Penguin Group, 2010 ISBN: 9780142416723 Available: New Kelly Link taps into teenagers’ darkest emotions in Pretty Monsters. The selfishness and ego of a boy who attempts to dig up his dead girlfriend’s grave so he can reclaim the poetry he buried with her; the anger and fear at being singled out; the cruelty friends and siblings can […]
Category: book reviews
Book Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
August 29, 2019Scholastic, 2007 ISBN: 0439813786 Available: New Brian Selznick (The Boy With A Thousand Faces) has once again produced a homage to early horror movies. Fourteen year old Hugo Cabret winds the clocks of a busy Paris train station in secrecy, hoping that nobody will notice the absence of his uncle, the station’s timekeeper. Successfully hiding […]
Abbott by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivelä BOOM! Studios, 2018 ISBN-13: 978-1684152452 Available: Paperback, Kindle, comiXology Hugo Award-nominated novelist Saladin Ahmed gives us the story of journalist Elena Abbott, who is investigating police brutality and corruption in 1972 Detroit. There are crimes being committed by the very people sworn to protect and serve. Elena doesn’t […]
Bone Parish Volume 1 by Cullen Bunn, art by Jonas Scharf BOOM! Studios, 2018 ISBN: 9781684153541 Available: Paperback Bone Parish is, frankly, one of the better Stoker-nominated books I read for Monster Librarian. As a new fan of the Harrow County series, I like Bunn’s writing style. While this is a departure from the backwoods of that Southern Gothic […]
Book Review: Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows
June 25, 2019Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows by J.M. Bergen Elandrian Press, 2018 ISBN-13: 978-1732457805 ISBN-10: 1732457808 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition “Magic is real, Thomas”. Those were the last words Thomas Wildus’ father said to him. Thomas is a geeky, mischievous, bullied, preteen, whose father disappeared several years ago. He loves to read books about magic, […]
A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, art by Rafael Albuquerque Dark Horse, 2018 ISBN: 978-1-50670-393-0 Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, comiXology edition A Study in Emerald is a Lovecraftian/Doyle mystery featuring a brilliant detective and his partner as they try to solve a murder. The investigation follows the investigators, named only as the Detective and the Major, […]
Harrow County Library Edition Volume 1: by Cullen Bunn, art by Tyler Crook Dark Horse, 2018 ISBN: 9781506710648 Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, comiXology edition Hester Beck is hung and burned for being a witch on the strange, crooked oak tree that stands on the Crawford farm. Emmy experiences recurring dreams about things under the earth. Emmy […]
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D., Vol. 4: 1955 by Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson; art by Shawn Martinbrough (Secret Nature), Brian Churilla (Occult Intelligence), and Paolo Rivera and Joe Rivera (Burning Season) Dark Horse, 2018 ISBN: 9781506705965 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, comiXology edition In Hellboy and the B.P.R.D., Vol. 4: 1955, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D hunt down unseen predators […]
Jenny Finn by Mike Mignola and Troy Nixey, art by Troy Nixey and Farel Dalrymple Dark Horse, 2018 ISBN: 9781427606754 Available: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, comiXology edition A mysterious girl, Jenny Finn, arrives in Victorian England and leaves death, destruction, and a strange curse in her wake. There is a plague causing gruesome lesions in the crooked […]
Book Review: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
June 13, 2019Dread Nation by Justina Ireland Balzer + Bray, 2018 ISBN-13: 978-0062570604 Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, MP3 CD Editor’s note: Due to its topic and content, Dread Nation contains racial slurs and outdated language. I’m using “Negro” in this review as it is the term used throughout the book. In this alternate history, the Civil War […]