pulp_fiction_books's reviews
493 reviews

Night of the Living Mummy by R.L. Stine

3.5

I have to say this is an extremely original goosebumps book, from getting split timelines to the actual premise itself. These factors are things we rarely if ever have come across in the franchise. There were also a couple of dark scenes I really enjoyed. Unfortunately the villain reveal here is extremely telegraphed. It's the exact same mechanism stine has used before in a series 2000 goosebumps book and I think it's a perfectly good idea but then as well as now he does it in such a clunky and obvious way. This book definitely isn't bad and holds up the strong start to the 'House Of Shivers' series but it's probably the weakest entry so far.

The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a mystery, a romance and a comedy and it's absolutely triumphant in all three areas. This book is wonderful and wonderfully zany, truly the funniest thing I've ever read and if you are aware of who Bob Mortimer is that will come as no surprise. Aside from that though there is also so much heart and innocence throughout. The mystery aspect is quite straightforward but I feel like every book doesn't have to have twist after twist and a host of revelations. My only reservation I'd have about recommending this would be I really don't know if this type of humour and wit would translate outside of the UK (that being said it was published in the US under the title 'The Clementine Complex').

Lights Out by R.L. Stine

fast-paced

3.0

I have to say I felt quite sorry for Holly (our protagonist) as she seems to get abused from everyone constantly in here despite the fact she doesn't ever do anything wrong. This felt very similar to the 'Point Horror' book Camp Fear by Carol Ellis except this felt like it had actual stakes.

Fright At Midnight by Jennifer Dahms

3.5

I was very graciously gifted a copy of this book in return for an honest review. This is a collection of short stories and poems and I found them to be quite creepy and even unsettling. They also for the most part felt very original. There are also illustrations throughout which, while having a cartoonish style I could also see being nightmare fuel for some. I did notice that this could have done with some editing or proofreading as there are a number of spelling and grammatical errors but I never tend to hold that against self published works.

Monstrous Trapped in the Horror Dome by Matt McMann

5.0

I absolutely loved the setting in this book. We're in a massive dome with different biomes, fog desert, rain forest, swamp, ocean and arctic tundra (this is probably a niche reference but it reminded me so much of a place in England called The Eden Project that is basically the same thing and is one of my favourite places I've ever been). We get to explore all of them along the way, all the while there's a creature stalking our protagonists, so much so that certain scenes in here gave me Predator or Alien vibes. There's also another threat here to our main characters that is on a much more sinister level. This book was fantastic and something the author always does so well is diversity and character growth which is something I always appreciate. The only minor niggle I have is that I wish we could have spent more time lost in some of the biomes but all in all this was a great ride.

Crawlers by Sam Enthoven

medium-paced

5.0

This is a creature feature which has the feel of a zombie apocalypse tale. The entire book is told over one night and is entirely contained within a theatre giving it a great locked room/trapped, claustrophobic vibe. The creature in here is known as "The Queen" and she along with her hoard of titular crawlers were very fun and unique. Something I really enjoyed is randomly throughout we jump into her consciousness and get to view scenes from her narrative. Our group of protagonists were also very engaging, felt relatively fleshed out and were cause for some interesting dynamics within the group. This was a much more entertaining read than I could have anticipated and definitely look forward to seeking out more of the author's work in the future.

Back to School by Betsy Haynes

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.0

I decided to read this because it's that time of year, summer's coming to an end and everyone is starting to return to school (my daughter went back today). From the outset we know who our antagonist is going to be and with that its obvious as to the kind of gross food based scenes we're going to encounter but what I wasn't expecting was the arc our protagonist would go on and what our villains ultimate end goal was going to be. This goes from gross out to scary body horror. My only issue was the resolution and method the characters used to defeat their foe, it felt rather weak although it was foreshadowed earlier in the story so I gotta give it points for that.

The Lost Jewels of Nabooti by R.A. Montgomery

3.0

Broken Date by R.L. Stine

fast-paced

2.25

This book angered me almost from the outset. We immediately get our point of tension that we'll be dealing with throughout the book and straight away I knew we were going to get a ridiculous reveal. We then spend the rest of the book plodding through silly filler and miscommunication until we get to low and behold the womp womp absolute dud of a reveal. I will say however after that point, the last ten percent of this book when we're with our villains of the piece is very fun and wacky, they're two deranged, off the wall characters and It's a shame we didn't get to spend a larger portion of the story with them.

Superstitious by R.L. Stine

3.5

So, I'm not a superstitious person at all but I have to say I did enjoy reading all the folklore and superstitions in here, it really seems like Stine did his homework and it pays off. This is essentially a slasher and with that we get a high body count and some great gory imagery. We follow our main protagonist Sara and intermediately throughout we get chapters from the pov of lead detective on the case Garrett Montgomery. If you're a fan of R.L Stine you'll recognise a lot of his signature writing traits in here, there's also some good innovation, for example there's a chapter early on describing our lead detective arriving at a crime scene and it could have been a standard scene in a book but Stine uses a very clever writing mechanism to really engage you and place you into the protagonist psyche.