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trevert's reviews
295 reviews
From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
5.0
A short story collection with an over-arching narrative, it's the perfect read for Halloween season.
The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones
5.0
This was terrific. I read a lot of horror and suspense books, but this one stood out with an original concept and one of the freakiest villains and most paranoia-inducing setups I've encountered. In a nutshell, one woman's family is stalked through the centuries by an insane killer who happens to be from a race of old world shapeshifters. He has the ability to become anyone and replicate them exactly, so the descendants of our victims have had to develop an elaborate system of verifications and counter-verifications to apply to everyone around them, to be sure their stalker hasn't slipped quietly into their lives in the guise of friend or family.
Got to give this one five stars, which I don't do often. It's hard to classify by genre, as it mixes elements of suspense, mystery, fantasy, horror, and even romance. A very gripping novel, well told.
Got to give this one five stars, which I don't do often. It's hard to classify by genre, as it mixes elements of suspense, mystery, fantasy, horror, and even romance. A very gripping novel, well told.
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Did not finish. Too much of the usual "Sassy heroine obsessed with clothes and shoes who hunts monsters and snarks constantly." It was not badly written but came off like such a generic and uninteresting Buffy clone that I just lost interest about 30% of the way in. I'm not the target audience, though, so YMMV.
The Forever Watch by David B. Ramirez
2.0
*Sigh*. Another DNF. However, I actually listened to the audiobook right up to part 30 of the 34 chapters, so I feel like I got a pretty good feel for the book even though I didn't finish. When I finally bailed, I'd realized that I was not actually following the story anymore, but was simply doing other things with it running as background noise while waiting for it to be over, because I was that uninvolved with it. The writer is an excellent world-builder. He also does terrific plots. The story was complex, interesting, and had some nice twists. However, the characters were so flat and uninteresting that I never connected with anyone in the book, and when I realized that at chapter 30 or 34, I *still* did not care what happened to these cardboard people, I bailed.
You know those 600 page books that are 30 pages of story and 570 pages of the main character navel-gazing and dithering over obvious choices to make? This was the mirror opposite of that.
You know those 600 page books that are 30 pages of story and 570 pages of the main character navel-gazing and dithering over obvious choices to make? This was the mirror opposite of that.
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
4.0
My full review:
http://kentuckyfriedpopcorn.blogspot.com/2012/04/summer-of-night.html
http://kentuckyfriedpopcorn.blogspot.com/2012/04/summer-of-night.html
The Light at the End by Craig Spector, John Skipp
4.0
This was terrific. Kicked ass. Very gusty, realistic, raw sort of writing that reminded me a bit of [a:Teresa Hawk|6950494|Teresa Hawk|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1405151244p2/6950494.jpg]. An ancient vampire, passing through New York, vamps some random victims on the subway, one of whom is a skeezy wannabe punk/goth who enjoys his newfound status as an undead killing machine *way* too much. The entire book is him versus our heroes, a classic pack of 80's D&D-playing 20-somethings who call on every Lost Boys trick in the book to take on the growing tide of monsters. Total fun from start to finish.
Seize the Night by Dean Koontz
4.0
Just reread this one. Still loads of fun - and quite similar to Phantasm in "feel" if not in the details. The plot is lunatic but the characters are likable and feel real, and are fun to hang out with.
Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson
3.0
Solidly entertaining. Not particularly outstanding in any way, but grabs you and holds on and you never get bored. It also does a good job of balancing the challenges of writing a giant monster book, namely, the need to have a human story that fills up most of the run time while not bogging down whenever the monster isn't wrecking something.