Tag Archives: Friday Reads

11/22/63 by Stephen King

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11.22.63

 

TITLE: 11/22/63
AUTHOR: Stephen King

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (5)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
One of the Ten Best Books of The New York Times Book Review
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Now a miniseries from Hulu starring James Franco

ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN DALLAS, PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED, AND THE WORLD CHANGED. WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BACK?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer—takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away—a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life—like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963—turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

Buy the book HERE! 

MY 2 CENTS:

WRITING: I love reading, and I’ll be the first to admit that if the story is good enough bad writing doesn’t necessarily ruin the experience for me. Because of this, some books may receive a higher rating from me simply because the story was fantastic… maybe as a reader you don’t agree with that method, but I feel that creativity in a story should outweigh the other flaws one might find. HOWEVER, this was not one of those books… This one topped the charts on writing, story development, character development, back story, flashbacks, structure, etc. etc. etc.

Stephen King is a master when it comes to creative writing. He develops characters that are more believable than the people you live next door to… but, with this story, he weaved together a fine thread of life. Creating fictional characters and weaving them into a reality with real life historical figures can’t be easy, yet King makes it seem seamless.

STORY: At first glance, looking at the cover, one might think this book focuses on the assassination of President J.F. Kennedy. In reality, this is a time-travel novel. Sure, it involves the Kennedy assassination, but that is not the primary focus. This book focuses on Jake Epping, a man of 2011 who travels back in time to 1958. We get to see how his actions in the past affect his life and the lives of others. It shows how the butterfly effect can have both positive and negative ramifications on the world and the course of history. It begs the reader to think about what he/she might do in a similar situation, or to think about the decisions you make in your every day life that seem mundane or harmless… How do those small decision affect the greater good?

CHARACTERS: As with all of King’s novels, I loved getting to know the characters. I enjoyed reading the details of Jake’s realization of what was happening and the weight of the responsibility that was placed on him. His journey takes him through struggles we can only imagine. He grows, learns, fails, succeeds, falls in love, and endures unmeasurable loss.

APPEARANCE: The cover is simply perfect.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
I’m an author, so of course I loved this one: “When all else fails, give up and go to the library.”

“Sometimes the things presented to use as choices aren’t choices at all.”

“When you put on a clown suit and a rubber nose, nobody has any idea what you look like inside.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/Xg3c7K5Tb88

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11.22.63 mini series

 

Did you know that Hulu turned 11/22/63 into a mini-series? It did… Want to know my thoughts about the mini-series? Check out my blog post HERE! Blog Review of the mini-series will be active on Sunday, April 14, 2019. 

 

You can also check out my YouTube review of the mini-series below (video review will be posted on Sunday, April 14, 2019:

 

On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson

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Golden Pond

PLAY TITLE: On Golden Pond
AUTHOR: Ernest Thompson

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.75)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
A comedy for a cast of 3 men, 2 women, 1 boy. This is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the forty-eighth year. He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations and a failing memory-but still as tart-tongued, observant and eager for life as ever. Ethel, ten years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness-and slang-in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.

Buy the play HERE!

Buy the movie HERE!
MY 2 CENTS: 
On Golden Pond is a classic. The way that Thompson brings these characters to live is simply beautiful. It’s about life, relationships, and the heart.

I love when an author like Thompson can take a simple story, a retired couple spending the summer at their lake house, and turn it into so much more. By the end of the script, you’re emotionally attached to the characters, you care what happens to them, and you long to learn more about them.

The father/daughter relationship between Norman and Chelsea is heartbreaking. In just the few scenes in which they are together, it is obvious how much they love each other… how much they want to be close… and yet, they aren’t. It isn’t until Chelsea brings Billy, her boyfriend’s son, to visit her parents that Norman finally bonds with a child. It’s just said that it wasn’t his own child.

The husband/wife relationship between Norman and Ethel is exactly what I believe my grandparents had. They lived a similar life and were not only each other’s best friends, but they were soul mates. They were perfect together in every way. I believe that Thompson wrote their relationship to be perfect… almost to perfect, but not unbelievable in any way.

As an actress, reading this script has just added two characters to my list of dream roles I’d love to play. If I ever get the chance, in the next few years to audition for Chelsea, I will not let it pass me by, and of course… Ethel would be a dream role when I get older.

As a director, I have to be honest… I think it would be hard knowing how emotionally connected I am with the characters. I think I’d want to be on stage too much to do justice as a director.

APPEARANCE: Plain green cover with black text… Typical Dramatists Play Service cover. I feel like the plain cover allows the reader to use their imagination when envisioning the characters.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“Sometimes you have to look hard at a person and remember he’s doing the best he can. He’s just trying to find his way, just like you.”

“Well, that’s what happens if you live long enough: You end up being old. it’s one of the disadvantages of a long life. I still prefer it to the alternative.” 

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

 

on golden pond movie posterMovie Title: On Golden Pond
Director: Mark Rydell
Stars: Katharine Hepburn (Ethel Thayer), Henry Fonda (Norman Thayer Jr.), and Jane Fonda (Chelsea Thayer Wayne)

STORYLINE: The loons are back again on Golden Pond and so are Norman Thayer, a retired professor, and Ethel who have had a summer cottage there since early in their marriage. This summer their daughter Chelsea — whom they haven’t seen for years — feels she must be there for Norman’s birthday. She and her fiancé are on their way to Europe the next day but will be back in a couple of weeks to pick up the fiancé’s son. When she returns Chelsea is married and her stepson has the relationship with her father that she always wanted. Will father and daughter be able to communicate at last? (IMDB.COM)

Watch the official movie trailers here:

https://youtu.be/l-lcl2j3yf0

https://youtu.be/Y85sfYVOS84

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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TITLE: Of Mice and Men
AUTHOR: John Steinbeck

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.33)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression.

They are an unlikely pair: George is “small and quick and dark of face”; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a “family,” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.

Laborers in California’s dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the consequences of Lennie’s unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.

“A thriller, a gripping tale . . . that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick.” —The New York Times

Buy the book HERE!

Buy the play HERE! 

Buy the movie HERE! 

The Critical Points:
I picked up this book because of a recommendation by one of my youtube viewers. So, if you haven’t checked out my youtube reviews, make sure you check out the page HERE.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, was originally published in 1937. A lot has changed in literature and society since 1937…

With that said, let’s get into the guts of this story and my opinion of it. Just a warning… there will be spoilers in this review.

WRITING: Of Mice and Men is a classic, read in many high schools across the country, although I don’t believe I ever read it in school. Although I never read the novel, until now, I had read the play while studying theatre in college.

I can understand why the novel received the Nobel Prize in Literature, but I have to admit that it wasn’t my favorite of Steinbeck’s novels. The writing style, although probably a good example of the time period, was choppy and repetitive. I found the excessive foul language to be distracting and often unnecessary.

STORY: The story is beautiful. It is the relationship between two men, George and Lennie, an unlikely pair of friends. George takes care of Lennie, who is mentally challenged, as they travel the country looking for work on farms. Their goal… or rather, their dream, is to one day own some land of their own. However, Lennie is continually getting into trouble causing them to have to pick up and move at a moment’s notice, which in turn makes it difficult for them to save up the money for the land they hope to purchase.

CHARACTERS: George is a small, caring man, who looks after Lennie like he is more than just a friend, as if he is a brother. Lennie is a rather large and very strong, mentally challenged man who doesn’t know his own strength. He doesn’t know how to think for himself and as a result relies on George to tell him what to do and how to react to situations. When left to his own devices, Lennie reacts physically and is unable to control himself, hence killing the mice he keeps hidden in his pocket, or the puppy he so desperately wanted to pet. Although, it isn’t until he kills his boss’ wife that George realizes that he has to stop covering for Lennie and make the hard decision of letting him go.

The final scene of the book is heart wrenching, emotionally draining, and sad. It was also predictable, but that didn’t in any way dampen the emotional affect of the scene when reading it.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head.” ~ Of Mice and Men

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/bqh5T4fIBbg

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of mice

MOVIE DETAILS
Title: Of Mice and Men
Director: Gary Sinise
Screenplay Written by: Horton Foote
Stars: John Malkovich (Lennie) and Gary Sinise (George)

 

Check out the official movie trailer here:

https://youtu.be/BQtiStdDaYw

 

Final Girls by Riley Sager

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TITLE: Final Girls
AUTHOR: Riley Sager

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (5)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them and, with that, one another. Despite the media’s attempts, they never meet.

Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.

That is until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit; and Sam, the second Final Girl, appears on Quincy’s doorstep. Blowing through Quincy’s life-like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa’s death come to light, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

THE CRITICAL POINTS:
I don’t usually give a 5 out of 5 review, but this book was exceptional!!!

WARNING… SPOILER ALERT… WARNING… SPOILER ALERT… WARNING

WRITING: Final Girls is the first psychological thriller by Riley Sager, a pseudonym for an author who has previously published under another name. IF YOU KNOW HIS REAL NAME… PLEASE SHARE IT WITH ME!!! I’d love to check out some of his other novels.

Sager’s writing is detailed, descriptive, and draws you in while leaving you on the edge of your seat. Once I started, I couldn’t stop reading… this is one you are not going to want to put down!

STORY: WOW… It has been a very long time since I read a story that completely came full circle and left no plot holes, unanswered questions, or room to doubt the author’s choices. This was a beautifully constructed story with plot twists that leave you amazed.

The thing I loved best about this novel is that it is literally two stories in one… intertwined as if folded into each other. The numbered chapters are present day and the non-numbered chapters, marked with the time in which they related to ‘Pine Cottage’ a pivotal moment in our lead character’s life, are all past events. Sager beautifully merges these two-time periods to allow use to glimpse just enough of the past that we don’t figure out all the secrets the story has in store, until the perfect moment. There are hints and clues along with way, some leading you astray and others foreshadowing the future. I’m not going to lie, I had a ‘Sixth Sense’ moment there at the end wondering why I didn’t see it all along… the reason, because Sager is just that good!

CHARACTERS: Not only were our main characters Quincy, Sam, Coop, and Jeff flushed out to the point that we felt we knew them, even the side characters; Janelle, Craig, Betz, Amy, Rodney, and Lisa all had complete stories and character development.

APPEARANCE: The cover is simple, the back of a woman’s head – I assume it’s Quincy, our lead character, but it could just as easily be Lisa or Sam. The blood read lettering is perfect for the psychological thriller theme and the knife wounds that replace the I’s are perfect and well thought out. Congrats to the cover artist, who obviously understood the feel the author was going for.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“You can’t change what’s happened. The only thing you can control is how you deal with it.”

“Final Girl is film-geek speak for the last woman standing at the end of a horror movie.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/1wCE8omnHAE

Things My Mother Taught Me by Katherine DiSavino

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PLAY TITLE: Things My Mother Taught Me
AUTHOR: Katherine DiSavino

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.75)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Olivia and Gabe are moving into their first apartment together. They’ve just packed up all of their belongings and driven halfway across the country, to start a new life together in Chicago. Their moving day doesn’t go exactly as planned, though, and things become slightly more complicated when all of their parents show up to help! Can a two-bedroom apartment contain all of the love, laughs, worry and wisdom that’s about to happen?

This brand-new comedy from the author of Nana’s Naughty Knickers takes a generational look at relationships, and how sometimes parents are passing their best lessons on to their children without even meaning to. Funny and touching, this one will make you laugh out loud and fall in love all over again.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

The Critical Points:
I don’t usually review plays, but this one just spoke to me! Things My Mother Taught Me has something for everyone! It’s your typical family drama full of unexpected encounters, comical misunderstands, and drama… lots of drama!

WARNING… SPOILER ALERT… WARNING… SPOILER ALERT… WARNING

WRITING: Katherine Disavino, author of Seasonal Allergies and Nana’s Naughty Knickers knocks it out of the park with Things My Mother Taught Me. It is a quick, easy read full of laughs.

STORY: Olivia and Gabe, a 20-something couple move from New York to Chicago… Gabe has hidden an engagement ring in the cushion of his favorite chair, the chair Olivia hates! He has also invited both of their parents to come down for the weekend, so they can share in the excitement of the surprise proposal he is planning. Things don’t go as planned, the moving truck is stolen (along with the $20K ring), and the engagement is cancelled. However, DiSavino doesn’t let it end there… they all live happily ever after when a plastic, cereal box ring gives Gabe hope and Max, the Polish building super, comes to the rescue and saves the day.

CHARACTERS: DiSavino pulls together a beautiful ensemble cast of characters in ‘Things My Mother Taught Me’.

  • OLIVIA KEEGAN – late 20s; energetic; neat; slightly OCD; an architect.
  • KAREN KEEGAN – late 50s-60s; Olivia’s mother.
  • CARTER KEEGAN – 60s; Olivia’s father.
  • GABE LAWSON – late 20s; a writer; good-natured.
  • LYDIA LAWSON – late 50s-60s; Gabe’s mother.
  • WYATT LAWSON – 60s; Gabe’s father.
  • MAX MIROWSKI – late 50s; Polish accent; building super; may be played by a man or woman.

APPEARANCE: The cover is cute, but when it comes to theatre scripts, I prefer a plain colored playbook. I don’t like to be shown a photo of the characters, instead I like to use my own imagination to figure out what they look like.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE:
“Don’t even try that Casanova bull on me. I just peed in front of your mother. The last thing I want right now is a cuddle from the child that came out of her uterus.” ~ Olivia in Things My Mother Taught Me

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video

Check out this short clip from the
Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse production September-November 2013

https://youtu.be/w4ryseOmQKw

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

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GIRL

TITLE: Girl of Nightmares
AUTHOR: Kendare Blake

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4.)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Girl of Nightmares, the acclaimed sequel to Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood.
It’s been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can’t move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live―not walk around half dead. He knows they’re right, but in Cas’s eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he’s seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong…these aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

The Critical Points:
This is the second and final book in the Anna Dressed In Blood series. Last week I talked about Anna Dressed In Blood, and if you saw that review you know I loved that it.

WRITING: Blake’s writing style is very fluid and easy to read. This was a quick read, I think it took me three days to finish. With that said, I did feel like Blake struggled a little with getting through this story, or maybe figuring out where it was supposed to go. It didn’t feel as well planned as the first book did.

STORY: This is a continuation of the story found in Anna Dressed in Blood, and picks up shortly after that book ended. Although I really enjoyed the first book, I have to say I felt a bit let down by this one.

CHARACTERS: Cas, who I loved in the previous book, came across more as a whiney kid in this one. He was always complaining when he didn’t get his way, or focusing on the negative instead of showing the strength and confidence he had in the first book. I also didn’t really care for the new character we meet… the mysterious Jestine who for whatever reason has to save the day. No, I won’t give any spoilers, but I will say this, I don’t like it when authors feel the need to save the female lead with a pop-up male character, well, I don’t like it when a pop-up female character has to jump in and save the male either.

APPEARANCE: Like the cover of Anna Dressed In Blood, this one is also very beautiful, and whimsical. Yet, surrounded by fire is evokes more fear than the previous cover did. The hit of romance is gone and the truth behind the veil of death is revealed. The cover for Girl of Nightmares perfectly portrays the feel I believe Blake was going for when she wrote this story.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“Every time I question him about the feasibility, he smiles at me like he’s Yoda and I’m just a dumbass without the Force.”

“Everyone seems to know more than I do, and being on the shallow end of the information pool is starting to piss me off.”

“It’s true what they say about answers only leading to more questions. There will always be more to find out, more to learn, more to do.”

“…I kiss her, one time, and try to tell her in that single gesture everything that she’ll forget as soon as she turns away. I tell her I love her. I tell her I’ll miss her. And then I let her go.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/mC_9HhI3v0U

Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake

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Would you prefer to watch the video review, instead of reading it? CLICK HEREAnna

TITLE: Anna Dressed In Blood
AUTHOR: Kendare Blake

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.75)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas’s life.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

The Critical Points:
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while now. I’m not really sure why I hadn’t read it before now. I’ve loved the cover since it was given to me but just never felt compelled to read it. I’m so glad that I finally did. A couple weeks ago, I was in the mood for ghost stories, which is why I started reading 20th Century Ghosts. Well, when that one left me feeling less than excited, I decided to pick up Anna Dressed In Blood which promised a ghost dressed in Blood. I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t be let down again.

WRITING: Kendare Blake has a very easy, fluid writing style. Anna Dressed in Blood was a fast read that left very few questions unanswered. It is full of adventure, awkward teens, death, and although it’s not a love story, that’s in there too.

STORY: Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story…
Actually, there is nothing average about this story. It’s a fun coming of age Young Adult story of a teenage ghost hunter who finally finds his tribe.

CHARACTERS: Every character, at least the important ones, are fleshed out to the point where you feel like you know them. Blake has a beautiful way of bringing unlikely friends together and making it feel completely natural. You care for Cas, Thomas, and Carmel and when things don’t go their way, it hurts. Sure, there are some untimely deaths (I won’t tell you who or how), but in a ghost hunting story, there has to be… Don’t worry, she kills the right characters.

APPEARANCE: I wish I knew who designed the cover, but unfortunately it isn’t written on the copywrite page. The cover, which shows Anna standing outside of her Victorian home, is actually foreshadowing what happens in the book. It is beautiful, whimsical, and romantic and perfectly portrays the feel of the story that Blake has created.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE:
I had a hard time coming up with a favorite quote from this one. Let me explain, typically, I find my favorite quote(s) while I’m reading. Something will just hit me and I’ll love it and either highlight it or write it down. But, with Anna Dressed In Blood, I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t think about the fact that I needed to find my favorite quote. I was lost in the world Blake had created. Trust me, that’s a very good thing.

So, I had to go back… thumb through the pages to see if I could find a quote that stood out. Of course, I did.

“Until a few weeks ago, none of this was real.”

It’s a simple little quote, and seemingly means nothing without the context of what was around it. However, I like it because its true for any book of fiction you pick up. None of it is real… yet if it is written well, it feels so real. The characters feel like they have come to life on the pages and it is sad and painful when you have to let them go at the end of the story.

OK, one more favorite quote… just for fun:

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap, I’m a psychiatrist’s wet dream.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/c_CXEXBZheQ

NEXT WEEK’S #FRIDAYREADS SELECTION: GIRL OF NIGHTMARES by KENDARE BLAKE The second (and final) book in the Anna Dressed In Blood series.

GIRL

A Door to Our Minds

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bookTITLE: A Door to Our Minds
AUTHORS: Lilly Brown, Bethany Martin, Jordan E. Lasater, Brenton Porter, and Bearcina

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Stories: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Take a journey through the minds of five young, teenage, aspiring authors with this exciting anthology of short stories. You’ll start in a world not too different from our own, where a group of teens are undergoing a deadly quest to bring peace to their land in The Spark. Then, you’ll meet two curious young adults and follow them as they uncover the mysteries of several unsolved disappearances in The Peculiar Case of Matthias Chase. In There is Love in War, you’ll be thrown into a world full of werewolves, griffons, Gods and Goddesses. Next, you’ll travel back in time to a realm where medieval guardsmen fought with swords and bow and arrow to protect their Emperor from building threats in The Trials of Gebhuza. Finally, you’ll travel light-years away, to the endless depths of space in Years in a Blink, where a raging war on the small planet of Rainmia has forever changed the life of young Artemia and set her on a scientific course and a lifelong journey.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

INSIDE THE COVER:
First let me start by saying that I had my hand in this book as well. Although I am not one of the authors, I did help them through the process. This group of amazing teen authors took their stories from concept to publication, a task that many would love to achieve. I am beyond proud of all five of them and am so honored that I was able to go on this journey with them. It is there first published work and I am looking forward to seeing how the grow as authors from this to the next.

WRITING: I won’t discuss each of the stories or authors separately, but what I will say is that they are developing authors who are learning to express themselves through their unique voices. There is true talent in these pages and I have a feeling this is not the last we will hear from them.

STORIES: This collection contained 5 short stories as you will see below.

The Spark, by Lilly Brown
During the brutal war over the Flame throne, a prophecy was delivered forever changing the lives of Elyse, James, Beth, Dan, and Reese. Even as children they were charged with the responsibilities of being named the Prophecy Warriors. Now, eleven years later, the prophecy has come to bare truth and these noble five must fight to save their country before it is ripped apart at the seams. Not all will survive, but if they can band together long enough to fulfill their birthright then their losses will not be in vain.

The Peculiar Case of Matthias Chase, by Bethany Martin
MATTHIAS CHASE, a small-town Golden Boy, has been missing for three days. With little evidence and no leads, the local detectives are getting nowhere. However, Aiden Altoviti, who recently graduated in Matthias’s class, has become quite invested in the case. With the help of his best friend, Bexley Craig, they uncover some strange details that tie Matthias’ disappearance to cases long in the past.

Unexplainable events continue to happen to Aiden and Bexley, causing them to believe there is so much more to the case than meets the eye. With unknown forces working against them, the teens find fiction and reality blurring together. Aiden and Bexley quickly piece things together, but Matthias’s time is running out. Perhaps Aiden and Bexley can get there in time to save Matthias. However, fate might have other plans for him.

There is Love in War, by Jordan E. Lasater
Have you ever loved someone so desperately but knew in your heart you couldn’t be with them? Love in War is a crazy tale full of werewolves, griffons, Gods, and Goddesses. Two star crossed lovers, Luna and Cyrus, try to make a life together, only to be pulled worlds apart. Surrounded by death and war, their souls get torn apart life after life. Is trying even worth it? After all he is just a boy and she is just a girl. Or are they?

The Trials of Gebhuza, by Brenton Porter
Amerellius and Amy are just two ordinary citizens serving the empire and living a normal life. That all changes when the emperor comes to town. After a failed attempt to take the emperor’s life, the Gebhuza, an elite force, is tasked with protecting the emperor and his empire from any and all threats. The time to put that force to use comes sooner than expected when trouble brews within the kingdom’s borders. Can Amerellius and Amy lead the Gebhuza and save the kingdom from utter desolation or will it fall in flames?

Years in a Blink, by Bearcina
Billions of Lightyears away, something- or someone- may just be screaming out in the endless depth of space, and you just can’t hear it.

A war raged across a lone little planet called Rainmia, and caught in the middle of it was a Betta named Artemia. She yearned for vengeance on a planet to be long forgotten in the eternity of time. Now, the Betta is much older, with her own laboratory that hosts the Universe’s best technology and brightest minds. Princess Persephone happens to get caught up in this mess right alongside Artemia.

Just remember, no one can hear you scream.

CHARACTERS: Again, not going to dive into each of the stories, but considering these are all short stories, I believe the authors did a beautiful job of giving us back story and just enough character development to care.

APPEARANCE: The cover, which was designed by Contagious Covers, is beautiful, whimsical, and draws you in before you even turn it over to read the back. Within the pages of the anthology, each story has its own cover as well. These interior story covers were created by Amanda Orneck with input from the authors themselves. I believe she did a wonderful job capturing the feel of each story.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“You’ve proven you can beat is alone, but we were trained to fight together. How can you stand against two of us?” ~ Reese in The Spark

“Yeah, I’m great. I absolutely love getting thrown against trees, this is the highlight of my day.” ~ Bexley in The Peculiar Case of Matthias Chase

“That’s very generous of you, but I’m giving you one last chance to hand her over – and I promise to make it quick when I kill all of your men.” ~ Princess Luna in There is Love in War

“If there is any more knocking, the door might just break.” ~ Amerellius in Trials of Gebhuza

“Panther, listen, that’s not going to reverse the sulfuric poisoning. I don’t care what kinds of miracle medicine she so called, needs; she can’t wake up, or she’ll die.” ~ Riddley in Years in a Blink

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/cc3MZW5uuM0

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

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20th cen.TITLE: 20th Century Ghosts
AUTHOR: Joe Hill

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★
Story: ★★★
Characters: ★★★
Appearance: ★★★
Overall: ★★★ (3)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this award-winning collection of short fiction.

Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .

Francis was human once, but now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .

John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of ’77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .

The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. . . .

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

THE CRITICAL POINTS
I’ll be honest, when I started reading this short story anthology, I had a hard time getting into it. Many of the stories were more science fiction or horror rather than what I typically consider a ghost story.

WRITING: Hill is a powerful writer, there is no denying it, with an active imagination. His visuals are often spot on in a very disturbing way.

STORY: This collection contained 15 short stories… I’m not going to lie, I didn’t enjoy them all. There was very little character development and the formatting from story to story was not consistent. So, I will take the time to focus on the few that I did enjoy.

20th Century Ghost
The Rosebud Theatre is an old-style movie palace, haunted by the semi-legendary spirit of a young woman. The girl died during a screening of The Wizard of Oz, appears infrequently throughout the Twentieth Century, and occasionally starts conversations with a select few moviegoers. The story is told by Alec Sheldon, the theatre owner, who worries about his approaching mortality and what will happen to the Rosebud after he retires.

  • My Thoughts: The ending was way to abrupt, and not at all where I felt the story was going or should have gone. However, I enjoyed the journey. I wanted more of the young girl, but was given less of the “ghost” and more of the old man running the theatre.

The Black Phone
Thirteen-year-old John Finney is kidnapped by a man named Al. Trapped in a basement room, the boy’s only hope may lie in a mysterious disconnected black phone hanging on the basement wall. The phone rings at night with the whispers of the kidnapper’s previous (and now dead) victims.

  • My Thoughts: As a mom, this story is my worst fear. The fear of one of my children being abducted is something I have had nightmares about since becoming pregnant with my first child. Hill captures the emotion of the experience perfectly, makes you feel, smell, even taste was is happening to the young boy. It killed me not to be able to reach into the book and protect him. I wont give away the ending, but it was one of the few stories where I felt somewhat satisfied as a reader… although, not completely.

Last Breath
The story concerns Dr. Allinger, an old man who runs a “Museum of Silence” which contains the last breaths of various people, some being famous figures such as Edgar Allan Poe.

  • My Thoughts: This is a simple story with a hint of a creepiness factor, but nothing solid to point to. The characters are simple, and relatable. It is one of the shorter stories in the collection, but it makes you wonder about life and death in a way that none of the other stories do.

CHARACTERS: Again, not a lot of character development. Although there were characters throughout the collection that I enjoyed and rooted for, there wasn’t one in every story. Hill’s writing didn’t make me love the characters. In fact, more often than not, I despised the characters or feared the fact that somewhere out in the world there were people really like them. With that said, I think Hill accomplished exactly what he was setting out to do.

APPEARANCE: The cover portrays bugs, which won’t make sense until you read You Will Hear the Locust Sing. I have to say; this story was one of my least favorites. Probably because it was, in a word, gross.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“You get an astronaut’s life whether you want it or not. Leave it all behind for a world you know nothing about. That’s just the deal.” ~ Art in POP ART

“Wait. There are all different kinds of silence. The silence in a seashell. The silence after a gunshot. His last breath is still in there. Your ears need time to acclimate. In a while you’ll be able to make it out. His own particular final silence.” ~ Alinger in LAST BREATH

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/SaTYamD44dw

ELEVATION by Stephen King

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elevation

TITLE: Elevation
AUTHOR: Stephen King

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The latest from legendary master storyteller Stephen King, a riveting, extraordinarily eerie, and moving story about a man whose mysterious affliction brings a small town together—a timely, upbeat tale about finding common ground despite deep-rooted differences.

Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis.

In the small town of Castle Rock, the setting of many of King’s most iconic stories, Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face–including his own—he tries to help. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.

From Stephen King, our “most precious renewable resource, like Shakespeare in the malleability of his work” (The Guardian), Elevation is an antidote to our divisive culture, as gloriously joyful (with a twinge of deep sadness) as “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

THE CRITICAL POINTS
The cover says ‘ELEVATION a novel” but it really isn’t a novel. At only 146 pages, small pages at that, I’m guessing ELEVATION can’t be 50,000 words. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d say it’s probably a novella. I read one review that called it a short story, and for Stephen King it is, but in reality its more than that.

WRITING: It’s Stephen King, so the writing is spot on.

STORY: Elevation takes ordinary people and puts them in an impossible situation. So basically, its your typical King story. I loved that there were two main stories going on here, the first being the communities lack of acceptance of the new lesbian couple that moved to town, and the second being Scott Carey’s inexplainable weight loss. At first glance it doesn’t seem that these two stories make sense together, but in the end everything comes together.

There wasn’t a lot of backstory. We don’t find out what brought Missy and Deirdre to town other than the affordable restaurant space. We don’t find out what causes Scott’s drastic weight loss. We don’t even find out what happens after everything comes to a head and he loses those final pounds, not really anyway. What we do find out, and the message behind this story, is how a single act of kindness can change everything. I won’t go into more details, if you want to know what I mean… read the book.

CHARACTERS: There are four main characters, with a few smaller characters sprinkled throughout. Again, not a lot of backstory and even less character development. Yet, somehow, it works for this book. As readers, we come into the lives of these characters for only a brief moment. We are the proverbial fly on the wall. It’s a very voyeuristic reading experience and at times you feel guilty for watching, but by the end you care for the characters you know so little about and, if you’re like me, you just might cry.

APPEARANCE: The cover is beautiful, but you won’t understand it until the end.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“Not a wind, not even a high, exactly, but an elevation. A sense that you had gone beyond yourself and could go farther still.”

“Gravity is the anchor that pulls us down into our graves.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/ciWORKbC3O4