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Book Links: Stoker Awards 2018 Final Ballot for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

In our continuing effort to review as many of the books on the final ballot for the Stoker Award, Monster Librarian has hit another landmark we have now reviewed all five of the novels on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel. Want to know what we think? Here are links to the reviews. There are many fine books that did not make the final ballot, but of those that did, I think the standout is clear.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

Broken Lands by Jonathan Maberry

The Night Weaver by Monique Snyman

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

 

Posted on April 28, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Howl-O-Ween by Gary L. Holleman

Editor’s note: In the past, Monster Librarian participated in seasonal collaborative review projects with other horror fiction review sites, such as Hellnotes, Horror World, Dread Central, Horror Fiction Review, Horror Web, and DarkScribe. Each site reviewed books related to the season and then linked to the other sites’ reviews. In my (very slow) cleanup of the site, I saw that most of the links for our collaborative Halloween projects in 2007 and 2008 no longer exist, but our own still work, of course. Most of the reviews are also located elsewhere on the site, but I’m sharing one of them here today as, due to the number of links that don’t work on those pages, I plan to take them down shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Howl-O-Ween by Gary L. Holleman

Leisure Books, 1996

ISBN: 0843940832

Available: Used

Cyrus, a bodyguard-for-hire, takes a job protecting Kyna, a diamond runner, who is being pursued by a voodoo shaman trying to retrieve a powerful mystical necklace the diamond runner unknowingly has in her possession.  In order to get the necklace back before Halloween, the shaman leaves a bloody body count behind him, using a variety of creatures.    In one of the attacks, Cyrus inadvertently gets bitten by a supernatural wolf,  and becomes a werewolf. A minor flaw in the book is that the author includes several sex scenes that do not seem to further the plot, and slow down the pacing. Additionally, the ending is a little confusing. More disappointing than either of these is that, with a title like Howl-o-ween, and a cover sporting an evil-looking skull rising out of a pumpkin, readers will expect Halloween to play more of a central role in the story when in fact the relationship to the holiday is pretty weak.  Despite the unimpressive role of the holiday, distracting sex passages, and confusing ending, Howl-o-ween is worth a look. Holleman does a fine job with the werewolf and other little beasties, giving readers an entertaining little monster mash.   Ultimately, those looking for a action filled werewolf tale will probably enjoy the title, but there are stronger titles for Halloween themed horror.

Contains: Gore, sex, torture, violence

Reviewed by Dylan Kowalewski

Posted on April 23, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Grey Skies by William Becker

Grey Skies by William Becker

Publisher: Self-published, June 2019 (pre-order)

ASIN: B07PHGQB8M

Available: Kindle edition

 

Grey Skies by William Becker is the author’s second novel. The main character’s first-person voice narrates the story, but his identity, the story’s location, time, and plot are revealed piecemeal over many chapters.

The narrator suffers through an excruciating series of horrific ordeals. He and the reader know that some parts are unreal. The question is, which parts are dreams or delusions, and which are real?

The narrator finds and buries a nun’s slashed, bloody body; wriggling balls of black spiders cling to doors and walls in his home; he’s trapped in a cramped sub-basement, and crawls and scrapes his way through a stinking underground tunnel to escape; he wades waist-deep through brown, feces-laden sewer water; a giant spider with a human head chases him through a burning house; a stuffed, sackcloth giant stalks him through a doomed cruise ship, listing and powerless in a monstrous storm; he’s drowning in black ocean waters; he finds himself under giant tree roots next to the nun’s rotting corpse.

Throughout these miseries there are mysteries. Who is our narrator? Does he have a family? Why is he being tortured? Who is torturing him? Readers will appreciate the author’s ingenuity in piling on gruesome events and tying them into the mysteries.

The author scattered several paragraphs of nonsense letter, numbers and symbols throughout the novel. These lines of literary graffiti detract from the story. He also appended two unrelated short stories. Recommended.

 

Contains: Gore and violence.

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

Posted on April 19, 2019 by , Reply
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