City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Cass sees ghosts after she had a brush with death herself. The world beyond the Veil calls to her. She finds herself entering it, reliving ghosts' memories of their deaths, and attempting to take pictures of ghosts. Even her best friend is a ghost and stays with her most of the time. His name is Jacob and he saved her from drowning. When her parents whisk her away to Scotland so they can host a haunted places show, Cass learns much more than Jacob revealed to her about the Veil and her own power.

City of Ghosts is the perfect Halloween read. It's spooky, heartwarming, and suspenseful. Everything from the characters to the world building sucked me right in. Cass and Jacob are wonderful characters that have their own flaws and quirks. Cass is a lovely girl. I love her embracing being unpopular because being popular has loads of expectations and rules that she simply doesn't want. She has the power to speak to the dead and enter the Veil. She feels a scratching when a ghost is near and watches the memories they are trapped in. Jacob is an anomaly as a ghost who is aware of the world and interacts with the living in Cass. He has a sharp wit and makes funny comments no one else can hear. Together, they have rules like not entering the Veil alone, avoiding certain subjects, and respecting each other's needs and privacy. Their friendship is so lovely that it's rather heartbreaking when they have doubts because Jacob kept things from Cass.

The world building is awesome and detailed. Ghosts have the ability to read minds and be invisible to the living. Jacob doesn't have much power to interact with the living world, but others do. Ghosts who draw power from negative emotions like pain, anger, and regret can be very destructive, moving things and hurting people. The Veil isn't laid out as the real world is, but as a series of time capsules of varying size for each ghost trapped in it. There, Cass becomes less than alive and Jacob becomes more than dead. She thinks she knows what to expect from the Veil in Scotland, but ti's so oppressive with the dead that it sucks her in involuntarily. Almost everything she's learned is called into question especially when a ghost woman in a vibrant red cloak lures children to her. She also meets a ghost hunter whose goal is to release ghosts from the Veil, calling into question Cass's reason for having abilities. The whole thing is so well constructed and interesting that I wish the book was twice as long.

City of Ghosts put me nicely into the Halloween spirit. It has everything: creepy ghosts, lush Scottish landscapes, and beautiful friendships. Victoria Schwab has singular descriptions and metaphors that make her world come alive. This is a middle grade book that would blend in will with Holly Black's Doll Bones and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I hope it's the start of a series since there are things left open and of course a whole word of ghosts to explore.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

The Little Stranger (2018)

Dr. Faraday has intense memories of the grand Hundreds Hall as a child and finds himself returning as an adult to treat their fearful maid. As he befriends the Ayres family that includes Roderick, Caroline, and their mother Angela, weird and violent events start happening in their now dilapidated house.

The Little Stranger is an atmospheric film adaptation of Sarah Water's unconventional haunted house novel. Much of the film is well done, especially in the visuals, the performances and characters, the placement and intensity of the violent events, and the implications of the ending. The cinematography is beautiful with muted, dreary tones for the present and bright, colorful hues for the past. This is through Faraday's eyes because he idealizes the past. Hundreds Hall used to be a magnificent house with intricate moldings, fresh flowers on every floor, and home to the most exclusive parties. The home is owned by the Ayres family, part of the upper echelons of society even when the house has fallen into disrepair as a result of their fortune running out. Now, Hundreds is a ghost of its former glory with four people living in the massive structure, struggling to keep things running.

The characters feel authentic due to the superb writing and acting. Faraday is a restrained man stuck in between the levels of society. He grew up poor as a shopkeeper and nanny's son, only invited to the one party at Hundreds because his mother used to work there. That place is everything he ever wanted but can never have as someone born lower class. As an adult, he's known as a decent doctor and seems to be rather well off, but still doesn't fit in as the Ayres do despite their differing fortune. People still treat him as if he doesn't belong. The Ayres do belong, but the situation isn't good for them either. They hold on to the monstrosity of a house because of tradition even as it molders aroudn them. Roderick has control of the property and their money because of society's expectations even though he clearly isn't competent to do so. The matriarch Angela would rather suffer with mental illness rather than see a psychologist and bring further shame to her family. Both parties suffer in their roles imposed by society.

The horror elements are few and far between, but they are masterfully done. The rest of the film kind of lulls you into a false sense of security so when these moments come up, they are jarring, almost always violent, and graphic. The first scene of this nature is when the Ayres have a party and Caroline's old, docile lab mauls the face of a little girl. I was shocked at its graphic nature and the tragic ramifications for the girl, the dog, and the Ayres. The only non-violent incident is the wardrobe suddenly full of childishly scrawled S's, which solidifies Angela's will to stay in the house thinking it's the spirit of her dead daughter. The rest of the scenes are memorable, artfully filmed, and somber.

** here there be spoilers **

The ending has interesting implications. Faraday starts out the movie as a decent man. He befriends struggling neighbors and has either a pleasant friendship or awkward courtship with Caroline. Later in the film, he becomes extremely possessive, stooping to forcing Caroline's consent to marriage on the evening of her mother's funeral. It's a disgusting scene that automatically made me hate him. Days later, Caroline doesn't want to get married at all, sold the house, and plans to move away to Canada or America to start over. He refuses to accept it but still leaves. For him, Caroline becomes synonymous with the house. They both represent his longing for success, acceptance in high society, happiness, and love. However, equating a house with a woman gives his possessive view a misogynistic slant. The cause of all the Ayre family problems turns out to be an imprint of Faraday as a child. That scene is shown so many times in the film: his longing overcoming him so that he snaps an acorn from some molding on the wall and his mother humiliates him in front of Angela's daughter Sukey. The shame, anger, and wanting in that moment created a sort of poltergeist that terrorized the family their whole lives.

I have mixed thoughts about the ending. On one hand, it shows how toxic the hierarchy of society is to all involved. On the other hand, three people are now dead because a little boy didn't get his way. In terms of class, I think it's well done. It also portrays the destructive force of toxic masculinity when entitled men don't get their way. I hate that Faraday essentially wins in the end even though he's no better for it. The nail in the coffin for me was when he testified in court that Caroline's death must have been suicide due to her "mental instability" when she rejected him. It's unclear whether he truly believes this or if he's knows he's lying. I supposed I could believe a man thinking a woman is insane for not wanting him. The film could also be interpreted as adult Faraday murdering Caroline and then securing his innocence by lying, but that wouldn't explain any of the other phenomena.

The Little Stranger is as restrained a film as Faraday is a character. The supernatural and violent elements seem extreme in comparison, matching the extremes in visuals. There is a lot of development and quiet moments in between, so it takes a little patience and care about the characters to  Although I have mixed feelings about the ending, the film in undeniably well made and acted. Charlotte Rampling as Angela is an iron matriarch through everything. Domhnall Gleeson as Faraday holds up the bulk of the film and makes everything believable in a subtle way. Although I found the ending a bit controversial, The Little Stranger is worth your time.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins

The Devil's Doorway (2018)

The Vatican sends a team of two priests, Thomas Riley and John Thornton, to investigate a possible miracle in 1960 Ireland. At a remote Magdalene Laundry, a statue of the Virgin Mary supposedly cries blood. Father Thomas expects its nothing, but more idealistic and young Father John sees the possiblility of an expression of the divine. As they stay longer, children can be heard playing at night and more and more about this place shows that there is much to hide.

The Devil's Doorway takes the very real horror of the abusive Magdalene laundries with the supernatural. This institution within in the Catholic church hid "fallen women" (meaning sexually active, pregnant out of wedlock, or sex workers) from their communities, abused them, forced them to work, and keep them confined. In the last few decades, the mental, physical, and sexual abuse of the women by priests and nuns who ran the laundries in addition to taking thousands of children born and selling them overseas. All of this is much more horrific than anything supernatural writers can come up with, so I thought some of those aspects fell flat.

The whole investigation starts because of a statue of the Virgin Mary crying blood and it turns out to be so much more than that. Strange sounds are heard at night including the eerie sound of children playing. All of the Mary statues cry and then explode in one of the most effective scenes of the film. A particularly violent pregnant woman is chained up in the basement, apparently possessed. These aspects could have been a bit more streamlined. It's a lot of supernatural just thrown around that don't really seem to be connected to each other. The possession in particular seems to be there just because it's expected to be rather than furthering the story. The payoff for the creepy children voices wasn't executed very well and seemed rather cheesy even though it pointed to the reality of children dying in the "care" of these institutions.

Father Thomas and Father John are the duo sent to investigate the miracle. Thomas is borderline atheistic and jaded while John is idealistic and fairly innocent. This type of pairing is pretty typicaly in possession movies and works well here. They are a bit shocked when the Mother Superior directly calls out the corruption of priests and points out that quite a few girls at the laundries were abused by priests. Her character had great promise, but she remained one dimensional and villainous. The priests are the most likeable characters as they stumble around trying to solve this mystery and getting caught up in the deeper, sordid secrets of the laundry. I didn't like the nuns are basically painted as what's wrong in this situation (even though they aren't blameless) considering that they have no real power in the church as a whole.

The Devil's Doorway does some interesting things. It's a found footage film set in the 1960's and has the visuals to match. The atmosphere can be suspenseful and the plot is fairly well crafted. With the subject matter, I was hoping for a much more critical view of the Catholic Church and it turned out to lay the blame to the nuns who are partially at fault, but don't make the overarching decisions that made the institution and its abuse a reality. Having the priests clutch their pearls about the abuse didn't ring true to me at all, let alone anything else. Overall, it's a decent horror film, but I left disappointed at the tired tropes and random grab bag of supernatural.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins 

The Innocents (1961)

Miss Giddens becomes a governess for two adorable children, orphaned and financially cared for by their rich and uninterested uncle. At first, she is delighted to care for Flora while Miles is away at school. When he's expelled and returns home, both children have bouts of odd behavior. Unexplained noises and visions of a man and woman haunt Miss Giddens, increasing in intensity as time goes on. She is convinced the children are possessed by spirits of the dead and vows to save them.

The Innocents is first and foremost a beautiful film. In a time when color was the norm, the black and white color sets the mood of the story as well as the dramatically lit scenes, crumbling statues, and mysterious figures. Miss Giddens is the story's unreliable narrator who grows convinced that the children she cares for are possessed by the ghosts of a valet Peter Quint and the previous governess Miss Jessel, who were in love and had a very public affair. She sees their figures and Quint’s face clear as day, but no other character acknowledges them. The film never confirms or denies the existence of the ghosts and cases can be made for either side. I personally find it a little more interesting if the ghosts are merely figments of  Miss Giddens' imagination.

The title could refer to the children, who are by definition innocent. The odd behavior that puts off Miss Giddens is in Miles' almost flirtatious manner and both children's acting as if they have a secret. Flora nonchalantly described a spider eating a a fly in a creepy manner. These can be fairly normal children's behavior. They imitate grown ups, spontaneously kiss people, describe things without being aware of the connotations, and have their own secrets. Miss Giddens may be coloring the situation with her own meaning that comes from someone fairly innocent herself as a spinster in the suppressed Victorian era. Whether the children are possessed or just precocious, the tragic ending is the same and equally heartbreaking.

The Innocents is a beautiful movie that is a gothic horror classic. The atmosphere built and maintained is masterful at capturing Miss Giddens’ mental journey as the house and spirits grow more and more oppressive. Miss Jessel’s figure on the edge of a river is iconic. The scene occurs in broad daylight, but her face is slightly blurred. It amps up the tension and has been copied over and over in film. This film is well worth a watch.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Halloween Goodies: Adam Ellis’ Ghost, Monster Therapy, and The IT Department

* Adam Ellis’ Ghost

Adam Ellis is an artist that has gained a lot of popularity online with his comics about relatable situations, cats, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and many other things. Now, hundreds of people are subscribed to his Twitter account to be notified whenever he posts about Dear David, the ghost of a dead child trying to kill him. At first, I was uninterested, but as he kept posting, it grew into an intense ghost story. It started as a creepy sleep paralysis episode and a few dreams. The story of Dear David was laid out in a dream and the stuff of urban legend like Bloody Mary. He slips up, asking the ghost 3 questions which dooms him to death. What ensues are a variety of Paranormal Activity-esque videos and pictures with shadowy figures resembling David, cats acting strange, and objects falling or moving on their own. I don’t think it’s real at all, but it’s a damn good ghost story that sends chills up my spine. Check it out on his Storify where he compiles all the Dear David posts.

* Monster Therapy



Monster Therapy has movie monsters going to couples or family therapy to get through their issues. My favorites are Jason Voorhees whose wife is tired of his ratty old hockey mask, Freddy Krueger whose wife is jealous that he terrorizes teenage girl's dreams, and Bella whose husband Edward is put off by her werewolf erotica collection. The issues are always solved in an unexpected way and the therapist takes their issues seriously, even in the most ridiculous of situations. I thought the Twilight episode would be terrible because of the source material, but it was one of the funniest episodes. Each episode is only 2 or 3 minutes long and hilarious. Check out the channel here.

* The IT Department



A guy asks for the IT department but It shows up instead, apparently a common problem. I don't usually like talk show skits, but this one is so funny. Scary Mary and the real IT guy pull the whole thing together.

Women in Horror: Lake Mungo

16 year old Alice Palmer was swimming in a local dam with her brother on a normal day in Ararat, Australia. He got out because he was cold and then noticed a short time later that his sister was gone. The search for her overtook their town and her body was eventually discovered. A short while later, her brother and some strangers on the beach notice a figure in their pictures and videos that look disturbingly like Alice. These instances call into question if Alice is a ghost or if she's still alive that launch the family's investigation of Alice's secrets which are much more dark than they ever expected.

Lake Mungo is told in a documentary style that focuses on interviews with the family, police, friends of Alice, and the family's neighbors as well as photos, home videos of Alice, and many other videos taken by the family, strangers, and Alice herself. When I heard her name, I immediately though of Twin Peaks and Laura Palmer, who also died tragically and proved to have many secrets and hidden depths. Lake Mungo is lot more realistic than Twin Peaks and plays with the idea that Alice is alive and then, when that is proven wrong, that she is a ghost.

The main crux of the film is the family coming to terms with her death, learning the truth about her life, and moving on. Alice;s brother Mathew decides to create a photo that has Alice clearly in the shot because he feels that it still needs to be investigated. At the same time, some strangers on the beach also have eerie footage that looks like Alice and her body is exhumed for a DNA test. Mathew's actions, while well meaning, caused his family to think she's alive and then dashing their hopes when her death is confirmed. I was surprised at the strength of the family. The majority of couples separate after the death of a child. They were so well acted that their love and sympathy for each other is obvious in every scene.

Throughout this time, the family has been plagued with weird sounds and slamming doors at night, prompting them to put up video cameras. Most of the Alice footage was again faked by Mathew, but one proved to be real, making the family think they are being haunted. Upon a closer look, one of the figures was actually a neighbor looking in Alice's room for something. When a secret box is found, Alice's double life of sleeping with the neighbors when she was supposed to be babysitting was revealed. By the time this was discovered, the guilty couple and their family had moved away months ago. This detail is pretty shocking to her loved ones, but I loved that no one slut shamed her or thought less of her. They seemed more confused and upset at the couple who exploited her than anything.

Later, video footage of Alice's trip to Lake Mungo surfaces, showing that she was upset during a trip full of partying and drinking. The family goes to the site and digs up the spot where she was shown burying a bag of things. They discover her favorite bracelet and her cell phone, possession that were important to her. On her phone, they find a video of a figure approaching her, very similar to how she looked after she drowned. This is one of the scariest moments of the film. It seems she knew she would die and wasn't the happy, sunny person that they thought they knew. This pilgrimage led to finding the last piece of Alice that could tell them anything about her.

Whether or not a ghost exists, Alice is haunting them because her tragic death left a hole in their lives and in  their family. At the very end of the film, undiscovered hidden pictures of Alice are found in numerous videos and pictures, even those photoshopped by Mathew. There's an argument for both a literal ghost and the family simply seeking closure for their grief. I like the ghost angle myself and it shows that this girl wanted her family to get to know the real her better after death. The first thing that happens to anyone after they die is that they become idealized in the minds of the people they leave behind. This film is a grieving family's journey to get to know someone who hid a great many things from them. The mother is hit the hardest because she feels she held back and didn't always show Alice how much she was loved.

Lake Mungo is a quiet film that gets under your skin. It doesn't have jump scares or action scenes or scary monsters. It has a deep unease that stays with you. Each instance of grainy footage had me frantically looking for the hidden details that I still missed. At its core, the family and their sorrow color every scene of the film. This journey of theirs with all its pitfalls helped them move on and know Alice better as she was: flawed and not as happy as she seemed. I don't think it's for everyone because it has a slow pace and isn't a showy or obvious film, but it's definitely worth your time if you have the patience.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

The Disappointments Room

* spoilers *

Dana, David, and their son Lucas want a fresh start and move to an old, run down house with lots of potential in the country. Dana lost a child almost a year ago and just picked up the pieces from the loss. As an architect, she's set on returning the house to its former glory, but she finds a room not included in the plans that compels her to find a way inside. The horrors found inside turn her life upside down.

The Disappointments Room is as awkward and disappointing as its title. The set up is typical. I swear I've seen hundreds of films with the same premise. However, the characters aren't. David and Lucas are delightful people who walk on eggshells around Dana so as not to upset her. Dana is an insufferable person who doesn't deserve such a lovely family. When Lucas finds the most adorable cat ever in his room, she doesn't want him to have it for no reason at all. She seems dissatisfied with her life and treats everyone like crap. It's terribly tragic that she lost a child, but her behavior isn't excused. So many of her actions are unforgivable. On the anniversary of her daughter's death, she gets shitfaced drunk, drives to the dinner party she put together, and then verbally and physically abuses her husband and their friends. Then at the end of the film, she almost kills her son in the only shocking scene in the whole film if only the child had actually been killed. Instead of getting help or taking this threat of violence seriously, the family simply moves back to the city as if that fixes anything.

The plot had a lot of promise. The disappointments room was where imperfect children of the rich were kept int the Victorian era because it was shameful to have what they called aberrant or deformed children. The basic concept is interesting and not something I've really heard of before. Unfortunately, the film doesn't really know what it wants to be. The ghost story is there (not very well done), but Dana is clearly going through some sort of mental break. Loose ends are left. Dana is close to having an affair with a sexy handyman, but he's killed by a ghost. Even though the community is super close knit, somehow no one notices his death even though it's well known that he's helping with construction. A local historian puts together the supernatural event with some past newspaper headlines, but this scene has no payoff whatsoever. So many plot lines are just left dangling.

The Disappointments Room is predictably a disappointment. It runs way too long, leaves too many plot lines without resolution, and features a horrible protagonist that I ended up feeling no sympathy for. As far as I can tell, Lucas was only in danger from his mother the entire time. It comes off as a confused mess that wasn't scary or suspenseful.

My rating: 1/5 fishmuffins

Lights Out

Rebecca left home as soon as she could because her mother was strange, abusive, and refused treatment for her mental illness. Now, her stepfather recently died and her mother's condition has worsened. She's called to her little brother's school because he's fallen asleep in class numerous times. After trying to reason with her mother, she takes the boy to her apartment where she's sees a dark figure in the shadows carving things in her floor. The memories as a child of her mother's imaginary friend Diana are real and she has to protect her little brother from her at all costs.

Lights Out starts out looking promising. The scenes at the mannequin warehouse are tense and creepy. However, having the lights go on and off with Diana appearing in the darkness gets old after the first couple of times. Because of Diana's aversion to it, light is used very purposefully in a variety of ways: candles, flashlights, neon signs, gunshots, car headlights, black light, and others. The gunshots were a particularly ingenious idea. Diana would disappear for the split second that the gun would flash and then reappear as soon as it was gone. I wish that attention to detail was present through the whole film. I grew frustrated that all of these characters had cell phones with perfectly good bright lights on them, but no one ever used them. Once, a character used the screen as a light, but it's so dim, why not use the flashlight on it?

The characters are much more interesting than I expected. I grew to like and respect Rebecca. Her chosen aesthetic of goth skulls and black clothing is a bit cliche and screams emo. I wrote her off early as attention seeking, but she really pulled through for her brother and her mother. When a CPS worker suggests that she would be an unfit guardian because of her style and the art she chose to have in her apartment, I was outraged for her. Her boyfriend Bret proved to also be way more endearing than I expected. As a love interest, he persevered in a cute way to establish them as a long-term couple. In many movies, this comes off as controlling and creepy, but he would ultimately stand by her side until she made the decision in her own time. He was also very understanding of her situation and went above and beyond to help her.

Rebecca's mother Sophie is incredibly frustrating because she doesn't see how toxic and deadly her relationship with Diana has always been. Diana is on obvious personification of mental illness and seeks to destroy anything that Sophie loves. She stood by for years while Diana mentally and physically abused both of her children. A few things annoyed me about Diana. She is a two dimensional character with one motivation. I was hoping for a heartbreaking backstory or at least some sort of sense that she's an actual person, but she was this way since childhood for no apparent reason. Diana is completely revealed near the end of the film and it would have been better if she was kept in shadow. Showing too much of the monster is never a good idea. Diana's rules never seem to be concrete. Sometimes she can make lights go out and sometimes she can't. Black light reveals her for some reason and keeps her from disappearing. Although she hates the light, she can sometimes grab people while she's fully in light. The ending is atrocious and the logic around it is dubious at best.

Lights Out demonstrates an interesting concepts, but has a lot of flaws that include inconsistent rules of their creature, revealing too much, ignoring ubiquitous technology, and everything about the ending. It was better than I was expecting, but my expectations were set pretty low. It's a typical PG-13 supernatural film that stays squarely within the conventions of its genre. I would say this is a good intro to horror, but seasoned fans will be bored and frustrated.

My rating: 2/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: The Conjuring

In 1971, Roger, Carolyn, and their daughters move to an old farmhouse in Rhode Island. Everything is fine and dandy on the first day, but the next day brings odd events. Carolyn wakes up with weird bruises and the family dog is found dead outside. The weird happenings increase and Carolyn is attacked in the middle of the night and locked in the cellar. The family contacts paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren,who ascertain that an exorcism might be needed. They need to collect proof to send to the Catholic Church before anything can be done. It looks as if the church won't respond in time to save the family, so the Warrens and the family are on their own to save themselves.

The Conjuring is set in the 70's and a throwback to 70's horror films. It doesn't bring anything new to horror and relies to much on cheap jump scares for my taste. Parts of the film are very atmospheric and scary. My favorite part is where Carolyn is awoken in the middle of the night and lured into the basement by disembodied clapping only to be attacked. The scene was used as an extended trailer and made me excited to watch the film. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the only part of the film I really liked. The film was quite predictable and wasn't surprising in any positive way.

The film was surprising in a number of negative ways. First of all, the writers of the film, Chad and Carey Hayes, wrote this film as religious propaganda and it definitely shows. Faith is brought up in extremely obvious dialog multiple times and the entire film just boils down to a very simple good vs. evil story where faith triumphs over evil. The treatment of women is painfully apparent that the lens of the film is one of conservatism and religion. The evil spirit only directly attacks women. Women have been known in the Bible to be weaker then men and more susceptible to evil, causing original sin and things of that nature. On the night the evil starts, Carolyn initiates sex with her husband and we all know how well the Bible treats seductresses. This act basically ushers the evil in to her and of course the husband is merely an innocent bystander in the situation. Watching the misogyny on the screen was infuriating.

The villain of the film is Bathsheba, an evil witch who sacrifices children to Satan. Even after her death, she has been possessing women and manipulating them into killing their children and/or themselves. It's fun to look at the biblical Bathsheba. King David spied her in her bath, fell in love with her, and seduced her. Then he tried to cover up his sin by ordering the death of her husband. I find it particularly ironic that this evil, child-murdering female is named after a woman who was objectified and victimized by a powerful man and probably raped.

The last offensive thing about the film is the treatment of the Salem witch trials. The film puts forth that real witches were killed for the greater good. Not one little comment was made to say that innocent people died at all. Bathsheba could have committed suicide to save herself from a much more agonizing death being burned at the stake. I understand making history fit a story, but justifying the deaths of innocent people is pretty disgusting.

The Conjuring is a misogynistic and offensive film. Even without reading anything into the story, it's merely derivative of so many other things out there and doesn't do anything new or interesting. I don't understand why so many people seem to love this flat propagandist film.

My rating: 2/10 fishmuffins

The Dead and Buried

Jade and her family just moved into a large house near a big city. This had been Jade's dream for a long time, but was always told it would be much too expensive. She decides not ask why it's suddenly possible and is so excited even though she's moving to a new school for her senior year. She looks forward to a fresh start, but the reality is less than she expected. The other students frequently look at her and whisper to each other or suddenly stop talking when she walks into a room. Jade figures it's because she's new and chooses to ignore it. She also meets a boy with striking pale blue eyes named Donovan and makes friends with an intense yet accepting overachiever named Alexa. Then weird occurences happen in her house: her stuff is moved by something unseen, chills, weird sounds, and her brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade finally accepts that her house is haunted and needs to find out who and why before the ghost harms her family.

The Dead and Buried is a delightful old fashioned ghost story with a modern twist. This horror trope has been seen countless times. An unsuspecting family movies into a haunted house and gets terrorized by the ghost. The fairly typical haunted house contains possessions, eerie happenings, poltergeist-like events, and drastic temperature changes. It gave just the right threatening atmosphere. The modern twist comes in with the ghost. One might expect a dead person in need of help to solve their issues in the living world, but we get a homicidal mean girl named Kayla who will do anything to get her way. We learn more about her and her backstory over the course of the book as her diary entries (using numbers instead of people's names) are interspersed between the chapters, allowing us to slowly put the pieces of the mystery together. Although her mean girl status is cemented from page one, I was a little surprised that she would go so far as to threaten the life of Jade's adorable little brother Colby to get what she wants. This aspect gave an urgency to solve the mystery and an aura of fear to Jade as she frantically worked to get Kayla to leave her family alone.

Kim Harrington's writing is awesome as usual and she creates some engaging and realistic characters that I grew to love (or hate) over the course of the book. Jade proved to be very relatable and fun. She misses her mother who died years ago and feels uncomfortable and an outsider in her own family. Her love and knowledge of gemstones is a nice touch and also turns out to be a connection to her mother. I enjoyed the parallels of different aspects to her story and the Daphne Du Maurier novel Rebecca. Jade is a fun heroine to follow and actually makes informed decisions. Donovan is interesting and not the typical bad boy love interest. He has his typical dark attitude, but it makes more sense because his girlfriend died under mysterious circumstances and everyone very publicly blamed him for it. I found his independence and vulnerability refreshing. I wish I could see more love interests like him in YA fiction.

The Dead and Buried is well written light horror read with likeable characters and twists and turns. Teen mysteries are usually extremely transparent and predictable, but the revelations at the end of the novel left me speechless! Kim Harrington certainly knows how to craft a dark, unpredictable mystery. I would highly recommend it to fans of her other work and ghost stories.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Anna Dressed in Blood

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

Liesl and Po

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