Book Review — Paper Girls vol. 1

Title: Paper Girls vol. 1
Author: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Genre: Graphic novel
ISBN: 9781632156747

 

Rating

"In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time.

"Suburban drama and supernatural mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood."

~ Jacket copy

On a seemingly normal morning after Halloween, collides with three other paper delivery girls as weird stuff starts to happen. Jumped by a couple of people who steal a walkie-talkie, the girls are chased into an abandoned house where they make a discovery. This discovery will lead them on an acid trip of an adventure.

Book Review — Left to You

Title: Left to You
Author: Daniel J. Volpe
Genre: Horror
Pages: Oversize paperback 228
ISBN: 9788755781435
Opening Lines: "Robert Sinclair pushed the wobbly shopping cart down the aisle. The good ones, which the employees hid for themselves, were gone."

 

Rating

"Robert's mother, Helen, is ravaged with cancer. Every day could be her last, and Robert dreads losing the last member of his family. Robert's friend and Holocaust survivor, Josef, tells him an unholy story and leaves him. way to save his dying mother. But, as with everything in life, the salvation comes with a steep price.

"Will Robert accept what's left to him and save his mother? Or will the cost be too high, weighing Robert's soul down to the depths of Hell?".

~ Jacket copy

"What would you do to save a loved one?" Is there any cost too high? Any line you refuse to cross? All of these questions play through the book as the reader follows the agonizing journey of Robert Sinclair, a young man watching his mother die from stage four cancer. Working two jobs to make ends meet and keep in-home hospice for his dying mother, all Robert can do is dread coming home to find his mother dead. However, when a friend (and friend from the local L-Mart) tells Robert a story from his him in Auschwitz, Robert finds himself asking these same questions: Is there a price too high to save his mother's life?

Book Review — Man, Fuck This House

 

Title: Man, Fuck This House
Author: Brian Asman
Genre: Comedic horror
Pages: Paperback 200
ISBN: 9781736467725
Opening Lines: "Through the upstairs window, the House watched."

Rating

"Sabrina Haskins and her family havbe just moved into their dream home, a gorgeous Craftsman in the rapidly-growing Southwestern city of Jackson Hill. Sabrina's a bored and disillusioned homemaker, Hal a reverse mortgage salesman with a penchant for ill-timed sports analogies. Their two children, Damien and Michaela, are bright and precocious.

"At first glance, the house is perfect. But things aren't what they seem.

"Sabrina's hearing odd noises, seeing strange visions. Their neighbors are odd or absent. And Sabrina's already-fraught relationship with her son is about to be tested in a way no parent could ever imagine.

"Because while the Hasking family might be the newest owners of 4596 James Circle, they're far from its only residents . . ."

~ Jacket copy

When Hal gets a promotion that will move the family across country, Sabrina finally sees her dreams of leaving Ohio coming true. Living in a town full of broken promises and dreams, she sees this as an opportunity to finally grow and expand. And, on top of that, their new house is her dream home! Aside from the grumbling tweens and a boring, ho-hum marriage, this could finally be her moment. Until she starts seeing weird things in her house and everyone starts questioning her sanity.

Book Review — The Game

 

Title: The Game
Author: Matt Shaw
Genre: Extreme horror
Pages: Oversize paperback, 134
ISBN: 978154826729
Opening Lines: "The hammer connected with Colin MacGregor's head with a satisfying crunch that splintered his skull into fragments beneath the skin."

Rating

"A not so secret show aired via a private satelite on the dark web, where contestants are forced to fight one another and navigate their way through a maze of unspeakable horrors.

"In this episode it's Victoria's turn. A woman plucked from her normal life and dropped directly into hell, unaware she is being watched all across the world.

"The producers don't know if she will survive and they don't care. All they care about are the viewing figures. More gore, more ratings.

"The game was start . . ."

~ Jacket copy

Waking up in a room with a stranger and a mysterious note on the only door out is not exactly how Victoria planned to spend her day. After people break into her house, kill the family dog, and kidnap her Victoria isn't sure what to expect. The fight through a rudimentary, half-assed version of Jigsaw's puzzles did not top her list. Yet, here she is . . . But will she survive the harrowing experience?

Book Review — The Tattooist of Auschwitz

 

Title: The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Author: Heather Morris
Genre: Historical Fiction/Biography
Pages: Oversize paperback 265
ISBN: 978-1-78576-367-0
Opening Lines:  "Lale tries not to look up. He reaches out to take a piece of paper being handed to him."

Rating

"In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisonhers marked for survival—scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbol of the Holocaust.

"Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale—a dandy, jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer—it was love at first sight. And he was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did too.

"And then the hallucinations start.

"So begins one of the most life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable and human stories of the Holocaust: the love story of the Tattooist of Auschwitz."

~ Jacket copy

Part historical fiction, part biography, The Tattooist of Auschwitz gives readers a different perspective of the Holocaust—the view of a Jew turned "traitor" and what he did to survive. Unlike many of the heart-rending stories of the victims, The Tattooist of Auschwitz finds joy and hope in the gray, desolate landscape of the most infamous concentration camp and dares readers to consider what they would do for love.

Book Review — The House of Salt and Sorrows

 

Title: The House of Salt and Sorrow
Author: Erin A. Craig
Genre: YA Fairy Tale Retelling
Pages: Hardback 400
ISBN: 978-109848-3192-7
Opening Lines: "Candlelight reflected off the silver anchor etched onto my sister's necklace. It was an ugly piece of jewelry and something Eulalie would never have picked out for herself."

Rating

"Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but the loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is curses by the gods.

"Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sister's deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

"When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next."

~ Jacket copy

In the small seaside city, a "curse" plagues the house of Thaumas—taking the wife and daughters of a lord by the sea. While all of the deaths seems to either be from natural causes such as disease or tragic accident, both the people in the surrounding villages and those on the mainland question whether the lord and his previous wife suffer from a curse. Did he anger a god? Did he anger his patron god, Pontus? Each remaining girl—while extremely beautiful—becomes ineligible on the marriage market due to the rumors. Damned to become spinsters, the girls discover a mysterious door in the family's crypt, which leads to lands where their curse is unknown. And each night, the girls escape the manor house and dance all night long. However, despite the joy of being beautiful—and anonymous—bachelorettes, Annaleigh starts to question her sisters' deaths. When she starts to see the ghosts of her sisters and strange things happen around the manor, she also questions her sanity. In a small town by the seas, audiences meet the new Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Book Review — Mary, Will I Die?

Title: Mary, Will I Die?
Author: Shawn Sarles
Genre: YA horror
Pages: Hardback, 296
ISBN: 978-1-338-67927-4
Opening Lines: "She knew she should have been scaredI."

Rating:

DNF

Only one of them knew about Bloody Mary. If you say her name into the mirror thirteen times, she'll show you your future. Some legends say that she'll reveal your one true love. Others, that she'll show you how you'll die. And thens ome believe that conjuring Bloody Mary will bring her into our world.

When the four of them—Elena, Steph, Calvin, and Grace—play the game, they think it's innocent enough. Elena sees her longtime crush. Steph sees a girl she's never met before. Grace sees Calvin. And Calvin sees her—Bloody Mary. They pretend it's all fake, that they only saw their reflections. But something happens to each of them that will follow them for years to come. A demon is unleashed, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Now, five years later, the four of tem are no longer friends and the mirror is only a distant memory. But they can no linger ignore the yes that have been watching them for years. The air is thicker. Her voice whispering in their heads is louder. Accidents start happening. People get hurt. And Bloody Mary won't stop until she gets what she wants.

~ Jacket copy

Four giggling 9-year-olds gather before an old mirror and summon recite "Bloody Mary" thirteen times. We all know how the story goes, right? Surrounded by candles and your giggling friends, you dare each other to summon Bloody Mary. And, in the end, you get nothing but a good scare. This was not the case for Grace, Steph, Calvin, and Elena. Each of the four friends saw something different in the old mirror. Unfortunately, even though they are now in high school and living their separate lives, Bloody Mary has decided to come back and finish the game they started five years ago. And this time, she's playing for keeps.