Friday, October 24, 2008

The Pack (Serenity Falls, Book 2) by James A. Moore

The Pack (Serenity Falls, Book 2) The Pack by James A. Moore


Welcome to Serenity Falls...A young girl is horribly tortured, a boy becomes a conduit to hell, the dogs of the town turn feral. One man has been enlisted to stop the encroaching evil. He'll soon discover that the true horror lies not with those who walk the earth, but with those who lie beneath it.



My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
Really enjoyed this second book in the Serenity Falls trilogy. This book is written quite differently than the first but I think that you definitely want to read the first book before this one so that you can have the background of the town and the introduction to the town that you get in the first book.



With this second book we actually get into the current day happenings in the town. There really seem to be two different forces at work here. One is the evil being that has lured the Hunter to town and seems to be possessing people to taunt Crowley and then we have the evil that is being generated by the man who placed the curse on the town (can not remember his name off hand). It occasionally gets confusing as to which evil we are currently dealing with but it also makes for a much more involved and intricate plot.



I do have to say that this book ended right in the middle of the story and I would be very unhappy if I did not already have the last book in the trilogy laying here to read right away. I do look forward to finishing the story, though.


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Sunday, October 12, 2008

Writ in Blood: Serenity Falls 1 by James A. Moore

Writ in Blood: Serenity Falls 1 (Serenity Falls) Writ in Blood: Serenity Falls 1 by James A. Moore


Serenity Falls is dead. No commerce, tourism, or good will. It gets worse.

An historian has uncovered the town's unspeakable past: lynchings, mass murders, sexual depravity, and rumors of the birth of the anti-Christ. But the darkest secret is yet to be revealed--in the Serenity Falls trilogy.


My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
I completely enjoyed this book. It is written in a very interesting style that has us bouncing back and forth between three different story lines.



In one we are following Simon MacGruder, and elderly man who has recently felt compelled to investigate and write the history of Serenity Falls, a town where he has spent his life. The history that he writes is not what you would typically find in the History books, though. It is a much more morbid history of all of the tragedies and atrocities visited upon or committed by the citizens of Serenity Falls throughout it's history.



The second part is that history of Serenity Falls as it would be written for a book. From the first settlers and the barbaric death that they visited upon one of the female settlers, through a history, that does not leave any of the descendants of those first settlers untouched by tragedy.



The third part of the book follows a Hunter by the name of Jonathan Crowley. Jonathan follows and kills evil supernatural beings across the country. He does not visit Serenity Falls in this book, but I have no doubt that it will be his destination in one of the next two books in the series.



Looking forward to reading the rest of this series as well!


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Saturday, October 11, 2008

Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth

Dying to Live Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth


Jonah Caine, a lone survivor in a zombie-infested world, struggles to understand the apocalypse in which he lives. Unable to find a moral or sane reason for the horror that surrounds him, he is overwhelmed by violence and insignificance. After wandering for months, Jonah's lonely existence dramatically changes when he discovers a group of survivors. Living in a museum-turned-compound, they are led jointly by Jack, an ever-practical and efficient military man, and Milton, a mysterious, quizzical prophet who holds a strange power over the dead. Both leaders share Jonah's anguish over the brutality of their world, as well as his hope for its beauty. Together with others, they build a community that reestablishes an island of order and humanity surrounded by relentless ghouls. But this newfound peace is short-lived, as Jonah and his band of refugees clash with another group of survivors who remind them that the undead are not the only-nor the most grotesque-horrors they must face.


My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was an excellent zombie read for Horror month!



I was curious when I ran across a review for this book that stated that it was Christian Fiction but I now see where that comes from. While this book takes us on a very scary journey into a world overrun with undead zombies, there is a lot of theological references. It creates a very thought provoking read that I totally enjoyed.



This really is one of the scariest Apocalypse/Zombie books that I have read, because I found myself imagining exactly what a world overrun by the undead would be like. This book really makes it more real than others that I have read, thus making it very scary.



The comparison of human evil versus undead evil that we encounter at the end of the book is very insightful and thought provoking. We hear about horrors everyday that are often worse that what this author has created with his undead, but we are so accustomed to hearing about it that we have almost lost our ability to be horrified by them.



All in all this was an excellent read and I am very much looking forward to the sequel -- Dying to Live: Life Sentence -- as soon as I can get my hands on it!


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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

To Wake The Dead by Richard Laymon

To Wake The Dead To Wake The Dead by Richard Laymon


An ancient beauty . . .
Amara was once the Princess of Egypt, the beautiful wife of Mentuhotep the First. Now, 4000 years later, she and her coffin are merely prized exhibits of the Charles Ward museum. Her lovely face and strong, young body are no more. If you were to look at her today you would see only a brittle bundle of bones and dried skin. But looks can be very deceiving. . . .

A missing mummy . . .

Barney, the museum's night watchman, is the first to make the shocking discovery that the mummy's coffin has been broken open. He immediately assumes it's the work of grave-robbers who care nothing about the sanctity of the dead. But Barney doesn't have a chance to do anything about it. Then two security guards come upon the open coffin and they too believe that the mummy has been stolen. What else could sane men think? By the time they realize the unbelievable truth, it's far too late for them to do anything . . . ever again.

The walking dead!

Now Amara is once again freed from the cramped confines of her coffin, free to walk the earth, free to stalk her prey. Free to kill. Nothing can satisfy her deadly bloodlust. And no one can stop her. You cannot kill what is already dead.




My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
Excellent Laymon read for Horror month. This book had a lot of typical Laymon-- sex, gore, etc.



It was almost like reading two separate books as there were two different story lines that we were following. One was the story of the mummy Amara and her rise and killing rampage from the dead. The other was totally different with characters being captured, caged and used as sex slaves.



The two story lines do converge at the end and although there were a couple of things left unanswered the book was worth the read. If you can handle Laymon.


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Thursday, October 2, 2008

Dead City by Joe McKinney

Dead City Dead City by Joe McKinney


Synopsis: After the Gulf Coast is battered by three tremendous hurricanes, a deadly virus breaks out, turning the infected into mindless, blood-thirsty zombies.

Within hours, the plague has spread throughout most of Texas and shows no signs of slowing down.

San Antonio police officer Eddie Hudson finds himself in the middle of the outbreak, along with a few other survivors.

Eddie does his best to fight off the zombie horde and locate his wife and son, who he believes still are safe and haven’t been infected by the virus.


My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
Completely enjoyed this book. I stayed up late into the night to finish it because I did not want to put it down.



I enjoyed the fact that the author even made us think about the ethical side of zombies. What if zombies were living human beings who had caught a virus and turned into cannibalistic killers? That is they question that we left to consider after reading this book.



Over all a great read and I am really looking forward to more books by this author.


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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Undead Kama Sutra (Felix Gomez #3) by Mario Acevedo

The Undead Kama Sutra (Felix Gomez #3) The Undead Kama Sutra by Mario Acevedo


Felix Gomez returned from the war in Iraq a changed man—once a soldier, now forever a vampire. So the undead underworld put his skills to work as a private detective, specializing in the sordid, the sexy, and the supernatural.

After surviving aliens, nymphomaniacs, and x-rated bloodsuckers, it's high time for a vacation. Now the aliens are back in a fiendish conspiracy with the U.S. government, and only Felix stands between them and the Earth women they covet. But when an army hit man attacks Felix and the bodacious vampire sexpert, Carmen, not even the astonishing erotic powers of the Kama Sutra for the Undead may be able to save them.





My review


rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was not really thrilled with this third book in the Felix Gomez series. It was an okay read, but nothing wonderful. I really did not care a lot for the plot or the whole alien involvement. Things were left wide open for the next book, but I am not even sure that I will bother with it.



Just a ho hum read.


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