The Smell of Ink/Lukten av Trykksverte

A few months ago, I read the dark academia/horror novel The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's by Hanna Alkaf and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads An all-girls private school is struck with mysterious cases of screaming hysteria in this chilling dark academia thriller haunted by a deeply buried history clawing to the light. For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women. Unfortunately, there is also the screaming. When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected—along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation. Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her. Rache...

Recently, I read the Korean vampire mystery novel The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-ran and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads A bestseller in Korea, a biting, fast-paced vampire murder mystery exploring queer love and the consequences of loneliness. When four isolated elderly people commit suicide back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn’t understand why she’s the only one at her precinct that seems to care. Dismissing the case as a series of unfortunate events due to the patients’ loneliness, the police force doesn't engage. But Su-Yeon doesn’t have the privilege of looking away. Her dearest friend, Grandma Eun-Shim, lives on the sixth floor, and Su-Yeon is terrified that something will happen to her next. As Su-Yeon begins her investigation alone, she runs into a mysterious woman named Wanda at the crime scene. Wanda, hot on the trail of her ex-lover, Lily, gives Su-Yeon the answer: a vampire did...

Earlier this year, I read the novel Emma and the Vampires by Wayne Johnson and Jane Austen, and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads What better place than pale England to hide a secret society of gentlemen vampires? In this hilarious retelling of Jane Austen's Emma , screenwriter Wayne Josephson casts Mr. Knightley as one of the most handsome and noble of the gentlemen village vampires. Blithely unaware of their presence, Emma, who imagines she has a special gift for matchmaking, attempts to arrange the affairs of her social circle with delightfully disastrous results. But when her dear friend Harriet Smith declares her love for Mr. Knightley, Emma realizes she's the one who wants to stay up all night with him. Fortunately, Mr. Knightley has been hiding a secret deep within his unbeating heart-his (literal) undying love for her... A brilliant mash-up of Jane Austen and the undead. My Thoughts on the Book While I love both classics and vampires...

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 ...

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...

As it's soon Halloween, I couldn't resist reading the poetry anthology Poems Bewitched and Haunted edited by John Hollander and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads A delightfully ghoulish array of specters and sorceresses, witches and ghosts, hags and apparitions haunt these pages–a literary parade of phantoms and shades to add to the revelry of All Hallow’s Eve. From Homer to Horace, Pope to Poe, Randall Jarrell to James Merrill, Poems Bewitched and Haunted draws on three thousand years of poetic forays into the supernatural. Ovid conjures the witch Medea, Virgil channels Aeneas’s wife from the afterlife, Baudelaire lays bare the wiles of the incubus, and Emily Dickinson records two souls conversing in a crypt, in poems that call out to be read aloud, whether around the campfire or the Ouija board. From ballads and odes, to spells and chants, to dialogues and incantations, here is a veritable witches’ brew of poems from the spirit world. My Th...

Earlier this month, I read the novel Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas, which combines paranormal and historical fiction, and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda. As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago. Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind. When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together...

Recently, I read the sapphic paranormal romance novel Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist by Ali K. Mulford and K. Elle Morrison and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Get ready for a bewitching tale of love, laughter, and supernatural shenanigans in the heart of Maple Hollow! The last thing apothecary witch, Jordyn, had on her mind was romance, but when she got witchy-wasted, she cracked open the coffin of her love life and conjured the ghost of her ex-girlfriend. Jordyn is in for a spell of trouble now that the snarky specter is determined to haunt her until she finds someone new. Enter Harlow, the new girl in town, who just wants a job in her sister’s cafe but she discovers that the spooky town of Maple Hollow is more than just a gimmick. Real magic lives here. But after run-ins with vampires and one too many grave cafe blunders, she's ready to hop on a broomstick and fly out of town. Until she finds herself falling under the spell of the enchanti...

Recently, I read the children's poetry collection Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble edited by Paul Cookson and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Can you hear the distant dragon's rumble of thunder? And smell the sweet swampy aroma of the ogre? Can you taste the tangy tarantula tarts? And see the girl who's really a wizard? From magic carpets and wands to unicorns, potions, creams and lotions, Paul Cookson's brewing a spell of fantastically magic poems. On this tattered magic carpet You can choose your destination For nothing's quite as magical As your imagination Beautifully illustrated by Eilidh Muldoon, this enchanting anthology brings together work from a range of classic, established and rising poets. Whether you're in the mood for a haunting or a spell gone wrong, this collection of mesmerising poems will have you bewitched from beginning to end! Poets include: William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Benjamin Zephaniah, John Agard,...

Recently I read the short story collection Ghost Camera by Darcy Coates and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads When Jenine finds an abandoned polaroid camera, she playfully snaps a photo without a second thought. But there's something wrong with the image: a ghostly figure stands in the background, watching her. Fixated on her. Moving one step closer with every picture she takes. Desperate, Jenine shares her secret with her best friend, Bree. Together they realize the camera captures unsettling impressions of the dead. But now the ghosts seem to be following the two friends. And with each new photo taken, a terrible danger grows ever clearer… INCLUDES CHILLING NEW BONUS STORIES: *A woman survives a plane crash in a remote arctic tundra, accompanied only by a stranger who seems fixated on something moving through the blinding snow. * A house stands empty. Hungry. Waiting for the children drawn to it like moths to a flame. *A woman finds a shoebox filled with ...

A couple of weeks ago, I read the vampire novel The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl and today I'm posting my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Sonia Hartl’s The Lost Girls is laced with dark humor and queer love; it’s John Tucker Must Die with a feminist girl gang of vampires. When Elton Irving turned Holly Liddell into a vampire in 1987, he promised her eternal love. But thirty-four years later, Elton has left her, her hair will be crimped for the rest of immortality, and the only job she can get as a forever-sixteen-year-old is the midnight shift at Taco Bell. Holly’s afterlife takes an interesting turn when she meets Rose McKay and Ida Ripley. Having also been turned and discarded by Elton—Rose in 1954, and Ida, his ex-fiancée, in 1921—they want to help her, and ask for her help in return. Rose and Ida are going to kill Elton before he turns another girl. Though Holly is hurt and angry with Elton for tossing her aside, she’s reluctant to kill her ex, until Holly meets Pa...

Last month, I read Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica, but I wanted to post my review now as August is Women In Translation Month . Description from Goodreads Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved...

Tidligere i år leste jeg boka Post Mortem: med begravelsesagenten på åstedet av Tor-Håkon Gabriel Håvardsen og i dag kommer omtalen av boka. Beskrivelse fra forlaget Alt du (ikke) vil vite om døden - rått, ærlig og undersøkende fra landets mest profilerte begravelsesagent. Tor-Håkon Gabriel Håvardsen har hentet tusenvis av døde mennesker og fulgt dem trygt til sitt siste hvilested. Som begravelsesagent har han sett det meste, også mistenkelige dødsfall som av mangel på kunnskap og ressurser er blitt kategorisert som naturlige. Kanskje går det mang en drapsmann løs der ute? I denne boken gir Håvardsen svar på alt vi lurer på etter å ha sett eller lest en true crime. Det spares ikke på makabre detaljer når han tar oss med ut til blodige åsteder, til rettsmedisinerens bord, inn i krematorieovnen og ned i den mystiske graven. Underveis går han bak kulissene i jobben med døden som arbeidsgiver, følger en kropp fra rigor mortis til forråtnelsen har gjort sitt, og deler betraktninger om døds...

Recently, I read the non-fiction book Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original "Psycho" by Harold Schecter, and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Murder Was the Least of His Crimes… The truth behind the twisted crimes that inspired the films Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs… From Harold Schechter, “America's principle chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers” (The Boston Book Review), comes the definitive account of Ed Gein, whose ghoulish crimes stunned an unsuspecting nation. The year is 1957. Photographs would show him across the country: a slight, Midwestern man with a twisted little smile, a man who had lived for ten years in his own world of murder and depravity. Here is the grisly true story of Ed Gein, the killer whose fiendish fantasies inspired Alfred Hitchcock's “Psycho”—the mild-mannered farmhand bound to his domineering mother, driven into a series of gruesome a...

Earlier this year, I read The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, a short story collection which also contained some of his other stories, and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Introducing Little Clothbound irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. A Penguin Classic Hardcover Arguably America's most influential short story writer, Edgar Allan Poe's tales of suspense never fail to spook and amaze. Gathered in this selection are his very best horror stories, including the gothic tour de force "The Fall of the House of Usher," the other-worldly "The Masque of the Red Death," and the murderous "The Tell-Tale Heart." My Thoughts on the Book As I mentioned, this is a collection of several short stories, which I'll list. -The Masque of the Red Death -The Fall of the House of Usher -The Black Cat -Ligeia ...

I recently read The Vengeful Dead by Darcy Coates, which is the last book in the Gravekeeper series, and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads How far will she go to save the damned? Keira is caught in a deadly battle. Her ability to help ghosts move on from the mortal world has made her a threat to Artec, a powerful corporation intent on trapping the tortured dead for profit. They've been tracking her for years and now, finally, there's nowhere left for her to run. Artec fears Keira and everything she's capable of. They will stop at nothing to eliminate her―including sending armed men after everyone she holds dear. Desperate and quickly running out of time, Keira races to hone her abilities as she searches for a way to destroy the twisted organization for good. But at least now she's no longer alone. Her friends have offered to follow wherever she leads, even if that means a direct strike deep into the heart of Artec's central base....