Kat: With book five, Last Dragon Standing, I have finished Rachel Aaron’s HEARTSTRIKERS series. My daughter and I enjoyed it. Now we have started Marissa Meyer’s LUNAR CHRONICLES and will finish the first book, Cinder, today. So far, we’re entertained, and we plan to pick up the second book, Scarlet, next.
Bill: This week I read Amanda Moore’s poetry collection Requeening, the challenging Understanding Genes by Kostas Kampourakis,
October 31st, 2021. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 3 comments |
Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine
R.L. Stine’s GOOSEBUMPS is a series of stand-alone short horror novels for children. I’ve been listening to the audiobook versions with my teenage daughter who loves to read scary stories in the couple of months before Halloween.
The seventh GOOSEBUMPS novel, Night of the Living Dummy (1993), is especially terrifying, but that may be because I’m one of those people who gets a bit freaked out by circus clowns, Chucky dolls,
October 29th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | R.L. Stine | Audio, Children, Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Earth vs. the Spider directed by Bert I. Gordon
As I believe I have mentioned elsewhere, there was more than one reason why Wisconsin-born producer/director/special FX wizard Bert Ira Gordon was popularly known as Mr. BIG. Of course, his acronym alone might have ensured him that title for life, but it was rather the series of remarkable cinematic entertainments that Gordon came out with starting in 1955, many of them dealing with oversized monstrosities, that resulted in this loving appellation. And what a string of films it was: King Dinosaur (’55), Beginning of the End (’57,
October 29th, 2021. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
With few exceptions (e.g., Invasion of the Body Snatchers), I do not enjoy horror novels or films. When I was a freshman in college in the late ’80s, my friends decided to go see Witchboard, a horror movie that was playing at a local theater. I tried to bow out, saying I really couldn’t handle it, but they insisted I just needed more exposure. I reluctantly let them (pretty much literally) drag me along, but it wasn’t long before I was out of my seat and cowering in the lobby for an hour while they finished the movie.
October 28th, 2021. Kat Hooper | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 10 comments |
If I told you that I’d killed a man with a glance, would you wait to hear the rest?
This question opens Jessie Burton‘s latest novel, Medusa (2021), a feminist retelling of the famous Greek myth. Told through the eyes of the snake-headed Medusa herself, the story reframes her tale as Burton uses myth to examine our own culture of victim-blaming, slut-shaming and toxic masculinity, provoking the question: Is Medusa truly a monster?
October 28th, 2021. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4 | Jessie Burton | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Ship of Monsters directed by Rogelio A. Gonzalez
There are certain films that are so outrageous, so bizarre, so very unique or dumbfounding, that the viewer cannot believe what he or she is looking at while watching them. Such motion pictures leave the viewer wondering things like: What were those filmmakers thinking? How can a movie like this possibly exist? Some of those films, such as The Great Gabbo (1929), The Shanghai Gesture (1941), Blood Freak (1972) and The Worm Eaters (1977), leave the viewer slack-jawed but with the desire never to see them again;
October 28th, 2021. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Saint Heron has opened a unique free library featuring material from Black and Brown writers and poets.
Public Service Announcement: Dune the movie does not cover the complete novel, a fact that will not shock many of you. It opened last week, and reviews are in. CNBC quotes a couple of early reviews here. Richard Brody of the New Yorker wants you to know that he really liked the David Lynch version. At Ars Technica, Sam Machkovech likes the new version and hates where it ends.
October 27th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |
Monster Blood (1992) is the third short children’s horror novel in R.L. Stine’s GOOSEBUMPS series. It’s a stand-alone, so no need to read the previous books.
While his parents are out of town, Evan has to go live with Aunt Katherine. She’s a scary one — a large hulking deaf woman with a deep voice who is often seen carrying her meat cleaver. Evan hates living at Aunt Katherine’s house, especially because she insists that his elderly dog stay chained up outside and there are bullies in Aunt Katherine’s neighborhood.
October 27th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | R.L. Stine | Audio, Children, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Captive Wild Woman directed by Edward Dmytryk
1942 had been a very good year for the Universal horror film, with the releases of The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, Night Monster and The Mummy’s Tomb, and as 1943 began, and America entered what was very possibly the bleakest year of the WW2 era, the studio continued to pump out scarifying entertainments for its audiences. In March of that year, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was released; June saw the premiere of Captive Wild Woman,
October 27th, 2021. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Outskirter’s Secret by Rosemary Kirstein
The Outskirter’s Secret, Book Two in the STEERSWOMAN series by Rosemary Kirstein, was originally published in 1992. It was reissued, along with the other two books in the series, in 2014. This review may contain spoilers for The Steerswoman.
At the end of The Steerswoman, Steerswoman Rowan had made an intuitive leap about the nature of the Guidestars, celestial objects that fill the night sky in her world and are a point of amazing stability.
October 26th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Rosemary Kirstein | SFF Reviews | no comments |
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…