All posts by skyebjenner

Pirate Dave’s Haunted Amusement Park by Toni L.P. Kelner

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for death's excellent vacation book cover

Title: Pirate Dave’s Haunted Amusement Park
Author: Toni L.P. Kelner
In: Death’s Excellent Vacation (Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Vampires, Werewolves
Dates read: 26th November 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Gollancz
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: ‘Isn’t there anything else I can do to help?’

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Synopsis

Joyce is a recently turned werewolf who just wants a nice quiet vacation. To the amusement park that she remembers from her childhood. But things have changed a little…

Thoughts

This was such a fun and cute short story. I can’t say that I have an amusement park that I’m nostalgic for, or even a pirate that I had a teenage crush on. But this certainly made me wish that I did. After all, Joyce manages to not only save the park of her childhood, but also hook up with her crush. I mean, what more could you want?

Alright, you could also want to add into that mix vampires and werewolves. Then it is really a great short story. After all, a bit of supernatural banter and lust to round out a fun story… I finished this tale with a huge grin across my face.

Pirate Dave’s Haunted Amusement Park was a fantastic way to finish off the Death’s Excellent Vacation. For starters, Joyce repeatedly states that she’s actually on vacation. But it’s also just really pleasant and fun. What a light, humorous and wonderful way to round out a seriously fun collection.

<- Home from AmericaDeath’s Excellent Vacation ->

Image source: Amazon

Prom Nights from Hell by Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe & Lauren Myracle

Book Review, , , , , , , ,
Overview
Image result for prom nights from hell book cover

Title: Prom Nights from Hell
Author: Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe & Lauren Myracle
In: Prom Nights from Hell (Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe & Lauren Myracle)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Short story collections, Young adult
Dates read: 4th – 24th November 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 2007
5th sentence, 74th page: We could have; my house was miles from town on an unmaintained dirt road, with no nearby neighbours to complain.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

Synopsis

Worried that prom is gonna bite?

In this collection, bestselling authors including Stephenie Meyer (Twilight) and Meg Cabot (How to be Popular and The Princess Diaries) take bad Prom nights to a whole new level – a paranormally bad level…

Wardrobe catastrophes and two left feet are nothing compared with discovering you’re dancing with the Grim Reaper – and he isn’t here to tell you how hot you look…

From vampire exterminations to angels fighting demons, these five stories will be more fun than any DJ in a bad dinner jacket. No corsage or limo rental necessary – just great, sexy, scary fun!

Thoughts

This wasn’t too bad a collection. It was a bit soured for me towards the end since I don’t really like Stephenie Meyer. And she was the author who rounded out the collection. But, the other four novellas were still great, so, ultimately I really enjoyed this collection.

I’ve always thought that prom was incredibly stupid. I wouldn’t have gone to my own formal, if it wasn’t for the fact that the school told us we wouldn’t graduate if we didn’t go. Luckily for me, this collection proved that prom is stupid. And at least these stories featured some really entertaining and interesting proms. Ones that I might have even been excited to go to.

I liked all of the stories in this collection. I didn’t necessarily jump head over heels for each of them (with Cabot and Harrison’s being exceptions to this). But I did enjoy the majority of the stories. They were fun and quirky and took me on an adventure that I really wasn’t expecting.

Even though this isn’t my favourite anthology on my shelves. I would most certainly read it again.

<- Hell on EarthThe Exterminator’s Daughter ->

Image source: Harper Collins

Afterward by Edith Wharton

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of ghost stories by women book cover

Title: Afterward
Author: Edith Wharton
In: The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women (Marie O’Regan)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Ghosts, Paranormal fantasy
Dates read: 24th November 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 1910
5th sentence, 74th page: What was it?

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Synopsis

They wanted to move into a haunted house. But what they didn’t realise is that they wouldn’t realise that they had been haunted until Afterward. Long, long Afterward.

Thoughts

Afterward is all about the power of hindsight. Or at least, that’s what I noticed about this. Every moment is hindsight on the one before and focuses on the ways in which knowing something afterward can be wonderful. But in the moment, in kind of sucks.

This couple face a whole number of issues in their endeavor to live in a haunted house. And honestly… anyone who wants to live in a haunted house is, well, kind of an idiot. Why would you want to live in a haunted house? It seems horrifying and… just not a great idea…

This was a fun and intriguing story. I didn’t get entirely swept away by it, which is why it has a slightly lower rating than other stories, but I definitely had a good time reading it. And as the second to last story in the The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women collection, it has a great sense of winding down from all the horror of the other stories.

<- Among the Shoals ForeverA Silver Music ->

Image source: Goodreads

Home from America by Sharan Newman

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for death's excellent vacation book cover

Title: Home from America
Author: Sharan Newman
In: Death’s Excellent Vacation (Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Family, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 24th November 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Gollancz
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: In the gray light of morning the plane slid down through the cloud cover and the O’Reillys got their first glimpse of what for them was the Promised Land.

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Synopsis

Patrick has always dreamed about he home land. And been incredibly self-conscious about his height. Now he finally gets to go “home”. What he finds is nothing like what he expected.

Thoughts

I have always wanted to find out more about my ancestors. But I can’t say that I’ve ever had wonderful, powerful imaginations about them. After all, I’m probably from farm folk or some such. Even though I would love to go and see England and Scotland, I don’t think it would be like coming home. Which made it interesting to read a short story that featured a young man who was so desperate to live in and move to a country that he had never laid eyes on because he thought he was from hero stock.

Pride is never really a good thing. If we’re being honest here. And Patricks’ pride in this short story leaves his vacation at a pretty grisly ending. He is too proud to love his family for who they are. And he is certainly too proud to stay and listen and learn. Rather, he wants to be a hero and from more “impressive” ancestors. I really don’t understand that, and I’m kind of glad that he got his comeuppance. He was a bit of a weeny in this tale.

I love that this story dealt with family and pride. Leprechauns and the Luck of the Irish. The whole story was fun and had me smiling as I turned the pages. It wasn’t quite what I expected from the title. But it was most definitely a tale that I thoroughly enjoyed.

<- The Demon in the DunesPirate Dave’s Haunted Amusement Park ->

Image source: Amazon

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Poirot - Murder On The Orient Express [Illustrated Deluxe Edition] :HarperCollins Australia

Title: Murder on the Orient Express
Author: Agatha Christie
Series: Hercule Poirot #10
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Mystery
Dates read: 10th – 24th November 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 1934
5th sentence, 74th page: This is where I’m supposed to go all goosefleshy down the back.

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Synopsis

‘The murderer is with us – on the train now…’

Just after midnight, a snowstorm stops the famous Orient Express in its tracks. A passenger is brutally murdered, and the luxurious train is no longer a place of safety. Everyone is a suspect.

This illustrated edition contains the complete text of Agatha Christie’s II Murder on the Orient Express, II together with 200 glorious production paintings and sumptuous photos from the new film, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Thoughts

Wow. This was a pretty, seriously intense novel. I knew that it probably would be, considering it’s so damn well-known and popular. But I really didn’t expect… this level of awesomeness. Now I just desperately want more of these books on my shelves!

Recently, I’ve been watching some Agatha Christie movies with one of my clients. I can never guess who the culprit is in these (all except one thus far have come as a complete shock). This is such a wonderfully new experience for my crazy brain that I was looking forward to trying to match my wits to this storyline. And I couldn’t predict this either, every time I thought that I might be beginning to put all of the puzzle pieces together… Christie threw another curveball my way. It was brilliant and wonderful.

One of the things about this story that I did struggle with was the amount of characters. I actually struggled to keep all of the pieces in my brain and keep track of who was who. What the motives were. What the evidence was… I’ve been assured that that’s unique to this Hercule Poirot story, but it was certainly a little bit difficult. I’m just grateful that I had the movie edition of this book, so there were many pictures to help me sort out what exactly was happening…

The thing that I loved the most about this was that I just couldn’t predict what was going to happen. This surprise, partnered with the humour and Christie’s ability to completely change register and language style completely hooked me. I am most certainly in love with this and can’t wait to get my hands on some more Agatha Christie novels…

<- Lord Edgware DiesThree Act Tragedy ->

Image source: HarperCollins Australia

Hell on Earth by Stephenie Meyer

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for prom nights from hell book cover

Title: Hell on Earth
Author: Stephenie Meyer
In: Prom Nights from Hell (Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe & Lauren Myracle)
Rating Out of 5: 2.5 (Readable, but not worth reading again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Young adult
Dates read: 24th November 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Novella
Publisher:Harper Collins
Year: 2007
5th sentence, 74th page: He could see Melissa, her head on that stupid jock’s shoulder, her eyes closed.

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Synopsis

Gabe just wants prom night to be good, fun and filled with love. But, there’s a hitch in his plans and he might just be able to save her.

Thoughts

I was so hoping that this novella would begin to redeem Meyer to me. But it really didn’t. partially this is probably because I went into it with a negative expectation. But also the fact that it is, in general just not that well written. Her writing still feels clunky to me. Clunky, not well edited and just not enough to be interesting.

The idea of this novella was kind of brilliant. And I think that most other authors, I would have happily read the novella and actually enjoyed it. But, that is just not destined to be the case for this story.

I won’t write much about this as I don’t have much to say that is positive.

<- Kiss and TellProm Nights from Hell ->

Image source: Harper Collins

Among the Shoals Forever by Gail Z. Martin

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of ghost stories by women book cover

Title: Among the Shoals Forever
Author: Gail Z. Martin
In: The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women (Marie O’Regan)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Ghosts, Pirates, Vampires
Dates read: 23rd November 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: All the while, I kept my senses keen to magic.

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Synopsis

Set in New Orleans, a trio of pirates work for a vampire who needs them to take down a necromancer.

Thoughts

This was a wonderfully intense and brilliant short story. I couldn’t look away, and it took me a little while to get the ghost story angle. Actually, I probably enjoyed it so much because it didn’t have such a horror aspect to the story. Sometimes its nice to not have horror in every single ghost story.

I love that this story feature Voodoo (or whichever spelling of it is required here), vampires, pirates, and necromancers. This story pretty much had everything in it that I needed for my happiness and literary desire. I loved the mish mash of different paranormal creatures marching across the pages as justice and freedom were fought for.

The happy ending of this story left me feeling very happy and content. It was something that not only rounded out a very brilliant story. But it also gave me hope for the future and just felt comfortable. I would read this again and again. And honestly, I just wish that it was a full-length novel. All of the characters were brilliant and impossible to forget.

<- The Old Nurse’s StoryAfterward ->

Image source: Goodreads

The Mammoth Book of Westerns edited by Jon E. Lewis

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Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of westerns book cover

Title: The Mammoth Book of Westerns
Author: Jon E. Lewis, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Frederic Remington, O. Henry, Stephen Crane, Willa Cather, B.M. Bower, Jack London, John G. Neihardt, Hamlin Garland, Zane Grey, Max Brand, Owen Wister, Conrad Richter, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Ernest Haycox, Oliver La Farge, A.B. Guthrie, James Warner Bellah, Frank Bonham, Wallace Stegner, Dorothy M. Johnson, Steve Frazee, Jack Schaefer, Mari Sandoz, Thomas Thompson, Wayne D. Overholser, Elmer Kelton, Loren D. Estleman, Larry McMurtry, Edward Dorn, Leslie Marmon Silko, William Kittredge, Rick Bass & Christopher Tilghman
Series: Mammoth Books
In: The Mammoth Book of Westerns (Jon E. Lewis)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Short story collections, Westerns
Dates read: 7th March – 22nd November 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2013
5th sentence, 74th page: She teased him, and threw flour in his face and put vinegar in his coffee, but he took her rough jokes with silent wonder, never even smiling.

Synopsis

35 OUTSTANDING WESTERNS, FROM JAMES FREDERIC REMINGTON TO RICK BASS

The Western is one of the greatest genres of world literature – singularly American, but with a truly global readership. 88 Ever since James Fenimore Cooper transformed frontier yarns into a distinct literary form, the Western has followed two paths: one populist – Time magazine’s American Morality Play – able to fit any political philosophy from red to redneck, with a sentimental attachment to the misfit; the other literary – eschewing heroism and debunking many of the myths of the West.

The best of both are represented in this excellent collection which includes stories by Willa Cather, Stephen Carne, Hamlin Garland, A.B. Guthrie, O. Henry, William Kittredge, Mari Sandoz, Leslie Marmon Silko and Wallace Stegner.

Thoughts

This wasn’t a bad collection. But it also wasn’t my favourite… actually, thus far, it is my least favourite Mammoth Books collection. Nothing against the layout or the writing… I just don’t really love Westerns as I have now discovered. A new genre to try, but not one to necessarily fill my shelves with.

Since I didn’t fall head over heels for this, I think that it’s the kind of collection that I will read again. Once I’m a little older and possibly more mature… after all, my tastes in books and genres is constantly changing as I grow and change myself. But, for now, it will go back on my shelves and probably not be touched again for a little while.

One of my favourite aspects of this book is the mini bio at the beginning of each story. Not only did it highlight when and where the author lived, but some of their better-known books. A great bit of information if I had wanted to add any of these authors to my wishlist…

<- The Mammoth Book of the WestThe Outcasts of Poker Flat ->

Image source: Hachette Australia

Neversleeps by Fred Van Lente

Book Review, ,
Overview
Image result for dead man's hand book cover

Title: Neversleeps
Author: Fred Van Lente
In: Dead Man’s Hand (John Joseph Adams)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Weird western
Dates read: 22nd November 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Titan Books
Year: 2014
5th sentence, 74th page: The split-second, right before: his breath catching, pulse racing like a thoroughbred, thrilling to the randomness of life without thaumaturgy, the keenness of a skate down the razor’s edge, without horoscopes that definitively told him what the next day would bring, without love enchantments to spark others’ desire, without the certainty magery’s manipulation of reality brought.

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Synopsis

The “Neversleeps” try to keep check with the world. But Edison has different ideas, he believes in free power for the world.

Thoughts

I love that this weird western features Edison. And the experiments on power and all sorts of fun history alright, there is a magic twist and a flying dragon and all sorts of other nonsensical fun, but still… the melding of actual history and pretend history… well, it works well.

This story jumps around in time a little bit, it was a great, fun journey. One that I think I need to take again… put all the pieces together in my head even better on this second reading. But, for now… my first read through was a lot of fun and filled with all sorts of joy.

Neversleeps is a fun and engaging short story. One that I very much enjoyed, and would most definitely read again.

<- The Golden AgeDead Man’s Hand ->

Image source: Amazon

The Demon in the Dunes by Chris Grabenstein

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for death's excellent vacation book cover

Title: The Demon in the Dunes
Author: Chris Grabenstein
In: Death’s Excellent Vacation (Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Demons, Paranormal fantasy
Dates read: 22nd November 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Gollancz
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: I held up two warm beer cans.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

Synopsis

He’s reminiscing about the demon in the dunes and the summer of 1975. Will he finally be able to figure out what the demon was warning against all those years ago?

Thoughts

This is the prefect story to discourage idiots from smoking. I mean, the whole thing is just completely creepy and uncomfortable. And then, when you get to the twist at the end and the consequences are realised. Well, it becomes just that much more powerful and intense.

The Demon in the Dunes is a fun short story that uses the past and foreshadowing in a perfect way. It makes you want to race to the end to find out what the demon was doing there, even if that will ruin everything. I love stories that use foreshadowing well, it gives an extra sense of suspense to a story line that would not necessarily have it otherwise.

The Demon in the Dunes was a great short story that pulled me in from the very beginning. In fact, I kind of walked into a doorway while I was reading, I got that wrapped up in the book. Which is not always a bad thing…

<- The Heart is Always RightHome from America ->

Image source: Amazon