Horror Books

I love true crime and this was an interesting story but to me the real message was that this guy should never have been out in the normal population in the first place. It ended up being more a commentary on the problems associated with housing and treating the severely disturbed and mentally ill people in our society. The author reported the story of Gary but it jumped around a lot and did much repeating of information and details. Not the best true crime novel, but it did tell the story of this lunatic.

Ken Englade's CELLAR OF HORROR was the riveting story of Gary Heidnik who held five women captive in his basement; all the while raping, torturing and starving them yet with the intent to impregnate them so that he could, in a manner of speaking, be immoralized.

While the story itself it one that can keep you entranced, the arguments for Heidnik's sanity are also just as enticing. Was Heidnik crazy or was he simply manipulating his doctors? Sadly enough, since Heidnik's sentence of death was carried out by lethal injection in 1999, no one may never really know.

This book is a very quick read, simply because readers can't put it down. Englade provides plenty of details on facts and plenty of arguments on the accused's sanities; enough to keep one thinking about it long after it's finished. I highly recommend this book to true crime genre fans!

Statistics would indicate that mentally ill persons are no more dangerous than other persons. However, there is a catch. Some mentally ill persons are extremely dangerous... and you have no way of knowing who they are.

Hospitalized in various psychiatric facilities on no fewer than 21 occasions, Gary Heidnik was a paranoid schizophrenic with a genious IQ. His primary goal in life was to imprison 10 women, impregnate them all, and raise a family in his basement. After successfully kidnapping 5 women over a period of 4 months, Heidnik maintained control of his captives with chains, daily beatings, repeated rapes, starvation, and other tortures. What he did not consider was that someday one of them would escape. When that happened, all hell broke loose in Philidelphia.

The author composes an interesting history of a man with a highly intelligent mind haunted by the specter of mental illness. Well written and gramatically sound, Englade also does a fine job of humanizing the victims... however pitiful and disenfranchised they may have been as prostitutes, the handicapped, and the mentally retarded.

Without going into too much detail about the individual verdicts reached by the jury, it is apparent that neither the prosecuting attorney nor the jurors understood the dynamics of mental illness or the distinction between intelligence and severe mental instability. As a practicing mental health professional, I think I might have come to some different conclusions about what constitutes guilt and innocence. BONUS: For those readers enjoy heated courtroom drama, the moodiness and contradictory rulings of Judge Lynne Abraham, as well as a chaotic conglomerate of "expert witnesses" and their testimonies will not disappoint!

Mr. Englade did a good job staying with the story, by just telling the story. You get an idea of what he (the author) thinks but that's it. I don't read true crime to learn about the thoughts and feelings of the author, I read them for the facts of the case. Gary Heidnik and the things that he did to those girls were horrible. After learning about what he wrote to a fiancee' while in jail, I do wonder how much of his problems were fake and what was real.

Ken Englade's CELLAR OF HORROR details the bundle of insanity that was Gary Heidnik. Heidnik, who had been diagnosed for years as schizophrenic, held six women captive in his basement over a four month period spanning 1987/1988. His goal was ostensibly to have each of these women bear his children - he wanted ten - creating a family who would continue living in his basement. Heidnik sexually assaulted and tortured these women in a variety of repulsive ways, and two of them eventually died at his hands.
An interesting and unusual facet of Heidnik's psyche is that he was a white man with an IQ measured at 130 who preferred the company of mentally and physically disabled black women, though of the captives only one was disabled.

CELLAR OF HORROR was first published in 1989. As Heidnik was convicted in July 1988, I was afraid the book was going to be a rush-to-print slop job.
It most definitely is not. Englade is a professional. He doesn't tell the reader what to think; he does not at all inject his own personality into the account; and he doesn't pad his book with mindless repetition and filler. What he does is write fairly, reportorially, and intelligently.

A strong point of this book is that Englade has included a reasonable amount of background material on Heidnik, from his childhood on.
I would have actually preferred even more background, but there is still a lot more than is usually found in true crime books printed this close to the trial. I also think this would have been a better book if there had been an attempt to provide background information about the victims. And the picture section, while it contains 5 good pictures of Heidnik, has none of any of the women Heidnik abducted and held captive. I realize that this may have been a sensitive issue, but the victims are all named in the book and the four that lived testified at the trial, so it seems to me that their pictures, and/or more information personalizing them, could have been printed. This would have improved the book. In short I would have liked the book longer and with more depth.

Still, I still found CELLAR OF HORROR to be a fast paced and very well written account of a truly appalling crime comitted by yet another truly appalling lunatic. And I recommend it highly.

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.

I have loved every book that Maurice Sendak has illustrated/written since my first book WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (way back when!) Bought this book for me and it was thoroughly enjoyable! The pop-ups are great and the book itself....makes ya smile.

Came in perfect condition...lots of amazing pop-ups that my 2 1/2 year old loves. We've spent lots of hours playing with our imaginations. There's two words in the whole book but it doesn't matter because the popups are amazing.

My favorite pop-up book of all time. The characters are mostly scary monsters from classic horror films and a cute little boy who is looking for his "mommy". My four year old grandchild loves this book.

What this book lacks in the (intended) simplicity of its text ("Mommy"), it makes up for in the complexity of its animation. A worthy addition to any pop-up book collection. The unfolding of the final page is truly amazing! You will not be disappointed.

This book is really cute and a lot of fun! It has some of the most complex popups in any children's book! The surprise doors are a wonderful treat, too.

GREAT BOOK,

The author (RIP) always does a magnificient job of telling his stories. It had a good ending that gives the reader closure that the first book did not. Then, it OPENS another door to a third book. I highly recommend this Book to readers who like to squirm a little (Clive Barker Fans).

I had gotten around to re-ordering and re-reading this book and it was pretty good. I love Laymon's stuff, and I enjoyed this. He is missed as a writer. This always struck me as weird that this book did not get optioned into a horror movie series. A lot of the set-ups and deliveries are "standard" but they are executed so well that I loved them.
His other stuff is pretty darn good. The Cellar

Recommended.

This was a good book !!! I liked it alot !! Different ! Definitely Different !!

2nd book in the beast series and I have to say, so far so good! It is funny though for everyone that has read these books~ is it me or does everyone fall in love so quickly in this town!!! Too funny!!! I really enjoyed this book, I loved picking up where the first one left off. Certain parts toatlly freaked me out!!! Richard Laymon is beginning to be one of my favorite authors... If you are easily repulsed the beast series are not for you.. Lots of sex and violence. I would definetly reccommend this book! I have the third installemnt at home~ I wonder what happens next!!!!!

After having read "The Cellar" I'll admit that I did not have high hopes for this book. Not that "the Cellar" was terrible, it just didn't live up to its potential. "The Beast House" does a little better, not much, but there is definite improvement. First of all, as readers we now know the layout of the Beast House and what is actually going on there. This makes it a little harder for him to build suspense. I actually found the most suspense in the hope that the ending wouldn't be as bad as the last book.

In comparison to the first book, Laymon has made little progress in making 3 dimensional characters. Once again everyone is ready to sleep with just about anyone within a matter of minutes after meeting them. With this being the second book of his that I have read, I am curious if Laymon has written anything that did not involve either rape or attempted rape. I would be concerned if I was his psychiatrist that he seems to think that all men are either glowing yet dumb good guys, or sick demented rapists and murderers. Then the women are all either sex obsessed idiots, or sex obsessed murdering psychos. It's a very strange world that one enters into when reading a Laymon book. I suppose the good thing is that it is easy to tell who you are supposed to root for.

The story in this on is simple enough; a horror writer with no morals comes to the tiny town of Malcasa Point to write a story on the Beast house. He is lured there by one of the survivors of the first novel, a young girl working at the only motel in the town. She has found a diary which tells the origin of the Beast House and wants a cut of the money from the novel. Also heading into town are two librarians who are apparently very good looking, because you have to read about it constantly, they are saved from a random highway rapist by two ex-military men who seem to be wandering aimlessly about. The four of them shack up together and immediately fall madly in love. They meet up with the unscrupulous horror writer and are commissioned to enter the Beast House.

The novel has a lot of winding this way and that... I suppose to build tension, but everyone knows where it will end. Who will fall in love with whom, who is going to live and who is going to die. The whole book plays out exactly like the reader expects it will. Even down to cleaning up the messy ending of "The Cellar" and giving some redemption to the characters left hanging in that novel. Unfortunately with the poor characterization, this just reads to me like the "Cellar" with a different ending. All of the women are interchangeable. Abe could be Judge, with a simple "search and replace" of the character names. The only difference between this book and the last is that the ending is exactly what the reader expects.

My opinion of this is the same as that of the Cellar; a quick read, okay for a plane trip... but not a must read. 3 of 5 stars.

Back when I enjoyed Laurell K. Hamilton's books, several people highly recommended this one as a read-alike. It took me a while to track it down, but it's been sitting in my TBR pile ever since.

Psychic private investigator Nikki James has been hired to find a missing teenage girl. She finds her, but she also finds herself in the middle of someone else's hunt: vampire Michael Kelly is hunting the evil vampire that the teenager's in thrall to.

It's a great conflict: that vampire had killed his brother, and Michael intends to stop him at any cost, even if it costs the teenager her life--she'd made her choice, and she's probably too far gone, anyway.

Nikki has lost one person to the monsters, however, and she's not about to lose another, even if it makes the fight harder.

Because of her psychic powers, Nikki isn't as susceptible to vampires, and between that and her strength and goodness, Michael finds her irresistible.

I absolutely loved the first half of the book. Then it kind of fizzled. Michael, rather than being an equal partner, became more ineffectual, with Nikki as his savior. I don't like the alpha-male-saving-the-helpless-female plots, but I don't like the reverse, either. He wasn't a wimp, but he didn't hold his own, either. And then there was the ending...

This book is a perfect illustration of what I mean when I say that I don't require romance in my books (which really should be obvious), but that if there is a romance, I expect it to make sense. The ending (I'm not going to get into details, but I'm not going to sidestep the issue, either--I think the warning is more important than completely avoiding spoilers here) feels artificial and abrupt, as if it were designed either to thumb its nose at romance readers, or to entice readers to pick up the next book. If it was the latter, it failed--with this reader, at least. It's not the lack of a happy ending. I've loved plenty of books without HEA endings. And it's not that the ending was a surprise--I love surprise endings. It's that the book made a promise, and waited until the very end to reverse direction. There are good surprise endings--you're surprised, but it makes sense, and if you look back, you can see the hints in that direction even if you didn't notice them at the time. That wasn't the case here.

So, instead of discovering a new series I expected I'd love, I got annoyed, and I won't be looking for more.

I adored these books. It's wonderful to watch the characters mature and develop over the series, in addition to seeing their relationship grow. Very colorful and entertaining. If you like vampire romances, you'll likely love these books. I know I did!! ;-)

nikki and michael, human psyhic and vamp, working together to solve a case that may be more supernatural than nikki thinks. Then there's a "love vibe" going on with nikki and michael that is obivous. good story, not big on the romance part, with a little suspense and intrigue.

I loved this book, it is about a psychic private detective and her trek through the dangerous vampire filled streets of Lyndhurst. As a former orphan and, street smart kid Nikki James is used to the trouble filled streets, so when she follows a girl(someone she is tracking for her job) into the town's "Haunted house", she thinks she knows what to expect.
Nikki is in for an unwanted surprise when she finds out that she really doesn't know everything about what goes bump in the night.

Because of her psychic abilities she is a high prize for two feuding vampires who have chosen the town of Lyndhurst as their battle ground. But before she knows what has hit her she finds herself on more than friendly terms with one of the vampires. As the story progresses you, the reader, with find yourself face to face with a sociopathic vampire and a strangely erotic vampire romance.

This book is a must read for all vampire lovers. Five stars!
I loved

I am an avid reader, often 2 to 3 books per week and this book was less than entertaining. I stuck with it because I kept hoping it would get better. Romance, what romance? There was a kiss, a caress and then it was the next morning. The plot kept leaving me hanging. The main characters would be in some heavy situation against the enemy and the next thing you know it's the next day and their escape or an explanation never materialized. Very disappointing. I will not read the follow up!

When reviewing zombie novels of course I am going to compare them to each other, and so after I read this I stacked it up against the David Wellington "Monster" trilogy, and Brian Keene's two part "The Rising" and "City of the Dead". I do not believe that "Twilight of the Dead" is on this level, but is certainly not a bad book. The pros of this story are the main character, the semi-fresh perspective on how humanity deals with the post-zombie apocalypse. Of course the military are a bunch of jerks, of course no one believes in the severity. However, the black beret concept was intriguing as well as the twist on the antagonist. Overall the major issue was Adkins description of the events that unfold. It doesn't hold a candle to Wellington or Keene and that is what makes their books highly readable and keep me coming back for more. I see great potential in Travis Adkins, and I hope for a sequel b/c in my mind it has the potential.

Okay, here are your survivors, locked up in a gated resort community. Okay, its a Z-book, I'll go with that, they've all got to start somewhere.

Wetsuit-clad, Wakazashi wielding, .22 sniper Zombie SpecOps teens/post teens? Okay, that's different, but I'll be honest, it was fun to read where the author was going with it.

Nifty little drawings and diagrams about how to fight a Z hand-to-hand. You have to love that part.

I was not expecting much from this, but picked it up anyway from the Amazon 'others who have purchased' list. At the end of the read, I was pleased to have purchased this book. The author took a stock 'end of the world' Z-book and added some twists (see wetsuits, supra) to the story, and throws in a mad scientist for fun. The main character actually has enough depth that you can't see light through her, and the story was interesting if very, very short. I'd certainly pick up another if the author decided on a sequel.

As with my reviews of the other Z-books, the 4 stars is in relation to the genre, not literature as a whole. Its a zombie thing. ;)

Twilight of the Dead takes five years after the initial outbreak of the zombie plague, and it is told through the view of a young woman named Courtney. Courtney is a sad person who is depressed at the loss of her father and the fact that her life has been ruined by the dead corpses that have now taken over the world, and this is what makes Courtney such an interesting character. Unlike the big, bad guy heros of the zombie genre, Courtney is the center point of Twilight of the Dead , and this helps make the novel different from any ordinary novel. The plot is interesting, the way he tells the story is unique, and the design of the book (which he did by himself!) is especially interesting and makes the interior of the book aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The novel begins with Courtney reminiscing about her past life before the zombie plague, right after one of her fellow Black Berets, Leon, talks to her and says that she needs to come out of the shell that she is and be an actual missing. It then follows with a flashback of what happened with Courtney before and while the plague is happening, and how she is trained by a Black Beret operative to be what she truly is.

The novel gets even more interesting when a strange scientist called Dr. Dane appears at the fortress town of Eastpoint, where he claims that he has found a cure to the plague that has been threatening humanity for years. He tells Courtney and Eastpoint's council that he spent several years working for a cure, and now that he has one, he wants the Black Berets to go retrieve it.

This is where the story kicks into high action, with zombies, great plot twists, and new things that have been cleverly introduced to the genre.

This second edition of Twilight of the Dead offers a bonus of three short stories targeting specific characters that help to build on to the world about what happened before the original storyline, and it is a great boost to the novel.

Twilight of the Dead is a novel that any zombie fan should pick up. Never again will you think of a zombie novel as, Over the river and through the woods. Adkins offers too much to the genre to make it seem like an ordinary zombie novel.

In a nutshell my review of Twilight of the Dead by Travis Adkins goes like this: Twilight of the Dead by Travis Adkins is yet another book in the Permuted Press family that adheres faithfully to what has to be the company's mandate: good ideas told badly.

Because that is what Mr. Adkins does. And he does it very, very well.

The basic premise of this book is not all that unique. The Dead rise and Society crumbles before their relentless onslaught. The main character must somehow survive the horrifying horror of the End of the World and then, along with a disparate group of survivors, learn to their even greater horror that the true monster isn't just the rotting ghouls scratching away outside their walls, but the living, breathing people they're trapped inside with.

See? Nothing unusual or groundbreaking there, but then, it doesn't have to be, right? That description is exactly what gets us all excited, it's the story we want, the one we've been looking for and the reason we are all willing to slog through all of the sub-par "literature" found within this genre. And that nugget is what Mr. Adkins starts out with. Then he takes it up a notch and throws in one of the most loved protagonists in the sci-fi/comic-book/horror set: The snarky rocker chick. After that he adds in some ruin looting, a walled haven and a team of specially trained zombie fighters and what does that mean to you and me?

It means we got ourselves a possible slice of fried awesome, that's what.

But then Mr. Adkins fumbles, he stumbles, he trips and then he falls. In a word: he fails. In two words: He fails miserably.

To begin with, the time line makes no sense. 5 years ago the town filled up with all the supplies they were ever going to need so they just stopped going out? 5 years ago? So... they've just been hanging out then? Doing what? Partying? The noise from their many BBQs and Badminton matches didn't ever bring an army of the Dead down upon their heads? 5 years now, this magical cornucopia mall they have within this gated community has just been pumping out a never ending cascade of food and supplies while the people dance and sing and laugh, tra-la-la-la and go back to normal lives? 6 months, okay, maybe they might hunker down for six months, but 5 years? The World ends, Society is destroyed and then a bunch of spoiled First-World-living-the-leisurely-high-tech-lifestyle Americans build and are able to reasonably maintain the first ever completely contained and self-sustaining community WITH a coin based economy? Based on what? Gold? Air? What about medicine or chemicals for mixing gunpowder or more planting seeds or a million and a half other things? Five years? ugh... forget it... moving on...

Secondly, Courtney, the intended snarky, independently awesome and capable rocker chick, is instead consistently portrayed as naïve, stupid and ridiculously stubborn. She's a complete cartoon, so much so, you wonder if Mr. Adkins has ever actually MET a girl like this before. Once again... for 5 years she's lived here, not having to work due to her service as a scavenger, 5 years she's been in this town and all she's done is watch movies and read books and sneer at anyone who tries to talk to her? For five years? Once again... maybe for a month or two, but after five years wouldn't she be forced to grow up or maybe mature a little bit, if not from simple aging then from the nature of the world itself? And if you're willing to buy that, the fact that she hasn't just makes her all the more unlikeable. Also, wouldn't the townspeople grow concerned over this highly trained killer hermit with a bad attitude holed up all by herself at the far end of their town?

And the Gossip Girl/One Tree Hill type high school drama is so pervasive, so false and so completely without any emotional motivation to back it up, that it just becomes tedious and way, way too quickly at that, especially when you consider just how short a novel this is. None of the human interaction rings true, with the possible exception of Courtney leaving her Father in the very beginning, but other than that...

I mean, I understand what he's trying to do, because, as we all know, the real meat of a zombie story is the survivors and the emotional yoke they toil under, but you have to be able to make your characters and their inner turmoils real or the story just sinks hard and fast and unfortunately, Mr. Adkins can not make them real.

And then there's the oh-so-transparent Jock hate, (nerd...) but wait... apparently the Jock is actually one of the rare, kind of alright rich kid jocks (Just like She's All That... but reversed! With zombies!) And the Black Berets themselves? Their outfits are ludicrous. They're laughable. Coupled with the ninja swords, they just reminded me of my friend's home made "Surf Ninja" Halloween costume. It was silly, people, silly. Lets not even get into the uncomfortable, overt naïveté that rides shotgun with the mishandled and uneven sex scenes that go on between Courtney and her mentor, Sgt. Soontobedead.

Oh yeah, the zombies... forgot about those... How is that possible you ask? Oh, well, that's because they're kind of not really ever mentioned or that much of a threat to begin with, except of course when clichéd Mad-scientist-killer-type-guy inexplicably sends an army of them to attack the town. That's no big deal right? Eastpointe has high walls, right? Oh yeah? Well these zombies have on metal helmets (they're indestructible!) and knives tied to their hands (they're Wolverine!). Will Courtney and Leon (the Jock) stop the evil Lex Luthor's army of radio controlled zombies in time? Will the cure (cure for what? Being eaten?) miraculously save one of the main characters if they get bitten during the story's climax or is that too telegraphed and clichéd? And if so, why not just go all out and embrace the clichés and stage an end fight scene at that infamous Hollywood-action-movie-staple: the fire and steam factory?

I apologize, at this point I'm being too rough on Mr. Adkins, he does deserve kudos for even finishing a novel in the first place and then putting it out there to be snarked at by jerks like me. To be fair, I actually enjoyed the beginning of the story, especially the attack on the convoy and many other sporadic moments through out, which really only highlights the true problem with this book for me. Mr. Adkins has ability within him, he has ideas. He's not awful, he's not without hope. And while they may not be well executed, his stories are well grounded, thought out and, in the end, fun. He's got potential. Honestly, its not his story that fails here, its his details. So, yet again, the Permuted Press editorial staff, such as it is, has completely failed their authors and done them a huge disservice with their ridiculously poorly performed job. Right now Mr. Adkins is just another example of the only thing small internet presses have proven to me so far: Sometimes people don't get published for a reason.

Mr. Adkins' reason is because he is not yet ready. This story needs a lot of work, attention, critique and second and third drafts, TRUE second and third drafts.

My recommendation: Not yet. Almost, but not yet. Our quest for a great zombie book continues, dear readers, so slog on, because there's nothing to see here.

This book was brought to my attention on a website that I help manage and being a huge zombie fan I decided to check it out. Man was I disappointed. I was hoping for some action right off the bat but instead I felt like I was reading a crappy teen magazine. I read the first few chapters and decided to put the book down and go read I Am Legend again. Some people told me that it will get better but I have yet to see where it gets better. I love it when an author gets into a character development but sometimes they can go overboard with it. I can care less about her sexual issues and teen angst. I want battles between hordes of flesh eating ghouls and close battles, NOT "Oh I screwed you once and blah blah blah." Needless to say, if you into the zombie genre then read Down the Road or Day by Day. Those are classics in the making.

I did not even finish it. I did not like the way it was written (the expressions they used). Did not hold my interest.

Once i read this book i had to go get the first 2. I love the huntress series. Carlos and Demali steam up the pages. This is a must read.

Where should I start with L.A Banks vampire huntress series, well I must say the Minion was the introduction to the series was not bad,was no page turner same goes for the Awakeing. If these two books won't important to the series I would say skip It. Now the Hunted Is the book you want to read and from there Is where the real action starts you can't finish It fast enough to start the others. These books are so worth your reading time minus the Minion and the Awakeing.

My friend recommended this book to me. I love Vampire tales and I was very excited to find a series written by an Black author. My library didn't have the first two books, so I dove into the "The Hunted."

Well, I'll start off with saying that I didn't finish the book. Here's why:

Even though I enjoyed some of the fight scenes, they seemed sort of unrealistic. I just couldn't get into them and for some reason it seemed as if the author left something out.

I enjoyed reading the story through Carlos' point of view. I found myself skipping over the Huntress' (I can't remember her name. For Shame!) parts of the story. Like some of the other readers, I was a little displeased by the use of slang. It just seemed strained to me. Like the characters were trying so hard to sound real and natural, that the result was completely unnatural and fake. However, from the parts I read, Carlos' part was so much better. Everything from his speech patterned and the general writing seemed much better. I began to wish he was the lead character so I can see how his side of the story ended. But, since I skipped around so much, I just gave up and dropped the book off at the library.

But, I did like some things about the book. I did like how her version of vampire politics and structure. It wasn't my favorite, but it did well for the story.

Again, Ms. Banks has created an outstanding work of fiction. The Hunted is another great installment to this series. A slightly more bulkier novel but it is surprisingly a fast and tense read. Due to real life, I was forced to put the book down, and each time I did--no matter where I had closed the pages--I was left on the edge of a cliff, my attention focused on the next time I would be able to read this book. She is able to bring her own unique spin to the vampire mythos to fruition with "The Hunted."

This book was sexier, darker and grittier; finally allowing the passion between Damali and Carlos to explode in one of the best love scenes I've ever had a chance to read; upping the ante on Carlos' "life" and his deals; exposing more of the Neteru's heritage; and upping the tension between Damali and Carlos, Carlos and his enemies, The guardians and their chosen paths; etc, etc. The Hunted has taken Banks' series to an entirely different level where your emotions will be sure to run like a predator, unless you are dead. Damali is near to coming into her own; in this novel, she being forced to deal with things and situations that she formerly shielded herself from due to certain circumstances. She is all Neteru in this book and I can't wait until I read "The Bitten."

Once again, however, the dialogue is the major sticking point for me. While it's dynamic and true to life, I find it a bit tedious after a while and hard to follow when more than one character is "speaking". To me, there is very little in the way of personalization and uniqueness to the characters with regards to the dialogue.

But, overall, I admire Ms. Banks' contributions to vampire fiction and look forward to many more great books in the Vampire Huntress series.

Jack Kamen alone makes this worth buying! If you want to know what makes comics fantastic....this is it! These guys are the cream of the crop. Seriously, you've NEVER seen anything like this. Buy it and tell your friends. They will THANK you!

Never imagined i would get a chance to read the EC collections of Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, Shock Suspenstories etc, that too in good quality bound volumes in glorious color on art pages.All are real collector items. A good investment to treasure and re-read on lonely rainy nights. Boooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The current age of the comic book and graphic novel has seen so much classic work with technical and artistic virtuosity that could only have been dreamed of in 1950. What they had back then, and is so beautifully reflected in this reprint, was a deep desire to tell a story unlike anything that had been seen or read before. I won't spoil any of the material for you, but I must say the level and depth of social ills dealt with in these stories is far more unflinching than even the current crop of verite and dark side of life style of writers and artists provide. The art in some cases, as seen in the work of Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Joe Orlando and Jack Kamen, is precise and stripped down in order to serve one cause- the furtherance of the story being presented. This book has beautiful production values, a great paper stock, some interesting historical tidbits, letters pages, pristine restoration and enhancement of the originals. The title says it all folks, these truly do shock and also manage to drum up a bit of suspense at the same time. A must buy, as are all the EC Archives books now out. I remember these comics in the hands of my older cousins and neighbors, I even inherited shopping bags full of old EC books from them as they all entered High School, went to College or left for the miltary. Moldy and a bit raggedy in some cases, they were nonetheless fascinating. But these more mature themed works could not escape the all seeing eye of my Mom, and in a heartbeat they went out in the garbage. A shame, because the books, as you will see with all edtions in this series, are anything but garbage.

Whether inspired by the success of Marvel Comics Essential or DC's Showcase reprint editions, EC Comics have excelled with the first of their series of collected editions from their late 1950s archive. These volumes give the average comic collector (even with a full set of the 1990s reprint editions) and avid fan of B movies access to many hard to find and prohibitively expensive gems, reprinted larger than the original comic size in full glowing colour. Even the forewords presented by icons like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and John Carpenter (on Tales From The Crypt) show the significance of the stories that are contained within each volume, many of which giving inspiration to sci-Fi, mystery and horror tales in the intervening years.
I can heartily recommend these collected editions to lovers of nostalgia of every age.

I am 35 years old, jaded, hardly young at hearted believe first and foremost that most comics as is most sci-fi are for people who have never had a girlfriend or hit a home run. But I have always heard good legendary things about EC comics, things which might make them transcend genre.

So when this collection finally came out after a lifetime of waiting I plunked down my milk money like any other dime store dork.

I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I was. The stories, plots and picture book quality of the stories are simply too good, too rich, too detailed, too good for this world. It is no wonder they were stopped by the powers that be.

A tome of fun for future generations or the ULTIMATE coffee table book? Either way, I am going to collect them all. And look forward to the NEW issues being released this June of Tales From the Crypt.

This is one of the best zombie books I have ever read, and I have read a few. Take a moment, order and read the thing, you will be glad you did. I cannot wait for more.

The book was good in all aspects of zombiedom. I have only one question. Does the author hate America?

I have not read this book yet, but did read the previous one. I really only have one comment on the recent surge of Zombie stories: for God's sakes, tactical military vehicles DO NOT use ignition keys! I know that many authors use the lack of an ignition key as a action-point, but come on! If an author is going to use an item in a story, please do some research to ensure that it is realistic. If they need a key, then use the steering wheel locking cable as an action-point, not non-existent ignition keys.

The prequel to this book did itself good by creating a story that made itself stand out, but with the sequel, the book seems to jut out on the bookshelf with a bloody and violent cover, one that official says, `Do not be alarmed, everything is under control . . .'

How's that for drawing somebody into the book? Ibarra makes sure that people read by introducing a lot of interesting characters, and from where George leaves off, we enter the tale of a whole mix of other characters that introduce the reader to a variety of different survivors. There's women who are as tough as nails, men who are corrupted by the savage tenacity of a brutal world, and a young child who believes himself to be his favorite cartoon character when things get bad. Ibarra is able to tell a good story, just like he did in the first book, he shows us how tough it would be to survive in such a world. Zombies are constantly lurking, and with FEMA still on the loose as they try to put the survivors in contained, dangerous encampments-which are meant to protect them-the world is even a more dangerous place than it had been before.

Down the Road: On the Last Day is violent, bloody, erotic and sexy with a whole lot of trouble mixed into it. Read the book, because as we all know, They're coming to get you.

I agree with Patrick S. Dorazio on his review - the story is good but the execution is very flawed. It's too obvious that the author does not think highly of the UN which in itself is not a crime however to assume that European UN peacekeepers would start slaughtering innocent US civilians... I personally could see a planned military coup as being more realistic.. after all the Europeans and other UN members would be too busy fighting their own zombie plague before even thinking of "helping" another nation. The end was also a letdown and I think he can do much better. Maybe next novel...