What I've Been Reading:'Lying Season' by Karina Halle

The fourth instalment in Karina Halle's 'Experiment in Terror' series, 'Lying Season' sees ghost-hunters Perry Palomino and Dex Foray investigate a supposedly haunted Mental Institute in Dex's hometown of Seattle. Which of course involves Perry staying with Dex and his vile girlfriend Jenn for a week. Cue seriously awkward scenes involving Jenn's atrocious attitude and self-love. 

We learn a lot more about what makes Dex tick in this novel. Scouring his bookcase for interesting reading material, Perry comes across Dex's stash of meds, hidden in a hollowed out book no less - I love that guy's style, weed goes in an unlocked drawer, medication must be hidden from his girlfriend... Oh Dex you get more complex, the more we get to know you. And more lovable to boot. Finding his various medications prompts Perry to find out more about Dex's mental health (or lack of) and results in a rather dodgy experiment that I don't want to spoil for you all.

We see some more of Perry's history in this book as well. Through dream sequences we are introduced to the 'accident' that has only been hinted at until now and we begin to see just how pervasive Perry's ghosts are. 

And we are introduced to yet another gruesome ghoul. This time, somebody we've heard about before. Remember Abby, Dex's ex? Well we get to see her in the rotting flesh as she haunts Dex's apartment and gets all threatening towards Perry. That girl creeped me out and I'm kinda hoping she makes an appearance in future instalments. I don't think we've seen everything she has to give. Oh and if you love Creepy Clown Lady as much as I do, you'll be happy to know she makes an appearance or two in 'Lying Season'.

Overall, I enjoyed this fourth novel in what is turning out to be an awesome series but I was a little disappointed by the lack of scares. I was itching to read this book as soon as I found out it involved a haunted asylum - yeah, I have a thing for creepy old mental institutes. But there just wasn't enough about the hospital to keep me completely pleased. Although the guy in the padded cell was bloody horrible. This books focus was more on the up and down relationship burgeoning between Dex and Perry and for me, that meant it lacked a bit of the gripping, nail-biting tension that the previous books had. But nevertheless it was a bloody brilliant book and I can't wait to read the next one.

3/5 (purely for not being scary enough!)

What I've Been Reading:'Dead Sky Morning' by Karina Halle

I adore the Experiment in Terror series by Karina Halle, I really do. It has everything. A kick-ass female protagonist, her snarky looney tunes colleague, ghostly goings-on, some seriously cool locations (a former leper colony for example) and a creepy clown lady. I mean what more could you want from a series? Plus, I think one of the things I really like about these books is that they're not just another vampire series. They're much more rooted in reality, in the real world. Okay, I know there are ghosts. But who the heck knows if ghosts are real... Perry and Dex might just have hit on something.

Anyway, 'Dead Sky Morning' is the third installment in the series, and for me it was a return to the things I loved about the first book in the series - real danger, some interesting history, and of course that old sexual tension between Perry and Dex. And without getting too close to spoiler territory, lets just say the sexual tension gets cranked up to the next level in this novel.

For the fourth episode of their web series, Dex is dragging Perry off to D'Arcy Island, a former Chinese leper colony. Now, intrigued by the story, I googled it (yeah I'm a geek, so shoot me) and discovered that D'Arcy Island is as real as they come. Which of course makes me love the book even more for being factually accurate...

So, Perry and Dex take a boat out to D'Arcy Island and anchor the boat as securely as they can manage on an island that is notorious for its dangerous approach and lack of safe docking area. And they hike to a campsite on the other side of the island. You know they're heading for trouble when the killer raccoons appear, or possibly before then when Perry sees someone watching her from the shores of the supposedly empty island. But then it wouldn't be an Experiment in Terror novel if there wasn't some peril involved.

And in this book it comes in the form of Mary, probably the creepiest damn dead woman I've ever had the displeasure of meeting in a novel. The ghost of a missionary woman, she has her own dirty secrets that keep her bound to the island and intent on stopping Perry and Dex from getting away. But we can't forget the mysterious coffins that wash up on shore, and the bizarre flash-mob Deer. The tension in this novel comes in wave after wave, cranking up notch by notch until you can hardly bear to read on. It was nail-biting, eye-covering, lip-chewing tension. And I loved it!

4/5

What I've Been Reading:'Interview With the Vampire: Claudia's Story' by Ashley Marie Witter and Anne Rice

I have been a huge fan of Anne Rice's 'Vampire Chronicles' since I first discovered 'Interview with the Vampire' when I was 16 years old. She was the writer who introduced me to the Vampire canon and her writing has really influenced my reading habits.

While browsing through the graphic novel section at my local library, I came across this little gem, a graphic novel representation of Claudia's plot line, told from her perspective. I simply had to read this.

I've always been captivated by the idea of Claudia, of a child turned into a Vampire; a mind that grows from childish notions to an adult understanding of the world while trapped, frozen in time forever in the fragile body of a young child. How torturous it would be to remain a child forever, to have people treat you as an immature being when you are a decades old being, have seen a lifetime of change and several lifetimes of death.

This adaptation didn't really add anything to the story told in 'Interview with the Vampire', in fact it was pretty much just Claudia's scenes transferred from word to image. However, the images were so beautiful that I'm willing to overlook that. The drawings were in sepia throughout, with splashes of brilliant red to depict blood, whether the life-giving blood drained from victims or the blood tears Claudia frequently cries. I think the lack of colour was significant, added something to the story. Colour would have detracted from the storytelling, would have made Claudia's melancholia less dramatic and vivid.

I enjoyed this graphic novel and would recommend it to any fan of Anne Rice or even anybody who simply enjoys a good graphic novel.

4/5

What I've Been Reading:'Horns' by Joe Hill

The "New York Times" bestselling author of "Heart-Shaped Box" returns with a relentless supernatural thriller that runs like Hell on wheels . . .

Merrin Williams is dead, slaughtered under inexplicable circumstances, leaving her beloved boyfriend Ignatius Perrish as the only suspect. On the first anniversary of Merrin's murder, Ig spends the night drunk and doing awful things. When he wakes the next morning he has a thunderous hangover . . . and horns growing from his temples. Ig possesses a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look--a macabre gift he intends to use to find the monster who killed his lover. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. Now it's time for revenge . . .

"It's time the devil had his due. . . . "

The blurb on this book really intrigued me. I love horror, in fact it's probably my favourite genre. There's just something about a book that creeps you out and has you checking the room before you go in that I love. Maybe it has something to do with the flight or fight thing, adrenaline pumping through your veins. Horror writing does for me what sky diving does for other people. It makes me feel alive.

This was a stunning read. It had everything I look for in a good novel. There was horror (of both the human and non-human kind), there was a good mystery, a bit of romance and a huge helping of suspense.

Ignatius "Ig" Perrish wakes up to find he has grown a pair of horns overnight. And as if that wasn't weird enough, they seem to have some strange effect on the people around him, causing them to tell him their deepest secrets and darkest desires. In just the first 24 hours of having the horns, he finds out more about his family and friends than he ever wanted to know. And he begins to realise that there may just be one advantage to the horns. They could help him find out the truth about who murdered his girlfriend and help him clear his name.

And so begins an adventure into the dark minds of his loved ones as he tries to unravel the mysteries surrounding his girlfriend's death, while entering the no man's land of evil that lurks within man's heart.

This was one of those deep and meaningful horrors, the kind that doesn't set out to simply scare you but instead creeps inside your mind and takes root there, making you think of things differently, contemplate your own mortality.

I loved this book and can't wait to read more by Joe Hill, especially his latest novel 'NOS4R2'. I'd recommend his work for any of you who are fans of his dad (the infamous Stephen King in case you didn't know).

What I've Been Reading:'The Moth Diaries' by Rachel Klein

A copy of this novel has sat languishing on my book shelves for the last few years. I bought it, attracted by the stunning cover, started it straight away and then got distracted and put it on my shelf un-read. It might just have stayed that way if it wasn't for the fact that my other half got hold of two free tickets to see the film adaptation. I'm one of those people who absolutely hates to see the film of a book without having read the book first and so the day before we were due to see the film, I grabbed my copy of this book, curled up on the sofa and read all 256 pages in one sitting, barely pausing to look up.

'The Moth Diaries', as you might have gathered by the title is presented to us in diary form, an interesting concept that really works with the premise. The story opens with a kind of foreword, the now adult diarist giving us a bit of background to the diary she kept as a sixteen year old girl. She admits that she suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder complicated by depression and that her Psychiatrist has requested her permission to publish the tormented ramblings of her formative years. We never actually learn the identity of the girl we come to know so well. She is nameless to us and yet it doesn't hinder the story at all.

The diary opens at the beginning of a new school term. The sixteen year old narrator attends an exclusive all girls boarding school which over the past few years has become more of a home to her than the home she has shared with her Mother since her poet father killed himself. School is where Lucy, her best friend and secret obsession resides. Home has become the suite she shares with Lucy. But all that is about to change with the arrival of new girl Ernessa Bloch.

Ernessa is a mysterious addition to their world. Pale, foreign and a total loner, she is at odds with the world of school. But Lucy is drawn to her. Sweet, innocent Lucy who can't see the bad in anybody is sucked into Ernessa's world. But since Ernessa arrived on the scene, strange things have been happening. Death and destruction seem to plague the school and our narrator is convinced Ernessa is at the heart of it. She becomes obsessed with the idea that Ernessa Bloch is a Vampire.

But do Vampires really exist outside of the macabre stories she has been reading for her English class, or has her fevered imagination run rampant? We don't really find out and I'm reluctant to say too much in case it spoils the story for any of you who wish to read it. I will say however, that for me, 'The Moth Diaries' was psychologically taut, a brilliant painting of mental torment and teen angst. There were some lines that were incredibly poignant, that reminded me a little of my own teenage years.

It was a great read, an amazing little journey inside the mind. I'd recommend it to anybody who likes Psychological Horror with a dash of teen angst.

5/5

What I've Been Reading:'The Benson (Experiment in Terror #2.5)' by Karina Halle

'The Benson' is a 50 page novella in the 'Experiment in Terror' series by Karina Halle. I'll admit that it was a short, easy read but that definitely did not detract from just how good it turned out to be.

Perry Palomino and Dex Foray are spending the night at The Benson, an up-market hotel in Portland, Oregon. There have been a whole host of ghost sightings at the hotel and the intrepid duo are determined to catch something on film. Armed with their usual camera plus an infrared camera for Perry this time, they check out the ghostly goings on at the hotel.

There are a few creepy moments in this novella and a clever little twist involving a maid (I'm trying not to say too much). All in all, I'd say it was the perfect accompaniment to the series, and it would make a great starting point for anybody who hasn't yet read any of the series.

4/5

What I've Been Reading:'Red Fox (Experiment in Terror #2)' by Karina Halle

'Red Fox' is the second novel in Karina Halle's 'Experiment in Terror' series and continues the story of Perry and Dex's investigations into the paranormal world. This installment sees Perry and Dex travelling to New Mexico to the home of Will and Sarah, a Navajo couple who are being taunted by some kind of supernatural entity. Rocks are falling on their roof at night, their sheep are turning up dead, mutilated beyond recognition and creepy animals walk through their house at night. After Dex's College friend Maximus, a self-proclaimed Ghost Whisperer tries to deal with the problem and fails, he calls in the big guns, and Perry and Dex turn up in the town of Red Fox with their video cameras, determined to solve the mystery.

As with the first novel in the series there was plenty of sexual tension between Perry and Dex plus a good shot of the crazies from a medication-withdrawing Dex. The motif of secrecy, of hiding things ran through the book, adding a deeper layer to Perry and Dex's relationship and also providing the constant question of who was safe to trust and who might just be ready to rip your throat out.

This was a gripping read full of Native American mythology and some clever answers to some of the stories mysteries. It wasn't as full out scary as the first book but it didn't really matter as the novel was strong enough without it. If you haven't already checked out Karina Halle, then do it, please.

4/5 

What I've Been Reading:'The Shining' by Stephen King

This is the third novel in my personal Stephen-King-a-thon challenge. I first read this novel when I was fifteen years old. It was also the first Stephen King novel I ever read. I came back to this book to re-read it as a twenty-seven year old excited and convinced I would gain more from the book as an adult. And I was right. What was simply a horror story about a haunted hotel when I was a teenager became much more as an adult. The horror was still there but so was the haunting psychological terror of the ghosts of our pasts invading our presents, the torture of memories we think we can escape and the people we hope we'll never become.

Danny Torrence is five years old. He knows things that no child should have access to. He knows his parents were considering Divorce, that his father has a drink problem. And he knows that there's something horrifying behind the beautiful facade of The Overlook Hotel. Danny's father, Jack has got a job as winter caretaker of The Overlook. He needs this job - his last one didn't end so well - plus the distance from the real world will give him plenty of time to finish the play he's been working on. And so he packs up his wife and kid and drives high up into the Colorado mountains where once the snow comes, there's no going back. They will be stuck there until the snows thaw.

But five year old Danny has the 'shining', a rare ability to sense things, to read minds, to see the dark images that play out in The Overlook. His vivid dreams and psychic trances reveal the dark secrets The Overlook has kept hidden for decades. Who is the creepy dead woman in Room 217? What is that blood stain on the wall of the presidential suite? Who is riding up and down in the elevator at night? And just how do those topiary animals move around on their own? 

'The Shining' is a chilling read, not overtly scary but it definitely raises the hairs on your arms. It has much more substance than most horror novels out there and really defines Stephen King as the forerunner of the genre.

5/5

What I've Been Reading:'Darkhouse (Experiment in Terror #1) by Karina Halle

I had seen a lot of great reviews about this novel on Goodreads.com and when I discovered it was free to read on Kindle, I couldn't resist checking it out. To be honest, I started reading this with low expectations. I'm not sure why but I did. However, within the first 30 pages, I had my expectations seriously raised. I had been sucked in instantly. The protagonist, Perry Palomino really spoke to me. She's this flawed hero kind of character - she's been through some crap but she's come out the other side and is trying to turn her life around. It was refreshing to read about a character with some humanity, some pathos. It was also a breath of fresh air to read what I'll term an Urban Fantasy novel with a protagonist who isn't otherworldy. Perry is your average 22 year old who left University with hopes of a job more meaningful and better paid than the job she's currently in as Receptionist for an advertising firm. So she has these weird dreams sometimes and has been known to see things that may or may not really be there, but she's as human as they come. She's not a vampire, a witch or a werewolf and that is so refreshing in a market saturated with supernatural beings.

On a weekend trip to stay with her Uncle, Perry decides to investigate the old abandoned Lighthouse on his property. It's late at night, she's got a bit of alcohol in her system and she's on her own. Or so she thinks. Stumbling through the creepy old lighthouse, she bumps into Dex Foray, a strange but attractive guy with a camcorder who says he's checking out the apparently haunted lighthouse for a web show he's working on.

Perry and Dex soon find themselves thrown together, determined to solve the mystery of the Lighthouse. They're an interesting pair and there's a lot of sexual tension (mostly on the part of Perry) that weirdly doesn't detract from the plot.

I'll admit that as much as I hide behind the cushions while watching a scary film, I do love the horror genre, whether that's films or books. I love to be scared. But usually I'm disappointed with books that claim to be scary. They usually don't affect me at all. 'Darkhouse' seems to be the exception. This book had goosebumps raising on my arms and it's made me think twice about using a public toilet when there's no one else around. There's one particular character, a creepy old lady, who just sends chills up and down my spine. You'll know what I mean if you read it.

This was a brilliant start to a series that holds a lot of promise. I'm definitely going to check out the next book in the series and would recommend anyone who likes a good scare read 'Darkhouse'.

5/5

What I've Been Reading:'Salem's Lot' by Stephen King

I love Vampires. I'll read pretty much any novel that features those creepy blood-sucking monsters that sneak around at night and feast on helpless virgins. But, I have to admit I do prefer the traditional Stoker-esque Vampire to the sparkle-in-the-sun Twilight version. Which is probably why ''Salem's Lot' by Stephen King is one of my all-time favourite reads. 

'Salem's Lot has never really been the quiet, peaceful town passers by would think it to be. There is a hint of darkness behind the town's picturesque facade. There is the mother who beats her baby and lies to her husband about how the injuries were sustained, there's the gossips who listen in on other's phone-calls and spy on their neighbours with much-used binoculars. There is the decidedly twisted school bus driver who likes to leave kids stranded four miles from home and the school bully who presides over the school yard like some crazy dictator. But the biggest darkness that hangs over 'Salem's Lot is the Marsten House, the crumbling un-inhabitable Mansion that watches over the town, whose tale is a ghost story to scare children with. The Marsten House was the scene of a murder-suicide that the town has never fully recovered from and that eveyone has a story about.

Ben Mears, disillusioned writer and ex-Salem's Lot inhabitant has his own story about the Marsten House, his own childhood memory that haunts his adult dreams. After the death of his girlfriend, he finds himself returning to the town he lived in as a child, hoping that something there will spark his creativity and help him write his next best-seller. But he finds more than he expected.

Around the same time that Ben arrives in 'Salem's Lot, so do Barlow and Straker, antiques dealers who have taken over an empty store to set up business and also, bizarrely, have bought the old Marsten House. Antique dealers are harmless, right? But it's a strange coincidence that not long after their arrival in town, one young boy goes missing and his brother dies of anaemia. And that's just the start of Salem's Lot's unraveling.

As more and more of 'Salem's Lot's citizens begin to suffer strange flu-like symptoms before dying several days later, Ben bands together with several other unlikely heroes - an aging English teacher, an alcoholic Priest, a doctor and a 12 year old schoolboy - to solve the mystery of the Marsten House's new owners and just what exactly they are doing to their town.

I adore this novel, I really do. The characters are so real, so believable. And it's just creepy enough that it stays in your thoughts when you're no longer reading it. It's typical Stephen King in the sense that it shifts from point of view to point of view (most fascinatingly in this particular novel, the perspective of the town itself). He builds the atmosphere and tension slowly and steadily, creeping to a startling crescendo, giving you time to identify with the characters and really begin to care for them before he puts their lives in peril. And you know, Stephen King takes that whole "kill your darlings" adage seriously, which is probably another reason I love his novels so much - he's not afraid. He does what's necessary. He's a cruel and unjust god to the creatures of his imagination. And it makes him a much better writer than those who aren't.

This book is up there with Dracula as a must-read for anybody who thinks they know the Vampire canon. King taps into the old mythologies and even references Stoker's work in his own. A fantastic, creepy, thrill of a read. I'd recommend it to everyone.

5/5

What I've Been Reading:'Carrie' by Stephen King

I'm probably one of the few people in the world who has never seen the 1976 film version of 'Carrie'. But I'm not naive enough that I'm not aware of the story. Everyone knows that the menstrual euphemism "taking Carrie to the Prom" is a reference to a blood-soaked Sissy Spacek. And yeah, I had a pretty good idea of how the plot ends. 'Carrie' is such a huge piece of pop-culture that it's hard to avoid it. So basically, I came to this novel with some prior knowledge and yet I was still floored by the book.

I think that's probably Stephen King's major talent. His novels are never simple, they always have some substance to them. I think what really surprised me when reading 'Carrie' is how much of Stephen King's voice and story-telling technique is present in his first published novel. I was expecting it to stand out a bit, to be a little less polished, a little less, well Stephen King-ish. The narrative was suitably dis-jointed, jumping from one Point of View to another, interspersed with articles from magazines and extracts from scholarly books. The way that King presents Carrie White's story, it's easy to believe that this girl really did exist, that the terrible events at the Prom and afterwards really did happen. And that's what I love about Stephen King and this novel especially, you never have cause to question the reality of his supernatural elements. They simply are.

Carrie White dreams of going to the Prom. She just wants to be your average teenager. But with a religion-obsessed mother and no friends, she is lonely, vulnerable and the perfect target for the school bullies. Her classmates, her teachers, even her Mother, all beat Carrie down. And those that don't are blind to the events, to the hatred and the acts of violence going on around them.

But quiet, mousy Carrie can't be your average teenager because she's no average girl. She hides a terrible secret. She has the power of telekinesis. She can make things happen with the power of her mind. And the more the bullies try to weaken Carrie's reserves, the more her power builds inside her. Until, as the bullying reaches a horrifying climax so does her inner strength and she unleashes her telekinetic power on those who caused her pain.

This is a liberating novel. For anybody who has been bullied, Carrie's explosion on Prom night is kind of like the daydreams you'd hold close to your heart as the taunts rained down on you. Who hasn't wanted to destroy those who try to destroy them? And that's one of the most endearing things about this novel. We've all been in Carrie White's shoes. We've all experienced the horror of repression, of people trying to hold us back. Deep down we all just want to be accepted, to fit in, to be loved. We all have our own version of Prom Night, that thing we're yearning for and feel we'll never get to experience. Carrie gives substance to our own teenage experiences. She embodies our own morbid fears.

And that is probably what I love most about Stephen King - his ability to write characters that get under your skin and stay there. I wish I'd been exposed to this novel as a meek, vulnerable teenager who needed validation, who needed somebody to identify. I think I would have seen something of poor Carrie in myself. And it would have let me dream.

Rating - 4/5 

What I've Been Reading:'The Birthing House' by Christopher Ransom

So, I finished reading this book nearly a week ago and yet I just haven't gotten round to writing a review yet. Mainly because I've been plagued with migraines that have made me just want to curl up in bed and never get out again but partly because it just wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.

When I spied this novel in a local charity shop for £2, it looked exactly like my kind of book and at such a bargain rate, I snapped it up. The premise was great - a couple move into their dream house, hoping for a fresh start and things seem to be going well until the husband discovers a Victorian photograph bearing the exact likeness of his very un-Victorian wife. And then a whole load of ghostly goings on begin to plague them in their new home. Sounds great, right? Well not so much actually.

I think one of the main problems was that I simply did not connect enough with either the main character, un-employed screenwriter Conrad, or his mostly-absent-from-the-plot wife Jo. Ransom didn't give us enough back-story to this tormented couple and the disintegration of their marriage. I connected more with some of the peripheral characters such as Nadia, the next door neighbours pregnant daughter, which is a bit weird and made the reading process un-enjoyable because I spent a lot of time wanting to read more about her and her past, rather than the main characters.

There were aspects of the plot that weren't explained properly - the fact that the woman in the photo looks like Conrad's wife is shoddily rationalised. As is the origin of the snake eggs. Those eggs could have been a much better plot point but they seemed to be abandoned hastily towards the end of the novel. The 'Doctor', a creepy entity mentioned right at the beginning of the novel doesn't reappear until the very end of the novel, his existence never really fully explained. 

The back of this book exclaimed "The scariest book since 'The Shining'". In what reality this statement is true I cannot imagine. This book wasn't really all that horrifying. There was one scene that got me feeling a little chilled - a creepy popsicle stick doll animatedly moving around the room. I really hoped there would be more chill-inducing prose but I was disappointed. Every now and then Ransom would mention a click-clicking noise on the stairs or in the hallway or wherever, obviously intended to make the naive reader assume that creepy little doll was coming back. But after the first time it turned out to be the clicking of the dog's nails on the wooden floor, I got the idea. I don't think any reader is stupid enough to fall for that lame technique twice. Or god knows however many times he used it.

This book was also way too full of pointless swearing and gratuitous sex for my liking. Don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to the odd sex scene in a novel but when it's there for the sake of it and not for plot development, I get a bit sick of it.

As I said, this novel was full of promise. A creepy old house where ghostly babies cry in the night and horrendous little dolls move of their own accord is definitely my ideal read. But this was just so poorly put together that I would never recommend it to anyone. Such a disappointing read.

Rating: 1/5 

What I've Been Reading: 'Silent Sand' by Sam Stone

'Silent Sand' by Sam Stone

If you've read my post about meeting Sam Stone, you'll already know just how much I love her 'Vampire Gene' books.'Silent Sand' is the fifth and latest in the sequence. I finished reading it this afternoon and felt the urge to blog about it instantly. I wanted to share my thoughts with the world and spread the word about these books in general.

A lot of the time, when I'm reading a sequence of books that involve the same set of characters, I tend to get a little bored after a while. It's easy for characters to become stale, for plots to become repetitive. But this has not been the case with Sam Stone's books. With each novel, the characters become more alive for me, more 3D in my mind. Each instalment teaches us more about the characters and the world they inhabit. And at the end of each novel, we're left wanting more.

'Silent Sand' explores the nature of the Vampire Gene further, dipping into new ideas of how Vampirism may be spread. I won't give it away but there's a really inspired plot point to do with a certain bodily fluid that I really didn't see coming. It also explores the idea of how those with similar but not identical genetics to those who carry the Vampire Gene might react to being bitten. The result is a really clever story that expands the possibilities of the world we have come to know in the first four books.

I enjoyed catching up with Lucrezia Borgia and her life as Lucy Collins the Haematologist (I have a little fondness for Lucrezia. Plus, I love the Science-y stuff that she gets herself involved in). I also loved the flashbacks that Gabriele showed us of his life in the Paris of Louis XV. That's the kind of depth of character I like in books.

One of the things I really like about these books is the way Sam Stone experiments with Point of View. She switches between first person narration by Gabriele and a third person perspective which allows us to see more of what is going on than Gabriele would possibly be able to tell us. It's brave, not a lot of writer's attempt this kind of thing but I love it. It keeps the writing lively and the plot moving forward.

All in all, I loved this book, even the torturous cliff-hanger of an ending which I had to read three times before I was willing to accept was actually how I would be forced to leave this book.

So of course, now I'm impatiently awaiting the next instalment. Perhaps I'll use the time to re-visit the previous four books...  

Meeting Sam Stone

A couple of years ago on one of my frequent trips into Waterstones to browse for books to add to my ever-growing "to-be-read" pile, I met Sam Stone. Living in Liverpool, I have two Waterstones to shop in, but for some reason I always seem to browse the Liverpool One store. I like it's quirky little signposts and it's openness. It feels bigger and I feel as though I could stay in there for hours. Maybe it reminds me of being a kid and bookstores seeming like huge, interesting spaces to get lost in. Anyway, I digress...

from Sam Stone's Goodreads

This particular day, as I reached the top of the escalator, I saw this really cool looking woman sitting at one of those little tables that bookstores set up for visiting writers. She had blond and purple hair and was wearing a corset and she was sitting next to a display of Vampire books. Of course I had to investigate. What I discovered was an amazingly friendly woman who wrote the kind of vampire literature that appeals to me (ie Vampires do not sparkle in the sunlight and do not suffer from severe bouts of teen angst despite being 103 years old). Sam had four books on sale that day, the first three books in her 'Vampire Gene' series and her book of short stories 'Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings'. Usually I wouldn't risk buying that many books by an author I've never read before but something told me I was going to like Sam's work and I really was not disappointed. I read all four books in what must have been less than two weeks (I was going through a period of devouring books at the time) and was sorry to close the last page on the world she had created for me.

When she returned to Liverpool with the fourth book in her series, 'Hateful Heart', I turned out to see her and get my signed copy and devoured that straight away. And now, after waiting what feels like an eternity, I have in my possession the fifth book in the series, 'Silent Sand' and Sam's new novella, 'Zombies at Tiffany's'. These books have been on sale for a while now and while it's been a torturous wait, I didn't want to just order the books from her publisher or buy them from Waterstones. I wanted to wait until she was there in person so that I could get my signed copies. It feels like a little ritual now. Maybe I'm just strange but it makes the experience of reading the book more interesting when you've been handed it by the author herself.

The really great thing about Sam is that she really makes an effort to connect with her fans. She has a heavy presence on facebook and twitter and takes the time to respond to messages that are sent to her. Remember when I was in hospital the other week? When she found out I was stuck in hospital, Sam kept me entertained for those few days, chatting to me on facebook, taking the time to find out how I was each day and see if I was feeling any better. Even once I was out of the hospital, she still messaged me to ask how I was doing. That kind of kindness always surprises me, I know it shouldn't but I think big readers like me, who read voraciously tend to see writers more how other people see TV stars. So for me it was a big deal. So it was really great to see Sam today in person. I got a big hug and got told that I looked well, which gave me a boost because I know I've been looking pretty crummy lately with the meds and stuff but I do actually feel like I look better today. Maybe it's the Epilim kicking in? 

We chatted and gossipped for ages about the amount of celebrity "literature" being published these days and when Sam told me that Waterstone's had actually forgotten that she was coming today, I was pretty astounded. It seems they were more preoccupied with the TOWIE "celeb" launching some excuse for a book in their store this morning than they were with the real writer who has been tirelessly promoting her own books in their stores for years. The store managed to find the promotional poster and copies of most of Sam's books but had no copies of 'Zombies at Tiffany's' in the store. Luckily Sam and her partner David had a car-boot full of copies as they were heading off to another signing event in Newcastle. But if they hadn't had those? Bad form Waterstones, bad form...

Anyway, I will be dropping everything to read these two new books, seeing as I've waited so long. And I recommend that you all go and check out Sam Stone's books right now. And I mean that, you need these books in your life. 

You can check out Sam's blog here, where you can also order her books.
And you can find out more about Sam's books on her Goodreads Page.

Sam Stone's latest books and the "ironic" postcard I picked up as I was paying at the till

I'll agree with that!

A lovely message :)

The signed limited edition card I got with 'Zombies at Tiffany's'

An amazing idea. A business card for Lilly (my favourite character from 'The Vampire Gene' series)