Review: 'The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart' by Leanna Renee Hieber

WARNING: This review contains spoilers if you have not yet read "Darker Still", 

the first volume of Natalie Stewart's story.

But just as the witches in Macbeth proclaim:
"Something wicked this way comes,"
there's no avoiding it.
But that doesn't mean I have to submit.

Jonathan, Lord Denbury, has been freed from the painting and the demon possessing his body forced out by the combined efforts of Natalie and her friend, Mrs. North.  The painting has been destroyed.  Not everything is resolved, however,  and Jonathan is wanted by the police for actions his body committed while possessed.  Natalie hopes that the painting's destruction signaled the end of the supernatural chapter of her and Jonathan's lives.  But when Natalie and Jonathan discover that there is a new darkness brewing in the City That Never Sleeps they must muster the courage and fortitude to stop a madman from trapping the souls of the dead.

Add another well-written, suspenseful novel to the newer cannon of YA Gothic literature.  Hieber continues to weave Natalie's story while introducing new characters and new supernatural elements that  readers will hope to see in future novels.  Natalie continues to grow into her newly discovered voice, as well as into her supernatural abilities, and must learn to balance her independence and family obligations.  Her struggle makes Natalie a character that teen girls can relate to even though her adventures are anything but ordinary.  Another strength of this novel is the historical detail, the setting is as important as the characters.  Nineteenth-century New York City is beautifully depicted in all its industrial glory which makes Hieber's novels a wonderful introduction to that time period.  Romance, mystery and supernatural evil abound in Hieber's newest novel, giving readers everything they could ask for in a book.  Highly recommended.

Release Date: November 1, 2012

Book Source: Sourcebooks, courtesy of Lauren Walker - Thank you Lauren!
Reviewed by: Rebecca

Recommended Ages: 14+ for some creepy scenes

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Review: 'Masque of the Red Death' by Bethany Griffin

The cold air hits me and I realize that we're outside.  It's raining.

Out of the club, in open air. I feel myself begin to panic, not because I care,

but because I've been programmed to fear the airborne contagions. 

I put my hand up, fell the ridged porcelain surface of my mask, and sigh with relief. 

I've worn this thing so long that I no longer feel it.

Society is on the brink of complete collapse, brought low by an invisible killer, an illness that has no cure and can only be prevented by the constant employment of a specially designed mask.  Production of the life-saving masks is limited and only the richest can afford to protect themselves and their children.  Araby is the daughter of the man who invented the mask, an act that brought her family into the echelons of the upper class, but which came too late to save her twin brother.  Since the death of her brother, Araby has existed rather than lived, pulled along by her only friend, April, to the risque clubs of the Debauchery District where alcohol and drugs flow freely.  While in the pursuit of oblivion, Araby comes to know two young men whose passions ignite her own and who make Araby realize there are things worth living for; and worth fighting for.

Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's short story of the same title, Bethany Griffin has penned a haunting, gut-wrenching realistic world where life is uncertain and fear rules all.  Araby is wonderfully broken; emotionally distant, self-destructive and disconnected from the world around her.  It's not that she doesn't feel anything, but that she feels everything too much.  Readers will be drawn into Araby's perspective even if they have never flirted with the darker thoughts and emotions that rule her life.  'Masque of the Red Death' will have readers glued to the pages, anxiously turning the page to discover what happens.  Warning: this novel has a cliff-hanger ending will leave readers anxiously awaiting Griffin's next novel.

Make sure to look for 'Dance of the Red Death' coming in April 2013!

Book Source: Local Library
Reviewer: Rebecca

Recommended Ages: 16+ Drug use & violence

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Galveston never seemed so interesting...

Here's a re-post of my review of Shattered Souls since it was one of my first and you may have missed it:

Finished Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey and it was FABULOUS!  A wonderful debut novel from a local Houston writer.  Lindsey's novel, set in the Houston/Galveston area, is a haunting combination of history, reincarnation, death and resolution that will have readers clamoring for more. 

Unlike the usual heroine Lenzie lacks self-confidence (somewhat due to her father's descent into schizophrenia and subsequent suicide), so when a strange young man, Alden, reveals that she is a Speaker and her gift is to help the unquiet dead resolve their issues, she is less than sold on the idea.  If Alden is to be believed, then Lenzie is the reincarnated soul of one of the best Speakers in history; a strong, capable woman who Alden has aided for lifetimes.  But Lenzie has none of her former memories and she is torn between the life she knows and the one she is destined to live.  Will she trust Alden?  Will she be able to escape the malevolent force that hunts her?  Is she really going crazy?

Order Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey to find out!
Amazon, Barnes & Noble

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Chills, Thrills & Daniel Radcliffe!

U.K. Edition 2011

Harry Potter is all grown up and graduated to a wonderfully gothic looking film.  In February 2012 The Woman In Black will open just in time to scare the pants off all those lovers for Valentine's Day!  After being creeped out by the trailer (and discovering that the film is based on a novel) I decided to read the original text.  Susan Hill's The Woman in Black was first published in 1986 and lead to one of the longest running West End plays to ever thrill and audience.
The plot is rather simple: A young lawyer, Arthur, is sent out from London to a small villiage to handle the post-mortem affairs of one of the firm's odder clients.  When he arrives in the village he discovers that there is a bit more to the woman's affairs than he expected and soon encounters a vengeful spirit tied to a mystery more than 50 years old.
A few pages into the first chapter of Hill's masterpiece, I realized that I had seen the play many years previously at the Alley Theatre in Houston - without realizing that the script was based on a novel.  I remember the play as being wonderfully atmospheric and spine-tingling and was certainly not dissapointed in the original story.  Ms. Hill has a way of describing a scene while still allowing the reader to use their imagination:

 "Tonight, I smelled at once, and with a lightening heart, that there had been a change in the weather. All the previous week, we had had rain, chilling rain and a mist that lay low about the house and over the countryside...Inside the house, the lamps were lit throughout the day and the walls of larder, outhouse and cellar oozed damp and smelled sour, the fires sputtered and smoked, burning dismally low."

(Chapter 1).

Like the very best of gothic fiction, The Woman in Black is both mentally engaging and wonderfully dark.  I was unable to put this novel down and finished in about a day. Highly recommended.  This is one of my new favorites and I can't wait for the movie!

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