Spine-Chilling Horror Books - Page 6

Blood and Chocolate

Annette Curtis Klause

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 312 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He's fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian's divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really--human or beast? Which tastes sweeter--blood or chocolate?


From the Paperback edition.

Unwind

Neal Shusterman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Terrifying, riveting, must-read! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Terrifying, chilling and riveting! This book portrays a dystopian future where abortion is outlawed... but teens can be retroactively "unwound" as long as all their body parts are given for organ donation. Three kids, one a juvenile delinquent whose parents have turned him over, one a ward of state music prodigy and one a "tithe" from a religious family all do their best to make their escape. I read this book all in one go, and had trouble getting to sleep afterward. Scary stuff!

Editorial Review:

In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them

Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until theireighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed -- but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

In Unwind, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life -- not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.

The Careful Use of Compliments

Alexander McCall Smith

By: Little, Brown Book Group Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $3.79

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Tale of Two Paintings 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

The Careful Use of Compliments (2007) is the fourth mystery novel in the Isabel Dalhousie series, following The Right Attitude to Rain. In the previous volume, Isabel Dalhousie found a lover and broke up an engagement. She also became pregnant.

In this novel, Andrew McInnes was a painter who lived and died on the island of Jura. Isabel has a McInnes painting along her stairway. Then she sees an offering of a larger piece on the same subject and goes to view it at the auction house.

Guy Peploe is a friend of Isabel and the co-owner of an art gallery. She had seen him at the auction and later he calls her with news of another McInnes painting that he has recently acquired. Isabel goes to view it and believes it to be a McInnes work.

Professor Lettuce -- chairman of editorial board for the Review of Applied Ethics -- writes a letter to Isabel stating that she is being replaced by Christopher Dove at the end of the year. He first mentions the increase in subscriptions under her purview as the editor of the Review and finishes with a hand-written note about the recent death of a reviewer. Isabel decides Lettuce is feeling rather guilty about his contributions to this putsch.

Christopher Dove comes to visit Isabel to discuss the transition. While he is there, her niece Cat comes to return the sweater that Isabel had left at her flat. Dove and Cat have a very friendly conversation and Dove stays over the weekend.

In this story, Isabel decides to bid on the first painting, but something about it puzzles her. She allows herself to be outbid by a neighbor, Walter Buie. She also has some questions about the second painting.

Isabel travels to Jura -- where McInnes had died eight years before -- and visits Barnhill, the house where George Orwell wrote 1984. There she finds something that convinces her that the paintings were done by someone other than McInnes. She passes her findings on to Guy and he agrees to check on the matter.

Cat is having problems with jealousy about Isabel and Jamie. She insists that Isabel stole Jamie from her, but Isabel knows that Cat had already rejected Jamie despite his efforts to return to her good graces. Isabel cannot seem to talk to Cat without fanning the flames.

This tale is mostly about personal relationships and the moral obligations that those incur. Isabel wonders about moral impartialism; could anyone be completely even-handed in their actions and should they be? She firmly believes in social justice, but is also uncertain whether the government can provide it.

Everything she does seemingly provokes her moral senses. Isabel has been told often that she thinks too much. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for McCall Smith fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of Scottish society, ethical problems, and a middle-aged mother.

-Bill Jordin

The Demonata #6: Demon Apocalypse (Demonata)

Darren Shan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Well there wasn't anything... 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

...surprising. It was a bit too predictable for my taste but I still enjoyed reading. I'm not going to say anything to give it away for all those readers who are new to the series. I can't wait for the seventh book...
thumbs up:)

That's it!!!??? 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

*****WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR DEMON APOCALYPSE & CIRQUE DU FREAK*****

I was extremely disappointed with this entry into the Demonata series. I've enjoyed the series up until this point, & was highly anticipating this book after the cliffhanger ending of Blood Beast. The book starts out with so much potential. The Demonata have successfully invaded Earth. Everything that Grubbs knows has been destroyed. Everyone he knows has been killed. How can Darren Shan possibly formulate a way for Grubbs Grady to cope with this situation? Wait, I know! Magical time travel! Everything that was just mentioned never actually happened. Boy that sure was convenient. What makes this all the more frustrating is that this is not the first time this author has used this cop out. He did something very similar in his Cirque Du Freak series. The characters then spend a fairly long amount of time explaining that they can never ever do the whole magic time travel routine again. The entire conversation just reeks of an apology to the reader. Shan basically painted himself into a corner & rather than coming up with a creative solution to the problem, merely walked through the paint & asked us all to accept it. Again. I will read the next book in the series not only because I've invested so much time in it, but because I'm hoping that Shan will somehow redeem himself. At this point, I'm far from optimistic.

Editorial Review:

One boy's life ripped to shreds before his eyes...


One wrathful demon master hell-bent on revenge...


An army of grisly Demonata on the rampage...





It's the end of the world as we know it.





The sixth novel in the chilling Demonata series by Darren Shan, author of the New York Times bestselling Cirque Du Freak series, will terrify readers long after the last page.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Elizabeth George Speare

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 383 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Classic 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I originally read this way back in jr. high and sadly only remember being entranced by it--not recalling any of the plot. I finally got around to the rereading and recalled why I had the original feeling of enchantment. This is one good book.

Kit Tyler is a sixteen-year-old girl who leaves Barbados after her grandfather's death for the more austere world of Puritan New England to say with her aunt's family. But Kit is completely unprepared for the ways of these people. Even so, she manages to grow in unimaginable ways as she connects with people with whom she would have never seen herself.

And it's not a simple moralistic book. It's a book about a girl coming of age. Unlike other books of the Puritans, there are no villains, just those who are different and it's amazing to see Kit come to understand that.

The characters are entrancing and dimensional, the setting is described in an honest prose that only shows Speare's love of New England.

It deserves its Newberry.

Editorial Review:

Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1867. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a
family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit's friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her heart and her duty.
Elizabeth George Speare's Newbery Award–winning novel portrays a heroine whom readers will admire for her unwavering sense of truth as well as her infinite capacity to love.

Goosebumps HorrorLand #5: Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz

R.L. Stine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Goosebumps fans are sure to enjoy this rollercoaster horror story 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Poor Robby hates to go camping. He doesn't like roughing it and is a little on the klutzy side. But that doesn't keep his parents from dragging him along, much to the amusement of his younger siblings, who think it's hilarious to see Robby fall down. His family teases him, saying he should make the superhero of the comic strip he writes super-clumsy. Robby tries to ignore them because his comic strip is something he cares deeply about.

While Robby is doing lame camping chores like gathering wood for the fire, he's contemplating his comic strip's latest supervillain, Dr. Maniac "The Totally Mental Maniac of Mayhem." Robby stumbles around in the woods, thinking up wild plots for his Dr. Maniac comic strips. Creepily, he realizes he is reliving one of his most recent comic strips. In the comic strip episode, Robby is stumbling around in the woods hunting firewood when Dr. Maniac appears. Now, in real life, he hears (gasp!) footsteps.

But it turns out to be Robby's younger brother, Sam. Whew!

Sam is alarmed at how frightened Robby is when he appears, and warns him not to get comics and real life mixed up. Then they start cracking up at the idea of superheroes flying around in real life. But their hilarity is cut short when Robby finds a piece of fabric caught on a branch...and it is the identical leopard-skin pattern as Dr. Maniac's cape! However, since Robby's family is always playing jokes on each other, Robby keeps the piece of cloth but doesn't panic.

Late at night, when Robby, Sam and their little sister Taylor are snuggled in their sleeping bags in their tent, Robby can't go to sleep when his siblings do. Robby hears someone walking around the tent. He even thinks he hears someone saying his name. Finally, he climbs out of the tent, certain that his dad is calling him. But to his horror, he spies Dr. Maniac --- in the flesh.

Robby is stunned beyond belief. He stands there, not trusting what he sees even as Dr. Maniac demands he eat a dead squirrel. Robby pushes the stinking animal carcass away, trying not to vomit, while Dr. Maniac first jeers at him for being a coward and then demonstrates his own bravery by taking a big bite out of the squirrel.

If you think that's bad, the worst is yet to come. Dr. Maniac starts to kidnap Robby...and that's when the story twists in an unexpected manner. (I'm not telling!) Of course, if Robby actually survives, he'll be entering the HorrorLand amusement park tale at the end of the book for more thrills and chills. Seven kids are trapped there, waiting for a hero to save them.

Goosebumps fans are sure to enjoy this rollercoaster horror story, complete with a plot propelled by an urgent search and a few comic strip villains come to life. There's an unlikely team of heroes, snapping scorpions, television talk show hosts, ice-skating torture and much more...complete with an ending that is likely to stun readers and leave them pondering the line between imagination and reality.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

Editorial Review:

Robby publishes a daily comic strip on the Web. It features Dr. Maniac, a villain with a wicked grin and even wickeder superpowers. And now Dr. Maniac is on the loose . . . in the real world!

Will Robby survive his encounter with Dr. Maniac and join the other kids who have been summoned to HorrorLand? Either way, danger is drawing closer and closer. . . .

Stay Out of the Basement (Goosebumps Series)

R.L. Stine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Something's Waiting In the Dark... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Stay Out of the Basement is the second book in the Goosebump's series. It is also one of my favorites. Stay Out of the Basement is about the Brewer family. Dr. Brewer is a botanist who gets fired from his job because some of his expeirements went wrong. When Dr. Brewer starts working in the basement at home the family never see him. Casey and Margaret are Dr. Brewer's kids. When their mom has to go take care of her sister in Tucson, strange things start happening with their father. Then they start hearing strange sounds from the basement. Casey and Margaret go down to investigate. They could never have imagined what they found down there...

Editorial Review:

Dr. Brewer is doing a little plant-testing in his basement. Nothing to worry about. Harmless, he says. But Margaret and Casey Brewer are worried about their father. Especially when they...meet...some of the plants he is growing down there. Then they notice that their father is developing plant like tendencies. In fact, he is becoming distinctly weedy-and seedy. Is it just part of Dr. Brewer's 'harmless' experiment? Or does Dad have more than just a green thumb...?

Prom Nights from Hell

Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Lauren Myracle, Michele Jaffe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fun Supernatural Prom Stories With Too Many Loose Ends 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce
on 07/13/2008

These are not your typical prom nights. Each of the five authors has written a spooky, supernatural story about Prom. Some great authors are included in this collection, and it's certainly worth reading! The stories include a range of supernatural characters, from vampires to demons to fortune-tellers, and one is even based on a work by Edgar Allen Poe. They're all absorbing and interesting.

So much so, in fact, that it would be nice to see more with each story. Though each of the stories was very well-written and included awesome characters, they felt incomplete. I want whole novels, not short stories! Expanding these stories into novels would be great; as they are, though, there are too many loose ends. Perhaps the problem with this book is that I loved it too much!

While it is an enjoyable read, it would be even better to see these short stories expanded on in the future.

Editorial Review:

In this exciting collection, bestselling authors Meg Cabot (How to Be Popular), Kim Harrison (A Fistful of Charms), Michele Jaffe (Bad Kitty), Stephenie Meyer (Twilight), and Lauren Myracle (ttyl) take bad prom nights to a whole new level—a paranormally bad level. Wardrobe malfunctions and two left feet don't hold a candle to discovering your date is the Grim Reaper—and he isn't here to tell you how hot you look.

From angels fighting demons to a creepy take on getting what you wish for, these five stories will entertain better than any DJ in a bad tux. No corsage or limo rental necessary. Just good, scary fun.

Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour (Midnighters)

Scott Westerfeld

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An alright introductory book to the trilogy 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

At midnight, the world freezes and blue light covers the area. Only four kids, calling themselves Midnighters, are able to move around during the mysterious hour. When Jessica Day comes into town, she pretty much destroys the equilibrium between the Midnighters and the darklings, creatures who are able to come out during the midnight hour.

It's a fast-paced book, with a wide variety of personalities depicted through the five children. So far, however, they seem a little one-dimensional, but perhaps that is because of their talents as Midnighters. There is the seer/lore reader, the empath, the polymath, the flyer/jumper and Jessica's mysterious power (which we only find out within the last few pages of the book). For some reason the darklings are intensely after Jessica so with her presence things are chaotic, and she unwittingly brings together the other four (the flyer didn't really like the seer).

I read Westerfeld at first for his commended Uglies series, but this is also a fast, entertaining read. While not a social critique like his more famous series, fans of supernatural creatures should like this book. It leaves with a slight cliffhanger but nothing so dire I feel I must buy the second book if the public library doesn't have it (it does).

Editorial Review:

A few nights after Jessica Day arrives in Bixby, Oklahoma, she wakes up at midnight to find the entire world frozen, except for her and a few others who call themselves 'midnighters'. Dark things haunt this midnight hour – dark things with a mysterious interest in Jessica. The question is 㟷hy;

The Secret Hour is a compelling tale of dark secrets, midnight romance, eerie creatures, courage, destiny, and unexpected peril.

My Father's Dragon

Stiles Gannett, Ruth Stiles Gannett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Allegorical Primer in Dealing with Difficult People 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Along with all the other favorable things that have been said about the entertainment value of "My Father's Dragon," its vocubulary, and Elmer's inventive problem-solving, teachers and parents should not overlook the opportunity to discuss how each animal that Elmer encounters can be related to students' and children's peer behavior. Every chapter has a gentle message about dealing with bullying, selfishness, pride, gossip, etc. That said, the often comic presence of the disagreeable animals is also tempered by Gannett's insertion of sympathetic aspects; for example, the rhinoceros. Elmer's inquiry about why the rhinoceros is in such a temperamental frame of mind is a real lesson in kindness and seeking to understand someone on a deeper level. Elmer's cleverness, bravery and faithfulness to his word are admirable traits but if parents and instructors are looking for really rich discussion, the personalities and behavior of the animals of Wild Island yield some really rich conversation and opportunities to teach.

Editorial Review:

When Elmer Elevator hears about the plight of an overworked and underappreciated baby flying dragon, he stows away on a ship and travels to Wild Island to rescue the dragon.


From the Trade Paperback edition.