Tag: Horror Books Review

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

I gotta admit here that this book is easily a much better book than the books Stephen King has been writing since the 80s in my opinion. But this book in my opinion is a long way away from being a good Stephen king book. But as always I will explain everything in this review, so if you are interested in hearing my thoughts about this book then keep reading.

The plot in this book was split into 2 separate perspectives. Since this book involves a stalker who wants to murder an pro-choice activist which Holly was hired to be a bodyguard of, and the second part is a serial killer murdering innocent people because of a innocent guy being sentence for something he didn’t do and then being killed in the prison by an another inmate.  

I personally think that this book would have done so much better if the plot of this book was split into 2 books in the Holly Gibney series rather than shoving everything into one book. Because in my opinion there was too much action happening and following 2 cases being solved by holly at the same time was kind of confusing for me personally.  

The action in this book takes very long time to get to a suspense and tension level in this book, and I personally think that it would have done a much better job at being shorter and getting straight into action rather than focus on some police versus firefighters baseball match, Barbara becoming besties with a old gospel singer and all the rest of events which have taken place in this book which only became convenient for the Stephen King to use at the very end of this book. Since it seemed like he had no ideas how to write the ending of this book.

The characters in this book were very good. Which didn’t surprise me because Stephen King knows his stuff when it comes to creating good and relatable characters in his book. Which is one of the main reasons why I am such a huge fan of Stephen King’s books. 

One of the things which annoyed me in this book beside the plot which I already talked about above, is the thing that Holly doesn’t solve much cases in this book. Because all the breakthroughs she makes in this book is guessing and letting Jerome do the research and come back to her with the stuff he found out. Stephen king could easily take Holly out of this book and it wouldn’t change a thing in this book because of how small role Holly plays in this book.

The writing style in this book is very on point in this book. Because the writing style in this book is very good and it had completely grabbed my attention from the very moment I started reading this book. Which hasn’t surprised me at all looking at the fact that Stephen King has written this book.

The ending of this book is okay for the most part, there wasn’t a big standoff between holly and the main villain of this book. The ending itself felt like Stephen king wanted to be as quickly done with this book as possible.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it’s time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

This review might be a very unpopular opinion about this book because of my rating of this book and my opinions about this book. So if you are interested in reading my controversial opinions about this book then keep reading. 

The plot of this book, is very overrated. Because a lot of people on the internet call this book “very terrifying” but in reality this book is everything but “terrifying”. After reading this book or trying to read this book I need to say that this book is very overhyped and it gets way too much credit for being scary even thou the scariest part of this book is that the author was able to write such a long book on a story that would easily be a good short story. 

The plot of this book drags for way too long than it needed to. Because easily if this book was cut in half we would still get the same story out of it. Which in my opinion says a lot about how much irrelevant things the plot in this book had.

The plot of this book moves very very slowly. And because of this there is almost no action in this book. At the same time I feel like the plot is very repetitive. Because 60% of this book is about the mother telling her kids to “don’t speak, listen” which made me wonder if thats the mother whole dialogue with her kids.

When it comes to the dialogues in this book they are very uninteresting and unrealistic. Because the dialogues are very stilted and they feel like the characters are written by a toddler who didn’t have any idea how grown ups talk to each other.

This book has 2 timelines which it follows, and I gotta admit that if the author was so set to have 2 timelines of the plot of this book. It would have worked better in my opinion to have 2 separate books. One book for each timeline. 

I personally found the second timeline to be very boring and uninteresting. Because the second timeline talks about everything that took place as the fear and apocalyptic events were first starting.  While the first timeline was way more interesting than the second. Because the first timeline takes place 5 years into the apocalypse of this book. Which I personally enjoyed way more than the second timeline of this book.

The plot build towards this big action taking place, but the action never comes in this book which really made me very annoyed at this book and at the author of this book.

The characters in this book in my opinion feel very underdeveloped and unexplored. Because this book doesn’t use a lot of time for us to get to known the characters. instead this book jumps straight into the action, and we have to figure out everything about the characters as the plot moves forward. 

I personally found the characters to be boring and uninteresting. Because of we don’t get to know them. At the same time the characters feel very unrealistic in a way. And the mom in this book instead of giving her 2 kids names she only calls them “boy” and “girl” which is their gender because she as one girl and one boy. Which really made me question what parent would not name their kids and only call them by their gender.

The writing style in this book is very stiff. For the most partite felt like the author wasn’t that interested in writing a good book instead he was more interested in the paycheck he would get for publishing this book. Which really speaks for itself here because I don’t am that harsh about the writing style in books.

I Give This Book 1 / 5

This forest isn’t charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina’s is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams.

I need to say here that this book was pretty decent horror book. It was far from being the best horror book I’ve read in my time but it wasn’t the worst I’ve read either. 

The plot in this comic book is very intriguing and interesting. Which really made me give this book a lot of high expectations which this book didn’t live up to for the most part.

The main reason why this book didn’t live up to my expectations is because its too long. The plot this book has would have been so much better if it was shorten down to being a short story or 100 pages long book rather than being over 300 pages long. There isn’t a lot of action in this book because this book is filled with a lot of things which aren’t relevant to the main plot of this book. Which is the reason why I say that this book would have been so much better if it was 200 pages shorter and actually stuck with the main plot of this book rather than building 200 pages of nothing onto the plot. 

The beginning and the ending of this book was very good and I was very enjoying both of them. But the middle part of this book seemed like a huge stretching out the plot for as long as possible process which I felt as I was reading it. I personally think that this book was was too drawn out and very very overwritten which really have taken out the enjoyment and interested in me as I was reading this book.

I personally also liked a lot the use of the Irish mythology and the very creepy forest setting which I’m a huge fan of when it comes to the horror book genre. 

The characters in this book, are pretty decent in this book. We get a handful of characters in this book and I gotta admit that there weren’t the best I’ve seen in my time reading books. 

The characters in this book had a lot of premise to be very good characters, but the way the author presents them really misses the mark of what could have made them memorable and good characters in this book. Because the author chooses to focus on one character for the entire book which means we also get to know really well one of those characters.

The writing style in this book makes it feel like it was meant for YA readers because of how simple and easy the writing style is. I personally liked the writing style because I was able to read this book in one sitting because of how easy going the writing style was. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after? Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , A Nightmare on Elm Street , and Scream.

Ive heard a lot of good things about this book. And I had some pretty high expectations for this book. I gotta say that this book lived up to most of my expectations I had for it.

The plot is very interesting because this book takes place after the massacre at a summer camp, after a school shooting, after someone you know murders all your friends or family and goes after you. After you survive a serial killer going after you. I gotta say that the premise of the plot is amazing, and there was no surprise for me that I got interested in this book. 

The plot itself is amazing to be honest. Yes the beginning of this book is all over the place. You don’t know whats happening, what will happen next or what to expect of this book. But the moment you reach the fourth of fifth chapter the action starts to pick up and you get sucked into the plot or at least it was what happened to me while reading this book.

In this book we get a group of the original final girls which had survived the classic slasher movie scenario 15+ years before the plot in this book takes place. We follow how different their lives have become through the eyes of the main character who is also a final girl. But then someone starts to go after the original final girls group.

The characters in this book are just amazing. They all have their own unique personalities and struggles they still face after becoming a final girl of the classic slasher movie. And I completely fell in love with them because they feel like real human beings rather than fictional characters. 

The writing style in this book is amazing because it was like the author knew what words to use to completely grab my attention and to not let it go until the very end of this book. The writing style was completely stunning.

The ending of this book was just incredible it was truly the perfect ending for this book. It was very satisfying especially with the twist at the end of this book when we learn who the killer is who is going after the original final girls.

My only problem with this book was the very slow beginning. Because you don’t really know what is happening.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

This book is a collection of short stories written by Washington Irving. I will of course review each short story individually since this review would be very very long if I reviewed each short story which this book includes in this review.

To be honest most of the short stories in this book have been a 2-star reads for me personally. I didn’t hate the short stories in this book but I didn’t like them either. Of course I will explain more in each of the review on those short stories in this book.

After reading this book and all of the short stories in this book I believe that Washington Irving’s work isn’t for me. Because I didn’t like none of the short stories in this book as I wanted to. But after reading a lot of books in my time I need to say that he isn’t a bad author because I have seen worse.

The writing style in those short stories in this book is pretty much the same. It was pretty gothic. And I gotta say that I loved it a lot. 

After reading this book and all the short stories in this book I gotta say that I wouldn’t recommend it to people because it wasn’t as good as I wanted to be. 

I for sure had a lot of expectations for this book and most of the short stories in this book because I’ve heard a lot of good about them but after reading those short stories personally I gotta say that they didn’t leave up to all the goods things said about them on the internet. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

The story of the most terrifying case of demonic possession in the United States. It became the basis for the hit film “The Haunting in Connecticut” starring Virginia Madsen. Shortly after moving into their new home, the Snedeker family is assaulted by a sinister presence that preys one-by-one on their family. Exhausting all other resources, they call up the world-renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren—who have never encountered a case as frightening as this.

Here we are again talking about another book coming from Ed and Lorraine Warren. I gotta say that this book was much better than the previous book from the Warrens I’ve read. But it to be classify as good it has a long way to go.

I gotta admit that I never been a fan of the Warrens since I always thought that they were just scammers, and trying to make bucks telling the world lies. 

This book is pretty much a horror book rather than a nonfiction book. Because it doesn’t give us any evidence or proof that the things talked about in this book actually happened. So this book as the rest of the Warrens’s book are just a very word of mouth books. 

If you expect to hear a lot from the Warrens in this book, then you will get very surprised. Because 70% of this book is just a retellings of cases. And the Warrens only jump into the picture in the last 30% of this book. Which is really weird since this book is about their cases but we get almost nothing from them.

All the Warrens do in this book, is go into the house, say some prayers and then leave. Which is not great to admit to that in your own book. That you basically didn’t do anything to help those people if this case is real and not made up to sell this book. 

The writing style in this book is well, not the greatest. Sure it is easy and simple to understand. And it makes the entire book quick and fun in a way to read. But at the same time its just way too simple. 

The writing style feels like a writing style straight out of “Goosebumps” books which is of course meant for children. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

Jack and Janet Smurl and their family have been victims of abuse – both mental and physical – by inhuman entities that threaten their sanity, and even their lives. Over several years, the Smurls together with numerous other people – neighbours, police, priests, researchers – have witnessed scores of supernatural events at the family house: the ripping out of ceiling fixtures, the levitation and beating of the family dog, Janet’s strangling by unseen hands, the repeated appearance of a black hooded figure – and more. And they can’t escape – the demon even follows them when they leave their house.

To be very honest here my thoughts are all over the place when it comes to this book because I don’t believe in the things in this book is talking about and I treated it like a spooky story you tell over a fire place. 

The beginning of this book was actually pretty good but as you continue to read the book it quickly turns into a big mess and it becomes all over the place. 

I don’t know if it is just me but this entire book is written as a fiction book rather than a nonfiction book of haunting / possessions which allegedly happened in real life. Which really didn’t help me to like this book a lot more.

The writing style in this book wasn’t the greatest I’ve seen in the Ed and Lorraine Warren’s books. If you want me to be really honest I feel like the writing style in this book is the weakest than in any other book written by the Warrens.

This book has some few scary moments here and there, but most of the allegedly ghost / demon / whatever moments which happened in this book doesn’t have any evidence shown and more or less seem like just a tall tale told by someone who wants to cash in on book deals, interviews, movie deals etc.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

Ghosts know no season, respect no boundaries, and offer no mercy. Ed and Lorraine Warren, the world’s most famous and respected demonologists, have devoted decades to exploring, authenticating, and conclusively documenting countless cases of otherworldly phenomena. From the grounds of the United States military academy at West Point, New York to the backwoods of Tennessee, Ghost Hunters chronicles their first-hand confrontations with the unknown, the unholy, and the unspeakable.

So this is another book about Ed and Lorraine Warren’s cases. And I gotta say that I’m not a big fan of their books but they have some pretty decent good stories.

This book discuss 10 different cases from the Ed and Lorraine Warren’s case file. And I gotta say that they were too short to really get into them and enjoy them. I would say that this book would have been better if it focused on one case rather than 10 cases. Because each case gets like 20 – 30 pages which isn’t a lot to get into them. So you only get a brief introduction to these case rather than taking the deep dive which I wanted to do in this book.

This book doesn’t give you a lot of information about each of the 10 cases in this book which really disappointed me because I wanted to learn more about those cases so its why I purchased and read this book. And this book leads you to do more research about each of the cases because it doesn’t give you that much about them. 

In my opinion this book was all over the place because each case in this book would get very little time and the chapters in this book were short. 

The writing style in this book isn’t the greatest but it is at least much better than in some other books by the Warrens. And because of this I gave this book some extra points for solely this aspect.

At the same time this book isn’t a really a book but rather a collection of case briefs and quotes from the Warrens which in the long run wasn’t that interesting at least not for me personally. Which explains the low rating I gave this book.

I Give This Book 2 / 5