Horror Books

I am currently reading Stephen King's memoir "On Writing". In it he describes "The Long Walk" as probably the best of his early books. He is absolutely correct.

This book gives just another example of what he is able to do with character development. He doesn't use them as simple plot tools, but creates actual people that we develop a relationship with while reading their story.

In this book the main characters are a group of young men who have entered a contest that sounds ridiculously heinous to us, but has become the norm to them. (the story is unofficially set in a future and place not too far from where we now live)

When I first heard the premise of this book I was immediately interested. The author did not fail to exceed the expectations of this "constant reader". Whether you are a Stephen King fan or not I would recommend this book to you. It's brief, to the point, and extremely good.

Blood and Rain
Blood for the Masses

The Long Walk
By
Stephen King

Reviewed By
B.L.Morgan

5 Stars

The Long Walk was a novel that I read as a part of a collection of four ealier books written by Stephen King and released as The Bachman Books. I hadn't read a Stephen King book for some years and actually forgot how good he really is.

This is the story of the ultimate marathon and what happens to the contestants on that marathon.

The rules are simple: You keep walking until you cannot go on. When you stop soldiers shoot you. The winner gets whatever his heart desires.

Sounds simple right? Well, in the hands of an author of the calibre of Stephen King he makes it into an epic of human endurance and shows just how far a man will go to to survive.

I highly reccomnd this book. It is STRONG! If you don't like gross scenes you should stay at least ten miles away from it. But King uses the greusomeness of some of the death scenes to illustrate just how high the stakes are in this contest to the death.

I absolutely loved this book. It was almost hynotic in its ability to keep me abosorbed in the characters struggle to survive. If you want to read a novel that is guaranteed to keep you glued to the pages this is the one to grab.

Long live The King!!!

This book is about a contest in an alternate world where young boys start walking once a year, and basically whomever is left standing at the end is the winner. This details one specific contestant as he is about to begin his trek along with the other boys. It is a great read, a very easy book to pick up and finish, and the whole concept of the thing will stick in your brain. If you like Mr. King's books than I would highly recommend this one.

I think King's greatest gift as a writer is that he often comes across as a good buddy telling you a wild story. The Long Walk is a perfect example of this. He excels at the detail level of character carmaraderie which pulls you into the story regardless of where it is headed. Here, it seems pretty clear, but we still don't want to stop listening.

Having grown up without the allowance of Stephen King within my household, I have only recently discovered the sheer genius of his writing. This one, written as an alter ego by the name of Richard Bachman (in the edition I read, there is an intro by King explaining this), strikes me as brilliant.
First, the way that King creates his character profiles ever so slowly, with foreshadowing of what is to come of each of them based on their personality but never revealing everything at once, is the perfect way to intrigue a reader and draw him or her into the story from the beginning.
King himself admits to having a dark side that he often represses when writing because in real life, so many things do have happy endings, and he wants his work to reflect real life. In reading this novel, which goes on and on at such a pace that you can't stand the thought of putting it down, you can see that happy ending from the very beginning.
The Long Walk can have only one winner, and since the story is told through the eyes of Ray, a single individual, you know who is going to win from the first, despite a couple of really good scares when you think you are wrong.
But remember, this isn't a King novel, it's a Bachman novel, and Bachman throws in a strange and incomprehensible surprise at the end. Well written as a King novel with the twist of a more morbid alter ego, The Long Walk is gripping and delightfully fear inspiring, and by far my favorite King read yet.

Some history of the hell raising (among other nastiness) of both Jesse and Tulip, plus a confrontation, reconciliation and more of the same at an old friend's. Jesse fancies her friend, her friend fancies Jesse, especially compared to the usual losers she comes across. Neither will do anything, partly because both of them realise that Tulip will blow the hell out of them if they do, for one thing, and that they are more valuable as friends. Jesse does it to Tulip again.

This collected volume, which leads up to the incredible finale of the Preacher series, finds Tulip leaving her new life of booze, drugs, and Cassidy to try to get her life back together. After that (and a rousing backstory on Tulip's childhood and her meeting with Amy), she and Jesse are re-united proving one of Preacher's many themes: love is stronger than death. The best parts of All Hell's A-Coming is undoubtadly Jesse learning all of Cassidy's dark and dirty past. This part is pivotal for a few reasons: longtime fans of the series have no doubt grown to love Cass, and now their opinions will be surely changed. Also, this is the plot progressing set up the final, pivotal events that come in the next and final collected volume; Alamo. The final story, a backstory on one of Jesse, Tulip, and Amy's criminal misadventures, isn't one of Ennis' better written stories, but think of it as an added bonus.

Volume eight is a step back in the right direction, while not quite a great as the first six volumes or the final one, it is a step above volume seven. It's great to see the story, Jesse's quest, back on track.

I had really high expectations for this volume. It didn't quite measure up.
Okay, yeah, the characters are great. Fine. But the Tulip backstory feels obligatory and pointless, and I don't think it develops too much about her. It really didn't require two issues, that's for sure.
The rest of this volume seems kind of useless, repeating all the themes that have gone before. And between this volume and the last one, I'm wondering when Ennis will stop feeling the need to include sexual perversion in every issue. I'm not a prude, I just think it's a little past the point where it enhances the stories. It just feels repetitive now.
There's no real action in this book, and not a lot of solid story.
Finally, the action Jesse takes at the end of this volume, together with his actions towards Gunther at the end of Salvation make me truly question Jesse as a hero. This would bother me less, except that Ennis seems to think these actions are fine and jim dandy.

In this, the penultimate instalment to the remarkable Preacher run, Garth Ennis sets the scene before it all comes crashing down in The Alamo. An interweaving of narrative focuses on things that were: the younger lives of Tulip and Cassidy; the last story, `Tall in the Saddle,' looks at a younger Jesse, Tulip, and Amy, and shows the extent of Jesse's moral imperatives. Jesse's Texas-style justice borders on the sadistic in much of these pages. Nothing new there, I suppose, but there's some pretty graphic stuff, which further makes difficult the ability to unequivocally embrace Jesse as 'the hero.'If Preacher can 'mean' anything, surely the interrogation of whether good people can do bad deeds must be one of its hallmarks.

There's an undercurrent of themes here, most notably, the grand vision of America as the home of second chances and fulfilled dreams. That such a naïve suggestion could even be seriously articulated in as cynical and dark a text as Preacher (particularly when it's delivered by an ex-porn actor), shows the broadness of the canvas with which Ennis paints. Although Ennis clearly does believe in the notion of redemption, as witnessed by Jesse's spiritual rebirth in the appropriately-titled `Salvation,' and Tulip's deliverance from her own personal hell in these pages, our good buddy Arseface, though, is a living example of what happens when we too-openly trust and believe in goodness and decency. And people like Cassidy demonstrate the morality of people who manipulate that trust for their own benefit...

All in all, this is a good read. I would have liked more plot and less background (did I really need to know all I did about Tulip? And why is her father's hand inexplicably replaced by a hook?), but I can see Ennis playing the role of maestro here, having things quiet down before the finishing crescendo.

The second book in the Watch series that mainly follows Alisa; Anton is still here but not in the capacity that we have grown accustomed. This is do to this book is from the perspective of the Day Watch (Dark Others). This gets us more in touch with the other sides characters and even sheds light on why dark and light others don't mix....or shouldn't? You get to learn a lot more about Alisa the right hand of Zebulon and even how Zebulon's mind works. I liked this one more because it was a way quicker read for me but that's mainly because most characters were introduced in the first and the plot lines of the stories pushed me on. The format is that of the original, with three stories making up one book. But they always end up going full circle and they conclude so you don't have to worry about being kept hanging.

I won't write a summary of the book, as that's already been done in countless reviews, but I will leave you with this: If you enjoyed the first book, then you will also enjoy this second installment in the series.

Day Watch was a fantastic read that I couldn't put down. The book gives you perspective into the Dark ones; you soon realize that the Light ones aren't "good" and the Dark Ones aren't "evil", there are hints of good and evil in both factions.

Can't wait to get my hands on Twilight Watch.

As with Twilight Watch, this is an excellent book to own and read. My Wife, ReynaVoop recommended this as well as Twilight watch, and she's never been wrong about the quality of the books.

Day Watch is the second greatest story created the first would be Night Watch. The books are pheononminal!

It seems as though any author whose prose are at least grammatically sound can receive fawning praise in the modern fantasy ghetto. Sergei Lukyanenko's 'sequel' to The Nightwatch is simply put a very poor novel. Its characters are flat, its plot structure mind-numbingly repetitive (particularly when considered in light of the previous novel) and it's fantastic mechanisms lacking in both originality and credibility.

Sadly, the first story in the three-story book shows real promise. The character, a charismatic young witch, is credible, thoughtful and thought-provoking. Her actions are realistic, sufficiently selfish to have an edge of reprehensibility. Her occasional cruelty is justifiable in the context of her life and story, and the tale of her downfall is all the more poignant due to the fact that her characterization and even her own internal monologue make it clear that she is not actually evil. She is, in a word, a great anti-hero. Suffice it to say she does not show up again.

The rest of the stories are chock-full of deus ex machina, horrendously thin exposition and a storytelling style that is best described as 'plot-by-coincidence'. It's simply not acceptable as a second novel from a writer who has, if anything, taken a step backward from his first.

Deadwood = Preacher, tv style? This is what happens here, pretty much. New sheriff in town, corrupt business types, etc., etc. Sherlock Holmes had something to say about small country towns and nowheresville type places.

There is an evil meat baron, and corrupt cop, a dominatrix accountant, a one armed relative, and a good looking deputy. So of course Jesse ends up with the sheriff job by default, and a whole pile of problems come with it.

Salvation is the weakest of the nine collections, but that isn't to say it is bad in any way, it's still a darn good book (and really, it is only weak compared to its own work, and not that much weaker). The real problem is that for a while we are taken completely out of Jesse's quest to find God. And Tulip and Cassady are both missing. Maybe for a one shot it would have worked, but we were too far from where we need to be, especially at this point.

I recently became interested in "Preacher" after reading "Gone to Texas," the first collection of issues. I thought it was a really interesting comic and I was retrospectively sad that I had missed out on it the first time around. After reading the second volume and becoming acquainted with the Grail and the inimitable Herr Starr, I was officially hooked. Garth Ennis's crisp, hilarious dialogue juxtaposed against (generally) serious subject matter in the context of a broader story arc made for a compelling combination of narrative elements that must come together in precisely the right way to work.

Unfortunately, in the seventh volume of "Preacher" graphic novels -- "Salvation" -- the combination is less precise and thus the overall work suffers. "Salvation" deviates from the main story arc of the Grail and Jesse Custer's quest to find God and make him answer for some less than stellar decisions. After the literally explosive events of the preceding collection (in which Starr detonates a nuclear bomb in the American desert in an attempt to kill the Saint of Killers, but succeeds only in separating Custer from Cassidy and Tulip) and Custer's shock and depression at seeing his girlfriend Tulip engaged romantically with his former best friend Cassidy, it was a good call on the part of Ennis to move the action of the story away from the main arc; to both build dramatic tension and to explore other sectors of the characters' personalities and motivations.

The problem is the manner in which Ennis went about this. Salvation, Texas, is a town where things fall into place all too conveniently in the context of the "Preacher" universe. Custer finds his long-lost mother as well as Lorrie, the sister of his one-eyed inbred childhood friend Billy Bob. Custer shakes the town up and quickly becomes sheriff, enraging Odin Quincannon, the more-than-slightly unhinged owner of a meat-processing plant in the neighboring town. The battle between Custer and Quincannon eventually envelops the entire town of Salvation and brings in the Ku Klux Klan, a sadomasochistic female neo-[...] lawyer (who, like every other woman in the "Preacher" saga, finds Jesse Custer irresistable), and sees Odin Quincannon repeatedly have sex with a statue made of meat. In other words, it's something of a jumble that goes on for entirely too long and introduces a ton of rather purposeless characters that we never see again in any meaningful sense (some of them reappear in an issue collected in the final "Preacher" volume called "Alamo"). I think a friend of mine summed it up really well when he said that "Salvation" read more like someone trying really, really hard to sound like Garth Ennis than Garth Ennis himself. Another non-writing complaint is that since this collection is the largest of the bunch, it was printed on stock paper instead of the better looking and more durable glossy paper of the other collections.

This collection isn't bad, but is vastly inferior to the ones that came before it. For the most part, it's skippable, but every "Preacher" completist probably already has it.

Garth Ennis, Preacher: Salvation (DC Comics, 1999)

If you've not yet found your way into the ever-growing cult of Preacher-worship, I'd advise you to do so at your earliest convenience by picking up a copy of Preacher: Gone to Texas. Ignore the wannabe rabblerousers and the like who will tell you how blasphemous the thing is and get yourself hooked.

As with most stuff the unthinking crowd denounces as blasphemy without having read it, there's a great deal of spiritual benefit to be found under the surface. In this seventh episode of the nine-book series, Jesse, now separated from Cassidy and Tulip, finds himself back in Texas, in a little town called Salvation. Through various machinations, he finds himself the sheriff of the town, and immediately at loggerheads with Odin Quincannon, owner of the local meatpacking industry. You've been reading. You know what's gonna happen.

Under all the grease and grime, Jesse Custer is the classic good guy. He stands for what's right, opposes what's wrong, and tries to get everything back on an even keel (though granted, lots of stuff blows up in the process). And what could possibly be blasphemous about that?

No surprise that, once again, Ennis and Dillon have put out a winner. Some folks seem to have missed a minor part of the point (here's a hint: the name of the book, and the name of the town, point the way to figuring out why "coincidences" pop up here). Another solid entry in an exceptionally solid series.

For the first time in the series, the Jesse-Cassidy-Tulip team is broken up, where Tulip and Cassidy are pushed completely into the background. "Salvation" focuses solely on Jesse Custer's experiences immediately after the cataclysmic events as depicted in "Tears in the Sun." Describing, appropriately enough, Jesse's stay in the racially polarized Salvation, Texas, Jesse's brawling talents land him the peachy job of town sheriff. Of course, being on the right side of the law for once only further encourages young Jesse to reach out and touch somebody. His rough and tumble ways seem to work, though, as his good conscience guides him to physically discipline only those who `deserve' it. Salvation eventually becomes a more just and humane town. Ennis is to be saluted for introducing the politics of race, here, and exploring small-town interracial relationships. As is unfortunately too often the case with other comic titles, African-Americans either don't exist or are the bad guys.

One thing I didn't like about this book was Ennis' excessive use of deus ex machina that makes the narrative creak - some of the volume's tenser moments are resolved rather dubiously (a fortuitous bolt of lightening, Jesse's dog Skeeter does his best impression of Lassie on several occasions). Also, there is one rather amazing coincidence/revelation that occurs soon after Jesse rolls into town involving one of Salvation's citizens. The sheer improbability of it really rubbed me the wrong way, and seemed like lazy, overly sentimental writing (which Ennis is almost never guilty of). Even more amazing was how this coincidence wasn't realized by the person even earlier than it was.

However, as always, this is immensely likeable reading. Ennis keeps churning out the freak show characters that demonstrate the diversity of the human condition. Although the stories have been better, Ennis nevertheless manages to confound, amuse, and perturb.

I have been fascinated with Hill House since my teens. This was an amazing story then and it remains a classic with good reason. It's dark and atmospheric with just enough suspense. It's thoroughly engrossing. Jackson was a forerunner of female horror authors during this era and her material matched that, if not exceeded, those from her counterparts.

Eleanor is a beaten character at the start of the book. She was under the rule of an overbearing mother and upon her death, Eleanor goes directly to the overbearing rule of her sister.

Her hopeless existence is interrupted by a unique opprotunity to leave it all. She seizes the chance and enters Hill House.

This is an excellent read.

Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House' is the classic modern haunted house story. I was assigned to read this in high school many years ago and I never got past the first couple of pages; not unusual for high school students I guess, but unusual for me. Now I have picked it up again and I don't know why I never finished before. It isn't long or complex, but is instead a readable story with a few really gripping scenes. However is is somewhat episodic. Jackson ratchets up the suspense, then lets it deflate the next chapter, requiring the suspense to be built up again almost from scratch again. I have heard it compared to Henry James's 'Turn of the Screw' and I believe the comparison to be apt, as it is very ambiguous how many of the events are real and how many are occurring only in the mind of Eleanor.

The original version of The Haunting is in my opinion the best horror film I've ever seen. The characters are introduced successfully one at a time. It is filmed in black and white which seems appropriate for 1963. Ones imagination is allowed to run wild through the scarey bits as the "monsters" are heard but not seen. I reccommend that every one who loves horror films see this one. The book is good, quick reading. and the 1990 re-make is so-so. So ask for the original "The Haunting (of Hill House)" T.E.Montecillo

If you are not familiar with Shirley Jackson, or if you have only read her short story "The Lottery," the "Haunting of Hill House" is an excellent place to start. Much like "The Lottery," this novel brings you down a compellingly windy path that leads to a shockingly twisted conclusion. Her descriptions of the actual hauntings are chilling and will have you turning on all the lights in your house and checking behind the doors. Jackson's characters, in particular the main character, are written with an attention to detail and you will quickly find yourself absorbed into their fate. A quick warning to fans of the latest "The Haunting" movie: the novel does not contain nearly the same amount of gore or simple answers. Jackson's novel is more a psychological horror that will leave you questioning. For further reading, my personal favorite is "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" and "The Sundial."

I first read "The Haunting of Hill House" as a lonely, unpretty, extremely bookish 13-year-old girl, at that time a purchase from the Scholastic Book Club for Teens. The only way I can describe the book's effect on me is to say that it was enormously jolting, and that I have used it as the standard by which I judge the entire horror genre ever since. Needless to say, many, many other works fall far short. I reread "The Haunting" about every other summer, just to recall to myself how that first reading shocked and scared me, but moreover, to climb back inside Eleanor's head for a few hours and truly frighten myself with her enormous loneliness, her mind-bending self-alienation, and her disastrous sense that if she DID belong anywhere in her poor life, if she had any place to call home, or to call her own, it was among the diseased, deceased inhabitants of Hill House.

It wasn't until I read, recently, in the Shirley Jackson biography "Private Demons", her youngest son Barry's comments on "The Haunting of Hill House" that I think I really understood the essence of the book, even after what seems like a hundred readings of it. He says, imagine you see a ghost walk across a room. Now, did you see a ghost, or did you hallucinate the experience? It's totally subjective either way - and to his mother, he says, it made absolutely no difference whatsoever. Seeing a ghost, or imagining seeing a ghost, were equally REAL to Shirley Jackson. When you think about this, you see that to Eleanor, the events which happened to her inside (and outside on the grounds of) Hill House were as REAL to her as they would be to any of us experiencing the same things. Were the hauntings real, then? I say yes, based on Shirley's definition. Did Eleanor herself act as some kind of amplifier of the events, or even engender some of them herself? Well - personally, I think she did. "Maybe you did it yourself", huffs Theodora, after the cozy group finds chalk and then blood writings on the walls, and Eleanor begs one of the others to own up to the "joke". I think Shirley Jackson is saying, "Exactly".

The plot has been covered endlessly in these reviews, so I won't dwell on it. Either, as a reader, you can understand that what you are seeing in Hill House is skewed by the tortured/prejudiced view of Eleanor's stinted mind, and that all events are part of HER reality, since you are basically inside her mind for the whole book--or you aren't interested in her twisted reality, and if not, this book WILL bore you. I think if you were ever, even for a day, an outsider in any way - the last one chosen on a sports team, the child who has most "disappointed" your parents, the "ugly" one, the "dumb" one, the one who hears an inner dialog no one else can hear or understand...you cannot help but identify with Eleanor. You cannot help but be both enchanted by the essences that rule Hill House, and seem to speak directly to YOU, and be shockingly, horrifyingly repelled at the same time.

Exactly how MUCH horror, Shirley Jackson seems to be asking us, comes from inside ourselves? How much of it can we project upon the rest of the world? How about if a little REAL evil helps us along with the task of projecting? Hmmmm....

I will always feel that this book is well worth the reading, and the rereading. There are no big chunks of bloody, gory horror going on, and if that's your bag, there are about a billion "horror" novels you can grab to satisfy that particular fearlust. But if you want your skin to crawl, from ankle to scalp, in a nasty, cold, SMALL way that'll cause you to wake up in the night with palpitations at its memory, here's the read for you. Don't miss this exquisite book.

The Preacher series is a very well written, unusual graphic novel. I have liked every one of them.

Hilarious background on a major antagonist, detailing the utter and total insanity of their organisation. This is one of the weirdest, most screwed up villains you can imagine. He loses body part after body part, function after function, and has indignity upon indignity heaped upon him and still continues upon his crazed quest and towards his nutjob goals.

The Preacher series is a "must have" for any collector of stories who likes a little extreme in their fantasy. Some of the greatest lines and characters are put forth by the incredible team of Ennis and Dillon. If one suspends disbelief on one's own feelings about God and the devil, one can enjoy lightheartedly this tale of servitude...or something.

John Wayne. God. War in Monument Valley. The Preacher--Jesse Custer. Cannibalism. Irish vampire. Starr. Betrayal. Sex. Cigarettes. Chicks with guns.

This volume is about as good as it gets.

The 6th installement in the 9 volume Preacher series, definitely the most action packed Preacher of them all. Garth Ennis(Punisher, Hellblazer, Hitman) and Steve Dillon(Punisher, Supreme Power:Nighthawk) did a great job, tanks, guns, blood, and violence, what more would you want.

The book starts with an origin story about Starr, telling us about how he got involved with the Grail, and how he took interest in Jesse Custer. Then Starr takes control of the U.S. Army and attepts to capture Jesse Custer and kill the Saint of Killers with the army. Fortunately the Saint of Killers was there doing what he does best, blow things up. Nothing can take that guy down, not machine guns, tanks, not even missiles. Meanwhile, when Jesse falls out of a plane and is presumed dead, Tulip falls into depression and takes refuge in Cassidy. Jesse, somehow survived the fall with only the loss of an eye. He was rescued by an astronaut wannabe called Johnny Wee Wombat. One of the best Preacher stories wirtten by Garth Ennis, showcasing his dark humor(which was superb here in War in the Sun), his bizzare characters and plots, and his ability to write a compelling story.

The art by Steve Dillon was great as usual depicting, in great detail, the faces, expressions, and the graphic violence. After the work Dillon have done in Preacher and the Marvel comic Punisher, also written by Ennis, he has become my favorite artist, his best quality being his abilty to draw faces, and exppressions, it is said that he has never drawn a face twice. The story arc about Starr's origin was not by Dillon, and nothing personal by I just don't really like it, expecially for Preacher.

The most action packed Preacher, one of the best of the series to me. Ennis and Dillon have brought us yet another masterpeice, a must-read if you liked any of the other Preacher books. If you are new to the series, I suggest you read the first volume, Gone to Texas, and see if you like it(I can't imagine why not), if you do, then keep reading until you reach this volume, it's worth it. DO NOT purchase this book or any Preacher book if you can be offended by eccesive violence, gore, extremely bizzare plots, sexual themes, or profanity.

One of the most satisfying finishes to a story since the Metal Gear Solid game on PS1! I highly recommend this book - leaves you feeling like you've just eaten a 5 course meal, with room just enough for the after dinner mint at the end!

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this last chapter! I'm one of those who missed out on this during it's intial run, and have to say this is one of the most entertaining storylines ever. This is a story for adults told about adults, and that is one thing which has set it well apart from others. While I have enjoyed the other graphic novels leading up to this one, some have wandered around while putting in the required background. This was much tighter and led to a very satisfying conclusion.

Preacher does things to the reader that few other comics can do--like Miller's work in Batman, Moore's The Watchman, the first couple of years of the Darkness, Sandman, Fables, Sin City,and most of Wolverine's story--and this is a fantastic finale. I'll not say anything about it. You have to read it.

While I read this entire series when it was originally published, I had a chance to reflect on the work when looking at a friend's TPD collection, and I realized that this series went on too long. By the time the reader gets to vol 9 (of what should have been at 6 or 7 volume series) it's too much. All Ennis is looking to do is inject shock value elements to this story, which was wonderful in it's first three or four years.

Sure, get this volume to get to the end of the story, but don't expect the excellence that was there before.

The end of the story, as Jesse gets to point out a few cold hard truths to various people, human and otherwise. Jesse gets to point out to God why he is such a big fat, loser. Cassidy gets a second chance at things again, even if perhaps he does not deserve it. Yes, Alamo is the end, and the last stand all rolled into one.

I really didn't care for the first book in this trilogy, but I was encouraged to read the sequel by several fans of the series... GOOD CALL! Immediately, I was amazed at the difference in these two books... Where as the first book seemed to be just one huge relentless spanking with no real character development or story, this book truly developed each main character by explaining events from their perspective AND included a rather interesting story line!

Although I had never given much thought to what a BDSM relationship must be like, Rice's descriptions were mind blowing! I was amazed at the internal battles these characters faced, as well as the torment they endured for the sake or earning approval. I was blown away by the relationship that Tristan formed with his master, as well as the differences in Beauty's and Tristans perspectives on their slave lifestyle. And FINALLY, I actually cared about what was happening to these characters! I found I didn't want to put this book down because I just had to know what was coming up next!

The erotic scenes were SUPER steamy, especially those centered around Tristan, and they actually tied into the development of the characters and the story. The end of the book actually included a great cliff hanger, which made me wish I had already picked up book three!

WARNING TO CONSERVATIVE READERS: This book is VERY explicit and includes some male-male as well as male-female-female interactions. If you don't like these types of materials, you may wish to stay clear of all the Beauty books. Otherwise, if you are open minded and want to read something with edge, this is a most interesting and unique read!

Part two keeps the flames burning. I suggest you read it with your partner, when neither of you have to work the next day, or the day after.

Beauty's Punishment is not as good as the first book in this trilogy, and does tend towards the dull side through reasonable portions of the novel.

Beauty and Tristan, having been busted in the act, so to speak, are auctioned off and sent to separate places for a bit more extreme discipline, having not learned to do as they are told and keep their favours for their owners.

Well, I finally got a copy of this and the others in the series as well as East of Eden. I had seen the movie East of Eden and enjoyed dana delaney in that movie, but the book was not nearly as much fun. I am no stranger to the dominate submissive scenario, but believe me, the writings of Ms. Rice do not capture the flavor of what I consider to be fun, exciting and satisying. Everyone enjoys a good spanking and a bit of humiliation, but come on; Ms. Rice is one sick person who apparently feels that torture will titilate her readers. Certainly, performing various tasks in the nude and in compromising positions can be exciting and rewarding especially if you are doing it for someone you really care about. Scrubbing floors nude with a kneeling pad is quite logical and more comfortable without the confines of clothing. Getting spanked naked in the open and with others around is certainly liberating and fun, but having one's bottom abused and bruised crosses the line of fun and enters the realm of torture. I know these books are fiction, but even fiction should not be so cruel. What else would you call shoving a dildo in someone's bottom without lube, but torture. I can't imagine the character of anyone who would call this erotica and who would get off on it. I agree with other reviewers that it is fun to read erotica to others and have them read to you, but this trash is just too silly to read out loud. I am glad I read these books for I have now advanced my knowledge of how dark and cruel people can be. I hope I never meet up with Ms. Rice; fantasies are great to write about, but she is one disturbing dudess.

After finishing Claiming I immediately started on Punishment. I was glued. Punishment introduces some very interesting characters as well. It, like Claiming, left me wanting more!!

Great collection of Lovecraft stories. I would love to have seen "The Cats of Ulthar" in this collection too, but I guess you can't have everything. I know there are some legal copyright disputes on some of H.P.'s works.

Lovecraft is truly a master who has influenced many modern writers and horror filmmakers, noteably Stephen King. Definitely check out this volume. Lovecraft's vocabulary is impressive and can be a little difficult, but any person who reads regularly should have no problem.

I'd also recommend Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems, Cold Streak, It (Signet Books), H.P. Lovecraft: A Life.

... quote from my favourite Lovecraft story "The Whisperer in Darkness" showing that, although this lengthy story abounds with obscure Cthulhu mythology name-dropping, learned hints at forbidden folklore and similar highly academic stuff the atmospheric horror created by visions of darkened Vermont hillsides and rumours of shapes of unspeakable origin operating about them is in my opinion the most effective Lovecraft has done - when in fact, the only tangible elements of horror are a few, more or less fresh, clawprints in the neighbourhood, a phonograph record of voices in the wood praising a certain "Black Goat" a black stone and a steel container used for transmitting human brains into outer space - but these, indeed, are awful enough. Curiously, no screams are emitted, neither in the darkened woods of frightful conference nor near the end when the steel container begins to speak by itself - these shrieks would attract the attention of the Things anyway ... all in reverent tribute to English-Welsh author Arthur Machen, master of horror settings whether out in the wild or in the city, whose influence is especially apparent also in "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Thing on the Doorstep".

The title says it all. The best of his stories and if you're a fan of Lovecraft, this must be a part of your collection.

This is a great Lovecraft compilation. I love the florid late Victorian prose, but more than anything this man seems so far ahead of his time for someone writing in the 1920-30 era. His visionary dreams are evocative of the psychedelic visions and writings of the bohemians of the 1950s and later. His stories, through the rejection of the ghost story, instead were firmly grounded in speculative science and science that was cutting edge at the time - the theories of Einstein, early ideas about parallel universes and higher dimensions, the spiritual higher dimensional topology of P.D. Ouspensky.

The most amazing ideas in this collection are, I believe, in the short story "The Silver Key." That story, with its confessional tone, seems to prevision post-modernism and a weariness with the rational scientific worldview that seems to have overtaken much of the rest of popular culture only decades later.

There is so much in Lovecraft's work that is echoed by the work of modern ayahuasceros and other psychedelic visionaries - his worlds seem very similar to those reported by students of DMT and psychedelic mushrooms. Perhaps if he had been born a few decades later, he would have found more wonder and awe in his internal experiences, and less of a sense of horror at his glimpses into the arcane realms.

I have been a fan of horror movies and video games for quite some time, but reading was not typically my thing, however, I decided to check out a horror story or two and Lovecraft was recommended. This was my first and last Lovecraft purchase and I will explain why.
I have read 11 of the 16 stories and at the end of most of them I was fairly irritated that I had spent the time reading such a story. Some of the plot lines are ridiculously laughable: an invisible monster, an unseen force that is afraid of the light, fish people, a "rat-like being" named Brown Jenkin (weird name for a lame creature), and many many more. I was never scared while reading these stories and whenever I thought something horrifying would happen there was only sheer disappointment.
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" was my favorite of the stories, however, it fell flat on its face in the last pages. There were some creepy happenings like when the hotel door was being tried with a key and the like, but the climax, the immortal terror of the deep that was so incredibly horrifying was....FISH PEOPLE. You read it right, how can anyone be afraid of fish people? It's absurd. Finally, just when you think things would get interesting, the main character faints in the middle of the night, thereby cutting the story short as if Lovecraft simply got too tired of writing it. This brings me to my next point.
Lovecraft is creative, yet uncreative at the same time. To be sure some of his descriptions are very intricate, but there are times when it is SO detailed that I cannot comprehend what he is trying to describe ("dreams in the witch house" for example, the starfish headed things, I couldn't put it together). On the other hand, sometimes he leaves out so much detail that the subject cannot possibly be found scary, a strong example of this is "Pickman's Model". The creatures said to make the main character scream are only described as being hunched over, canine like, and having half-hoven feet. A lot of the descriptions he uses constantly are that creatures of settings are made up of geometry not of this world, or they would not possibly be comprehended, or some other adjective that makes it utterly impossible to recreate the story in your head. This is irritating because how can you be scarred of something that you can't even picture like a gas (Colour from outer space), and invisible monster (Dunwich Horror), or so many of the others. The plots also have lapses in logical thought, for example, in the "Dream in the Witch House" the main character kicks Brown Jenkin down a cliff, yet in the next page the creature is right behind him, and on the NEXT page it is down at the bottom of the cliff again, it doesn't add up. Most of Lovecraft's stories spend most of the time building up to a climax, however, said climax is only a sentence or two long and you are left feeling cheated. A strong example of this is in "Call of Cthulu" where the sailors discover the tomb of the elder god and awaken it. Cthulu is obviously an important Lovecraft "character" so you would expect it would be a large part of this story, but you would be wrong. Cthulu kills around 4 sailors in one sentence with flabby claws and it is unexplained how it does so. I waited the entire story to read about how it ate them or ripped them apart or something, but when it really counted Lovecraft was devoid of description. Finally the creature chases the remaining two sailors on their ship and, get this, gets sealed back in the tomb because they run into its head with the boat. The one story where Cthulu actually appears and it is only for half a page, how ridiculous.
Please heed this warning and look past the majority of 5 star rating, Lovecraftian fanatics.

I recently watched An American Crime, the film based on this true story of the 1965 imprisonment & torture of 16 yr old Sylvia Likens in an Indiana home. The director of the film admitted he had held back in his account...keeping it purposely lower key (which I think is a grave disservice to the victims). I was stunned by this story and searched for more information on it, wondering how much worse it could possibly have been. I found a plethora of info on CourtTV's web page, read the chapters presented there, was even more stunned with the additional facts presented there, & made note of the references to all the material that has been published covering this case, determined to try to understand the full scope of this story. I found TGND at my library. I was quite disappointed with this book - finding the court/truTV account much more riveting. The first third or so of Ketchum's book dragged on..it felt like I was reading a story geared to teenagers. The torture of Sylvia is horrendous, made even more macabre by the cold participation of the children in the family and neighborhood. But the book didn't get me inside any of these characters, including the mother, & wasn't particularly well written. For me, the fictionalized twists offered by the author actually detracted from the true story. There was so much potential here in the pure facts of the case that wasn't given to us; a story the likes of which would be hard to match.

The Girl Next Door is one of the few books that I have read that I absolutely could not put down. I devoured the book in just under 24 hours. The story focuses on David, a young teen, and what he witnesses as Meg and her sister move in with a neighbor, Ruth.

The story builds slowly, hinting at the horrors to come, and then explodes into one of the most brutal, riveting, and memorable books you will ever read. Ketchum does a wonderful job at allowing the tension and to build, and does so with with amazing flow.

There has been much said about the graphic nature of this book. Please note that this story is by no means "torture porn". Sure, there is inhuman cruelty, and sure, it is shocking in its impact. But the real reason that The Girl Next Door will turn your stomach and leave you in tears is because this is based on a true story and you simply cannot believe what one human can do to another.

You will remember Meg, Ruth and David, and they will linger with you for quite some time. That is the highest compliment I can give this book. A must read.

Wow, when you find out that there is information left out of this book b/c it's too digusting or horrifying to relate you know you've got a good piece of horror. I read this book in a day, & was completely mesmerized by Ketchum's storytelling. I thought the 1st person point of view was really interesting, you find yourself pulling for him & maybe not really wanting the believe that he acutally participated (passivley anyway).

I would recommend it for any horror lover, the fact that it's rooted in truth makes it even more terrifying!

Good story, very emotional, overall a good read, but I felt Ketchum held back at certain key points of this book where he could have really floored his audiences. Who knows, maybe there will be an uncensored edition.

I picked this book up on the fly yesterday at Barnes N Noble during my lunch break. Just thought "Hey, that looks interesting"...didn't even know about the movie. I got home at six, read through dinner, and finished this thing at eleven last night while a bad storm was ripping through the northeast. It's the most difficult, challenging, and brutal book I have ever read, the fact that it is inspired by real events making it all the worse.

I generally don't read stuff dealing with the issues you come across in "Girl Next Door", but I felt that I had to sit down and read this thing because stuff like this really happens. It's not just the one case this book is inspired by, but this stuff happens all over the world and more often than people care to imagine. That's what to think about when you get to the meaty, grotesque scenes in the story.

It's not just the plot, but Ketchum's prose is outstanding. You feel what David feels, experience what he experiences, and you keep turning and turning the pages to go deeper into the story.

Read this, it opens your eyes and moves your heart.