Chamber Four

Author: Kate Cary

2005, Razorbill (Penguin)

Filed Under: Young Adult, Horror

I know, I know. Young adult vampire novels swirl around in a genre flooded with quick-to-press garbage. To be honest, I have no idea how this book wound up on my shelves. But when I found it while looking for a book to take on the subway, I figured I’d give it a shot. And I’m actually pretty glad that I did.

Bloodline is not the typical teen vampire novel the cover design might suggest it is (assuming the typical teen vampire novel these days is a Twilight doppelganger). In fact, this book borrows a lot more from Bram Stoker’s classic novel than it does from glamour-chic undead romance of contemporary vampire fiction. This is a book with plot, structure, and language that leans more toward classic horror than toward YA. …
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Author: Peter Ackroyd

2009, Nan A. Talese

Filed under Sci-fi, Historical, Horror

I bought this book on a dorky impulse (it’s the sort of thing that occurs often), mostly because Frankenstein is one of my favorite novels, and because I had recently read John Kessel’s awesome short story, “Pride and Prometheus.” Peter Ackroyd does Shelley’s book justice, deftly weaving historical fiction into the classic’s universe. The book offers a retelling of the famous monster story. In this version, Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory is in a London warehouse (he’s from Switzerland), and he is best friends with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who of course was Mary Shelley’s husband. The mixing in of the biographical fiction is a welcome change for the familiar plot, and Ackroyd’s experience with historical fiction lends a feeling of freshness. …
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Author: Iniko

2009, iUniverse, Inc.

Filed under: Historical, Horror, Young Adult

This book is a hard one to categorize, as it’s not really horror until the very end, and it’s less young adult than it is sophomoric. What it is is a somewhat valiant attempt at a novel by a clearly untrained author. A small-run indie book riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, Dark Innocence struggles to pace itself or properly establish narrative tension. It does however, have a fair amount of heart, and I must admit I found myself engaged and compelled to finish it as I was reading. …
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This book has been chosen as a Great Read

Authors: Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

2009, Quirk

Best ebook deal: Sony eBook Store

Filed under Literary, Horror, Humor

From the discussion guide appended to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:

Some scholars believe that the zombies were a last-minute addition to the novel, requested by the publisher in a shameless attempt to boost sales. Others argue that the hordes of living dead are integral to Jane Austen’s plot and social commentary. What do you think? Can you imagine what this novel might be like without the violent zombie mayhem?

If you’re at all familiar with Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, you will immediately upon beginning Pride and Prejudice and Zombies notice that this is really that same book just…modified. It’s not a rewrite, just a reworking. What is really astounding about the Zombies edition is how well Grahame-Smith manages to implement the gory horror aspects, and indeed and entirely new setting, atmosphere, and fictional historical context while remaining true to the source material. …
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Author: Mario Acevedo

2009, Eos

Best ebook deal: Diesel eBooks

Filed under Horror, Mystery

I honestly can’t remember why, or when, I bought this book. I think it must have been on a whim while killing time in a bookstore one day, although I’m not sure what it says about me that I go for something called Jailbait Zombie on a whim.

The premise is silly to say the least: a vampire private eye teams up with an underage psychic harlot to put an end to a rash of zombie attacks in a remote Colorado town. There are mobsters and even machinated zombie chimera cyborgs too. It’s written with a satisfyingly noir-ish, hardboiled flavor, and the book, it turns out, is surprisingly entertaining. …
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Author: Scott Sigler

Three Rivers Press, 2008

Best ebook deal: Fictionwise

This is one of two mass-market books I picked up for a recent bus trip. Unlike Kronos, Infected turned out to be exactly what I expected when purchasing it: a graphic and bloody thriller.

Basically there’s this weird infection people are getting that makes them really itchy, then these weird triangle marks appear all over their bodies. Then they go mental and murder everyone they can before offing themselves. The government is going crazy trying to A.) stop what they perceive to be a terrorist bio-attack and B.) keep it under wraps.

The triangle marks, we learn, are alien seedlings, spawning in human bodies and controlling their minds a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The main plot line of the book focuses on former college football star Perry Dawsey as he battles for control of his body and mind against the creatures growing within him. Perry is a big guy with deep-seated anger issues, and he is able to withstand much more pain than the other victims we hear of. Most of this pain is self inflicted, as he tries to wrest them from his body. …
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This book has been chosen as a Great Read.

Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Public Domain

Best ebook deal: Free (try manybooks for a good version)

Everyone knows of Frankenstein (or Frankenstein’s monster to be more precise). The grotesque creature is practically part of our cultural consciousness. The image that probably comes to mind for most is that of the square headed, green skinned monster made famous by Boris Karloff. There are bolts protruding from its neck and it ambles, moaning and grunting, arms outstretched like a zombie. The original monster, conceived by Shelley in that famous summer writing contest between friends, was much the opposite of Frankenstein’s monster as we think of him today; brilliant, tortured, and lonely, the Creature’s pathos is one of the finest explorations of humanity in literature.

Though the Creature’s character is the defining strength of the story, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (as it was originally subtitled) is one of the very best examples of good old fashioned story telling in the Gothic tradition. …
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