Supernatural Books

I loved this book. It went high beyond my expectations. In some series the first book is always the best. Not in this case, Breaking Dawn was funny, sincere, and exciting to the last word. There are unexpected twists that I could not have come up with in my wildest dreams which keep readers on the edge of the seat during the entire book. This was for me an immensely satisfying read.

After reading the previous books I couldn't wait to read Breaking Dawn. Overall, it was a very good read. The story was captivating. I loved how the characters developed and how the other vampires were incorporated into the story. The only thing I didn't like is that the story in parts seemed a little rushed and the ending was somewhat anti-climatic for all the build up. If not for that I would give it 5 stars.

As always Stephenie Meyer has out done herself again with the fourth and final Twilight series novel,a book I could not put down until I finished it!! Great Job!!!


Janet Harris

Yeah, no pun meant by the title.
In this book none of the characters stayed the same and all of the things that Twilight stands for were lost. The plot and characters were weak. And anything that happens in this book and makes SENSE all the fans predicted MONTHS ago. Any hints about what was to come that Meyer drops meant NOTHING in this book. Oh and by the way, Edward is now a Incubus (by Meyer's definition) and all the werewolves are now "shape-shifters". Now there is nothing wrong with her religion, but if you are going to tell us of your views in your writing, please let us know before millions of fans buy it.. Because not all of us believe what you believe (that means that I think men do not need to always protect women, being married and having a kid at 18 is not more important than school and women should ALWAYS have a choice to have or not have a child). Yeah, so Twilight is a trilogy.
This book killed Twilight and needed a LOT of editing. It was really really really bad. This was not Twilight. And if by some strange twist of fate you are reading Meyer, I hate Breaking Dawn and you. (:


P.S. Meyer says it herself when a person becomes a vampire all bodily fluids become venom. If the venom is melting her contacts how could Edward make Bella have a child? Yes, Meyer also says that this does not make sense.

I own and have read all the books in the Twilight saga and have this to say: Let's just pretend it was a trilogy. Out of all the books, Breaking Dawn disappointed me with how Stephenie Meyer dealt with her characters.

Twilight was an amazing book thats descriptions made people believe they were there. I thought what Meyer did was very very good, and also hard to duplicate. New Moon proved that hypothesis for me, as I was happy that she gave other characters time to grow a little bit before getting Edward back in the story. Eclipse was the one book I seriously considered burning as I thought the love triangle idea was so overdone and was sad Meyer used it in such a lame way.

I had low expectations for Breaking Dawn to begin with and it was more then I imagined it to be, but it was nowhere near my opinion for Twilight. All the pre-conceived notions that Meyer let us make were blown out of the water. It was an utter crackfic.

I didn't like it but I don't hate it. I also do NOT recommend this book to ANYONE.

I find a guilty pleasure in reading young adult fiction, especially if it has a female protagonist. There's something appealing about seeing the world in black and white, finding a soul mate at 16, and the view of oneself as the heroine of one's own story. Some of the things that the other reviewers complained of I didn't even notice, like Bella constantly glowering. I didn't think that she was portrayed as too loving or too generous or too beautiful. She was just doing what most of us hope that we would do, sacrifice ourselves for one that we love.

Is it really a surprise that a 16 year old girl falls instantly in love with a handsome vampire? Really, where would the story be if not for that? Since we're in a world where destiny brings star-crossed lovers together, I have no doubt that Edward's inability to hear Bella's thoughts is a factor in his love for her, along with her apparently irresistible smell. I'm hoping that we'll find out why this is the case in one of the subsequent books.

All in all, I thought that Stephenie Meyer has created a pretty great vampire universe. Many modern ones have the vampire having to exchange blood with the victim in order to procreate; this is not the case in Twilight. Although I am not enough of a vampire aficionado to know for sure that it is original, I loved her explanation of why a victim once bitten will then transform into a vampire herself, assuming, of course that she survives.

Bottom line: an enjoyable read as long as you're expecting it to entertain and not preach to teenagers. I look forward to reading the next book.

I read this entire book on a flight back and forth from Newark/San Francisco and I enjoyed it enough to read the next 3 on several other business trips. I would have given it 5 stars but the writing was just a touch juvenile for me. It was, however light, fun reading that kept me entertained and oblivous to the rest of the passengers around me - just what fiction (ie - not based in reality) should do. And thankfully I didn't try to read any messages for my life or anyone else's into any of the books either.

great book, I loved it, can't wait to start read the second in this series!

I started this book simply to see what all the hoopla was about. I finished it (all 498 pages) in less than 24 hours. Then I devoured New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. It took more than 4 days, but I did have to break away and sleep, do laundry and feed the family, darn it. I could not put these books down. And I couldn't wait to talk about them with a friend who had read them. They were very well written, and a classic love story. These are books that I will keep in hardcover version on my shelves. And that is a huge compliment. Most books go to the reseller. Hat's off to Stephenie Meyer. Fantastic books! PS I'm a mom in my 40's.

This whole series was an awesome enjoyment to read. I was hooked from the first book to the next, that I went ahead and bought the whole set to read all of them at once. I finished the whole series in a week. I loved them. I will read them again.

She has supernatural abilities, both a vampire and a shapeshifter romantically interested in her, various supernatural creatures appear in the stories, and vampire bars and nightclubs play major roles in the narratives and even supply names for books. Put that description out to most people and they are apt to say, "Oh yeah, Anita Blake." Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries, starring the telepathic Sookie Stackhouse, do bear a superficial resemblance to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books. But the resemblances quickly disintegrate after that. What drew me to the Anita Blake books were their wonderful premise of a world in which vampires and other supernatural beings were real and striving to live alongside humans. I loved the idea of necromancer Anita solving mysteries while interacting with the various creatures complicating her world. Unfortunately, the initial promising premise was horribly developed and the books became essentially hardcore porn novels. It is no accident that the last decent novel in the series took place in the American Southwest where Anita was unable to interact with her normal paramours. The Sookie Stackhouse books, on the other hand, take their initial promising premise and do it justice. There is some sex in the books, but the books never become nothing but sex.

Discovering these books was part of a wonderful serendipity. I was looking through some bibliographies of vampire novels for a reading project I've undertaken and was interested in these after reading some complimentary things. As a Southerner by upbringing (even if I've lived in the Yankee north for most of my adult life) I was especially interested in seeing how these books would handle supernatural tales in a rural setting. So I eventually took advantage of Amazon's 4-for-3 offer and ordered the first four novels in the series. Completely independent of this I had casually been aware that Alan Ball, the creator of one of the best series of the past decade, SIX FEET UNDER, had a new series dealing with vampires starring Anna Paquin entitled TRUE BLOOD on HBO. Shortly after ordering the Charlaine Harris books I read that TRUE BLOOD would debut on September 9. So, I went over to IMDB.com to get more details. I was utterly stunned to learn that the series was based on Harris's novels. This intensified my interest in both the books and the series. Then came the third serendipitous surprise. My books arrived and I read the author bio. I read that Harris lives in a small town in southern Arkansas. As an expatriot Arkansan I was delighted. Learning that Harris lives in Arkansas intensified my interest in the books which intensified my interest in the TV series.

One other way that the Sookie Stackhouse novels are superior to the Anita Blake stems from Harris's excellent writing style. I love Sookie's narrative voice. She is sweet, self-conscious, adorable, funny, and quirky. She comes across this way because Harris writes such wonderful prose to put in her mouth. Hamilton, on the other hand, gives Anita Blake some of the worst prose any narrative voice has ever been given. In one early book, as Anita was struggling with the deep attraction she was coming to feel for the master vampire of St. Louis, she says, "I was afraid. Afraid of how I much I felt for him!" I read that with shock. Most 8th graders would produce prose that atrocious. Sookie's voice never falters and never degenerates into embarrassing drivel.

Another way that the Sookie Stackhouse books surpass the Anita Blake comes from the sense of place that one gains in the former. St. Louis never, ever comes to life as a locale in the Blake books. It never feels like a real place, or rather never feels like a city distinct from any other city. Contrast this to the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald or the San Francisco of Dashiell Hammett or the Florida of John Macdonald's Travis McGhee books or the Boston of Robert Parker's Spenser novels. St. Louis in the Anita Blake books feels like the most generic place in the world. You could remove the designator "St. Louis" and replace it with the name of almost any other city in the United States and it would work. But Bon Temps, Louisiana, though fictional, comes alive. Though I've been in Chicago for over twenty years, I've lived in towns not terribly unlike Bon Temps. I've been in houses with tin roofs and know just what kind of noise the rain makes as it drums down. I've spent time in towns in southern Arkansas like Magnolia, Hamburg, and Monticello and can easily imagine Bon Temps along those lines. I also went to college in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, a tad further north but probably very similar to Bon Temps. And my country relatives were scattered around the very tiny town of Wilburn, Arkansas, further north but much smaller than Bon Temps. My point is that all of the small town elements felt real to me. In these towns everybody really does know everyone else.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries are the third series attempted by Charlaine Harris. The experience shows. While the second and third novels developed further the things we enjoyed in the first novel, the series really is born full blown. One of the keys in any vampire series is making decisions about what part of vampire mythology one is going to accept. Harris is a bit light on some of the traditional elements, which I think is a good thing. It isn't clear whether they can be seen in mirrors (in my opinion, one of the dumbest things ever - the origin is that mirrors supposedly reflect one's soul, whereas vampires are allegedly soulless). I believe that Harris's vampires have souls. They can enter churches. I doubt if crosses have any affect on them. They don't like the taste of garlic, but it won't kill them. Initially she seems to have it that vampires must sleep in the earth, but in the two successive books that doesn't seem to be the case. Vampires do have to be invited to be able to enter a house and they can glamour humans. Contrasting them with the vampires on BUFFY and ANGEL, Harris's vampires are physically stronger, less inherently evil (Angel and Spike aside), but more constricted by daytime hours (Spike on BUFFY spent a great deal of time running around in daylight with his blanket over his head, while Angel spent vast amounts of time active during the day, as long as he stayed out of the sun). My lone complaint is that Harris's vampire, much like those in the Anita Blake books, have a complex political structure. It isn't quite as awful as that in the Blake books, but it is bad enough. At least we are spared the hundreds of excruciating pages detailing vampire posturing and posing.

If you go to the Anita Blake books you will see that while they are heavily reviewed, they consistently are given very low ratings by Amazon reviewers. The Sookie Stackhouse books, however, are given consistently high reviews. This completely conforms to my experience with both series. If you are a reader of the Anita Blake books but are fed up with the political and social nonsense as well as the endless hardcore sex scenes that overwhelms the excellent premise, you will almost certainly be delighted with these books. If you are a reader of the Sookie Stackhouse books but haven't read the Anita Blake books, don't bother to try the latter. You've already read the best.

I thought this book was great. It was funny, romantic and a bit scary. I read this and just had to read the rest of Charlene Harris' Southern Vampire books. Highly recommend all of these books.

Warning, Spoilers below...

This might sound silly, but I cannot get past the fact Sookie wears a banana clip in her hair - a yellow one, no less. At first I thought the author might have been being funny, but Sookie wore the thing twice, and made some other questionable fashion choices. (Plastic earrings?) Sorry, but this is what I took away from the book. Says something about the story, huh?

It's not that the story is awful, but compared with others in the PNR genre (Kresley Cole), it's not up to snuff. It wasn't full of passion and the way Sookie and Bill kept "breaking up" annoyed me.

And speaking of Bill, I just didn't find him all that sexy. He was questionable as a leading man... "Cheated" on Sookie by drinking elsewhere, took off a lot, contemplated sharing her with other vampires...

I dunno, this just didn't do it for me. Maybe not being from the South was a hinderance - all the characters seemed to foreign. The one sexy guy was Eric - he should have been the hero of the story!

Well it is not bad, however it didnt keep me at the edge of my seat wanting more. I did like the sex scenes. But other than that it was just ok for me.

I've read many books about vampires, I really thought this one would be good. When I read it, I was proved wrong, the characters are flat and all seem to be the exact same. The main character, Sookie StackHouse, reminds me of a 16 year old whose trying out for a cheerleading squad. She works as a waitress and is certain everyone thinks she is crazy, her self esteem seems to be very low and the way the book is written Sookie seems to constantly whine. Sookie thinks her lack of a man in her life is also to blame on her "disability," however at the same time she thinks her boss and a few other men are attracted to her; Sookie is a very skippy character and an unreliable narrator. The vampire, William Dufris doesn't stand out in the story, he sounds like the rest of the male characters in the book. The only character that stood out in the story and made the book somewhat interesting was Sookie's grandmother, an eccentric, strong, and independent woman.
The story is written very flatly and almost all of the characters lack personality; the way the story is written is: to do list meets character list and plot line.

I am a huge fan of Percy Jackson & Harry Potter. It is hard to compete with books like those. This series is just as good. All 3 series are similar yet they all have their niche. Great books, highly recommened.

I had been waiting for the Magician since I read the Alchemyst. The author has captured my attention. History, fantasy, and mythology are seamlessly blended into a story that pulls you along in an exciting, action-filled plot.

The author rarely wastes our time, every chapter he brings to us new developments, some answers, and yet more questions to be answered in the next novel. The characters are all utterly believable, and the questions that surround characters like Flamel and Dee kept me hooked.

It is rather hard to believe that Scott managed to cram this book in a short time (a day or two,) but living through every second with the characters makes the story, their actions, and everything else more credible.

I simply cannot wait to get my hands on the next book.

I ordered The Alchemyst to see if I'd be interested in this proposed series. Even though it is written for young adults, it is interesting to see how the author handles the rumors of Flamel's long life. It's a fun read.

Loved every word in this book! I miss the Harry Potter books terribly, and picked up the first book in this series simply because it mentioned Nicholas Flamel, a name I recognized from the first Harry Potter book. I was hooked and waited impatiently for the next book to come out, was so happy to see it! I just finished reading it, and found it better than the first!! I love the inclusion of historical places, and characters! I get thrilled "meeting" characters from the past! It is such a great series!!! I CAN NOT wait for the next one! Great story.

The magician can only be described as AMAZING. i picked up this book expecting greatness and was still surprised that what a great book this was. A word of advice keep your computer close you will want... i take that back..NEED to look up the different things the author put into this book. its crazy how much detail was put into this book and those that have read lots of fiction will find themselves recalling facts that they have one read before. A must read

Oddly enough, I had poor expectations when I started reading this book due to the negative reviews here on Amazon, plus the lackluster writing of the previous book. Most of the complains seem to deal with the fact that there was no single event to tie the entire book together. Instead, we are treated to various mini crises interspersed with the tying up of the various plot points that have been remaining in the series.

However, I found that to the contrary, these sequence of events actually made the story much more interesting, as the thing that ties all these events together is Sookie herself, giving her a chance to develop her character further through various situations. Basically, this gives more of a 'slice-of-life' feeling to the book which I highly enjoyed.

In addition, with alot of the remaining loose ends being tied, this book feels like a major turning point in the series, if not a transition. If there was one quibble though, I guess it had to do with the abruptness with which she broke off her relationship with Quinn. I thought it (and he) deserved a better send off, instead of the 1 to 2 pages devoted to it.

I have enjoyed all of the Books 1-7, but I am very disappointed in From Dead to Worse.

This book read like a guide book of Sookie-land. It reads as if Ms. Harris could not really think up a good enough plot to carry throughout the story, so she had some rather quick fix situations that only took minutes to resolve, with lots of detail about nothing leading up to them, and too much backstory being told to us rather than shown to us in action and dialogue.

There was no build up of mystery or suspense at all, these things practically happened out of the blue. And all these things happened in about a week, very haphazardly.

The fact that C.H. seems to want to make the reader dislike all of Sookie's ex's is kind of grating on my nerves. It's fine if Sookie wants to break up with them, but why do I have to be told not to like them? Find a new approach.

I have invested enough in these characters that I would read the next in the series, but if it doesn't live up to the original, I'll divest myself of Sookie and her friends.

The best part of this book was the thing that happened at the very end (won't spoil it), and the words THE END.

Life threatening and life changing events happen in this newest mystery. Sookie finds herself in the middle of two wars. The werewolf war that she mediates and the vampire war with an unpleasant surprise about who is helping the Las Vegas vampires to take over the Louisiana empire. She also finds new relatives to help make up for her disappointment with her brother. Lots of changes happen in a short period of time during this book. Very exciting!

Sookie continues to deal with vampires and their hunters, with weres and her troublesome brother, with deadly supernatural politics that mere humans shouldn't easily survive. But the one thing Sookie is, is a survivor. After the big explosion in the last book that took out many an immortal and powerful vamp, Sookie is back at home in Bon Temps, LA, working at Merlotte's Bar for her friend and boss, Sam, and worrying about nothing more than the double wedding of her friend Halleigh and Portia Bellefleur. Of course, nothing is simple, particularly in tiny Bon Temps. At the wedding Sookie bumps into two strange strangers... one a vamp from out of town and another... she is not sure what, other than that he's older and beautiful and can seem to hide himself from vamps as well as humans.

But soon, trouble aplenty intrudes--with a were war brewing (someone is killing Alcide's supporters off, and Sookie finds herself in the middle of it). Then there is upheaval in the vamp world, wherein many vamps go to dust, again with Sookie in the middle. Few enough were left running about after the hotel explosion, but that doesn't keep a vamp war from breaking out. And Sookie finds out why her boyfriend, weretiger Quinn, has been mysteriously absent since she last saw him after the explosion.

Lots of crazy, but episodic adventure, lots of ends tied up, and lots more things opening up... Sookie discovers some distant relatives. And her love-life is as unsettled as ever.

I continue to be fascinated by Sookie's adventures. They are moving and funny and strange and horrific--and complex as things can get in a small town where the events outside can easily intrude. Sookie's concerns are her friends and family and doing the right thing as well as just having some fun... and looking for a boyfriend who can put her in the prime spot in his life. It's not as easy as it seems! But Sookie continues to try and manage, even as hotels explode and the world tries to cope with supernaturals-gone-public and the dangerous world still kept hidden from the public.

This is definitely one of the stronger books in the series, both getting back to Sookie's roots and yet still concerning her ties to the vamps and weres. If you're a fan of the series---and you certainly SHOULD be!--you will enjoy this book.

This book gave me some hope for the Sookie/Eric eventual happily ever after. These two belong together, and I really hope it happens. I'm glad to see some things about their storyline partially resolved in this book, and I'm thrilled about the guy she dumped. He was hot and all, but something about him was just too white bread for me. He had kind of a "Riley" feel (Buffy reference) that was highly icky for me.

One thing that does puzzle me about this book, and I'm not quite sure how to take it. There is no climax. There's just a lot of stuff that happens. At various points in the story new problems are introduced in the various situations Sookie finds herself involved in. And as the story goes on, those situations get resolved one by one.

The story hangs together, it's cohesive, and all the threads get resolved, it's just, there is no one scene that is the top scene. There is just a string of mini-climaxes, and then an ending. And the ending, though cool and intriguing, doesn't have much to do with the rest of the book.

So I'm not really sure how to deal with that. I'm left with this bizarre feeling that I'm not sure if we've missed something, or if it should have been bigger somewhere. Or if I feel the ending is satisfying or not. I'm not sure because there was no definite point at which I felt like "we won." Or whatever you're supposed to feel when the heroine's journey has come to an end in a particular novel.

I am happy about the developments in the Sookie/Eric situation. And I hate Bill slightly less, though I swear if that vampire tries to come between Eric and Sookie I'll stop reading.

I'm in it for the Sookie/Eric pairing and that's where my loyalties end. As soon as the books stop delivering at least a hopeful Eric/Sookie relationship, I'm out. Though from reading other reviews on this issue, I know there is a pretty big fan contingent that agrees with me.

Stephen King once again proves himself a master with "Duma Key." Fantastic characterization and suspense; masterful exploration of the horrors lurking in seemingly benign places. I particularly enjoyed it because of its exporation of the creative process. Edgar's irresistable urge to paint is, no doubt, an echo of the way Stephen King feels about writing. The ending felt a little rushed. Other than that, great.

After some deceptive pieces of work (Lisey's story, Cell...) SK gets back to real writing and makes the work done.

Duma Key is well built and innovative, with fresh ideas and, most importantly, the hypnotic way of involving the reader that only the best books of him do have.

I did appreciate very much the language, returned to usual heights of descriptive capability, and the very interesting excursion in the world of oniric painting and the consequences of a deep brain trauma on dormient capabilities.

Well done, original and entirely enjoiable. Just a step under masterpieces like "IT" and "The Langoliers", but a short step.

Stephen King's 2008 novel Duma Key is heavily evocative of his work from ten years earlier, Bag of Bones.

1. The protagonist is a man who amassed a fortune, then suffered a devastating loss
* Bestselling author loses his wife in 1988; successful building contractor loses his arm and much of his mental capacity in 2008 (and his marriage)
2. He flees his home base and takes up in an isolated house near water
* A lake in 1998; the Gulf of Mexico in 2008
3. He becomes increasingly convinced that the place "called" him.
4. Strange phenomena greet him upon arrival at the house
* The sound of a crying child and communication through refrigerator magnets in 1998; seashells that sound like they're talking when the waves hit in 2008
5. He "zones out" and wakes to find strange things have happened in the interim
* Automatic typing in 1998; automatic painting in 2008
6. He experiences a resurgence of creativity, but the creations are the medium for a message (writing in '98, painting in '08)
7. He is encouraged to continue his creative pursuits in order to enhance someone else financially (his publisher in '98; a gallery owner in '08)
8. In both cases, he is being told about something horrific that happened in the past, something that he is being called upon to do something about (a vengeful ghost in '98; an ancient sea-demon in '08)
9. Death by drowning figures prominently in both stories
10. A child or childlike adult leads him to a deep friendship
* Kyra and her mother Mattie in '98; Elizabeth and her caregiver Wireman in `08
11. The protagonist befriends a lawyer
* John Storrow in '98; Wireman in '08
12. The protagonist discovers a psychic link between himself and the child or childlike adult
* He and Kyra share a dream in '98; he and Elizabeth paint the same pictures, eight decades apart, in '08
13. The source of the evil is uncovered in a place not far from where he is staying, but in a place that has largely been abandoned (The Street in '98, the original family home in '08)
14. Someone has hidden a clue in a tin box under part of a house and the protagonist gradually figures out how to find it
* "Owls under studio" in '98; the "ha-ha" under the stairs in the old house
15. Non-human entities are used by the evil spirit to attack the protagonist (the tree in '98; the heron in '08)
16. The protagonist must get "down and dirty" to contain the rampaging spirit, and barely manages to succeed.
* Pouring lye into the grave in '98; the cistern in '08
17. The evil spirit kills the protagonist's loved one by someone else's hand
* His girlfriend in '98; his daughter in `08
18. The protagonist resolves to cease his creative pursuits after the crisis has passed.
~~~
None of this changes the fact that Duma Key is a wordy, fascinating read from start to finish, whether or not you've already experienced Bag of Bones. It's wonderfully atmospheric, stirring your memories of sultry Florida vacations or John Huston film noir classics.

My major complaint with this novel is that it not only crams an enormous amount of events into the story, but also fails quite often to justify their inclusion. Bag of Bones neatly wrapped up virtually every possible loose end. Duma Key leaves many of them dangling. At least one major character dies with no foreshadowing, and others drop off the radar after having a significant amount of attention paid to them throughout the book. Duma Key is at least the length of the earlier novel, but the reader is left wishing King had tacked on an extra 10 or 20 pages.

King also forgoes the "social relevance" angle in Duma Key. While the denouement of Bag of Bones was a matter of racial hatred, the closest we get to that in Duma Key is a man accidentally killing his African-American employee and tossing her body down a well to escape the consequences ... but he does the same with his beloved daughter. There is a murdering pedophile caught on videotape, echoing a real-life news story that Stephen King no doubt got his fill of while wintering in the Sunshine State. But the hero's involvement in that story is, as King's character admits, a device of sorts, contrived by the demon to lure Freemantle into more and more other-worldly artistry, intended to snare more victims.

Both novels entertain us with a cynical "insider" look at the business side of the literature and art worlds.

The biggest objective distinction between these two novels is that in Duma Key, regardless of the eerie atmosphere, the protagonist is never truly alone. He is constantly on the phone to his ex-wife, therapist, daughters, and business associates. There's no love interest, but he has managed to find a platonic companion in an "anger doll" named Reba. He fights the villain with plenty of help from two "buddies." I found myself somehow missing the quiet, introspective solitude that Mike Noonan enjoyed in Bag of Bones. There, Noonan's dialogues, if not with ghosts, are largely with himself. His brother-in-law is his only real ally, and Frank Arlen plays a peripheral role at best. The lawyer is there to help, but for a fee ... and he threatens to become a romantic rival partway through the novel. In Duma Key, Ed Freemantle is surrounded by family and friends, reconciling briefly with his estranged wife (those two truly have a love-hate relationship), and never lacking for a sounding board.

Bag of Bones afflicts Mike Noonan and the reader with heartbreak - in Duma Key, the grief is displaced by rage and revenge.

If there is a point or a moral to Duma Key, it may be similar to that of Bag of Bones - that "things happen for a reason." The "reasons" touch Mike Noonan more personally than they do in Duma Key, where Ed Freemantle is not unlike the man taken in a "press gang" to fight someone else's battle until it becomes his own.

Far from King's finest ("The Shining," "Carrie"), "Duma Key" is about a wounded contractor, Edgar Freemantle, who settles on one of the Florida Keys to recuperate. [Plot spoilers follow.] Mysteriously he is seized with the need - and talent! - to draw and paint. He also begins a tedious relationship, conveyed through painfully artificial dialogues, with an elderly woman who owns most of Duma Key, and her caretaker. Freemantle's paintings apparently can cause changes in the real world (healing, killing, etc.). It turns out that the elderly woman, when a child, also exhibited the same sudden and inexplicable artistic abilities. All of this gets traced to one "Perse" (pronounced "Percy" and perhaps short for "Persephone," though Persephone is goddess of the underworld and Perse is some sort of evil sea-woman). Ghosts and ghost ships float in and out of the story. Perse turns out to be a china figurine, and she is done in by being imprisoned in fresh water. There is no motivation for Perse's evil-doing, no motivation for why Freemantle - or any of the characters - remains on Duma Key, and no explanation for why Perse causes preternatural artistic abilities, especially as these are the clues to revealing Perse's whereabouts.

I must confess that I was blown away by Duma Key. I used to be a huge fan of Stephen King's -- in the days of his classic works Carrie, The Shining, It, The Stand and Salem's Lot. I stopped reading King regularly after he published Pet Sematary which I found repulsive. However, King has restored my faith in his unique storytelling abilities with Duma Key. It is an epic introspective novel about Edgar Freemantle, a man crippled by a terrible accident, whose life (including his marriage) is destroyed by this tragedy. He returns to his love of art and finds creative brilliance after he relocates to Duma Key in Florida. What he doesn't realize is that his creative brilliance is inspired by an insidious, vengeful force older than time. Edgar's paintings take on a life of their own and the price for Freemantle's artistic brilliance may be the lives of everyone he holds dear. "Duma Key" is more than just a clever twist on "The Picture of Dorian Gray". It is King exploring the aftermath of his own terrible accident, when he was struck by a speeding van. King infuses Freemantle with a terrifying rage against fate, frustration, fear and strength to overcome the force seeking to destroy him. Edgar seems more real than almost any other character in King's canon. The book is intelligent, but it remains old-school horror complete with spirits and zombies. But Edgar is the novel's heart and you will be riveted. Be forewarned that this is over 1,000 pages, but definitely worth your time. Highly recommended.

It is always a pleasure to find a new and unique new series. I was not interested in this series at first because the blog just didn't call to me, but after witnessing so many fabulous reviews on this book I wanted to know what all the hype was. I was pleasantly surprised to discover this book was just as fabulous as so many reviewers implied.

The story is bursting with mystery, danger, action and suspense. I especially liked the futuristic world of magic created by Andrews. It was very well thought out. I also liked Andrews characterization. Most paperbacks are not known for creating such well-rounded characters. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.

An awesome read that I finished in 3 hours. New take on old favourites that made me rush to Amazon and order the next 2 books in the series.

This first novel in the series as well as the next was spellbinding. I so enjoyed the characters and the plot that I read them back to back. I can't wait for the next book.

Imagine. Living in a time where magic surrounds a whole city, where paranormal activities are common part of life. Electric bulbs explode, phones don't work and fluorescent feylamps have been invented to cope with the hard fluctuation caused by magic. Imagine a time when a horse is a more reliable form of transportation as cars refuse to start due to... yes, magic. Welcome to futuristic Atlanta. And welcome to Kate Daniels' world.

Kate is a mercenary who gets dragged into a dangerous game of cat and mouse when her guardian is savagely murdered, thus severing the last link she has with her family. Now completely orphaned, she vows to fight the scum that killed him. However in order to do so, she must seek the help of the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, in which her guardian was a divine knight. As if going back to the society that Kate once turned her back on weren't bad enough, she finds herself involved with the Pack dealing with the Master of the Beast when her investigation leads her to the possibility that the killer is a shapeshifter. The plot thickens as more of these otherworldly creatures are introduced. I believe that this is where the strength of the story shines. The characters are well thought of, fleshed out and provide a whole new dimension to this labyrinth of magic, gore and mayhem. They are not cardboard-like, seemingly miscast with no purpose.

Kate is a strong character who has her shares of vulnerabilities. One of them is her secret longing to be part of a family. But fear not as we don't see her wallowing in self-pity. She knows she has a job to do and does everything in her power to fight the monsters even if it means ruffling some feathers... or fur in the case of the Pack leader. Her interaction with Curran, the Master of the Beast, hints at a possible romance. Let us hope that the author doesn't take the same path that Hamilton did with Anita Blake.

Another fantastic aspect of the book is the concrete world-building. Ilona Andrews creates a believable futuristic Atlanta. She takes the reader in an adventurous, bumpy and terrifying ride as we see vampires and other monsters fight for supremacy in this magic-enfolded city, where people like Kate and the lycanthropes come together and battle it out with said monsters.

What a way for this author to start the series! The plot is well structured and filled with tension. The characters are well thought of and serve their purpose, adding to the magic and mystery which this book is brimming with. Magic leaps off every page and the reader actually feels transported to a whole new realm as you are sucked into this fantasy world of vampires, lycanthropes, witches and other fantastic creatures.

In summary, this was an impressive debut by Ilona Andrews and a real magical treat for dark urban fantasy readers albeit the slow start.

This book sat on a shelf for a long long time...I detested the book cover..it made it seem like it was going to be a really average book.
However, I was pleasantly surprised..though it took a retry to actually get into the story because the beginning was a little slow..
It's a great story! Loved the main character, a chick who seems to be in constant never ending cycle of having one bad day follow another, sort of all on her own, tracking down (or trying to) a killer.. And the Lord of the Beasts was a very frisky guy..though some sexual tension between the two, there was no sex.
Really splendid world building too..different twist on vampires...and shape shifters.. Entertaining dialogue as well.

Definitely Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 6)
Charlaine Harris really knows how to write a book, if you like your vampire series with a bit of humor you will like these books, if you like your mysteries with a bit of what we call "Woo Woo" (in other words weird stuff)
then you'll like Ms.Harris's Southern Vampire series and if you find you like it find the rest Sookie Stackhouse is a kick and coming in September 2008 on HBO, the series based on this books called "True Blood".

I love this series of books and cannot wait for more to be written.I will be tuning into HBO for the series based on the books can't wait!

This series still hasn't grown stale for me. Actually, this book really moves things along and reveals some important info. This time Sookie Stackhouse has a new boyfriend, finds out a heartbreaking secret about her past love, discovers some surprising facts about her bloodline and heads to New Orleans to go through her dead cousin's things. She finds a new witch friend and winds up embroiled in a big political vampire mess all the while trying her best to push her heartache aside. The characterization, as always, is well done and kept me anxiously turning the pages.

If you haven't picked up the Sookie Stackhouse series - do it now! :) These books are great - entertaining and smart, and they flow very easily from one to the next, leaving you wanting more.

If you like these, you will love the Harper Connelly series, and I recently started the Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard sets, and am enjoying those as well. I can't believe I just "found" Charlaine Harris this year! :)

I love all of Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire books and eagerly await the next one. Sookie is a very likable character and a complete original. Charlaine's vampires and other supernaturals all have depth and are well thought out.

If you haven't read Charlaine's other books, they are wonderful reads too.

Whoaaa. So much worse than the first one, what happened? The only story I actually enjoyed was, surprise, Dawn's, of all peoples, and even there we got basically nothing. I said for the first one that it was just "how much skin can they show", but WHOA, did they push it further this time, to the point of disturbingness. I'm sorry, I'm not reading these for that, or for the action, I'm looking so very hard for plot and I can't find any. This is so unreal. Faith is with Giles all of a sudden, and Buffy is not. Willow is horribly un-Willow, Buffy barely has a role, Xander and Dawn are the only ones with a good story but it's not being told. There's nothing interesting happening. I kind of hate this. I want my old Buffy back!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Volume 2: No Future For You by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Georges Jeanty: Buffy and Joss Whedon fans were delighted to discover that there would be a graphic novel version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, continuing on from the end of the show. But fans also know there are two true slayers currently alive in the Buffyverse, and in No Future For You, with help from writer Brian K. Vaughan (of Y: The Last Man) we get the story on what the other slayer has be...more Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Volume 2: No Future For You by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Georges Jeanty: Buffy and Joss Whedon fans were delighted to discover that there would be a graphic novel version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, continuing on from the end of the show. But fans also know there are two true slayers currently alive in the Buffyverse, and in No Future For You, with help from writer Brian K. Vaughan (of Y: The Last Man) we get the story on what the other slayer has been up to.

Watcher's Council extraordinaire Rupert Giles needs the help of Faith, the other slayer who has always seen Buffy as the perfect blond who can do no wrong, while she is a convicted murderer, and has always had to fight for everything in her life. But Giles has a mission for her now: to infiltrate the mansion of a rich family in England and take out a girl who is using all her power and resources to kill slayers and anyone with slayer abilities. Faith will have to go through a rigorous training process in being a proper English noble. She will also have her faith tested in being a good person, as she finds she has a lot in common with this girl who wants to put an end to Buffy.

Meanwhile back in the castle where Buffy is, Dawn still has her "giant" problem, Xander is making with the hilarities, while Willow continues to be an awesome witch with a scary amount of power, and there is the strange sigil that continues to have deep and sinister ties. The graphic novel story continues to be an entertaining tale as good as the original TV series.


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I'm not much of a graphic novel reader, but I have enjoyed this continuation of the BtVS series. I'm intrigued by the idea of some not-so-nice slayers, and how Faith responds to them. I can't wait to get the next set.

No Future For You (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2)
as a fan of the tv show, i was intregued at the prospect of a comic book of buffy and i was pleasantly surprized. well written, well drawn, intriging stories and i can almost hear their voices as i read it. well done, all around.

Whedom continues to impress me with beautiful writing that tugs at my heartstrings and at the same time has me on the edge of my seat. The artwork is beautiful for a comic and captures moments in time that I thought could only be done on film. Both collections are well worth it to any fan of the series.

I have just discovered a new world, and I like it! I normally don't read books like this and I am sorry I didn't delve into this world sooner! I had read the Twilight series (it was a gift, I wouldn't have even bothered if it was me picking out reading material) and I liked it, but it was written for young adult so there was a lot of teenage angst in it. I was looking at recommendations and I ran across Mercy and I am not sorry I took the suggestions! I have read all 3 and am getting ready to pre order the 4th! They are not long reads, perfect for a lazy summer day by the pool!

I don't know why people compare Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson series to Kim Harrison's books. Briggs is at least 10x better in plot development, character development and writing styles. Brigg's characters are more complex yet believable. The twists in plots are pleasant surprises.

Great, easy read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I stumbled upon it while looking for some paranormal/vampire books. Unfortunately most had erotica and/or had ridiculous plot lines.

This one has great characters and romance takes a backseat. I quickly picked up the other two in the series and am eagerly waiting for the fourth installment.

Every entertaining, hardly any down spots and a good start to a new urban fantasy. Hopefully Mercy will come to terms w/ her feelings about Samuel and Adam soon. Can't say i'm crazy about the way women rank or are valued in the packs though.

I saw this book when it first came out, but resisted buying it for a long time because I was afraid it was going to be yet another "Mary Sue fights the forces of darkness!" However, I had read Patricia Briggs before and found her to be an excellent author, so I was on the fence about this for a long time.

After reading it, I'm sad that I waited so long. The character of Mercy Thompson is smart and capable, without being contrived or super powerful. Sure, she has her own special abilities that allow her to get along in this world full of werewolves, vampires, and fae. She is a skinwalker, which means she can change easily from human to coyote form. However, this ability doesn't come with the super-strength, super-speed, and super-agressiveness that comes with being a werewolf.

I found Mercy to be likable and wanted to find out what happened to her next. She is confident and independent, without being completely stupid. She knows her limitations, whether or not she likes them, and yeah, sometimes she has to let the "big boys" go play while she sulks.

The romantic triangle that's beginning to take shape between Mercy, Samuel (her old flame), and Adam (her "sexy" next door neighbor.) is very well done because she's so straightforward about her feelings.

Overall, this was an excellent book with excellent characterization. The only problem I had with the novel is that sometimes the action wasn't as intense as it could be. The only time I was genuinely afraid for any of the characters was in the vampire den. I never felt a sense of heart-stopping action, though it was interesting enough to keep me reading.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in dark fantasy, and especially those who want a heroine who isn't just another, perfect "Mary Sue."