Review: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Heart-Shaped Box is an amazing, well crafted book. I could use a whole bunch of blurb type words to describe it (chilling, pageturner, suspenseful, well written...) and even though they might sound cliche each one would be true. This book grabbed my attention the way few books have lately. By page 50 I was so hooked I didn't want to put it down. I finished it in 2 days. 

Jude buys a haunted suit off the internet not knowing if a ghost really inhabits it or not, but is taken with the novelty to add to his to collection of the macabre. When the suit arrives not only is it haunted, but it opens up a whole can of worms to his past. As he wrestles with the menacing ghost who is everywhere he goes, it proves dangerous not only to him, but to those around him as well. The ghost has a personal vendetta against him and anyone who helps him.

The main characters, Jude and Marybeth (aka Georgia), are flawed in ways that if not handled right may cause a reader to dislike them. But I found that their flaws not only made them more human, but made me root for them to succeed and hope they would find change along the way for themselves for the better. 

The writing is well crafted. This is a debut novel, but Joe Hill comes across more as a well practiced writer. The writing is taut and powerful. The momentum is excellent and suspenseful. Everything draws the plot and characters forward. Once you start reading, you can't help but be drawn in yourself. For me what makes it an even better story was that I couldn't anticipate all of the choices the characters made or the forms the haunting takes. Also, the story stayed with me for days afterwards.

If you enjoy a good ghost story, suspenseful and full of horror, then I highly recommend this book. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Afterword: I think when I read this book, I was probably one of the few people left in America that didn't already know that Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. As such, I still think his writing should stand on it's own. And his writing is really good in this book.

Review: Obsession: Tales of Irresistible Desire - ed. by Paula Guran

 with stories by Joe R. Lansdale, Storm Constantine, Elizabeth Hand, Tanith Lee, Charles de Lint, Stewart O'Nan and more.

The introduction states in part, "We all have experienced obsession at least in its milder form: having a compulsive, even unreasonable (at least in the view of others) idea or emotion. You are totally fixated on something or someone - a sport, video game, junk food, pop singer, film star, collecting something, lover or potential lover, even work - at least temporarily."

But this collection of stories is about darker obsessions. They go further. They are not necessarily relationship oriented or sexual. There are a variety of obsessions explored. From the expected woman who is obsessed with the married man to a muse who inspires obsession and perhaps in turn becomes obsessed, and more. 

All of the stories are well written. And almost all of them take place in a city setting. For that reason you could also consider this anthology to be a dark urban fantasy collection, even though the eras and the locations of the cities in time and space may vary.

My personal favorites were Charles de Lint's "Tallulah" and Tanith Lee's "Nunc Dimitis." Both stories in retrospect were among the lighter of the tales. The Charles de Lint story takes place in Newford his beloved created city that recurs in his work.

All in all this book lives up to its promise to explore the darker side of obsessions. Every story is well written from the modern to the few classics included. I would highly recommend it for fans of urban fantasy, or if you just want to explore the topic of  obsessions. It's well worth your time. 

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars as an outstanding collection of short stories.

It was released May 29, 2012.

Review: Blood Rock by Anthony Francis

Blood Rock  is the second in a series of urban fantasies by Anthony Francis featuring Dakota Frost. This time around, Dakota must face a killer who is using magical graffiti to reach out and kill seemingly in much the same way she uses her tattoos for offense and defense. With graffiti popping up all over Atlanta, deaths occurring,  and friends affected, Dakota worries - will Cinnamon be next?

I gave Blood Rock 3.5 stars. Overall it is a good book. My basic complaint was with how much or little emotion Dakota was showing during some scenes in the book. I felt that it wasn't really supported by other things in the text. Her lack of emotion in one scene in particular where a friend dies seemed peculiar.

Otherwise, the notion of magical graffiti was awesome. This was the first time I had come across that in my reading and found it very interesting. The exploration as to how it works exactly got a little heavy at times, but was interesting and important to the world building and ultimately to the plot. It also allowed for a comparison and further exploration as to how Dakota's magic works.

If  you enjoy slightly darker urban fantasy, you will like Blood Rock.

Wordless Wednesday

On Books and Ebooks 

by Hugh McGuire

Co-founder of BookOven.com, founder of LibriVox.org

Posted: October 28, 2008 12:29 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-mcguire/on-books-and-ebooks_b_138340.html

Ebooks are not in opposition to print & paper books; they are a parallel tool to get the content contained in a book.

This Huffington Post article may not be the newest article in the world, but I think the statement above summarizes it well.

I have a Kindle. I enjoy using it. I love that I can carry multiple books on it at one time. If I don't feel like reading one book just then, I have options.

And there is nothing like holding a book in your hands: the smell, the weight of the book, the textures. It's a  heady, sensory experience that feeds the mind as well. Plus I love looking at them on the shelves. Some of them are real treasures to me.

And I used to love audio books for long car rides. Audio books have been a blessing for my mother whose eye sight is no longer the best in the world.

What do you think? Are ebooks in danger of replacing print books? Or, are they simply a parallel resource?

PS: At the bottom of the Hugh McGuire article there are a few websites listed with links for free ebooks such as Project Gutenburg.

Epic Kindle Giveaway Melted the Internet

This was part of the Epic Kindle Giveaway promotion that the authors did. As of now, they are in the process of contacting the winners. They had so many reposts and entries that facebook decided that some of the links were spam and not for real. They were for real. 

I downloaded some of the books. Currently I'm reading Drummer Boy by Scott Nicholson. Spooky and good so far. I love that Sharyn McCrumb wrote about his writing: “Scott Nicholson explores the dark legends of the southern end of the Appalachian mountain chain, a nightmare country that ends in Stephen King’s yard.”

On Tinnitus and Transcendental Meditation

A while back my Dad wrote a column for the Georgia Peach Cochlear Implant Association (GPCIA) which was picked up and reblogged in another post. He talks about his personal experiences using Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Tinnitus in the post. The comments are interesting too, particularly laughing crow's comment.

Here is a link to the other post. http://ppbnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/tinnitus.html

Makes me think that maybe I need to go back to practicing TM. Or at least try it for a while and see if it makes a difference.