The Bright Sessions: Season 1

The Bright Sessions is a speculative fiction podcast that focuses on Dr. Bright, a therapist who put an ad in the paper offering therapy for the strange and unusual. Although a vague description, she helps numerous people with fantastic abilities to better control their power. The narrative is a combination of the sessions with each patient and her verbal notes afterwards.

This season, Dr. Bright meets with three patients: Sam Barnes, Caleb Michaels, and Chloe Turner. Their powers cause problems I haven't seen before even in other science fiction work. Sam has intense anxiety attacks that causes her to travel through time. She isn't able to interact with anyone there and no one can see her. The length of her trips are completely out of her control, ranging anywhere from a day to a month. It could also happen at any time, so she doesn't interact with people a lot, fearing that her secret would be exposed. Her story takes an unexpectedly dark and heartwrenching turn at the end of the season.

Caleb is a high school jock who is an empath, one who feels everyone else's feelings. You can imagine that being stuck in high school surrounding by teenagers with high, hormone infused emotions would affect him. The football team grounds him because they all feel the same thing at the same time, but other's emotions make it hard to differentiate if they are his or not. Some have different colors or feelings attached to them. His main problem is that a classmate named Adam feels sad in his class and that's all Caleb is able to feel. With Dr. Bright's prompting, they become friends. The most fascinating thing about their sessions is how other's emotions make him feel and how they can be different for seemingly no reason. At the end of the season, his story takes a happier, more satisfying turn.

Chloe is an art student in college who thinks she hears angels. It turns out to be the thoughts of those around her, which can be overwhelming in a crowded classroom. Her cheery demeanor sets her apart from the other patients in addition to her skepticism towards Dr. Bright. She isn't always so eager to follow advice or believe that the voices come from actual people instead of angels. I found her the most frustrating because she is so stuck in her way of thinking and rationalizes anything that she wants to do despite reality. Her story is the first where we see that Dr. Bright's motivations may not be as altruistic as she seems and we get a glimpse of Dr. Bright's most challenging and dangerous patient, Damian.

I finished the first season of The Bright Sessions in two days. The episodes are less than a half hour each and the format really draws the audience into the story. This is a fascinating podcast with characters that use different types of language, come from different backgrounds, and have different experiences with their powers. The stories can pack an emotional punch that can deliver warm fuzzies or tears. There are so many things about this world that wasn't covered in 9 episodes and I'm completely intrigued. I highly recommend this podcast and I can't wait to start the next season.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Podcast Friday: Test Pattern and Lore

* Test Pattern

Test Pattern is hosted by Jacob and Tab (of one of my favorite podcasts The Girls in the Back Row). Together, they host a show that focuses on horror films, cult classics, and other things that go bump in the night. Their episodes are well crafted with deep discussions and quite a bit of research. They start the show with their horror origins, what got them interested in horror as kids. My favorite of their series so far is their Universal Monsters series where they go through each Universal movie paired with a more modern remake, starting with The Phantom of the Opera silent film paired with Phantom of the Paradise. These film are near and dear to my heart so I love the new information about the making of the films, how the Hayes' Code affected what could be shown in the films, and of course their personal opinions on them. Their Cautionary Tales episode goes through different fairy tales and children stories with harsh consequences along with movie and TV adaptations of them, detailing their exposure to them as children and adults. The Nightmare Before Christmas episode gave me a new appreciation for my favorite Halloween movie and the amount of detail that went into making it. I can't recommend this podcast enough. 

* Lore

Aaron Mahnke hosts and writes the Lore podcast that mixes history and the supernatural backed by beautiful piano music. Each episode goes into depth about a certain subject like vampirism, witches, varieties of different creatures, and more. He details why people might believe what they did, some possible logic explanations, and always leaves it open for the supernatural to be out there. Everything is connected in a seamless narrative that sometimes goes to unexpected places. Some episodes don't interest me as much, but others gave me chills. I have two favorites: the very first episode about called They Made a Tonic and the 12th episode Half-Hanged. The first is about how in the late 19th century, the odd effects of tuberculosis on the body after death had people believing in vampires and mutilating bodies to safeguard against them. The dead person in question was Mercy Brown who was found to be in a suspiciously fresh state with blood still in her heart. It's a remarkable case that caused a panic and led to some unnecessary, grisly actions. The latter episode is about Mary Webster, an accused witch who was found innocent by the courts. Her neighbors didn't agree due to the strange circumstances surrounding a prominent man's death and hanged her anyway, but she survived. Both bizarre stories simply fascinate me. If you like weird tales with some basis of truth, I would highly recommend this podcast.   

Horror Podcast: The Last Podcast on the Left and Killer POV

* The Last Podcast on the Left

I've heard a huge amount of good things about The Last Podcast on the Left from a lot of people whose opinion I trust. Ben Kissel, Henry Zebrowski, and Marcus Parks discuss the real and imagined horrors of life with their own comedic flair. I listened to the first 4 episodes of the podcast that include serial killers, cults, demonology in film, and introducing themselves. They have interesting, rambling discussions about the topics and are knowledgeable about a surprising number of things. My favorite of the discussions is when one of the hosts discusses his experience watching The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in rural Texas near the city where these fictional murders take place. He has a healthy fear of hitchhikers in the first place and the film starts out with a creepy hitchhiker. His account of watching it in pitch darkness, all by himself, in the middle of nowhere is awesome.

The reason I didn't continue the podcast after 4 episodes is their type of humor. I love dark jokes and even sick jokes about death, but their humor borders and ventures into misogyny quite a bit. One of the first jokes of the entire show has one of the men referring to his girlfriend as a hole. During the serial killer episode, vulvas in a box were a huge point of humor for them. It rubs me the wrong way and seems to be a bit of a staple with this group. It's not a bad show, but it just isn't for me. Many people enjoy the show, but the bro-y energy of the show puts me off.

My rating: 2.5/5

* Killer POV

Rebekah McKendry, Rob G, and Elric Kane discuss horror films and interview guests. I loved the first episode where each of the hosts introduces themselves and talks about their taste in horror films in addition to how they got into the genre. I had only heard of Rebekah as she was a writer for Fangoria and a current writer for Blumhouse, but it was cool to hear more from her. I enhoyed getting to know the hosts and their backgrounds. The second episode has the hosts interviewing actors who play Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees making their own film. I wasn't super interested in it and I wanted to skip it, but the podcast is focused on interviewing people in the horror genre about their work and about other films. I'm not into interviews being a big part of a podcast. I'm more interested in the discussion between the hosts about films or analyzing films. Another one that wasn't bad, but not for me.

My rating: 3/5

Horror Podcasts: Frightday

Frightday is a horror podcast hosted by Kelly, Sam, and Byron. (Captain) Kelly is the host of her own Cryptids and Conspiracies segment every show. She covers everything from hollow earth to UFO sightings to lizard people. Although she's a believer in many things like aliens and ghosts, she gives a fair view of each subject, presenting the skeptic and believer side of each issue. I'm personally not super interested most of these subjects, but Kelly talks about it in such an animated, interesting way that I enjoy it. My favorite reports of hers so far are the MK Ultra series and her report on Krampus. MK Ultra is an actual chapter in our government's history and incredibly depressing but also fascinating. She of course delves into conspiracy theories about it. Her Krampus report was more about the myths and legends behind Krampus. I wish she would do a bit more about this type of thing as well.

Byron is the host of the show, Byron's Serial Killer Corner, and the EVPlease segment. Byron's Serial Killer Corner is probably my favorite segment where Byron talks about a serial killer, their bloodyy career, and their fate, but it's not a regular part of the show. EVPlease used to be a regular ending to the show which attempted to capture ghost communication in recordings in electronic voice phenomenon. Sam occasionally presents Sam's Jams and Sam's Gun Accuracy Report. Both of them have much gorier and more extreme tastes than Kelly, who preferes ghost and alien films. They also provide the staunch skeptic position to contrast Kelly's belief in many cryptids and conspiracies. Their banter is hilarious and I love that they don't agree on everything. Some podcasts have hosts that agree on almost everything and it's a nice change to see debates going on.

The first segment of their show has all of them briefly describing what they watched over the week and what they thought of it. This is followed by Kelly's Cryptids and Conspiracies. The last segment of their show is always a film review. The vast majority of their reviews are current films or films that aren't out yet. Twice, they have reviewed classic films which was The Fog and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Their film choices range widely to include big releases, indie films, and foreign films.

I only have a few tiny problems with the show. Kelly can sometimes grate on the nerves especially when she's eating things loudly or making ghost noises into the mic. Some of her opinions make me think less of her like hating Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. Byron's Serial Killer Corner should be a bigger part of the show because it's awesome and informative. Everything else is awesome. This fun and and informative podcast has introduced me to a lot of films I would have never heard of. Writing for the site has also been awesome with more opportunities to watch and review films. I also get to know these three wonderful people as well as the rest of the site's writing staff: Alex, Felicia, and Maggie.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Horror Podcasts: The Girls in the Back Row

The Girls in the Back Row is a podcast that reviews and discusses horror films. For each film they discuss, Kate and Tab briefly describe the film, give a spoiler free review, and give their first impressions. After a short break which is usually a trailer for the film they are discussing, they have a more in depth and spoiler-full discussion. Not only do they timestamp every section of the show, but their show notes are quite detailed. If they mention a documentary or another film, it will be linked or at least listed for reference. Their discussions often go into the history of the film and put the it into context with information from behind the scenes. For example, the 1934 film Black Cat had a tiny budget compared to other Universal films and was filmed in 15 days which explains its short run time of under an hour. The studio didn't want the film to be so dark or creepy, explaining its uneven tone. I love that they research so many details and it's different than every other podcast out there.

I've only listened to 4 episodes, but I'm definitely listening to them as long as they put out episodes. Their first episode was introducing themselves and how they got into horror. Since I think they're around my same age, we have a lot of the same horror gateway media like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with its horrifying illustrations. Their experiences had some similarity to mine in that I never had friends who liked horror and I learned not to talk about it since it always got a negative response. Some of their early horror references sound awesome like the author Richard Laymon. Kate came to the genre more as an adult and is watching a lot of things for the first time while Tab gets the thrill of introducing movies to someone into the horror genre. Tab is crazy knowledgeable about the genre.

The episodes I've listened to so far where about their Horror Origins, Suspiria and Demons, The Black Cat, and High Tension. I hated Suspiria when I watched it because the characters and plot were so lackluster. Kate and Tab have inspired me to rewatch the film with a different perspective. The film was made as a horror fairy tale with a bright color palette. The colors, dimensions, and exaggerated sets are made to make the film look nightmarish. I do remember the film being beautiful, but I was so annoyed by the lack of story and lame characters that I didn't enjoy it much. Their detailed discussion on the background of the film and all the small details I didn't notice make me excited to watch it again. Their discussion of High Tension is also very good and they discussed in detail the exact problem I had with the film.

Kate and Tab are a killer duo with amazing research and perspectives. I can't wait  to listen to the rest of their episodes and watch the films they cover.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Horror Podcasts: Faculty of Horror

I have a crazy long commute to work, so I needed something to keep my mind busy. I've been going crazy with all the traffic I have to go through and I need a mental distraction to not let the frustration get to me. I've been trying out a variety of podcasts, all about horror in some way, and here's what I think of them. I hope to review one a week or so.

* Faculty of Horror

Faculty of Horror is a horror podcast focused on analyzing horror films in an academic way hosted by Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West. The beginning of the podcast starts a little rough. There are a few factual errors that annoyed me and Alex has some personal opinions that rub me the wrong way. However, their analysis is always well researched and changed the way I saw some films, particularly Jennifer's Body. I still think it fails as a horror comedy and isn't a very good film, but they describe the two main characters Needy and Jennifer as opposing female stereotypes that merge into one at the end of the film to create a real person.

In their episode on Silence of the Lambs, they both seemed to dismiss the anti-LGBT aspects of the film without much discussion. I love the film, but this critique is significant enough to warrant discussing. Like a lot of films before it, Buffalo Bill has an exaggerated and deranged sexuality and sexual identity that includes taking normal sexuality and sexual identity (homosexuality and transgenderism) and adds mutilating, murdering male lovers, and murdering women in order to transform when conventional channels have refused him. It's not a coincidence that many other horror movie murderers also break gender conventions to show their madness, condemning this behavior, such as Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Norman Bates in Psycho.

I very much enjoyed their episode highlighting key episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, which is one of my favorites of all time. Their guest Stewart articulated what I love about the show and describes how the deep emotions portrayed are much more than the bad acting or bad CGI. It bothered me that Alex hadn't watched the entire series, which means she missed a lot of the context of the key episodes, and refused to listen to the songs in the musical episode Once More with Feeling. The lyrics are pretty essential to the plot. She also flatly hates the show, which fills me with rage. This show has been so formative for me that I take it personally if someone hates it just like Andrea who literally spoke everything I was thinking.

Even with my disagreements with their perspective, I love to challenge my own perspective and deepen my own understanding of horror films. I've listened to the first 13 episodes plus a few that particularly interested me like the eating disorder episode featuring Black Swan and Drag Me to Hell and their episode on Rosemary's Baby. This podcast is definitely worth your time and makes me want to write even more about horror films.

My rating: 4.5/5

Ash vs. Evil Dead

After all his epic adventures with Deadites and thirty years later, Ashley Williams still works at ValueShop. lives in a trailer park, and goes to dive bars to pick up women. To woo a woman, he stupidly reads from the Necronomicon and brings the Deadites back. As Ash leaves a trail of possessed and dead people behind him, detective Amanda Fisher chases him across the country while he travels with his two young coworkers Kelly and Pablo to return the Deadites to where they belong.

I was never a super huge fan of the original Evil Dead films. I understood why they were important to the horror genre and their innovation in horror comedy and practical effects. I decided to give the show a try and I'm so happy I did. It has almost everything from the original films merged with a compelling story and likeable characters. The show brings back Bruce Campbell to his iconic role as undeservedly arrogant Ash with his chainsaw hand, one liners, and brash attitude. The only difference from Ash from the films is that he's now aging ungracefully and refuses to see it. He has a simple mentality: shoot now, think never. He's much older, pathetic, not very smart, and completely unapologetic.but he's so charismatic and fun that you still root for him through all his bumbling and mistakes. Speaking of mistakes, he thought it would be a great idea to summon a demon to fight the Deadites, but didn't think about the aftermath.

The new characters fit well with the show. Pablo and Kelly provide a voice of reason to Ash's antics. Pablo is desperate to be cool in Ash's eyes and in love with Kelly. He was raised by his shaman uncle who prophesied of a man who fights evil called El Jefe. Pablo is absolutely convinced this is Ash and believes in him even when Ash has his own doubts. Sometimes even Ash's most deplorable actions get even Pablo to judge him badly. Kelly, on the other hand, is less eager to join the group. She is focused on running from her past, but finds a kind of family with Ash and Pablo. She judges Ash harshly, but still follows him and works to beat the Deadites with him. Pablo and Kelly provide different perspectives on situations and give Ash some perspective at times.

The Deadites are back to their old tricks. Regular zombies are bad enough when someone sees a loved one rotting and attacking them. Deadites take it to crazy lengths. One minute they will spew obscenities and insults and the next weep at the attacks in a perfect imitation of the loved one. These are living or dead people possessed by Kandarian demons who have a hive mind. Not all of them are zombies, but the majority of them end up that way. At their core, they are dark tricksters who delight in mayhem and chaos. In the show, they have a mysterious leader and an ultimate goal that concentrates their efforts, making them even more dangerous than before.

The show is hilariously disgusting with blood and vomit splattered liberally. Unfortunately, the effects are primarily CGI instead of practical effects. The effects are the most revolutionary thing about the original films and it's disappointing to see the legacy stop. I suspect it's a budget and time constraint issue. I've resigned myself to the CGI because it doesn't look terrible and the soul of the show is intact. It's a fun, gory, over the top horror comedy that's a worthy follow up to the original films. The only other problem I had was that half hour episodes are way too short. Other than that, I loved every minute. The ending to the season was perfect and I can't wait to see the repercussions in season 2.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: American Horror Story: Coven

The latest season of American Horror Story centers around a rapidly shrinking coven of witches that suffer from internal conflicts, attacks from a rival coven and witch-hunters. This season isn't as dark or serious as the other seasons, but definitely doesn't shy away from the bizarre sexual violence that pushes boundaries and taste. It's the weakest season because it seems like a lot of episodes where very static and didn't really go anywhere except try to disgust the audience or make them uncomfortable. Characters would die and come back to life so much that death no longer meant anything. Despite not being the best paced, there are a lot of good things about this series, namely how dynamic the characters are and how even evil characters are in some way likable.

The characters on the evil side of the spectrum manage to get the audience to root for and sympathize with them. Fiona Goode is the aging Supreme of the coven that has done pretty much nothing to help it. She enjoys the power and seeks immortality, resorting to killing her charges and members of her coven in pursuit of both. Although a pretty reprehensible human being, her humor, wit, and attitude redeem her enough to want to see her on the show week after week, mostly due to Jessica Lange's acting. Marie Laveau is Fiona's rival and vows to ruin her. She has succeeded in achieving immortality and eternal youth, but has to commit horrible acts every year in return. I found her to be much less likeable much more petty than Fiona. Her only redeeming qualities are her humor and the good works she does for her community. Delphine LaLaurie is a 19th century slaver who tortured and murdered her slaves on a regular basis. She was turned immortal by Marie for some inexplicable reason and struggles to adapt to modern life after being buried for close to 100 years. She brings a lot of comedy relief, but also a lot of horror with her bloody beauty treatments and horrific treatment of slaves. All three of these women are of an older generation that should have transferred power and supremacy to the younger generation, but they cling to their power and youth, defying the natural. These women also show how power used selfishly corrupts and distorts.

The characters on the good side of the spectrum are interesting, but often not as well portrayed. Cordelia Foxx was blind, figuratively and literally, and exhibited no powers for much of the show. Her mother's uncaring nature and disapproval as well as her husband's deception are the primary reasons for her self doubt and the length of time spent without her true power. At the end of the series, she proves to be successful because she uses her powers to help witches from around the world rather than just benefiting herself. Myrtle Snow was the exact opposite of Fiona. She always had the coven's interests at heart and sacrificed herself at the end of the show to ensure the success of Cordelia and her new order. The young girls being groomed to take over the coven, Zoe, Queenie, Misty, and Nan, are varied, but are written unevenly or thrown away. Zoe makes the most godawful decisions sometimes and then turns into a badass for a few brief shining moments. Queenie is pretty consistent, but has some unnecessary scenes. Both Misty and Nan were amazing characters that were permanently killed with bad writing. The logic of the show seems to be that everyone could be brought back from the dead except these two for no reason at all. The portrayal of some of these characters was frustrating because the of the uneven writing.

American Horror Story wouldn't be the same without some cringeworthy, uncomfortable sexual scenes, but many of these ones are simply for the ick factor without actually helping or advancing the plot or characters in any way. Zoe can kill men with her vagina and learns to wield her power by killing a rapist with rape. Besides the fact that rape doesn't really justify another rape, her powers never have any significance after that and isn't even mentioned. Everyone else has a usable unique power usable for the duration of the show except for her. Queenie is raped by the Minotaur that was Marie's lover and by the middle of the season, I forgot it even happened. Despite being a memorable and uncomfortable scene, it had practically no effect on the show or the characters at all. Another unnecessary scene is the one where Marie describes a fertility ritual for Cordelia involving slathering her in a jar full of semen and goat's blood. This doesn't actually happen at all because Marie refused to actually do the ritual, but that didn't stop the writers from wasting time showing the bizarre ritual.

American Horror Story: Coven suffers from way too many characters, uneven writing, unnecessary scenes, and wonky world building. The writers just did whatever they wanted without really taking into account character development or the rules of the world. Death became essentially meaningless except in two isolated incidents and many of the twisted sexual scenes were essentially meaningless beyond their shock value. I still enjoyed many aspects of the show and I think it overall portrays women in a dynamic manner.

My rating: 7/10 fishmuffins

Trick 'r Treat

Here is the synopsis from IMDB.com: Five interwoven stories that occur on the same block, on the same night. A couple finds what happens when they blow a jack o' lantern out before midnight, a high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer, a college virgin might have met the right guy for her, a group of mean teens play a prank that they take too far, and a hermit is visited by a special trick or treater.

Chances are you have never heard of this film. It was supposed to come out in 2007, but for some reason was shelved until now. It has never had a theatrical release, but has been touring at various horror film festivals. I heard about it last year at LA's Screamfest, but wasn't able to see it there. I think i's very sad that Saw VI and the remake of The Nightmare on Elm Street get wide releases, but this gem of a movie does not.

I have been waiting a full year to see and I have to say that I am not disappointed at all. This movie is one of the most unique horror movies that has come out recently. It goes back to the Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow format of film, except that the stories are interwoven throughout the film. The story goes back and forwards in time and some characters are seen in more than one story. This sounds like it could get confusing, but it really does not. Based on horror conventions, I thought I knew where each story was going to go, but I was totally wrong. This movie has unpredictable twists and turns. It's funny, as well as creepy and scary. The acting is great; the special effects, sets, and mood are awesome for fairly low budget movies.

My favorite character of the entire film is Sam. He is like the spirit of Halloween. The writer and director, Michael Dougherty, describes him as a twisted version of Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin. Sam goes around and enforces the rules of Halloween in interesting ways, like always check your candy and never blow out a jack-o-lantern before midnight.

This film is out on DVD today, so if you're interested I invite you to buy or rent it. It's the perfect movie for Halloween!

10/10

Jennifer's Body

My sister and I saw Jennifer's Body last Thursday (midnight showing at the Arclight in Hollywood). I was really excited to see it. I love campy, cheesy, funny horror with gobs and gobs of blood and gore. Reality, alas, did not live up to my expectations.

Here is the summary from IMDB.com:

Nerdy, reserved bookworm Needy and arrogant, conceited cheerleader Jennifer are best friends, though they share little in common. They share even less in common when Jennifer mysteriously gains an appetite for human blood after a disastrous fire at a local bar. As Needy's male classmates are steadily killed off in gruesome attacks, the young girl must uncover the truth behind her friend's transformation and find a way to stop the bloodthirsty rampage before it reaches her own boyfriend Chip.

The film was ok, but I had much higher expectations. The dialog was insipid and extremely pleased with itself. It nauseatingly basked in its own clever juices. I was laughing mostly because I couldn't believe that certain piece of dialog had made it into the movie. Real teenagers would not be caught dead speaking like that.

As Fangoria points out, any hot actress could be interchanged in the title role. Jennifer before and after the demonic possession really didn't act any different apart from eating males from her class. I don't know if I'm supposed to feel sorry for her, but I definitely didn't. The character is brainless and bland.

I have no idea why this movie is rated R. There really isn't very much blood (which made me sad) and there is no nudity (much to many a fanboy's chagrin). There is an extremely gratuitous kiss between the two female leads that didn't actually mean anything at all. If you're going to have a kiss like that, at least let it have further implications in the film somewhere.

Overall, the film was disappointing. I read the accompanying graphic novel, which gave the back stories of all the boys that were killed and the events leading up to their deaths. I really liked it and couldn't wait for the movie afterwards. I think the biggest failing of the film was the dialog written by Diablo Cody. I hope Breathers: A Zombie's Lament based on the S.G. Browne novel is better.

The Silver Kiss

Zoë is a pretty normal teenage girl, except for the fact that her mother is dying of cancer. It has made her grow up very fast, assuming responsibilities not typically expected of others her age. She is also kind of a loner. It's hard to have friends when they don't know how to talk to you or how to act around you because of tragedy. Simon is a tortured, but alluring vampire, driven by revenge for his mother's death. These two lonely souls meet up and join forces against an evil force that is killing unsuspecting young women in a horrific way.

I remember really liking this book as a child. It generated my interest in the vampire genre that has flourished ever since (as you can see from my library). Upon rereading it as an adult, I found that I still liked it, but not nearly as much as my younger self. The plot is pretty predictable and cliché at times. Girl meets and falls in love with vampire. Vampire hates his own existence, mopes, and wants to eat girl. There are so many teen vampire books out there with similar plots. I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the cheesier lines and predictable points in the plot. I also felt that the character development was a little slow, making me connect later with the characters than I would like.

Still, I feel that this book is special, despite its flaws. I really like that there is a fantastical plot line alongside a very realistic plot line. The juxtaposition of the two grounds it a little more in reality and makes the characters more believable. The Silver Kiss is more gory and horrific than most other books in the teen vampire genre, which makes my inner horror fan happy. Plus, the ending is beautiful and still brings tears to my eyes.

This book has gore, horror, romance, and action. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of other teen vampire novels.

4/5

Catching Fire

Catching Fire starts where The Hunger Games leaves off. Katniss and Peeta have to go on tour and act deliriously in love with each other. They have to convince the Capitol and President Snow that the outcome of the Hunger Games was an act of love, not a subversive act of rebellion. However it was meant, the effect reverberates throughout the districts, whether they view the couple as star-crossed lovers or rebel icons. Is Katniss’s façade convincing enough and how long will she have to keep it up? Also, what other horrors is the next Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, going to bring?

When I read The Hunger Games, I liked it, but considered it a watered down version of Battle Royale. Catching Fire, however, elevates the series for me and leaves Battle Royale in the dust. This novel shows what happens after the Hunger Games are over. If you think the victors are safe and the trouble is over, you are very, very wrong.

The tour that takes Peeta and Katniss to the other districts illuminates the drastic difference between the rich and poor districts. The setting for the novel is in the future, so these people have many more luxuries and technology than we have. The Capitol is the height of luxury. Its inhabitants have shallow, materialistic worries and have more food than they know what to do with. At parties, it’s typical to see people induce vomiting multiple times to stuff themselves with more of the extravagant food. They have no idea about the hardships the other districts deal with every day. These districts are the polar opposite of the Capitol. If I hadn’t known the setting for the novel, I would have thought that the poorer districts were stuck back in time, being deprived of the luxuries of our own time. It’s shocking to me that despite all their amenities and technological advances that people are still left to starve or die from very curable afflictions.

This book is much more brutal than the last. Because of Peeta and Katniss’s gesture, the police are overpowering the more rebellious districts with beatings, torture, and even killings. I was on the edge of tears for most of the novel, but I was pleased to see a young adult novel push the envelope far beyond what I thought possible. President Snow is one of the cruelest characters I have ever encountered in literature. I was so surprised by the twists and turns of the plot and eventually just gave up trying to predict what was going to happen. The shocks just keep coming, right up to the very last page. I highly recommend this novel and I can’t wait for the next one!

5/5