* House *
Frank Peretti’s House
I started reading this book over a year ago, put it down and neglected to pick up where i left off – for the bland reason that I was… Too Busy. Well, lo and behold I saw a trailer for this book and lookie there, It’s back in my hand again!
The back of the book says it all: 7 players, 3 rules, 1 game.
This was quite a thrilling read and despite the usual lack of gore, cussing, and fighting that usually fills the books I read, this was mostly void of all that, but was amazing just the same.
It’s about a group of four people who stumble into an amazing yet odd house that they perceive to be a place to stay for the night. In no time at all, do they discover that this is no home sweet home but a maze of confusion, sadness, disaster, and terror.
This book kept me on the edge of my seat with curiosity and thrill at the turn of every page.
Yeah, I’m going to see the movie when it comes out, but it’ll still be fantastic even though I’ll already know what happens before it does.
This book left me completely breathless! Whew!
Excerpts:
Pg. 13- ‘Inbreds?’… ‘Backwoods rednecks. … No understanding of any law but their own. Evil folk. Type who haven’t discovered the toothbrush, much less the law. ‘
Pg. 48- ‘Jack looked closely at the roast beef on his plate and felt sick. Tiny white worms were squirming, writing, tunneling through the meat. … “Looks like we took too long to eat” .’
Pg. 98- ‘If all good things came to those who waited, and he was waiting for evil to work its magic, did that make evil good? If he was waiting for the hour of the killing, did that make killing good? ‘
Pg. 167- ‘A thin tendril of smoke drifted from the corner of his twisted, parted lips. A dark fog. Black smoke. ‘
Pg. 268- ‘It was a face from the grave, half of it bared to the bone. White’s jaws snapped wide, as wide as the mask itself, and he roared at them. ‘
Pg. 305- ‘…this tall, well-muscled man with cropped blond hair, head tilted down, black fog pouring from a cut in his forehead, eyes black. ‘
* The Lost *
Jack Ketchum’s The Lost
I picked this book and right on the front cover there’s a sticker proclaiming ‘Now A Major Motion Picture’…has to be a winner of a book right? Well….not really. I was grasping at any action and storyline I could and was becoming quite disappointed in the lack of a take off. I was about to put it down until I got about 3/4 of the way through then! It all took off with a gun shot at the top of a hill, FINALLY!?
Then I decided this isn’t so bad after all.
Ray is a guy with a dirty secret that only his closest friends know and a cop is desperately trying to prove. All of Ray’s friends and girlfriend think he’s okay now, until one day he goes off like a time bomb. The book leaves you splattered in blood, tears, and rage as you fight to read faster to make it to the resolution. I finished it last night while in the movie theatre waiting for my movie to start…it had me hook,line, and sinker-I had to finish it! (dun, dunn, dunnn!)
Excerpts:
Pg. 43- ‘…as the door closed behind him he thought that he’d probably interrupted them fucking, or drunk as they were, trying to fuck and that it probably wasn’t a bad idea on a night like she was having to be fucking or trying to fuck, that it was a flesh on flesh at least and that was something.’
Pg. 314- ‘…he brought up the .38 and fired directly into her right eye from just inches away, driving her exploded head into Sally Richmond’s lap and her blood and brains all over her sitting with her chocolate shake and she immediately began screaming…’
Pg. 321- ‘ She did as he said, the two of them curled up plaing spoons in his trunk. He had to smile. It was a tight fit. Kind of like boots were a tight fit when you first bought them but then you broke them in. … He was breaking them in. ‘
Pg. 347- ‘ He was looking at her handcuffs like he’d seen them for the first time and thought that maybe the cuffs were going to jump off her wrists and bite him. ‘
Pg. 358- ‘Her eyes were shut against the stead flow of tears and she was shaking with hysteria and her dands were red with blood nearly to the elbow. She kept rocking him. Holding on to the ruined head. Holding him in. ‘
Pg. 361- ‘In the silence she heard two women cry out, a disconnected two part harmony. One of the voices was hers. ‘
* Faces Of Fear *
John Saul’s Faces of Fear
Plastic surgery is intimidating right?…or maybe a bit of fun? Well, well, well, certainly not after you read this one!
They (Alison, Rissa, and Conrad) seem to have it all…money, looks, and a step-dad/husband with charm, wits, and the references…did i mention lots and lotsah money! It looks appealing on the outside as well as on the inside and appears that all is perfect.
But then things turn out to be too good to be true.
Every dilemma, death, heartbreak, and reconstruction (and destruction) fit so perfectly into one another. Without one of these pieces this story just wouldn’t be whole.
…but the people in the story would be.
The devastation of required body parts are ripped off particular victims, who are very carefully chosen and then held securely for later reconstruction. Technology proves to work against humanity instead of working for it.
This book is a hell of a ride. Fasten your seatbelt!-it’s gonna be a fast and bumpy one!!
Best part is the original name for the killer: The Frankenstein Killer. How unique!
John Saul is suburb and never disappoints or dulls his readers, ever!
Excerpts:
Pg. 42- ‘Conrad felt the blood drain from his face. He knew. Oh God, he knew.’
Pg. 48- ‘As her tears flowed, she thought she could actually hear her heart breaking.’
Pg. 271- ‘Smarter than you, she wanted to whisper. I always was, and I always will be.’
* Night Life *
Ray Garton’s Night Life
I just read a jaw-dropping, on the edge-of-your-seat book!—and!—it centered around vampires. Now, I’ve never been the type to read about things not of reality but the first of these two books piqued my interest and I could not pass up number two aka: Night Life.
A very wealthy man hires two unknowing souls to investigate the existence of vampires. Turns out his hunch is right but it puts many lives at jeopardy. Not only the human lives but the ‘good’ vampires’ lives as well.
The Brutals (the ruthless vampires) seek out their revenge on anyone who attempts to bring their secret to life and they also thrive on revenge. Since Davey blew up ‘Live Girls’ (the place where the vampires quenched their thirsts and multiplied their kind) he is under constant scrutiny.
This turns into an all out battle of good vampire vs bad vampire. And through all the blood, decay, rotting stench, and fangs-there’s also room for empathy.
Quite an amazing feat!…for vampire book.
Excerpts:
Pg. 95- ‘Davey closed thumb and finger on his upper lip and pulled it back. There was a small lump in the gum above each canine, with a tiny hole through which the fangs extended ad retracted. Davey opened his mouth wide again and the fangs came out of the small lumps, then disappeared in them again. ‘
Pg. 95- ‘She took the knife from beside her plate in her right hand, and slashed the blade across her left palm. … much, the cut closed up and the skin stitched itself back together, until there wasn’t so much as a faint scar remaining.’
Pg. 138- ‘“Can I get you a beer? Some blood?” … he was feeling the nagging pangs of hunger that were especially strong at night. He asked for a bottle of blood, which she got from the refrigerator.’
Pg. 207- ‘He once tried to convince himself that mortals and vampires could live together peacefully. That was a fantasy.’
Pg. 211- ‘…in that moment, his face changed-it grew hair, his bow became more pronounced, his eyes became blood red except for a pinpoint of black in the center of each, his ears sprouted hair and became pointed, and his nose flattened and turned black on top of a snout filled with fangs.’
Pg. 219- ‘Davey heard a strange sound, and quickly realized it was coming from him, a sound deep in his throat, which grew louder, until he was growling, and louder, until he was shouting. He did not form words, he simply cried out in a broken voice as he dropped to his knees. Then Davey lost control.’
* Infernal Angel *
Edward Lee’s Infernal Angel
This book caught my eye…for unconventional, demented reasons. It was the cover that caught me… It’s the anorexic, winged person-thing, with a mass of burning fumes, smoke, and glow behind it as it levitates in space due to its weathered wings. Well, that and the fact I’ve read one other of Lee’s books and enjoyed it immensely J
It starts off by grabbing its reader by the throat and pulling them down while forcing them to stare straight at the mayhem, filth, and mutilation. (This guy’s got an imagination to boot!) After some time, you will become accustomed to the way of living in Mephistopolis aka: Hell. Evidently Lucifer stole the blueprints for Heaven from God, Ol’ L borrowed earth’s ideas for a way-of-life as well, all while twisting them to Hell’s deviant standards and punishments.
There’s too many twists and turns and side stories to expand upon here, … plus it would give too much away. Basically, Cassie is an Etheress who can travel to Hell and back when she pleases but the only problem is that the Deadpass to and fro has been destroyed and she can’t find another one because she’s been put into an asylum. Luckily, Angelese is there to help her. She is Cassie’s guardian angel…of sorts.
So, if you can stomach carnage, bloodbaths, human brutality, unearthly tats, mutilated creatures who roam about as if life’s perfectly normal, and stand to lose characters who you come to care about and get interested in (because they die so rapidly, it’s difficult to keep track of the fictional body count) – Then You Must Read This!
Enjoy… }: -|}
Excerpts:
Pg. 152- ‘Angels are stronger than humans, … When we feel pleasure, it’s ten times greater than what you’d feel. Same goes for pain too’… ‘ She pulled the hem of her gown up to her knees. The angel was a mural of varying degrees of wounds. Some were lines full of clotted blood, others like heavy tracks of flesh-colored wax…’
Pg. 176- ‘They all work for me. They’ll write till they die.’…’At that, one girl on the end flopped over onto the floor, her tongue out, eyes opened staring at nothing. That’s when Walter noticed several other dead girls who’d been shoved out of the way under the tables.’
Pg. 198- ‘…when Cassie thought, inside-out…suddenly its (the last Griffin) body inverted, organs hanging off its exterior, its small brain smeared like pudding around the prolapsed skull. Everyting that was inside now hung outside. It shuddered uselessly.’
Pg. 261- ‘A gnarled black tree twisted over their heads, and from a stout branch hung another woman by a noose around her neck. Her bare legs kicked in the air while her hands fisted around the noose. Eternity, … She’ll by like that for eternity…’
Pg. 265- ‘Now that it stood up, she discerned its true function. The two “rocks” from which her mother’s head jutted were actually the thing’s buttocks. The Teratologists at the Office of Transfiguration surgically implanted your mother’s Spirit body into its bowel. She is now part of its digestive system. Her mouth serves as its anus.’
