some short stories - and I never fail to be impressed by Rosarium Publishing - so I figured, why not? And decided to give this a shot.





Premise:


A collection of voices - an unforgotten collected memory that encompasses the past, present, and future.

These short stories are tales of strength, pain, sacrifice, and life. These are the voices of martyrs.



Tuesday 25 October 2016

5 Spoopy Book-To-Film Adaptations For Halloween

Hello dearest nerdlets! Halloween is coming up (which, if you've spent 5 minutes on social media lately, you've probably noticed,) so I decided to give you a little list of 5 book-to-film adaptations in the Halloween-y spirit!










1. The Crow


The adaptation of James O'Barr's amazing graphic novel is a) violent and b) awesome. Not for kids, this is... rough... but is still, most definitely, worth the watch.

Brandon Lee played the title role of Eric Draven, and, infamously, was sadly killed on set by a freak set of circumstances which resulted in live ammo being used. He was amazing in this film.





Amazon: UK - US







2. Secret Window


This comes from a Stephen King short story/novella-type-thing called Secret Window, Secret Garden, and stars Johnny Depp.

Book nerds will especially love this one (yes guys, I know my audience dammit!) because it follows a writer, and deals with imagination, the power of stories, and characters/plot.

The denouement (fancy words!) is different in the short story - but, to be honest, I love both (but did find it ironic that a plot obsessed with story endings changed the ending of the story.)





Amazon: UK - US







3. Harry Potter (series)


Yes, this counts! There are witches and wizards and sh**!

And not everyone wants things to be too scary on Halloween - so, to them, I give the notion of a Harry Potter marathon. My gift to you. ;)





Amazon: UK - US







4. Interview With The Vampire


My friends, Lestat started my love affair with all things vamp, and to that I will always thank this film (which I saw before I read the book! Shocking! But I actually do that a lot.)

Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt playing two exceptionally sexy vampires - truly, what more could you want?

And yes, the queer aspects of the story are toned down - but there is no denying* the homoeroticism here. (Fans self.)

*although, someone I went to school with did think they were 'just being friendly' - because, y'know, we all stroke our friends' faces lovingly and breathe lustily in their faces every now and then. (Eye rolls.)





Amazon: UK - US








5. Constantine


The Bestie would kill me if this wasn't on the list.

Therefore I give in to the higher power that is my friend's wrath, and give you this comic-book-based tale of hell and damnation. Plus Keanu Reeves. #JobDone.

Oh, and I've actually reviewed this! (I really need to do more bookish film reviews... I just keep forgetting!) You can check out that review here.





Amazon: UK - US








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Thursday 13 October 2016

Comics Wrap Up - Things Are Shaping Up To Be Pretty Odd






Film Trailers



Marvel made a Doctor Strange trailer that makes 2 different trailers! One when it's played forwards, and one when it's reversed.

It's called 'Strange's Time' (yes, the trailer has it's own title, but to be fair, whoever made it is probably pretty chuffed with themselves right now.)




Here it is played forwards:









Annnnd here it is in reverse:









And just because I like your robot, dear nerdlets, here's the new TV spot for Doctor Strange too:











TV Trailers


Dudes, the next series of DC's Legends of Tomorrow looks EPIC!!!!

As a reminder: this is the series which totally shouldn't work but does - a ragtag spinoff with minor characters from CW's DC pantheon, along with him-off-Dr-Who (otherwise known as Arthur Darvill, here playing Rip Hunter,) and a flying time machine.




We also have one of the only LGBTQ+ superheroes to ever make it on screen (and still be LGBTQ+ - Harley Quinn, Mystique, Loki, et al. had that part of their identity erased when transferred to screen) - the amazing and beautiful Sara Lance, aka the White (formerly the Black) Canary.






Yes, my dearest nerdlets, this looks pretty damned cool:











Graphic Novels


This week I read and reviewed Ghoul Scouts: Night of the Unliving Undead (UK - US.)





This is a fun and zombie-filled kids/all-ages graphic novel, which I enjoyed a helluva lot more than I thought I would!







So that's it for my week in comics, dearest nerdlets: on to the next week!







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Wednesday 12 October 2016

Review! (Graphic Novel Edition!) - Ghoul Scouts: Night of the Unliving Undead








Title: Ghoul Scouts: Night of the Unliving Undead

Author: Steve Bryant

Contributors: Mark Stegbauer, Jason Millet

Genre: Kids, Horror, Zombies

Series: Ghoul Scouts #1-#4

Release Date: 18th Oct 2016 (US); 20th Oct 2016 (UK)

Amazon: UK - USA





A few starting notes:

I received a free digital review copy of this book via Edelweiss. Edelweiss provides review copies from publishers in exchange for fair and honest reviews.

In honesty, I thought this would just be OK, and nothing more. Turns out, it was really freaking awesome! :)




Premise:

Full Moon Hollow - Paranormal Capital of the World. But of course, those are just stories.

A scout jamboree. Fun, right?

Until the zombies show up, and the remains of two scout groups have to fight to find their way to safety...

What the hell is going on in Full Moon Hollow?





Best bits:

Have you ever thought what would happen when you smoosh a multi-racial Scooby-Doo style gang of kids (unfortunately, without the dog,) into Brian K Vaughn's Paper Girls, with the more family-friendly parts of the film Zombieland?

Nope, me neither. But clearly someone's been thinking about it - because here it is.

And it's really fun!

Bright, spoopy ('spooky' to the purists amongst you,) and with an adventure that really scoops you up and drags you along with it, this is a really involving book.

The artwork was effective - bright, but not too in-your-face.

And the main characters are pretty evenly split between white characters and people of colour (PoCs). Overall, the split may even be slightly in favour of PoCs - depending on who you count as main characters.

It's done well - not forced; it simply is (as it should be.)




Not so great bits:

While the kids were relatively well-drawn characters (in the metaphorical sense - though in the literal sense too, I suppose,) I think they still could do with some character development - though this may be expanded on in continuations of the series.

I also think that things maybe weren't tied up correctly...?

Like, how did the kids explain the zombie attack to the adults? And where the hell did the zombies come from in the first place?

Again, this is possibly just a symptom of first-volume restrictions - and it's entirely possible that this'll get sorted in later instalments.

OK, so I'm nit-picking a little... but someone has to ;)





Verdict:

This was so fun! A well-rounded kids' story (and big kids, like yours truly, of course,) with a diverse cast and zombies!

With room for growth, and perfect for Halloween, I really do recommend this one guys - I enjoyed the hell out of it! :)














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Saturday 1 October 2016

Month in Review(s) - September 2016

September was the month that various sh** hit various fans.








In case you're not caught-up on all the goings-on of the bookish online community, let me briefly summarise:


  • Some people questioned authors about the lack of diversity in their books (no matter you're opinion on this, those people had the right to ask the questions.) This resulted in trolling.

  • There was a video on BookTube (the bookish portion of YouTube,) by a horrible person who sees diversity as a dirty word, and is generally a bigoted jerk. She then took offence when it turned out a lot of people didn't agree with her.

  • White supremacist & Nazi trolls decided to spread their racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, etc. hatred by trolling members of the online bookish community. Most of these people were also Trump supporters.

  • A US library magazine called VOYA showed some of the worst customer service you can imagine in their response to criticism of their apparently bi-phobic reviewing.
...I think that covers most of it. It was an... interesting month.











But we, as a community, are pulling through this... I hope.





As far as my blogging stats go this month, things have been good :)




I discovered an acronym for my blog which had been staring me in the face the whole time - DORA. Which I will now be using when Diary of a Reading Addict is too long-winded.

I passed 30k page-views for the first time (!!!!) and now see between 100 and 300 page-views on a typical day :)







I gained a handful of followers on BlogLovin and Twitter, though not as many as I would've liked.

I also noticed something in terms of my Twitter followers, which kind of upset me.







Whenever I tweet about anything to do with LGBTQ+ issues, I lose 2-3 followers; that's per tweet where I mention queer issues, characters, books, etc.







At first I thought it was just coincidence - but after that it became too regular, and I couldn't believe it was coincidence any more.

It's not like I tweet about LGBTQ+ an excessively large amount... is it? I don't think I do.

Anyway, I figure I'm better off without followers like that. As upsetting as that is.






But I just want to thank all the people who do read this blog, like and RT my tweets, comment on my posts, and continue to follow me.

I love you. Each of you is worth 1000 of those homophobic a*sholes.

In a month of trolls, bigotry, and bad news, there were two high-points - my birthday, and you guys.






So, to the books I reviewed this month:




Young Adult








Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova - Fantasy, Witches, LGBTQ+
As I Descended by Robin Talley - Ghost story, Horror, LGBTQ+




Adult










Comics




The Sun Dragon's Song #1 - Kids, Fantasy



Tuesday 6 September 2016

Review Time! - As I Descended by Robin Talley











Title: As I Descended

Author: Robin Talley


Genre: YA, Ghost Story, Horror, LGBTQ+ (F/F and M/M)

Release Date: 6th September 2016

Amazon: UK - USA










A few starting notes:

I received a free digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. NetGalley provides review copies from publishers in exchange for fair and honest reviews.

A young adult re-telling of Macbeth. In a boarding school. With LGBTQ+ protagonists. Hell yes!

I sooo wanted to read this - so much so that when my request to receive an eArc was declined on Edelweiss, I marched myself straight over the NetGalley to see if it was listed there.

And on NetGalley I was approved!!!!!!! XD XD

Happy book nerd all around!!!!!!!





Premise:

Lily wants her girlfriend to come to the same college as her after they graduate.

Maria deserves the best, and the Cawdor Kingsley prize would mean the scholarship of her choice. It would be perfect.

The thing standing in their way? Queen bee Delilah Dufrey.

It wasn't meant to go down like this. But after that night with the Ouija board, nothing goes to plan.

They wanted Delilah out of the way, and they just might get it.





Best bits:

Let's just take a moment to appreciate the diversity in this book:

The central relationship is between two girlfriends, one of which is Latina, and the other of which is disabled.

The two main supporting characters are boyfriends Mateo (another Latinx character) and Brandon.

None of this feels forced, and none of the characters feel 2-dimensional.

As well as being diverse, it is a damn good horror/ghost story.

With enough nods to the original Macbeth to keep the bard lovers reading, Talley weaves a story full of creepy tension and layers of meaning.









Because there is some deep sh** going on beneath the surface here - themes of ambition, insecurity, and hypocrisy all feature.

And Talley doesn't shy away from the issues either.

Her characters face the sting of homophobia in a variety of forms, and the irritation of being the only people of colour (PoC) in the school and therefore used by the establishment as proof that the school has left its racist roots behind.

The achievements of Lily and Mateo are often put down to 'affirmative action' - despite how hard they work, they can never get full credit for what they've done; and this, understandably, makes Lily in particular pretty damned angry.

The way Talley deals with these issues is truly skilful. She neither belittles them, nor makes them the central point of the book. They are an aspect of a complex plot filled with complex characters.

Honestly, there's so many excellent points that I could make about this book that I couldn't possibly get to them all. You'll have to read it to find out ;)





Not so great bits:

Personally, I would've loved an expansion on some parts of this book.

What is up with minor characters Austin and Felicia, who clearly know a hell of lot more than they should? Why is the dining room such a focal point for the spirits? Is the woman really La Llorona, like Mateo thinks? I NEED MORE!

It would've also been a plus to up the exploration of the Brandon/Mateo and Lily/Maria relationships.

I felt like there was so much more space for development there, and was left slightly unsatisfied when this aspect didn't fulfil its potential.

I also found the ending slightly underwhelming. There was nothing wrong with it - I just felt like it needed more POW!









('POW!' is now officially a technical term. I've decided.)

There're some issues in this book that people may have trouble with, including (but not limited to,) - death, ghosts, homophobia, self-harm, suicide, drugs, and a disturbing lack of interest by the authorities in what is happening at this school.

I didn't notice any swearing, but the odd word might've snuck in there.

There's a lot of violence, blood, gore, and references to the sexy times.

If you don't like ghosts or horror, then maybe try a different book. ;)








Verdict:


Well-written diverse YA horror with complex themes and characters!!!!!!!!

Book, will you marry me? ;)






Update 27th Jan 2017 - In the interest of fairness and openness, here is a Goodreads review from a reviewer who had a lot of problems with the representation of various people in this book.







Buy Now UKBuy Now USAGoodreadsAuthor's Site








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Wednesday 31 August 2016

Month In Review(s) - August 2016

August. Ahhhh, August.





(I can't resist a happy-dog-in-sunglasses pic!)




August was actually a pretty good month for me.

Despite how difficult my anxiety made it, I came out as sexually fluid; and that felt great ;)






Blog-wise, less impressive stats than last month. But they were still pretty damn good :)

Over 4k page-views this month, reaching over 25k page-views over-all!!!!!!!!!!! XD I mean - wow! 25k!!!!!! XD XD

(Actually I've now reached over 26k, but 25 is such a round and shiny number, lol!)

And I now have over 950 followers on Twitter.

Things've stagnated a little on BlogLovin' - but still trotting along with a handful of new followers this month :)



And shameless plug time!

The Bookish Diversity Link List 2016 is up and running.

Be sure to check it out, and let me know if you find anything I can add! (It's easier when people help me, lol.)




Kids




The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon - contemporary, magic realism





Young Adult



Switched by Amanda Hocking - fantasy, paranormal* (*ish)





Adult









Graphic Novels




Limbo, Volume 1 - fantasy*, horror*, crime* (*ish)
Kilala Disney Princess, Vol 1 - young adult, fantasy, manga, fairy tale, media tie-in