Fishmuffins of Doom

Ready Player One

2012-01-25T23:58:00.000-08:00

In 2044, the real world is pretty awful. Poverty, hunger, and unemployment are even bigger issues than they are today. The only shining, wonderful part of life is called OASIS, a free virtual reality massive multiplayer online game that replaces many aspects of real life: shopping, games, vacations, communication, leisure time, and even school. One of the creators of this innovative technology died a few years ago and willed his entire enormous fortune to the person that can find three keys and the hidden easter egg in the vast OASIS. After five years, no on has found anything until Wade Watts find the copper key. Wade, in real life and in the game, is poor and looked down upon. In real life, he lives in one of the treacherous towers of mobile homes with his abusive aunt and whatever boyfriend she has at the time. In game, he doesn't have enough credits to travel and he's stuck with a few low level items and the default avatar skin. Suddenly, the whole world is looking at him, including the IOI cooperation bent on finding the easter egg to make the OASIS cost money and saturate it with ads, effectively destroying it for much of the population. Can Wade find the easter egg before IOI? How far is IOI willing to go to get it?

I read Ready Player One because a few people recommended it to me and they had a cool booth at San Diego Comic Con. I expected a cool, nerdy story that I would enjoy, but it went above and beyond my expectations. I read it in only a couple of days and I felt glued to the book, needing to know what would happen next. The first thing that really impressed me was the OASIS and its huge impact on the world. The possibilities are infinite in that world. You can be whoever you want to be ad experience it as if it were real life. Even in school, no one will ever really know who you really are unless you let them know. All of that life is experienced through screen names and avatars. There are thousands of planets that depict anything from schools to worlds from sci-fi films to night clubs. To the people of the time, it's better than reality and a way to escape. The huge differences between the virtual and real world were interesting to witness. In the OASIS, there are infinite possibilities and hope. In the real world, one can be enslaved in never ending indentured servitude for unpaid credit cards or live in a precarious tower of mobile homes.

The characters were all dynamic and develop throughout the novel. Wade is the quintessential underdog on a quest that is seen time and time again in science fiction and fantasy stories. He used the OASIS for school and to escape his horrible life full of abuse, pov I, and I'm sure many people, related to him because of his outsider status and nerdiness. His knowledge about James Halliday and his various obsessions was vast. The narrative was peppered with references from science fiction and the 80's in any media imaginable. Although I didn't get every single one, they gave the story an added depth. Wade used his obsession with everything related to Halliday and his intelligence to get through not only the obstacles in the game, but the ones in real life as well. His circle of friends were also endearing. All of his friends only knew him online, but he developed real, lasting relationships. It was interesting to see who they were in real life, behind their avatar facades.

I absolutely loved Ready Player One. I didn't want to put it down and I always went right back to reading the first opportunity I could. If you like science fiction, the 80's, and fun adventure stories, this book is definitely for you.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Stop SOPA/PIPA!!!

2012-01-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

Many sites including Craigslist and Wikipedia are blacked out today in protest of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)/PIPA (Protect IP Act): pieces of legislation set to stop internet piracy, but would actually simply end up censoring the internet instead. Corporate enforcers of the bill could take down any site they viewed as taking away from their profits without any sort of judgment system or due process. So Facebook or Wikipedia could arbitrarily be taken down with no explanation or reason. I would like to live in a society that values art and the freedom we have on the internet.

Google has censored their logo that links to information about the bill and ways individuals can make their opinions heard.

Artists don't support SOPA. Neil Gaiman posted an open letter to Washington signed by himself and a variety of other artists. DeviantArt also opened a forum for artists to discuss the bills and the opinion is overwhelmingly negative. Deviants on the site also create art as protest against it such as these:

Stop SOPA Bill by =sakimichan

Death by Censorship :Anti-SOPA: by ~Tomago-Life

Ponies Against SOPA by *Otterlore

This TED talk explaining why SOPA wouldn't work is awesome if you want to learn more about it.

If you live in the US and like having freedom on the internet, please contact your congressman and let your voice be heard.

Internet Awesomeness

2012-01-15T02:13:00.000-08:00

More awesome internet videos!

1) Fan made Evelyn Evelyn video

I love the song Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn and this video makes me love it even more. It's unique, creative, and simply awesome.

2) GLaDOS writes to Princess Celestia

My boyfriend is a brony and he got me into watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It's actually a very good show with detailed, realistic characters. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it. Just ignore all of your preconceptions about it first. Anways, GLaDOS from the Portal games writes to Princess Celestia in this video with hilarious results.

3) Ukulele Anthem by Amanda Palmer

I heard this song at Amanda Palmer's last concert in LA around Halloween and I absolutely loved it. The point of it is that ukuleles are super cheap and easy to play, so go out and make art in your own way! I have been playing the uke for a little over a year and it's really fun to play cover songs with my friends.

4) Dirty Signs with Kristin

Kristin's videos are hilarious because she teaches how to say dirty things in sign language. The one I've chosen isn't particularly dirty, but I like it anyway. It shows how to say "You make baby Jesus cry." If you're interested, there are lots of other phrases in the sidebar on youtube and each and every one is funny, yet informative.

Until next time!

Pink Smog

2012-01-12T02:53:00.000-08:00

Louise is an unhappy thirteen year old girl that really would like to be called Weetzie. Her parents constantly fight and their unhappiness finally resulted in her father, the person who means the world to her, leaving for good. Her mother drowns her sorrows in booze, leaving Weetzie to fend for herself. Not only is she bullied at school by the popular crowd, but the teachers also routinely humiliate and mock her. Her life is in shambles and she tries to pick up the pieces, starting out with following fairy tale clues from a mysterious benefactor, befriending a couple of fellow outcasts at her school, and saving an angelic boy from his voodoo doll torturing sister. Will Weetzie's difficult life break her or will she rise above it all and take control of her life?

I absolutely loved the Weetzie Bat books when I was a kid. Her stories really inspired me and helped me through some difficult times. I was so excited to hear that Francesca Lia Block would be revisiting and expanding upon the series. In Pink Smog, Weetzie is more vulnerable and much less sure of herself in comparison to her later teen and early adult self. She flounders as her life suddenly falls apart and his forced to grow up because of her father's abandonment and her mother's drinking. Instead of being taken care of as she should, both of her parents abandon her and she takes care of her mother as best she can as someone who can't fully take care of herself. I really felt for her and hurt with her as her support system crumbled. I also celebrated with her when she found people she could confide in and believed in herself more. Weetzie got me to connect with my pre-teen self where everything is felt much more intensely and where I felt less sure about who I was.

As with many of Block's other novels, Pink Smog is at its heart a loving portrayal of LA and its unique effect on people. The title itself describes the beautiful pink sunset seen in LA because of the disgusting smog in the air. This encompasses what I love about the city: the beauty and wonder is very close to the grime and less savory aspects. This great center of culture that is famous for celebrities and the privileged is also home to homeless people, strip clubs, and the dregs of society. I've never seen another place like it and it holds a special place in my heart. Block doesn't glamorize it and shows it how it is.

Pink Smog is a formidable prequel to Weetzie Bat and I enjoyed reading this blast from the past. As always, Francesca Lia Block's beautiful prose brings the novel to life. I would recommend this to anyone, whether they have read any of the series or not.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

** Pink Smog will be released 1/24. Check it out here. **

The Pledge

2012-01-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

The Queen rules over Ludania with an iron fist, forcing its inhabitants to make a pledge to protect her over all others. This entails turning in anyone speaking against the Queen or contributing in any way to the Resistance. She has also implemented a unique way to separate the classes and ensure that upward mobility is impossible: limit each class by the languages they are allowed to speak. Charlie is a Vendor class girl who has always had the ability to understand all the languages and knows the importance of hiding it. If anyone ever found out and turned her in, she would swiftly be put to death, as is the punishment for any infraction no matter how small. When a mysterious boy takes interest in her after he notices her strange ability, she is drawn into a political struggle between the aging Queen looking for an heir and the young revolutionaries fighting for equality. What is Charlie's place in all this? Can she make a difference in this power struggle?

I picked this up on a whim and I was surprised how good it was. I was expecting a mediocre dystopia because many of the ones I've read lately have been lackluster and disappointing. The Pledge does a lot of things I haven't really read before and compares to adult dystopian novels as well. The big totalitarian government in this case is run by a woman, which isn't typical. It's usually a Hitler-esque dictator or Big Brother, but rarely a tyrannical, manipulative queen. Her male heirs are viewed as essentially useless because the magic, the power, and the respect of the other countries are dependent on a female heir. This is the opposite of how we historically viewed the genders in power and as heirs, and it's even a perspective not seen in science fiction very often. The Queen is seriously creepy and will do anything to ensure her own safety and the prolonging of her reign, including torture and executions. Her ingenuous solution to any kind of revolution is segregating her subjects by the language they speak. The lowest classes only speak one language and each class above that speaks their own language and all of those underneath them. There is literally no way for anyone to move up in this caste system and they don't enjoy any real freedoms. The Pledge of the title is particularly chilling because the inhabitants are forced to put their monarch above anything in their lives. They are expected to turn in dissenters or troublemakers or run the risk of being executed themselves. I was impressed with the world building and how sociopathic the Queen was.

The ensemble cast is interesting and kept my interest. My favorites are Charlie, her little sister Angelina, and the evil Queen. Charlie puts her family before herself and doesn't whine about how sucky her life is. Unlike many YA book heroines, she prefers her working class home and life to anything else, even when circumstances allow her to choose to change her lot in life. I wanted to give her little sister the biggest hug because she was so sweet. Angelina doesn't speak and has the amazing ability to heal. Without saying anything, she can convey everything she is thinking and feeling and she has a wonderful relationship with her sister. Max, the main love interest, was just ok for me. He wasn't annoying or abusive, but was a little bossy and didn't have much of a personality. The romance was really secondary to the dystopia and didn't overpower it.

The Pledge is a fast paced dystopia that featured some unique concepts and some surprises along the way. I'm not sure if this is the first in the series, but it works very well as a stand alone novel. I would recommend this to fans of the Hunger Games and Delirium.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Everneath

2012-01-06T01:50:00.000-08:00

Nikki Beckett reappears in her hometown mysteriously. Her friends and family have't seen or heard from her in six months and they have no idea where she went or what she did during that time, although popular opinion includes drug use. They probably wouldn't believe her even if she told them. Nikki acted as a Forfeit to feed an Everliving named Cole with her energy for a hundred years (which is sixth months in our world) in the Everneath. Everlivings have to constantly feed people's energy to stave off death and no Forfeit has ever returned remembering their lives and appearing so young. She returned for her family and her boyfriend, Jack. She wants to say goodbye properly before she is forced to go to the Tunnels to fuel the Everneath until she eases to be. Cole wants to ensnare her and make her become an Everliving and be with him for all eternity. Can Nikki find a way to stay on Earth and fix the fractured relationships she left behind or will she succumb to Cole and become an Everliving?

Everneath is an imaginative retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth mixed with the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. I love reading all different types of mythologies and this aspect really enhanced the novel for me. The Everlivings themselves have appeared throughout history in myths, but misinterpreted by humanity who translate them into gods or monsters. They reminded me of better, more competent villains from the Negaverse (or Dark Kingdom) in Sailor Moon. These beings are properly evil, constantly and unapologetically feeding on young people and sending them back to Earth aged and without memories. Their society in the Everneath is also interesting and its details unfold throughout the novel. I also really liked the form of the novel. It's told from Nikki's point of view, starting from the moment she returns to Earth after being a forfeit and going forward in time. Interspersed within that timeline are flashbacks of the events leading up to her leaving. I liked how as the novel progressed, the emotions and motivations behind Nikki's actions became clearer and clearer.

There were a few things about the novel that annoyed me. I'm not really sure why almost every paranormal romance has some sort of love triangle, but it was totally unnecessary in this instance. I'm getting increasingly tired with each one that I read and I hope a new trend or more unique stories start being written. It was painfully obvious who Nikki was going to choose, so it didn't add anything at all to the story. Also, because of Nikki's angst and her unnecessary inner turmoil over who to choose, the plot dragged a lot in the middle. Much of those angsty parts could have been edited out while keeping the plot and overall story intact.

Everneath is a quick read that grabbed my attention. I know it's going to be a series, but I think it would also work perfectly as a stand alone novel. I would recommend it to fans of mythology and paranormal romance.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

** Everneath will be released 1/24. Check it out here.**

Switched

2012-01-05T01:46:00.000-08:00

Wendy Everly has never felt as if she fit in anywhere. When she was six, her own mother tried to murder her in a fit of delusion, convinced that she replaced her mother's real child. People seem to dislike her upon meeting without knowing anything about her and she just seems to stumble into trouble without meaning to. At seventeen, she's living with her brother and her aunt, trying to be good, do well in school, and stay out of trouble for their sake. Then a boy at her school named Finn starts to kind of stalk her, making Wendy suspicious but interested. He reveals that she is a changeling and she must return to her true family or be kidnapped by an opposing faction. Is this the place she belongs or will she be just as alien as she is in the human world?

Switched is a typical teen fantasy book that is supposedly about trolls (AKA trylles). This aspect isn't necessary at all and seems like an easy way to market it as something unique, when it's actually just a typical fairy story. There are some things I liked about the book, such as the trylle society and the dynamic of her blood family as opposed to her human family. The society has a rigid caste system that doesn't allow for upward mobility. The regular, peasant trylle don't have any special abilities, so they work in order to contribute. Those in the aristocracy have magical abilities of some sort, but they don't know how to defend themselves. Trackers only have abilities that go with their trade and are considered very low on the totem pole, but humans hold the lowest position. The blatant hatred of humans and behavior of the people in different levels of the caste system really intrigued me. The different family dynamics are also interesting. The family that has taken care of her for all of her life is the most important to Wendy. Her family by blood is cold and distant with only duty binding them together. The vastly different family units highlight that love, not blood, makes a true family.

The rest of the story is fairly typical for a teen fantasy read. Of course there is a hot guy named Finn that makes Wendy act completely senseless and melodramatic. This is the most annoying aspect because I really like her except when she acts like she's going to die without Finn, as so many heroines do these days. It's also creepy that she finds it sexy to be stalked and annoyed instead of meeting and getting to know each other like real people. The love at first sight trope is getting a little tired for me. The plot is a little uneven with pacing and doesn't really pick up until she arrives in the trylle world.

Overall, Switched was enjoyable, but not a spectacular read. The writing was all right and the story kept my interest, but I don't have a burning need to read the next book in the series.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

New Year's Resolution and Stuff

2012-01-04T00:08:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a new year! Supposedly the last, but I won't be holding my breath for a zombie apocalypse. Anyway, I wanted to share my New Year's resolution with you guys. I want to read more books, post more reviews, and keep up with my blog more. It's one of the first things to be ignored when I get busy with school and I want to do better this semester.

So right now, I am basking in laziness and reading like a fiend, trying to savor my free time while I still have it. My 26th birthday passed and I got to spend it with my wonderful boyfriend. So keep an eye out here for more reviews in the coming weeks. In February, I will be celebrating Women in Horror month with film and book reviews.

Anything you guys would like to share? resolutions? life happenings? I would love to hear from you!

Born Wicked

2011-12-30T02:24:00.000-08:00

The Brotherhood, a patriarchal religious group, rule Victorian era America with an iron fist. In the previous rule, witches were in power and women were revered, educated, and powerful. The Brotherhood is the opposite in every way: women are forced to be uneducated and oppressed or they are sent to prison or mental institutions. Cate Cahill and her sisters are considered eccentric because they don't involve themselves in the society and don't bother to try to fit in. Cate's first priority is to hide the fact that she and her sisters are all witches from the Brotherhood and keep them from using their powers frivolously. Her plan has worked so far, but soon she must either declare her intention to marry someone, become part of the Sisterhood (the weaker, feminine counterpart to the Brotherhood), or allow the Brotherhood to choose a husband for her. She despises the Sisterhood and would loathe any old man that would be chosen for her to marry. The boy she has feelings for is below her station and inappropriate to marry. With any of her choices, the separation from her sisters is inevitable, which puts them in danger and goes against her deceased mother's wishes for her to protect them. Can she conform to her society's rules and protect her sisters? Can she find happiness despite the control the Brotherhood has over her life?

Born Wicked is a wonderful blend of science fiction and fantasy that weaves together themes of love, duty, religion, magic, and feminism. It took me a little while to get acclimated to the changes in history. I had a clear idea of the historical events and climate in the real world, so it blew my mind a little that the alternate history was so complete and hugely world changing. The Victorian era is even more oppressive and misogynistic than it was in real life, which is no small feat. Not only can women not pursue any sort of education beyond the home-making arts at any age, but if they do anything subversive or offend the wrong person, they can be imprisoned in a mental institution or sent to a prison labor camp indefinitely. It isn't uncommon to be condemned without so much as the smallest opportunity to prove one's innocence. Women are expected to act vapid and shallow and have no other ambition than to serve their husband, who in turn may treat them as an object. They can't hold jobs or positions of power and alternative lifestyles are also not tolerated. This is a frightening society that is based enough on real events that it's complete believable.

On top of the well written setting and dystopia, I really connected with the characters. Cate and her sisters had their own interests and their own viewpoints about life. Cate is a strong character that puts the safety of her sisters above her own wants and needs. The pressure on her to choose a path that will inevitably end in both her separation from her family and her own unhappiness is astronomical, but she continues to soldier on. It's also nice to see a YA heroine think of someone else for a change instead of putting their own selfish needs in front of everyone and everything else. Her sisters had a few surprises up their sleeves, but I didn't like them as much as Cate because they didn't really appreciate the sacrifices she made for them and mostly treat her badly.

I was very impressed with Jessica Spotswood's debut novel Born Wicked. Despite my own misgivings about its genre, the book greatly surprised me and proved to be attention grabbing and interesting. It bypassed all the typical YA tropes in favor of rich story telling and realistic characters. I am very sad I read this so early because I will have to wait even longer to find out what happens next.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

** Born Wicked is released on February 7, 2012. Check it out here. **

Merry Christmas!!!!

2011-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a merry Christmas!!!!! :D

Machine Man

2011-12-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

Charles Neumann works as a mechanical engineer for Better Future. He has no friends or social skills to speak of, but he loves technology and machines. He feels as if a piece of him is missing when he misplaces his cell phone. In an effort to get his cell phone back while testing a polymer in his industrial lab, he loses his leg. At first, depression clouds his whole life. After meeting his physical therapist and beginning the process of making his own prosthetic legs, he starts to see his situation as one of opportunity. Instead of moping about losing a limb, he works on making a limb that surpasses his frail human ones. Then he takes it a step further and severs his other leg on purpose in order to replace it with the superior mechanical one. Everyone thinks he's trying to kill himself until he explains his reasoning to a Better Future representative. Then, provided with two teams of interns to help, Charles develops medical enhancements for everyday people and works to perfect the rest of his weak human body. Then the teams take his projects further than he thought possible and they spin out of control. Can he stop Better Future and still use his own technological advances to replace the inferior squishy bits of his body?

Machine Man is a great novel that satirizes our need and dependence on technology. It's pervasive in our society and we may not even recognize it because we are so entrenched in it. I see it every day in the people that can't ignore their phones through a two hour film or class or even in myself, when I feel weird if I haven't been online in a day. This dependence seems ridiculous when it is separated from us in the novel. Charles was preoccupied all day, thinking about possible places his phone could be. I think a lot of us have been there because it is such an essential part of lives that we don't even recognize as such until it's missing. Then, he even loses a leg because of his mindless need for his phone. In his case, it's so extreme that it even comes before his own safety and wellbeing. After he develops his legs and his team develops mechanic organs and such, he starts to "upgrade" parts of himself as we would get a new and better phone, laptop, or mp3 player, except for the large amount of pain involved. This transforms the medical industry from one of necessity for sick or disabled people to one of trendsetters and technophiles trying to outdo each other.

Charles is both a compelling and frustrating character. He's obviously very technically smart and a brilliant scientist, but he can be very dense about other things, like relationships and interacting with people in general. Lacking any understanding of emotions, he regards the people around him as alien. His world is seen through a very clinical eye that only takes into account logic and reason. His development through the course of the book is what kept me reading as he tries to reconcile love and emotion with his world view.

Machine Man is a fun satire on our addiction to technology. The characters are all unique and quirky in their own ways, making the plot unpredictable and exciting. I have enjoyed all of Max Barry's books (especially Jennifer Government and Syrup) and I can't wait to read what he writes next.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Virtuosity

2011-12-12T22:08:00.000-08:00

Carmen Bianchi is a famous virtuosic violin player stressing over the life changing Guarneri competition. This includes obsessively practicing (as usual) and checking out the competition, which looks a lot like stalking. She is caught stalking by her main rival Jeremy King and they begin their love/hate relationship. They start sniping at each other through emails, but when they finally meet in person, they treat each other like people and actually get along. The competition is usually in the forefront of Carmen's mind, but her budding friendship/romance with Jeremy pushes it aside. Everyone in her life except her stepfather just care about her success and would do anything to get her there. They are even accepting and even encouraging about her dangerous addiction to anti-anxiety drugs. As Carmen wrestles with who she should trust, the competition draws closer. Although Jeremy seems to be the only person in her life who cares about her, is it only a facade for trying to get her to throw the competition?

I was first drawn to Virtuosity because the focus is on music performance. There haven't been a lot of recent teen books about the subject. Some authors include it as a minor detail to flesh out characters, but they never return to it again. (I'm looking at you Hush, Hush.) The author is very experienced in the field, being a teen star violinist herself, so her characters and their conflicts feel authentic to me. In the novel, she captures the reasons why I didn't choose to go into music performance when chose my music major focus in college: the cut-throat attitudes, the competition taking over the performer's life, and especially making music a joyless endeavor. I play the flute because I enjoy it and if that enjoyment was taken away, I wouldn't want to do it anymore. Carmen no longer enjoys making music because there is so much riding on each individual performance and there is pressure on her from all sides.

The most interesting aspects beyond music are the way she is treated by the people in her life. Her stepfather is the only person who really cares about her as a person and does things with her that are fun and outside her work. Her mother is incredibly intense and doesn't even acknowledge that she is still a teenage girl. At first, she seems really caring about Carmen and has her best interests at heart, but as the book goes on, it's clear that she just cares about her success and the money she brings. What shocked me the most was her lack of confidence in Carmen and her encouragement of Carmen's dependence on the anti-anxiety medication. Her teacher is horrible and doesn't care about her emotions or her wellbeing. Jeremy is her only real friend, but she is constantly struggling with her opinion of his motivations. I was a little disappointed that their relationship was the focus of the novel instead of Carmen's own personal journey. Most teen books focus on some sort of romance, but it would be nice to see more that don't.

Overall, I enjoyed Virtuosity. It provided a realistic look into the music performance industry. The descriptions of the performances were beautifully written. I would love to read whatever Jessica Martinez comes out with next.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

I'm Not Dead

2011-12-06T14:44:00.001-08:00

Apologies for not posting since Thanksgiving. Finals week is next week and I'm drowning in last minute projects. I won't be posting anything until after next week, but I'm still alive! Then I can finally get back to reading and reviewing like usual. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving for all those who celebrate and Happy Random Thursday to all those who don't. I'll leave you with a couple of awesome Thanksgiving themed videos.

* The Most Awesome Thanksgiving Musical Ever from Addams Family Values

* Hilarious Thanksgiving Stand-up by Eddie Izzard

* Greatest Thanksgiving Description Ever from Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Night Eternal

2011-11-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

Vampires have taken over the globe. The internet and cell phones are outlawed. Nuclear bombs are disarmed. The air is extremely polluted, shrinking daylight hours to only a couple each day. People with desirable blood types are put into farms to be bred or bled. Humanity keeps going as it always has, getting used to their vampire overlords' demands. Ephraim Goodweather is broken. His wife has been turned into a vampire and she frequently stalks and torments him. His son is missing and he has no idea if he's alive, or dead, or a vampire. In addition to all this, he has turned to drugs and alcohol to dull his feelings and survive day to day. He and his small group of friends are the only hope that human race has left to save themselves. They plan to find the Master's place of origin and nuke it, destroying him and all of his offspring. Can Ephraim hold it together long enough to destroy his mortal enemy or will he simply drown in his own sorrow?

The Night Eternal is the third and final book in the Strain trilogy. I loved both of the previous books and had high expectations for this one. I was a little disappointed, but many great things continued from the previous books. As always, the characters are completely fleshed out and multidimenstional. Ephraim is a good person, but became irresponsible and self indulgent due to his family and his world being completely torn apart. Nora is struggling to hide her less than lucid, aged mother from the new society that views the elderly as a drain of resources. Fez is trying to find a working nuclear bomb on his worldly travels and developing a relationship with Nora while Ephraim continues to drown his sorrows. The most compelling character to me is Mr. Quinlan, the only born vampire in existence. He was born during the reign of Caligula and his only goal is to destroy the Master, which would result in his death. His back story is fascinating and his enigmatic presence in the earlier books becomes more understandable. The other triumph of this book is the action sequences and sustaining a high level of suspense throughout. Their adventures take them from blood farms to the houses of the rich to the bowels of abandoned universities to a dark, ominous island.

The Night Eternal lost me when it broke from the other books and maintained a distinctly fantasy and mythology based origin for the vampires and relied on ridiculous moments of deus ex machina to solve their problems. I loved that the first two books had detailed, scientific explanations for vampire biology and behavior that the main characters figured out in order to defeat them. It was fascinating and something I had never seen before in vampire novels. This new, magic material just shatters the past science fiction basis. There are fallen angels, prophecies galore, and at least a few instances of deus ex machina, which is one of the worst writing tropes. It cheapened the story for me and was just annoying. I was disappointed that a great science fiction series suddenly changed into a mediocre fantasy.

Overall, I enjoyed The Night Eternal if I ignored the ridiculous prophecies and magical nonsense. The writing remained excellent beyond that and the characters stayed true to themselves. I would recommend that fans of this series ascertain if they can tolerate the change in tone before reading.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins

Shatter Me

2011-11-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

Juliette is seventeen years old hasn’t spoken to or touched anyone in 264 days. Whenever she touches someone, they suffer and eventually die if she holds on long enough. She was imprisoned for murder by the Re-establishment, an organization who is dedicated to rebuilding the polluted, barren Earth on the surface. Food and animals are scarce, the sky is incredibly polluted, and diseases run rampant. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is so harmful, but she is small compared to the larger problems of the world. Everything changes when after months and months of isolation, a boy is put into her cell with her. She has no idea what her jailers’ angle is, but she is determined to keep to herself and keep him safe. He isn’t what he appears to be and she has to choose whether she will be a weapon for someone else to wield or a self sufficient warrior.

Shatter Me is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I was engaged by the interesting writing style and the main character, Juliette. The narrative is written in a kind of stream of consciousness style, giving the work the feeling of reading her journal or her innermost thoughts. It’s punctuated with occasional strike outs that reveal Juliette’s true feelings, usually followed by what she thinks she should feel. At the beginning of the story, she is practically catatonic, having been isolated for the better part of a year in an insane asylum. The strike outs provide glimpses into Juliette’s character that she doesn’t reveal outwardly. They lessen as the story goes along and as Juliette becomes stronger and more expressive. Juliette is the most compelling character by far and undergoes the most development. Underneath all the abuse she has experienced, she’s very strong and her sensitivity is sometimes mistaken for weakness. I thought her power was interesting, even though it was reminiscent of both Jenny Pox and Rogue from X-Men.

On the other hand, Shatter Me had a lot of flaws. The dystopic world isn’t fully developed and felt a little hollow for me. There are no real, detailed reasons for practically anything and no questions are answered. The story is closer to a paranormal romance than a sci-fi dystopia. The romance is pretty melodramatic and over the top. I didn’t like Adam, the soldier boy love interest, because he was too macho and alpha male for me. Not appealing. Plus all of the characters besides Juliette were flat and I also thought it was awfully convenient that two of the characters vying for her love can touch her without dying. The ending was the aspect I hated most because, like most first installments of teen series, it ended in the middle of a scene without really resolving anything. I really don’t know why this keeps happening in teen books, but it’s really annoying and I would like to read a complete story. Of course some things should be left open for a second book, but to abruptly, awkwardly end is just unacceptable.

Although it has flaws, Shatter Me kept my attention and introduced some interesting concepts that I hope are continued in the next book. I would recommend it to paranormal romance lovers who also like X-Men and Jenny Pox.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins

Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley Concert of Awesome!

2011-11-16T00:04:00.000-08:00

The concert was at the El Rey in Los Angeles on the Saturday before Halloween. I really wanted to dress up, but didn't have a lot of time to throw together a costume. So I wore the brain slug I wore for Comic Con. Lazy costume, yes, but a surprising amount of people recognized it.

Anway, opening the gig was the Petrojvic Blasting Company, who are an Eastern European brass band with a jazzy, cabaret feel. I must say that brass instruments really don't need to miked, but their songs were delightful and fun. My favorite song was Princess Andy.

The Jane Austen Argument came up next, who I had heard of from Amanda's latest album Amanda Goes Down Under. They are comprised of Tom Dickins on vocals and ukulele and Jen Kingwell on piano and vocals. They started with the song Under the Rainbow, about the implications of Tom Dickon's parents first meeting acting in The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy and the Scarecrow. I was immediately moved by this song, the ending nearly bringing me to tears. It's so beautiful and angry and sorrowful all at once with allusions to The Wizard of Oz throughout. Tom's voice has an amazing range and depth to it. I've been completely obsessed with this song and have been playing it over and over from their EP like some crazy person. They are incredibly talented and I hope they come to Southern California again soon.

In between sets, they played Halloween themed music at huge decibels for the crowd to enjoy. One of the highlights was the Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Practically everyone (except for a few people around me) were doing a very small version of the time warp (as it was a very crowded and sold out show) and singing along. Those people who stayed silent did so for the entire concert and it's just odd to me. I don't know if they were unaffected by the perfomances or cared about looking stupid, but that's the experience of going to a concert like this. I screamed and sang and danced and clapped until by the end of the night I was completely exhausted and sore, but I felt the magic that live performances bring, where the crowd ceases to be individuals and instead becomes one amorphous, joined by our energy, enjoyment, and love of music.

Anyway, next up was Jason Webley, half of Evelyn Evelyn and master accordianist. His energy was boundless as he sang and danced while playing accordian. His style of music is folk and alternative performed in innovative ways. He came out with his band banging out rhythms with shovels and drum sticks, preluding my favorite song Dance While the Sky Crashes Down (mixed with Halloween). I love how it's played like a tango, but it's actually a song about the apocalypse.

He also played a medley of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Thriller, continuing in the Halloween spirit, along with some of his other songs such as Map and There's Not a Step We Can Take. My favorite part of the set was how he included the audience in his songs. In one song, we were the orchestra, singing background parts. In another, he threw out water bottles with rocks in them for people to shake to the beat. In others, we simply clapped. It just made me feel more a part of the music.

After a small interlude of Halloween music (I believe it was Bauhaus' Bela Lugosi's Dead and This is Halloween), Amanda Palmer took the stage. Her electric presence and her raw, emotional singing and piano playing commanded the attention of the crowd. She played some songs from her albums, such as Ampersand, Astronaut, Map of Tasmania, Girl Anachronism, and In My Mind. Although I love these songs, I enjoy the more unexpected songs like covers and newly composed songs. My favorite of her covers was Rebecca Black's Friday, except she changed it to reflect the view of a truck stop hooker. She took a completely vapid, frankly horrible song and gave it depth and horrifying implications.

The newly composed song she debuted was called Judy Blume. This song should seriously be the YA Saves theme song. Palmer is asked all the time what her influences are and she never thought of Judy Blume as an influence, but she was affected by her books as a teen and never made the connection until now. I completely relate the song. I may not remember every single drama I went through or every single friend I had as a kid, but I remember reading The Wizard of Oz, The Vampire Diaries, and the Goosebumps and Fear Street books that helped me through my problems and sometimes acted as an escape for me.

For the encore, Jason and Amanda sang songs together. I was hoping for Evelyn and Evelyn songs, but they sang other songs. The first was Icarus, one of my favorite songs by Webley. Then all the musicians came onstage and we all sang a drinking song together. At first it was a failure because we weren't all drunk, so they had us spin around 11 times looking at our finger in the air to get good and dizzy to sing the song. I love that in the video the person actually spun around and swayed with their neighbors so the viewer can get the full effect.

All in all, it was an awesome show that I enjoyed immensely. I can't wait for these groups to return to Southern California!

Forbidden

2011-11-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

Lochan and Maya are siblings that have become the head of their household because of their parents’ divorce and their mother’s neverending quest to reclaim her youth through irresponsible and immature behavior. They act as parents for their younger siblings, feeding them, caring for them, and even forcing their mother to give them money for their necessities. Life is hard for them because they have to balance their time consuming home life and their school work, exams, and their lives as teenagers. Their biggest nightmare is child protective services coming in and splitting up their family, so they work hard to make everything appear normal, despite their lives spinning out of control. After they have been relying on each other for so long and acting as parents for their younger siblings, Lochan and Maya have become extremely close. The close friendship they had as children slowly evolved into forbidden romantic love. Lochan and Maya grapple with their feelings that are so contrary to the society in which they live and decide if their relationship is worth risking everything they’ve worked for.

Forbidden is about incest. I was initially pretty shocked that a teen author would be brave enough to write a book like this. I assumed that people would hate it and be shocked and disgusted, but the general consensus seems to be quite the opposite. I would characterize Forbidden as a more coherent, better written version of Flowers in the Attic. That was my first encounter with incestuous relationships in literature and I was surprised that throughout that series, I really wanted Cathy and Christopher to be together. There are many similarities between the two works (abusive mother, parenting siblings, worrying over separating their family), but Tabitha Suzuma infuses her story with much more realistic situations and emotions. My heart broke for Lochan, Maya, and their siblings. Nobody should have to suffer as they did, struggling to get the basics of life while their mother squanders their money on clothes, drinks, and presents for herself. The bright light for Maya and Lochan, as well as the readers, is their budding romance.

After Lochan and Maya had my sympathy, their odd and weirdly right feeling romance flowered into a deep and profound love. Incest is taboo in most societies and most of us wouldn’t hesitate to call it disgusting, but Suzuma made their relationship organic and like any other romance. Of course, they are fraught with guilt and worried about other people finding out, causing them to have many fights and trying to push each other away in an effort to uphold the values of their society. The chapters are alternately narrated by Maya and Lochan, which gave insight to their inner thoughts and conflicts. This aspect was essential in making the subject matter believable and palatable.

Forbidden is a very fast read that grabbed my heartstrings and took me on an emotional and complex journey. I would recommend it to those not afraid to put aside their own feelings on the subject matter.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Super Late September Zombies Winner Annoucements

2011-11-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

I have been drowning in school work, so I kind of forgot to post the winners for the September Zombies giveaways. So here they are!

* Zombie Apocalypse giveaway

1) MAD

2) Jessica

3) Vivien

I will be emailing you one by one to claim your prize.

* Feed and Deadline giveaway

Spav

Congratulations to all winners!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T16:01:00.001-07:00

Here are some super belated Halloweeny videos for your enjoyment. :)

* The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Heads Will Roll

This is a great video and an awesome song. It's obviously an homage to Michael Jackson and Thriller while having a slightly different tone and making their own unique song and video. The tone is darkly comic and the video has an gruesome, sparkly ending. I love the confetti slaughter scene. The song is catchy to the point of being infectious. Karen O has a gorgeous voice and really holds her own beside the acrobatic, Michael Jackson-esque werewolf.

* Science Fiction/ Double Feature from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, sung by Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer singing Science Fiction/ Double Feature with Moby, Stephin Merritt, and Neil Gaiman. This was right before I saw her in concert with Neil Gaiman on Halloween, which I will post about when I am not swimming through school papers. Anyway, Gaiman is very stoic on the toy piano and Palmer is just as charismatic and effervescent as ever. Plus they are a super cute couple. ;)

* Schubert's Der Erlkönig (The Erlking)

Franz Schubert set Johann Wolfgang von Göethe's poem to music in this Lied, or artsong, for solo voice and piano. The story is based on a Danish legend of a deadly and seductive fairy that preys on children. The poem starts with a father clutching his son and frantically riding by horse back to his farm. The boy is sick and in his feverish delusion, he sees the Erlking trying to entice him with riches and his daughters. These entreaties start nicely until he is frustrated and willing to take him by force. The father only sees wisps of fog or shuddering leaves and tries to calm the boy. The boy's terror reaches its peak and the boy shreiks. When they get home, the boy has tragically died in his father's arms. Here are the original German and the English translation of the text.

The music follows and enhances the story in interesting ways. The horse can be heard in the constant, frantic piano bass part. The characters all have their own ranges and tones although the Lied is to be sung by only one person. The boy's entreaties to his father are always high and frightened and get progressively higher as the song progresses. His father's part is low and reasoning. The Erlking's part starts high and soft when he tries to ply the boy with things, but turns lower and more hostile. I love this song and had the wonderful opportunity to analyse it in a music theory class. Even the keys and modulations have significance to the plot.

This animated short by Ben Zelkowicz is a wonderful adaptation of the tale in which sand and glass are used in a very innovative way to illustrate the song.

Any Halloween songs you guys like? Please share!

Spooky Movies for Halloween

2011-10-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

Horror is one of my favorite genres and Halloween (even one week after) is the best occasion to enjoy it. Here are my top picks for the best holiday.

1) Halloween

Of course! This is the quintessential Halloween movie and the very first slasher film that provided the formula for all others to follow. Michael Myers is absolutely frightening. He doesn't speak a word throughout the film and you have no idea what his face looks like as an adult. It preys on our fears of strangers and the unknown. With a single minded, slow and steady nature (and a spray painted William Shatner mask), he pursues the chaste Laurie Strode and her more promiscuous, substance abusing friends on Halloween night. The soundtrack by the director John Carpenter is genius in its simplicity and its ability to create suspense and inspire fear. Even though it was made in the 70's and has spawned a great many sequels and remakes, Halloween is still a very scary movie and one of my favorites.

2) Trick 'r Treat

Trick 'r Treat is my second favorite Halloween themed film. It features five interweaving storylines that take strange and surprising turns, making this a unique horror film that breaks a lot of the typical conventions. It was never released in mainstream theaters and was only shown at conventions and film festivals before going straight to DVD, which is so disappointing. I think a lot of people would like it. It stars some familiar faces like Anna Paquin and Brian Cox. This is the only other horror film that is quintessentially Halloween. I can see myself watching it religiously every year along with Halloween and The Nightmare Before Christmas. One storyline deals with a virginal college student being preyed upon with unexpected results. Another features a high school principal who poisons candy to punish those not in the holiday spirit. Two of the storylines deal with Sam, the eternal trick or treater that appears to be a child in a costume, but is actually the spirit of Halloween. He may look cuddly and cute, but he is swift and brutal with his punishment of those that don't celebrate enthusiastically. The film is laced with creepiness, blood, and black humor. Right now, it's super cheap on Amazon, I recommend buying if you're interested!

3) The Descent

The Descent is the story of a group of women who go caving in a tourist for their reunion after a tragedy occurred. They realize that it's not the cave they thought and they have been led there as a horrible surprise by one of the group. As they get more hostile with each other and struggle to find a way out, these frightening, blind underground dwellers appear, ready to kill and eat them. This film is absolutely frightening. I watched it at home with my sister with all the lights out and very jumpy through the whole thing. The first half doesn't have anything super natural at all, but it feels claustrophobic. The women are trapped in the underground caves and that alone is scary without adding in creepy creatures. When they do come on the scene, the situation escalates. Although an aspect of the film is the gore and interesting kills, the driving force throughout is the characters, their past, and their relationships. I recommend watching the UK ending and pretending the US ending doesn't exist. And don't watch the sequel even if it's streaming on Netflix; it's horrible.

4) Night of the Living Dead

In Night of the Living Dead, the dead rise. No one truly knows why, but people are just focused on trying to survive. A group of random people barricade themselves in a house to escape the zombie horde. The living dead isn't their only problem, but also the people in the house with them. This is the very first zombie film as we know them today.In Night of the Living Dead, the dead rise. No one truly knows why, but people are just focused on trying to survive. A group of random people barricade themselves in a house to escape the zombie horde. The living dead isn't their only problem, but also the people in the house with them. This is the very first zombie film as we know them today. Lots of rules and conventions are created and it inspired so many people to make zombies their own and use them as symbols for the things we fear: science, consumerism, disease, social constructs, etc. This film is in the public domain, so you should be able to find it pretty much anywhere and purchase it very cheaply.

Honorable mention: Poltergeist - A very scary ghost movie that gave me nightmares throughout my childhood. If you were disappointed by the Paranormal Activity films, I highly recommend that you see what a real poltergeist can do.

Mailbox Goodies

2011-10-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

My Mailbox Goodies for the last 2 weeks! Just a note: I was super busy during Halloween, so I will still be putting up Halloween posts within the next few days. Evil school work. Anyway, the goodies!

* Harbor ARC by John Ajvide Lindqvist from Librarything

* Shatter Me ARC by Tahereh Mafi from Amazon Vine

* The Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan from Amazon Vine

* The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor from Book Soup at her signing last week

* Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist from Amazon UK

* 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami from Amazon

* The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegan from Amazon Vine

* I Am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley from Amazon Vine

Any awesome reads in your mailbox?

Anna Dressed in Blood

2011-10-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Theseus Cassio Lowood AKA Cas kills the dead. This may seem redundant, but it's true. He destroys harmful ghosts and has done so ever since his father died a gruesome death doing the same task. Now, Cas travels the world, following rumors and killing ghosts, with his mother, online occult supplier and herbal witch, and her temperamental cat cat, only useful for recognizing spirits. After moving to Thunder Bay, Canada, Cas meets an altogether different kind of ghost: Anna Korlov, more commonly known as Anna Dressed in Blood. Her murder from 1958 was never solved and anyone foolish enough to venture into her house dies a horrible, painful death. Her once pristine white dress she wore to a school dance is now dripping and stained with blood. Her power is unparalleled by any other ghost he's encountered, save for one: his father's murderer. If Cas can defeat her, he will be ready to take down his father's murderer, but she easily defeats. However, she spares his life, something he has never seen a ghost do. Can he eventually defeat her and somehow destroy her source of power?

Anna Dressed in Blood is a wonderfully spooky read that really grabbed me from the first pages. This is partly because of the striking, blood tinged cover and deep red ink the story is printed in. The concept is original and takes the ghost story some place new. I'm not normally too big of a fan of ghost stories because after a while they start to all sound the same. Kendare Blake puts a new spin on things with ghost slayers, magic, voodoo, witches, and seriously malicious ghosts. There is a small community of ghost slayers, unknown to most people. Cass inherited an athame or ceremonial knife from his father and makes killing ghosts and avenging his father's death his personal quest. He moves across the world chasing leads on killer ghosts and dispatches them one by one, never staying in one place for very long. At first, his reluctance to get close to people and his willingness to use the people around him makes him seems callous and shallow. As the book goes on, his behavior is shown to actually protect himself and keep emotional attachments from distracting him. I loved his narrative because of his wit and the growth he shows throughout the novel. Although he is a compelling character, the one that really kept be reading was Anna.

Anna Korlov is a strong, fearsome, badass ghost. She is only the second that Cass hasn't been able to defeat, the first being his father's murderer. She's not a little poltergeist that simply moves things around like most pitiful ghosts; she can literally tear people apart with very little effort. She has killed anyone who has entered her house for over 50 years and she can suddenly choose not to kill one person. Rage seems to fill her every time she encounters someone. Her eyes turn black, black veins snake across her skin, and blood soaks and drips of her dress. I loved that a young girl in a white dress is usually the picture of innocence and goodness, but here, the image is horribly corrupted and frankly terrifying. Her house seems to be an extension of her that she could manipulate at will, revealing the scores of those that have died there in their putrescence. She's obviously no ordinary ghost. I needed to know what had happened to her, how she died, and how she got to be so powerful. Her very essence is a mystery. Is she completely evil? Is there a vulnerable young dead girl in there somewhere?

Anna Dressed in Blood features compelling characters, unique story lines, and new conventions for the ghost story. The plot always moved and maintained a level of suspense that kept me reading and then wanting even more after I finished the novel. Kendare Blake doesn't shy away from blood or gore at all, which puts closer to older teen or adult horror. This is highly recommended and I am eagerly awaiting the sequel, Girl of Nightmares.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Hellbent

2011-10-20T23:22:00.001-07:00

Raylene Pendle, accomplished thief and vampire, has a pretty complicated life. Her collection of strays has grown to include orphan siblings Domino and Pepper and blind vampire Ian Stott living in her apartment plus drag queen and ex-Navy SEAL Adrian deJesus, even though he lives elsewhere. Supporting so many people plus the huge move when she was forced from her previous building proves to be expensive. When Horace Bishop contacts her with a very lucrative job, she accepts despite the weirdness factor. The items of great value are actually penis bones, or bacula, of fantastical creatures, such as werewolves and unicorns and they are worth millions. She knows the job is more complicated than it seems, but is still surprised when someone steals them first and then destroys the house with lightning. To further complicate matters, the leader of Ian's House is killed, leaving him in charge. He can't risk returning because of his disability, but can't ignore his responsibilities to his family. Raylene resolves to solve his problem by finding out what really happened to his father and takes Adrian with her to pose as her ghoul. Can she wrestle the bacula from a powerful, crazy woman AND save Ian from certain death also known as vampire politics?

Hellbent is the second installment of Cherie Priest's Cheshire Red series and proves to be just as good as the first one. Raylene is a unique protagonist. Her narrative is colored by her humor and her interesting view of the world. Underneath her veneer of being a perfect, hard as nails thief, she's actually quite human. Her collection of strays betrays her loneliness and need for other people. She really cares about her makeshift family and, although they sometimes drive her crazy, she will do anything in her power to keep them safe. One of the cutest scenes in the book was when Raylene found a kitten at a murder scene and couldn't just leave it there where it would probably die. I found the scene endearing and cute. She is painfully OCD at times, obsessively overpreparing for every conceivable situation and loading up on extra equipment just in case. Although she goes overboard, her OCD is one of the reasons why she's still alive. Her vampiric powers aren't unrealistic or godlike. They just make her tougher and faster than a human with weak psychic powers. More of her regenerative powers and psychic connection to those who drink her blood are explored.

The other characters are just as engaging. What's not to like about a drag queen who was also a Navy SEAL? Hellbent gives Raylene and her friends added depth and more background. Raylene's past involvement with a House is discovered as well as Ian's vampire family and more details about Adrian. Their three story lines come together in unexpected ways that kept me guessing. The plot is very twisty and it would go in completely different directions than I predicted, which is refreshing. The story is funny, fast paced, suspenseful, and fun. Romance is only hinted and doesn't overpower or interrupt the action as it does in fantasy so often. I hope Raylene eventually has a relationship with someone, but the issues at hand are a little bit more important.

Hellbent is a really fun paranormal read that combines mystery, humor, action, and fantasy. I can't wait for the next book in the Chesire Red series!

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Book Chat: Creepy Covers

2011-10-19T23:11:00.001-07:00

Misty at The Book Rat shared some of her creepy covers, so I decided to share some of mine. If you'd like to share yours, please link it to Misty's page.

1) Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia

I love this creepy cover from the sepia tone to the girl's hidden eyes and exposed heart. The story is science fiction, but the surrealist cover makes it seem much darker. The book was reprinted recently and I think the new cover is equally creepy and a little more beautiful. She looks like a dejected, broken doll and provides a stark contrast to the nature around her. The eye in the crows mouth is especially disturbing.

2) Dust and Decay by Jonathan Maberry

This cover is really what drew me into the series. The scream depicted seems so powerful, yet so futile. I can practically hear it. The pop of lipstick color in an otherwise monochromatic cover is genius. I hope the interior lives up to the awesome cover.

3) the ARC cover of Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

This cover is so much better than the finished copy's and even has a little more to do with the actual story than the other one. When my sister practically shoved the book into my hand, the cover really intrigued me. The half zombified face actually looks weirdly beautiful and hints more about the horrors inside.

4) The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell

The cover depicts a gut human reaction: to cover our eyes when we see something that scares us, but also the sick fascination we have to keep watching through our fingers. It's a powerful cover and portrays what anyone would feel during a zombie apocalypse.

What about you guys? Any favorite creepy covers?

Winner of Ashes!

2011-10-18T23:51:00.001-07:00

The winner of the ARC of Ashes is........

Evie!!!!!

Keep an eye out for the results of the 2 other giveaways. :)

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

2011-10-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Mara Dyer woke up in the hospital with no memory of why she would be there. She was in a terrible accident with her boyfriend and her two best friends and she was the only survivor. What's also strange is that despite the severity of the accident, she only had a few scrapes and bruises. After she had physically recovered, she still suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and experienced hallucinations of her dead friends. To escape her memories, she and her family moved from her home in Rhode Island to start fresh in Miami, Florida. At her new private school, she met Jamie, the quirky rebellious guy, and Noah, the gorgeous guy with a bad reputation who is drawn to her. She still had problems deciphering what is real and what isn't and when people start to die around her, she doesn't know why. Is it coincidence or something more nefarious at work?

My summary doesn't really do the story justice, but I don't want to give too much away. I was really surprised by The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. The cover, although very beautiful, looks like a scene right out of a flowery romantic drama, so that's about what I expected: romance with very little substance or conflict. but the story is much darker and much more interesting. I liked that it dealt with the effects of trauma: memory loss, post-traumatic stress disorder, hallucinations, and regaining memory in bits and pieces. It doesn't seem to be explored a lot in young adult fiction and it's nice to see it as the reality that counteracts the fantastic aspects of the novel. Mara's hallucinations would occur in random places and create this crazy, surreal tableau that she just had to ride out until it was over. For instance, on the first day of school, she walks into the class and sees the building tumbling down around her while her fellow classmates continue with class obliviously. Elements such as this made the story unique.

Most of the characters are engaging and dynamic. Mara is a bit mentally unstable, but her wit, intelligence, and artistic talent are all intact. I felt her artistic ability was underutilized and much more could have been done with it besides sketching her boyfriend. Her point of view proves to be engaging because of her doubt about if what she sees is real or hallucination and her strength to overcome her traumatic past. I also loved her sense of humor which tended to be more vulgar and dark than usual. I really related to it and found her to be refreshingly realistic. Her conversations with Jamie and Noah are particularly funny and are usually laced with fun references. Noah is tolerable as teen love interests go. His character seemed kind of confused between being the promiscuous playboy, the protective/possessive boyfriend, and the earnest, likable guy. I only liked him some of the time and the romance between him and Mara overpowered the dark, supernatural plot during the middle and it didn't return until the end.

Despite the romance interrupting the story, I really liked The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. The mystery, subjectivity of reality, and the supernatural elements kept me reading and it only took me a couple of days to finish this rather lengthy book. The ending completely surprised me and left me craving the sequel.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Book Chat: Scary Reads

2011-10-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

This is in response to Misty's post on The Book Rat. Please join in the conversation! This weeks subject is Scary Reads. I'm a huge fan of horror, ever since I was little. I still read and watch a lot of horror, but much of it doesn't scare me in the least. Here are some that still managed to chill me:

1) The Devouring by Simon Holt

Based on the cover, I expected this to be a typical teen paranormal kind of romancey type of book. I knew it was something different when a horror movie magazine I like reviewed it and gave it a very high rating. I was extremely pleased to read the most nightmarish and terrifying situations that were tailored to the characters' personal fears. The Vours are the creatures that created them possess people and take control of the person's body, leaving them trapped in their worst nightmare. Reggie called the Vours, thinking they were fiction, but rapidly found out they were real. Her younger brother was possessed by the Vours and turned from his sweet self into a murderous, abusive thing that no longer even resembles her brother. I was thoroughly creeped out and it felt like a weird reaction to a teen book, but I hope more teen books push the envelope in this way. The second book in the series wasn't as good as The Devouring, but I have high hopes for the third book, Fearscape.

2) House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

It's hard to describe what House of Leaves is about: The Navidson Record is a book that irrevocably changes people after they read it and Johnny Truant experiences this as a reads the book with the reader. The Navidson Record and Johnny Truant's story are told at the same time, which is odd. It's a great piece of metafiction that also manages to be very creepy. The house from the Navidson Record is just a little bit bigger on the inside than the outside. First it's by a very small amount, but then they find an impossible closet that leads to a hallways that leads into the depths of the house where it seems endless with spiral staircases and interminable corridors. This is where the Navidson family explores, gets lost, and starts to break down mentally. The thing that is does best is play with time with stretching or contracting the space that the words take up and using bizarre typography, colors, and languages at times.. I've only read this book once, but it's always stayed with me because of it's complexity and unique mode of story telling. House of Leaves just got under my skin in weird ways and it's hard to explain. I'll eventually write a full review whenever I reread it.

3) American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

American Psycho is the story of Patrick Bateman, who works on Wall Street and lives in luxury. The most trivial things like business cards are the most important thing in his life. He starts to nonchalantly kill prostitutes, friends, homeless people, even a random child. What's horrific about this novel isn't the detailed accounts of torture and murder (although there are no shortage of those and it's no picnic to read through them), but in the society portrayed. Whether his acts of violence are real or imagined (and this is a definite question by the end of the book), he needs them because of the vast void in his vapid, shallow life that is considered to be the best the 80's society has to offer. This is a polarizing text and many people won't like it because they can't get past the violence, but I think it's a very effective, controversial social commentary.

* posted without pictures for now because Blogger is acting stupid. will try to add them tomorrow.

Sweet Venom

2011-10-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Grace moves to San Francisco and is eager to start over at her new school. Her life is full of new possibilities, but it’s also a bit scary. It gets a whole lot scarier when she sees mythical creatures that shouldn’t exist and other people don’t even notice. She thinks she might be going crazy until she meets Gretchen, her twin. Gretchen has been fighting mythical creatures and returning them to their realm for four years, ever since she ran away from her abusive parents and learned about her destiny as a descendant of Medusa from her new guardian, . Balancing her monster-slaying and school is hard, but she’s managed to do a pretty good so far. That is until there are more monsters than there are supposed to be and it ceases to be something she can handle. When Grace shows up, she’s torn, but eventually decides to train her to fight. The monsters seem to want to capture or kill them (which is new) and they discover that whoever brings them in dead or alive gets a free pass to live on Earth forever. They also discover there is a third descendent who is completely unaware. Can they make it to her before the monsters do? Together can they somehow banish the creatures permanently?

Sweet Venom is an interesting new take on Greek mythology. The Medusa we know of is a hideous, evil Gorgon that turns people into stone with her gaze. In actuality, Medusa is a guardian of our world against mythical creatures and she was murdered by Perseus because of Athena’s hatred and possible jealousy. Her name even means guardian or protectress, so this alternative mythology has some basis in reality. Medusa has immortal sisters, named Euryale and Stheno, who I haven't heard much about in my mythological education. Through my research, I found out that Medusa and her sisters were turned into monstrous beings by Athena because Medusa was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple. Athena, outraged by the desecration, bizarrely decided to blame Medusa. In reality, it was probably more because Athena was jealous of Medusa's beauty. This villainous side of Athena is really interesting, but unfortunately isn't explored in this part of the series (which feeds into some of my annoyance with this book). I hope to see more in the next books in the series.

The three descendants of Medusa, Grace, Gretchen, and Greer, are all engaging characters that are completely different from one another. Grace is my favorite because she is a technology enthusiast. She works to make the vital information easier to access and practically impossible to lose by digitizing the dossiers on the different monsters. Grace brings a more analytical and intellectual side to their job. Through her research and general nosiness, she discovers the prophecy about her and her sisters and more details about their immortal ancestors. Gretchen , on the other hand, is more enthusiastic about fighting with her preternatural strength. She's a little more mature and jaded than the other girls because of her past: escaping from abusive parents, living on the streets, and then living without much supervision with her mentor and guardian while nightly fighting mythological baddies. Her sense of realism grounds her sisters and shows them the reality of being a descendant of Medusa that often isn't as easy as they might think. Greer comes in really late in the book. Her life is completely different from her sisters', full of parties, designer clothes, and expensive shoes. The revelation is a rude awakening for her not only because of the undignified fighting ahead, but also because she didn't know she was adopted. She is my least favorite, but she showed potential to become less annoying and vapid by the end.

My biggest problem with Sweet Venom is that there is no real ending. The story line isn't resolved in any way. Most books in series have a few loose ends to make a sequel plausible, but this one just feels incomplete. Other than that, Sweet Venom is a really enjoyable read and one of the most unique mythology based teen books I've read. I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Liesl and Po

2011-10-12T13:23:00.001-07:00

Liesl has been kept in the attic of her house ever since her father grew progressively sick and then died. Her stepmother Augusta hates her and keeps her there, feeding her meager meals and rarely allowing her to leave. Liesl draws to pass the time and does little else. Three days after her father's death, she receives two unexpected visitors: a ghost named Po, who is neither a boy nor a girl, and his ghostly pet Bundle, who is neither a dog nor a cat. Po agrees to try to find her father on the other side in exchange for a drawing and discovers that her father wants to go home and only Liesl is left to undertake the journey. Liesl and Po's journey will inevitably intertwine with Will's. He's an apprentice to a cruel alchemist and accidentally mixes up Liesl's father's ashes with the greatest magic ever created. Po and Liesl take this magic and embark on a wonderful and strange journey, with both friends and enemies following them, to take Liesl's father to his proper resting place.

Lauren Oliver opens the book with an explanation of the circumstances that led her to write the book: her best friend died and she wrote the book as way of coping with it. I can definitely see that reflected in the story and I feel that anyone who has lost a loved one can relate to it, not just children. Liesl's situation locked in the attic of her own house is simply miserable and she goes through every robotically without any real excitement. Sunlight has also disappeared, leaving the world cold and gray. The lovely charcoal drawings illustrate this feeling wonderfully. This is a physical representation of Lauren Oliver's own feelings in the months after her friend's death. Liesl and Po's journey to lay her father to rest is symbolic of anyone's personal journey in accepting a death in their lives and saying goodbye to that person. I love that the setting and time period of the book is unspecified, so the reader can imagine it as wherever and whenever they like. Liesl and Po deals with death in a way that doesn't talk down to children and acknowledges that children can (and have to) deal with death in their own lives.

Although the tale is fairly dark, Lauren Oliver tempers it with humor, levity, magic, and unique characters. Liesl, Will, and Po's unlikely friendship is delightful and they have their own very different personalities and states of being. They were all alone in the world and found solace in each other in the grayscale world they live in. Liesl is surprisingly creative and brave for a girl who unquestioningly stayed in the attic for so long. Po is an enigmatic being that seems to become more and more human as he stays in the living world. Will is an abused child and has insecurities as a result, but remains a good, loyal friend to Liesl. The other characters, namely the adults in the story besides Liesl's father, are flat characters that are simply villainous. This aspect gives the story a fairy or folk tale feel that doesn't take away from the story.

I enjoyed Liesl and Po very much and found Lauren Oliver's prose engaging and lyrical. Those who enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book or Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events books would enjoy it as well.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Dearly, Departed

2011-10-11T13:13:00.001-07:00

In the year 2195, catastrophic events and society rebuilding itself has resulted in New Victoria being height of civilization and technology. Nora Dearly is just out of mourning. Her father died a year ago and she lives with her cold, uncaring aunt, who views the mourning as a social inconvenience and ruined Nora by putting them in great debt over the year her father has been dead. When Nora returns home from school for winter break, her ordered life is disrupted by crazed, flesh-eating zombies trying to kidnap her from her home. She ends up being kidnapped by an opposing faction of more sane, rational zombies who worked with her father. Captain Abraham Griswold AKA Bram, zombie soldier, takes an interest in Nora. At first, she is repulsed and rejects the zombies, no matter how civilized and nice they are. As they get to know each other, Nora and Bram feel an undeniable attraction resulting in an odd, yet sweet romance between the living and the dead. This pales in comparison to the zombie plague running through New Victoria. Can Nora, Bram, and the zombie troops save the city or will it be overrun with zombies?

Dearly, Departed is an unexpected, genre bending adventure. The world is an impressive mixture of dystopia, steampunk, and advanced technology. The world has basically fallen apart and reduced to individual tribes without any sort of centralized government. A certain conservative tribe decided that the Victorian era was far enough in the past that no one had any emotional ties to it and liked the idea of the virtuous, moral society that they decided to adopt it as their own. The resulting situation is Victorian era fashion, sensibilities, and social constructs coupled with futuristic technology. New Victoria isn't the only tribe out there. The Punks are an opposing faction that abhors New Victoria and things they are making the same mistakes that led to the original destruction of society: a hierarchical model and a reliance on technology. The Punks promote basic technology that man is in control of: nothing digital and nothing that creates a false reality. I really like that the main society does have a backlash movement against it, but these two deign to cooperate when their very lives are at stake.

In accordance with the New Victorian society, women are oppressed and can only succeed in limited fields if they navigate through the shark-infested waters of society by upholding ridiculous social constructs and customs. The two main female characters, Nora and Pamela, both have interests and attitudes outside of the realm of what is acceptable for their gender. I enjoyed seeing them just as frustrated as me when they were shunned or disapproved of for frivolous reasons and I relished with them when they overthrew the niceties of society when the situation became so dire that what people would think was the last thing on their minds.

The zombies are a little different than the zombies you may be used to seeing, but no less awesome. A prion is the culprit and it's transmitted through bodily fluids, which of course includes biting. There are two types of zombies that result from infection: the mindless, ravenous zombies and coherent, sentient zombies. The sentient ones are just regular people who have the minor misfortune of being dead and the inconvenience of decomposing. The zombie soldiers are easily patched up when injured and take injections to further preserve them, but they will all eventually succumb to being a ravenous zombie when the prion destroys their brains. I like the new mode of infection and the logical reasons for two types of zombies.

Dearly, Departed is a wonderful read that would appeal to a wide variety of readers. It has romance, adventure, zombies, action, science, and war. The only thing I didn't like about the novel was that the world building took a while and a lot was told to us rather than shown. Since the world has already been established, I predict that the second book will be even better as I eagerly await it.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Dearly, Departed will be released on 10/18. Check it out here.

Frightful Fall Read-a-thon: Wrap-up

2011-10-10T09:37:00.001-07:00

I had so much fun with the Frightful Fall Read-a-thon. The mini-challenges were super fun and I got a lot of much needed reading done. Here are my final stats:

* Marquis of O: 30 pages

* Dearly, Departed: 471 pages

* The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer: 452 pages

* Cold Kiss: 292 pages

* Hellbent: 122 pages

* total books finished: 3

* total pages read: 1,367

Reviews of these books should be going up within the next week or so. :)

Frightful Fall Read-a-thon Mini-Challenge: Urban Girl Reader

2011-10-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

More mini-challenges! This one comes from Urban Girl Reader and she asks for a fake summary of the next book in the series of a horror novel. Since I haven't started it yet (and I would be way to tempted to post spoilers about the books I've read), I will choose the sequel to Hellbent by Cherie Priest:

Raylene, cat burglar vampire, is hired by an unknown source to steal the Necronomicon that inspired H.P. Lovecraft to write all of his horror stories. It started off as a normal smash and grab situation, but quickly descended into running for her life territory after the owner of said book sicced an unspeakable and tentaclely horror after her. Barely escaping with her life and the book (yay!), Raylene keeps the book at her house overnight to recuperate from her adventure, only to have a crazy group of cultist steal the book and firebomb her house. Will she be able to get the Necronomicon back unscathed? What will the cultists invoke with this powerful book? Can Raylene just get this job done and so she can relax?

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Progress:

* The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer: 374 pages Finished!

* Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey: 130 pages

Total pages for today: 504

Total books finished: 2

Total pages read: 1,083

Frightful Fall Read-a-thon Mini-Challenge: My Book Retreat

2011-10-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Another mini-challenge! This one is from My Book Retreat and the task is to identify a character and what book their in, choose a costume for them with a rationale for why, and provide a picture of the costume.

The character I chose is the dashing Captain Abraham Griswold AKA Bram from Lia Habel's Dearly, Departed. The best costume for him would be a zombie. He is a zombie, so he would just splash some fake blood on his mouth, wear some ragged clothes, and shuffle around a little more than normal. It provides Bram a way to blend in with living people without attracting unwanted attention, namely screams, stares, and people running away. Plus it would give Nora Dearly and his zombie friends some amusement. Here is what he would look like in his zombie costume:

* photo from ~uncherished at deviantArt

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My progress for the last 2 days:

* Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel: 276 pages Finished!

* The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin: 78 pages

Total for whole read-a-thon: 579 pages

Frightful Fall Read-a-thon Mini-Challenge: Knitting and Sundries

2011-10-04T01:54:00.000-07:00

Yay mini-challenges! This one challenges me to create a creepy sentence out of book titles, so here's mine:

We feed the living dead forever in the house of leaves. (of course it had to have zombies in it!)

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Now for my progress so far!

* Dearly Departed by Lia Habel: 195 pages

* The Marquise von O (novella) by Henrich Kleist: 30 pages

total pages: 225

Frightful Fall Read-a-thon 2011

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love read-a-thons, especially when I've let books pile up more than usual with due dates loomy creepily close. This one is hosted by Castle Macabre. The only requirement for this event is that at least 1 book read is horror related, which is no problem for me. Here is what I intend to read over the next week:

* Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

* The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

* Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

* Hellbent by Cherie Priest

We'll see if I get through those and worry about the rest later. The event runs from October 2 to October 6, which gives me lots of time to participate and I don't feel pressured. It's going to be fun, so sign up here if you're interested.

September Zombies: The End...For Now

2011-09-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well, September Zombies is sadly over...for now. I will work to try to make next year's September Zombies bigger and better and a little bit more organized. I hope you all had lots of zombilicious fun because I did! There will still be periodic zombie sightings here, so you don't have to go through zombie withdrawals or anything like that.

I would like to thank Velvet at vvb32 Reads for creating the September Zombies and inviting me to be a part of it. I would also like to thank all the wonderful bloggers and readers that participated and made the event really fun.

For the next month or so, I will be participating in whatever is going on at The Book Rat for Helluva Halloween III, All Hallow's Eve at Book Chick City, and, more immediately, a read-a-thon from October 3 to October 9 at Castle Macabre.

Zombie Songs 3

2011-09-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

More zombie songs to shuffle around and nom brains to!

1) Wake the Dead by The Used

This rock song is deliciously creepy and high energy with heavy guitars and drums. I like that there is just a dash of scream-o added for flavor. It really gives the song a little more anguish and anger.

2) Blood Red Summer by Coheed and Cambria

Although the title of the song is awesome, it's actually the video that is zombie themed. At the beginning of the video, they set traps, fortify their cabin, and keep watch. The rest of the band gets turned into zombies while the lead singer is left all alone, waiting for his zombified band mates to come and eat him. It's actually pretty light hearted for a zombie video.

3) Thriller/Heads Will Roll Mash-up by the Glee cast

I know it's a little cheesy and they tend to autotune the crap out of everyone's voice, but I really like this mash-up of Michael Jackson's Thriller and The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Heads Will Roll. The 2 songs really work well together and I love seeing the Glee cast in zombie makeup. The choreography (that's actually different from the very famous Thriller dance) and spooky football field are awesome. I hope it made a lot of people look up the 2 original songs and enjoy them in their own right. PS they need to give Santana more solos because her voice fucking rocks.

4) The Zombie Love Song by Jonathan Chan

This is seriously the most adorable zombie song ever. It captures images of beautiful zombie love. The ending is kinda gross, but still manages to be cute. :)

Any zombie tunes you guys enjoy? Share them please!

Zombies in Art 3

2011-09-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

Last edition of zombies in art!

1) Zombies by KAL1MAR1

A classic face nomming picture with very realistic special effects.

2) WWZ - The Battle of Yonkers by `adonihs

The Battle of Yonkers is one of the most memorable scenes of Max Brooks

' World War Z. It was a disastrous and horrible battle between the US military and the undead which is beautifully rendered in this work of art.

3) Zombie by ~uncherished

I have seen this photo all over the internet and I'm glad I finally found the original source. It's such a simple imagine, but very powerful and well put together.

4) Rex and Ashley's Fido Moment by ~Speed-Over

This photo is a very cute, 50's style photo. It's a homage to the film Fido (which you should totally see if you haven't) about a 50's zombie apocalypse situation where zombies have been enslaved to do menial tasks. A romance develops between a neglected housewife and her zombie butler, Fido.

In My Mailbox: Zombie Edition

2011-09-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

It's nearing the end of September Zombies and I've randomly been bombarded with zombie books this week! Yay!

1) Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey - purchased from Amazon. I didn't even know this one was about zombies when I first heard of it.

2) Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry - from Librarything Early Reviewers

3) Dearly Departed by Lia Habel - from Amazon Vine

4) Pat the Zombie by Aaron Ximm and Kaveh Soofi - won from Fiction State of Mind

5) Z by Michael Thomas Ford - won from Shut Up! I'm Reading

6) Dust by Joan Frances Turner - won from Shut Up! I'm Reading

Any awesome zombie reads shuffle their way to your mailbox?

Deadline + Giveaway!

2011-09-27T23:43:00.000-07:00

Shaun Mason is a shell of his former self. He doesn’t find joy in poking at zombies or blogging anymore. His life feels empty because his sister Georgia was killed. He doesn’t feel completely alone because George speaks to him in his head. Although well aware that the voice isn’t really George, he still speaks to her and makes his co-workers uneasy coupled with his penchant for rages and bursts of violence. Everything turns around when a CDC scientist fakes her own death and comes to him for help. Her work researching KA reservoir conditions is being repressed by someone killing everyone else on her team. Her research could lead to the real people that killed Georgia. So, after avoiding a messy murder attempt disguised as a zombie outbreak, Shaun and his news team need to stay one step ahead of their enemies and figure out why this research is being suppressed and how it relates to his sister’s death. Shaun needs to keep enough sanity to not completely alienate his friends and stay vigilant because the slightest mistake could mean the death of everyone he cares about.

I loved Deadline. As with the first book, I was completely glued to the page within the first chapter. If I had my way, I would have sat and read this book for as long as it took me to finish it. But in real life, pesky things like eating and sleeping forced me to reluctantly put the book down. The aspect that struck me the most was the detail in describing the Kellis-Amberlee virus and how it works. I’m always interested in the science aspect of zombies because I like the zombie mechanics to actually make sense within the world. This virus is the most unique I’ve ever read because a dormant version of it is in each and every person. I really couldn’t have asked for more scientific detail, which made the world incredibly realistic. When I read the book, I felt fully immersed in this wonderful and terrible world that seemed so much like our own.

In Feed, I noticed Shaun, but he didn’t honestly make a huge impact with me. Georgia’s character outshined him, mostly due to the fact the she narrated that book. He really shines in Deadline and has many more facets than I previously thought. Fiercely loyal and quick to anger, Shaun is an emotional character who feels crazy and broken since his sister died. The only one who really understands him is her voice in his head. He knows she’s dead and not really speaking to him, but the inner voice still provides insight and guidance. Shaun grew as a character from being shallow and adventure seeking to someone more fragile and serious. Through all of his pain, he never once gives up on finding answers. I enjoyed getting to know Shaun. I really want to reread Feed now and pay more attention to his character to better see the changes he’s gone through.

Deadline is a relentless adventure. The plot doesn’t stop and alternates between heart-stopping adventure and slow burning mystery solving. I like that this book is half action movie and half cerebral mystery. The ending is completely shocking, but sets up the next book. I’m glad Deadline isn’t a typical second book, where it’s typically just filler for the finale. I can’t wait for the next book and I would recommend this to all zombie fans.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

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Giveaway alert!! I'm giving away one copy of Feed and Deadline by Mira Grant to one lucky reader. Comment below with a way I can contact you. +2 entries for following and +1 for spreading the word (up to 5 times).

Open internationally. Ends 10/27/ Good luck!!

My Wishlist: Zombie Edition 3

2011-09-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

More zombie books I salivate over!!

1) Sadie Walker is Stranded by Madeleine Roux

Goodreads synopsis:

Sadie Walker fights for survival as the dead close in...In the months since The Outbreak, Seattle has become a walled citadel - the Infected are kept at bay but the city is rife with kidnappings, religious cults and black-market dealings. And things are about to get much, much worse. A group of frustrated religious fanatics, the 'Repopulationists', destroy part of the wall and zombies swarm the city. Devastated by the brutal kidnapping of her nephew, illustrator Sadie Walker flees Seattle with her best friend Andrea and secures passage on a boat with no destination. The ragtag bunch aboard the ship are thrown ashore by a storm and stumble across what appears to be a thriving survivors camp. The shipwrecked group, relived to find food, shelter and friendship, relax into the rhythm of the community's existence. But then people start to disappear...

I loved Allison Walker is Trapped, so I can't wait for the follow-up. I'm not sure if any of the characters from the first one will appear, but I'm hoping for at least small appearances. I'm also curious to see if there is a similar frame story that was present in the first. This comes out 1/31/2012!

2) Blackout by Mira Grant

No official synopsis or cover is released yet, but I need this book now! Deadline is a magnificent book and the ending is completely shocking. It made me sad that I read it soon after it came out so I have to wait so long for the last book! This series is excellent and really delves into the science of zombies while keeping up a great plot with political intrigue and realistic characters. This one comes out 6/7/2012.

3) Dust and Decay by Jonathan Maberry

Goodreads synopsis:

Six months have passed since the terrifying battle with Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer in the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot & Ruin. It’s also six months since Benny Imura and Nix Riley saw something in the air that changed their lives. Now, after months of rigorous training with Benny’s zombie-hunter brother Tom, Benny and Nix are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future. Lilah the Lost Girl and Benny’s best friend Lou Chong are going with them.

Sounds easy. Sounds wonderful. Except that everything that can go wrong does. Before they can even leave there is a shocking zombie attack in town. But as soon as they step into the Rot & Ruin they are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, insane murderers and the horrors of Gameland –where teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in the zombie pits. Worst of all…could the evil Charlie Pink-eye still be alive?

In the great Rot & Ruin everything wants to kill you. Everything…and not everyone in Benny’s small band of travelers will make it out alive.

I just read Rot and Ruin and I can't wait to get my hands on this sequel! I've heard nothing but good things about it and the cover is completely awesome. I think I'll be shedding a few tears over this one too, so I'll get the tissue box ready.

Any zombie reads you guys can't wait to read??

Zombies in Magic

2011-09-25T22:47:00.001-07:00

Magic the Gathering has always featured zombies as one of the main creature types for the color black. Who doesn't like shambling masses of zombies at their disposal to vanquish their enemies? Sometimes they get less or more popular, depending on the focus of the given set, but they are always there. Here are some older zombies:

Headless Horseman (later classified as a zombie)

Fleshbag Maurader

Grave Titan

Bog Raiders

Geth, Lord of the Vault

Korlash, Heir to the Blackblade

Thraximundar

Since the Unglued set (which featured non-tournament legal cards for fun) in 1998, there have been full art token cards to show regular zombies with no special abilities that are usually produced through a creature, like Grave Titan, or a spell of some sort. These all have the same strength and toughness (2/2), but I like how the artists imagine them differently, depending on the set. Here are a few of the zombie tokens used throughout the years.

Unglued

10th Edition

Shards of Alara

M10

New Phyrexia

Innistrad

Innistrad is the newest set that features classic monsters in new and different ways. Instead ow werewolves, vampire, and zombies all being black creatures, they are all over the color spectrum except white (which is reserved for humans, spirits, and angels). Here are some of the new zombies and zombie cards that are a bit different than their earlier counterparts:

Skaab Ruinator

Endless Ranks of the Undead

Grimgrin the Corpse Born

Unbreathing Horde

I hope zombies will always be a main creature type in Magic and I can't wait to build myself an awesome zombie deck with these new Innistrad cards!

The Walking Dead

2011-09-24T17:39:00.001-07:00

I had some misgivings when I heard about The Walking Dead TV show that was going to air on AMC, but I was also really excited. The comic book series is excellent and I'm always salivating for the next book to come out. I was worried that the show wouldn't live up to my expectations or might not be true to the comic book. It isn't completely true to the comic, but I think it actually makes the show better than if it did and makes it exciting for those of us who have read the comic series. I do believe it stays true to the spirit of the comic book.

Right off the bat, in the very first scene of the first episode, The Walking Dead challenges the viewer if they really want to watch the show. The first scene is where Rick runs into a little girl who he assumes is human, but then he sees her ravaged face and realizes he must kill her. He shoots her and she falls as a gout of blood shoots from the back of her head. Squeamish people or people who don't want to watch zombie children getting killed will change the channel after a scene like that. I really respected the director and writers for starting with such a strong scene because that's the reality of the show. It's better for those people to stop watching now instead of two or three episodes in. Plus I always respect the people that will kill children in horror media because it's still a taboo in the genre and still pretty rare to see.

The characters are true to their comic book counter parts, which is amazing since the series is largely driven by the human characters as opposed to the zombies. The themes explored are all about us: what would we do to survive? how do we stay moral without any government or organized society? what do we need to sacrifice in order to survive? Rick is my favorite character because he's thrust into a leadership position that he doesn't really want. He has to make the hard decisions and lead this hodge podge group and it's on him whether they live or die. He's also the easiest to like. There are characters that we aren't really meant to like, such as the Dixon brothers. They are racist, abrasive, and horrible, but do they really deserve to be eaten by zombies? The entire cast is talented and convey the emotional horror of the zombie apocalypse very well.

Although the show follows the graphic novels pretty well, there are significant differences, especially in the latter half of the show. I thought I would hate this, but it gives the comic book readers something interesting to look forward to instead of knowing everything that's coming up. The most significant change is the CDC subplot, which was pretty awesome. I hope it has greater repercussions in the second season. All the other changes are relatively minor and don't really change much at all. The only bad thing about the show was that it was only 6 episodes long.

The Walking Dead first season was a success from special effects to zombie makeup to directing to the musical score. This show is the most realistic depiction of zombies that I've seen and how humans can deal with them. No one is safe and anyone, even main characters, can die. I can't wait for the next season to start! It starts 10/16 and will have 13 episodes.

My rating: 10/10

28 Days Later

2011-09-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

A group of idealistic animal activists break into a laboratory to free monkeys that are being experimented on. The captive scientists warns them that they are extremely contagious, but they don't listen, unleashing a devastating virus that causes mindless rage in the infected into the world. 28 days later, Jim wakes up in an empty hospital room. Then he discovers that the hospital, the street, the city, and all of England is a barren wasteland. After encountering other survivors, he discovers that the last piece of news before the TV and radio went out was that the virus was spreading. Jim and his small group of survivors hear a broadcast over the radio, urging them to join a military group for shelter, safety, and an answer to the plague. With no other options or places to go, they head to the location, satisfied with some sort of plan for the future. They try no to dwell on the fact that the men that left that message may already be dead.

28 Days Later is a unique zombie film. I've avoided seeing it for a long time because I would catch bits and pieces and I wasn't really impressed. Seeing the film in its entirety is a different experience, so I'm glad I finally sat down to watch it. It isn't perfect, but a very good addition to the zombie genre. The film has beautiful and powerful cinematography. Danny Boyle is extremely talented and crafted surprisingly artistic scenes. The most visually striking scenes are when Jim is wandering London, which is completely empty. The signs of the apocalypse are the only things that mar the landscape and include overturned cars, money all over the floor near banks, fires, and dead bodies. The aftermath of the chaos, the silence, and the blank canvas of a city created a suspenseful atmosphere. The Infected are also filmed in a different way than the rest of the film, giving them a jumpy, rough quality that sets them apart from the rest of the characters.

The zombies aren't quite zombies. They are more akin to the Beaters in Sophie Littlefield's Aftertime because they are still human, but driven by rage. It makes more sense why they are fast because they are still living, breathing humans. Because they can't feel pain normally, they can push themselves beyond human limits. When humans aren't around, they go into a dormant state, which is a perfect time to conserve energy and rest. They come out of this state when humans get their attention, through movement, sound, or even light in the darkness. The virus that causes the rage state is very much like Ebola: transmitted through blood, saliva, and other body fluids and can communicable between primates and humans. One aspect of the disease that is unique is the infected vomiting gouts of blood in order to spread the disease. This just made sense to me and reminded me of a disease that makes rats get eaten by cats so it can be in its preferred host. With the infected being human, it seems to be only a matter of time until they starve to death (or, more realistically, die of thirst).

The film poses some important philosophical questions. Is survival or happiness/friendship more important? How far should science go with experimenting with deadly viruses/biological weapons? Is there a point when life is no longer worth living? How far would you go to protect yourself and loved ones and survive? At one point in the film, Jim is committing horrible acts of violence against humans to protect the women he's traveling with. The film technique used for the zombies is used for Jim in this instance, challenging the viewer to compare the two. When he finishes his violent acts, one of the women can't tell whether he has been infected or not: his appearance is savage and the acts he committed are very similar to what one infected would do. This also challenges us to define what it is to be human.

This is no ordinary horror film. 28 Days Later explores many themes critiquing society and it revamps the zombie in a unique way. I must say that this is one of the most suspenseful and frightening films I've seen in a while. I literally screamed out loud at some points and had the urge to cover my eyes. The soundtrack created a perfect atmosphere and heightened the suspenseful moments. I had a few very minor problems with it, but overall I highly recommend this film to all zombie fans.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Zombie Songs 2

2011-09-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

Zombie tunes to shuffle around to!!!

1) Walk Like a Zombie by The Horrorpops

The Horrorpops are a punk, rockabilly band from Denmark and this song describes what it's like to be in love with a zombie. It's super cute and catchy and I would love to hear more from this band! The fanmade video using images from my favorite movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas is just perfect.

2) Nobody Likes You When You're Dead by Zombina and the Skeletones

First of all, Zombina and the Skeletones is an awesome band name. They are a British band that frequently uses themes of horror and science fiction in their music, which makes my inner nerd do a dance. This song describes the injustices of being a zombie. People just treat you differently. :( I love the video. The band starts out as Tina and the Monotones, but then turns zombie, turning the audience into zombies as they play.

3) Zombies Everywhere by Karate High School

This California band takes a more pop-rock angle to the zombie song. The song describes the zombie apocalypse and, judging by the lyrics, it could easily lend itself to using zombies as a metaphor for blind consumerism, complacency, etc. I like the brain chant in the middle. :)

4) Zombie Me by No More Kings

Another super catchy zombie song with a nice rock groove with a little bit of rap thrown in the mix, describing the zombie experience in a fun way.

Share your favorite zombie songs!

Zombie Apocalypse Giveaway!

2011-09-21T01:19:00.000-07:00

I am giving away a total of 9 books to 3 lucky winners to celebrate September Zombies. Here are the 3 book bundles to choose from:

1) Recht and Ash

* Plague of the Dead by Z.A. Recht

* Thunder and Ashes by Z.A. Recht

* Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness

2) Love and Zombies

* Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen

* Flip this Zombie by Jesse Petersen

* Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

3) Zombie Apocalypse

* Cell by Stephen King

* Monster Island by David Wellington

* Pariah by Bob Fingerman

To enter:

* leave a comment with your email address

extra entries:

+2 follow Fishmuffins of Doom

+1 spread the word on Twitter, your blog sidebar, etc. (up to 5 times)

Open internationally. Ends 10/21. Good luck!

Internet Awesomeness: Zombie Edition 2

2011-09-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

1) Plants vs. Zombies Wall-nut gets Bitten

Ever wonder if your plants turn to zombies when they get bitten or what they talk about when their not defending your house? Find out in this video!

2) Zombies: The Ramifications of Yes

If only every person making decisions for a company would keep the zombie apocalypse in mind. But how spoiled milk makes people into zombies is a mystery to me.

3) I Love Sarah Jane

This is a great short film about the lives of a group of children and young adults after the zombie apocalypse. The themes share a lot in common with Jonathan Maberry's Dust and Decay, the most notable being recognizing that zombies were once human. I was surprised that such a short film managed to incite such strong feelings of both sympathy and disgust.

Link any zombie videos you would like to share!

The Dark and Hollow Places

2011-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

** slight spoilers ahead **

Annah is haunted by many memories: the memory of leaving her sister when they were young in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, the painful memory of getting caught in barbed wire and being forever scarred, and lastly, the memory of Elias leaving for the recruiters. Elias hasn't come home even though the requisite 2 years is up and her sister was as good as dead left alone as a child in the Forest. Annah is utterly alone and struggling to keep her hope alive in her dilapidated, empty apartment, but loses the battle. Armed with resolve to leave and start anew, Annah sees her sister at the gates to the Dark City with an infected young man. She turns back to find her sister, alleviate her own guilt, and reconnect with her twin. Unfortunately, forces outside of their control seek to keep them from finding a new life, namely the Recruiters (corrupt and brutal military men) and the walking dead.

The Dark and Hollow Places is told through the eyes of Annah, Gabry's twin introduced in the previous book. The change in perspective is at first a little strange and then a welcome experience. Annah is completely different than both Gabry and Mary. Her hard life has taken a toll on her and made her more hardened and callous than the others. Her outlook on life is bleak, which isn't surprising considering the world in which she lives: one without hope or love. The scars on her face are just a fraction of the actual scars she has, both physical and emotional. She is strong and self sufficient or she wouldn't have survived very long in the Dark City. Her journey to freedom from the Dark City is paralleled by her journey to self acceptance. Her guilt and hatred for herself has consumed her for so long that she sees herself as a horrible and broken person, unworthy of any real relationship. As the story goes along, she learns to feel comfortable in her own skin and embrace her identity. This aspect of the story is one I think everyone can relate to. The story is really about a girl struggling to find her place in the world and learning to accept herself.

The change in perspective is especially interesting because the characters and places all look different through Annah's eyes. The Dark City that Gabry's friends so long to live in is actually not somewhere anyone in their right mind would want to live in. The recruiters that rule it are brutal and violent, stealing from and abusing its citizens. The city is broken and horrible, just as it seems the whole world is. It isn't long before that city is also overrun with the Unconsecrated. The view of Elias is also very different. I remembered liking him in The Dead Tossed Waves, but now I really don't like him. He abandoned Annah to join the Recruiters, which was noble at the time. What really angered me was that he chose to stay with the Recruiters even though he knew Annah was out there on her own, waiting for him. He also leads her on and then acts as if nothing happened. To Gabry, he's amazing, but to Annah, he is an insensitive jerk.

The dystopian aspects of the story are still intact and work very well. The Recruiters are awful, but also realistic. They do what they have to in order to survive and lord their power over those who are weaker for entertainment. They prove to be even more monstrous than the zombies and the characters fear them about as much. A wider view of the world is shown as well, but most of it is unfortunately overrun with zombies, dampening the hope that there is some sanctuary still in existence against the undead. This installment is the darkest and best of the trilogy. I recommend this to any zombie or dystopia fan.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Zombie Fluxx

2011-09-18T11:19:00.001-07:00

Zombie Fluxx is a zombapocalypse game with constantly changing rules for anywhere from 2 to around 10 people. (The directions say up to 6, but it totally works with a bigger group.) My best friend gave it to me for my last birthday and everyone I know has had a blast playing it. The game comes with 100 cards and, of course, instructions.

There are different types of cards: goal cards, ungoal cards, keeper cards, creeper cards, action cards, and new rule cards. Goal cards tell you what sort of cards you need in play to win. Ungoal cards allow the zombies to win and all the players to lose. Keeper cards are items that have different uses and help satisfy the goal requirements. Creeper cards are zombies move around the board and come alone or in groups. Action cards allow you to do things such as draw more cards, discard cards, steal things from other people, etc. The new rule cards are what makes the game so fun: they change the rules of the game. At the beginning, everyone is given 3 cards. The base rule is to draw 1 card and play 1 card. There are cards to change those numbers, make players groan when zombies are played, render keepers useless or discarded, etc.

This game is super easy to play and usually a half hour at the most to finish. It's fast paced and you have to pay attention to the different rules and win conditions. The game is even better with more plays because no two games are ever going to be the same. Chance is a huge part of game play, so no matter how you strategize, you may become disappointed when a random card comes along and ruins your careful plans. That's about the the only negative for this game. There are many different types of Fluxx games and you can even mix two of the games together. I really want to try Monty Python Fluxx and Zombie Fluxx together because they seem like the most zany fun. I think the zombie version is the best because zombies are superior to pirates, Martians, and even Monty Python. I highly recommend this super fun, party game!

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

My Life as a White Trash Zombie

2011-09-17T01:12:00.000-07:00

Angel Crawford is white trash and she knows it. She lives in an old, broken down house with beer cans for a driveway with her drunk, abusive father. Her addiction to prescription meds and her enjoyment of pot and beer keep her from keeping any one job for long. Angel also has a felony on her record because she bought a car that had been stolen from someone she mistakenly trusted. Her life completely turns around when she wakes up at the hospital. She is told she overdosed on drugs, but she remembers being covered in blood. An unknown benefactor leaves her mysterious liquid medicine and a job offer at the county morgue. Unable to previous stomach any sort of gore or blood, Angel is surprised that she is unphased by the job, even when she has to help with autopsies. The only really weird thing is when she gets really hungry at the smell of brains… Over the weeks she works there, a rash of beheading murders occurs, but they seem to be unrelated in any way. Can Angel figure out what they have in common and stop the killer?

My Life as a White Trash Zombie is a different type of zombie novel and proved to be funny and enjoyable read. Based on the title and cover, I didn’t have huge expectations and I didn’t expect to get as sucked in as I did. Angel is a great main character. Despite her screw-ups, flaws, and complacency, she is a clever person who just needed a second chance. When her drug dependence was killed by becoming a zombie, she took the opportunity to straighten her life out. She went from uncaring and downright lazy to productive, cunning, and vulnerable. Without drugs to numb her, she experiences the world differently. She actually cares about those around her, much more than for herself. I really connected with her character and grew to like her more as the book went on.

One of my favorite things about this book is the mechanics of Diana Rowland’s zombies. Angel didn’t even realize she was a zombie at first. They can blend seamlessly into human society as long as they can consume brains about every couple days. With brains, they are no different than humans. They look the same, eat the same food, and feel the same. The only difference in that state is drugs or medicines have no effect at all. When they don’t have access to brains, zombies deteriorate quickly. Their skin gets grey and very fragile. Nails fall off. Skin is brittle and easily tears. They start to smell of decay. Plus their senses are heightened and the humans around them smell like delicious food. I really like these new zombie mechanics and look forward to how Angel is in the next book when she’s fairly used to her new state.

My only criticism would be the mystery aspect. The villain became obvious and there wasn’t any intrigue or nuance. I expected red herrings and wrong turns, but came away a little disappointed. Maybe the next book will be better now that all the world building is already in place.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie is a quirky zombie read that I highly recommend. I can’t wait for the next book, Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

The Affinity Bridge

2011-09-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

Victorian England is in turmoil. Revenants, undead creatures, prowl the night and spread their sickness to unsuspecting citizens. Also, a supposed ghost of a murdered police man has been strangling passersby in White Chapel. Many have died so far and there are no witnesses or leads. Sir Maurice Newbury, agent of the Queen and anthropologist for the British Museum, is in the middle of investigating that series of murders when the Crown requested that he investigate a mysterious and tragic accident. An aircraft piloted by an automaton crashed in Finsbury Park and killed everyone inside of it. He and his intrepid assistant, Veronica Hobbes, are on the case and investigate. It starts off as a conventional investigation until multiple attempts on their lives are made. Can Maurice and Veronica figure out the two mysteries before more people die or they are killed?

The Affinity Bridge is steeped in an alternative history version of Victorian England. There are flying airships in the air, clockwork automatons as servants and pilots, revenant zombies in the streets, and even a crude life support system to keep Queen Victoria alive. The book opens with a horrific zombie scene in India and then the story goes to England, where much of the investigation is simply in Victorian society. At points, I was lulled into the sense that I was reading a normal Victorian mystery novel and then I would be jarred when clockwork men or zombies attacked. I haven’t read a book quite like this one and I enjoyed that the supernatural aspects weren’t all encompassing. Even though the technology in this book is more advanced than the actual era, poverty, hunger, and their infamous mistreatment of mental illness unfortunately still exist. These stark realities gave the book a believability I don’t think it would have had if they were absent.

The main characters in this book are flawed and dynamic, with their own sets of insecurities and sordid secrets. Maurice Newbury is a brilliant detective and anthropologist with an addiction to opium. He is slightly Holmes-like, but much more eager to physically fight. I felt they portrayed his physical strength and stamina a bit overexaggerated. His past is rather murky, but the small allusions to it left me wondering. I always like a story to feel that there is more to it than the book can contain. Veronica Hobbes is my favorite character. She is a strong, confident woman with a no-nonsense attitude. She’s very sensible and seems rather cold, but her close relationship with her sister proves otherwise. I really feel Veronica wasn’t utilized to her fullest ability and I hope the next book will improve.

The rest of the characters are largely one dimensional and more like stock characters, even the villains. They didn’t have facets to them like the main characters did. Victorian society also isn’t portrayed very realistically. The close friendship between Veronica and Maurice would have been largely disapproved of and would have had serious consequences for Veronica.

Overall, I enjoyed The Affinity Bridge despite the lacking minor characters and depiction of Victorian society. I would recommend it to fans of Gail Carriger’s Alexia Tarabotti series.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Zombie Songs

2011-09-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

More zombie tunes!

1) Day of the Dead by Voltaire

The Day of the Dead celebration isn't necessarily about zombies, but I think Voltaire's depiction is pretty awesome: zombies coming from beyond the grave to party!

2) Re: Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton

This song introduces zombies to the office. Zombies are trying to convince a guy to come out of his office so they can eat his brains. But of course, they aren't unreasonable: no one's going to eat his eyes. The lyrics are hilarious and their pleading reminds of the badly misspelled letters from the zombies in Plants vs. Zombies trying to convince you to some out.

3) You're a Zombie Now by Sam Hart

It's sad when a relationship ends because one person turns into a zombie. :(

Share the zombie tunes you love!

Zombie Art 2

2011-09-14T11:38:00.001-07:00

More zombie art!

1) Zombie Broadway by ~narm

I love this piece. It has elegance, music, tragedy, drama, and a beautiful art deco vibe. Everything a zombie musical should have. I wish this was an actual musical! More zombie musicals plz.

2) Zombie 1 by ~pophipi

This is a fairly simple photo, but full of the horror of a zombie uprising. I think this is the scariest sight and it would signify the beginning of the end. It's just chilling.

3) Twilight feat. Zombiez by *meru-chan

If Edward had been a zombie, the Twilight books would have been so much more awesome. It's a less subtle necrophilia than vampires. ;)

4) Unholiest by *thegirlinthebigbox

I really like Glee and this is one of the greatest depictions of the main 3 Cheerios that I have ever seen. The work on deviantArt comes with a great little zombie fanfic that I recommend reading.

Share your favorite zombie art!

My Wishlist: Zombie Edition 2

2011-09-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

More upcoming zombie books and books I drool over!

1) Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry

Jonathan Maberry is coming out with a new zombie book that looks awesome!

A prison doctor injects a condemned serial killer with a formula designed to keep his consciousness awake while his body rots in the grave. But all drugs have unforeseen side-effects. Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up. Hungry. Infected. Contagious. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…but a bite. (synopsis from Amazon)

A serial killer zombie? How can I pass that up? Release date: October 25, 2011

2) Autumn: The City by David Moody

I really liked the slow burning first installment in the series and I hope the second is even better.

Everything that means anything to you is taken away in seconds. No warning. No explanation. Nothing. AUTUMN: THE CITY is the first sequel to the acclaimed horror novel AUTUMN. A virulent disease rips across the face of the planet, killing billions of people in less than twenty-four hours. A small group of survivors cower in fear in the desolate remains of a silent city. As the full extent of the devastation caused by the disease is revealed the desperate people fight to keep thousands upon thousands of plague victims at bay and to continue to survive from day to day. They fight to stay alive. The unexpected appearance of a company of soldiers again threatens the survivor's fragile existence. Do they trust this sudden military presence? Will the military bring them hope and answers, or just more fear, pain and destruction? Far more than an ordinary sequel, AUTUMN: THE CITY expands on the nightmare of the first novel and takes the reader closer to discovering what caused the death of billions of people on a single inauspicious September day. (Summary from Goodreads)

The military aspect seems especially interesting.

3) Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield

I just read the first book, Aftertime, and I loved it! The fresh new take on zombies and the flawed, strong female protagonist made for a great zombie read.

The end of the world was just the beginning

Civilization has fallen, leaving California an unforgiving, decimated place. But Cass Dollar beat terrible odds to get her missing daughter back—she and Ruthie will be happy.

Yet with the first winter, Cass is reminded that happiness is fleeting in Aftertime. Ruthie retreats into silence.

Flesh—eating Beaters still dominate the landscape. And Smoke, Cass's lover and strength, departs on a quest for vengeance, one that may end him even if he returns.

The survivalist community Cass has planted roots in is breaking apart, too. Its leader, Dor, implores Cass to help him recover his own lost daughter, taken by the totalitarian Rebuilders. And soon Cass finds herself thrust into the dark heart of an organization promising humanity's rebirth—at all costs.

Bound to two men blazing divergent paths across a savage land, Cass must overcome the darkness in her wounded heart, or lose those she loves forever. (summary from Amazon)

I'm not wild about the possibility of a love triangle, but the rest shows great potential.

Any other zombie books on your wishlist?

Zombie Dice

2011-09-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

I had heard of Zombie Dice before, but I never learned to play until I saw a demonstration at Comic-Con. It's a fast and fun game that's perfect for waiting in long lines or car rides or really playing anywhere, as long as there's a flat surface.

In this game, you are the zombie and you want brains!! There are 14 dice in 3 colors: green, yellow, and red. On each die is 3 possible outcomes: shotgun blasts, footprints, or brains. The shotgun blasts are bad and mean that you've been shot. The footprints aren't horrible, but they mean that your prey has walked away. The brains are awesome because the object is to eat them. The colors indicate the probability of getting good rolls, the best being green (84%), the worst being red (50%).

To win, you must have 13 brains saved. On your turn, you roll 3 random dice. You keep the shotgun blasts and the brains and you can re-roll the rest and add more random ones when needed, always rolling 3 dice. Your turn is over when you run out of dice, get 3 shotgun blasts, or want to save your brains. If you get 3 shotgun blasts, you lose any brains you may have gotten in that turn. When one person gets at least 13 brains, there is one more round to give everyone else a chance to catch up to or surpass that player. It's super easy to learn and fun to play with pretty much any amount of people of almost any age group.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

As The World Dies: The First Days

2011-09-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

On a normal day just like any other, Jenni is making breakfast for her kids, wondering why her abusive husband never came home. Katie is getting ready for court later that day and kissing her girlfriend goodbye. Then disaster strikes and both of their families are torn apart (quite literally). Katie happens upon Jenni as she stands frozen in shock at her zombified children and saves her. Together (along with their dog Jack), the duo become a fierce zombie-killing team and go in search of Jenni’s stepson, who they don’t even know if he’s alive or not. He is trapped at a zombie infested camp ground and they have no idea how many zombies there are or how they will get away. Will they survive their rescue attempt? If so, where can they find a safe place from the zombies?

Rhiannon Frater grabs my attention on the very first page. The first image introduced is tiny, bloody fingers trying to grab Jenni from under her front door. Those fingers belong to her three year old son. If I remember nothing else from this book, that image of tiny, bloody fingers attached to an insatiable three year old zombie will be burned into my brain forever. It’s not surprising that the genesis of the novel came from that one scene. I also like this scene because it sets up the disturbing factor early. If you can’t handle a small child as a zombie, then you should just put down the book now (much like the opening scene in The Walking Dead TV show). Scenes like this and even worse would happen in such an event. Who are you around the most? Your friends and family. Of course you would certainly have to face killing one of them, no matter how young they are, because they are infected and want to eat you.

The characters are realistic, normal people who have found themselves in an extraordinary situation, so they adapt. Jenni was a beaten, empty shell of a person before the zombies. It took a while of being practically catatonic to become fairly normal and then she became a gleeful and adept zombie killer. Her zeal can be a little off putting, but she moved on from her old life and came to be a person without the constant fear of abuse. Each character had their own separate transformations of varying degrees, but I never thought that they grew to be too good. Mistakes are still made and people still die. The only thing I thought was unrealistic was the amount of supplies, weapons, and ammo. Conservation is important and needless wasting is never a good idea. Maybe this will become more of a problem in later books.

Frater’s zombies are normal for the most part. They shuffle, moan, try to eat people. The only different thing is that these zombies grow smarter as the book goes along. I would like to know the zombie science behind it, but no scientists are in their group. For now, I can accept that the virus may be mutating or going into a second stage of infection. I can’t wait to read the next book to see how the virus progresses.

The First Days is a good, solid addition to the zombie genre. I’m interested to see what happens after the initial outbreak and how the remaining survivors deal with sustaining for the long term.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Rot & Ruin

2011-09-11T19:32:00.001-07:00

The First Night occurred 14 years ago, the day when the dead rose. Benny Imura was only a baby that night and only has fuzzy memories of being handed to his older half brother, Tom, and Tom running away, leaving his mother to die. This image is burned into his mind and he sees his brother as a coward. Now, society isn’t as it used to be. Instead of large sprawling cities, civilization is reduced to small, sparse settlements. Benny is 15, which, in the society left in the wake of the dead, means that he has to get a job or lose half of his food rations. He goes job hunting with a friend, but doesn’t have any luck due to being overly picky and generally lazy. His only option left is becoming an apprentice to Tom in his bounty hunting business. Benny figures this job will entail going out into the Rot and Ruin to slice and dice zombies, but the experiences beyond the boundaries of civilization will serve to not only change his view of his brother, but of life and undeath.

Jonathan Maberry is an accomplished zombie novelist (as in he writes awesome zombie novels and isn’t really a zombie...I hope). His writing style and skilled story telling translate well into a young adult book. Benny is a completely believable character who has the misfortune to grow up in a zombie-ridden world. Now, the society he lives in expects him to grow up and become self sufficient, which he resisted at every turn. I found him very annoying at this point. He is completely ashamed of his big brother and refuses to try to get to know him. The first half of the book consists of him whining, complaining, and running away from responsibility until he has no other option. After his brother takes him into the Rot and Ruin (which is the uninhabited ruin of the past that surrounds their small settlement), everything changes. Benny sees things he can never forget. He questions the other bounty hunters’ ethics when he sees them torture zombies and doesn’t see them as the epitome of cool anymore. Tom reminds him that zombies were once people and just because their corpses are walking around doesn’t make it ok to mutilate their bodies for amusement. He only kills them when it’s truly needed or he gets a request from a loved one. Only Maberry can make it absolutely heartbreaking to kill a zombie. Benny really grows as a person and makes decisions about his own morals and ethics as we all do when we grow up.

The world in the novel is both smaller and larger than it seems in real life. It’s smaller because technology and electricity are irrationally shunned and blamed for the zombie apocalypse. Their pockets of society stay small and can’t easily connect with other cities let alone other states or continents. It’s bigger because now that society is more compact, the wide open spaces are almost like the US before it was ever settled: full of possibility yet dangerous and wild. I have never seen a world quite like this one and the next book, Dust and Decay, should expand the view of it.

Rot and Ruin is an exceptional zombie book. Jonathan Maberry manages to capture the familiar coming of age experience to and transports it into a strange, post-apocalyptic, zombie ridden world. I would recommend it to any zombie fan.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Allison Hewitt is Trapped

2011-09-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Allison Hewitt is trapped in a bookstore. Zombies started to walk the earth while she was at work and she witnessed a regular customer getting her throat ripped out by a zombie. So, she and her coworkers hole up in their break room. They venture out for the meager snacks at the café and front desk, but living in such close quarters is wearing thin especially when there is no access to showers or a working toilet. To stave of insanity and loneliness, Allison starts a blog where she publishes her experiences in the zombie apocalypse using SNet, an emergency military network. As her adventure goes beyond the bookstore, she posts about her budding romance, pseudomilitary bullies, religious zealots, and a zombie squirrel.

Allison Hewitt is Trapped is a zombie novel with plenty of humor, scares, suspense, and romance. I really like that Allison is like me: a lit student with no experience with weapons and is expected to die within the first hour of the zombie apocalypse. She beats the odds and becomes very competent and badass, learning to use weapons and getting in crazy shape due to necessity. Of course not all is roses and rainbows. Her will to survive and the lack of any societal or legal rules causes Allison to commit terrible acts she didn’t know she was capable of, including maiming a man who stole food and leaving him to be eaten by zombies. The zombie apocalypse also doesn’t get in the way of her love life when she falls for Collin, former astronomy professor. I like this aspect because human feeling doesn’t just cease to exist even during a world shattering event.

I really like the frame story and the blog format. The opening page is a letter urging the archive of Allison’s blog to be included in an anthology of biographical essays of important figures from the Outbreak. The author of the letter, Professor Michael E. Stockton Jr., asserts that Allison’s account is easy to relate to for the average person because she did what was needed to survive just like anyone in her situation would. The last page is the response to that later, which I won’t spoil. The blog format is what makes the novel a little more interesting than just a zombie story. I like that Allison is honest throughout, even when her accounts may not paint her in the most favorable way. People from all over the world comment on her blog and shed light on what is going on beyond Allison’s world. They serve as a support group for each other and dispense advice as well as share updates on their situations. This is a unique format is sustained through the entire book.

The only thing I felt was lacking was the one appearance of a zombie squirrel. This proves that the virus can be given to animals, but this fact ignored in the rest of the book. I think it’s significant, especially to those surviving off of hunting and fishing.

Allison Hewitt is Trapped is a good zombie adventure with a strong female narrator. I would recommend it to any zombie fan and fellow lit majors.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Aftertime

2011-09-09T00:56:00.001-07:00

California has been reduced to a barren wasteland by a failed scientific experiment that created horrific creatures called Beaters. They are people who have turned savage, mutilating themselves, eating skin (both theirs and others’), and generally spreading around their sickness. Because of these creatures and the bioterrorism that created them, the government has fallen apart, leaving people to form their own factions and live by their own laws. Cass Dollar woke up horribly scarred and alone with no memory of the injuries, where she is, or how much time has passed. She also doesn’t know where her daughter, Ruthie, is or if she’s ok or if she’s even alive. Her daughter is everything to her and her main goal (besides, obviously, surviving) is to find her at any cost. Cass’s journey will take her to unlikely places and encounter many different types of people, but she will never stop trying to get to Ruthie.

I wasn’t expecting a lot from Aftertime because it was published by Luna, an offshoot of Harlequin. I figured the zombie aspect would take a backseat to the romance because of this and prepared myself accordingly. I was completely wrong and I am very impressed with Aftertime. Although there is some measure of romance with Smoke, the sexy, mysterious man who helps Cass, the real story of the novel is about the love of a mother for her child and the lengths she will go to protect her. Cass hasn’t always been a great mom. Before the Beaters, she was a promiscuous alcoholic and, as a result, Ruthie was taken away from her. When she woke up, she tries to turn it all around with perseverance and will alone. She still isn’t a perfect character, but I think anyone could relate to her (well, except maybe super judgmental people) because we all make mistakes. Even with her colorful past, I like Cass and I admire that she braves death and dismemberment to make amends and protect her child where so many other people would just stay save and give up.

This post-apocalyptic world is unique to others of its kind. Different factions argue for power and some stay neutral to befriend both sides. The Rebuilders try to take supplies and locations from people in the name of the government which no longer exists. They intimidate and harm people in the name of their false cause and make a lot of enemies. The Box is a small slice of hedonism that will sell drugs, booze, music, and sex in exchange for supplies. I’ve never really seen something like it in post-apocalyptic books, but it makes sense. People want to escape reality and drown their sorrows and now there are no laws in place to stop the drug and sex trade. The third faction is the Convent, a mysterious sect of religious women. Although devout in their own brand of religion, there is something weird about them, but they keep in the good graces of the Box and the Rebuilders to do trade and preserve their safety. They are incredibly creepy, but you’ll have to read to find out why.

The zombies in Aftertime aren’t they typical undead variety, but they are frightening nonetheless. They only like to eat skin, instead of indiscriminately chowing down on any given body part. I think this is even more frightening because chewing off your skin isn’t likely to kill you. You will be slowly tortured by being flayed and then turned into one of them. They are alive, so are frailer than the undead, but they don’t seem to feel pain the same way and can push their limits beyond what normal humans can. I really like this new take on zombies and I can’t wait to see where else Sophie Littlefield takes them, especially if the virus evolves.

Aftertime is an excellent zombie novel that surprised me with its realistic characters, post-apocalyptic societies, and crazy reimagining of zombies. The only negative aspects of the book were some editing problems, but I barely noticed them because the writing and story were so engaging. I would recommend this to any zombie fan and I eagerly await the next book, Rebirth.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Zombie Music: Aaron Stoquert

2011-09-08T02:03:00.000-07:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://aaronstoquert.bandcamp.com/album/run-for-your-life"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Run For Your Life by Aaron Stoquert&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

I've featured many zombie songs on my blog, but I've never encountered zombie music quite like this. Aaron Stoquert released on EP called Run for Your Life. The 5 songs are about zombies and, unlike many zombie songs out there, are told from the undead perspective. Many zombie songs are either super heavy metal/scream-o (which I don't enjoy at all) or light and comical, like Voltaire and Laura Shigihara. Aaron Stoquert's music is rooted in folk and has a country undercurrent. His dark and haunting voice and his acoustic guitar create the perfect mood and feeling. The sparse arrangement is minimalistic and brings to mind a barren landscape dotted by smatterings of zombies. The music is emotional and serious without being overdramatic. The music is masterfully written and performed.

The subject matter is more serious and articulates the feelings and thoughts that zombies have but aren't able to express. This is a level of zombie emotion that isn't explored very often. Beyond this EP, I would say Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies is the only other work that comes to mind that does this really well. This EP is available on his Bandcamp and you can either name your price or download it for free. I would recommend donating some money because I would love to hear a full length album from Aaron whether it's about zombies or not.

Zombies in Art 1

2011-09-07T12:25:00.001-07:00

I have scoured the internets (mostly just deviantArt.com actually) and found some amazing zombie art that I would love to share with you!

1) Om Nom Nom by *Alephunky

Who would have thought that zombie fingers could be creepy and funny? It's a very simple photo, but clever and silly.

2) Zombie Walk 2010 by ~proxybutterfly

This zombie makeup and costume is simply amazing. Through the bloody makeup, she actually looks quite beautiful and serene.

3) Zombie Day: Circle by ~BrunaBrito

I never knew how busy a zombie's day was! It's nice to know if I ever turn zombie I will have lots to do. The little zombies are just adorable. My favorite times of day are MJ Thriller Dance time, Catch on Fire time, and Hide from Military/Woody Harrelson time. To see all the individual times better, I would recommend clicking the title and full viewing it on deviantArt.

4) Sharing is Caring by ~FemmeBrulee

An adorable depiction of zombie love complete with brains in the popcorn. Awwww!

Have you done or seen zombie art you want to share?

My Wishlist: Zombie Edition

2011-09-07T00:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some drool-worthy zombie novels that are either upcoming or already out, but I don't have them yet.

1) Eat Slay Love by Jesse Petersen

The third book of the Living with the Dead series by Jesse Peteresen. The adventures of David and Sarah continue as they head to the mythical Midwest Wall! Flip this Zombie was a good book, so I hope the series continues its upward trajectory.

2) This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

It's a new YA zombie novel where 6 students are trapped out their high school. Of course the school is surrounded by zombies. Sloane Price is kind of happy about these new developments and is eager for their defenses to fall. Since their holed up together, she gets each person's perspective on their hope and why they want to live. As time goes by, their opinions and motivations change and they begin to turn on each other instead of uniting against the common foe: zombies. This sounds like a new concept that I haven't read before and I can't wait until it comes out in June 2012.

3) The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry

This is the second of the Joe Ledger, the first of which was excellent and one of the best zombie books I have read. Joe Ledger continues to work with the Department of Military Science to save the world against evil foes. There aren't many books that take the view of the government in zombie novels and Jonathan Maberry captures that view very well. More mythical creatures are in this installment, including more zombies, and I can't wait to read it!

4) Undeadly by Michele Vail

There's no official synopsis released for this YA zombie novel, but, according to Truly Bookish, is about a 16 year old reaper and zombies. I assume adventures and conflicts will ensue at some point. I'm sold. It's out February 28, 2012.

Do any of you have any zombie reads you're dying to get your hands on?

Internet Awesomeness: Zombie Edition

2011-09-06T01:04:00.000-07:00

As usual, I share awesome videos with you, but this time, with a zombie theme!

1) Shaun of the Dead in 60 Seconds

This video was made as an homage to Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead (the best zombie romantic comedy ever) and Hot Fuzz, and Brian Lee O'Malley, creator of the Scott Pilgrim series. It's surprisingly accurate and clever. It just brings a smile to my face. I especially love how the artist captured the distinct facial expressions.

2) House vs. Zombies

I love Dr. House, but this clipped made me love him even more. Using his shotgun/axe cane, he dispatches his zombified medical team to save his lady love, Lisa Cuddy. Of course this is only a dream sequence, but I just want to shout "Headshots!" at him.

3) Rotting Hill

Rotting Hill from Media Design School on Vimeo.

This short film is a zombie romantic comedy full of zombie love and stomach churning romance. This is the type of zombie romance that I like: actual zombies in love and doing sweetly gross things for each other. At the end of the video, you can see how all the different CGI effects were achieved, which looked pretty amazing.

4) World War Z Zombie Attack

This scene seems frightening even without any zombie make-up, blood, and effects. The scene itself is awesome, but doesn't really bode well for the World War Z movie. First, the zombies are super fast, which just isn't Max Brooks' style of zombie. His are slow, but no less frightening. Second, the virus immediately makes people into zombies. In the book, the virus incubates for while, allowing people to take international flights, organs to be taken and transplanted, and other ways of spreading it worldwide. It will be interesting to see how the film turns out and how they will fix the problems created by using fast zombies.

Any zombie videos you guys think are awesome and want to share?

Living with the Dead Series Quiz

2011-09-05T01:34:00.000-07:00

How long would your relationship survive in the zombie apocalypse? It's a valid question when there are many more added pressures than every day life, like worrying about keeping your brains in your skull and avoiding the undead plague. Jesse Petersen has a delightful quiz on her blog that will help you gauge how your relationship would do. Here's my result:

My relationship would outlast the zombie apocalypse!

Take the How Long Would Your Relationship Survive in the Zombie Apocalypse? Quiz at JessePetersen.net

Yay! Considering my 12th anniversary is in a few days, it's nice to know we would be together until undeath or death parts us. Take the quiz here and visit Jesse Petersen's blog here! Please share your results!

Flip this Zombie

2011-09-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

Sarah and David are back! This time their marriage is stronger than ever. They communicate effectively and easily and have overcome their past issues. Now, they share a booming zombie killing business called ZombieBusters Exterminators, Inc. For a fee, they come out and get rid of your zombie pests. There is no shortage of customers since the world is overrun with zombies. One odd customer is a scientist that wants them to bring zombies still animated to him to conduct experiments on. His goal is to find a cure, but David doesn’t trust him. Sarah believes in the doctor’s cause and has hope that there will eventually be a cure for the zombie virus. Coincidentally, a new type of super zombie mysteriously appears that is faster, bigger, and smarter than the average zombie. Is this scientist benevolent or just another mad scientist? Will their disagreement end their relationship?

I enjoyed this book very much. It’s just good zombie fun with new characters and a new situation. The previous book was very typical for the genre, but this one gets away from the initial outbreak of the zombie apocalypse. Sarah and David’s zombie killing business takes these characters to a different level. They have a much better grasp of using weapons and kill zombies in much more efficient ways. Because of their greater exposure to the horror of zombie and the realities of surviving, both Sarah and David are much more jaded and cynical. Their character development makes sense even though Sarah clings on to some naïveté and hope. I like that they are real people with their own sets of flaws and irrationalities. The new characters are a great addition to their world. The Kid that they encounter by chance is a welcome counter to the couple and is just funny. The new handsome doctor that seeks their help is very ambiguous and I constantly doubted my decision about if he was good or evil. I also liked that each chapter heading was the title of a business book with a zombie twist.

I did have a few issues with the novel. When I found out about the possible zombie cure, I could plot out exactly what was going to happen. Only one fairly minor thing was surprising to me. I shouldn’t be able to predict most of the events to follow. The same problem that bothered me in the first book has continued to this book. Zombies feel fear and pain that causes them to become distracted and make mistakes. It’s ridiculous and, as a very avid zombie fan, it brings me out of the story and annoys me. It wouldn’t bother me so much if it didn’t lead to major victories for the characters that really shouldn’t be happening. If there was a logical, scientific reason for it, I also wouldn’t mind, but no such explanation has been supplied yet.

Flip This Zombie is a quick, fun zombie-filled read. For the most part, it was a joy to read. Hardcore zombie fans might be annoyed with it, but the improved plot and characters make those problems easier to forget. I will be reading the third novel, Eat Slay Love, because it seems like this series gets better as it goes along.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Married with Zombies

2011-09-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

Sarah and David are having a hard time. They constantly fight over the most inane things and even go to couples’ counseling to try to salvage their marriage. Things really aren’t looking good. On their way to a routine session, things seem weird. There are very few cars on the road for the time of day. People are largely absent, like the security guard to the building. Their counselor eats another couple who then reanimate and try to eat them. Sarah and David must work together and put aside their lesser problems to be able to survive. Can they keep their lives and also save their marriage?

Married with Zombies is more of a romantic comedy than a zombie novel. Where many authors take the zombie apocalypse as very grave and depressing, Jesse Petersen takes it and makes it into a relationship strengthening exercise with lots of laughs along the way. Sarah and David both have their faults, but Sarah seems to fly off the handle more frequently over stupid little things. I understand her frustration sometimes, but other times she just loses me. I liked watching them go from normal people to zombie killing experts. Their first zombie kills are pretty funny and largely come from Sarah. She kills zombies with such random things as her high heel, a letter opener, and a toilet seat. All were worthy for the zombie kill of the week. Every chapter was headed with a title of a relationship help book except with an added zombie twist, which added an extra bit of fun.

Although Married with Zombies was a light enjoyable read, as a hardcore zombie fan, I found some things annoying. First of all, it’s a very cliché story about a zombie outbreak that I have read countless times. Beyond the humor and relationship between Sarah and David, everything was very run of the mill. The zombies also irked me. Some of them ran, which I have a problem with (atrophying muscles and whatnot). The major bother for me with them was pain and fear. In several instances, zombies would flinch in pain or run away in fear. Zombies are dead. They don’t feel pain or fear or really anything at all. They won’t run away if fellow zombies die and they won’t stop coming for you until they can’t move because they lack self preservation. Every time this happened I rolled my eyes. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal except that those flinches of pain gave Sarah or David an opening to attack. I would have been more understanding if there had been a scientific reason for this behavior, but it was just nonsensically portrayed this way. Because of this, it was a bit of a frustrating read.

Married with Zombies is a light, fun read. It’s perfect for an introduction to zombie books that’s not too heavy or depressing. Seasoned zombie fans might find it frustrating like I did.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Ashes Review & Giveaway!

2011-09-03T00:06:00.001-07:00

Alex skipped school to go on a camping trip by herself. She has an inoperable brain tumor and she figures it wouldn’t hurt to take some time off school. When she randomly encounters an old man and his granddaughter, Ellie, there is suddenly an incredibly strong electromagnetic pulse that destroys any electronic or computerized device and kills billions of people. Some survive, typically older people, and some become Changed: brutal, savage young adults and children whose only interest is to kill and eat others. Alex, along with Ellie and Tom, a soldier that saved their lives, form a family unit that protects each other through all the violence and death. Through a series of events, they are separated. Alex ends up at a place called Rule, a community of people that look to a panel of elders for all of their decisions. Is this place a haven or a prison? Is there something beneath the façade that is more nefarious? Will she ever reunite with Ellie and Tom?

My sister is a huge zombie fan. She received an ARC of Ashes and bothered me almost daily to read this amazing zombie book that she couldn’t stop thinking about. I finally conceded, not really knowing what I was getting into. I can definitely say that my sister was completely justified in her obsession. This is one of the most realistic and unique young adult zombie novels. The EMP that creates the zombies is reminiscent of the film The Signal, but I’ve never read a book that used a technological cause for zombies. It throws a wrench in a lot of things we take for granted, like cars, computers, digital watches, and phones. Dealing with zombies is now exponentially harder to deal with. The zombies in this novel aren’t really dead, but living young people that suddenly turn murderous and savage. They are even more frightening than conventional zombies because they become smarter and more organized as time goes on. The zombie scenes don’t take up much of the novel, but they are extremely gory. The afflicted are all young adults or children and could change at any time without warning, making the older survivors wary and even violent towards young people. This is chilling on many levels. It’s wonderful to see authors in teen fiction pushing boundaries.

The zombies were only really present during the first half of Ashes. The second half featured Alex staying at a place called Rule, a small town run by religious fanatics. The quiet horror is a big contrast to obvious violence and gore at the beginning, but both are equally effective. Rule shows that the zombies aren’t the only thing to be feared in this new world. Regular people can be just as damaging as the zombies. Alex becomes resigned to her life there after a while which is completely understandable. Life in Rule is the complete opposite of the frenetic pace in the wild: slow, normal, even boring. As she spends more time there, the mundane is outweighed by suspicious events. She views it more as a cage and seeks to find the truth.

The characters are amazing. Alex is an unexpected protagonist, mature beyond her years because of her inoperable brain tumor. She is resourceful, pragmatic, and determined to survive. Ellie, on the other hand, was an insufferable ingrate at the beginning, but slowly learned to trust Alex and lost the chip on her shoulder. I went from wishing she would be eaten by zombies to practically crying when she was separated from Tom and Alex. Tom was a fine character, but not as developed as the others maybe because he isn’t present for a lot of the book.

Ashes would be right at home shelved among the ranks of my favorite adult zombie books. I love this book and I can’t wait for the next book. My only complaint is the ending felt abrupt and a little bit cliché because it seems like every YA series starts with a cliffhanger ending now. I would recommend this to any member of Team Zombie or fans of dystopian novels.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

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If you're interested in reading an excerpt from Ashes, you can read the first 100 pages at io9.com.

If you're pre-ordering the book, you should enter the contest hosted by Jennifer Laughran, Ilsa Bick's agent. Just send your proof of pre-order to her and you could win an Ashes dog tag, bookmark, pin, survival kit, or tablet/e-reader. Isn't that awesome? Contest ends 9/5, so hurry if you want an opportunity to win!

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Giveaway Time! I have 1 ARC of Ashes to give away to one lucky reader. It's super easy to enter: just leave a comment with your email address. Being a follower is appreciated, but not required.

Open internationally. Ends 10/3. Good Luck!

Zombie Songs: Laura Shigihara

2011-09-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

You may not recognize Laura Shigihara's name, but you have probably heard of the game she composed the score for: Plants vs. Zombies. It's a super fun tower defense game that's also super cute. You plant different types plants in your yard to battle against the zombies, preventing them from going into your house and eating your brains. If you haven't played it yet, you need to. It's available for the Android, iPhone/iPod, X-Box 360, PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, and even in the game World of Warcraft (except it's called Peaceblooms vs. Ghouls). It has exploded so much since I first started playing it 2 years ago that it's shocking. This game is incredibly addicting, so be prepared to be completely absorbed by the game.

I have spent many hours playing this game and thoroughly enjoying the musical score. The tracks range from peaceful and slow (Zen Garden) to frenzied and energetic (Brainiac Maniac). The atmosphere for this game is perfectly realized in the musical score: quirky, cute, addicting, and, above all, fun. The J-pop influenced theme song, Zombies on Your Lawn, is clever, catchy, and adorable and it always brings a smile to face. Apparently the game soundtrack has been available for download for almost a year, which I did not know. (The theme song in English and Japanese has been available for free since the game released.) Now the rest of the soundtrack is available on Laura's Bandcamp for only $3.99 or you can just enjoy the soundtrack streaming on the website or right here.

<a href="http://laurashigihara.bandcamp.com/album/plants-vs-zombies-soundtrack">Plants vs. Zombies Soundtrack by Laura Shigihara</a>

I randomly found Laura's Youtube account, where she plays some of her Plants vs. Zombies compositions on the piano, as well as covers of other video game songs, like Still Alive from Portal, and original songs. Here are my 2 favorite PvZ videos:

Laura Shigihara is a talented pianist and composer and I can't wait to see more from her in her upcoming game, Melolune.

Warm Bodies

2011-09-01T17:30:00.002-07:00

R is a zombie. He doesn’t remember his full name or what he used to do or anything about his life as a human. Like all the others in the zombie overrun world, he just shuffles around and mechanically goes through the motions in the barren post-apocalyptic world. Every day is basically the same and goes by in a bland gray blur except for the occasional dream he has. That is, until he goes with a pack of zombies to feed and eats a teenage boy’s brain. This in itself is nothing special, but he is suddenly flooded with the boy’s memories, something he never had himself. He looks at Julie, the boy’s girlfriend, and saves her from the other zombies after feeling the boy’s love for her. R’s decision to save Julie ultimately changes him in ways he never thought possible. After he takes her to the plane he lives in, they start their own awkward and strangely sweet relationship, much to the chagrin some of the other zombies. Can the living ever truly coexist with the living dead?

This is the best zombie book I have ever read. Ever. Everything about this book is exceptional and goes above and beyond what other zombie novels have done. The novel starts off as many zombie novels do: with the world a barren wasteland covered in zombies whose only interest in humans is in their brains. None of them are really self aware or have any care for what happens except for R. At first, R is much like the rest of them. He has a zombie wife and zombie children, but they aren’t really a family. He is only able to communicate in sparse syllables and shrugs. After he meets Julie, everything changes. He learns to speak and move more fluidly and she even teaches him to drive a car. Besides the physical improvements, he has mental and emotional ones. He treats Julie like his girlfriend. He protects her from the other zombies and strives to make her happy. He feels love for her and eventually stops wanting to eat brains at all. Instead of being satisfied being a dead automaton, he strives to regain his lost humanity. R is the only zombie I can think of that is the hero of a novel and develops as a character more than most human characters I’ve read.

Warm Bodies, beneath its zombies, is ultimately about us. The typical zombies are those that have forgotten how precious life is. They go around their daily lives mechanically and just care about mundane things like money and their jobs. The zombies in the novel go through what they would as humans, such as eating, being with their families, and having sex, but it’s a ghastly parody of actual human life. Even though it’s funny, it still shows us that we shouldn’t take our lives for granted and that we forget how important love really is.

Warm Bodies is a book I would recommend to everyone I know and many that I don’t. The eloquent language, clear voice, and relatable themes make this book reach people beyond the zombie genre. The ending was absolutely perfect and I really hope that Isaac Marion keeps writing because I will definitely be reading whatever comes next.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Check out the awesome book trailer!

September Zombies!!!!!

2011-09-01T17:30:00.001-07:00

It's September Zombies time!!! YAY! One whole month to celebrate zombies in all their brain nomming goodness. They are the only creature that has prompted the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to release information about how to prepare and react to them. Have vampires or unicorns or werewolves? No because they are simply not as awesome. Here are some helpful hints from the CDC in case you find yourself in the midst of an actual zombie apocalypse:

Identify the types of emergencies that are possible in your area. Besides a zombie apocalypse, this may include floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If you are unsure contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information.
Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home…or your town evacuates because of a hurricane. Pick one place right outside your home for sudden emergencies and one place outside of your neighborhood in case you are unable to return home right away.
Identify your emergency contacts. Make a list of local contacts like the police, fire department, and your local zombie response team. Also identify an out-of-state contact that you can call during an emergency to let the rest of your family know you are ok.
Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast. *

It's always a good idea to keep an emergency kit around in case of disasters that may or may not include zombies. The CDC suggest that you should have the following in such an event:

Water (1 gallon per person per day)
Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)

I seriously know people who are extremely prepared for this event and have their own escape routes, plans, and important supply kits already in their cars. Also, the CDC assures us that they would investigate the zombie plague just like any other disease, but every good Team Zombie member knows that hospitals and quarantined areas are just about the worst place you can be during a zombie apocalypse.

Where would you go in the event of a zombie apocalypse? How would you get there? Who would you take with you?

I would go to northern California where the population in sparse and the area is more rural. I would take the riverbeds there because highways would be too congested. I would go with my family, my boyfriend, and my friends (whoever is not infected or bitten). I would love to hear what you guys would do!

* - These sections are from the CDC guide Social Media: Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.

If you guys would like the above poster, you can order it for free from the CDC website here.

SDCC 2011 Winners!

2011-08-31T15:41:00.001-07:00

The winners of the 3 Comic-Con prize packs are:

1) LoriStrongin

2) Louis

3) tetewa

Congrats! I will be emailing you in the order above to choose your prize packs. More giveaways coming up in September Zombies!!!

The Demon's Covenant

2011-08-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

** spoilers for those who haven't read The Demon's Lexicon**

Mae Crawford is still trying to come to terms with the last couple of months. Her brother Jamie discovered he had magical powers. Nick discovered he was a demon trapped in a human body. Mae wants everything to go back to normal, but Jamie is suddenly getting close to Gerald, the new leader of the Obsidian Circle. Normally she wouldn't really care who her brother hangs out with, but when he suddenly befriends the leader of the group of magicians that tried to sacrifice them just a few weeks ago. This is bad and even worse is the fact that he tried to keep it from her. She turns to magician-hunter brothers Nick and Alan. In exchange for Nick's help and protection, she agrees to try to teach him to act more human. The Obsidian Circle wants to harness Nick's powers and use him against them, so the hodge podge outcast group must band together and fight. What can Mae do to help when she's not a fighter? Can she manage to save her brother?

Honestly, I was disappointed when I heard that The Demon's Covenant wasn't told through Nick's perspective. The first book was amazing and Nick was a big part of that for me. Also, second books in a trilogy tend to not really have plots of their own and only serve to set up the final book. I reluctantly started the book, but it didn't take me long to finish it and I enjoyed it as much as the first. Mae was an unlikely protagonist because she's only a human with no real fighting skills or any kind of magical powers. She wasn't all that memorable to me in the first book except for her ability to dance at the Goblin Market and her pink hair. However, she proved to be powerful and strong in her own way and definitely memorable. She was snarky, sarcastic, and exceptionally brave. This book expanded the readers' view of Mae, Jamie, and their home life. It was simply hilrious how their mother is completely prim and proper, the complete opposite of her children. As the book goes on, you can see where her children get their bravery, confidence, and fire from.

Of course, it wouldn't be a teen novel without a love triangle. Mae had feelings for both of the Ryves brothers and there were many a steamy moment between her and both of them (not at the same time). For me, Alan didn't hold a candle to Nick in any way. Alan just seemed like a huge liar with very little redeeming qualities. At least Nick couldn't lie even if he wanted to. Nick was just a more compelling character because he isn't fully human and to see the world through his eyes is truly unique. The diary passages of Nick's father were especially interesting because it shed light on what Nick was like as a child, how his family treated him, and how he treated them.

Although much of the novel was dark and gloomy, humor and wit was present in just about every single page. The dialog between the characters felt authentic and was also infused with wit and snarky humor. All of the characters, no matter how minor they were to the story, had dimension, flaws, and their own distinct voice. This was Sarah Rees Brennan's greatest strength and I can't wait to read more from her.

The Demon's Covenant was every bit as good as The Demon's Lexicon and featured an unlikely, but awesome character, Mae. Like the first book, through all the demons and magicians, this book was about family and what it is to be human. I can't wait to read The Demon's Surrender!

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Carrier of the Mark

2011-08-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

Megan Rosenberg has always moved around a lot. After her mother's death, her father just can't stay in one place for too long. This time, they are moving to Ireland because of her father's new job at a marina. When she goes to her new school for the first time, she immediately notices Adam DeRis and feels a magnetic connection to him. Unfortunately, he seems to avoid her at all costs. Other than this anomaly, Megan makes many friends like Caitlin, who tell her about the rumors that Adam and his family are druids and cast black magic. This doesn't deter Megan from her crush. As she spends more time with him, she notices strange things happening around him and his family. Is Adam some sort of druid? Is he dangerous? Why does she feel such a strong connection with him?

When I first heard about this book, I was really excited about it. I enjoy Ireland and paranormal books, plus the cover is gorgeous. I was also impressed that it was picked up by HarperCollins after being put up on InkPop, a creative writing community. However, Carrier of the Mark fell short of my expectations. I enjoyed the writing, the characters, and the dialog between Megan and her friends. The writing was really what kept me interested. It flowed really well and had energy behind it that kept me reading even when parts of the plot didn't interest me. The characters were well rounded and detailed. The dialog between them felt authentic and I wanted to know more about them. No one was a stock character and I wish the book was more focused on character development. The other aspect I really liked was the paranormal and mythological aspects. I had never heard of anything like it before. It seemed to be loosely based in Irish mythology with Leigh Fallon's own ideas thrown in. I loved it and again wished there was more of it.

The main problem I had was with the romance and some of the plot points. The romance was love at first sight and Adam and Megan became quickly obsessed with each other. I get that young love is intense, but they seemed too in love too quickly. I felt that their declarations of love and how they would die without each other got old really fast. There were a lot of similarities to Twilight including the forbidden love, girl moving to a new school and falling in love with the hot outcast, Adam's family, and even some structural problems. The main conflict was introduced very late and then resolved very quickly as well because their meeting and subsequent relationship took up about the first two thirds of the book. The beautiful Irish landscape and culture was also underplayed for the most part.

Overall, I liked Carrier of the Mark for the original paranormal storyline and skilled writing. The romance was overplayed, tiresome, and seemed to similar to others in its genre. I would read the next book in the series to see if the mythology is explored in greater detail.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

** Carrier of the Mark comes out 10/4. Check it out here. **

My Theme Song

2011-08-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

Brenna Yovanoff is having an awesome contest for an ARC of her upcoming novel The Space Between. Her challenge is to post a personal theme song, so I have chosen Up Up Down Down by nerd band Kirby Krackle. It starts off as a love song between two nerdy people using video game and comic book allusions (which is always awesome). Then the song takes a weird turn. After their first date, the girl shoves him into her house, cooks him, and eats him. Bam, cannibalism. Then the end rambles off. This song reminds me of my relationship with my boyfriend (sans cannibalism) because we met in a comic book shop and we've been together for almost 12 years. It also shows my quirky, dark sense of humor and my nerdiness.

If you'd like to join in the fun (or you just really want The Space Between), post your theme song here.

If I Stay Playlist

2011-08-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

Since music is such a huge part of If I Stay, how could I not write up a playlist?

1) Cello Sonata No. 3, 1st movement by Beethoven

This piece plays during the devastating car crash at the beginning of the book. It's a heartbreaking scene when the speakers still work in the mangle car and she still hears the music while seeing her parents' bodies. It's a beautiful piece and this video features two great musicians, Glenn Gould and Leonard Rose.

2) Mozart's Requiem

After an uncharacteristic funeral for a friend, Mia's mother rants about how he would have hated it. Mia says she would want Mozart's Requiem played at her funeral. It's a powerful piece that is even more tragic because the composer did not live to see its completion. The beginning of the recording is the "Dies Irae" or Day of Wrath, describing the day of judgment, and my favorite part of the Requiem mass.

3) Cello Suite No. 1, Prelude by J.S. Bach

I had to include this piece because it's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the cello.

4) Transylvanian Concubine by Rasputina

Mia seems to think that cellos have no place in rock music. I kind of wish I could have reached into the book and given her a Rasputina CD, a band that features cellos and does indeed rock. This is their most mainstream song that I first heard on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

5) Escape Artist by Zoe Keating

Zoe Keating is an incredibly talented cellist that used to play in Rasputina, but now releases very successful self published avant-garde classical music. This piece, and the album it's from called Into the Trees, fuses classical music and technology in a mindblowing way. She uses a foot pedal to record a line she plays and then layers on top of it in real time. The results are amazing. I saw her play a different piece live at an Amanda Palmer show and she made a mistake, but it was still magnificent performance that I will never forget. She also collaborates with Amanda Palmer on her first solo album. It shows that a cellist can create classical music and rock music and be good at both.

Any more songs/pieces to add? Any awesome music you just want to share?

If I Stay

2011-08-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Mia is an accomplished cellist and part of a loving, supportive family. On a normal family car ride, tragedy struck and a large truck hit their car. Now, she is inexplicably standing outside of her body, among the corpses of her parents, watching paramedics tend to her brother and herself. Not knowing if she's alive or dead, she follows her body to the hospital, where it lies comatose. As her friends and family come to visit her and talk to her, she thinks on the past and ponders an important question: should she fight to live or simply die?

I love If I Stay. I read it for a read-a-thon and just devoured it in a couple of hours. I didn't expect to like it so much. I heard a lot of rave reviews before I read it, but it didn't seem like something I would like. It seemed like a lame Nicholas Sparks novel whose only purpose is to make me cry. I was totally wrong. I love pretty much everything about this book. The book is told through Mia's eyes. It starts with the day of the accident and then the present interweaves with the past. While she sees her friends and family talk to her and watch them deal with her parents' deaths and her coma, Mia has flashbacks to important events with all her loved ones. The events show a realistic life that's not perfect, but filled with well meaning, loving people. They aren't in any particular order and each one lets the read get to know her and her circle of loved ones better. I think it gives the novel a more natural stream of consciousness feel as opposed to putting them in chronological order.

The prose is really beautiful. It's simple and straight forward, but descriptive as well. The story is emotionally driven without being manipulative. I think the writing makes it accessible to readers beyond young adults, younger and older. I was sucked into the story quickly mostly because of the vivid characters. The characters are detailed, realistic, and flawed. Getting to know the characters is heartbreaking because some of them died in the first few pages and you feel more of the pain they are feeling in the present. Mia is someone I would be friends with in real life because her character is so richly imagined and we have a lot in common. Unlike a lot of YA novels, I thought the romance between Mia and Adam is realistic. They aren't fully consumed by their love or super overdramatic or creepily codependent, like so many relationships are in YA. They love each other, but argue, disagree, and fight like real couples do.

My absolute favorite part of the novel is the music. Music is what really ties the story and all the characters together. Mia is a classical musician born to a family of rockers and her boyfriend is in an emo rock band. Even though they all enjoy and play different genres, they all share a love and passion for music. The juxtaposition of different opinions and genres allows them to learn to break through their preconception and respect each other. The descriptions of music and the experience playing music is wonderful and really what makes me love this book. I like that Gayle Forman names specific pieces and songs so I can go and listen to them while I read the book.

I enjoyed If I Stay because it's not just a depressing story. It's really about life and its complexities. The ending was perfect and beautiful. I cried many times throughout the book, but I also laughed and got frustrated with the characters. I would recommend this to those looking for a complex, emotional book.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Playlist

2011-08-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

On the car ride to the theater, a song came on that unexpectedly dealt with fairy tales. By coincidence, the movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark did as well, inspiring me to gather some nice dark fairy tale songs.

1) Mein Herz Brennt (My Heart Burns) by Rammstein

I had no idea what this song was about until that car ride to the advanced screening. On a whim, my boyfriend looked up the lyrics on my phone and we were surprised by what we discovered:

Now, dear children, pay attention
I am the voice from the pillow
I have brought you something
I ripped it from my chest

With this heart I have the power
to blackmail the eyelids
I sing until the day awakes
a bright light on the heavens
my heart burns

They come to you in the night
demons, ghosts, black fairies
they creep out of the cellar shaft
and will look under your bedding

Now, dear children, pay attention
I am the voice from the pillow
I have brought you something
a bright light on the heavens
my heart burns

They come to you in the night
and steal your small hot tears
they wait until the moon awakes
and put them in my cold veins

Now, dear children, pay attention
I am the voice from the pillow
I sing until the day awakes
a bright light on the heavens
my heart burns

My heart burns

Lyrics from Herzeleid.com

Some of the lyrics come from a story call The Little Sandmen (Das Sandmannchen), a German TV show that started in the mid-1950's. The Sandmen would tell bedtime stories and start each one with "Now, dear children, pay attention. I have brought something for you" ("Nun, liebe Kinder, gebt fein Acht. Ich habe euch etwas mitgebracht.")

2) Gingerbread Coffin by Rasputina

This isn't a traditional fairy tale, but the imagery is indicative of fairy tales. I love this song. It's so haunting and beautiful. It has just stayed with me for a while and does remind me of a dark fairy tale. I think someone could expand on the story and make a wonderful novel. The video I chose is a compilation of Dresden Dolls, Evanescence, and Bjork videos, which was put together really well. Love it!

3) Long Red Hair by Vermillion Lies

This song tells a narrative story that is very fairy tale-like. Twin sisters are attached by the ends of their long red hair. One is fair and one is rosy. The fair one falls in love, while the other is indifferent. I can see Rose Red and Snow White, Sisters Red, and Rapunzel in this story just off the top of my head. Vermillion Lies is an awesome band made up of twin sisters Zoe and Kim Boekbinder. This song has a quirky sense of humor and it's super catchy and cheerful despit being kind of depressing. I love the video that expresses the story wonderfully in a style that matches that of the song. I especially enjoyed that one sister loves Amanda Palmer while the other likes Barbra Streisand.

4) Kilmeny by Mediaeval Baebes

This song originates from a 19th century poem of the same name. The poem was in a larger work called The Queen's Wake by James Hogg. The book centers around the return of Mary, Queen of Scots to Scotland in 1561. Bards had contests with song and poetry and this is one of those poems. I think it's a wonderful poem and the Mediaevel Baebes have put gorgeous music to it and sing it beautifully. There are some lyrics that really capture my imagination, like "Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been? To a land that no mortal has ever seen..." I would love to read a story about Kilmeny and there are definitely fairy tale elements in her song. She tells of the wonderful land she's seen, but had to have returned to the real world, where all is not as serene and sublime. I love the story and the song.

Do any of you have any favorite fairy tale songs? Comment with your own picks!

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

2011-08-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

** Spoilers for those who don't want to know what the monsters are in the movie. **

Sally Hurst is unhappy. Her mother gives her to her father, Alex, like a baseball card and ships her far away from her home and friends. She has to live in a huge, gloomy house with Alex and his girlfriend, Kim. Introverted and quiet, Sally is miserable in the new house and just wants to go home. Her only solace is in the hidden basement she discovered while exploring. She hears voices call her name and opens a gateway that has held these creatures at bay for nearly a century. At first, they seem to just want to be her friend. After destroying Kim's things and brutally attacking a gardener, Sally realizes that they just want to manipulate and hurt her. Even after these strange incidences, Kim and her father don't believe her and think she's a disturbed little girl who needs a therapist. Can Sally convince them of the danger before it's too late?

I had the wonderful opportunity to see an advanced screening of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark thanks to Screamfest. I went in expecting a cheesy ghost movie that would be a rip-off of Paranormal Activity or the Amityville Horror that I would not enjoy. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was completely wrong. The film is actually a modern fairy tale with a lot of suspense mixed in. It starts off like a typical fairy tale with the unhappy daughter, stepmother, and father living together. Instead of an evil stepmother, Kim is actually very loving and the first person to believe Sally when she warns them about the menace in their house. She is more willing than Alex to get Sally out of harm's way even if it means losing money and prestige by cancelling an important dinner party. I like this role reversal from the typical fairy tale story. The reversal theme continues with the menacing creatures. They are fairies, which are typically the helpers to our young heroine, that have an affinity for teeth. Like the Tooth Fairy of my childhood, they leave money for teeth left underneath pillows, but they don't do this out of generosity. Their source of food is teeth and they especially like children's teeth. (For 2 clips with the tooth fairies, click here.) If you have seen Hellboy II, it's as if Guillermo del Toro took those tooth fairies, made them look a bit creepier, and gave them their own movie. Considering they were my favorite creature from that film, I am totally on board with this concept.

Unlike many other horror films, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark relies heavily on suspense and dark ambiance over heavy gore and torture. A couple of scenes are squirm inducing, but mostly due to implication. The very first scene in the film features the man who originally built the house removing his own teeth and the teeth of a maid to appease the tooth fairies and get his son back. Even with this scene and one other that is particularly creepy, this film should not be rated R. There isn't much blood and there is no nudity, cursing, or anything else I can think of that would warrant such a rating. The house is beautiful and the perfect gothic setting for the story. The music by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders enhances the creepy and haunting feel of the film. The architecture and the art of the original owner of the house are a perfect complement as well. The art was actually drawn by Keith Thompson, who also illustrated Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series and he creates magic with just a black and white palette.

The film, however, isn't perfect. A Polaroid camera is used extensively throughout the film. This may be a nod to the original version from the 70's, but a digital camera would have worked just as well. Plus Polaroid cameras aren't even made anymore, so it seems irrelevant in a modern film. The creatures' strengths and weaknesses fluctuated a lot throughout, from their numbers to the degree of their light sensitivity to their speed, without any real sense why. It seemed like if they had the same strength they had at the end, they could have easily won very early on, but then there would be no movie. That's not a good rationale and comes off as inconsistent story telling.

Overall, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is a dark and wonderful deconstructed fairy tale. Bailee Madison's performance as Sally is nuanced, mature, and frankly amazing. I would recommend this to fans of dark fantasy and Pan's Labyrinth.

My rating: 8/10

Some Cool Stuff!

2011-08-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

I have some cool stuff to share with you!

1) White Whisker Books, the publisher of E. Van Lowe's upcoming book Boyfriend from Hell, used a quote from my review on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble pages for the eBook. So awesome! I did a happy dance when E let me know about it. :) Some other blogs are quoted as well, such as Pretty Opinionated, Lalaine's Fiction Book Reviews, and My Neurotic Book Affair.

2) A magazine called The Yeti had an article in the April issue called What Directors Are Doing to Get Into Your Skull about the growing trend of modern horror films pushing the boundaries of violence. (Be warned that pictures in the article are NSFW.) My post about the film Deadgirl was referenced as proof of "scholars of cinema coming to the aid of gory titles like these" which "could mean that the definition of propriety is changing yet again in today's film world." I'm practically giddy that someone used me as a reference in favor of a movement I care about. Under the article is also a cool interview with Lucky McKee, director of May and Sick Girl, about his film The Woman and other horror titles, such as A Serbian Film.

3) My blog almost has 100 followers! Yay!

4) September Zombies is just around the corner! My favorite time of year! You can look forward to 30 days of awesome zombie post: book reviews, movie reviews, zombie music, and hopefully some author interviews.

A Clash of Kings

2011-08-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

** Major spoilers for A Game of Thrones. **

King Robert Baratheon is dead and his distasteful heir Joffrey holds the throne with Cersei Lannister as the Queen Regent. They and the rest of the Lannisters fight to keep the throne, but having Joffrey as king who is both sadistic and wrathful doesn't ingratiate the family to their people. Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly both make known their claims to the throne and refuse to compromise with each other. Stannis is the eldest and unrelenting, but Renly is the most loved and charismatic. Robb Stark has been declared King in the North, splitting the land in half, and causing him to fill his father's not inconsiderable shoes and rescue his sisters from the clutches of the Lannisters. Daenerys nurses her three newborn dragons across the ocean and struggles to gather followers to take back to the Seven Kingdoms so she can claim her birthright, the Iron Throne. Outside of all these self proclaimed rulers, the Night's Watch grows smaller and discovers a great barbarian force beyond the Wall and creatures of legend that they never thought actually existed.

This series just gets better and better. Although close to a thousand pages, I devoured this book within a week. I was just compelled to read it at every spare moment. The characters and complex story just sucked me in. More characters are introduced in A Clash of Kings, such as Stannis Baratheon, Melisandre, Brienne of Tarth. In general, I either really love or really hate characters in these books and sometimes I'm just confused because their own narrative portrays them one way while through others' eyes they are portrayed in a different way. Stannis brings in a new concept that hadn't been explored before: religious fanaticism. He wants to take over the throne with the Lord of Light, but he also forsakes all the other gods that are typically worshiped in this world. He doesn't believe in the Lord of Light, but Melisandre does and this evil sorceress helps him enormously. Brienne of Tarth is another strong female character in this series. For a world that is highly misogynistic, there are a lot of strong women that hold more power than expected. This just shows that misogyny in a story doesn't necessarily mean the story itself or the author is misogynistic. Brienne is different than other women because she is a knight and feels awkward as a woman because she isn't good at things women are expected good at. She proves to be a kick-ass character and just seems born in the wrong time and the wrong world.

Other characters are developed from the previous novel, such as Tyrion Lannister and Sandor Clegane. He is one of my favorite characters in these books. His narrative is laced with wit and cleverness. His is probably the only one where I laugh out loud. He becomes the King's Hand at the end of A Game of Thrones to pick up Joffrey's messes and ingratiate the family with others. In addition to this, he seeks to punish those responsible for Eddard Stark's murderers and to thwart his sister Cersei's commands. He tries very hard to treat those who are weak with kindness and to seek what justice he can provide, but also wants his family to succeed who are largely cruel and horrible. Reading his story, I though his efforts were admirable and he accomplished a lot, but the commoners misinterpret his actions as tyranny and just see him as a horrible, power hungry dwarf. It broke my heart to read that because he's such a good character at heart. On the other hand, I started out hating Sandor Clegane. He was just a dog to carry out his masters commands. In this book, he still does that, but shows a more tender side that I never thought was there. He actually capable of protecting people. It shocked me to find that I had sympathy for him and that he wasn't such a bad guy. George R.R. Martin's writing is amazing and it really shows through his characters.

The story is even more complex than the last book (what with about 10 people declaring themselves King) and the cast of characters expands and contracts with shocking ease. The twists and turns come out of nowhere in A Clash of Kings and leave me with my mouth hanging open in shock. If you're looking for an involved story, intrigue, violence, war, mystery, fantastical creatures, and a very large fight for a throne, I would highly recommend this series.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

** If you'd like to win the first book, A Game of Thrones, I'm giving away a copy in my Comic-Con Giveaway! **

The Fox Inheritance

2011-08-13T23:43:00.000-07:00

Lock, Kara, and Jenna were all involved in horrible accident that destroyed their bodies. Their minds were imprisoned in electronic devices. Unbeknownst to the outside world, the three teens were both aware and suffering in the nothingness that contains them. They could communicate in the void and still had each other. Then Jenna disappeared, leaving Kara and Lock alone. They wake up 260 years later in a world they don't recognize, where everyone they once knew is dead except for Jenna Fox. A scientist wants to use the technology that trapped their minds and created their new bodies to market to very rich people and is using them as advertisements. Kara is very different from the person she used to be. She's violent, angry, and blames everything on Jenna. Kara disappears and Lock must get to Jenna before Kara does. He embarks on a journey and picks up unexpected friends along the way. Can he warn Jenna before Kara gets to her?

The Fox Inheritance is a great followup to The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Even though the beginning is similar to the first novel, Kara and Lock don't go through the same process of regaining their memories after waking up like Jenna did. Technology has become advanced enough that their memories are immediately accessible. The plot really takes off when the journey to California starts. Kara is nowhere to be found, which is creepy considering she's a sociopath. She could be doing or planning anything while Lock is running after her. On top of this already troubling situation, Lock has to avoid the scientist they ran away from and the government. The scientist wants to protect his investment and still use them for advertising, but can't call the police because of his own illegal activities. The government is after him because he has no identification and his existence is illegal because there wasn't any part of his original body used in the creation of his new, artificial body. The tension and suspense are what drives most of the story.

On the way to California, Lock meets an unexpected ally who is one of my favorite characters: Dot Jefferson. She's a cab driving bot that has no legs and a big heart. The world has changed a lot and bots like her are a common sight everywhere. They do menial jobs and are bullied or ignored. Dot and many others of her kind dream and want freedom, but the consequences for such behavior are harsh. Dot is taking a huge risk when she goes with Lock and she proves invaluable to him. She represents the hope that is still alive within the dystopian society that values security over freedom. This characters also challenges our definition of humanity. dot is one of the most human characters in the entire book, but she was manufactured in a factory.

My only criticism is the pacing is a little bit slow despite the tension through the first two thirds of the novel. Overall, The Fox Inheritance is an exciting sequel that outshines its predecessor. I would recommend this to younger readers and those looking for an introduction into the science fiction genre.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

** This book comes out 8/30. Check it out here. **

Game of Thrones

2011-08-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

In the Seven Kingdoms, winter is coming. Summer has lasted over 10 years and autumn is finally approaching, the harbinger of a long winter. North of the Seven Kingdoms, a supernatural force is gathering to battle against men. In the kingdom, the Hand of the King mysteriously dies, prompting King Robert Baratheon to ask his friend Eddard Stark to fill the position. Before he leaves, Eddard's son Bran has a tragic accident and he leaves not knowing whether his son will live or die. He enters King's Landing and a court where words and whispers are as sharp as knives. Treading carefully, he investigates the previous Hand's death and tries to run the kingdom despite empty coffers, a drunken, complacent king, and treacherous advisers. While he is away, Winterfell is in distress. An assassin tries to kill Bran, leading Catelynn, his mother, to suspect the Lannister family had something to do with his accident. She rides out to seek justice, leaving her 3 sons to rule. Can the Starks find out who their enemies are? Can Eddard save the King from the same fate as his Hand?

I started out watching the television series, which I enjoyed, but the book makes it pale in comparison. I'm honestly not typically a fan of high fantasy. The stories seem very similar and rip-offs of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I didn't expect to like Game of Thrones at all and I was pleasantly surprised. This series is completely different from most others in its genre. Magic is usually a large aspect of fantasy, but the instances of it in Game of Thrones are few and far between. I even forgot I was reading a fantasy at times. The plot is very detailed and complex with many story lines and subplots in each chapter. I love Martin's writing style and he manages to be detailed without being overwrought or slow. My summary of the plot doesn't do this book justice at all because there is so much more going on besides that one plot line. The story is also realistic and gritty. There is no romanticism nor is it an idealistic view of the Medieval era. Life is hard and it gets progressively harder as the book progresses. No character is safe, which George R. R. Martin demonstrates by the end of the novel.

These characters are incredibly detailed and unique in their own way. My favorite are Eddard Stark, Tyrion Lannister, and Arya Stark. Eddard is honorable, serious, and reserved which can be mistaken for coldness by those who don't know him well. Arya is supposed to become a lady that will marry and bear heirs, but she's more interested in sword fighting and getting into trouble. Tyrion is a deformed dwarf and the shame of his noble family. He makes up for his lack of looks and height with cunning, intelligence, and humor. They don't fit into typical archetypes popular in the genre and seem more like actual people. These characters are not always clearly good or evil, but rest in shades of grey. Sometimes there isn't a clear hero or villain to depend upon or blame in each situation. Each chapter is told from a different perspective and Martin clearly captures each voice. Some chapters may even cover the same event and each character involved has a different view of it and a different version of the truth. This view of each character challenges the reader's views and sometimes even makes immoral or seemingly evil characters likeable.

I haven't felt this sense of urgency when reading a book in a while. I felt compelled to read at every possible moment even though I knew what was going to happen. If you like realistic characters, mystery, intrigue, and aren't easily offended, I would highly recommend Game of Thrones.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

** You can win a copy of Game of Thrones in my Comic-Con giveaway here. **

The Night Circus Playlist

2011-08-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some songs that reminded me of The Night Circus or shared some themes with it.

1) Aqua is an awesome pop band from my childhood. I recently was given their album Aquarius and this is one of my favorite tracks from it: Goodbye to the Circus.

2) Mirrormask is one of my favorite movies. It's kind of like Labyrinth and The Wizard of Oz with Neil Gaiman thrown in the mix. The story is about Helena whose family owns a circus. She fights with her parents as teens are wont to do because she just wants a normal life, but her mother gets very sick and she blames it on herself. She goes into this other world where she must wake the White Queen and find her double to return to her mother the Dark Queen. Anyway, the film score by Iain Ballamy is wonderful. He puts together instruments I never thought would work well together like the soprano sax and the accordian. The melodies just seem to soar out and it sounds effortless. I just love it and it has a magical quality. Watch the film if you haven't yet.

3) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a film that has a similar feel to The Night Circus. The story is about an aging but immortal magician who bets against the Devil and madness ensues. I need to watch the movie again because it's very surreal, but I would recommend it. The score is beautiful and is composed by Mychael and Jeff Danna. I don't recall hearing other scores by them, but this one is wonderful.

4) Vermillion Lies was introduced to me because they opened for Amanda Palmer. They are comprised of twin sisters Kim and Zoe Boekbinder and they incorporate carabet and circus into their music. Their song is a little darker than The Night Circus, but is delightful nonetheless.

Any playlists for books you guys have read? Please share! :)

The Night Circus

2011-08-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

Two magicians, one who calls himself Prospero and the other has no name that anyone remembers, are locked in a competition of sorts. These men aren't the competitors. Instead, they choose children to groom and teach for years until they are ready to battle. As they grow up, the children, Celia and Marco, are only given bits and pieces of the situation to work with and are largely kept in the dark. When the aging illusionists find their respective protegés ready, the duel begins, using Le Cirque des Rêves as a battleground. This enchanting traveling circus features a monochromatic color palette and the most unique performances from around the world. It arrives unannounced and only opens its doors at night. The circus touches the lives of people in each city it travels to. Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love there despite being pitted against each other. However, the competition must end at any cost. Can Celia and Marco end their mentors' duel and still be together or will it destroy them?

I was entranced by The Night Circus from the very first page. I literally read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. The story was infused with magic that was used in a way I had never seen before. In addition to being incredibly imaginative, the language used was lyrical and fluid without being overwrought. This is especially impressive because it would be very easy to over describe the marvels within the circus. Morgenstern's writing was so elegant and she balanced the darkness and light in her novel very well. The setting in both time and place made this book special. The novel took place in a span of time from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. This industrialized time was an interesting choice for something so magical. Magic seemed to not have a place there outside of the circus, but it provided a contrast between the two worlds. The circus was just exquisite. The performers, the presentation, the illusions, and all the different attractions were my favorite part of the novel. I really couldn't get enough of it. I am definitely a rêveur at heart.

I absolutely loved the structure of the novel. Each chapter was only a few pages long, but it manipulated the tempo of the novel and made me feel as if it were passing quickly. The perspective jumps around between main characters whose numbers grow and shrink as they enter or exit the story. Each view reveals something about the circus or the competition that may no even make sense until reading others' stories much later. The written in the third person which I liked because it made the writing feel more uniform and like I was being plunged into a world. Changing voices every chapter would have been tiresome in this format. The narration also The other thing I really liked about the format was the second person voice that was would last for only a couple of pages interspersed between the other characters' chapters that made me feel as if I were seeing this circus for the first time. It was a small touch, but made me forget the rest of the world while I read it more easily than usual.

The Night Circus was an all around great read with mystery, suspense, romance, and magic. I was almost disappointed that I only took a day to read it because I wanted to stay immersed in that world a bit longer. The book was very visual in nature and I'm excited to hear that it's going to be made into a film. I would recommend this to any fans of Geek Love, Water for Elephants, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell or films like The Prestige.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

**The Night Circus will be released on 9/13. Check it out here.**

The Lantern

2011-08-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

Eve fell for mysterious and secretive Dom in a whirlwind romance in France. They buy an old, crumbling farm called Les Genévriers. At first all is well. Dom is happy playing and writing music and Eve is happy reading and writing. The idyllic summer passes and winter comes with strange happenings and dark mysteries. Dom’s previous wife vanished and Dom refuses to talk about her at all, leading Eve to assume the worst and try to uncover the truth. The strange happenings increase in frequency, creating even more tension between Dom and Eve. The past of Les Genévriers is also entwined in the mystery. Eve must figure out both Rachel’s fate and the fate of the previous inhabitants to before the same fate befalls her and Dom.

The Lantern is a beautifully written story. The lyrical descriptions and the historical setting really drew me in. I was engaged in the story very quickly. The setting in the French countryside is absolutely beautiful and creates a unique atmosphere for this modern gothic tale. The story is told in alternating points of view from Eve in modern times and Benedicte in the past. Both tales are interesting and have their own mysteries to sort out. Eve needs to find out about Dom’s secrets. Benedicte’s problems don’t become apparent until pretty late into the book. Her narrative jumps around in time and covers her childhood to old age. Her family goes through misfortune after misfortune from her father’s death to her abusive brother leeching off the family to her sister going blind. The stories subtly intersect with some objects and small events until the end when the two stories connect in a significant way. Benedicte and Eve are both compelling characters that I enjoyed following throughout the novel.

I did have a few problems with the book. The chapters aren’t labeled, so if I had put down the book and picked it up, I would be confused for a while until I figured out which chapter I was in. The story moves very slowly in some parts. Even though the language is beautiful, it gets a little tedious when nothing is really happening. Dom wasn’t really likeable or fleshed out. One of the big problems was just his refusal to tell Eve anything about his past. It seems kind of ridiculous in a modern setting for him to be so obstinate when his actions were obviously hurting his relationship. Even though Eve and Dom were supposed to be in love, I felt it wasn’t shown in a believable way before their relationship started to break down. The plot was predictable for the most part.

The Lantern is a unique book that brings the gothic novel to the present. The masterful writing flows easily and creates memorable images with florid descriptions. The novel definitely has some flaws, but through it all, I was interested throughout the novel and I would read more from Deborah Lawrenson.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

This book will be released 8/9. Check it out here!

SDCC 2011: Giveaway!

2011-08-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the In My Mailbox from Comic-Con, I got a lot of free books and a few doubles because of my boyfriend. I have decided to have a giveaway to share my books and swag with you guys! There are 3 different bundles up for grabs.

1) Urban Fantasy

* Nightshade ARC by Andrea Cremer

* Greywalker by Kat Richardson

* Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

2) Science Fiction

* Crossed by Ally Condie

* The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

* Star Carrier by Ian Douglas

3) High Fantasy and a random mystery/thriller book

* Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

* Genesis of Shannara by Terry Brooks

* The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

There will be 3 winners. The first person chosen gets first choice, the second person has second choice, etc.

To enter:

* must be a follower

* leave a comment with your email address

* for extra entries, comment on any of my posts labelled SDCC 2011 (+1 for each, previous comments count) and/or spread the word somewhere (+1 each limit 2, links in the comment please).

* This giveaway is only going to be for the US. I spent all my money at Comic Con, but my next giveaways will be international.

* ends August 27