The Smell of Ink/Lukten av Trykksverte

It's Tuesday, which means it's perhaps time for another Top Ten Tuesday post courtesy of  That Artsy Reader Girl , and as it was freebie week in terms of themes, I decided writing a list of horror fiction with movie adaptations. Some of the fiction I'll list has more than one adaptation though. Here's my ten picks. Dracula by Bram Stoker Description from Goodreads When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his 'Master'. In the ensuing battle of wits between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries, Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality...

Last month I read the classic horror novel Hell House by Richard Matheson and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads For over twenty years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mount Everest of haunted houses, it is a venerable mansion whose shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of almost unimaginable horror and depravity. Two previous expeditions to investigate its secrets met with disaster, the participants destroyed by murder, suicide, or insanity. Now a new investigation has been mounted, bringing four strangers to the forbidding mansion, determined to probe Belasco House for the ultimate secrets of life and death. Each has his or her own reasons for daring the unknown torments and temptations of the mansion, but can any soul survive what lurks within the most haunted house on Earth? My Thoughts on the Book Hell House by Richard Matheson makes The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson seem like a fairy-tale in comparison, or Hell House i...

I've finally read the YA vampire novel The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks after it being on my TBR for years and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Think vampires are romantic, sexy, and powerful? Think again. Vampires are dead. And unless they want to end up staked, they have to give up fanging people, admit their addiction, join a support group, and reform themselves. Nina Harrison, fanged at fifteen and still living with her mother, hates the Reformed Vampire Support Group meetings every Tuesday night. Even if she does appreciate Dave, who was in a punk band when he was alive, nothing exciting ever happens. That is, until one of group members is mysteriously destroyed by a silver bullet. With Nina (determined to prove that vamps aren't useless or weak) and Dave (secretly in love with Nina) at the helm, the misfit vampires soon band together to track down the hunter, save a werewolf, and keep the world safe from the li...

Recently, I read the classic cosmic horror novella At the Mountains of Madnes by H. P. Lovecraft and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish vision, H.P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, At the Mountains of Madness. The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition's uncanny discoveries --and their encounter with an untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilization--is a milestone of macabre literature. My Thoughts on the Book For me, it was an okay read, but nothing more than that. Fair enough, it does have a bit of an atmosphere, especially as the narrator is part of an expedition to Antarctica, and there's lots of descriptions and observations because of that. Some might find it a bit dry because of that, but in a way, it makes it a bit more fun for me, as ...

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for yet another Top Ten Tuesday post courtesy of  That Artsy Reader Girl  and today's topic is modern books I think will be classics in the future. As I'm focusing on horror and paranormal books on this blog, I'll obviously write a list based on that. Fair enough, I've added Pet Sematary by Stephen King, which was first published in the 80's and somewhat got a bit of a classic status already, or at least Stephen King is a bit of a living legend when it comes to (modern) horror, so there's that. Anyway, here's my ten picks. Pet Sematary by Stephen King Description from Goodreads The house looked right, felt right, to Dr Louis Creed. Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago. Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding ...

I recently read the supernatural thriller The Loch by Steve Alten and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Marine biologist Zachary Wallace once suffered a near-drowning experience in legendary Loch Ness, and now, long-forgotten memories of that experience have begun haunting him. The truth surrounding these memories lies with Zachary’s estranged father, Angus Wallace, a wily Highlander on trial for murder. Together the two plunge into a world where the legend of Loch Ness shows its true face. My Thoughts on the Book The Loch is one of those book you have to take for what it is - a fast-paced and engaging supernatural thriller, and it was a lot of fun reading it. Fair enough, there were a few times when I rolled my eyes a bit, such as the whole (Black) Templars thing, death penalty in the UK (spoiler alert - the last execution in the UK was in 1964), and the overall Dan Brown-vibes at times. While the plot and the story-line was a bit over the top at t...

Recently, I read the horror short story collection 3 Stones for the Nixie - Stories of Life and Death in Øyerstad by Kjell-Vidar Åhman Teig and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads 3 Stones for the Nixie is a standalone book set in the same universe as A Battle Against Demons. It’s 1989. Robert Baastad, his family, and friends navigate their seemingly ordinary lives in Øyerstad, a village nestled deep in the forests and cornfields of Indre Østfold. Robert races through the streets on his Apache bike, his little brother Fredrik pedalling furiously behind on his BMX. They are the Hulk and Spider-Man, famous football stars, and the highest-paid actors—whoever they want to be. They fly past the gas station near their house, their grandparents’ home, and across the road, abandoning their bikes as they dash toward the kiosk. It’s Saturday. Scattered houses stand silent across the Haugen fields, framed by golden corn, blue skies, and vibrant green grass. They...

A little while ago, I read the cosmic horror novel The Fisherman by John Langan and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it. My Thoughts on the Book The Fisher...

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for another Top Ten Tuesday post courtesy of  That Artsy Reader Girl  and today's topic is the first ten books I randomly grabbed from my shelves. Here's my ten picks. Cookin for Ghosts by Patricia V. Davis Description from Goodreads Do hearts broken long ago forever leave a tangible trace? A Vegas cocktail waitress. An Indian herbalist. A British chemistry professor. An Italian-American widow. Four unique women with one thing in common: each is haunted by a tragedy from her past. Cynthia, Rohini, Jane, and Angela meet on a food blogging site and bond over recipes. They decide on impulse to open The Secret Spice, an elegant café on the magnificent ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary, currently a floating hotel in Long Beach, California. Rich in history and tales of supernatural occurrences, the ship hides her own desperate secrets. The women are surrounded by ghosts long before they step aboard, but once they do, nothing is quite what it...

As we're so close to Halloween, of course I felt the need to do another Halloween-themed book tag. I found the Hyped For Halloween Book Tag over at  Life of a Female Bibliophile  and decided to play along. What book gave you the creeps? The Midwives by Duncan Ralston most certainly gave me the creeps, in addition to making me sure in NOT wanting to birth any kids. I'm all okay with potentially being a stepmother though. What book gives you the best Halloween vibes? Halloween: A Short Story Collection by Matt Shaw is a suitable spooky read for Halloween. What’s your favorite vampire book? As I'm a bit of a Dracula geek, I obviously had to say that classic by Bram Stoker for this prompt. Otherwise I suspect a few of my friends would be wondering if I'm ill or something. What book scared you so much you had to sleep with the light on? Ahem, none has that effect on me, especially as I started reading Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe when I was around 12 years old. I'm ...

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for another Top Ten Tuesday post courtesy of  That Artsy Reader Girl  and as it was a Halloween freebie this week in terms of themes, I decided to write a list of spine-chilling books to read for this upcoming holiday. Some of them are even set during Halloween and/or the autumn. Here's my ten picks. This Is Halloween by James A. Moore Description from Goodreads Author James A. Moore offers up ten autumnal tales of the darker things that lurk just around the corner of Indian Summer. A man learns of a town's obsession with scarecrows and tries to find the answers as to why they are so important. Children move through familiar streets and find that Halloween makes everything different. Tis' the season when ghosts are real, witches soar through the night, and things in the Beldam Woods are not always what they seem. Sometimes it's the monsters that wear the masks. Halloween: A Collection of Short Stories by Matt Shaw Description...