October Update/Wrap Up...Yes I Know It Is November

Ok folks, I know it's November, but I can't let October go without a final farewell.  This was seriously one of the best birthday months I have ever had and it was really wholly due to my amazing friends and family.  They all bent over backwards to make what was already my favorite month of the year absolutely unforgettable in such a great way.  Hubbin especially went so far above and beyond that I want to marry him all over again (see my previous posts about my trip of unreal perfection).  To end this month of awesome I got to spend Halloween at my fire station, which is my happy place so already good.  My driver and I both had the same idea and brought costume props (we can't go full on costume on calls...something about doing CPR dressed like death makes some people a little uncomfortable...) and took tons of pictures of the whole crew all dressed up.  Several scary movies and jumpy pranks later we decided to actually do some work and run some calls.  The best part however was our friend came in with presents!!! Yep not only did I get birthday presents, but I got a Halloween gift too...seriously I am so spoiled.  Anyways my girl decided to start a new tradition where we all read the same scary book each October and every year a different person picks the book.  She started it by gifting us with The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey...which besides being on my TBR list, also has a yellow cover so pretty much awesome.  I am so excited to read this book with my firehouse book club people and absolutely love the fact that going to my happy place results in new books and people to discuss them with!  I am so deliouresly happy about almost everything that happened this month (there were crappy things...cause you know real life...but I'm pretending they didn't happen in my happy retrospect lol) and cannot believe how blessed I am in my friends and family.  I love you all, and cannot wait to see what happens next...now off to go read my new book under my reading tree so I have something to ramble about.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Bitter In Black

Had a bout of insomnia the other night...so that means I got to finish another book so YAY!  This of course means time for a haunted rambling to continue our October of awesome.  The book is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill which is the inspiration for the movie by the same name.  Was I to scared to sleep?  Let's find out...as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Arthur Kipp starts us off by telling us where he is at now.  He is happily married to his second wife after being widowed at a young age and now enjoys his later life with his wife, step-children and grandchildren.  The family starts telling ghost stories which triggers a pretty intense memory in our narrator Mr. Kipp.  He takes us back to his younger days where he was working on making partner at his law firm.  He ultimate goal was to provide a comfortable home for his fiancee Stella and their future family.  To this end he is sent by his boss to the remote town of Crythin Gifford and further out to an old manor Eel Marsh House.  A crumbling pile that is regularly cut off by the high tide.  Mr. Kipp's job is to attend the funeral and then the business affairs of the late Alice Drablow, the last remaining Drablow to live at Eel Marsh House.  Mr. Kipp finds himself quit comfortable in the little town and sets off with the local solicitor Mr. Jerome.  During the funeral Mr. Kipp see's a gaunt and wasted figure in all black.  He enquirers about her and only receives fear and silence in answer.  Mr. Kipp heads out to Eel Marsh House and again encounters the Woman in Black and determines that she is not only unhuman, but potentially malevolent as well.  As Mr. Kipp continues to go through the house he is stuck in a fog and in that mist he hears the sound of a pony and trap go off the road and the screams of a child as they are sucked down and drowned in the treacherous marsh.  Mr. Kipp is shaken up until he is picked up by his man and realizes that what he heard was not real.  He decides to get provisions and stay at the house until his business is complete.  To this end a new friend insists that he borrows his little terrier Spider to accompany him.  Mr. Kipp is woken in the night by a sound coming from a locked door.  He breaks it open and discovers the room of a young boy and a rocking chair in motion.  After going through various documents in between being scared and startled by various noises he finally get's the tragic story of Eel Marsh House.  Turns out that Alice Drablow had a sister Jennet who gave birth to a child out of wedlock.  Because of the circumstances and time period, Jennet was forced to give the child to her sister to raise.  Jennet could finally no longer stand to be away from her son and came to Eel Marsh House.  One day, while Jennet was standing at the window she watched in horror as her son, his nursemaid and the driver of the trap and pony lost their way in the mists and were instantly sucked down and drowned in the marsh.  These are the screams Mr. Kipp kept hearing in the marsh.  Jennet died 12 years after her son, bitter, angry and blaming everybody for her sons death, haunting the town many years after her demise.  After some more terror, Mr. Kipp is brought to his friends house to recover.  It is here that Mr. Kipp learns the horrifying aftermath to the story.  Apparently every time the Woman in Black is sighted, a child dies a horrible death.  Mr. Kipp goes back to London to try and forget the terror of his trip.  He marries Stella and they have a son.  One day Mr. Kipp, his wife and infant son are at a fair.  Stella takes their son on a carriage ride while Mr. Kipp looks on.  As the carriage rounds the corner on its return trip, Mr. Kipp sees the Woman in Black step in front of the carriage, causing it to crash into a tree.  Mr. Kipp's son is killed instantly and Stella is grievously injured.  After 10 months of pain, Stella finally succumbs to her injuries, leaving Mr. Kipp as another victim of the bitter and angry spirit of the Woman in Black.

World Building - The atmosphere created by the author of this book was complete and enabled one to get lost in the moody and damp landscape.  The only real issue I had with the world building was how much of the book was spent describing the environment instead of showing it.  It felt like at least a third of the book was just descriptions of the dank marsh and the spooky, musty house.  While making a complete world, this also had the detrimental side effect of making the first 3/4 of the book a bit boring.  That being said, the setting was pretty perfect for the story.

Story - The actual ghost story part of this book is pretty awesome.  It was a story that was scary on two levels.  One, the story made sense, you could understand why the ghost was so angry and why she got revenge the way she did.  The second level of scary is that it involved innocent children.  It's bad enough when an adult with resources and reasoning is haunted, but when you involve children the chill factor jumps a ton...at least for me.  As for the rest of the story, again, the first 3/4 of the book was long drawn out set up that made me want to skip pages.  It wasn't until the last quarter of the book where I got super engrossed in the story so...

Characters - The characters where pretty much your average ghost story characters, slightly naive man, haunted villagers unwilling to part with information, the convenient friend, the cold recluse old lady, the angry spirit.  Nothing spectacular.  Nothing bad, just no real character development in anybody other then Mr. Kipp.  It was nice to see that he had overcome his past to a degree and found some happiness instead of letting it destroy him, but other then that pretty run of the mill characterization.

Editing - The combination of having this book be narrated in the first person and wanting this to be a full length book made most of it angsty and boring.  I am torn between blaming the author and blaming the editor for the pacing of this book.  The contrast between the excruciating slow bulk of the book and the amazingly creepy end of the book left me pretty frustrated and wondering how most people got far enough in to appreciate the spectacular last fourth of the story.  I personally feel that this would have been perfect for an under 100 pages story but that's just me.

Ghost Story - Let's get back to the ghost story part of this book for a minute shall we?  I was seriously scared for this part of the book.  After a ton of pages of feeling like I just wanted to put the book down it got really scary very quickly.  I really loved how squirmy and heart in the throat this part of the book made me.  I was in bed and even had a big strong Marine sleeping next to me and I STILL had the covers over my head!  This is what I look for in a good scary story.  Blood and gore don't really do it for me, but a great ghost story gives me all the chills.  I am pretty stoked that after slogging through so much blah, the pay off at least was pretty awesome.

The Movie - I loved the newest movie adaption of this book.  They definitely changed some things, but I felt, especially in movie format that the changes made the story even better.  In fact I liked the movie so much it inspired me to go hunt down other great ghost stories.  I totally got where the book inspired the creepiest parts of the movie, and the Eel Marsh House and surrounding environs were spot on match for the book.  Overall for a movie adaption I would strongly recommend it to anybody who prefers atmosphere and story over blood and gore for their chills.

Cause and Effect - I think the reason the actual ghost story part appeals to me is that it follows my own personal appreciation of cause and effect.  My favorite stories are ones where I can follow a reason for something to happen.  Many times, especially in supernatural tales, a ghost or spirit or monster is malevolent just because it makes the story scarier.  In stories like this, human actions have long term consequences AND the consequences are logical (or a logical as a bitter child killing ghost can be) to the actions that spawned them.  In this story a woman was forced to give up her child then had to watch him die a horrible death.  The consequences are that she now takes children away from their parents...makes sense in a way.  To me this is the potentially scariest thing ever 'cause it means that you have to be responsible for your actions or you or potentially innocent people will suffer for it.

Overall Impression - This is another case of a book I wanted to like a lot more then I did.  It was really excruciating to get through the majority of this book and the awesome chills I got from the last part may or may not make up for it.  In all honesty I will probably just skip to the good part if I ever read this book again.  I recommend it for anybody who has patience...or doesn't mind skipping right to the end.  I am torn because it was almost like reading two books, so I guess I give the first 3/4 of the book a 4 out of sheer boredom and the last 1/4 a 9 'cause it was super awesome...which averages to I don't know...maybe a 6 or 7 unreadable gravestones.  Anyways Happy Reading Everybody!

Hauntingly Beautiful Crazy Scary Perfect

Happy Halloween Everybody!  So far I have spent my Halloween week up to my elbows in real gore (seriously why do people feel the need to stab each other at 2am on Halloween, it's way more common then one would think) so I am a bit on the absolute incoherently exhausted side of things, but I really want to talk about this super perfect creepy scary book...which actually goes along perfectly with my state of mind right now.  I had asked for suggestions for a book that would make me sleep with my light on, I wanted a really good scare and I got a ton of recommendations for The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and it was everything I wanted it to be and more!  I will start by attempting to summarize it, which might be a bit tough, but I will give it a go as always (SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Eleanor Vance steals her sisters car (which is technically half hers anyways) and sets out to Hill House after receiving an invitation from Dr. Montague, a specialist in the supernatural. Eleanor's sister does not want her to go, but seems more concerned over the lack of car and controlling her sister then she does anything else.  So Eleanor steals the car and heads off to Hill House this is her story.  She drives through the countryside, head full of all kinds of thoughts and stories, each inspired by a sight she sees on her drive; a pair of stone lions, a path lined with Oleanders. She arrives at Hill House and is greeted by Mr. Dudley the scary gate keeper who tries to scare her away, Eleanor knows she should be more frightened, but is determined to go to the house.  She is let in and when she finally catches site of the house, well this quote sums it up nicely " The house was vile.  She shivered and thought, the words coming freely to her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once." The sheer force of wrongness this house exudes hits her
like a physical blow.  She is still determined to follow this adventure through and finally ends up inside the vile house where she is greeted by Mrs. Dudley the housekeeper/cook.  She is a cold creature, informing Eleanor that she leaves before dark and nobody can hear you scream.  Eleanor meets up with Theodora (no last name) a vivacious, attention seeker, Luke Sanderson the caddish soon to be heir to Hill House, and Dr. Montague who invited them all to the house to experience  the supernatural and record there experiences.  Things are wrong right off the bat, Dr. Montague informs them that all of the angles are off just a slight bit, just enough to disconcert a person.  The history of the house is told, and while not horrific, it is not a happy one.  The doors don't stay open, windows and curtains close of there own accord, there are rooms within rooms making it impossible to not get lost, all kinds of crazy stuff.  The first night they are all together the Dr. makes a point to tell them to never go anywhere alone, to always have somebody with them.  He can't tell them why it just is so.  Eventually the house starts to go crazy...or the people inside the house start, I can not do the terror justice, trust me you just have to read it to really get the effect.  This story is about Eleanor and it is inside her mind we dwell the most.  She seems to vacillate between sheer terror and an odd need to accept the insanity.  At one point the phrase "Help Eleanor Come Home" is painted in what appears to be blood at different spots in the house.  Eleanor is jokingly (kind of) accused of painting it herself to get attention, something she adamantly denies.  There seem to be big chunks of time missing, not in a confusing manner per se, more in a Eleanor is living inside her head for bits and pieces of time.  I am not doing a very good job explaining this, needless to say it is very cerebral at this point.  The big thing is that the group as a whole is experiencing certain things, while Eleanor is also experiencing something more personal.  This all culminates one night with
Eleanor (who has been acting more and more erratic) climbing up a very dangerous and rickety staircase, claiming she has surrendered to the house and is now one with it.  She is brought down safely by Luke, and the rest of the group decides that it would be best if Eleanor left and went home, forgetting Hill House and all its horrors and getting back to her own life.  Eleanor does not want to leave, she feels like she now belongs to Hill House.  The rest of her group pack her up and even bring her car around.  As she goes to leave she decides that it is not what she wants, what she wants is to stay, so she drives her car as fast as she can straight into a huge tree.  Her last thoughts as she goes hurling into the tree are finally clear and lucid "Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why don't they stop me?" The other three go back to there mundane lives and Hill House continues to stand empty besides the ever present Dudley's dutifully maintaining the estate, as long as they leave before dark.

I cannot even begin to do this little book justice, every word oozes with atmosphere and double meanings.  It is a perfect example of what really scares me, which is the unknown.  For me the scariest thing is the one that is nebulous and undefined.  The horror that could be anything, but is never given actual form or substance is terrifying to me because there is no rational defense against it.  I think the biggest problem supposedly scary books and movies have is that they feel the need to define the fear, which to me instantly makes it defeatable, or at least named, and a named fear is always better then an unnamed one in my book.  This book does this type of scare beautifully, it is the type of fear that you never know if it is real, or imagined or some combination.  The fact that the whole group experiences the same terrors together indicates that it might be a real evil presence, of course the fact that the next morning there is no evidence of the mayhem of the night before, and the group itself feels silly about being scared makes it possible that it may have been group hysteria (think girls scaring themselves silly at a slumber party by sheer suggestion).  There is no doubt that there is something off about the house, but whether it is a presence or that it is just
atmospheric enough to mess with peoples heads is left up to the reader.   Eleanor in particular is very affected by Hill House (which becomes a character itself very early on).  She is the one we follow, her mental state is the one we dwell in as the reader, and she is our main link to the whole madness. Her odd connection to the house partly stems from her hatred of her old life, where she felt used and unwanted.  In this place, as horrifying as it is, she feels a sense of belonging while still being terrorized.  Her little day dreams and imaginings give us a chilling insight into how her life to this point and the house and stories have affected her mental state.  There are things that may lead us to believe that there are really poor spirits in the house who just want Eleanor to stay with them, which to me is one of the best parts of the book...you are never sure.  To me Eleanor's desperate suicide at the end as an attempt to stay at Hill House, coupled with her final thoughts can be read either way, is she possessed by the spirits of the house, doing everything in there power to make her stay, or is she just caught up in the atmosphere, maybe going a little crazy?  Who knows it's chilling either way.  The sheer foreboding of Hill House and it's actual presence almost like a living being is deliciously scary playing on fears anybody who has come home to an empty house has probably felt at some point.  I think in the end the best part of this whole book is the writing, the author manages to pull of amazing feats of horror, sadness, melancholy, hysteria, desperateness, despair and terror in the most eloquent of words.  Reading through the book (which is pretty short, most people should be able to finish it in a couple sittings...if you don't get too scared) the book, like Hill House, does not seem like it should work, it is slightly off, a little not right, a wee bit disturbing and it all comes together in one of the most chilling books I have ever read. I give this book 9 out of 10 haunted houses.  Go read this right now!
A quick note to those of you who have seen the movie The Haunting the 1963 version is hella scary and sticks with the same vibe as the novel.  The 1999 version however turns it into more of a slasher type movie killing off several people and just vaguely using the novel as a reference.  Remember don't judge a book by its movie!
What is the most terrifying thing you can think of?  What is more scary, the unknown or the known fear?  Why do I like to scare myself silly when all it does is result in a lack of sleep?

Living With The Dead

October is my month for reading, every book I have read so far this month has been pretty wonderful and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean is no exception.  I have to admit, I was a tad bit anxious when starting this book because while I love Mr. Gaiman's graphic novels and short stories, his full length novels usually are not my favorite.  But the premise of this one sounded interesting, and it was in both the kids section and the adult section so I thought I would give it a go, and boy am I glad I did.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

A man makes his way through a house in England, killing a mother, father and sister, he has only one victim left, the baby. The baby however is a curious sort and took advantage of the door left open by the killer to crawl to a little graveyard near his house where he is adopted by a pair of ghosts (Mr. and Mrs. Owens) and promised to be looked after by a not dead, yet not alive being by the name of Silas.  This is how Nobody Owens (called Bod) came to live in a graveyard and be raised by ghosts.  We follow Bod as he grows from a baby to a young boy, making friends with the other ghosts and sleeping in the cozy tomb of his adopted parents.  As Bod grows a bit older he befriends Scarlett a little girl who sometimes plays in the graveyard
(which has been turned into a historical nature preserve).  He takes the girl to a very ancient tomb deep under ground and becomes acquainted with the Sleer, an ancient guardian who uses fear to protect his treasures and awaits a new master.  Scarlett eventually moves away and Bod is given a living tutor by the name of Ms. Lupescu, while Silas is out on a secret mission.  Bod is not thrilled with the lessons he receives from his tutor, which include calling for help in every language imaginable. Feeling upset Bod is lured through a ghoul stone and taken to be made into a ghoul.  Lucky for him he is rescued by a huge grey dog, which just happens to be Ms. Lupescu.  This bonds the two and Bod is more willing to learn from her.  As Bod grows, he realizes that he needs to learn more and asks to be let out of the graveyard to go to school.  Silas is very against this, as they cannot protect Bod if he is not in the graveyard.  Bod is then told of the man who killed his family, and has vowed to kill Bod.  Bod uses this knowledge to get Silas to allow him to go to school so he can be prepared to meet the killer (who is called Jack) when the time comes.  Bod slips into school and uses his graveyard skills of Fade to remain largely unnoticed, until he helps out a couple of kids who are being bullied.  After a narrow escape from the police, Bod agrees to not go back to the school, but rather get his learning from, libraries and other sources.  Scarlett moves back into the area and meets up with Bod again.  She also befriends a gentleman by the name of Mr. Frost who is interested in the history of the graveyard.  Meanwhile, Silas and some of his friends have gone off on another mission, losing compatriots along the way, but eventually succeeding at the cost of all but Silas. Back at the graveyard we find out the Mr. Frost is actually the killer Jack, who belongs to a secret society who perform evil deeds to increase there power.  The reason they are after Bod is that it was prophesied that a boy from that family would be the groups demise, and killing the rest of the family was just for evil fun.  Bod enlists the help of his ghost friends and Scarlett and traps all of the men who are after him.  This effectively ends the secret society of evil as Silas and his crew have been traveling the world eliminating all of the other members.  Scarlett is pretty messed up over the whole deal and Silas erases her memories of the graveyard and sends her home. After some time has passed Bod realizes that it is getting harder to live in the graveyard, he cannot touch or even speak to all of his friends and he is getting restless.  Silas tells him now that the danger is passed it is time for Bod to rejoin the living.  The story ends with Bod bidding his ghost family fair well and setting out to live his life.

I think part of the appeal of this book is that I started it right after visiting that amazing grave yard in Pennsylvania, so I already had the perfect setting in my head. From there this book just burrowed into my head and lived there very happily.  This book is the perfect mix of story, characters, and just enough spooky to make it perfect dark and stormy night reading.  I loved watching Bod grow up in this unusual environment, seeing the challenges of raising a living child among the dead and how they overcame them was pretty cool. The various creatures and inhabitants of this graveyard all lent character, humor, and sometimes a bit of
sadness to the whole story, really giving it some depth.  The ghouls in particular where my favorite, there macabre sense of humor, the obvious crazyness, and just the sheer weirdness of their own little realm really popped for me, I kind of picture them a bit like the Lonesome Ghosts.  A lot of my love for this book comes from the acceptance of the ghosts of this little living child, and the sheer normalcy for Bod growing up in this strange place.  The illustrations add some great atmosphere, kind of giving you a glimpse of what the story looks like, while not robbing your imagination of filling in the gaps.  I seriously want to go to every graveyard I can find now and see what stories I can piece together from the tombs, headstones, crypts and general atmosphere.  The only criticism I would have is the reason for the killer chasing Bod down so relentlessly, for being the whole reason for Bod's growing up in a graveyard I thought it was glossed over pretty quickly with a pat answer and very little detail.  That being said the story was more about Bod and his everyday life and less about constant action and danger. Overall I very much enjoyed this book, and it will probably get reread and will most definitely be given to the nephews when they are a little older.  I give it 8 our of 10 ghoul stones.

What is your favorite kind of ghost story? Does visiting certain places make reading books set there better, or do you prefer to leave it all to your own imagination?  Is it creepy that I want to go live in a graveyard for a little while?

Kidoween

Watched Hocus Pocus last night, definitely one of my favorite Halloween movies.  I then spent the rest of the night discussing with my two sisters how to best get together one Halloween and dress up as the Sanderson sisters, all in all a very good night.

A little creepy for a children's movie

This got me thinking how much I enjoy kid stuff around Halloween.  The books and movies intended for the younger crowd are surprisingly dark and delicious, here are a few of my favorites when it comes to Halloween Jr.

Cinderella Skeleton

A new acquisition this year and it is wonderful, the illustrations are graveyard perfect, the story is written in spooky rhyme and it is the perfect book for any fairytale/undead lover.

A Halloween Treat

Anything by Edward Gorey is gonna be a little on the awesomely grotesque side, but this one is perfect for a pre-trick or treat read.

I Spy Spooky Night

I love all of the I Spy books (note to self buy more I Spy books).  This one is always a favorite with the young crowd.

The Berenstain Bears: Trick or Treat

Ah nostalgia plays the biggest role in this pick.  I love me some Berenstain Bears!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

I love the colors in this book, it is also awesome to read out loud you get to make lots of scary noises :-)

Hopefully these have inspired you to give the children's section a quick glance next time you are at your local bookstore, I have most of these on my shelf and I don't even have the excuse of kids (unless you count the six foot tall one I am married too!).  

Ok ok here is the other awesome song!

The Halloween Tree

Just finished a book recommended by my friend CC, who says she can't wait to read it to her kids this year. Since this friend of mine usually has good taste in books among other things, I decided to pick it up myself.  The book is The Halloween Tree by the late Ray Bradbury and if the author and friend recommendation were not enough to grab this book, the cover sealed the deal

See it is totally awesomely creepy and cool and kinda nostalgic all at the same time...which is actually the perfect way to describe this book.  The story is set during a time when it was ok to let the kids go out trick or treating on their own, their is no signs of cell-phones or gaming systems, just a bunch of boys out looking for adventure.

The story is told in a very loose whimsical fashion, very lyrical and almost visual in it's execution.  The gist of the plot is a group of boys go trick or treating, all dressed as a different Halloween staple, a skeleton, a witch, a mummy, a gargoyle, a beggar, an ape man, a ghost, and the grim reaper.  The boys are all excited to get started, but they are missing their fearless leader, Pipkin.  They eventually find Pipkin looking tired and ill, but he tells the boys to go ahead and meet him at the big scary house outside of town.  The boys go to the house which is described as only a little boy could see it terrifying and defying all laws of physics.  The boys then go around back and behold a magnificent giant of a tree that is covered in carved pumpkins lit up as high as the eye can see.  Here they meet the owner of this spooky abode Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud (If I ever get a gerbil that is what I am naming him) who after scaring the boys half to death points out that Pipkin is on his way.  The boys watch as Pipkin comes running to meet them, but is instead swept away by a mysterious force.  Moundshroud rallies the remaining boys to make a giant kite out of old circus posters and 

they are taken to ancient Egypt where they see a burial procession.  Moundshroud starts to tell the boys of some of the history of death, and why they wear the various costumes they have on.  They hear Pipkin trapped inside a mummy casket and try to rescue him to no avail.  The adventure continues through cave man days, Mediterranean death days, old Roman rituals, Irish druid Samhain festivals, a broomstick migration, Notre Dame, Mexico's El Dia de los Mueros, and finally to an underground catacomb where they finally find Pipkin.  Moundshroud tells the boys the only way to save their friend is if they each agree to give up one year of their life in exchange for Pipkins.  This means that if you were supposed to die at age 87 you would die at age 86 instead.  All of the boys readily give up their year and Pipkin is saved.  At the end of the story Halloween is over for the year and the adventure has come to an end.  All of the boys make their way home and one by one extinguish their jack o'lanterns and as the last candle is blown out, the Halloween Tree goes dark.

This book was oddly scary, yet very sweet all at the same time.  The way it is written gives you the feeling of constant frantic movement, confusion, glimpses of this and that, never really letting it's characters, or the reader catch their breath.  It is a pretty quick read, with very short chapters, which would be great for kids to read.  The words are beautiful and fun to say out loud, which again would be great for kids who are learning how to read bigger words. It also piqued my interest in the origins of what we know as Halloween, it is a great opportunity to explore other cultures and times and how they all contributed to modern day Halloween.  All in all I would highly recommend this book for the month of October, it is good for all ages and will stick in your head long after you have finished it.

What is your go to Halloween classic?  Do you like scaring yourself?  What were you afraid of when you were younger?  Why do you always feel braver with a mask/costume on?

Psycho Crazy Ghost Girl And The Boys Who Love Them

This week on Psycho Crazy Ghost Girls and The Boys Who Love Them is a charming tale that goes by the ever so descriptive name of Anna Dressed In Blood.  This lovely little tale is your typical story of a boy searching for himself, finding the love of his life, who then promptly tries to mutilate him and destroy everybody who comes in contact with her, you know typical love story :-)  Actually I really did enjoy this book, it is perfect for the Halloween season and has a very strong Supernatural vibe to it (man I love that show...total side note, I've gotten Hubbin into watching the series from the beginning with me, forgot how awesomely awesome it was in the start).

The story is this.  A teenage boy named Theseus Cassio Lowood (nickname Cas) is a ghost/zombie/things that go bump in the night hunter.  His father was also an undead hunter and was killed by some sort of vengeful ghost type thing when our hero was but a young lad of seven.  Ever since Cas has been using his fathers athame (which is a special knife) to hunt down the restless dead.  Cas only goes after ghosts who harm other people, usually because they were murdered or commited suicide and can't move on.  Most of the ghosts kill people the way they were killed which leads to some pretty interesting scenarios. Cas hears of a ghost called Anna Dressed In Blood in Thunder Bay Ontario (which is in Canada for those of us who are
not up to par on our geography).  This ghost is one of the most brutal around, killing by dismemberment anybody who enters the house where she was killed.  Her story is as always a tragic one, she was on the way to her school dance in 1958 in a simple white dress that she had made herself.  She was supposed to meet her date at the dance but she never showed.  Her body was found later with her throat slit ear to ear.  Cas and his mother (who happens to be a minor white witch) are used to moving every couple of months.  This gives Cas time to research and find the ghosts and take care of it then move on in search of the next one. Cas gets enrolled in school, and makes friends with Carmel the popular queen bee who invites him to a party.  Cas also meets a fellow student name Thomas who has minimal telepathic abilities and ends up becoming Cas's right hand man.  Cas and Carmel go to the party where he tries to get more info about Anna, but is interrupted by Mike and his jock buddies.  Mike and Carmel had just recently broken up and he was not happy about her spending time with any other guy.  Cas gets them to take him to the house that Anna supposedly haunts and Mike hits him in the head with a board.  When Cas comes to he sees Mike being literally ripped in half by a ghost with long writhing black hair, inky veins covering her white skin and a dress dripping with blood.  After the ghost is done with Mike she turns to Cas, but tells him to leave quickly because she can't control herself. Thomas (who had been following them) pulls him out of the house.  Cas finds himself drawn back to the house and returns there later intrigued by Anna.  Anna tries to scare him away, but eventually calms down enough to present herself like she was in life, just a girl. Anna cannot remember what happened to her, all she knows is that she is compelled to turn into the angry wraith Cas

encountered earlier and kill anyone who comes in the house.  For some reason though she can control it with Cas.  Eventually Cas and his friends find a spell to try and find out what happened to Anna, to try and weaken her so Cas can kill her and end the killings.  Her story when you find it out is a bit of a neat twist, I figured out the who about half-way through, but not the rest of the story so that was pretty cool, I won't ruin it for you though. Eventually Cas and Anna fall for each other, though not in a sickening lovey dovey way, but more in a tragic, you know we can never be together way, but we are both mature enough to attempt to deal with it.  Anyways all of this happens about 2/3 of the way through the book which leaves a whole other story to tell, but since I want you all to read it and I can't talk about the end of the book with out giving away all the good stuff I'm just gonna stop here.  Suffice to say I think it is worth the read.

I liked this book 'cause it wasn't your typical Young Adult novel of teenage angst with ghosts in it, I mean there was definitely some teenage angst, but more Buffy angst and less Twilight angst.  The romance that was in the book was suprising and not your typical boy and girl fall in insta-love.  Also the comic relief guy gets a possibility of girl in the end, which I love.  The story did not pull any punches, it is without a doubt a horror novel first and foremost and does kill people in the most gruesome of ways...very vividly...a lot.  I know horror is not for everyone and this is not a paranormal romance that uses the undead in a "aw gee there just misunderstood" type of way so be prepared to be scared, if you like sleeping at night don't read this before bed. There were a few downsides, mostly I thought the book could have been about 50 pages shorter, there was a lot of repetition, especially when it came to the main character and his feelings on stuff, we get it your a lone wolf, you don't need to remind us every 5 pages.  There was also the f-word used a lot, which I hate in young adult books, I see no reason for it to be in there when they can hear it from so many other sources, but that is a personal thing.  Also the last third of the book felt different, like it could have been a sequel or incorporated better into the first 2/3 of the story.  Over all I give it 8 out of 10 Zombie Cats from Tuscaloosa.

Do you like horror books, or do your prefer less wanton death and destruction in your stories?  Are these type of books only for Halloween or do you read them year round?  What is your favorite horror book?  What would your vengeful ghost name be?  How would you kill people?