Frightfall Read-a-thon Wrap-up!

This Frightfall Read-a-thon was awesome! These are the books I read:

* Asylum by Madeleine Roux - reviewed
* The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman - reviewed
* The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black - amazing! Love, love, loved it!
* 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil - I've only read 50 pages and it's intriguing so far.

This was a great read-a-thon! I got a lot of reading done and all of the reads were exceptional. :)

New and Upcoming Horror Projects

I can't wait for these to release!

* Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

The sequel to Ms. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will come out January 14, 2014. I enjoyed the first book and I look forward to new vintage photos and creepy stories. Here's the description from Amazon:

This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.

Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

* The Dead and Empty World by Carrie Ryan

Carrie Ryan announced today that her newest edition to The Forest of Hands and Teeth world: a collection of short stories. It's for sale NOW on Amazon for the ridiculously low price of $2.99. I'm so excited for this! The world she created with that series is one of the best out there and I can't wait to get back there. Here's what she has to say about it on her blog:

"...I began writing short stories set in the same world as The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Some of them I used to explore characters from the books (Sister Tabitha in the story “Hare Moon”) and some of them I used to play out my worst nightmares (being stuck in a life raft with someone who’d been bitten as in “Flotsam & Jetsam”). In many I tested out escape plans to determine whether they’d be successful (“A Game of Firsts” and “Bougainvillea”) and in some I just wanted to know how to build a life in a terrible world (“Scenic Route”). The Dead and Empty World represents my own struggle to determine what it means to do more that simply survive – but to actually live life despite the obstacles – dead or alive – that stand in the way.

* Birth of the Living Dead film



This is a documentary about the making of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. It was made on a shoe string budget and they created horror movie history. The film will be released October 18th in theaters.

"In 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero directed "Night of the Living Dead," a low budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and spawned a zombie industry worth billions of dollars that continues to this day.

"Birth of the Living Dead," a new documentary, shows how Romero gathered an unlikely team of Pittsburghers — policemen, iron workers, teachers, ad-men, housewives and a roller-rink owner — to shoot, with a revolutionary guerrilla, run-and-gun style, his seminal film. During that process Romero and his team created an entirely new and horribly chilling monster -- one that was undead and feasted upon human flesh.

This new documentary also immerses audiences into the singular time in which "Night" was shot. Archival footage of the horrors of Vietnam and racial violence at home combined with iconic music from the 60s invites viewers to experience how Romero's tumultuous film reflected this period in American history. "Birth of the Living Dead" shows us how this young filmmaker created a world-renowned horror film that was also a profound insight into how our society really works."

Any new or upcoming horror projects that you are excited for?

Knott's Halloween Haunt

My sister convinced me to go the Knott's Halloween Haunt with her this year, which features thousands of actors dressed as monsters to provide chills and thrills plus 12 different themed mazes. This is, of course, in addition to the rides, shows, and other attractions. I don't like people jumping out and scaring me. I'm skittish and easily startled. I did surprisingly well and went through all the mazes except for one that cost extra money to go through because my sister shelled out the extra $60 to get front of the line passes. Totally worth it!

The Good



* The Forevermore maze was one of my favorites because it was based off the magnificent and timeless works of Edgar Allan Poe. A murderer kills people in the manner of his favorite Poe stories, ranging from The Cask of Amontillado to Rue Morgue to The Telltale Heart. In the line, videos of news stories detailing the notorious actions of the murderer are on display. In some rooms, an ominous, an ominous voice recited the poems that were the focus of the room. It just added to the creepy atmosphere. Even the bird masked people were kind of creepy. One even threatened to peck my eyes out. The tableau were people are tarred, feathered, and posed on a table was the crowning moment of the maze. Some minor disappointments were the Masque of the Red Death room where zombies danced unenthusiastically with bad techno music (the video is actually much better than what I saw) and the Cask of Amontillado where no one was getting bricked up.



* The End Games maze is a cross between Hellraiser and Mad Max. The loud metal music got annoying after a while, but the gory visuals made it worth it. It's probably the bloodiest maze at the park. The giant creatures in cages plus the stone giant at the end were amazing. The detail on them and the obvious care that went into making them was unparalleled. This maze has the best ambiance. Even the metal music contributed to it and the set was probably the best crafted one.



* Trick or Treat is a fun maze that features a twisted version of childhood Halloween. There's the witches, deranged trick or treaters, creepy clowns, a macabre dinner part of corpses, and a general atmosphere of Halloween. I found it charming and fun. It was the first maze of the night and I was really tense, so this one got me to loosen up and enjoy the sights and sounds of Halloween.



* Dominion of the Damned is a vampire themed maze that shows the regal, cultured version of vampires. Although the actors mostly looked snooty and aloof, the set of the maze and the music are what made it for me. At the beginning, a charming Renfield tries to feed us to his carnivorous plants, but is foiled by his angry master. We then go into the house, adorned with beautiful paintings and playing ominous music. My favorite room is the one with the living statues. One stays still until you pass her and then lunges at you like you blinked at a weeping angel. The coffin room has a change of music from purely instrumental to mournfully operatic and had some good scares. I like when I don't know where the person is going to come from instead of seeing them coming from a mile away.



* Delirium was another well done maze. The disgusting mouth huge creature thing when you walk in sets the tone. The hallway where the walls come in on you and billow around you built suspense as to what was beyond that wall. I love the tableaus with the children and the bugs or the monster under the bed. The sounds were awesome: the buzzing flies, the garbled speaking, the discordant music, and the sinister whispers.

The Bad

* Most of the makeup and masks were just not very well done. When you get up close, it ruins the illusion. The darkness of the park and the mazes helped, but didn't obscure the fact that the masks look super fake and most of the makeup isn't very detailed. The actors tend to lose interest in you after the initial scare and that also affects the illusion. I like the actors that are in character all the time and creep after you even after the jump scare.



* Mirror Mirror is a maze entirely comprised of mirrors. It's much smaller than all of the other mazes and only has 2 actors in it. The mirrors were cool, but not very disorienting. The actors just walked around ominously and I just didn't find them scary. This video was much better in that the actors actually interacted with the public, not like when I went. Halfway through the maze, the lights turned strobe, which again looked kind of cool in the mirrors but was not in any way scary. The line was quite long because only one party goes in at a time and the walk through wasn't worth the wait. It also didn't help that the most annoying group of high schoolers were behind us pushing, shoving, and generally being extremely annoying.

* The Witch's Keep is the Calico Mine ride with a few witch themed props thrown in with narration. Boring and also not worth the wait. It was nice to sit down for a while after being on my feet all day though.



* Gunslinger's Grave wasn't scary at all. Judging by the title, I thought it was going to be outlaw zombies or some such thing. Alas, it was just random cowboys walking around and demanding my purse. I just said no and went on my way. There were no monsters and the maze as a whole was disappointing. The only part I liked was the saloon style Mad World played on the piano.



* Uncle Willy's BBQ Slaughterhouse was a maze I was excited for because I enjoy bloody stories of cannibalism. The maze didn't deliver. It wasn't bloody; it wasn't scary; and the body props looked extremely fake.

What are your favorite Halloween theme park events? Any favorite mazes or shows?

The Waking Dark

The city of Oleander, Kansas is just a sleepy, rural town with god-fearing Christians and high morals. Then the killing day happens. Five people murdered twelve people and then killed themselves, except one attempted suicide but survived. The survivor has no memory of having killed anyone and why she did it. About a year goes by and then a huge tornado hits the town after a lot of healing and grief. The government comes and sets up a perimeter, allowing none to pass due to a toxic leak nearby. There is no word on when they will be allowed to leave and no one comes in except to ship in food and supplies. The town slowly descends into madness, where the laws mean nothing and only their raw impulses matter. Five teens who are survivors of the killing day are the only force fighting for sanity in the town. The only alternative is death at this point, so they have to put aside their differences and work together.

The Waking Dark is an amazing horror novel. Robin Wasserman takes a concept that's been used before, one where a city is enclosed and all hell breaks loose, and makes it new with a vivid voice and a large cast of characters. There are 5 main characters: West (real name Jeremiah) the jock who is in denial about being gay, Jule whose family makes meth but she wants more out of life, Cass who killed a baby during the killing day and is in hiding from the town that wants to lynch her, Daniel whose father is the town drunk and wants more for his little brother, and Ellie who became devoutly Christian after the storm. These disparate characters are each followed throughout the text and the point of view changes many times within one chapter. It's easy to follow because each character is memorable and detailed. Before they encounter one another, their issues, their trauma (surviving the killing day), and their innermost thoughts are laid bare. Their names didn't even really need to be mentioned because Wasserman painted such vivid characters. I also liked that although their alignment is generally good, they still had the urge to do the opposite and weren't boring, perfect characters. The writing was descriptive and rich, kind of like eating chocolate cake. I wanted to read the book quickly to know what happens, but I also wanted to savor each sentence. The writing style is so vastly different than most YA novels and it worked in the novel's favor.

The novel tackles a lot of heavy issues: murder, rape, misogyny, homophobia, religious zealotry, drug use, abuse, and the list goes on. Wasserman doesn't gloss over anything and shows human darkness in all its horrific glory. Teens are already exposed to a lot of these things already and I appreciate having a teen book that delves into these subjects as I haven't seen before. One issue is do people act amorally because it's true human nature or because of some outside force? It isn't really answered because it's a personal philosophical question about whether humans are inherently good or evil. The acts in the novel are frightening and all too realistic. Order falls away quickly to reveal the majority that will impose their own rule on everyone else under the threat of death. I found the religious zealotry to be particularly horrifying because it has many disturbing and bigoted tenets whose effect we see in our society every day. If those issues are taken to the extreme, using a twisted interpretation of the scriptures, it would resemble Oleander.

The Waking Dark is an amazing novel that I read as fast as I possibly could. The book is rather long and takes a bit to really take off, but I appreciate a well done, slow build-up. Once it gets going, I was on the edge of my seat, desperate to see what happens. I will now go out and read everything Robin Wasserman has ever written because I was so impressed with this novel. I would recommend this to readers not afraid of disturbing subject matter or imperfect characters.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Asylum

Daniel Crawford is attending the New Hampshire College Prep program during the summer. He hopes to make some friends, take some classes, and enjoy the summer. This proves to be impossible after he discovers his dorm used to be an insane asylum for the criminally insane about 50 years before that used tortuous and inhumane methods on the inmates. Daniel does make new friends in Abby and Jordan and they explore the rotting disarray of the asylum, parts of it left completely untouched for years. He starts receiving creepy messages in spidery old fashioned script and e-mails that disappear when he tries to open them. It all becomes real when someone is killed in the manner of a serial killer that lived there. Daniel feels his life spiraling out of control and his new friends pull away from him. Is he the killer despite having no memory doing it? Or is someone trying to drive him insane?

Asylum interested me because I am fascinated with sanatoriums, particularly those in the past where torture was passed off and accepted as treatment and so much psychology was not understood yet. The descriptions of the creepy sanitarium rooms were phenomenally creepy. The creepiness factor was pushed with the dreams and visions with Daniel as both a patient and as the twisted warden. Then he starts receiving letters in the warden's writing and I have no idea what's going on. I'm questioning if it's ghosts, someone trying to mess with him, or if he's simply insane. This is before the murder even happens. The mystery is well crafted and I had no idea where it was going to end up. Pictures are interspersed throughout the book and they succeed in enhancing the mood of the story. My only complaint about them is that it's clear they are stock photos and don't always mesh well with the story. I also liked the short chapters. The story flows well on its own and the short chapters and many pictures make it seem like the tempo is much faster.

I had a couple of small problems with the book. Although Daniel felt like a real teen, Abby and Jordan were both prone to crazy mood swings. One minutes they were the best of friends and the next minute (and for no reason) they despised their friends. Their friendship didn't go through a lot of development before doing this either, so it felt really od. I felt Jordan was unnecessary to the story and Abby's revelation later in the book. I wanted more of the mystery and the asylum and less of their petty teenage drama.

Asylum is a deliciously creepy read. Near the end of the book, I was on the edge of my seat, constantly guessing what the resolution would be. I would love to get my hands on a finished copy so I can see all the pictures in their creepy glory.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Frightfall Read-a-thon

October is my very favorite month of the year. It's the only month when horror movies are on sale and on TV on a regular basis and Halloween is month long celebration for me. So of course October is going to be filled with dark, scary, and sinister reads. To aid my need for creepy reads, I've signed up for the Frightfall Read-a-thon. It runs from September 30 to October 6th. I hope to read the following books to start with:

* Asylum by Madeline Roux
* The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman
* 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil
* The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

IF I get through these, I'll worry about adding some more. Go to Seasons of Reading to sign up!

Goodbye to September Zombies + Upcoming Zombies 3

This is the last post for September Zombies! :( Tune in next year for more zombie goodness.

1) Mythbusters

Although Mythbusters is usually all about real science, they are exploring myths about zombies in The Walking Dead: how best to kill them and how do slow zombies manage to catch up to people? Michael Rooker AKA Merle Dixon and executive producer Greg Nicotero will guest star. The episode will air October 17, 2013 at 10pm on the Discovery Channel.

2) The Zombie Autopsies movie

George A. Romero recently finished the script of Steven C. Schlozman's The Zombie Autopsies, a book about a group of doctors performing autopsies on zombies in order to discover where the disease came from and how to cure it. He hopes to work on it soon, but finds difficulty finding funding due to the oversaturation of the zombie genre.

3) Z*Con



Z*Con is a film featuring teen broadcasters trapped at a comic convention during a zombie outbreak. This project is on Indie Gogo and their goal is $90,000. Only $5 gets you a digital download of the film, which is a steal! 100% of the proceeds will go to charity and any pledges are tax deductible within the US. The film sounds awesome and it goes towards a good cause. What's not to like?