Spine-Chilling Horror Books - Page 4

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Gorgeous illustrations! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I think we have yet to experience the definitive film version of "A Christmas Carol", but we now have the definitive book version! Masterful illustrations complement the unedited text. Oh, and EVERYONE who purchases this book, PLEASE take off the dust cover and let this one age without it! WONDERFUL cover, perfect!

Editorial Review:

The celebrated P.J. Lynch captures the spirit of Dickens's beloved tale in a richly illustrated unabridged edition.

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge opens on a Christmas Eve as cold as Scrooge's own heart. That night, he receives three ghostly visitors: the terrifying spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Each takes him on a heart-stopping journey, yielding glimpses of Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit, the horrifying spectres of Want and Ignorance, even Scrooge's painfully hopeful younger self. Will Scrooge's heart be opened? Can he reverse the miserable future he is forced to see? Now in an unabridged edition gloriously illustrated by the award-winning P.J. Lynch, this story's message of love and goodwill, mercy and self-redemption resonates as keenly as ever.

Ninth Grade Slays (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Book 2)

Heather Brewer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Enchanting YA Review: Ninth Grade Slays 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

NINTH GRADE SLAYS - THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD
Heather Brewer


Rating: 5 Enchantments

And Vlad thought eighth grade sucked. Now he's in ninth grade. Even though he destroyed the president of the Elysian committee, he finds life as a teen hasn't changed much. His best friend, Henry, seems to have his own popularity fan club, Meredith is interested in Joss, Henry's cousin, and there's a slayer out to get him. Somehow he doubts even Buffy's wisdom could help.

Otis comes back and takes Vlad to Siberia to meet Vikas, the oldest vampire, to learn telepathy and the truth of who he might be. Along the way, Vlad finds out more about the prophesized Pravus, maybe more than he wants to know. How he longs for a warm mug of O positive and a side of fresh chocolate chip cookies.

NINTH GRADE SLAYS is a fun fast-read into the mind of Vlad, a ninth grade half-vampire. Ms. Brewer does a great job of showing the reader that even though Vlad craves blood, he still gets flustered while around the prettiest girl of Bathory High. Vlad's struggles to find out the truth about who he is, rang true.
Readers will want to follow Vlad to the Tenth grade where I'm sure the conflict of his heritage will continue.

Heather Brewer doesn't believe in happy endings...unless they involve blood. Check out her website at www.heatherbrewer.com and her blog - Bleeding Ink at www.heatherbrewer.com/bleedingink where she has ongoing contests. Heather lives with her family in St. Louis, Missouri.

Kim
Enchanting Reviews
April 2008

Editorial Review:

High school totally bites when you’re half human, half vampire.

Freshman year sucks for Vlad Tod. Bullies still harass him. The photographer from the school newspaper is tailing him. And failing his studies could be deadly. A trip to Siberia gives “study abroad” a whole new meaning as Vlad connects with other vampires and advances his mind-control abilities, but will he return home with the skills to recognize a vampire slayer when he sees one? In this thrilling sequel to Eighth Grade Bites, Vlad must confront the secrets of the past and battle forces that once again threaten his life. Find out why author D. J. MacHale calls The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod “Gruesome, heartwarming, spellbinding.”

A Christmas Carol (DK Classics)

Charles Dickens, Andrew Wheatcroft

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Without equal 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Everyone has their favorite version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Make this dramatic retelling yours. At about 2 hours, its perfect for listening in the car while running around during the holidays or on your MP3 player while putting up Christmas lights. I plan on listening to it every year from now on. Patrick Stewart gives voice to every character, including the narration, and gives the kind of performance which I have come to expect from an actor of his immense talents.

Editorial Review:

A Christmas Carol is an essential part of Christmas for families everywhere. Since the book's publication in 1843, the story of miserly Scrooge's change of heart after the visit of three spirits has been encountered by children in innumerable books, plays, movies, and cartoons based on Dicken's ghost story. This edition introduces children to the powerful words of the original text in an abridgment based on the one Dickens made for his pubic readings. Andrew Wheatcroft's illustrations bring the classic scenes to life. Photography, paintings, and hundreds of facts explore Dicken's London, the wealth and the poverty, and Christmas customs and ideals then and now. Dickens's marvelous words and their fascinating context are brought together to inspire a new generation with Dickens's message -- that we can and we should change ourselves and our world for the better.

The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book 1)

Kelley Armstrong

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

If You Like Supernatural Suspense & Romance... 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A likely bet for fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Armstrong's teenage characters seem weak on reasoning and planning skills--but that's not an altogether unheard of pubescent condition. Or is the book just weak on motivation and plot? Well, perhaps. The strongest element of this YA novel is probably its depiction of various relationship tensions between the inmates of Lyle House's rehabilitation program for mentally disturbed teens. One certainly senses the nascent love triangle between Chloe, the main character, and the brothers Simon (a super-cute sorcerer) and Derek (a self-hating werewolf). Then again, Armstrong has crafted a real page-turner here, complete with an unsuspected plot twist and cliffhanger ending. Her greatest achievement in the novel might be in creating an audience eager--desperate even--to read the next installment of the planned trilogy.

If you enjoyed The Summoning or Twilight, I highly recommend Margaret Mahy's The Changeover, one of the best, most enjoyable books I've ever read. (Yes, Ever.)

Editorial Review:

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House . . . before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story

Mary Downing Hahn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 157 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

One of my favorites 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is one of my favorite young adult ghost stories. It's very well told and keeps the reader engaged and interested. It's one of the books I never forgot about and I decided to come back and give it another read as an adult. I'm glad I did.

Creepy ghost story for younger readers 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

When Molly and Michael's mother remarries, they move to a renovated old church out in the middle of nowhere. Neither is happy about the move, but it is made even worse by their spoiled stepsister, Heather. She doesn't want to share her dad with anyone (her mother was killed in a fire) and does everything she can think of to try to break up the family.

Heather soon begins visiting an old graveyard on the property and Molly overhears Heather's conversations with Helen, a girl who died on the property years ago and was buried in the graveyard. Heather warns Molly and Michael that they'd better be nice to her. "Wait until Helen comes," she taunts. Michael is sceptical, but Molly is convinced that Helen is a ghost who means to harm them all.

The suspense builds into a delightfully creepy tension for most of the book, though I was a bit disappointed in some rapid developments (especially with Heather's character) towards the end. Overall, a creepy read that will appeal to fans of ghost stories.

Editorial Review:

Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their younger stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she's made Molly and Michael's life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the country to live in a house that used to be a church, with a cemetery in the backyard. If that's not bad enough, Heather starts talking to a ghost named Helen and warning Molly and Michael that Helen is coming for them. Molly feels certain Heather is in some kind of danger, but every time she tries to help, Heather twists things around to get her into trouble. It seems as if things can't get any worse. But they do--when Helen comes.

The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle (Vampire Diaries)

L. J. Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

My all-time Favorite Vamp book!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES was probably the best vampire book i've read in a long time. I've read TWILIGHT, but it's just not the same as this series. I love the characters and the plot was great. This is one of those books where i would read it again. But out of the series, i'd have to say that THE FURY was my fave out of the four. Great read and i hope all you TWILIGHT fans will all pick this series up :)

IT'S NOT TWILIGHT !!! 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 17 people found this review helpful.

It's hard to read other vampire series after Twilight ! AND IT'S NOTHING AGAINST THESE BOOKS IT'S JUST THAT THE TWILIGHT SERIES ARE WONDERFUL AND are my favorite books. These books lack depth and it's hard to understand the characters !

Editorial Review:

Elena: the golden girl, the leader, the one who can have any boy she wants.

Stefan: brooding and mysterious, he seems to be the only one who can resist Elena, even as he struggles to protect her from the horrors that haunt his past.

Damon: sexy, dangerous, and driven by an urge for revenge against Stefan, the brother who betrayed him. Determined to have Elena, he'd kill to possess her.

Collected here in one volume for the first time, volumes one and two of The Vampire Diaries, the tale of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them.

Ghost Beach (Goosebumps Series)

R.L. Stine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Pretty decent entertainment 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I remember collecting Goosebumps when the first wave came out a decade ago. Ghost Beach was written around the time the series was taking off in popularity, but before it got saturated in merchandise and took a dip in quality. There's nothing goofy about Ghost Beach, it's a straight-forward ghost story with some decent twists here and there. It's also one of the scarier books in the series, along the lines of "Welcome to Dead House." Good for some safe scares.

I used to get scolded for reading too much Goosebumps and not enough "real" literature, but it's hard enough to get kids to read these days. Recommended for any paperback collection.

Goosebumps GHOST BEACH 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I REALLY REALLY LOVE goosebunps!! They are easy so I wish R.L stine would write some thicker ones! I think this book was a 100% GOOD, so I want to read more. I like how Jerry and Terry are like real twins so they fight. BEalieve me I have twin brothers. Overall Goosebumps was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Editorial Review:

Exploring a cave by the beach, Jerry and his sister Terri ignore the warnings of local kids Sam and Louisa that the cave is haunted until they realize that Sam and Louisa are the ghosts. Original."

Goosebumps: The Curse Of Camp Cold Lake: The Curse Of Camp Cold Lake (Goosebumps: The Curse Of Camp Cold Lake)

R L Stine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Goosebumps fan's favorite 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is the favorite Goosebumps story of a 10-year old relative so I wanted to get her her own copy. She rates it highly.
A story of a young girl's experience at summer camp. Her peer problems seemed bad enough for her to think of faking her own death, but then her plan backfires and she almost drowns. Then she starts seeing things that cause her to act strange and increases her peer problems.
It is not my own interest and I feel kids today have enough strangeness in their lives without these scary things to wonder about, but perhaps they appreciate the safeness of their own world after reading about a more scary one.

Editorial Review:

Camp is supposed to be fun, but Sarah hates Camp Cold Lake. The lake is gross and slimy. And she's having a little trouble with her bunkmates. They hate her.So Sarah comes up with a plan. She'll pretend to drown -- then everyone will feel sorry for her.But things don't go exactly the way Sarah planned. Because down by the cold, dark lake someone is watching her. Stalking her. Someone with pale blue eyes. And a see-through body. . . .

The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion (The Vampire Diaries)

L. J. Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

OMG 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I received the first book, The Awakening,for my birthday in 6th grade; which was a very long time ago since I will turn 30 on my next birthday. I read them and every other L.J. Smith book and looked forward to Strange Fate for years. I actually haven't reread them in a few years, but I am excited to be able to buy them again. My original books from the Vampire Diaries are literally being held together with packing tape, I read them so much as a preteen and teenager. These books were my entrance to the genres of urban fantasy and now I can reread them once again and my kids can have them and not have worry about missing a page!

Editorial Review:

Elena: transformed, the golden girl has become what she once feared and desired.

Stefan: tormented by losing Elena, he's determined to end his feud with Damon once and for all—whatever the cost. But slowly he begins to realize that his brother is not his only enemy.

Damon: at last, he possesses Elena. But will his thirst for revenge against Stefan poison his triumph? Or can they come together to face one final battle?

Collected here in one edition are the third and fourth volumes of The Vampire Diaries, a riveting conclusion to the tale of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them.

Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4)

Stephen King

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 672 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Series Takes Huge Step Backwards, Literally and Figuratively. 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed The Waste Lands (Book 3), but I found this book nearly impossible to finish. It felt like filler, not really adding anything interesting to the series. I felt like the book was going backwards when it should have been going forward.

Roland's Fascinating Past 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Whereas the first three of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" books propel the storyline further with every word, this fourth installment takes a bit of a different tact, instead doubling back to give some much-needed backstory on the character of Roland of Gilead.

Thus, with our heroes (Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and even Oy!) holding palaver around a night campfire, Roland tells a story from his teenage years. In this tale, Roland and friends (Cuthbert and Alain) become trapped in a seemingly unwinnable struggle against shady local townfolk, while at the same time Roland falls madly in love with a local girl who is pledged to become a concubine. Typical King madness!

Many people consider this book to be a "weak link" in the Dark Tower series, as it doesn't really advance the main storyline and it is quite long. Yet, I see it as exactly the opposite. By recounting the exploits of a young Roland of Gilead, the reader is able to better understand the complex emotions that make him the stern, sullen, driven man he is. Plus, Roland's story is absolutely thrilling (I consider it to be the best single portion of the entire Dark Tower series) and will have you turning pages deep into many nights. Make sure to keep the Kleenex box handy, though, as you WILL become emotional wrapped up in Roland's youthful struggles.

Overall, I consider "Wizard and Glass" to be the pinnacle of the Dark Tower series, as it reveals Roland's fascinating childhood and the events that shaped the man he ultimately became. For all you LOST fans out there, I like this book to that show: Without the flashbacks, although they don't advance the actual storyline, the show would be severely lacking in emotional drama and cease to be as entertaining/thrilling as it is. Thus, think of this book as one big flashback...not crucial to the plot, but providing valuable information that will help you connect with Roland on an even deeper level.

Editorial Review:

Stephen King invites listeners back into the world of Roland the Gunslinger in this eagerly anticipated fourth volume in his epic "Dark Tower" series. Roland and his companions escape from one world and slip into the next, where Roland tells his story, one that details his discovery of something even more elusive than the Dark Tower--love. Simultaneous trade paper release from Plume. 12 cassettes. The first three volumes of this series have been repackaged and are listed below this annotation.