The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

2011, Harlequin TEEN

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Synopsis: To cold faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought.

Then Meghan Chase - a half human, half fey slip of a girl - smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive.
 
With the unwelcome company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end - a quest to find a way to honor his vow to stand by Meghan's side.
 
To survive in the Iron Realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. And along the way Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Good: Ash in the forefront. Ash and Puck, traveling together. Ash and Puck dealing with their shared past and current situation with Meghan being a distant character, unable to get involved in the boys issues. I loved the trek, the challenges Ash had to face, everything that lead back to Meghan. Everything, except . . .

The Bad: There is a significant problem with the resolution Ash's major issue in this book. He wants a soul. He must earn a soul, as he is fey and they don't have souls. Souls are a purely human thing. The fey DO NOT have souls. Therefore, Kagawa's plan on how Ash obtains a soul is impossible. Without giving anything away, all I can say is it does not work. You can't say fey's don't have souls of there own and then go the route the author went here. I don't know, maybe she didn't realize went against everything she had previously stated. Or maybe she meant for some exception to that rule. Either way, it kills the power behind stating that souls are not something the fey possess. You can't have it both ways and it absolutely ruined a perfect book for me.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

1999, William Morrow Paperbacks

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Synopsis: Hopelessly crossed in love, a boy of half-fairy parentage leaves his mundane Victorian-English village on a quest for a fallen star in the magical realm. The star proves to be an attractive woman with a hot temper, who plunges with our hero into adventures featuring witches, the lion and the unicorn, plotting elf-lords, ships that sail the sky, magical transformations, curses whose effects rebound, binding conditions with hidden loopholes and all the rest.

The Good: I haven't enjoyed Gaiman's books as of late. I've enjoyed a few, but on the whole, I tend to hate his stories. I went into Stardust with nothing short of dread in my heart. I dragged my feet the whole way into this book, pushing it off time and again. Turns out, I didn't hate it. It's a fun, lightly written, fairy tale full of dark things. Decent characters and an easy to follow plot made the book very readable and not worthy of the near insurmountable hesitation on my part.

The Bad: Who does Gaiman write these books for? Books like Stardust and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I mean. They're obviously children's stories, with their basic vocabulary and fairy tale/fable/moral story vibe. They're even presented as such, with big fonts and widely spaced letters. Except the situations faced soon turn darker than your average third graders taste. They're clearly written for adults, but adults with limited vocabularies and bad vision? It bugged me the entire time I read Stardust.

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

1999, Penguin Books

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Synopsis: Meet Bridget Jones—a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:

a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

"123 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

Bridget Jones' Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and — like millions of readers the world round — you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"

The Good: Bridget Jones, as a person, was awkward - well before awkward was something people celebrated in TV shows and internet memes. It was humorous at times.

The Bad: It is really, really hard to feel Bridget's pain when her pain revolves around being 120ish pounds and the size of her couldn't-possibly-be-all-that-large thighs. Her issues do eventually move past these trivial things and turn to focus on her love life, which is just plain sad. Completely textbook choices of the whiny girl in her twenties. The fact that it was playing out in her 30s, when she should clearly know better, is more pathetic than anything else. Bridget's issues are all in her own mind and of her own doing. At least the movie managed to make it seem charming more often than not.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 22: A New Beginning by Robert Kirkman

 A New Beginning by Robert Kirkman

2014, Image Comics

Series: Book 22 of The Walking Dead

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Rating

Synopsis: In the aftermath of ALL OUT WAR, Rick Grimes and his allies begin to rebuild their communities. But in the world of the dead, tranquility is only temporary. How long will it be before a new, unexpected foe emerges?

The Good: The volume starts out a couple years in the future. Seems we skipped over everybody settling into more stable, mundane lives. I feel this is a good choice. It's a lot more believable that there would be a prolonged period of peace than having new villains appear one right after another as they have in the past.

The Bad: A very slow volume, as they all are right after the epic battle volumes. It's an established cycle in The Walking Dead comic world and we continue on it yet again. Rick makes a truly stupid decision, guaranteed to put the group in danger, in an effort to pretend they are civilized people despite years of bloodshed. The new big bad is introduced and it feels like Kirkman is really reaching here.

Suspicion by Alexandra Monir

Suspicion by Alexandra Monir

2014, Delacorte Press

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Synopsis: “There’s something hidden in the maze.”

Seventeen-year-old Imogen Rockford has never forgotten the last words her father said to her, before the blazing fire that consumed him, her mother, and the gardens of her family’s English country manor.

For seven years, images of her parents’ death have haunted Imogen’s dreams. In an effort to escape the past, she leaves Rockford Manor and moves to New York City with her new guardians. But some attachments prove impossible to shake—including her love for her handsome neighbor Sebastian Stanhope.

Then a life-altering letter arrives that forces Imogen to return to the manor in England, where she quickly learns that dark secrets lurk behind Rockford’s aristocratic exterior. At their center is Imogen herself—and Sebastian, the boy she never stopped loving.

The Good: Suspicion contains a wonderful murder mystery. Had the book focused solely on the mystery and cut all the other distracting nonsense, it could have easily been a five star book. An orphan girl raised in America becoming duchess and uncovering the hidden details of why her entire family is dead is more than enough to carry a book.

The Bad: The aforementioned nonsense. A unrequited love, from 10 years previous, who she never even looked up on social media? Right. He dates her cousin for an entire decade, until the cousin dies, and then just maybe realizes he really loves Imogen? Sure. Randomly thrown in supernatural gobbledygook, in a feeble attempt to make the book more marketable? Great. Wrap that all up in a tidy Princess Diaries ripoff bow, where Imogen has duchess lessons in etiquette or whatever. Wait, that could have worked, I guess, if she had cared a whit about being duchess rather than pining over some boy who'd been banging her cousin forever. All unnecessary attempts to appeal to current book trends that ultimately drag the book down to barely a 3 star rating.

Nick and Tesla's Super-Cyborg Gadget Glove by Bob Pflugfelder

Nick and Tesla's Super-Cyborg Gadget Glove by Bob Pflugfelder

2014, Quirk Books

Series: Book 4 of Nick and Tesla

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Synopsis: Einstein is running amok! Darwin is losing his head! The science museum in Half Moon Bay is in big trouble because its robotic replicas of history’s greatest scientists keep going kablooey! As 11-year-old amateur inventors Nick and Tesla Holt try to uncover the cause, they’ll need to keep adding all-new gadgets to their latest creation, a customized super-cyborg glove. Follow the action, and then follow the illustrated instructions to build your own gadget glove with four incredible functions: LED signal light, emergency alarm, sound recorder, and UV secret-message revealer!

The Good: I love educational series for kids where they can learn while being entertained. Instead of history or mythology, this series focuses on science, technology, and engineering which are rarely - if ever - topics kids find in fiction. Mixed with a kid-friendly mystery, this series continues to be fun that will appeal to book lovers and hesitant-readers alike.

The Bad: My complaints are the same with every book in this series. The story is fine and characters are fine, but the words are off. The phrasing is awkward. There is no flow. The grammar is correct, but it's as though the words are sputtering along instead of being a smooth ride.

Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold

Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold

2014, Tor Books

Series: Book 1 of Artemis Awakened

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Rating

Synopsis: The distant world Artemis is a pleasure planet created out of bare rock by a technologically advanced human empire that provided its richest citizens with a veritable Eden to play in. All tech was concealed and the animals (and the humans brought to live there) were bioengineered to help the guests enjoy their stay…but there was always the possibility of danger so that visitors could brag that they had “bested” the environment.

The Empire was shattered in a horrific war; centuries later humanity has lost much of the advanced technology and Artemis is a fable told to children. Until young archaeologist Griffin Dane finds intriguing hints that send him on a quest to find the lost world. Stranded on Artemis after crashing his ship, he encounters the Huntress Adara and her psych-linked companion, the puma Sand Shadow. Their journey with her will lead Dane to discover the planet’s secrets…and perhaps provide a key to give unimagined power back to mankind.

The Good: If you can get past the first half of the book's slow and pretty boring progress, there is a fairly decent story here. The shift in pace was jarring, but I was so thankful for it, we'll call it a good thing. When dealing with the science fiction angles on genetic modification and breeding, the book was at its best. Had the entire book focused on that, instead of meandering through weird feudal fantasy to get there, it could have been a 5 star read.

The Bad: My big problem with this book was the synopsis is a total bait and switch. Look at that first paragraph. Awesome, right? Except, we never see or talk about any of that in the book. That awesome part is part of the past and it's completely glossed over in the book. The present is so far removed from that past, that there is absolutely no reason we needed to tease that former reality. The book itself pales in comparison to the opening premise of the synopsis and that is really not the impression you want to make to a reader. It completely set me up for disappointment.

Taken at Dusk by C. C. Hunter

Taken at Dusk by C. C. Hunter

2012, St. Martin's Press

Series: Book 3 of Shadow Falls

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Synopsis: Step into Shadow Falls, a camp for teens with supernatural powers. Here friendship thrives, love takes you by surprise, and our hearts possess the greatest magic of all.

Kylie Galen wants the truth so badly she can taste it. The truth about who her real family is, the truth about which boy she's meant to be with--and the truth about what her emerging powers mean. But she's about to discover that some secrets can change your life forever…and not always for the better.

Just when she and Lucas are finally getting close, she learns that his pack has forbidden them from being together. Was it a mistake to pick him over Derek? And it's not just romance troubling Kylie. An amnesia-stricken ghost is haunting her, delivering the frightful warning, someone lives and someone dies. As Kylie races to unravel the mystery and protect those she loves, she finally unlocks the truth about her supernatural identity, which is far different--and more astonishing--than she ever imagined.

The Good: At the last moments of the third book in the series, we finally learn what Kylie is. Pretty much. It's not like we got a clear definition, but at least we have a label of sorts. It's unexpected (because, I assume it's a completely made-up by the author thing, but I could be wrong), but it's something. We get some real action and some real life and death stuff, there seems to be a definite upping of the ante. Kylie now has a direction to focus in so there is real hope for faster paced plot progression in the future. I hope.

The Bad: Kylie needs to swear off dudes. She's an awful person when it comes to dating. It's not that she can't decide between the two guys, it's that she gets one and then only wants the other. Then she gets the other and only wants the first one. And because of this manufactured boy drama, she can't be bothered to spend her time alerting adults to her issues, learning how to harness her abilities or protect herself from danger. The world revolves around her easily-bored heart and it's one of the single most annoy things I've ever read.

Book of Shadows by Cate Tiernan

Book of Shadows by Cate Tiernan

2007, Speak

Series: Book 1 of Sweep

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Rating

Synopsis: Something is happening to me that I don't understand.

I see things, feel things in a new way. I can do things normal people can't do. Powerful things. Magical things. It scares me.

I never chose to learn witchcraft. But I'm starting to wonder if witchcraft is choosing me.

The Good: I really enjoyed how the writing was inclusive and accepting of everything, without having to make a big deal about anything. Wiccan religion, lesbian aunt, teen sexuality, whatever. All part of the story, not issues that have to be addressed and dealt with. Beyond the magick themes of the book, the mundane high school life felt accurately portrayed. It wasn't washed-clean of normal teen activities, nor overly hyped to make things more scandalous than in reality. 

The Bad: Bree, the best friend, is certifiably crazy. Like dangerous, obsessive, not a person you should associate with, crazy. Beyond angsty teen, in love with random boy issues, she's constructs a fantasy where the boy wants her back and progresses to destroy her relationship with Morgan in the process. It's dangerous to portray this type of behavior as anything other than being in desperate need of psychiatric help. Wicca was portrayed in an odd mix of by-the-book instruction and outlandish power. The author focused on making sure the details were explained well and factually, then immediately twisted the practices in an attempt to make the main character seem special. It was weird and just felt off.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 Volume 4: Welcome to the Team by Andrew Chambliss

Welcome to the Team by Andrew Chambliss

2013, Dark Horse

Series: Book 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9

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Rating

Synopsis: Buffy is unwillingly recruited by the demon Illyria and a mystical council to take down the Siphon—for good. He is on the loose again, and a danger to all remnants of magic! Meanwhile, back home the loss of magic has begun to affect those closest to Buffy.

The Good: Xander makes you care about Dawn. That's what we remaining skeptical fans have needed since the moment Dawn appeared in the series. A reason to care about her. She's grown up some, but she's still, at heart, the annoying little sister we all wish had never been introduced. Her relationship with Xander is the only thing that makes her likable, but at least we have that now. Xander is still full of his flaws, the one character that never evolves past his episode, always reverting back to default mode come the next. This graphic novel stays true to that, as annoying as it may be. We see him once again contemplating questionable things based on emotion over logic.

The Bad: The artwork is getting laughable. I mean, look at that cover. Clearly Buffy. Clearly Xander in black and white at the bottom. Obviously the artists have a grasp on what the characters are supposed to look like. Then on the inside we get rushed cartoony nonsense that barely resemble the characters. I couldn't identify Buffy in more than a few panels. Xander is slightly better, but the eye patch is a pretty big tip off. Judge for yourself.

Not good.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 16: A Larger World by Robert Kirkman

A Larger World by Robert Kirkman

2012, Image Comics

Series: Book 16 of The Walking Dead

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Rating

Synopsis: Rick discovers that there are communities of survivors nearby, and begins to explore a larger world.

The Good: Jesus is interesting. Yeah, that's all I have in the good column.

The Bad: While obviously the lead up into something far more interesting, A Larger World is slow and low on action. It's not story driven enough to make up for the lack of excitement. It's set up and nothing more. And it seems to be the setup for the same situation we've seen play out with Rick and the group often. Start believing they can settle down safely, then comes evil guy to muck it all up, big showdown that leads to deaths, safety compromised and have to start over.

Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane

Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane

2012, Del Rey

Series: Book 4 of Downside Ghosts

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Synopsis: READING, WRITING, AND RAISING THE DEAD

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

The Good: Terrible thoroughly proves why he should be everyone's favorite romantic partner. His love for Chess seems to know no bounds. The action and mystery in this book are awesome. Stacia Kane writes the way I think and I love that. Certain quotes speak to me in a way that makes me want to embroider them on a pillow, or at least paint them on a mug or something since I'm not the decorative pillow type.

The Bad: I've said it before in reviews of this series, but it needs to be repeated. Readers DO NOT need to know every single detail of everyday actions. We don't read about every time someone in a book urinates and we definitely don't need to read about every single time Chess takes drugs. Mentioning it 20 or more times in the course of a single day is overkill. We get it, she's an addict. It's a basic body function to her at this point. Telling us every time she procures drugs, every time she takes drugs and every time she thinks about taking drugs is THE most boring thing imaginable. It's not reinforcing the idea that she's an addict. 4 books in, we know the extent her addiction effects her life. Now it's just filler and annoying. It makes it extremely hard to get into the book and often pulls me right out of the action. Seriously, enough is enough. If it isn't effecting the plot in some way, it should be edited out.

Stolen Nights by Rebecca Maizel

 Stolen Nights by Rebecca Maizel

2013, St. Martin's Griffin

Series: Book 2 of Vampire Queen

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Synopsis: A new year is beginning at Wickham Boarding School. A new chance at life, at reversing the evil in my past. But nothing is ever as simple it seems...

Last year, the love of my life died performing a ritual to fulfill my one wish and make me human. And now I’ve performed the same ritual for my friend Vicken – and survived. Why am I here, back safe on Wickham campus?

The strong magic I used in the ritual did more than just make Vicken human. It drew someone to Lover’s Bay who does not belong here. She wants the ritual. Then she wants me dead. And she will take down any and everyone in my life to get what she wants.

As if that weren’t enough, the ritual has also summoned the anger of the Aeris, the four elements and most fundamental powers on earth. They have a surprise and an unbearable punishment for me – like stepping into the sun for the first time, only to be put into a cage. And now I have to make an impossible choice – between love or life, yearning or having, present or past…

The Good: I loved the flashes back to Lenah's vampire past. We really get to see what it was like for her throughout her time has a vampire, from the first day to the last when she had lost all feeling. If the entire romance angle of the book had been excluded, the book would have been a short story, not even a novella, but it would have been exciting and fun. Because the actual story beyond the romance had a decent mystery and a few decent twists.

The Bad:I have such an issue with girls who can't be alone. Must have a boyfriend. If they can't be with the guy they believe they love, they have no issue just using another in his place. While still pining for and at times actively pursuing their one true love. This is Lenah in a nutshell. She loves Rhode, but can't be with him. So she's with Justin, who loves her. Meanwhile, she's still in love with Rhode. Fixated on how he feels about her. It's something one might expect from someone insecure. Someone not all that worldly. Someone inexperienced with dealing with their feelings. Not something anywhere near acceptable coming from someone who's lived for 600 years. Lenah has failed to grow at all in her extremely long lifetime. If she could at least admit she was using Justin for attention, then fine, but she's almost completely convinced herself that Justin is enough. It's infuriating and makes her near unbearable to read.

My Soul to Keep by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Keep by Rachel Vincent

2010, Harlequin Teen

Series: Book 3 of Soul Screamers

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Rating

Synopsis: Kaylee has one addiction: her very hot, very popular boyfriend, Nash. A banshee like Kaylee, Nash understands her like no one else. Nothing can come between them.

Until something does.

Demon breath. No, not the toothpaste-challenged kind. The Netherworld kind. The kind that really can kill you. Somehow the super-addictive substance has made its way to the human world. But how? Kaylee and Nash have to cut off the source and protect their friends—one of whom is already hooked.

And so is someone else…

The Good: Tod is becoming a much more compelling character. He seems to be growing into his role and becoming a better person, in sharp contrast to his brother. I really enjoyed the Demon's Breath/drug angle of the book and how that played out with involving the students at Kaylee's school.

The Bad: Kaylee conveniently forgets crucial details on a regular basis. It drags the books out, ridiculous when they're so short as it is. Any reader even halfway paying attention will notice completely remember these things and grow increasingly frustrated throughout the book. And then there's the whole boyfriend hiding things from her. Unforgivable things. Add that to the fact that the characters continue to hide everything possible from the adults in their lives for no good reason other than "parents just don't understand." Except, these parents would completely understand and help. Yet, let's just screw ourselves over and go completely unprepared into mortal danger time and again because parents are dumb or whatever. Maybe this thing resonates with teen readers, but as an adult with the ability to judge the parents on their previous reactions to situations in the series, these kids are coming off as complete idiots begging to be killed.

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

 The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

2009, HarperCollins

Series: Book 2 of Darkest Powers

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Synopsis: My name is Chloe Saunders, and if you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl - someone normal.

Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment - not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control: I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever.

Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends - a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch - and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

The Good: Kelley Armstrong is a strong writer and it consistently shows in her books. Her characters are engaging, her word choice on point, always. There were a few surprising twists, enough to make the book worth the read if you enjoyed the first in the trilogy.

The Bad: There was a significant falloff of personal enjoyment reading this one from the first in the trilogy. It clearly suffers from middle of a trilogy syndrome. It's hopelessly cliched, completely predictable with the main character "on the run" in an attempt to discover the truth of her situation. We've left the carefully constructed setting setup in the first novel and are now running blind in the world not knowing who to trust. I could be describing almost any random middle of a trilogy book here and that's a huge problem for this book and YA trilogies on the whole.

Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 2: First Night by Joss Whedon

First Night by Joss Whedon

2009, IDW Publishing

Series: Book 2 of Angel: After the Fall

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Synopsis: What happened on the very night Los Angeles went straight to hell, the incident that ended the Angel television series with such a shocking cliffhanger? Why did the team go their separate ways? And how did Connor rise up to become one of Hell's greatest champions?

The Good: The TV show ended on an epic cliffhanger, where the surviving characters were poised to enter what seemed to be a battle to their deaths. This volume finally answers the question of who survives and how. This alone makes the volume a worthwhile read.

The Bad: Instead of following Volume 1, this goes back to where the show ended. It's what all fans want to know, but making the series out of chronological order is annoying. The artwork is spotty, in relation to the characters. This cover is supposed to be Wesley. You can see that's what they're going for, but cover art is generally perfectly identifiable and this just isn't. The characters in the panels are even less identifiable and it leads to confusion at inconvenient times in the story.

How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith

How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith

2007, Quirk Books

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Rating

Synopsis: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

From ghosts, vampires, and zombies to serial killers, cannibalistic hillbillies, and haunted Japanese videocassettes, How to Survive a Horror Movie shows how to defeat every obstacle found in scary films. Readers will discover:

     •  How to Perform an Exorcism
     •  What to Do If You Did Something Last Summer
     •  How to Persuade the Skeptical Local Sheriff
     •  How to Vanquish a Murderous Doll
     •  How to Survive an Alien Invasion
     •  How to Tell If You’ve Been Dead Since the Beginning of the Movie

and much, much more. Complete with useful instructions, insane illustrations, and a list of 100 important films to study, How to Survive a Horror Movie is essential reading for prom queens, jocks, teenage babysitters, and anyone employed by a summer camp.

The Good: The book starts off with a delightful prologue from Wes Craven, which is definitely worth the read. Seth Grahame-Smith is quickly becoming a household name, especially with a movie adaption of his Pride & Prejudice & Zombies coming out soon. How to Survive a Horror Movie contains a wealth of his tongue-in-cheek humor that fans will love. As an avid horror movie fan, I appreciated quite a bit of what the author was putting out there in this book. "What to Do If Your Corn Has Children In It" may just be the best chapter title ever.

The Bad: This is much less useful compared to other pop culture survival books in terms of actual real world application. At least in the Zombie Survival Guide, I learned tips that could be used in situations other than zombie attacks. This book rested solely on its humor and that was asking too much of it. While parts are very funny, others fall flat. This is very much a coffee table book - something to build a conversation around rather than something to be read. 

In One Year and Out the Other by Cara Lockwood, et al.

In One Year and Out the Other by Cara Lockwood, et al.

2006, Pocket Books

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Synopsis: Out with the old, in with the new, and on with the party!
 

Maybe it's just another midnight...or maybe there really is magic in the air when December 31st becomes January 1st, and confetti kisses and champagne toasts kick off a new year, a new romance, a new look, a new attitude. 

Celebrate the start of something new with In One Year and Out the Other...a sparkling collection of all new stories by today's rising fiction stars: 

Cara Lockwood puts self-improvement to the test with 528 resolutions -- not least of which is "Do not sleep with married men" -- in "Resolved: A New Year's Resolution List"

...Pamela Redmond Satran instructs a single mom in the fine art of partying like the boys (have lots of sex, don't worry that you're too fat) in "How to Start the New Year Like a Guy"

...Diane Stingley shows a twentysomething why there's more to life than waiting by the phone for a New Year's date in "Expecting a Call"

...Megan McAndrew seizes the day -- or just a very special one-night stand -- for a single food stylist hungering for more in "The Future of Sex"

...and more great tales from Kathleen O'Reilly, Beth Kendrick, Eileen Rendahl, Tracy McArdle and Libby Street.

The Good: This was a funny chick lit anthology revolving around the New Year. Resolutions, New Years Eve celebrations, and the aftermath of the choices made.  You get pretty much what you expect going into it. Entertaining stories coming from Cara Lockwood, Pamela Redmond Stratan, Kathleen O'Reilly, Beth Kendrick, Libby Street and Eileen Rendahl.

The Bad: Anthologies are always a mix of good and bad, especially when it's a collection written by a variety of authors. Lockwood had moderate success during the chick lit boom of the early 2000s and the book is an obvious attempt to capitalize on that. A few of the stories are significantly below Lockwood's level of skill and it shows. Feel free to skip stories by Diane Stingley, Tracy McArdle and Megan McAndrew.

The Boys Vol. 1: The Name of the Game by Garth Ennis

The Name of the Game by Garth Ennis

2007, Dynamite Entertainment

Series: Book 1 of The Boys

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Rating

Synopsis: THIS IS GOING TO HURT! In a world where costumed heroes soar through the sky and masked vigilantes prowl the night, someone's got to make sure the "supes" don't get out of line. And someone will. Billy Butcher, Wee Hughie, Mother's Milk, The Frenchman and The Female are The Boys: A CIA backed team of very dangerous people, each one dedicated to the struggle against the most dangerous force on Earth-superpower. Some superheroes have to be watched. Some have to be controlled. And some of them-sometimes-need to be taken out of the picture That's when you call in THE BOYS

The Good: What happens when the superheroes are the bad guys? That's the basic premise of this graphic novel. Unlimited power goes to superheroes heads and them become lazy and corrupt. More concerned with merchandising and getting laid than keeping citizens safe. It's a really fun premise and the execution is brutally vivid and violent. Lots of possibility for future volumes.

The Bad: A friend recommended this series and I should have really considered his tastes before getting my hopes up. The attempt at being edgy misses the mark as often as it hits it. The humor tries to be shocking, but is way too often juvenile at best. It feels like an awesome story being mangled by a 13 year old trying to make it hardcore.

Paranormal Activity 4, Tremors 5: Bloodlines and A Fantastic Fear of Everything

October Horror Movie Challenge Day 30

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Why I Watched:

Bats/Cats/Rats Theme Night

What I Learned:

• There's always a lot of empty room scenes and people sleeping scenes in these movies.

Rating:

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015)

What I Learned:

• Oh Burt Gummer, I missed you.

Rating:

A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012)

What I Learned:

• Simon Pegg in a towel dancing and rapping is everything I ever wanted to see in life.

Rating: