Horror Books

These books are helping my grandson learn the enjoyment of reading. He was having a hard time, but these books hold his attention and he really looks forward to getting a new one in the series.

The Blob that Ate Everyone is a very good story. This story is an adventure with three main characters and a blob monster. I think they put a lot of detail into the story and they used adjectives to make it sound scary. I would recommend this book to someone who is 12 or 13 years old because they can handle reading scarier stories.

I liked this book a lot. I thought the ending was suprising, because the whole book wasn't anything like it. I really liked the parts when they discribed the blob. They said stuff that was really funny. I hope you enjoy this book.

I loved this book. Being a baby boomer I read it thinking of the movie "The Blob". Very similar and great to share with children of the younger generation.

My 7 year old daughter has been looking in stores for this book for a long time and we have had no luck. She was so excited when she saw it on Amazon and we had to order it. She loves the entire Goosebumps collection and is very happy with her new book.

I will tell you that i enjoyed reading this very much.It's strangely different from most of the other graphic novels i have read in the past.The characters in the stories make it a great read.A must have.I cant wait too read the rest.

Honestly, I passed this in the bookstore on my way to picking up a knitting book. You could not know less about manga than I do. I found the story lines riveting and the art engaging. I've already ordered Volume 2 and 3. Definitely adult content but a very engrossing read!

I found the book to be engrossing and entertaining. The art is pretty good, and the characters likeable, especially Numata. It's a fun book, though there is some gruesome stuff in it.

This book is definitely strange and gruesome but it is also brilliantly funny in a similarly dark way. The characters are interesting and vary nicely. The story is about a volunteer group of students who have banded together to help the dead find peace. The team includes a psychic, a dowser, an embalmer, and a channeler. If you have a strong stomach, an appreciation for the macabre, and a dark sense of humor I highly recommend this series.

I would recomend this book to people.This book is scary but not the scary that gives you nightmares.On the scary meter its in the middle.Also it is great because it leaves you wanting more at the end of the chapter.When Billy finds out he is goin to Camp Nightmoon hes really exited.Once he boards the bus he meets mike. Mike seems cautious and scared to go to camp. Then the bus stops in the middle of nowere and drives away.Then the kids here growling noises and suddenly mysterious animals appear.When Billy is finaly settled in, some strange thing start to happen. Campers suddenly start to disapear and no one seems to care!What will happen to Billy? Will he disapear? Will he escape? To find out, you have to read this amazing book.

Welcome to Camp Nightmare is likely the scariest, most suspenseful Goosebumps book. The story is about a group of children who go to a summer camp, where mysterious things happen. Without ruining much, I'll say that I was on the edge of my seat throughout the book.

However, the book's ending is unexpected... in a bad way. You'd expect a such a suspenseful book to have an incredible twist at the end, as Stine usually ends his Goosebumps series, but the ending to Welcome ot Camp Nightmare oozes of unoriginallity, and is a giant cop out. R.L. Stine ruined what could have been his greatest book.

This story by R.L. Stine is taking place at "Camp Nightmoon", but its nickname is "Camp Nightmare". A little boy named Billy had never gone camping before. He was scared because during the camp, campers were disappearing. The camp counselors were just saying that the campers never existed. Most of the campers went to the "Forbidden Bunk" and disappeared. The "Forbidden Bunk" is a bunk room where no one is allowed to go, and if they do, they disappear. The camp counselor, "Larry" told everyone about a red-eyed monster called "Sabre" who lives in the "Forbidden Bunk" and eats a camper every night.
In the end, it was not true, it was all a test for Billy. If he passed the test, he would go to another planet called "Earth", for a dangerous mission. The campers weren't really dissappearing, they were all in on the act. "Uncle Al", the camp director, told Billy that he passed the test. Then all the other campers and all their parents came out of the bushes and congratulated Billy.
I liked the book, but it wasn't great. I didn't like the ending because I thought they were already on earth when they were really on a different planet.

This story by R.L. Stine is taking place at "Camp Nightmoon", but its nickname is "Camp Nightmare". A little boy named Billy had never gone camping before. He was scared because during the camp, campers were disappearing. The camp counselors were just saying that the campers never existed. Most of the campers went to the "Forbidden Bunk" and disappeared. The "Forbidden Bunk" is a bunk room where no one is allowed to go, and if they do, they disappear. The camp counselor, "Larry" told everyone about a red-eyed monster called "Sabre" who lives in the "Forbidden Bunk" and eats a camper every night.
In the end, it was not true, it was all a test for Billy. If he passed the test, he would go to another planet called "Earth", for a dangerous mission. The campers weren't really dissappearing, they were all in on the act. "Uncle Al", the camp director, told Billy that he passed the test. Then all the other campers and all their parents came out of the bushes and congratulated Billy.
I liked the book, but it wasn't great. I didn't like the ending because I thought they were already on earth when they were really on a different planet.

As Welcome to Camp Nightmare begins we join a lively group of youngsters headed to the sleep-away camp, Camp Nightmoon, called Camp Nightmare by the campers...and with good reason. In this volume we meet 12 year old Billy who is headed out for his first time at sleep-away camp, we join him on the bus ride with his fellow campers, including two girls who are headed to the girls camp of the same name, just across the river. Billy hits it off with one of the girls and hopes to see her as the summer goes on. They are let off abruptly and left alone at a station where they are nearly set upon by large wild dogs. They are whisked away to Camp Nightmoon where he is assigned to Bunk 4, just down the hill from the ominous "Forbidden Bunk" which they are told to stay away from at all costs or a wolf like monster called Sabre will kill them. They are also warned against bear attacks...all of this seems highly causal to both the reader and to Billy who wonders why his parents would send him off to a camp that is so dangerous.

Almost immediately things head down hill for Billy and his bunk mates; Larry (their camp counselor who isn't around much and is indifferent when he is), Roger, Jay, Collin and Mike. Snakes attack Mike whose hand swells up, Billy comes through with a plan to get the snakes out of the bunk, but it's too late for poor Mike's hand...even worse, there's not nurse at the camp and Neither Uncle Al (runs the camp) nor Larry seem to care in the slightest. From there, it's a downward spiral for Billy and his bunkmates as one after another mysteriously disappears and as fear mounts for Billy wondering why Larry and Uncle Al seem so oblivious and unconcerned about something that is very wrong at Camp Night Moon...will Billy escape the fate of his bunkmates? You'll have to read to find out.

Overall, Camp Nightmare is an over-the-top, no holds barred near-parody of the classic sleep-away camp horror/thriller story. We are given a camp where EVERYTHING is wrong and where our hopelessly frightened protagonist is faced with a monster, the "forbidden bunk," disappearing bunkmates, a cruel counselor, a possibly psychotic Uncle Al, and a steadily mounting feeling that Billy's days are numbered! Camp Nightmare manages to be both suspenseful and horrific in a tame sort of way...one that makes the reader want to stop all the action and shake the character while screaming NO WAY...stop and think about it...but he never does and in the end we are given a totally unique twist (that is equally as unrealistic as the rest of the book) when the book comes to a screeching halt, concluding very abruptly! All the loose ends are tied up and the story IS entertaining, though your brain will scream NO WAY for most of the book, I give it four stars (instead of three) because I totally didn't see the ending that Stine gave it, so despite the over exaggerated plot details, he "got" me in the end. This is the type of book you read for the sheer entertainment of it...you know it's not right, you know it's unrealistic...yet you are compelled to read it to the very last page and you walk away with a little giggle and rolling your eyes...but you have been entertained and that makes it worth reading.

Cujo, to me, harkens back to the time when Stephen King's writing was wilder, back then when unbridled classics such as Firestarter and The Stand were still new to the bookstores. Cujo represented a time for me when Stephen would usually put predestrian characters into extraordinary situations and just let them work their way out. Less subtle than his current books Lisey's Story and Duma Key, but more energetic. And you always have a sense that anything can and does happen. That is what's so great about Cujo.

If you've read any of the quips about Cujo online, you would know the basis of this book right from the get go. You knew that eventually there would be a wild dog trapping a woman and her child in a car. And it will indeed be in the back of your mind while reading this thriller.

But you never expected the buildup to be this solid.

You never knew Stephen could do it this masterfully. He simply took the characters and built on their stories. And these stories collided very realistically, creating a push and pull reaction that drove the story forward to that above-mentioned scenario. And then it's boom, the situation starts, wondering what would happen next. Rip roaring stuff.

And outside that struggle between the trapped and the dog were many other situations happening at the same time. Ted's struggle to keep his advertising contract, Steve Kemp's schemings, all this tension made the story all the more thrilling.

This book isn't perfect though; some parts felt really pre-fabricated and campy, like King just put them in there to build up the suspense. But, like paper tigers, you realize how these things eventually turn out to be nothing much. Well, this is fiction, so it goes in the territory. Not really anything to shout about.

If you want to read a good thriller, Cujo would be right up your alley.

Cujo- A pet to never forget

Cujo is a tedious read for those used to the more exciting and action packed Stephen King usually writes. Cujo written by the famous author Stephen King.

The book Cujo is about the real life monsters that don't have to live in the dark recesses of your closet or dreams to thrive in. There is no main character like in many of King's books the perspective alters constantly to show everything that's going on. Though in the broad prospect of things there are two main families the story follows.

The Trenton family is in the upper middle class with Vic a commercial director and his wife Donna a stay at home house wife. There pride and joy Tad or to his dad tadder has a monster in his closet which is a foreshadowing of the monster he faces latter on.

The other family is the chamber family. A poor hillbilly get'r done husband abuses his wife Charity. She stays around only for her son who his very intelligent but she worries that he will follow his father's footsteps to nowhere.

The Trenton's car is in need of repair and so they take it to Joe who repairs cars and meet the Chamber's dog Cujo. Cujo is a lovable easy going 200 lbs dog.

Of course in typical King fashion he turns Cujo into a poor retched monster. Maybe not the type your thinking of Cujo gets bitten by bats and get the nervous system attacking brain deteriorating incurable disease rabies. Well while this is happening Vic finds out that Donna is cheating on him so he leaves town.

While Donna is trying to keep her marriage together which takes up a large potion of the book dulling it so much that even when you get to the parts where Cujo is killing people it can hardly raise your attention.

Well Donna takes tad with her to get the car checked out again. Cujo has fallen to the last stages of madness and attacks. With a cruel twist of fate the car battery dies trapping Donna and her 6 yr old son to an indefinite siege in the car. After day of being trapped and with tad on the brink of death Donna faces off with Cujo armed only with a broken bat.

I would recommend that if you want to read this book that you be very persistent with your reading. The extra details can grow tedious and boring so if you're not a good reader find something else.

I am a new reader of King. I have heard about him my whole life but am only now collecting his books. I am reading them in the order they were written so Cujo was the next one on the list. I have to say I did not like this novel as much as some of the others; however, much of this was because I have been an abused wife just like the one in this book. I have been a mother who worried over her son again just like both mom's in this book. There are other parallels as well but I won't go there here. I also felt I was in the dog's head and I felt increasingly sorry for him. I understood Tad's fear of the monster in the closet and remember feeling that way as a child. I had wolfs in my closet :). I agree that this is a dark novel but I also got a truth out of it. Make the most out of each day of your life. Sometimes your life does not work out as you would have wished. Everyone probably should read this book and I am sure in a discriptive literature class the disucssions would be awesome.

This one's good to read if if you've got about 3-4 hours to kill. It is a page turner. Not because it is so good, because it's so short.

Stephen King is the sort of man people discuss in hushed
whispers, muttering of the terryfing events he unravels in
his novels, yet Cujo not only comes up short of these
expectations, but fails them completely.
Before Cujo, I had never read a Stephen King book. A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to indulge myself. I checked the book out from the school library and brought it home, already a nervous knot forming in my stomach, expecting non-stop sequences of completely unpredictable peril. Instead, I read the first dozen pages utterly bored and puzzled. The only remotely scary instance was the realization that I had 192 more pages to read until the end.
King opens the story with a small summary of a recent suicide by a lunatic named Frank Dodd who apparently molested and murdered a various assortment of girls and women in the small Maine community. The plot then shifts to a small family, the Trentons, whose four-year old son, Tad, is panic-sticken by an apparent monster in his closet. This proves irrevelent to the overall story and is used as a ruse by King to keep the reader hooked. Tad's disbelieving father Vic, is in the advertising business with his friend Roger. Vic has a lot of stress hanging over his head because the money inflow is at a low and he fears his wife, Donna has been cheating on him. King also aquaints us with some other potential victims, the Cambers, a classic country family with a young boy named Brett, whose dog is named Cujo (surprise).

I understand that in order for any well-written story, the author must introduce and set up the characters and setting. However, King does this in a rather simple, boring approach which lead me to believe I was watching a drab documentary with my grandparents.
As the tale continues, Cujo, once a kind and loving dog, becomes a ruthless monster and hunts down isolated victims around his residence. These situations prove very predictable, as it is very difficult to brainstorm various outcomes of a bloodthirsty dog and petrified people alone in a deserted country side.
The ending is without any doubt the best portion of the book, being somewhat suspenseful and emotional. The investigative team makes you want to cry out in frustration, as they do everything but fulfill their duty to the missing people. The mostly-predictable ending has a tragic twist at the end that adds heart to a heartless legend woven of attempted intrigue.
Although the book has some good life lessons, a horror novel is not supposed to focus on values, and this unneccessary focal point takes away from the overall quality of the novel. For example, King zooms in on Vic as he struggles with the realization that his family should come before his work and that carrying the burden of anxiety is not always necessary. I took away nothing from reading this disappointing novel, except that I should not base my choices on critics or acclaim, as this book was the #1 bestseller. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they are looking for a very mild horror book and have more than enough time on their hands. I would doubt that other high-schoolers would have the time or patience to read this book for fun or enjoyment. If you are looking for a scare, I suggest you rent a movie and stay far, far, away from this disappointing book.

This book may have been something fresh and different when it was published in 1993, but now it reads like fan fiction. And not very good fan fiction at that. I've been reading the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, which are great. After devouring four of them in a row, I decided I needed a break so I picked up Guilty Pleasures because I'd heard interesting and outrageous things about the series. But after struggling through the stale prose and thin characters, I'm not sure if I can read any more of them. Does Hamilton's style improve as the series continues? Or is it the ever increasing eroticism (which was not present in the ironically named first novel) that brings back the vampire fetishists for every new release? I may never find out. I'm back to reading the Dresden Files, where I found myself sighing with pleasure at the words written by a true novelist.

Anita Blake has become something of a household word since Guilty Pleasures was first published in 1993. The concept is interesting as Anita lives in an imaginary Earth where werewolves, vampires, zombies, and other supernatural creatures are a part of life. Anita is an "animator" who can raise the dead into zombies but she's also a part-time vampire hunter known as the "Executioner" by the fang and cape set. In this book, the chief vampire of the city demands that she help solve a series of unusually vicious murders where the victims were vampires. Anita is not inclined to help, but they mange to make her an offer she can't refuse. From there, a whole series of supernatural encounters ensue leading to a fairly tidy resolution at the end of the story.

Guilty Pleasures is an interesting attempt to blend the hard-boiled detective with gothic mythology. It's not easy for a 105-pound woman to be as tough as a Sam Spade, but Hamilton imbues her with attitude to spare and a touch of vulnerability. At times the first person narrative is a touch forced or hits a wrong note but overall the writing and tone is solid. There is plenty of suspense and action to keep readers on the edge of their seats. The murder mystery is not very well developed and the solution almost seems accidental but this didn't seriously hurt my enjoyment of the story. There weren't any characters here that I'm likely to remember for life but they were solid enough to support the story and Anita's wise guy remarks are pretty funny most of the time.

Guilty Pleasures is well named. It is indeed a guilty pleasure to read it. This book will not win respect from elite literary groups and it won't make you re-evaluate your life, but it will provide several hours of entertainment and that's fine with me. I was looking for a good horror/thriller novel and this fit the bill nicely. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for the same.

Once upon a time, before the Anita Blake series became cheap porn with well-endowed vampires and werethingies, there was "Guilty Pleasures."

Laurell K. Hamilton's breakout debut was one of the early urban fantasy stories, though by no means the best. It's an amusing, gorey story with some unusual twists, but it often seems like a goth teenager's daydreams of vampire romance and superpowers.

It takes place in an alternate universe where werecreatures and vampires live amongst us openly. Anita Blake is a vampire hunter -- known as the Executioner -- and an animator, able to raise zombies from the dead, but she isn't too fond of vampires or weres. So when a vampire comes to hire her, she turns him down. But at a bachelorette party, she soon finds herself hip-deep in vampire politics, courtesy of the sensual club-owner Jean-Claude.

Things only get more complicated when she ends up facing the Master of the City, a deceptively sweet-looking little vampire who wants answers about the murders right away. Anita is going to end up facing a dungeonful of wererats, zombies, vampire groupies... and possibly the seductive Jean-Claude.

Admittedly there's not a lot of innovation here -- there are foppish, sensual vampires in the Anne Rice style, attack zombies, an army of werecreatures, and a Buffy-style heroine. It's a bit of a horror mishmash, and Hamilton never really adds much to the equation.

Nor does she add much to the simple murder mystery that the plot revolves around -- take your basic crime thriller, and add a few supernatural characters. Bang, you're done. But Hamilton loads it down with gore, violence, mystery and some unusual twists, such as Anita visiting a "freak party" full of vampire groupies and junkies.

As for her writing, Hamilton will never win a Pulitzer, but it's sparky and colourful enough to maintain a reader's attention. However, Anita's scenes with Jean-Claude needed work. While they have a sexual snap, some of them reek too much of a fourteen-year-old goth's fantasies of vampire romance.

Despite her goddess-of-the-universe turns later in the series, Anita Blake is a more compelling character here -- flawed, blunt, and very scarred. And Jean-Claude is fascinating when he's being manipulative to everyone... and much less so when he's awkwardly flirting with Anita. All other characrers more or less range from two-dimensional (the cartoonish Nikolaos) to the bittersweetly realistic (Philip).

With no hint of what was in store, "Guilty Pleasures" is nothing more or less than what its title suggests -- a lightweight adventure story with vampires and a Buffyesque heroine.

The Vision is the third Koontz book I've read and most definitely the best written so far. Mind you they have all been early novels in his career, so I cannot compare to any of his recent releases. This one tells the story of a psychic woman that witnesses murders before they happen. She has no way of stopping the murders from occurring, but she works to try to stop the killers from claiming more victims. But her latest vision scares her terribly and she must delve into her past to try to discover what it is that causes her to feel such terror and why her conscious mind refuses to find the identity of this mad man.

I normally don't appreciate psychic powers as part of movies or books as I find it all just a bit ridiculous and almost cheating in storytelling. And yet Mary is a very different character than what I originally expected. She is haunted by her strange visions and wishes desperately that either she would stop having them or that she would have the power to stop them becoming reality. She is strangely real and very human even though her life is surrounded by the supernatural. The other characters in the book are less interesting, although Max is fairly intriguing with his tough guy with a soft heart attitude. Koontz keeps us wondering who the killer is from beginning to end and while many readers may guess their identity fairly early on, there are enough red herrings and plot additions to keep you at the very least doubting yourself. Personally, I thought I knew what was going on, only to change my mind later on. As it turned out I was completely wrong, which I guess compliments the author's ability.

Once again, there are flaws with this novel and like the other two Koontz books I've read, it fails to reward the reader with any finality. Koontz seems to feel that the story is always the priority and the characters are just there to help tell it. Once the plot has detonated, his stories finish very abruptly. It's also worth noting that this book contains some seriously disturbing imagery. Some scenes involving ingested menstrual blood and rape involving animals are nothing but sick. I appreciate that we are discussing a very disturbed individual, but is that really necessary! Regardless, this is another gripping thriller that you simply have to see through to the end, and one that manages to include supernatural forces without losing complete grip of reality, which is something I appreciate very much.

Koontz's earlier work doesn't measure up to some later stuff such as Dragon Tears. The Vision is one of the rare moments that I actually enjoyed most of it. I do think the characters are a bit stale and kind of lay there like a dead fish on a dock. The reader should care about the characters. In most of the work I've read of Koontz, he does a wonderful job of causing the reader to care for the characters. You react to them.

In this story, no reaction. No life. Just a story that falls flat amid a cast of cardboard characters nobody gives a rip about. The story had huge potential. The idea is not necessarily original, but in the hands of KOONTZ it could have been outrageous! Lucky for me I've read a billion other things he's written so I have the advantage of realizing this does not reflect his best effort.

I love Dean Koontz, and I'm in the process of reading all of his books (a fairly lengthy process, since he has written over 50 novels altogether). THE VISION is one of his very early novels, which he wrote in the mid 1970s. It isn't bad, but it isn't one of his best novels by a long-shot.

THE VISION is easy to read, but contains very little of the entertaining style, humor, wit, and fast-pacing that Koontz' later books contain. The story is suspensful, but is pretty slow going in spots. Also, like most reviewers, I found the identity of the killer to be pretty easy to predict.

If you're new to Koontz, I would recommend skipping this novel and reading some of his later work, such as PHANTOMS, WATCHERS and ODD THOMAS, which are far superior to this mild diversion.

I am a huge Dean Koontz reader and have enjoyed many of his works. Watchers was a great read from one of his earlier works.
I also have read all of his recent works and eagerly await each new release. But I have to give this book a dissappointing review. The character development was weak and the story line was not very engaging. With so many great alternatives, I'd stay away from this one.

I love Koontz; however, this was not his best effort. The book was almost boring.

The Devil's Arithmetic (Puffin Modern Classics)
The book is very easy to read, goes pretty well with the DVD movie. I used this book The Devil's Arithmetic, DVD movie, and the downloaded study guide in my English high school and middle school classes in my World War II Holocaust unit with: Night by Elie Wiesel, and Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death Excellent resource for students to get a personal connection to World War II via the main character Hanna who is an high school teen ager who travels back to Poland and experiences the death camp.

This book gives the reader a very brief view of history and how the evils of this world has a domino effect on us all. It also reminds us that we [humans] can survive in the worst of times with the help of family and friends. It is well written and gives you a good mental image of what you are reading.

The Devil's Arithmetic is a remarkable book about a horrid event in our history. For naysayers, it provides a mountain of evidence that must be heralded. For the rest of us, it is a reminder that we must in fact remember the atrocities of the Holocaust so that they are not repeated.

Yolen weaves together the tales of Hannah/Chaya in this historically fictional book. Hannah, a modern-day teenager, is 'tired of remembering'. Her family's rituals at Passover bore her and like any typical teen, would rather hang out with friends. That is, until she is chosen during the ritual, to open the door to Elijah the Prophet. When she does, she steps back in time and morphs into Chaya, a young girl who eventually is sent to one of the dreaded concentration camps. While Hannah/Chaya stuggles with the reconciliation of what she knows from the future and what she is living in 1942, the horrors of the Holocaust and Hitler's Final Solution surround her.

If this is not required reading at your school, it most certainly should be. I know I will be recommending it to my students when we return to school in August.

THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC by Jane Yolen is required reading at my school, as it is in many middle/junior high schools across the country. I've been meaning to read it for several years but never did, until my son read it this year as an eighth grader. He insisted I read it. How could I resist that?

Hannah is celebrating Passover Seder with her family. It's the same thing every year. Grandpa will get all worked up over old photos on TV, shaking his fist, screaming about the numbers on his arm, and Aunt Eva will calm him down as she always does, laying a hand on his arm, leading the same old Jewish prayers as Hannah mumbles along. But this year will be different. Hannah's brother, Aaron, will get to hide the afikoman, Hannah will get to taste real wine, and then she'll get to open the door to symbolically welcome in the prophet Elijah.

But when she opened that door, she had no idea just how different this year's celebration would be.

Instead of seeing the hallway in front of her as she expected, she sees a man coming her way, crossing a field. Confused, she turns back to her family and instead sees a strange woman, dressed even more strangely, kneading dough on a wooden table. Hannah's confusion grows as she hears herself referred to as Chaya, and discovers that these two people believe themselves to be her Aunt Gitl and Uncle Shmuel. More unbelievably, they talk about her parents' deaths, and that she herself had nearly died, sick for weeks.

Feeling like she's in a dream she can't wake up from, she finds herself pulled into wedding festivities, which includes walking to a nearby village for the celebration. There, her dream turns into a nightmare. Hannah is slowly disappearing as Chaya is loaded onto trucks with the other villagers. Then, later, they are prodded like cattle aboard boxed railroad cars with no ventilation, and they travel, standing, for four days and nights without food or bathrooms. What follows is days, weeks, maybe months, in a Jewish concentration camp.

Jane Yolen's telling of the Holocaust is chilling. She gathered information from survivors, those heroes who remember so that the atrocities of the past will never happen again. Ms. Yolen writes in her final pages to the reader, "That heroism - to resist being dehumanized, to simply outlive one's tormentors, to practice the quiet, everyday caring for one's equally tormented neighbors. To witness. To remember. These were the only victories of the camps."

This book is incredibly powerful. The way Ms. Yolen weaves the past and present together forces the reader to make personal connections. She makes the reader think and ask questions. How could society have allowed such a thing to happen? And, more importantly, how can we assure that it will never happen again? I truly hope THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC will remain required reading in schools. Each new generation must bear the weight of those lost souls upon their heart. They must believe that such devastating events can, and did, happen. Only in believing and remembering can we move forward to a better society.

Thank you, Ms. Yolen, for this riveting and thought-provoking book.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

Hannah has better things to do that spend the annual Seder listening to her grandparents go on about the Holocaust. However, when she is chosen to perform the ritual of opening the door to welcome the prophet Elijah, she is transported back to Poland in the 1940s. Everyone calls her Chaya and she begins to forget about her life as Hannah. It isn't long before Nazis take the small community to a concentration camp. While there, Chaya/Hannah becomes friends with Rivka, a 10-year-old girl who has lost everyone in her family except her brother. Rivka teaches Chaya and her friends the best ways to survive the horrors of the camp. However, no one is ever safe in the camps.

Writing about the Holocaust for children is especially difficult, given the disturbing subject matter and lack of reason. Yolen's book is able to portray the insanity of life in the concentration camps while also showing how survivors maintained their individuality. Hannah/Chaya's voice is wellwritten and, by having Hannah lose herself in Chaya's life, Yolen creates a sense of suspense. Readers will learn about the Holocaust from Hannah's experiences, but will also learn about the importance of remembrance.

Third book in the Cirque du Freak series.

After an old friend visits Mr. Crepsley, he takes Darren and Evra on a trip. Soon after they arrive in the city, the boys see a news report about mysterious murders taking place that involve victims whose bodies have been completely drained of blood.

The boys suspect Mr. Crepsley, who has been secretive and strange since they arrived in town. Darren and Evra follow Mr. Crepsley and discover that he is following a man who they assume will be his next victim. Darren resolves to kill Mr. Crepsley before he murders the man.

When Darren discovers what is really going on, well, that's when things really get bloody!

Thanks to the Cirque du Freak book series my soon to be husband is actually turning off the television and reading every once in a while :)

Darren Shan is a very suspenseful writer and keeps his readers on the edge of their seats for the entire wild ride :)

I have all of Darren's books including two currently out of print books that are published under his full name Darren O'Shaughnessy:

Ayuamarca: Procession of the Dead (City Book 1)
Hell's Horizon (City Book 2)

Very good book. This is the third book in the series, and better than the first two. In this book, Darren, Larten and Evra go to the city for reasons unknown by Darren. This book has quite a few twists in it, and it will make you think, if someone is actually bad or good? The vampaneze are introduced in this book, but i'll let you read up on that. A new character is introduced named "Murlough", a vampaneze, and there is a good part of the story with all of them involved.

I highly recommend this book after you've read the first two. Darren Shan keeps the books interesting.

this was an exciting, bone chilling book. I absolutely loved it.
Everything about it was awesome. with Darren trying to survive with Mr.Cripsly it the tunnels of the city after leaving the freakshow. Although i would not reccomend for children under the age of 8 because the concept of the book is not appropriate.

My book was Tunnels of blood by Darren Shan. It was about a boy who becomes half-vampire to save his friends life by becoming an assistant to a vampire to get an antidote for a spider bite. Darren(the half-vampire) and Mr.Crepsley(vampire) jojn the cirque du freak again. Then darren meats Evra, a snake boy, and they become very good friends. One day Mr. Crepsley has to take care of some business in New York so Darren and and evra come to Then Darren meats a girl and they start dating. Then one day while watching the news a report comes on saying that 6 dead bodies were found and all were drained of their blood...want to know more read the book. I would recomend to teenagers and up.

I wanted to combine a good gothic book with the gothic romance I intended to read and had been on my TBR pile for a while and found this collection at a bookstore. The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales has a large collection stories by authors from times that vary from Georgian period to recent years. Some are dark and sinister, others have a mystery to discover while there are those that have only the gothic atmosphere down pat. There are quite a few popular authors here -- William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Angela Carter and Joyce Carol Oates, to name a few. There are also some stories written by "Anonymous." My favorite stories are "The Lady of the House of Love," by Angela Carter, Eden Glasgow's "Jordan's End," and Ray Russell's "Sardonicus." The stories are quite dark and are some of the best in the gothic genre. I've already read some of the stories from the authors I've enjoyed over the years (like Poe and Oates), but the ones I hadn't read made this a very enjoyable read for me. I cannot recommend this unique collection enough.

Another reviewer said this collection of stories changed their lives. It changed mine as well. It elevated my understanding of gothic literature and art and made me think critically about the popular manifestations of "goth" culture. And the most shocking tale, the one about "Countess Dracula", just happens to be true. But as Angela Carter's wonderful story "The Lady of the House of Love" shows, the gothic legacy has less to do with death and brooding and more to do with a totally different view on the world and living.

If there is one book that I would recommend regarding good Gothic fiction, it would be The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (Oxford Books of Prose). This book has been my staple since a long time ago. To give you some idea of what you can find in this book, Part I., "Beginnings," contains such classics as "The Vindictive Monk of the Fatal Ring"; the next section, or Part II., "The Nineteenth Century," includes some outstanding stories by the customary Poe and Hawthorne, as well as "Jean-Ah Poquelin" by George Washington Cable and "Bloody Blanche" by Thomas Hardy. The selections from Part III, "The Twentieth Century," contain some outstanding examples like "The Outsider" by H.P. Lovecraft and the eerie "The Bloody Countess" by Alejandra Pizarnik. There are thirty-seven selections total, with a great introduction by the editor.

This is a wonderful anthology, giving a full historical spectrum of Gothic tales from silly early ones to chilling modern ones. I've used this as a textbook in two courses I teach in college, and students have been both amused (at blatantly Freudian overtones in 18th century stories) and horrified (especially at Pizarnek's account of Erzebet Bathory's perversions). My favorites are Carter's "Lady of the House of Love" and Cowles' "The Vampire of Kaldenstein," both of which combine eerieness with ironic humor.

This is a very interesting collection of literature. It includes writing from the late 1700s extending to the present. What makes this collection so amazing is that it not only includes stories from Poe, Lovecraft, and Hawthorne, but it also has stories taken from periodicals and anthologies long out of print. You'd never find some of this writing anywhere else, and it is truly amazing.
All of the stories do have somewhat of a dark and twisted theme, but they are all very rich.
If seriously considering this book, I highly recommend purchasing it in a hardback edition. It will last you much longer, and you'll be glad for this after reading it.

This is only for those of you, who, like me, are interested in the book simply because you love Anita Blake and Laurell K. Hamilton. The so-called "novella" in this anthology is merely excerpted from her novel "Incubus Dreams." I read the novella first, and was extremely disappointed in the way it ended- with unresolved issues- and even more disappointed when I began reading "Incubus Dreams," because I'd already read much of the first 8 or 10 chapters! Hamilton includes more in the full novel, but it was a real let-down when I realized what she had done. I give the collection a lot of credit, but not the portion written by Hamilton.

Hamiltons contribution was a story that I felt like I kept coming across in other anthologies, besides the original book. The second story of an earth born alien finding love was enjoyable and left me wanting more. The third hit no bell, I don't even remember it and I just read it yesterday.

I really enjoyed this book. I"ve read all of Laurell Hamiltons books and am now starting on MaryJanice Davidson. I was disappointed to find that there was no continuation of the other two writers characters as I found them to be very interesting and would have liked to read more about them.

Great little collection of short stories to read whilst enjoying a relaxing summer day. No great earth-shaking revelations or deep philosophy - just a fun read.

The Laurell K. Hamilton contribution to this collection is taken directly from her book Incubus Dreams. What a rip off for Anita Blake fans.