Binge Watch --- Supernatural

I probably watch too much TV. Actually, I know I watch too much TV. I've been this way since I was a kid, sitting on the living room floor glued to Saturday morning cartoons. Believe it or not, there was a few years where I stopped watching TV, cold turkey. I was religiously watching Grimm, Supernatural and a few other shows at the time and for whatever reason, I just stopped. I never saw Doctor McDreamy die. I never saw Rick and company leave the prison. And I damn well never saw Crowley sacrifice himself.

This year has been a year for binging, getting caught up on the shows I never finished. I've already knocked out Grimm and Bones, because that was another show I never finished, and I just finished Supernatural on my birthday, this past Friday. For those not familiar with the show, Supernatural lasted for 15 season. That means I just finished binging 327 episodes of one of the greatest TV shows of all time. 

My favorite TV show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I will be binging before the new Hulu series starts, so it should come as no surprise that I loved Supernatural from the moment it hit our television screens in 2005 on what was the WB Network. From the moment Dean showed up on Sam's doorstep telling him that their father was MIA on a hunting trip, I was hooked. Here was a show that had two hot guys fighting monsters, this was tailor-made for me to love it. Now, if that was all the show was about, I probably would have gotten bored at some point. Instead, this is a show about family and what a family does to support each other, no matter what that family looks like. It's a show about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who would literally die for the other. Most of all, it's a show that transcended genres. 

This time around, I found myself siding with Dean more than I did my first time. Honestly, Sam could be fricking whiny and annoying at times, the way a younger brother should be. I also remembered how much I wanted "Bloodlines" to have worked as a spinoff, which never happened. And speaking of spinoffs, the fact that "Wayward Sisters" never happened has me seeing red. I want more Jody, Donna, Claire, Alex, and Patience. I feel robbed now. 

As I was watching, I wanted to live in the Men of Letters Bunker, I wanted to hang out with Rowena (my favorite character from the show), I wanted to drive Baby, and I wanted to eat pie with Dean. I wanted to go out on hunts with them. Most of all, I want to see Dean and Castiel reunited. I want that confession to mean something. 

If you've never watched the show, you should. If it's been a while, give it a rewatch. I promise you won't be disappointed. 

The Haunting of Timber Manor by F.E. Feeley, Jr.

Synopsis From Publisher:

While recovering form the recent loss of his parents, Daniel Donnelly receives a phone call from his estranged aunt, who turns over control of the family fortune and estate, Timber Manor.  Though his father seemed guarded about his past, Daniel's need for family and curiosity compel him to visit. 

Located in a secluded area of the Northwest, Timber Manor has grown silent over the years.  Her halls sit empty and a thin layer of dust adorns the sheet-covered furniture.  When Daniel arrives to begin repairs, strange things happen.  Nightmares haunt his dreams.  Memories not his own disturb his waking hours.  Alive with the tragedies of the past, Timber Manor threatens to tear Daniel apart. 

Sheriff Hale Davis grew up working on the manor grounds.  Seeing Daniel struggle, he vows to protect the young man who captured his heart, and help him solve the mystery behind the haunting and confront the past - not only to save Daniel's life, but to save his family, whose very souls hang int he balance. 

You guys know I love a good Gothic, haunted house story.  There is nothing like getting lost in an house that plays with your head, forcing you to see things that aren't there, turning you into a blithering cry baby, huddled in the corner of the smallest closet you can find. Timber Manor is as devious and mind warping as Hill House, and almost as violent and blood thirsty as Belasco House.  It's a house full of the most damming family secrets.  They are the kind of secrets that slither through time, wrapping the present inhabitants in a shroud of despair and death.  It's the kind of house that I've always wanted to live in, but I've never been sure if I would have the spine needed to do so.

Daniel is one of those guys, that as soon as they appear on the page/screen, you instantly love them. He is the guy you want to root for, the guys you pray survives until the end of the movie.  In Hale, he finds the perfect partner, someone to love and watch over him, and the guy who will protect him from the buried past roaring back through time.

The author did a freaking fantastic job at framing his story, creating a fully realized world that wasn't hard to picture in my head. This is one of those books that I would do almost anything to see adapted to the big screen.  The entire time I was reading it, every single page appeared in celluloid glory in my head.  I'm pretty sure my wishes here won't ever be realized, but a boy could dream.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Endora

I have no idea if I'm ever going to have a mother-in-law.  I'm turning forty this year, and I've been single for over 12 years now.  I'm not willing to say the marriage train has completely left the station at this point, but it definitely wants to get the hell out of town.  For whatever reason, I've always pictured myself getting along with a future mother-in-law, but not in best friends, or even a motherly sort of way.  I've always been more inclined to the idea that any future mother-in-law, would be a little more feisty.  She would be a little out there, have a wicked tongue on her, be able to throw down with the best of them, but still be able to support and love when it's needed.  Sort of like Darrin Stephen's mother-in-law, Endora, in one of the best television comedies of all time, Bewitched.  Hopefully, my version of Endora would actually like me a little bit better.

I always wondered if Darrin knew who his mother-in-law was going to be, if he still would have proposed to Samantha.  The hopeless romantic in me, would assume that he'd have no problems popping the question, but the pragmatic side of me, knows he would have had his doubts.  Endora is the ultimate overbearing and disdainful mother-in-law.  She decries her daughter marrying the man, doesn't think much of him, but can give him a begrudged compliment every once in a while.  She has an acid tongue on her, and refuses to call him by his real name, Durwood being one of her favorites. It can't have been easy for Darrin, and often times, he would lose his temper, though that never got him very far.  Throw in the whole immortal witch thing, and it's amazing that he never had to commit himself.

Despite all that, I think Endora had a heart of gold when it came to her family.  She would have done anything for her daughter, and once Tabitha was born, she was snared all over again.  She could even be counted on to help Darrin out, even if it was with more vinegar than honey.  I'm not even sure I really bought the whole, I don't like him shtick to begin with.  I think it was in her nature to be contradictory, and after a while, the disdainful attitude, could be mistaken for fondness, albeit an odd form of affection.  She was a woman all her own, and even if her portrayer, Agnes Moorehead, never really warmed to her, I absolutely adored her.

I'm still holding onto the idea of having a mother-in-law someday, I'm just hoping that she is able to get my name right. 

Prince Lestat by Anne Rice

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Old vampires, roused from deep slumber in the earth, are doing the bidding of a Voice commanding that they indiscriminately burn their kin in cities across the globe, from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to San Francisco.  Left with little time to spare, a host of familiar characters, including Louis de Pointe du Lac, Armand, and even the vampire Lestat, must embark on a journey to discover who - or what - is driving his mysterious being. 

Right from the get-go, I'm going to say exactly what I thought of this one.  I'm not in love with the book itself, but I'm once again in love with Lestat.  I can't rightly remember the last time I picked up any of the Vampire Chronicles books, though I know it was before I started blogging, as I felt myself losing interest in them long ago.  For whatever reason, I picked this one up from the store, Target to be specific, and once I finally got started on it, I was hard pressed to put it down.

I found myself getting lost in the character of Lestat, a character I fell in love with at an early age.  There were a few books, Memnoch the Devil comes to mind, where while I didn't care for the plot all that much, the character kept me engaged and reading.  With Prince Lestat, a book I never though would even be written, that love came back tenfold, and the storytelling, while not on par with the first few books in the series, seems to have returned some of the luster to the series, at least for me. At times it felt a bit jumbled, and a ton of new characters were introduced, but none of it seemed to bog down the story.  It was nice to see the return of some of my favorite characters like Gabrielle and Daniel, and catch up on some of the smaller characters from the series, like Flavius and Bianca.

The author, who has always been good at characterization, has given me new character to love, though none will hold a place in my heart the way Lestat and Louis do.  A previously unnamed character, Antoine, may be up there for me now, but I would want to see more of him.

If another Vampire Chronicles book is forthcoming, I know I will be quicker to read it now that I'm back under Lestat's spell.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Out of the Madhouse by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Werewolves, Trolls, Sea Monsters, Rain of toads, Skyquakes.  Sunnydale is being besieged by dark forces.  But even with Buffy providing her unique style of damage control while Giles is hospitalized out of town, it's more than one Slayer can handle - especially since the abominations are coming from a centuries-old portal through time and space. 

Somehow, the hell-hole must be found and corked at it's source.  For Buffy, Angel, and the rest of her gang, that means a road trip to Boston where an ailing Gatekeeper resides over a supernatural mansion that has been, until recently holding the world's  worst monsters at bay.  Once there, Buffy discovers the catastrophic truth: the magical structure houses thousands of rooms, all of which are doorways to limbo's "ghost roads," and all of which may bring her face-to-face with the most nefarious forces in hell and on earth - forces bent on horrific plans far worse than the Slayer ever imagined. 

You guys know that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite show of all time, so it should come as no surprise that I loved the tie in books that were being published while the show was on the air.  I stayed away from the novelization of actual episodes, and loved the books that were original story lines.  I used to own at least twenty of the, but a few moves ago,  I had to make a decision to let them go.  I owned too many books, of course I still do, so I'm not sure what I was thinking.  Over the years, I've only managed to repurchase three of them, the three books that comprised The Gatekeeper Trilogy.

There were a ton of authors that tackled the Buffyverse, but Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder were the two that, for me at least, seemed to actual the actual feel of the show the best.  When they got together and wrote this trilogy, I was in seventh heaven.  I always thought if they ever made a movie based of the books, this was the way to go.

The first book, Out of the Madhouse, introduces us to a whole other dimension of strangeness.  Much like The High House by James Stoddard, the Gatekeeper in this trilogy oversees a supernatural prison, that form the outside, looks like a grand Boston mansion.  Locked in it's rooms are ghouls, shapeshifters, ghosts, and monsters straight out of legend; among them, Springheel Jack, the Leviathan, and the Mary Celeste.  It's also home to the family that has been charged with keeping the world safe from them.  They have managed to accrue a few helpful tools to help them with their charge; the Spear of Longinus and the Cauldron of Bran the Blessed.  The current Gatekeeper is weakening, and his heir has been kidnapped by a cabal of sorcerers, bent on allowing chaos to reign free over the earth.

Sunnydale, because it sits on a Hellmouth, has been dealing with the side affects of the house failing. The residents are starting to escape from the house, even if for a short amount of time, and the Hellmouth draws them in, allowing them to run amok.   Buffy and her friends, after some serious research, travel to Boston to figure out what's going on.  Upon their arrival, they quickly agree to help the Gatekeeper get back the heir, and the best television tie-in of all time is born.

The Hunger by Whitley Strieber

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Miriam Blaylock, rich and beautiful, lives life to the fullest - a house in Manhattan's exclusive Sutton Place, a husband she adores, priceless antiques, magnificent roses.  But then John Blaylock, like all Miriam's past lovers, suddenly beings to age.  Almost overnight, his body reveals the truth: he is nearly two hundred years old!

Fearing the terrible isolation of eternity Miriam stalks a new lover.  She is Sarah Roberts, a brilliant young sleep researcher who has discovered the blood factor that controls aging and thus may possess the secret of immortality.  Miriam desperately wants Sarah, for herself and for her knowledge.  But to win her, Miriam must destroy Sarah's love for Dr. Tom Haver, who learns that his enemy is like no other woman who has ever lived... now or forever 

You know the old adage that the book is always better than the movie?  This is one of those times where it comes really damn close to being false.  I fell in love with the movie adaptation of The Hunger the first time I saw it.  It stars the gorgeous Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Blaylock, David Bowie as John Blaylock, and Susan Sarandon as Dr. Sarah Roberts.  T he movie is about as sexy and horrifying as a movie can be.  The tension, of all kinds, oozes off the screen, all of which can be attributed to the way Catherine Deneuve embodied the character of Miriam Blaylock.  It's a beautiful movie to watch, and my love for it, is what kept me putting the book off for as long as I did.  I didn't want to fall in love with the book, and have a movie I love, suddenly start paling in comparison.

I finally picked a hardcover edition up at a used bookstore for about $5.  It still took me a few months before I was willing to read it, but once I did, I fell in love with Miriam all over again.  The sensuality of her character, which is nailed by Catherine Deneuve, is a bit subtler here, but just as effective.  This is still a story about lust and love, and how those two things can become so twisted and blurred, that it's hard to tell them apart.  It has vampiric wrappings, and after Lestat de Lioncourt, she is about the sexiest vampire to ever be dreamed up.  She is not afraid to draw blood and to use violent means to get what she wants.  But outside of that, and sort of hidden among the obsession, is a story about a woman who is trying to find a home.  More than anything Miriam Blaylock wants that forever home, just in her case it would really be for forever.

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Young, beautiful, and successful, Elena Michaels seems to have it all.  Her happy, organized life follows a predictable pattern: filing stories for her job as a journalist, working out at the gym, living with her architect boyfriends, and lunching with her girlfriends form the office.  And once a week, in the dead of night, she streaks though a downtown ravine, naked and furred, tearing at the throats of her animal prey. 

Elena Michael is a werewolf.

The man who made her one has been left behind, but his dark legacy has not.  And though Elena struggles to maintain the normal life she's worked so hard to create, she cannot resist the call of the eleite pack of werewolves from her past.  Her feral instincts will lead her back to them and into a desperate war for survival that will test her own understand of who, and what, she is.

Do you ever think about a series you used to love, but for whatever reason, it lost it's appeal?  If you don't, no sweat, I do enough thinking about it for everyone.  I'm one of those that feels a strong guilt about it.  Now I'm not beating my chest and flogging myself, but I do feel more than a tad bit of remorse.

 I can't tell you how many series I have gotten into over the years, then completely lost interest in.  For the most part it happened preblogging more than it does now, and I have no clue as to why.  Most of the series I've lost interest in would be classified as urban fantasy, and that may have an overly large role in it.  It didn't take long for me to get bored with all the vampires, werewolves, wizards, and demons living in a modern world, so the books they inhabited didn't appeal to me for very long.   There are a few that I still read when a new book comes out, but for the most part, I flirted for a while, then dropped them faster than you could say Lestat.  One series that lasted for a few books before getting the cold shoulder was Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series, of which, Bitten is the first book.

Oddly, even though I gave up on the series, I still love this book, and I hadn't read it since I started blogging.  For whatever reason, I picked it up last week, and a few hours later, I was turning the last page.  It didn't take long for me to fall right back in love with Elena, Clay, Jeremy, and all the rest of the Pack.  I'm not really sure what the author had going on in this one, and Stolen the second book in the series, but the writing is so much better, and the characters are fully fleshed out in a way I can't say about some of the later books.  I really wish she had stuck with this first set of characters, instead of going off and getting the rest of the supernatural races involved.

In Elena and Clay, you have the perfect couple.  They love each, can't live with out each other, but they have both made some horrible decisions, putting so much tension into their relationship, it pulsates off the page.  When the book opens, they haven't been in the same state for over a year, and their reintroduction doesn't go smoothly.  If it wasn't for the dangerous situation they were having to deal with, and the rest of the Pack members acting as a buffer, that tension made have become too implosive, harming the reading in the process.

The writing in the first few books, and in Bitten specifically, is so tight, so put together, it's hard to find any flaws in it.  Armstrong keeps the narrative moving at a natural pace, allowing the characters and the events to set the tone.  She doesn't force them into convoluted interactions, or behaviors that go against who they are.   It's a perfect blend of style, characterization, and storytelling.  But most importantly, it's a book that has a permanent home of my bookshelves, even if it's extended family was served with eviction papers.

Scavenger Hunt by Christopher Pike

Synopsis From Back Cover:

School was almost over.  A secretive club on campus had organized a scavenger hunt for the entire senior class.  In small groups, and with the help of cleverly planted clues, the kids are led throughout the city, and then deep into the nighttime desert.  The sponsoring club has promised a wonderful prize for the first group to reach the goal of the hunt.

But for Carl Timmons, a troubled young man who has recently lost his best friend, the hunt will become a nightmare. Led astray by his love for a strangely beautiful girl, he will wander far from the other, and back into a haunted past, where the line between the living and the dead is blurred and broken.

The other day I was wanting something easy, quick, and fun to read, but I didn't feel like hunting something down in a bookstore or browsing through the NOOK store.  So I went to the greatest resource every bibliophile has, my own bookcases.  To tell you the truth, I almost forgot I owned this book, especially since I was never a huge Christopher Pike fan.  I think this is the only book of his I've owned, let along kept all these years later.

It's probably been at least ten years since I've picked it up, and it was exactly what I was needing at the time.  It had been long enough that I forgot some of pertinent details of the plot and found myself engaged from the get go.  I still really enjoyed Carl and his friends, and the journey they were forced to undertake was suspenseful enough to keep me interested.

If you are familiar with Christopher Pike's books, and a lot of you should be, you know he was good at plotting, and was decent at character development.  I think Scavenger Hunt is one of his best, and I know I'll be picking it up again sometime in the far future.

Angel Souls And Devil Hearts by Christopher Golden

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The Gospel of Shadows has been lost, and the existence of vampires has been revealed.  Peter Octavian is trapped in Hell, but he has given his allies a mission - to discover the secret origin of vampires.

Once they were legend.  but now the entire world knows the truth about their nature, their powers... and their weaknesses.  Everything they have fought for centuries to hold on to, including their mortal loves, is in danger.  For human prejudice can be the most powerful evil of all.

The war has begun...

I can't believe it's been a little over four years ago that I first reread the first book in this series, Of Saints and Shadows.  I'm not really sure why it's taken me this long to get around to rereading the second book, Angel Souls and Devil Hearts, but I hope it doesn't take me that long to reread the third book.  I read the first four books of this series when they first came out, and I fell in love with them.  When Christopher Golden decided to continue on with it, they reissued the the first four books of the series, and I decided to read them again since I really didn't remember everything that happened in them.  And since I really want to read what has happened after the fourth book ended, I need to get my ass in gear, read the next two books, then I can delve into the new material.

One aspect of this book, and of this series as a whole, that I did forget, is how perilous these characters lives are.  None of them are safe, even the ones you think will never die, will die.  It's always a little disconcerting to realize an author is willing to kill off any character they want, regardless of how much you like them, or how used you got to having them around.  The body count in this one is rather staggering at times, and for the most part, a lot of them are characters I truly liked.  Characters who shouldn't die do, and for the most, I loved so many of them.  Even the first vampire of them all, who is introduced in this book, loses his life.  John Courage is one of the characters who makes a grand entrance, makes a huge impact, imparts an even bigger secret, and then goes away.  If you want in on that secret, pay attention to his initials.  Let's just say that it's an interesting take on the origins of the vampire race.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

In the present day, as the man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos.  Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, is so shattered by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child's arrival even as society dissolves around her.  Kittridge, know to the world as "Last Stand in Denver," has been forced to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far.  April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a landscape of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned - and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.

One hundred years in the future, Amy and the others fight on for humankind's salvation... unaware that the rules have changed.  The enemy has evolved, and a dark new order has arisen with a vision of the future infinitely more horrifying than man's extinction.  If the Twelve are to fall, one of those united to vanquish them will have to pay the ultimate price.

It's been a little over three years since I read the previous book in this series, The Passage, and lord only know when I will get to the third book, The City of Mirrors.  It's not even out yet, it comes out later this year, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to fit it in anytime soon.  It won't be through lack of desire, because I really do want to read the final chapter on this story.  It's more of the fact that while I loved The Passage, I didn't love The Twelve.  I like it well enough, I'm still enjoying the characters, but I didn't feel that invested in this one, at least at the level I had with the previous book.

I'm even willing to admit that part of it may be my fault.  I may have waited too long in between books, which forced me to feel as if I was playing catch-up for a bit.  I was having to remind myself of who some of the characters were, at least in terms of the relationships between them.  Once I was able to get that all sorted out in my head, I was actually able to relax and enjoy the story.

The rest of the issues I had though, while still personal to me, had more to do with the story, than they did anything else.  I've always had an issue with authors who introduce strong "hero" characters, only to have them killed off half way through the book.  It happened with Brad Wolgast in The Passage, and it happened with Bernard Kittridge in The Twelve.  Both are men that I grew rather fond of, almost from the start, only to have them cut down mid story.  They are noble characters, and in my opinion, they deserved more than what they got.  Especially since they died, doing almost the exact same thing, protecting a child.

And that brings me back to the biggest bone of contention I had with this book, the way Brad Wolgast was brought back in this book.  I understood the point of it.  I even understood the "nobility" of what his role was in this book, but that doesn't mean I like it.  Given the sacrifice he made in the previous book, I think it was a discredit to the man, for him to become what he was.  I understand that for the end of this book to work the way it did, and for Amy to develop into the woman she needed to be, that Brad had to play the role he did.  He had to be what he was, I just wish that weren't the case.

As far as Peter, Alicia, Sara, Michael, Amy, Hollis, and Greer goes, I still love them.  They have all changed so much since the previous book, which is to be expected.  From what I can tell, the books take place five years apart, and for the most part, the friends have gone there own way.  They all meet up for the end though, and it's nice to have them all back together.  They are joined by a couple of new friends, Eustace and Nina.  I wasn't sure what I thought of them at first, but by the end, I really liked them.

There are a lot of changes in store for the characters, at least that's what is implied by the end of this book, so I'm looking forward to seeing the directions they continue to go in.  I'm curious to see how it all ends, how the new characters introduced in this book change along with the old characters, and whether or not humanity ultimately survives the viral plague, though I'm pretty sure I already know that answer to that one.

Darkness Falls - 2003

Synopsis From Back Cover:

As a young boy, Kyle claimed to have seen the tooth fairy.  He also claimed that she tried to kill him.

Now over twelve years later, Kyle has left the town that never believed him.  He has also left behind the two people who though he was telling the truth, his childhood girlfriend Caitlin and her younger brother.  And when evil again emerges in Darkness Falls, Kyle must return to do battle with the winged creature of doom he saw that night so many years ago.  Because evil is back with a vengeance.  And it's not leaving without Caitlin's brother.

I love a good horror movie, there is no wrong time of year to watch them, and for some reason, I tend to like them even more in the winter.  I'm not sure if the shorter days and longer nights, allows me to get in the mood, or if I just like a good scare, either way, I love horror movies.

I first saw Darkness Falls in the theater when it came out in 2003.  I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fan, and I tended to follow the careers of it's main stars, years after the show ended.  When I saw that Emma Caulfield, who played Anya Jenkins, had a new movie coming out, I jumped at the chance to watch it.  It also had two really hot guys in it, Chaney Kley as Kyle, and Sullivan Stapleton as Matt Henry.  On a sad side note, Chaney Kley died from sleep apnea in 2007.

I'm not going to say this movie is horror genius, cause it's not.  What it is, is a solid scary movie, that doesn't rely on a bunch of gore or blood, for those seat jumping moments.  The acting is solid, if not all that memorable, but there really isn't a weak performance in the entire film.  Emma Caulfield is spectacular, as are Chaney Kley and Lee Cromie as young Michael, Caitlin's brother.  Sullivan Stapleton is pretty good too, but he could have been horrible, and I still would have liked looking at him on screen.

As far as the plot goes, innocent woman is condemned for the murder of two children, burned at the stake, and promises revenge.  Come to find out, the children weren't dead, so she was condemned for no reason.  Before her unfortunate demise, she was the neighborhood tooth fairy, exchanging teeth for a coin or two.  When she was disfigured in a house fire, she was forced to wear a porcelain mask, which in turn, turned her into the town pariah.  Why that would be, I never understood, but that's a horror movie plot for you. For whatever reason, when those kids disappeared, she was the logical choice of a culprit, and the rest is history.

She spends the next several decades, haunting her town, and when children lose their last baby tooth, she is on them like nobody's business.  If anyone looks upon her, she will kill them as painfully as possible.  It's what happened to Kyle's mother the night he lost his last tooth, and it's what may happen to Michael if it can't be stopped.

Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R. A. DeCandido

Synopsis From Back Cover:

It's a cold day in Sleepy Hollow, and Ichabod visits Patriots Park for a moment of peace.  Instead, he receives a disturbing vision from his wife, Katrina, in which she delivers a cryptic but urgent message: he must retrieve the Congressional Cross that he was awarded by the Second Continental Congress for bravery in action.  There's just one problem: Ichabod was killed before he ever received the medal, and he is not sure where it might be.  Together, Ichabod and Abbie set out to uncover the mystery of the cross and it's connection to George Washington and his secret war against the demon hordes.  They soon learn that a coven of witches is also seeking the cross in order to resurrect their leader, Serilda, who was burned at the stake during the Revolutionary War.  Now they must locate the cross before the coven can bring back Serilda to exact her fatal revenge on Sleepy Hollow.

It's not often that I even take an interest in reading a television tie-in.  Most of you know that I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I own all seven seasons on DVD, and I watch them all at least once a year.  For a while, I was devouring the tie in books as well, especially those written by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder.  For the most part I loved them, though there were a few misses.  I've, in the past, even been able to get into a few Torchwood books, and have reviewed a few of them on the blog; The House that Jack Built by Guy Adams, Bay of the Dead by Mark Morris, and Something in the Water by Trevor Baxendale.  Now I've been in love with the show Sleepy Hollow since it debuted last year, so when I was given a chance to review a tie-in book, I was on board.

I was expecting to fall in love with the book as well, and while I can't say I disliked it, I'm pretty sure I didn't love it either.  I'm not sure what the show has that didn't translate into book form, at least not this particular book, but there was something missing for me.  I think part of it was trying to take Ichabod's accent and speech patterns, and putting it on paper.  They just don't come across the same way they do if you are hearing them.  It's all well and good for an author to point out that a character is being sarcastic or if they are being a little slow on understanding modern vernacular, those things just work better when you can actually hear what is going on.  I think another part of it may be that the chemistry between Ichabod and Abbie works better on screen.

The other issue I tend to have, and it was the same problem I had with the Buffy books that didn't work for me, is when an author tries to work the book around certain episodes of the show.  It makes the whole thing feel a bit disjointed and odd, and is an extra story is being forced in there, where it really doesn't belong.  Television tie-ins, at least for me, work best when they take the basic structure of the show, and go from there.  They don't try to force the book into a certain timeline dictated by the parent show.  Yeah they are in the same universe, but they tend to be separate from what's going on on screen  I want to be able to truly get into the books, even if I've never seen the show.  I'm just hoping that if I pick up another Sleepy Hollow tie-in, that it will work for me, better than this one did.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books, for this review.

The Ten Sexiest Vampires On Film, Take 6

I know I've been rather M.I.A. on the blog this month, but work has been kicking my ass.  Just to give you an example, in a span of five days, I worked 65 hours.  I'm exhausted.

Regardless or how tired I am, there was one post I knew I had to do before the month was over. There was no way I was going to let this year go by, and not do my annual list of the sexiest vampires to grace the screen.  Over the last six years, it's become one of my Halloween traditions.  

For those of you who haven't been keeping score over the years, please visit the lists I did for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.  Now that we got that out of the way, how about we feast our eyes on some gorgeous vamps.

THE MEN

Michael Corvin, as played by Scott Speedman in Underworld and Underworld: Evolution.  Half vampire, half lycan, and all man, Michael Corvin isn't someone you would want to mess with.

Marcus Van Sciver, as played by Neil Jackson in Blade: The Series.  Ruthlessness and drop dead gorgeous, makes a winning combination for Marcus in all his dealing.

Brother Silus, as played by Dougray Scott in Perfect Creature.  Born into a society where vampires are born to human mothers, Brother Silas is to be respected and feared, especially when dealing with a rogue.

Richard Wirth, as played by Michael Fassbender in Blood Creek.  I have to admit Richard is one hot vampire, but I think I'd be running the other way if this Nazi monster came towards me.

Steven Grlscz, as played by Jude Law in The Wisdom of Crocodiles.  All he wants is love, it's not his fault that they keep dying on him.

THE WOMEN

Erika, as played by Sophia Myles in Underworld.  Beautiful and seductive, and yet unable to get the man she wanted.

Sasha, as played by Brigid Brannagh in Kindred: The Embraced.  Looked over by the Ventrue Prince of the city, turned by a Brujah thug, and in love with a Gangrel Primogen, Sasha has divided loyalties.  Too bad she's not even sure where her ultimate loyalty belongs.

Katrina, as played by Sheryl Lee in Vampires.  It's always amazing to me how many women of the night, actually get turned into the real deal.

Regine Dandridge, as played by Julie Carmen in Fright Night 2.  Bent on revenge for the death of her brother, Regine isn't shy about using her feminine wiles to reach her goal.

Clara, as played by Gemma Arterton in Byzantium.  She wanted to be left alone to care for her daughter, it's a shame she has to keep killing those who get in her way.

The Covenant - 2006

Synopsis From Back Cover:

To the students of the Spenser Academy, the Sons of Ipswich are the baddest boys on campus.  But that's not all they share.  The four friends also share a 300-year-old secret: they're warlocks, the teenage descendants of a 17th century coven of witches.  So when the long-banished fifth son suddenly appears and threatens to kill their loved one, they realize they must face their enemy in order to prevent him from stealing their powers and shattering the covenant forever.

Sometimes all a movie needs to be good, at least good enough for me to watch a few times, are a few pretty faces.  The Covenant is full of them, even if only two of them really caught my eye.

Steven Strait plays Caleb Danvers, the hero of this little story.  Caleb, who is the oldest of the friends, is about to come into his full powers, but they come with a price.  Once they reach the right age, every time they use their powers, it's ages them.  He is the most reluctant of the friends to use them, and it seems all he wants to do is swim and meet a nice girl and settle down.  He is constantly reminded of the price of his powers, as it has turned his father into a old man, forced to hide in their ancestral home, deep in the woods.

Sebastian Stan plays Chase Collins, the black sheep who seems to have come home.  Chase grew up without the benefit of knowing his history, and seems to be a little power hungry.  He killed his adoptive parents when he came into his powers, and it seems he has become a little addicted to the rush.  He comes across as Mr. Nice Guy at first, but it doesn't take long before his true colors start to shine through.  Pretty soon he is kidnapping Caleb's blond girlfriend, and trying to force Caleb to give him his powers.

Who the other characters are is really not important, they are pretty much pawns that get moves around the screen.  They are there for the other two characters to interact with, fall in love with (not very believably), and use.  Sure they are pretty and look good on screen, but the other two have them beat hands down.

The movie itself is pretty fun, as long as you don't try to take it too seriously, or over think the plot points.  There are holes in it of course, but I don't know of a pretty boy horror movie that doesn't.  The acting is better than is the norm in this type of movie, and the special affects are as good as you expect from a movie made in 2006.  The fight scene at the end is a lot of fun to watch, and not only because the two guys are drenched.  It's well choreographed, and has just enough tension in it, to keep it from being repetitive.

This is probably only the third time I've seen the movie.  I saw it once at the theater. and once when I first bought it on DVD.  I can't foresee myself watching this one all the time, but it's a fun way to spend 97 minutes of my time, especially when I want to watch a couple of hot guys fight it out.

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

Synopsis From Inside Cover: 

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio.  Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes.  Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of night, they'll patrol the empty Showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

Quirk Books is quickly becoming one of my favorite publishers.  They keep producing works that not only draw you in with a well told story, but they are masters at packaging.  Much like The Thorn & The Blossom by Theodora Goss, another Quirk title, this is one of those books that needs to be experienced in person.  It can't be read over a NOOK or a Kindle.  You can not stare at it on a computer screen, and truly get the experience of reading it.  It's bound and formatted like a furniture catalog, soft cover and French flaps.  The first few pages include the typical store map, Orsk's mission statement, and an order form.  The chapters themselves start with a new piece of furniture, and it's description.  It's a gorgeous book, and the experience of reading it, should be enough to convince everyone to pick it up.

I think I made it pretty clear when I reviewed 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz, that I love a good haunted house story.  I think it was also pretty clear that I get upset when the haunted house story sucks, as it did with the Koontz book.  Thankfully, Horrostor didn't suck.  It was actually, pretty damn good.  I'm not going to say it kept me on my toes the way The Haunting of Hill House does, or that it's nonstop action the way Hell House is, but it was a fun and lively romp through a store, bent on killing those that are still in it.  It had it's scary moments, but I can't stay it ever terrified me, or made me want to turn on all the lights in the house.

I think were it fails as a pure horror novel, it makes up for in it's ability to poke fun at the genre, and at IKEA.  The riff at IKEA is obvious.  From the concept of the store, to the design of the book, to the names of the furniture pieces, it's making fun of the IKEA idea.  But it's also getting at the consumer mentality that allows stores like IKEA or Orsk to exist.  It's the cultural digs that I found to be the most appealing, and the most dead on.

Horrostor also plays with the precepts of the genre.  It takes some of the basic constructs, including character types, and has a ton of fun with them.  I can take each of these characters, and show you examples of them in just about every haunted house novel I've ever read.  Normally, that would be a horribly repetitive, boring thing to do.  Here, it reads more like a hilarious send up of the genre.  Before the action even got started, I knew who would die, and who would live to see another day.  With all that being said, I don't want to come across as if this book should be shelved in the Humor section of Barnes & Noble.  It is, at it's core, a horror novel, it just has a lot of fun with it.

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Golden Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon's dream home.  Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse.  But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace.  For it's fortunate residents - a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager among them - the Pendleton's magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, it's dark past all but forgotten.

But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths.  With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton's past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again.  Soon, all those within it's boundaries will be engulfed by a deadly tide from which few have escaped. 

When do you give up on an author you used to love?  When do you finally say, enough is enough, their new stuff sucks, I'll stick to what I already love?  With Stephen King, it took reading Insomnia for me to get to that point.  The damn thing should have been marketed as a cure for the ailment.  I actually stopped reading Dean Koontz years ago.  I don't even remember which book(s) finally turned me off of his new stuff, but for whatever reason, I was never willing to totally give up.  I almost bought 77 Shadow Street when it first came out, but I kept putting it off.  It wasn't until the hardcover was less than $6 at Barnes & Noble, earlier last month, that I finally decided to give it a go.  I kinda want my money back.

I can never stress how much I wanted to love this book.  To start with, I'm a huge haunted house fan.  I want to like any book that can suck me into dark halls and claustrophobic rooms.  I can read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Hell House by Richard Matheson, Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite, The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz, Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco, or Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters a bazillion times, and never be bored.  It's the whole reason I watched 666 Park Avenue, it sure wasn't for the acting.  Whether it's a book, movie, TV show, or something else; if it involved a haunted house, I'm there.  Hell, I've even lived in a haunted house, though it wasn't as exciting as the movies make it out to be.

On top of that, I used to love Dean Koontz's books when I was younger.  I still love a few of them; Watchers, Strangers, Phantoms, and Lightning being the ones that come to mind.  So put the two together, and it should have been a slam dunk.  Instead, it was a foul ball that hit the catcher in the face.  It was such an odd mishmash of nanotechnology, time travel, temporal portals, mad scientists, and the meaning of life.  It was disguised to look like a haunted house story, but it wasn't.  The plot was so convoluted, I'm still not sure on some of the things that happened.  Nor do I really think I care.  It felt as if the story was constructed by picking themes and events out of a hat, and stringing them together. The only redeeming quality was some of the characters, but there were so many of them, that the ones I liked weren't on screen long enough. Nor do you really have enough time to spend with them, to truly care about what happens to them.  The hero of the piece, though he may have some of the characteristics of some of his earlier heroes, he's never developed enough, not like what I expect from Koontz.

To answer my own question, I think I'm finally willing to admit defeat.  I will not be picking up any more of his new work.  Instead, if I need a Koontz fix, I'll go back to the books that I know I love.

Casino Infernale by Simon R. Green

Synopsis From Back Cover:

My name is Drood.  Eddie Drood, aka Shaman Bond.  For generations my family has protected you ordinary mortals against things that lurk in the darkness, just out of sight, but not at all out of mind.

Unfortunately, I've had a falling out with my near and dear (some of who were trying to kill me), so my true love and powerful witch, Molly Metcalf, and I are now in the employ of the Department of the Uncanny.  We've been given an Extremely Important Assignment: Attend Casino Infernale, and annual event held by the Shadow Bank, financiers of all global supernatural crime.  Our mission: Rig the game and bring down the Shadow Bank.

But as Casino Infernale, the stakes are high indeed - winner takes all, and losers give up their souls...

You have to love a book that plays off the James Bond theme, as often as it can, plus includes dinosaur riding Nazis, an entire race of people who remind me of Oompa Loompas (but better), inter dimensional travel, a sentient car, a game that reminds me of Merlin's battle with Madam Mim, evil banks, parent's who gamble with their son's soul, trips to Mars, an inheritance that can suck the world into a black hole, a giant horse god out for revenge, and bad guys you kinda of like.  And when I mean bad guys I like, I'm really referring to the Grey Bastards.

To explain the Grey Bastards, let's just pretend that James Bond had an overly horny uncle, who also happened to be a spy.  That uncle spread his progeny all over the world, the exact numbers are really not know very well, and almost every single one of them wants to be in the Family.  They are willing to do anything to accomplish that mission, and the Family is more than willing to use them and their desire to belong.  Now they know, and the Family knows, that they, for the most part, will never be accepted, no matter what they do, but that's neither here nor there.  Almost every books has showcased one of these Grey Bastards, and poor Eddie had to kill most of them, if not all of them.  This book features two, and again, they both die.  One of them, the one I didn't like as much, was partly responsible for the death of Molly's parents, and we do find out that truth behind that whole thing in this book.  The other, sent to help Eddie and Molly in their infiltration, turns on them when he thinks they are in over their heads.  I actually liked this guy, he was a little weaselly and slimy, but he was fun.  Too bad he had to make a stupid decision in the end.

As with the rest of the books in this series, Simon R. Green pays homage to his other works, as well as sprinkles in enough pop references to appease even the pickiest of geeks.  I can only imagine, and hope, that he has as much fun writing these books, as I do reading them.  I'm already looking forward to the next one, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed, that the books have no ending.  I'll gladly devour them until the sun refuses to shine anymore, but I'm pretty sure that Eddie and his Family, will keep that from happening.

Other Books In The Series:

The Man With the Golden Torc
Daemons Are Forever
The Spy Who Haunted Me
From Hell With Love
For Heaven's Eyes Only
Live and Let Drood

Favorite Fictional Character --- Dean Winchester

Ever since I fell in love with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I've had a thing for supernaturally leaning TV shows.  I take that back, my love for them is actually older than that.  Other than the anthology shows like Tales from the Darkside or The Twilight Zone, I think it was Friday the 13th: The Series, that really got me worked up over them.  I've actually featured one of the main character from that show, Micki Foster.  Over the years I've watched Beyond Reality, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Kindred: The Embraced, the remake of Dark Shadows, Charmed, Angel, The Vampire Diaries, and of course Supernatural. 

Going on it's 9th season, renewed for a 10th, I must say that while I don't love Supernatural as much as I do Buffy, it's comes pretty damn close.  Of course it helps that the show centers around two very hot brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester.  It's pretty damn hard to pick who the hottest one is, but when you factor in looks, personality, and charisma, Dean wins hands down.  The guy just oozes an odd combination of swagger and vulnerability, and it's damn sexy. 

It's not all about the sex appeal though, granted I would love for the writers to come up with reasons to get him shirtless more often, but it's the whole package that makes him one of the most dynamic characters to ever grace a TV screen.  The guy is fiercely loyal, and will do anything for those close to him.  He may not think it out all the time, he may not care what the consequences are, but he will protect those he loves with everything in him.

He likes to come off as a bad ass ladies man, but underneath that is this rather sweet guy who loves family more than anything else.  He is at his most vulnerable when it comes to family, and if there is trouble, it wounds him to the core.   He's cocky, arrogant, and just a tad bit too sure of his smile, but every once in a while, he lets us see that a lot of false bravado is involved.  

And how can you not love a guy who can got to Hell and back, not to mention Purgatory, and come out with any sense of self left in him.  The mental and emotional strength that would take is mind boggling, and is not something most of us have.

I'll be interested in seeing how he continues to grown and develop, preferably without a shirt on.

Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

One moment in time can haunt you forever.

Caught up in the moment of boyhood competition, William Bellman recklessly aims his slingshot at a rook resting on a branch, killing the bird instantly.  It is a small but cruel act, and is soon forgotten.  B the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, Williams seems to have put the whole incident behind him.  It was as if he never killed the ting at all.  But rooks don't forget...

Years later, when a stranger mysteriously enter William's life, his fortunes begin to turn - and the terrible and unforeseen consequences of his past indiscretion take root.  In a desperate bid to save the only precious thing he has left, he enters into a rather strange bargain with an even stranger partner.  Together, they found a decidedly macabre business. 

And Bellman & Black is born.

Sometimes I think sophomore books get a bums rap.  They are almost always compared to the author's first outing, and for most people, rarely live up to whatever the expectations were, even if they were just in the reader's head.  When that first book is as brilliant and moody as Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, I sort of understand the issue.  A lot of reviews and commentary I heard about Bellman & Black were negative, not because the story was bad, but because it wasn't like her first book.  A lot of bloggers and readers went into it thinking it was going to be a retread of The Thirteenth Tale, and they, for whatever reason, seemed to be disappointed that they are nothing alike.  I for one, was relieved and loving the idea of Bellman & Black standing on it's own power, forcing readers to rethink the type of novel that Setterfield writes.

Where The Thirteenth Tale is dark and brooding, full of family mysteries and decaying buildings, Bellman & Black is full of family love, heart breaking loss, and redemption.  It's still dark and brooding, but the themes explored are totally different and they are not wrapped in Gothic trappings.  Instead we are treated to hints and teases of the supernatural, but we aren't drowned in them.  This is not a urban fantasy book, which I am most grateful for.  It's not full of ghosts and goblins stalking the streets of London, nor is it full of tired cliches that seem to litter the publishing world right now.  Instead Setterfield gives us a novel that explores death and loss in such a way, that as a reader, I'm ready to start planning my funeral.  She made me fall in love with death, while making me contemplate my own life, and the relationships in it.  She made me want to live and enjoy the life I'm given by making me comfortable and horrified by death.

Now I just need to wait and see what Setterfield has in store for us in her third novel.  I'm just hoping that she keeps the atmosphere but gives us something new, something that will both enchant and scare me at the same time.

The Blair Witch Project

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The Blair Witch Project follows a trio of filmmakers on what should have been a simple walk in the woods... but quickly becomes an excursion into heart-stopping terror.  As the three become inexplicably lost, morale deteriorates.  Hunger sets in.  Accusations fly.  By night, unseen evil stirs beyond their campfire's light.  By day, chilling ritualistic figures are discovered nearby.  As the end of their journey approaches, they realize that what they are filming now is not a legend... but their own descent into unimaginable horror.

It's not often that I fall in love with a horror movie when it first comes out.  I've never been a big fan of slasher movies, and this move to torture porn, just annoys the hell out of me.  There is nothing scary about those movies, they're just gross.  How anyone over the age of twelve can be scared by those movies, is beyond my thought process.  For that matter, how anyone over the age of ten can even find most of those movies interesting, boggles the mind.   I want a movie that plays with my head, makes my heart race, and keeps me interested the entire time I watching it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that The Blair Witch Project is the perfect scary movie, because it's not.  I can name about ten movies of the top of my head that terrify me more than this one could ever dream of doing.  But, it does what I want a horror movie to do.  It's takes a simple premise, builds a story around it, and allows the imagination to kick in and fill in the gaps.

When it first came out in 1999, I wasn't buying into the fake hype that this was a "real" movie.  I couldn't even tell where that idea was coming from.  I was watching TV interviews with the actors involved, something that would be impossible had they all died in real life.  Despite all the hype, I found the idea intriguing so I finally talked a friend of mine into seeing it with me, and I was it was love at first sight.

To be fair, the theater was not the right venue for this movie.  In a crowded theater, full of idiotic teenager who can't take anything seriously, it's a little distracting.  It's a little hard to focus on the screen, when those same idiotic teenagers are either laughing of screaming.  Even with all the crap going around me, I found my flight or fight response kicking in.  My pulse was racing, my breath was catching, and I found myself jumping a few times.

Where this movie shines though, is watching it on your couch, cuddled up with the lights off, and nobody else around.  This is the kind of movie that really screws with your head when nothing is around to distract you.  The first time I watched this at home, my instincts didn't want me to walk into the basement.  I actually had to force myself to walk down the stairs.  For any of you who have seen the movie, you know why a basement would not be a good thing.  This movie has to have one of the creepiest endings to ever grace the silver screen.  I watched this movie the other night, and that ending still scared the crap out of me.