This Christmas I wanted to share with you a wonderful limited edition comic which is filled with reprints of festive superhero stories.
This comic is huge which adds a little extra fun! It’s also got gorgeous artwork and although it isn’t actually vintage it still smells great!
There are stories from all different heroes but the one I liked best was actually the first in the book, a Superman story (go figure I’d like that one).
In this story, Superman finds a spoilt little rich boy who doesn’t appreciate his toys and decides to teach him a festive lesson, so he takes him to show him how less fortunate children are spending the holiday.
Of course the little boy isn’t the villain of the piece, there are two men who want to spoil Christmas for everyone and what I liked best was the simplicity of these characters, Mr Grouch and Mr Meany!
Fear not, a lesson is learned and Christmas is saved, but I loved this story and the artwork of the comic.
What a fabulously nostalgic way to welcome christmas!
I hope you’ve all had an amazing day, filled with joy, however you’ve spent it!
I was recently approached by Crystal Lake Publishing to see if I’d like to review this book and I grabbed the opportunity to have this as my Christmas read because it just spoke to me.
I absolutely love the classic Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol, and honestly I’ve never met a version of it that I really didn’t like. Some are better than others but none have ever seemed truly terrible to me.
This isn’t your classic Christmas Carol, it’s very heavily based on that but rather than being just another version it’s a fresh idea which I really liked, I am an absolute horror fan and so I always end up with a horror Christmas story going at this time of year but I also love crime stories and this entwines the two very nicely.
We follow our main character, a rather standard grumpy cop type nicknamed Scrooge, through a gnarly investigation hunting for the serial killer, Humbug.
Obviously, over the course of the story being what it is he will be visited by three spirits and we know the rest.
But what I liked was what Marano did with the characters, the way the original names were laced in without being copies of the original characters was interesting and the actual happenings within the book were honestly pretty bleak.
The most important thing, especially as my attention span has been truly awful this year, it grabbed my attention and successfully kept it. I’m not going to say I read it in one sitting, but it’s easy to pick up and hard to put down and I’ve missed that feeling with reading recently.
I’d definitely recommend this as a Christmas read to any horror/crime fans, perhaps not for you if you want a fluffy christmas story though!
I was gifted this gorgeous hardback book to review last Halloween but sadly it only arrived with me after the event, so rather than reviewing it at Christmas I thought it would be better placed for the following Halloween.
Its an absolutely gorgeous book with beautiful artwork and despite the fact its aimed at small children I enjoyed it! It’s the kind of book you’d enjoy reading to a child and which as they grew they could read alone. Obviously, its not a novel, its a very simple kind of book but that is definitely the target audience.
I’ve never seen another book by this author, but I would be very interested to have a look at another if more are out there. I believe from a quick investigation that this may be Bass’ first book and its a great start in children’s literature.
As we move through the book we get to see the artwork on every page, this is done by children’s book illustrator , Roland Garrigue. I don’t believe I’ve seen his work before but I really like it! I love the colours and it feels like some love went into making the pictures.
I would definitely recommend this one as a gift for any small child for Halloween, I’ve deliberately not included any further pictures because obviously that could spoil the story, but as you can see from the ones I have shared they are quality images and very nicely done.
Apologies again for the radio silence this year, it’s been a very busy one and pretty emotional too which lots of changes so reading has not always been able to be my priority.
However, as we stepped into Spooky Season, I have been making my way through a pile of Comic Books which are all about ghosts, ghouls and monsters!
I’ve picked a few out that I wanted to share with you so here they are;
Spooky the tuff little ghost –
I loved this one, it’s so cute and it really grabbed me because I grew up with Casper the friendly ghost so it gave me some nostalgia. Casper does also have a little story in this one which is nice because whilst the movie was a big thing when I was a kid, I don’t think I ever knew he had a comic.
Ghosts
I really liked the artwork on this one, and something I always enjoy with old comics is the smell, so that definitely sank my attention into this one nicely! I enjoy the cover on this one especially and the story was brilliantly spine tingling!
Batman
This particular Batman comic includes the “Gentleman Ghost”, who reminded me of The Phantom Stranger, who I did read in other comics and I liked both characters, its a brilliant story, seeing Batman confused by the situation and investigate is really fun and the comic also includes a Superman story which I like. Again despite being a Superman fan for most of my life I never had the comics so I didn’t get to see Supes and Batman jumping in and out of stories until the movies showed it to me. It’s really nice to go back and look at the stories in these old books.
The Super Friends
This was a Super Fun read! The idea of a halloween party with all these characters is a great one and I really enjoyed the premise of the story. It’s nice to see them being put into these situations however silly and how they get out of them.
Ripleys Believe it or Not – True Ghost Stories
I loved this, it reminded me of a TV show I used to watch – which I can’t actually remember the name of. It gave you a story and then asked if you thought it was true or not. The artwork is also brilliant and I particularly love the cover. It’s definitely up there on the halloween reads!
Son of Dracula
This one I LOVED, I thought the story line was fantastic and the delivery of it was great. I also really like the artwork. I watch a lot of Hammer Horror and old B Movies and this definitely put me in mind of those.
The comics I showcased here weren’t everything I read, above is the full collection of reading I’ve done ahead of Halloween and I didn’t dislike any of them I just wanted to pick out a few to show you. Maybe someone has never seen one or more of these and would like to check them out!
I recently received a paperback copy of this book as part of the Write Reads Tours for Eerie Exhibits. It came with some pretty little extras which I love and I love them even more now that I’ve read the book and understand how they all fit into the stories.
Growing up I lived near a museum and I loved visiting the park to go to it. This book really took me back, and I have that nostalgic urge now to return and have a look around. Particularly because whilst I was reading this, that museum actually posted images of their updated Egyptian exihibit! Which was a bit weird since I was actually reading a story which was set in that kind of exhibit.
I don’t want to spoil the stories too much but since the first line of the first story tells you its about Butterflies, I can talk about that one. I really liked this and I thought it was a strong start to the book. As a kid walking about the museum I always hated the bug exhibits. They gave me.. not the heebie jeebies as such.. but just a strong sense of foreboding I suppose. I was always slightly unnerved by their existance but I never really worked out why. This story definitely fed on that and I really enjoyed moving through the events and imagining it all playing out.
I think my other favourite would be the final story – The Whispering Shell. This one went to places I really didn’t expect it to as most authors tend to shy away from the ideas in this one. It was excellently written and really kept me interested which again is a really strong way to end a collection like this because by the final story I’ve sometimes found my brain has wandered away but this definitely kept me tuned in.
I didn’t dislike any of the stories and I will definitely be revisiting that childhood museum of mine for a little wander down memory lane! I would absolutely recommend this to anybody looking for an easy read but keep in mind that some may struggle with this read due to subject matter.
The stories aren’t too short but also don’t take long to read so it’s a good commuter book or bedtime story. I found it really easy to pick up whereever I had time so its good if you just have a busy lifestyle too.
If you’re not going to HorrorCon Scotland, click the image to buy the book!
Well its been a while but I’ve managed to snag another collection from the formiddable Mr KJK!
This collection is a short read comprising of four stories all by scottish authors and the idea of it was so that attendees of HorrorCon Scotland were able to get a book signed by all four authors.
So if you are heading to HorrorCon Scotland, have a look out for that book and the authors; David Sodergren John McNee David Williamson Kevin J Kennedy
I really enjoyed this mix of authors, I thought their work mixed really well together. It’s a common gripe for me with collections what you sometimes get stories where the authors styles just don’t really compliment the next story because of a big difference in writing style or tone, but I honestly don’t find that’s an issue with the collections Kevin puts together.
I do have a favourite story in this book, I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of each one this time just because it is only four stories and I will end up spoiling them if I start explaining them, but there was one in particular that really stood out to me and that was ‘Chocolate Covered Eyeball’ by John McNee.
McNee’s story had a real Goosebumps feel to me, so it was a hit of nostaglia intwined with a really good little horror story. It felt not too heavy, a fun a quirky little read whilst still hitting home in the right ways. It’s one of those, ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark’ campfire stories that keep you thinking about it now and then afterwards.
I really liked McNee’s style and I think I’ll have a look for more work by this author, but that said, this being my favourite doesn’t detract from the other stories. I enjoyed them all and I’d definitely pick up another of these regional collections because I like the idea of having a little collection from the different areas of the – dare I say it – UK.
I think this size collection is also a really good idea, some collections I own are huge, with stories much longer and whilst its still fun to get into, busy readers will shy away. This being much smaller with only 4 stories leaves a reader – busy or not – hungry for more.
Today is my stop on the My Heart is Hurting By S E Reed blog tour with The Write Reads. I actually mainly signed up for this based on the length of the book because I figured it’d be an easy one to fit into my schedule but it turned out to be so much more than a quick read.
I would absolutely recommend this if you’re looking for a Quick Read YA story, but be aware that it may be quick but it is not gentle. There are some real situations in this book that some people may have experienced so read it with responsibility and ensure that you have your blanket and a nice hot drink.
Jinny is a teenage girl who just wants to be a kid, but life has other ideas. Most 15 year olds would kill for the kind of freedom Jinny has, being left alone in the apartment to do as she pleases.. but there’s a lot more to it than that and S E Reed invites you to tag along.
I loved the story, the pacing was brilliant and there are some moments that really make you think, on top of that, since its teen life there are some pretty relatable bits in there. As the events of the story ramp up, we meet more characters and there’s a really good moment involving a police officer but I don’t want to spoil it for you so I’m leaving it there.
I did find some of the characters pretty annoying at times, but to be fair, they’re teenagers and I’m 34 years old, so I think that’s actually a sign that the kids are well written!
Something else I really liked is that there is a list of resources at the back of the book for anybody who may have been/may be experiencing similar issues and actually there is one on there that I haven’t actually seen or heard of in a long time but I’ve had experience with them and that is To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) so if you are struggling and you’re considering looking at that organisation – please do, help is there.
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I will be looking for more, this really grabbed me more than I expected and I’d like to see what other stories may be available!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Hangman’s Master by Elyse Hoffman, and I’m going to be really honest – I haven’t finished reading it. I clearly didn’t give myself enough time with my other commitments.
I can however give a first impression, and it will be reviewed properly when I do finish it.
I’m a big fan of Hoffman’s work, having read a lot of her books I’m familiar with some of the characters, the world they live in and The Black Foxes. So although I haven’t read Adiel and the Fuhrer which there is a note at the start of this book that it may be more enjoyable if you’ve first read that one, I am still able to enjoy this book because I’ve read some of the others.
I would say, you can enjoy this book even if you’ve never read any of the others but I do recommend reading at least one because certain characters pop up throughout.
In this book we’re following Stefan, an ex-Nazi who has joined the Black Foxes as he embarks on a new journey – one where he punishes Nazis in the afterlife.
I really like the set up in this one, I don’t want to spoil too much but the setting of the zone that was created for punishment really interested me. Allowing for different timezones in the zone versus the real world.
I’m very much looking forward to getting into the rest of the book, at the point I’m at, I’m learning about what happened before Stefan became a Nazi and how things went when he joined. There’s quite a bit of gay representation in this one with Stefan being gay so if you’re looking for gay representation meets historical fiction then this one’s for you!
What an absolutely beautiful film! From the very first frame I was hooked, the colour palette is perhaps one of the most deliberate I’ve seen in a long time and the pacing of this film was perfect too.
Now this is definitely a marmite movie, there will be plenty of people who hate it but I absolutely loved it and I’m here to tell you why.
The cast slotted perfectly into the time of the film, Willem Dafoe is one of those people you can just put anywhere and he’ll fit but that’s not that common so I was really impressed that the others fit so well. Quite often you can see that something is supposed to be a period piece but the people still scream modern day at you no matter what you dress them in. This wasn’t one of those, these people were perfectly cast back in time to bring us this story.
I loved seeing Nicholas Hoult in this role, having played Renfield already it was really nice to see him play basically the same character in a much more serious way. I never would have guessed when I watched About a Boy that Hoult would become such a strong actor but I’m glad he did. The range of roles this actor has done is impressive, and he’s clearly playing to his interests at this point which is a nice place to see an actor.
Nobody phoned in their performance for this, they were all completely in it and that makes for an amazing movie viewing experience. When you get that one actor who clearly wasn’t interested, or didn’t understand or care for the assignment it spoils it for the rest but this cast took to it and absolutely understood what they had to do.
I’ll make an admission now, I don’t think I’ve ever actually read all of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and if you’re confused about why I’ve brought that up then you need to understand that’s basically what you’re going to see if you go to any version of Nosferatu because that’s what the original intention was to make way back when the original was done. So I don’t know if all of the story of this is true to the source material – I won’t spoil it – but its to do with Ellen so if you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about. But even if that part is Eggers bringing in his own bits of story it worked very well and I enjoyed it being slightly different from the other versions I’ve seen.
One thing I wasn’t immediately keen on was the actual look of Nosferatu, because in this one he’s got a moustache, but to be honest that grew on me partly because it fits with who he’s meant to be and where he’s from, and partly because it’s a way better look than Max Schreck’s crazy scouse brows.
What I did fall in love with was the way that even when the count is fully in frame, its like you can’t quite get a good look at him. This is very clever filming, keeping him in shadows that cast out certain features, or having him stand in front of the fire so that’s brighter than he is. Any frame I saw him in I couldn’t quite see him, it was like trying to look at something other worldly and I absolutely loved that. It gave the impression of something terrifying that your brain just can’t or doesn’t quite want to understand.
There are some absolutely beautiful scenes in this film, the lighting, the colours, everything pulls together and makes a joy to look at. I particularly liked one particular scene where a carriage comes speeding up to Hoult’s character and stops to let him in. The darkness, the colours and the snow make that magical to look at.
I also think this is the scariest version of Nosferatu, I know exactly what happens in this film, I’ve seen versions of it that include the original silent movie but it still had me holding my breath in places and I think part of that is the look they’ve gone for, but its also the general direction of the film. When a character is experiencing fear, anxiety, anger, panic, you can see and feel all of that (and its not often I connect strongly to a film or to the emotions within it, but this one grabs you in these moments and takes you with it).
I can’t really complain about anything in this film and I’d absolutely watch it again. It’s just gorgeous, Eggers has absolutely out done himself with this one, it’ll definitely be getting a place on our shelves at home.
All I can say is, go and see it, and see how you feel about it, I can’t promise you you’ll like it but its an experience you should have.
This book was written by the mother of James Bulger, a name that any child of the 90’s is sure to know. Although many of us probably remember him as Jamie, that was never actually his name its the one the Media used for some reason but the family have been clear that it was always James, so that is what I’ll call him from now on.
This isn’t a comfortable or easy read by any means but it is an important one, you hear about the event, the court case and those who perpetrated this horrible, horrible crime but its mostly focused on Denise and the family aswell as some beautiful memories of James and I can see how laying all of this out in a book was probably (or at least hopefully) quite therapeutic.
You can feel the tension in the language used in this book, there is absolutely no incitement but it’s made very clear through the use of language that we are here to humanise James, and dehumanise Thompson and Venables. At no point does Denise refer to these boys in a humanising way and I agree with that, whilst they have certainly not received the level of punishment they should have for what they did, they were, and remain, the most hated people in the United Kingdom.
The anger around the disappearance of James Bulger was felt around the entire nation, and its something that has never gone away. I was born a few months after James so being the same age as him I’ve always been very aware of what happened. Whilst I very much doubt I was told about it at the time and I know I wouldn’t have been old enough to understand the situation, as I grew up I continued to see pictures of him and hear his story.
As a child, I was an expert at getting out of my Mother’s grip, I would get my hand in just such a position that with one twist I’d be free, my mother would then notice and subsequently find me sat on a bench chatting to some old man or something like that. Reading this book, and reading how in such a short time James was able to wander away from her side and end up with those boys I finally felt the impact of why my Mum was so keen to keep hold of me.
There is one family story which I also, despite knowing what happened to James, never felt quite like it had the same gravity as it does now, as a kid I was a real daddy’s girl, but in my earliest years I just never wanted to be parted from my mum. We were all out doing the shopping, and I was sat in the trolley. At some point they decided to split up to get things, Mum went one way and Dad grabbed the trolley (and me) and went the other. Well, I absolutely screamed the place down with “YOU’RE TAKING ME AWAY FROM MY MUMMY” over and over until my Mum had to rush back and get me, and reassure everyone that I was actually his child and wasn’t being abducted.
Whilst it is looked back on now with some humour, I never quite felt the impact of what I’d done until I listened to this book. What I will say though, is its probably the first and last time the entire country was so community spirited as to react to something like that the way they did. Those of us raised in the 90s were probably actually the safest kids ever because we were watched by the whole community.
It’s hard to say I enjoyed this book without it sounding weird, its not like I can praise the story or characters since its real life and about something horrific, but it is well written, paced and thought out. Whilst you need to be ready to hear about what happened to James, its more about what that event did to his family and those around them.
Rebbie Reviews 