Darkness Falls
by Cate Tiernan

Rating: D

Last fall, Nastasya ran away to rehab for bad immortals that want to find forgiveness. But when things don’t seem to be getting any better, she runs away only to end up in the same place she was before: partying all night with her friends. Incy, her best friend, has taken a turn for the worst, dabbling in dark magic and raping humans of their life force. She wants to help him, but when he tries to take her power, she quickly realizes that some people cant be saved. 

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I found this book to be very disappointing. I remember reading Immortal Beloved and loving it. This one not so much. I had a really hard time getting into this book because of the writing. It was so hip and over the top that it came off as fake and forced. It was a struggle to get through it and at times I just had to put it down and walk away. Also, Nasty’s personality really didn’t help matters. She seemed like a whiny, rich bitch that needs a hard dose of reality. All these things, coupled with the fact that the first two thirds of the book were boring as hell, made it even less enjoyable. 

I feel like it’s my own fault that I wasn’t that big a fan of this book because I compare everything that Tiernan writes to the Sweep series, which was absolutely amazing. It’s almost as if everything she has written has become progressively worse. It could also be the fact that Tiernan refuses to write anything outside of the wicca and fantasy genre. After a while it all just seems the same, and I wish she would step out of her comfort zone. For some reason I feel like she would be able to write a really good werewolf novel. 

Anyway, I liked the last one hundred pages when the action starts to pick up and Nasty realizes that she’s not the cause of the bad things that keep happening. I am planning on reading the last book in the series, Eternally Yours, but if this turns out to be another one of the those “its supposed to be a trilogy but let’s make it seven books” kinda thing I won’t continue on. 

-Review by A.M.

The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls
by Alex Irvine

Rating: B+

In this collections of supernatural beings, Sam and Dean Winchester take you along as they explain all the Hunter’s knowledge they and their father have collected over the years. Narrated by the two brothers, The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls maps out a vast majority of creatures out there, as well as ways to create and destroy them. Included are two indexes that can be referenced at a later date: one for herbs that can be used for spells, and one that accounts for well-known demons.

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My friend actually got this book for me. Since she knows I’m practically obsessed with Supernatural and she knew it was going to be a challenge to get me something that I didn’t already have from the show, she decided to go with this and hoped for the best. And oddly enough, this was probably the one thing I didn’t already own.

Since the show is going on its eighth season, it felt a little weird reading this since it seems to be set sometime during the second season. While the book is narrated by both Sam and Dean, I sometimes found it hard to tell who was talking during a specific time. They refer to themselves in the third person all the time, so that didn’t help. Irvine has their personalities down pat, but most of this book felt mostly like Dean was speaking.

The excerpts from John’s journal were a nice touch. I also liked how they would talk about a hunt that had just been one of the episodes either in season one or season two, but sometimes he did it a bit too much. If you’re a fan of the show you know what happened in the episodes, so there’s no need to retell it again. There were moments when this retelling would take three pages, and I thought that space could have been used for something else. Either to have more folklore about whatever creature they were talking about or to include a different creature that wasn’t there.

-Review by C.M.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs

Rating: B-

Before losing his grandfather to a mysterious late-night attack by a monster, Jacob gets a message from him: Go to the island. Find the Bird. In the loop. Not knowing what that means or where even to start his search, Jacob takes a few stabs in the dark before finding the island his grandfather grew up on. Traveling there with his dad, he soon discovers that there’s more to the island than meets the eye. After seeing a strange girl running through the woods and following her into a cavern, Jacob finds himself in September of 1940. He learns that the strange stories his grandfather told him were true, and that the children his grandfather were friends with are still alive in the time loop. But an old threat has finally found their hiding place, and it may be all Jacob’s fault.

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This book was hard for me to rate, because I didn’t like it in the beginning, and then I liked it, and then I didn’t like it again. So I guess I’ll start with what I liked. As soon as Jacob made it to the island and discovered the house full of kids I found myself more drawn into the story. I don’t know what it was, but once all the kids and their powers were introduced I felt like the story had so much more going for it. It was really entertaining at that point, and I didn’t want it to end. Yes, it does have an uncanny resemblance to X-Men, yet to me that was alright.  But it had to end eventually, and the minute Emma and Jacob start sucking face was the minute I’d had enough of this book.

Which leads to my next point: the things I didn’t like. The beginning paints Jacob to be nothing more than a friendless rich snob who does nothing but complain about his wealth. It was really promising after the prologue, but chapter one just went downhill. Then there’s the romance between Emma and Jake. It’s unnecessary. Truly, truly unnecessary, and I think I would’ve liked this one better if it hadn’t been there. The other problem I had was that this is now going to be a series. Ransom Riggs, despite popular belief, it is okay to have a stand alone novel. It’s okay, don’t be scared that you’re not fitting in.

But no, he’s making it into a series. I would’ve preferred it if it’d just been on it’s own and the problems would’ve been resolved in the one novel, but I guess I ask too much.

-Review by C.M.

Mockingjay
by Suzanne Collins 

Rating: D-

The rumors about District Thirteen are true.They are alive and thriving and ready to take down the Capitol, and they want Katniss to be their mouth piece. She agrees, as long as all the victors that are being held captive are granted immunity upon release. Her main concern is Peeta, especially since she knows that everything she says is a blow against him. But when they finally get him out, Katniss realizes that he isn’t the same loving gentle boy she once knew. Snow has brainwashed him into thinking that Katniss is the enemy, and all signs point to him never recovering. Now more than ever, Katniss wants to take her revenge on the president. And so, she and her squad head out to end his life and the war, but not everyone is going to make it out alive. 

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I remember hearing that this series was one of the few that didn’t put the romance as a main focus. This books makes everyone a liar. Everyone in this book is in love: Gale, Peeta, Katniss, Finnick, Annie (who I don’t remember being mentioned in Catching Fire, but then again my memory sucks). And I have to say that I just didn’t care. Because I don’t like Peeta or Gale, and Katniss is all but useless in this book. Especially since all she does is cry whenever she so much as thinks about Peeta. Needless to say, whenever someone died I wasn’t bothered at all (call me heartless). 

When I started reading this, I was expecting Katniss to be just getting to District 13, but no, it just skips like months in between without explanation and you’re just supposed to figure it out as you read. I was also expecting there to be a lot of fighting, but once again I was wrong. It focuses mostly on them making videos to fuel the war on the rebels’ side. Katniss is pretty much just a show piece and does next to nothing. She spends all her time hiding in a supply closet or drugged up. It’s not until the end that it starts to focus more on the war and Katniss finally becomes the strong main character she’s supposed to be. The last twenty pages are the only part of the book that I actually enjoyed reading. I liked the ending and how she killed Coin because I feel like under her rule nothing will have changed, except then the slaves will be all the people that lived in the Capitol.

I know most people either loved this book or hated it. I hated it. I thought it was boring and disappointing. My advice to anyone thinking about reading this series would be to watch the movie, because it’s better than the book, read Catching Fire and act like the third book doesn’t exist. 

-Review by A.M.

The Woman in Black
by Susan Hill

Rating: B+

Looking back on his life as an old man, former solicitor Arthur Kipps recalls the time he spent at the small town of Crythin Gifford and Nine Lives Causeway when he was a young man. Having to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of one Mrs. Alice Drablow, the young Kipps soon finds himself in her home, the far away Eel Marsh House that stands alone at the end of the causeway. Not understanding the locals aversion to both the house and the late Mrs. Drablow, Kipps expects nothing more than routine business as he ventures out to the house to go through her personal papers before settling her estate. But things take a drastic turn when he finds himself being plagued by horrifying sounds and images, and mystery unfolds during his time spent in Mrs. Drablow’s former residence. Yet one image proves most terrifying: the apparition of a woman dressed all in black who seems to be following his every move.

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I decided I wanted to read this book after seeing the movie, just to see how it compared (and ultimately decided which one was better). The story itself was entertaining and the plot was almost the same as the one they created for the movie, although sometimes I found it hard to get through Hill’s writing. I understand that she was trying to stick to how a gentleman, like Kipps, would write during the period of time in which the story is set, but there were parts that I found I really had to focus to understand what she was trying to convey. Maybe it was what I thought were constant run-on sentences, a common practice if you look back at novels written during the story’s set era, but for me they made it all that much harder to read. However, you do get used to it, so I guess I can’t complain that much.

Then there are the parts that could have been left out entirely. Or, even better, the parts that seemed useless could have been better used to add to the mystery of Eel Marsh House and the strange things that go on there. For instance, I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to constantly describe the weather or how the air was cold or how the village looked. We get it. We got it the first time around, there really is no need to repeat it another four or five times. The whole book is only 164 pages long, so to me every word needs to count. Sometimes I feel like Hill forgot that, and so things were pushed off and then speedily told toward the end of the story. The ending was abrupt, which was probably due to the problem I just mentioned.

In the end, while the book and movie are similar in certain aspects, they are also completely different in others. I for one thought the movie was better, just because it was scarier and ultimately had a better twist than the book did. Still, this book is entertaining enough, and has a good ghost story within its pages, although it’s definitely not as terrifying as you would expect.

-Review by C.M.