Review: 'Something Strange and Deadly' by Susan Dennard

"Dead!" a woman screamed. "It's the Dead!

...I'd heard of corpses awakening --- hungry and dangerous though still quite dead.

The purpose of bells in coffins was, after all, to warn us; but if the word on the

street was true, then in the last week more than a few bodies had escaped their graves.

Eleanor Fitt, of the Philadelphia Fitts, has a lot on her mind; her brother is missing and her mother refuses to recognize the truth about the family's financial situation.  And then there are the rumors of a Necromancer leading an army of Dead.  Animated corpses are nothing new, there is a reason cemeteries are surrounded by fences, but a Necromancer has the power to raise and control the Dead.  Eleanor is determined to track down her brother even if that means facing the Dead and working with socially "unacceptable" people - the only ones who can stand against a Necromancer.

Susan Dennard has crafted a wonderfully detailed and original novel that adds a new twist to the YA zombie cannon.  Readers will relate well to both the lead female and male characters.  Eleanor is a strong heroine who is not afraid to fight for her convictions, while Daniel is a multifaceted blend reformed criminal and absentminded inventor.  Several of the secondary characters are integral to the story and add an interesting multi-cultural element to the story.  Historically accurate details add to the story - Eleanor's internal monologue includes pondering the constriction of her corset and how it inhibits movement.

Dennard handles the "zombie" element in a way that blends traditional walking dead elements with modern twists.  In Dennard's world burial doesn't always mean a body's final rest - periodically the dead become the Dead, rising from their grave, driven by a supernatural craving for human flesh.  The Dead can only be controlled by a Necromancer who can use them for his or her own nefarious purposes.

Readers looking for an original novel filled with action and suspense will enjoy Dennard's 'Something Strange and Deadly' and will look forward to the next novel in the series.

Book Source: Local Library
Reviewed by: Rebecca

Recommended Ages: 12+ Zombie violence, paranormal elements

Recommended for Readers of:

Step Aside Winchester Brothers, There's a New Guy in Town

For some reason I've been on a horror kick recently and have read some truly disturbing YA novels.  The most chilling read I've had lately is:
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood has unusual skill.  Like his father before him, he kills the dead.

Since his father's death at the hands of a powerful spirit, Cas has taken up the family knife and carried on the tradition of ridding the world of malevolent ghosts.  Everything changes when Cas receives information about an unusual ghost, Anna Dressed in Blood, who has more kills to her name than any spirit Cas has come across.  Suddenly the past comes back to haunt Cas and he must rely on new friends if he plans to survive the fight with Anna.

Kendare Blake has created a world in which things that go bump in the night are very real and likely to kill you.  Cas is an interesting and wonderfully flawed hero, while Anna's character opens the story to new directions that the reader doesn't expect.  Secondary characters are just as important and well-developed and help bring Blake's world to life.  Anna Dressed in Blood perfectly balances horror, action and emotion to leave the reader anxiously waiting for the next volume.

Recommended for readers of:

Robert Liparulo, Stephen King, Richard Yancey, Maureen Johnson

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!

Recommended for Readers of: