Wednesday Wishlist #27 - Halloween Edition

Enjoy the creepfest!

The Fall - Bethany Griffin


Based on The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, this book follows the story of Madeleine Usher, who is cursed to die young and forever live in the haunted Usher home, which seems to have a life of its own. A psychological thriller which sounds incredibly creepy.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan

Yay! Zombies! our main character is trapped inside a rigid world of rules, but one by one these rules fail her. People keep dying, and eventually she has to choose between her home and the one she loves. Is there a life for them outside the safe fences of the village?

The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

Being able to hear other people's thoughts mixed in with a horrible secret and a thrilling chase where it is highly likely the bad guy knows what you're thinking. Wow, how will the protagonist get out of that? Or maybe they won't?

Kyra_x

Top Ten Tuesday #24 - Creepiest Books I've Read

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The graveyard scene scared the hell out of me!

2. The Prince of Mist
A scary YA with clown ghosts and misty seas, courtesy of Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

3. The Midnight Palace
This YA by Carlos Ruiz Zafon contains a very ominous railways station and a vengeful ghost.

4. Goosebumps (the werewolf skin one)
Both the TV series and the books scared me, but this was by far the scariest one.

5. Dracula
This classic is a great read, though not as scary as it would have been originally. I blame scary films.

6. Frankenstein
A good read, but it's the idea of creating a living thing and the madness that consumed Frankenstein that actually makes this book scary. not the monster himself. Well, apart from the fact that he is made up of multiple dead people and is quite murderous.

7. Unwind
Again, the worst part about this was the idea of being unwound. Staying alive while bit by bit, pieces of your body are taken away from you, just because your body parts are worth more than you are. Just because you're not allowed to go on living.

8. The Angel's Game
This one was horrible because you never really knew what was going on or who to trust. Not quite scary, but scary enough. It had a few mind games, and of course it's another Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

9. Sleep Pale Sister
This creepy victorian style ghost story is courtesy of Joanne Harris, as is the next story. This one was really interesting and I loved the way the story dropped into place quite nicely.

10. The Evil Seed
This one is quite a thrilling, and chilling, vampire story, and it was really engrossing. Joanne Harris really knows how to write.

Kyra_x

Mini Review: Deathless - Catherynne M. Valente

Deathless is based on Russian folklore detailing the life of Marya Morevna, the wife of the Tsar of Life, Koschei. The story follows Marya as the protagonist, where as a child she waits for a bird to marry her, and through her challenges as she is abducted and taken to the Tsar's kingdom, where she is given difficult tasks by Baba Yaga, all the way through to the end of the war between life and death.

The Good:

• The russian folklore ties in beautifully with the events preceeding the first world war, and if you know your history, you may find a few familiar faces there.
• Strange magic and very dark, reminiscent of Grimm's tales rather than the cutesy things we see today.
• A fairytale for adults which has a rather bittersweet ending, makes you want to read the original stories.
• Stunning descriptions
• Excellent characterisation of Marya, Koshei, Baba Yaga and a couple of Marya's demonic friends.

The Bad: 

• I didn't invest in too many of the characters and did not like hte inclusion of Ivan, even if he was integral to the story
• Confusing at times as the timeline jumps around during the beginning and end, not telling you where you are sometimes.
• The end did get a little bit boring and nonsensical.

Overall:

This is a nice book and a very interesting one, however, it was a little bit long and did drag slightly in places where there was next to no action. The whole story, while I liked the magical elements and the adult aspect of it, was dark and didn't capture me the way other dark fairytales have.

Kyra_x

Book Banter #6 - Choosing Which Book To Read

I believe that there are only five ways in which you can go about choosing a book. Although many may choose differently each time, I am one of those people who remain mostly in my last category, and only in the first due to blog pressure.

Which do you fit into? Or are you.. Divergent? (I could not resist!)

1. Orderly
This method involves reading books in the order that you buy them or borrow them. This makes it really easy to choose, specifically because you don't really have to. Perhaps you have an ounce of restraint and only buy one book at a time (I really don't), or perhaps you do this as a means to make it easy, like it's a stock rotation.

2. Lazily
Sometimes the lazy way is the best way: let someone else pick for you and save yourself the hassle. Plus, it makes it kind of exciting when you have no idea what you're reading next.. or is that just me? Maybe you get people to recommend book to you, or maybe you pushed the boat out and got people to answer a poll online. This is living on the edge.. I'm not sure if I could ever be ready to take this method on.

3. Randomly
Living way, way over the edge. Writing down all your books and making a bookish lucky dip, closing your eyes and pointing at the reading pile, blurb surfing books in shops. I just.. I can't.

4. Seasonally
Maybe you're the type of person who liked to read scary books in October, romance in February, thrillers in January and YA in spring. Perhaps it's a bit more simple than that and maybe you read books that are due to be released in the near future as movies, you know.. to judge them ahead of time. I try to do this.. but I just get too carried away by certain genres that I never have read a Christmas book in December, or a summer book on holiday.

5. Emotionally
This is me. I choose my books according to whatever takes my fancy as soon as I'm finished with the first one. Sometimes I am so into a series i read the lot in one go. Sometimes I will read book after book of fairytale retelling or YA dystopias, just  because I am in that kind of mood. I tend to get really into genres before switching to the next. At the moment, it's dystopia again!

Which type are you? Do you have any others to add?

Kyra_x

The Immortal Circus: Final Act - A.H. Kahler

The final book in the Immortal Circus trilogy sees Vivienne betrayed by those she cares about and cheated by Mab, the faerie queen of the winter court, into becoming the ringmaster of the circus. She is trapped, powerless despite the fact that she can destroy demons and is unable to calm the angry troupe. She still sees horrific visions, and every day gets closer to the future she has seen.

This whole series is one that I have not been able to put down, and the final book is no exception. I was so invested in the entire story and couldn't wait to see how it would all pan out, and this was definitely not a disappointment. There are a fair few unexpected elements, danger lurks around every corner and Mab continues to throw obstacles in Vivienne's way. We even see a glimpse of the Winter court! This ending was great, and it was the build up of tension that I really liked, which ran throughout the books and finally came to fruition here.

Th explanations given to certain plot points (notice I am trying hard not to give anything away), were very nicely reasoned out and everything actually made utter sense. I think my only issue was that at the end we didn't quite get all the 'hows' and 'whys', only what happens a long time later and the in-between is a blank. I would have liked some more explanation as to what happened with the courts and how certain characters lived and died.

There was some slight character development for Vivienne as she realises the truth and learns who she can trust. She also has to cope with a lot of varied emotions as well as the responsibility of looking after others, people she hardly knows. In the end she does exactly what she thinks is right, and it is kind of heart breaking.

Themes of love, betrayal, guilt and remorse run through this story right to the core, with a few disturbing truths and painful choices coming to light. I love the use of the faeries realms and the existence of the circus and really liked how much bigger the story got through every book.

This is a great read and is very satisfying despite lack of detail. It is a well-imagined readable series that I recommend for YA readers and lovers of fairy lore.

The Immortal Circus on Goodreads

Kyra_x