Stacking The Shelves

All month long I've been adding books to the Halloween festivity countdown to Halloween with haunted, horror/thriller stories. I found that horror books aren't 'as scary' as horror movies but in general books are a lot better aren't they? I think so.

Here are some of the books I've gathered so far....

In hardcover and/or softcover

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Excellent story!
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill pronounced nosferatu. For those who have yet to read it.this book is sooo good
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. I just finished this one and I'm glad I bought it cause it rocks!
Salem's Lot by Stephen King

For my kindle

The Gingerbread Man by Maggie Shayne
A Shade of Blood by Bella Forrest
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

I won a goodreads giveaway for Hidden Dragons by Emma Holly and a $10 amazon gift card from Fraterfest. I also received The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Marie Landry for hosting a book cover reveal .

Happy Hauntings everybody!

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme
hosted by Tynga’s Reviews,
it’s all about sharing the books you are
adding to your shelves,
may it be physical or virtual.
This means you can include books
you buy in physical store or online,
books you borrow from friends or the library,
review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

The Golem and the Jinni

An immigrant tale that combines elements of Jewish and Arab folk mythology, The Golem and the Jinni tells the story of two supernatural creatures who arrive separately in New York in 1899. One is a golem, created out of clay to be her master’s wife—but he dies at sea, leaving her disoriented and overwhelmed as their ship arrives in New York Harbor. The other is a jinni, a being of fire, trapped for a thousand years in a copper flask before a tinsmith in Manhattan’s Little Syria releases him. Each unknown to the other, the Golem and the Jinni explore the strange and altogether human city. Chava, as a kind old rabbi names her, is beset by the desires and wishes of others, which she can feel tugging at her. Ahmad, christened by the tinsmith who makes him his apprentice, is aggravated by human dullness. Both must work to create places for themselves in this new world, and develop tentative relationships with the people who surround them. And then, one cold and windy night, their paths happen to meet.

 My Thoughts 

The books cover is what attracted me and the title intrigued me to want to read it. I love to read about supernatural creatures but I'd never read a book like this before. I thought what made it interesting were the Jewish and Arab elements but it lacked dialogue.

It took me near a week to finish it since most times I fell asleep while listening to it. I missed a few chapters. At first the story was captivating and I wanted to know what happens to the Golem but as the story progressed it kinda got boring and it sidewinded too much. I didn't care for the Jinni's past with Fadwa al-Hadid [missed a lot of it] I think because I felt nothing for the characters. I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to . It's sad. I also didn't enjoy how it ends.

Religion is a touchy subject area and unless you have a good understanding it's hard to please everyone. I don't know about what muslims believe a Jinn to be but I was under the impression that Jinns were evil. In this story I'm not so sure what to think about the Jinni. He didn't appear to be all that 'evil' to me even though the author infers him to be made of fire, dark, and fallen. He was selfish too, but Boutros Arbeely was worse imo and just irritating. Oh well. Nobody's perfect. I would've thought the Jinni as an evil monster instead of a moral character between the lines of good and evil. In the end Yehudah Schaalman, who created the Golem is the ultimate evil one. I suppose for who he was, he deserved it. coward.

About the Author

Helene Wecker grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, a small town north of Chicago, and received her Bachelor’s in English from Carleton College in Minnesota. After graduating, she worked a number of marketing and communications jobs in Minneapolis and Seattle before deciding to return to her first love, fiction writing. Accordingly, she moved to New York to pursue a Master’s in fiction at Columbia University. She now lives near San Francisco with her husband and daughter. Her first novel, THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI, will be published in April 2013 by HarperCollins. Visit her website

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book is a novel about a baby raised in a graveyard by the dead. Nobody Owens' entire family is murdered in the middle of the night when he is only eighteen months old. Nobody escapes by wandering into an old graveyard and is adopted by a couple buried there for more than a hundred years. As Nobody grows up, he learns all there is to know about being dead and haunting the living, but must continue to hide in the safety of the graveyard until the man who wanted him and his family dead is found. The Graveyard Book is a story of an unusual child and his unusual childhood, one that starts out to frighten but ends up enlightening the unsuspecting reader.

Watch Neil Gaiman read the Graveyard Book in it's entirety.

About the Author

Neil Gaiman is the author of nationally bestselling children’s books, graphic novels, and novels and story collections for adults. He has also written the scripts for movies, including MirrorMask and Beowulf. Among his many awards are the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. Please visit him online at www.mousecircus.com.

The Deathly Hallows

There are three objects that make up the Hallows: The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. The legend is that whoever possesses these three objects masters death.

The Elder Wand is a wand that has had a bloody past and many stories follow it. It is the most powerful wand in existence and unbreakable.

The Resurrection Stone can bring the dead back. They do not come back fully, though. They are described as being more than a ghost, yet less than a person. The Invisibility Cloak is Harry's cloak. It is flawless and does not wear or tear.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and last in the Harry Potter series. This novel follows Harry Potter and his two closest friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger on their quest to destroy the evil Lord Voldemort.

During the first six books, Harry and his friends have gathered knowledge of magic in their years at Hogwarts, the school for wizards. Now they are in their last year at Hogwarts and are not planning on returning. They are opting, instead, to go in search of the Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort. Horcruxes each contain some power of Voldemort, and the three believe that by finding and destroying these, they will be able to destroy Voldemort. 

During this novel, Voldemort takes over the Ministry of Magic and begins his returned reign over the magical world. Evil prisoners of Azkaban, the prison for wizards, are released and replaced by those who resist Voldemort, and those who aren't pure bloods (not both parents are known wizards). Death Eaters, or followers of Voldemort are given power to do as they wish. Muggles, or those who are not wizards, are tortured and killed for the fun of it, and those who interfere are punished. People are confounded (have their minds magically controlled) into performing the will of the Death Eaters. Dementors, evil creatures typically used only to guard prisoners, are allowed into everyday areas of civilization. Life in general is depressing and scary.

Harry Potter and his friends, Hermione and Ron, end up in hiding during most of their quest. Because Voldemort is aware that Harry has a certain power when facing him that no other has, Voldemort is threatened by Harry and has made Harry the number one undesirable, or the most wanted person. Voldemort also learns of the Elder Wand, which is the most powerful wand in existence. He goes in search of this powerful wand in order to ensure victory against Harry in their next encounter.

Harry faces many obstacles in his quest. He loses his broom during his first encounter with Death Eaters and Voldemort. During his second encounter with Voldemort, Hermione breaks Harry's wand. He and his friends face the challenge of finding all the Horcurxes and finding a way of destroying those Horcurxes.

Harry has a tie with Voldemort that is unique only to him. He is the "boy who lived," the only one to ever survive the killing curse, sent from Voldemort, which happened when he was an infant. It is later revealed to Harry by Dumbledore that when Voldemort cast the spell to kill Harry, it backfired, and they have a part of each other within themselves. This is why Harry can hear Voldemort's thoughts. Dumbledore reveals that the only way for Voldemort to die is for all the horcuxes to be destroyed, and then for Harry to be destroyed by Voldemort. Although Harry follows this advice, he does not die. He and his friends destroy all the horcuxes, and then he and Voldemort duel.

Voldemort has obtained the Elder Wand, but does not fully understand the art of wands. A wand chooses its master, and when its master is overpowered, it changes its alliance. Although Voldemort possesses the Elder Wand, due to a previous chain of events, Harry is master of the Elder Wand. In the end, when Voldemort casts the spell to kill Harry, the spell rebounds and kills Voldemort instead.

SamHain The God of Halloween

'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself

breathes out

Contagion to this world.

- William Shakespeare

Legends are but truths whispered.

- Tlachtga, Druid priestess

Gods of The Nowhere

A Novel of Halloween by James Tipper

Cover Art by John Pelico

The ancient Celts believed that the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest on Halloween; it was then that the dead could get through. But could it work the other way? Could we go to them? High school senior Sam McGrath is convinced it can be done. For as long as he can remember, The Nowhere has been beckoning him, reaching out with cold and ancient fingers. Crippled from a childhood injury, Sam has always been different, but he knows now that his differences go far beyond the physical. Only his best friend since childhood – a brash and beautiful Latina named Lucia – knows of his strange gifts, and she has vowed to help Sam. Together they intend to find the world where their nightmares are born. GODS OF THE NOWHERE: A NOVEL OF HALLOWEEN blends modern characters with legend and folklore to create a new myth. It’s a spine-chilling adventure and the ultimate Halloween read.

This book truly is the ultimate halloween read! If you read it on kindle, I suggest you choose the publisher font to enhance your reading experience. It's gothic and beautiful.

Simon Magus is an evil druid and false prophet who killed Sam's parents when he was little but fails to kill the child. Father Doc, a rad Catholic priest, takes legal guardianship of the boy and vows to keep him safe and protected, but he knows things about him that Sam doesn't, until on the night of his 18th birthday...... a neighbour had spotted a car parked in front of Sam's house. It wasn't just a normal car but a Roll's Royce hearse. The car was a bad omen. The plates read: SAMZDED and it was going to kill Father Doc too. 

Lucia is Sam's best friend who lived across the street. Sam has always seen things like 'a lady in glass', a 'crackling' in his head that smelled like fire and smoke, a 'stalking cat' and 'bird' and other inexplicable phenomena but he doesn't know what or who they are. Sam and Lucia believe the visions will only get worse if they don't listen to the clues, and are led to an empty tomb on Halloween night.

Facing the inevitable they find themselves in a place beyond the living called Nowhere. There they face unspeakable horrors and meet a dead phantom called Lore, a foul pumpkin called Jack'O'Lantern, a tiny witch called Hex, a Templar Knight, Jacques de Molay, who I found very interesting, and vampire leeches that want to eat them. Vampires are called Leeches who don't drink blood for obvious reasons because there is no living blood to drink there, but they subsist on the promise of immortality and a herb called nightshade that is only grown in the soil of Hell. Eventually Sam comes to know the lady in the glass also known as Clara or Tlachtga who appears in the Epilogue. She is the druid goddess who needs Sam's help. Her father is Mog Ruith. Everyone in the Nowhere knew who Sam was but Sam. He was the last to learn the truth about himself and about Halloween .

He is SamHain the God of Halloween. 

About the Author

James Tipper is a native of the San Francisco Bay area, and currently lives in West Hollywood, California. Aside from his work as a novelist, he is also a nationally published journalist and songwriter. James is also legally blind.

The Website of James Tipper

Booster and Reeves: The Night of the Revenants

credits

I dare say ole chap, this tale is most peculiar.
Brodie Booster had a brogue accent and wasn't very smart. He concerned himself mostly on 'hedonic matters' like electronic games and lived with a manservant called Reeves. On a night filled with zombies Brodie's Aunt came to tell him something that was important but she had died two weeks ago! She began explaining how a maid of hers had stolen a book of magic spells and thought she had something to do with the zombie attack....
Turns out, it was a Witch who let loose the dead/revenant/zombies and was caught in her own spell and needed some help.

The novella had a lot of dialogue which made it all the more alluring.

“Very good, sir. As I began to say, both the Calvary and Green-Wood Cemeteries have filled with what appear to be the reanimated corpses of the deceased. At this point, they have managed to overspill the fences and are—” I interrupted him. “Hold it, old boy! You’re saying that the graveyards are filling with what now?” “The living dead, sir.”

Booster and Reeves: The Night of the Revenants

I say, all is not gas and gaiters in the old metrop. Young Broderick Booster - that would be Brodie to his friends, mind you - is sitting down for a nice evening of video games and vodka when in ankles his manservant Reeves to spout a lot of rot about the shuffling undead and the end of the world. It's a dashed bother, dealing with all these brain-munching revenants, what?

After a visit from his dead Aunt Gertie, a quick trip to a hardware store, and a harrowing trek across town, Booster and Reeves confront the source of the confounded nuisance and try to put a stop to the bebothersome zombies once and for all. Perhaps they even meet a new friend along the way, though I wouldn't bally well count on it. Not everyone is all that friendly, after all.

Amazon Kindle

Monsters Made by ABVH

madebyabvh
"Death isn’t cruel – merely terribly, terribly good at his job."

Source: madebyabvh