Horror Books

This book got me back into reading. I bought three books from a local store and did the "my mother told me to pick the very best one..." rhyme as to which I would read first. Bitten was it and I went out the next day, after finishing Bitten, and got the rest of Kelly Armstrong's books. I fell madly in love with the idea, the characters, and the love story inside.

Based in modren times Elena is the only female werewolf, ever as far as their history goes back. She is a prize among her kind and was taken in by The Pack, an exclusive group of werewolfs that are like family. Not completely happy with her life as a werewolf or the circumstances where she was changed lead her to "run away". When her Alpha calls her with a request, she can't say no. Both her mind and pack law dictate it. She returns to her former home and realizes she left more than she was ever really willing to give, including a life as herself without shame or hiding.

The story leaves holes, but the good kind, not giving you back story instead of real plot story and confusing the purpose of the book. However, at Kelly Armstrong's website you can download back stories and side stories from all your favorite characters. I highly recommend reading the entire series. You don't have to read them in order but you miss important character introductions and the entire series is well worth reading. Every character is funny, interesting,and relateable.

I thought this was a great book,i"ve read the series,waiting to order the next book

This is the first in the series. The characters are strong and are woven repeatedly through the series. The books just get better and better. It was fun to encounter old friends in subsequent books. Exciting and well worth the time. My husband and I love this series.

So I bought this book after having it recommended to me, and after seeing the other reviews raving about how wonderful it is, how it has a Strong Woman, and everything else.

I really, really, REALLY don't see it.

To take the lazy route and cut and paste (and slightly edit) from a review I wrote of it in my own booklog:

Apparently the traits of being a female werewolf are being bitchy, but always always picking the wrong things to rebel about. When she should stand her ground and actually keep people from controlling her entire life, she caves and whines and pouts and flounces off to her room in a huff. When there's actual danger involved, the need for a plan, etc., she decides that No One is going to Tell Her What To Do, and goes off and does Something Really Stupid and gets bit in the tail for it.

Being a female werewolf also means knowing enough of the human world to live in it and hold down a job *in journalism* (not surprising since she was actually human up until college-age, you'd think), in knowing how dangerous men's psyche's work, in being able to manipulate people to bait them into traps and so forth, or manipulate touchy social situations on the spur of the moment. Yet it also means being so bad at human social interaction that she can't even realize that good grief, maybe she can actually snap at people once in a while without deciding to just leave her immediately, or can't deal socially with her boyfriend's family (for example) on an even footing. (To be fair there is some in-character reasons that her socialization might not be all that normal... but it's still irritating to read, regardless. And it still doesn't gel very well with how *good* she is at other social bits.)

Best of all (yes, that's sarcasm, just to preemptively warn you) being a female werewolf means that no matter how much you try to assert yourself against those mean ol' alpha males who are trying to run your life the way THEY see fit... they'll always (or at least almost always) turn out right in the end, and silly female lil' ol' you was wrong wrong wrong. They do know what's best for you, after all! All your own personal dreams, and decisions? Pfff. You should know better, kid. Eventually you'll realize what's REALLY best for you.

And then there's things like this woman who was apparently raped (or rather "molested") repeatedly as a kid being quasi-raped by the big strong manly werewolf, and at the last minute when he says he won't force her (after he's, y'know, tied her up and got her all worked up), she of course realizes that OH YES, that's what she wants, and she just can't stop her lil' ol' female hormones. Not with that big strong dominant MAN around.

So long story short, I really cannot recommend this as any sort of read if you like strong female characters, or if you want to get into urban supernatural books instead. There are much better ones out there.

This was an OK read. I just don't understand writers who want to have a strong female protagonist but make her a girl instead of a woman. She wants to be treated just like the guys and even plays the "mine's bigger than yours" games. Then she acts like a spoiled teeny-bopper when someone says or does something she doesn't like - and never seems to "get it".

The male characters are much more believable and likable - hence the three stars. I'll try one more in the series to see if things improve.

I finished this one in an afternoon, a very pleasant afternoon spent curled up in a recliner, reading about sex and love and the undead, with murders being solved and new ones occurring, an averted procreation emergency, and secrets revealed all over the place. It was fun.

This was the shortest and easiest of the Anita Blake books I've read so far; it most likely should have been called a novella, since the 280 pages was a stretch: the font was larger, the printing had more white space as well as headers and footers, and there was a title page for each chapter, blank but for the chapter number. Reminded me a little of a student essay that doesn't quite hit the requirements. But going into it with the expectation of a shorter story, it was very nice, a little friendly visit back to Anita's world before moving on to something else.

The story was fine, with Anita going to her most annoying zombie-raising to date. It's for an important mob informant who had a sudden heart attack before he could testify, and so there is a judge and two sets of lawyers present at the raising. The raising starts off bad, because this is the first time Anita has walked into a graveyard as old as the one where the informant was buried since her triumvirate reached a new power plateau, and so the dead begin whispering to her, trying to goad her into raising all of them -- or perhaps not; the whispers are not coherent. The pressure she feels, however, is, and there's a great suspense scene where Anita is trying to move the whole raising along so she can get it over with and leave, and the lawyer trying to delay the proceedings -- we assume for the sake of slowing down the conviction, but it turns out to be for a much nastier reason -- while the judge slows everything down even more simply because he is a bombastic pedant, and demands Anita explain every step of the procedure in proper legalese, with proper respect to the court, of course.

The unusual aspect of this plot was that it actually wrapped up quickly once the action started -- and what's more, Hamilton skipped the bloody scene. For maybe the first time in these books, Anita was simply knocked unconscious at the beginning of the fight, and when she wakes up it's all over. I was a touch disappointed, as this has been one of the draws for me -- the fact that Hamilton goes into glorious, gory detail with all of the bloody bits as well as all the sex scenes -- and there was a detailed sex scene earlier, but at the same time, it felt like a nice bit of balance: there is no way that Anita can make it through every single fight she gets into without being sidelined at least once. Accidents happen, and sometimes, no matter how good you are, the other guy gets in a lucky shot. It was nice to see that happen.

So part of me wishes it had been longer, and part of me was glad I was able to move through it so quickly. In the end, I just liked it.

I used to be a big fan of the Anita Blae series, I started reading them around 16 and I loved the first 9 books. Those are the only ones I recomend period because it started to go down hill after Obsidian Butterfly.

I kept reading until Micah because I hoped that things would get better, not every book can be great after all. But then I bought Micah, hoping that we'd get some more background on him, that we'd be able to see why he is the way he is.

I spent my $14 dollars, I believe it was, and what I got was two or three pages of how Micah became a werelepard, surrounded by him and Anita talking in a hotel room, really bad sex, and her not doing the job she had come to PA to do, in the first place.

After that I never picked up another Anita Blake book and have replaced LKH were these other authors:

Stephenie Meyer- The Twilight series and The Host
Mary Janice Davidson- The Undead/Vampire Queen Betsy series and the Fred the Mermaid series
Kimberly Raye- The Dead End Dating series
Yasmine Galenorn- The Sisters of the Moon/Otherworld series
Colleen Gleason- The Gardella Vampire Chonicles series
Charlaine Harris- The Sookie Stackhouse series

All of them write vampires, but are worlds apart from LKH in that I happily wait for the next book, even if I have to wait a year for it. I gladly do so and they get my money because their writing is so much better. Maybe if LKH went back to writing one book a year and switched between the two series, she'd be able to write better books and see how crappy her books have gotten.

This short book was very disappointing. The plot was shallow. The climactic action was boring, compared to other books in the series.

Additionally, I felt that this book was little more than thinly disguised porn. I read waay too much about Micah's member and bedroom skill.

(sigh) Laurell, what's happened to you? Is putting out a book a year draining you too much? There's no excuse for this.

Micah is a novella dressed up to look like a full novel. The plotline is barely there, the characterizations are shallow, and everything just seems wooden & unlikable. The book is actually just as cheaply done as anything else, as the spacing is overdone in order to stretch out a 100-ish page novel out into 300-ish pages. If this had been published as a short story I wouldn't have minded the barely there plotline or dull characters. But as a novel, let alone as an actual numbered book in the series? That's unforgivable.

I can only hope that eventually things will improve. As it is, this book contributed to why I no longer purchase her books anymore and why I no longer have read anything after this book.

That's it. Really. Were you expecting more? There isn't anything more. No, I'm not kidding.

MICAH is a very short novella put into book form to make Ms. Hamilton more money. And no, I'm not kidding about that either.

Thankfully, I like Micah, although I don't think there are too many more descriptions that the author can make up to describe his physical characteristics. He's not that tall, but he's big where it matters, is hotter than hot, and can have sex as often as Anita needs. Which, we all know, is basically any time she's not unconscious.

I'm glad I read it, because it's part of the series. But the only thing I learned that was new is how Micah became a wereleopard and what happened to his family.

That's it. Really. I tried to tell you.

Mary Shelly says it like no one else. I thought Tolstoy had the most profound writing talent before reading this book.

Usually I read to kill time but this book had me make the time. In my 52 years, this has been the book that I couldn't wait to get back to. I'm deeply impressed and so happy that I chose this timeless classic.

I first read Frankenstein my freshman year of high school. When asked about it, long after I stopped carrying about the novel with too many complexities for even a bright 14 year old to understand, I would simply say "I know that Mary Shelley is [radical feminist] Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter, but you would never know it from Frankenstein."
I reread the novel for my Goth Lit class freshman year of college when I was better able to understand the intricacies of the text. For the first time, I did see saw Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter. Numerous reviewers before me have expounded upon the "Man trying to usurp God with Reckless Science" themes of the novel, concentrating on the Reckless Science (so like what we see paralleled today) while ignoring the phallo-centric characteristics of the science that Victor Frankenstein practices.
The man's science relentlessly pursues and forcibly unveils a decidedly feminine and reluctant Nature, and manages to bypass the feminine entirely with the creation of monster that came simply from the work of a man. Frankenstein houses a genuine fear of female sexuality (just looks at the dream he has following his monster's creation, in which his beloved, while in his embrace, becomes the corpse of his dead mother).
I know my argument might seem shoddy here, but Hindle (the editor) puts together a wonderful introduction that, among other things, connects Frankenstein's science to his maleness.
The are many editions of Frankenstein. I feel that this one stands out because of its fine scholarship.

An incredible book that I only wish I had read earlier in my life. Once I started the book I had difficulty putting it back down except to do the things that I was obliged to do. I loved the book completely, but I am still after finishing it unsure what my thoughts and feelings are towards Victor Frakenstein or his monster. I want to feel compassion for the monster in his only desire for love and to not be alone but at the same time I fear that if I had met him in the city that I would scream in fear and desire to kill him myself. As far as Victor, he is someone who at times I felt sorry for and other times I wanted to hate him more so than the monster for his crazy ambitions to do such a thing and then to abhor and desire the death of his creation. A great book that I would recommend to anyone.

Did the people who made the Frankenstein movie even read this book? All of the things that I associated with Frankenstein are creations of the movie alone. No Igor, no lightning striking the body, no grave-robbing (not directly referred to anyway), no mountain laboratory, no villagers attacking the castle to burn it to the ground. Just a young college student seized with a fever to see what he is capable of creating. What he creates is a monster so terrible to look upon, that he is disgusted and horrified and flees from it. The creature is not yet a monster and only wants to be loved and cared for by its creator. But as it is attacked and maligned purely on the basis of its horrific appearance, it becomes a monster and strikes out to destroy everything its creator loves. It's a real tragedy told almost entirely as a narrative without action. It was a tough read in spots, but well worth it. I'm a big classic horror movie fan, but after reading this and Dracula, I'm a bit appalled at how far they strayed from the original.

Short Summary: Victor Frankenstein is young, intelligent, and quite full of himself. He discovers through his studies the methods of creating life, and does so. The creature he creates is of enormous size and strength and is hideous to behold. Terrified of what he has made, he flees, leaving the creature to fend for itself.

I just finished re-reading this book, it has been over 10 years since I read it the last time. My memory of the book was a tremendous feeling of sadness and compassion for the creature that Frankenstein created. In this re-reading I was shocked at the change in my feelings toward the characters. Though everything seemed the same it evoked an entirely different set of emotions in me. After doing a bit of poking about the internet I discovered that there are two versions of the story that Shelley wrote, one the first one, which is the one I just read, is much harsher, the creature is much less amiable, and Victor is much less forgivable. The second version she wrote, which I understand was written about 10-15 years later, evokes more sympathy for Victor and his creation.

Both are almost identical, starting with the gentleman on the ship in the Northern Ice who meets Victor. Victor relates his tale to the young seamen, this tale often becomes a tale within a tale within a tale as we shift points of view, always related to the young sailor through the stories of Victor. As I read this book I found myself thinking that this may be one of the few books that manages to encompass all 5 versions of Conflict, Man vs Man, Man vs Self, Man vs Nature, and Man vs God. Shelley's prose can at times be difficult, not to read, but to focus on because of the style and time frame it was written in. It is very easy to find yourself skimming, which you do not want to do.

The story is one of love and loss, creation and our relationship with our creator, the faults of man attempting to become God, and the cruelty that lies with our society to that which we perceive as ugly, frightening or hideous. When Victory abandons the monster he leaves him to learn of the cruelty of our society and to react to it as inappropriately as he does. This tale is NOT what you watched on TV, it is not found in the movie you watched. This is a story that can only be found in this book.

Did I love it? Not really, in the version I just read, Victor is a whiner, who considers himself a genius though he stands aside while his family and friends are killed. The monster, though more understandable, is also a contemptible character as he murders one after the other with little to no remorse. Yes it is well written and filled with interesting comparisons, warnings, and meaning... but as for a fun filled entertaining read, the characters were a bit to whiny and non-committal for me to really have anyone to root for. Still, they were full characters, completely rounded and interesting even though they were pathetic. The story is so filled with meaning that you could discuss it for days. And the concept of the feminine in this book is very interesting to read... I recommend this book, but I won't say that it ranks above Dracula in my mind.

The Shadow Children boxed set by Margaret Peterson Haddix is a captivating series of stories about the life of "illegal" third children. I purchased the the set for my daughter and found myself reading the entire series unable to put the books down. Haddix leaves the reader wanting more with each book in the series!

Luke is an illegal third child who realizes he is not alone. Great writing, strong characters, great read.

These books are the story of "third" children in a country in the future where a "food shortage" makes having more than two children illegal. These shadow children are hidden from the Population Police by their parents, never allowed to be seen in public, so never knowing what it's like to live outside their own homes. This is the story of their lives in the shadows and their fight for freedom to enjoy life like everyone else. These books are the first of a set of seven (7) books, which are interesting and exciting from the very beginning! I've seen kids with a very limited interest in reading become hooked on reading THESE books! They love to discuss what's going on and can't wait to see what happens next to these "shadow children". I highly recommend these books to anyone - regardless of age or reading interest. Margaret Peterson Haddix is an author of books for adolescents who quickly makes it almost impossible for anyone to put these books down!! Buy them for your kids - read them yourself!! Shadow Children Boxed Set: Among the Hidden, Among the Impostors, Among the Betrayed, and Among the Barons

Like Tolkien and many others, Haddix creates a fantasy series which serves up gender stereotypes straight out of 1958.

I was taken with the first book, Among the Hidden, but quickly tired of the boring gender split. Aside from one heroic martyr killed off in Book One, every one of the dozens of other strong (either good or evil) leading characters are male. One female child gets into the story, but she is an archetypal lovelorn teenybopper -- and, unlike her male counterparts, she faces a danger that is not even quite real. She ends up pushed aside, becoming a kitchen wench for the all-male Population Police while the boys and men take center stage.

Yawn. I wonder why a female author would portray her own half of the population as weak-minded, unheroic, and largely invisible -- especially given that she is creating a futuristic society which is not meant to look like our own.

Is this all-boy approach meant to broaden her book's appeal? This, by the way, is why JK Rowling made her wizard-hero a male and disguised her own female sex behind initials. Boy readers don't want to read about girl heroes -- and we mustn't challenge their prejudice! -- whereas girl readers are trained from an early age to accept books that put girls into bit parts and boys in the spotlight.

So maybe Haddix made her characters all male in the hope of increasing sales. Or perhaps she's just been reading too much Tolkien.

This is a superb series.

I am a secondary English teacher and it IS sometimes difficult to get young adults interested in this series. However, it is worth the effort. This is a book that a lot of adolescents will have an easy time identifying with. One child in the family is an illegal, not allowed in the sunlight. Teenagers identify with the character once they start reading it because they are teenagers.

This is an almost teenager who the world really IS against. That proves they were right all along.

On top of all that, it is also a well written series.

I loved this book. Anne Rice is a master at weaving an interesting paranormal tale.

This book, and the others in the series are fabulous. With the exception of the 400 page history of the Mayfair family, which i personally found boring, the rest of this book is a spell-binding page turner that you can't resist. The protagonistis are so easy to like, the villains are so easy to hate. As this series progresses there is more and more detail which has revealed to me what an accomplished novelist Anne Rice is. Her historial scope of actions between generations (and between chapters) is masterful. if you like books about witches, ghosts, the supernatural and even a book that makes you think about life a little, this is for you. Try out the witching hour and if you like it, pick up Lasher, the second book. I dont think you'll be disappointed. Seriously, its like Harry Potter, but with adult prose and plenty of sex scenes!

I would rather give this book 3.5 stars, but Amazon doesn't have that option. It was a pretty good book, but some things bugged me. I think the book was a bit too long, I actually skipped a couple of chapters in part 3, and had no trouble figuring out what was going on. Part 3 in its entirety could have been more interesting, but luckily it is the shortest part. My favorite part of the book was reading about the history of the Mayfair Witches, and the ending was alright, made me want to find out what happended next. All in all, a good book that's a bit to long for this reader, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

This book grabs you at the beginning and pulls you in. Your left on the edge of your seat waiting to see how to puzzle goes together.
There is a section of history, which is necessary, but long. Dont lose patience it is well worth the ending.
The ending is perfect, you put the book down only to reach for the next unable to stop yourself.
Anne Rice always finds the perfect tale. This one is full of love, mystery, seduction, incest, and family. Anne Rice never disappoints her audience.

I loved this delicious book. This book is definately not for everyone. It is tedious reading, there is no question, the language is lush, detailed, lengthy yet exquisite. If you love the art of writing, you will devour it, if you are an under-the-covers-fly-by-night quick books reader it may test your patience. Early on this book becomes almost a bible of sorts in the mayfair history, generations are recalled, so-and-s begat so-and-so, once you weed through the early generational tree, a beautifully written and interesting tale unfolds. I found myself re-reading some paragraphs because they were so delicious in description, I was in that house, ever nook and cranny is opened to the reader, these people are revealed; every aspect these characters are real, strong and flawed, weak and becoming. The story is incredibly enjoyable and it is a great read once you get through generational leap. But I would encourage you to read the history and not skip over it, while it may be a bit tedious in length at times, its a rich tapestry this book and all the pieces fit together in the end.

Try as I might, I really fail to see what all the hype was about this book. I've seen the movie although it's been quite a while until I recently caught about three quarters of it on cable. I've been reading many vampire novels as of late (the twilight saga, The Diaries of the Family Dracul trilogy and the magnificent The Historian). Being that this is such a highly praised book and claimed to be a 'vampire classic' I felt I owed it to myself to finally read it after all this time.

I was utterly let down. I will say that the movie was as close an adaptation of any novel as I've ever read. Very little in the book was left out of the movie.

The premise is interesting and I'm sure everyone knows exactly what it's about so I won't go into too much detail summing up what happens in the book.

First off, it's a very VERY slow book. Basically we have Louis, who's a rich landowner in New Orleans. He gets bit by a vampire. They kill to live and sometimes make more vampires. All of this is revealed as Louis is telling his story to a 'young boy' with a tape recorder.

Anyway, not much really happens in this book other than Louis lamenting his existence as a vampire. ALOT. As in, every paragraph of every page has some self loathing diatribe by Louis about how much his life 'sucks' (pun intended).

While the premise was rather interesting (a vampire giving a chronicle of his creation and life to a journalist of sorts), it's just a laborious read. I found myself liking the movie. It wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't painful to watch, but the book was something completely opposite. I'm not sure if it was what did (or didn't) happen in the book as much as the overly verbose language used by Rice to explain every feeling, every sight, every movement in painstaking detail. It was almost like reading dickens. There's very little dialogue between characters in the book as well, which for me made it all the more difficult to get into. A character giving a long speach isn't good reading to me. I read for character interaction. I don't mind if it's in the form of a story told by a main character or a retrospective as this is, but it's about 340 pages of primarily Louis speaking of himself and very little dialogue is revealed in his tale.

Also, there's very little vampire 'lore' in this book. I understand that Lestat kept all of this from Louis in order to keep him as close to himself as possible, but even after centuries of living and all the exposition of Louis's life and experiences, there's still next to no lore. Every author tells the tale of vampires' myths and legends a little differently. This book features next to none of that other than the fact that it seems in Ann Rice's universe, they're more human than what we're used to.

Maybe in 1976 when this was the first type of book of its kind it was groundbreaking. I understand that and take it for what it's worth and give her credit. But I've found several other books featuring vampires that were more enjoyable by far.

I'm curious to see how Vampire Lestat is different than Interview. I will say that if it's as slow and uneventful as Interview, I won't be reading another Ann Rice novel.

Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" is her first, and I think, best vampire tale. As such it is original, vibrant and haunting. An actual vampire is interviewed. He describes his transition from a mortal man to an immortal vampire and he describes his moral transition from a vampire who, initially, feasts only on 'undesireables' to one who will destroy literally anyone.

We see a fiend with a human outlook. We wonder how we, ourselves, would behave if we had the fortune [misfortune?] to be changed into a being with the remarkably positive trait of immortality with the unbelivably negative trait of hemo-cannibalism. Rice has answered part of the question.

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

if you ove books that are obviously fake but feel so real you will love this book! when reading you will feel like all of the characters are real and that at any moment a vampire will come into your life and bite you, thats what i was hoping! :) if you want a thrilling book that will definately be in your top ten, get this right now!!!

This is a lyrically dense book, very sensuous and beautifully written. And quite disturbing. Rice's love for New Orleans shines throughout and for the most part, it's a quite believable tale. It's one of my favorites.

Louis's description of his transformation into the un-dead near the beginning of the book is worth the price alone. An intoxicating, revolutionary work.

Please DO NOT attempt to compare this book to Stephen King's The Stand. They are, in fact, two Totally different books. I am possibly Stephen King's biggest fan. It was his work that inspired me to start writing myself. (And no! you may not know who I am!) The Stand (the complete and unabridged version) was at times so bogged down with details that I had no choice but to keep reading - I wanted to get on with it! I did not sleep for three days. It was the last book I read with my father, before he died, when I was 12 years old. I re-read it every June because it means that much to me. (If you have ever truly read Stephen King, you know what I mean!) As both an author and a fan, please trust what I have to say. I had been re-reading The Stand for many years before I discovered Swan Song. I tend to think of Swan Song as "The Stand Lite." But to those who would compare the "Fleeing Neew York" scenes, I want to say "Read them both again." There are several areas of Swan Song that make me long for more detail, but, conversely, there are areas of The Stand that make me wish for less. With Swan Song you get a very pure story of Good v. Evil. I could complainbout one thing only: the interpersonal relationships of all the main characters. I want more of Sister and Paul, more of Josh and Glory, but especially more of SWAN AND ROBIN, the Savage Prince. Maybe I am too attracted to Bad Boys myself ( HI! HONEY!), but no matter! The Stand is very long and involved - you get to know people who have very little (if anything at all!) to do with the outcome of the book. What you don't get is all the long, drawn out, bloviating Stephen King-like chapters that don't amount to s++t. Swan Song is a straight good read. All the main characters and none of the bulls+++t. Some people may choose to be snotty and see that as simplicity, but I choose to see it as purity. You get the book, the protagonists, and the antagonists. You get true love, which can be the same as first love. Any good reader should also have a finely tuned imagination! Finish it yourself! Picture them yourself! Do we need to do everything for you?!
Swan Song is a very satisfying book, especially for those who are not familiar with End of the World reading. It is straight to the point, and there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!!!

I READ THIS BOOK YEARS AGO AND I LOVED IT . I STILL REMEMBER IT WELL AND STILL THINK FEW NEW BOOKS COMPARE. McCAMMON OUDOES HIMSELF WITH GREAT CHARACTERS AND A VERY SCARY TOPIC. I READ "THE STAND " YEARS AGO AS WELL AND I DON'T THINK ONE IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER. THEY BOTH ROCK!

I bought this book many years ago and am now back looking for it on audio CD so I can experience this great story again!

Read this book, years ago, and it is just as great, reading it again!! Makes you think about what could happen to our world!!

I bought this book expecting an epic masterpiece akin to "The Stand", and I was let down big time. This book is nowhere near "The Stand". In terms of characters, I never really felt anything special for any of them. And with names like "Artie", "Sister Creep"(who I found very annoying)and a burly Black dude named "Josh", I found myself going "What the hell" many times.

The book is o.k for the first 100 pages, then it goes downhill very fast. And at 900 plus pages, you will find it hard to get through.

As for the story-line, nothing ever "grabs" you in this book, in fact a few parts were down right funny! There is this magic stone that is really a crown(so you find out later in the book) for the little whiny bag main character "Swan", who is supposed to be this big "new age" child that is going to usher in the new garden of Eden. Of course this "crown" has the power to heal sickness, makes everybody go on some kind of "dreamland" walk where they can see future things. All in all, a bunch of mixed up crap that left me scratching my head and hoping for something more like "The Stand"(a true epic masterpiece).

Oh, and I have to mention the "Bad guy". Talk about an epic failure, this guy is it. Anyone who compares him to any character Stephen King has ever thought up, is smoking something hard and heavy.


So there you have it. This story may work for some, but it left me wondering why I ever bought into the hype of this book being on the same level as "The Stand".

This audio book was read by Mare Winningham, and she does a fine job. The story is the main draw, and you want this one. It is not really a horror story; it is a tale of terror, with more of a 'how badly do you want to survive?' theme. Lots of action, lots of clues as to what may happen next, with lots (and lots) of tension.

As others have indicated this story/audio-book was good but not great. For a short story it was ok - it was a nice easy listen in the car to and from work, not something that required a great deal of concentration.

For those who prefer a good long meaty Stephen King story this will be a disappointment.

I did like the narrator - she did a really good job capturing the emotion and expression of the characters.

I thought this story was good but could have been better. It was so underdeveloped it almost seemed unfinished. I am still wondering what happened to the poor old guy that ran the bridge.

Oh, and just an FYI for those of you who seemed confused by the title, I believe it is a reference to the kid's story "Gingerbread man" as in "run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man."

Mare Winningham does an excellent job narrating this two-CD audio version of Stephen King's long story. It doesn't feel long, though. This one is a well-built thrill ride, and King proves once again that he can reach into his bag of tricks and scare the daylights out of the listener. The story is simple almost to the point of bare-bones, but it has a lot of tension and plenty of surprises in store. Any fan of King who enjoys audiobooks will like this one. It's not profound, but it's great at what it does, gripping the listener in a vice of tension and suspense and not letting go. Saying any more would only risk spoiling this delightful treat for King's fans.

It's Stephen King, it's not too long, and it's beautifully read by Mare Winningham (who also read Lisey's Story on audio cd). It wasn't my favorite story by him, but it wasn't bad. It's definately suspenseful in parts, but I felt a little cheated at the end.

This is an excellently written book, and the Russian/English Translator has done a great job with it. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a great book to read. My wife, ReynaVoop turned me on to this series, and as always, she was right about this book.

Ok, after about a month of shipping problems I finally got it! (It was user error originally, to give them some credit).

Loved it. Now, don't just go and buy Twilight Watch and read it first, cuz then it might not make much sense. Read in order. But narratively speaking, this is AWESOME!

There were a couple times when I flinched while reading when Anton made jabs at the USA. I won't lie. But it wasn't something really dwelled on, but it was jarring enough to be remembered.

You get to see Kostya again, who we only got a glimpse of in NightWatch, and quite a bit of him too. There wasn't long remembrances like in DayWatch. It was an adrenaline rush as in constant action and intrigue. The writing was so much better (either that or the translator did a much better job) than the first two and quicker paced.

About the characterization. Anton in the last one (DayWatch) seemed more like a puppy dog that you wanted to kick (yes, I get frustrated by made-up characters)(I do NOT endorse or practice the act of kicking puppies). This one he again became the guy we fell in love with in NightWatch. Svetlana also shines. Some of the characters who were more prominent before (Gesar, Olga, the rest of the NightWatch and pretty much all the DayWatch) take a backseat. The Inquisition takes a step forward, so we get to see more of Edgar and Weitzlav.

NightWatch and DayWatch were great books but had to keep reverting to what happened (a lot of explanations, a lot of history, a lot of back story) which makes sense when you get into a series. TwilightWatch managed to break the mold though and it was like you got to experience things first hand as they were happening.

Number 4 (LastWatch) needs to hurry up and come out now! I can't wait.

DEFINITELY recommend!

If you have read the 1st two, you have to read this one. Fast action and sets things up for the last book hopefully to be released by summer of 08. If you love the supernatural like I do these books are a must read.

My ranking of the Night Watch novels are Day Watch first, then Night Watch and then Twilight Watch as a distant third. This book was written a few years after the other two, likely to coincide with the release of the movie Night Watch in Russia. It definitely feels like a cash in and almost has a fan fiction quality to it. It's not the worst thing I've ever read, but it is naggingly non-essential. Read it if you really enjoyed the first two and aren't really interested in reading anything else.

Walking the streests of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are the Others. Posesseors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilifht, a shadowy world that exits in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light.

As his wife Svetlana and daughter Nadya spend the last of the summer on a dacha not far from Moscow, Night Watch AgentAnton Gorodetsky is thrying to enjoy his last day off. But when a call comes in from Gesar - his boss and Night Watch head - requesting a private meeting, it becomes clear he's going back to work early...

Gesar has received an anonymous note, stating that an Other has revealed the full truth about their kind to a human, and now intends to do the supposedly impossible: comvert that human into an Other. Even nore worringly. tje not has been sent to Zabulon, head of the Day Watch, and to the Inquisition's offices - and only the very highest-level Others know the address. So the Inquistion has ordered the Night Watch to cooperate withthe Day Watch and umnask the culprit. Anton will be the Night Watch representative while the Day Watch is sending Kostya Saushkin, once Anton's teenage neighbour and idealistic friend, now a Higher Vampire and, at the age of twenty, the youngest in Europe...

Set in a vividly realised post-Soviest Moscow, where vampires operate under license and Good and Evil exist in a Cold War-like balance of power, THE TWILIGHT WATCH is a page-turning fantasy thriller in the allegorical, darkly comic tradition of Bulgakov's THE MASTER AND MAGARITA, an international bestseller as strikingly original as Anne Rice or Phillip Pullman.

LK Hamilton is a great author. If you love vampires, her Anita Blake series is the one for you.

I love the books about Anita Blake. Always keep you going and guessing about what will happen next.

I didn't like this one quite as much as the last one, The Laughing Corpse, but I liked it more than the first book. The most important thing for me is that this book showed another layer to the series: in the first book, the focus was on the powerful and terrifying vampires; the second centered around the undead and humans who raise them -- the evil of humans rather than the evil of vampires, in other words. This book is about the humans who have to deal with these evil things. The bad guy in this one was good, though it centered a lot more on Anita and Jean-Claude and Anita's attempts to live a normal life, all of which are effectively ruined by her association with Jean-Claude, because she knows who the Master of the City is and where his daytime resting place is, so everybody who wants to kill him -- and it's more than a few -- wants to bribe, threaten, and torture the information out of her. It was an interesting depiction of what it's like to be a human drawn into the vampire's world. It also made Anita seem much less high-powered -- though she did have her bada$$ moment at the end, oh yes she did.

I liked Oliver enormously; I thought it was a fantastic idea and a wonderfully drawn character. I liked his motivation and the ways he intends to accomplish his goals, as well as his obvious personal power as seen through his control of such incredibly powerful minions. I didn't like the lamia, but I'm not supposed to, so that worked out well; it's an interesting way to handle the villain, to have a personable mastermind with loathsome henchbeings. On one level I wanted Oliver to win, mostly because I'm tired of Jean-Claude's assurance that he'll win and that Anita will surrender to him. Why? Because he's pretty, that's why. He's way too much of a prettyboy, utterly confident that his looks will enable him to get any woman, utterly convinced that once a woman gives in to her attraction to him, she will never resist him again. It's annoying. The conversation just keeps happening the same way:
"I'll never give in to you, Jean-Claude."
"But you want me."
"But I can't love you."
"But you liked kissing me."
"But I can't love you, and so there will never be anything more than a kiss."
"I'll wait, ma petite."

And on and on it goes. Now, this doesn't detract from the books, and it did make this one better for me because of the events that happen between Anita and Jean-Claude, how she turns on him and why, and the end result of her unexpected (to Jean-Claude; seems like it was always just a matter of time) betrayal of him, and I do agree with Anita's final choice of Jean-Claude as the least of the several evils facing her -- but I want her to slap him. A lot. Maybe muss up that pretty face a little bit. Although more scars would just give him character, like that damn cross scar gives to his chest. And I have to admit that I prefer Jean-Claude to the alternative, Alejandro. Basically this character and his dealings with Anita make her a more sympathetic character without having him become truly loathsome -- this is the problem Anne Rice had with Lestat, for instance. His villainy was just too villainous, and it couldn't be maintained over a series -- and there was a series without a sympathetic character. So I much prefer this to that. He still needs a slappin', though.

I'm seeing great potential in these books to go the distance: the main character is both powerful and, as this book establishes, very human and thus a bit outclassed by her immortal enemies -- though she uses all of the tools at her disposal to maximum effect, which works out quite well -- and the other main characters are complex and multi-dimensional. Because despite my irritation with Jean-Claude's prettyboy seduction techniques, he is actually much more than that as a, um, person, which is why I don't really hate him. But it isn't just him: Willie McCoy, and Anita's boss, Bert, and the other animators, including the new guy, all have their strengths and weaknesses. They are all very realistic, and thus very interesting. At the same time, of course, there is some serious booty-kicking going on in these books, and who doesn't like that?

This author was suggested to me by a friend. I am pleased to report that it was all and more than they had boasted.

Laurel K. Hamilton is an amazingly brilliant author. Her writing is elegant and captivating, yet simple and effective. Truly a series of novels that keep you wanting more from beginning to end.

I highly recommend this book to everyone - Especially if you like vampires!

Anita Blake returns in this third installment of her well-known series. The police call Anita to consult on a murder and she quickly detects that the victim had been attacked by five vampires, mostly like a master and his pack. Since the few masters resident in St. Louis don't seem likely to have committed the crime, Anita starts looking for newcomers, but they just might find her first. As if this isn't enough, she receives a visit from her old friend Edward, the master assassin, who threatens to kill her if she doesn't reveal the name and resting place of the city's Master Vampire. All of this is just the start for Anita as she struggles to save the city, and herself, from a threat more ancient than anything she's ever faced before.

Circus of the Damned returns the focus to vampires and their politics after the voodoo detour of The Laughing Corpse. Jean-Claude, the city's Master Vampire, has given Anita two marks out of four toward becoming his human servant and very much wants her to accept the last two. Her refusal to do so is hurting is position among other vampires in the city. Other masters have come to the city ready to challenge Jean-Claude and try to woo Anita into joining their cause. Anita has to choose where her loyalties lie.

The major strength of this book shows in the action scenes. They take up a significant portion of the book and are uniformly suspenseful, even gripping at times. Anita lives in a very dangerous world and the author does an excellent job of portraying this. The weakest portion of the novel shows up whenever there is a conversation or Anita's narration includes her own thoughts. If Anita is talking to the police, they basically have the same conversation every time they meet at a crime scene. If she speaks to Jean-Claude, she has the same conversation every time. Even her own thoughts take on the exact same form over and over again.

After enjoying Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter), I was disappointed by The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 2). I was hoping that Circus of the Damned would be a tie breaker of sorts to see if I would keep reading more or not. This is certainly a more entertaining book than The Laughing Corpse and provided a welcome return back to vampires as the chief villains. Unfortunately, Laurell Hamilton's writing style has grown so stale and cliché for me that I don't have the desire to go any further with Anita Blake. These books all read like a poor imitation of Dashiell Hammett and the style never grows or varies in the slightest. I'm glad I bought this book because it ties up all the loose ends from the prior two books, but there's nothing here compelling enough to make me want to keep coming back for more.