Wasted Brains

I used to be a backseat gamer. You know, the kind who watches someone play a game and interjects, at times, questions, tips or reactions that may or may not make the end result of the game better. Or, from the point of view of the player, mostly annoying stuff that bothers his concentration. Much like a regular backseat driver except that you won't get booted off the car once the annoyance reached boiling point. Haha. But you do get lectured, or if your lucky, have your questions answered, if you just watch the game. Because, like all backseat gamers, I suck at playing games. Well, mildly suck. To this day I can say I only finished one creepy game the entire time the old PlayStation was still with us. The game unfortunately isn't Resident Evil. For the life of me I always get eaten by zombies by the time I step out of the police station. So I think mildly suck is an understatement.

I do enjoy watching creepy action films. Zombies are fun to watch back then; they are slow, they just want to feed (unfortunately, humans are on the menu), and that's it. Until the film 28 Days Later came in. Zombies become fast, more aggressive than usual and well, they still feed. I haven't had much luck in reading zombies in books (Just World War Z, check. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, check.) but I love watching action films with zombies in them. I like to see them die and uh, stay dead.

Hence, Resident Evil. I've seen all three previous films. And today, for my Peril on the Screen for RIP V Challenge, I'll discuss the fourth installment to the franchise.

Alice is back, as well as her clones. After vowing in the last scene of Resident Evil: Extinction that she'll come after the leaders of the Umbrella Corporation, we are now transported to Japan where the underground facility of the group becomes Alice's target. Unfortunately, Wesker got to her with a serum erasing all the superhuman effects of the T-virus in her cells. This after eliminating all her clones with a blast that left a very large hole in what was once Japan. But hey, since Alice is the heroine of this film, sans her superhuman abilities, she somehow survives a plane crash. Whew.

She now flies to Arcadia. It's the haven in Alaska previously discussed in the third film. But all she finds there is Claire with a mechanical bug strapped to her chest, feral and with major memory loss. She couldn't remember Alice. But Alice took her back and off they flew searching for survivors across the States. They landed in California and met a ragtag team of survivors holed up in a prison.

And gee, maybe I shouldn't discuss the entire thing, right? I practically mentioned stuff better off seen than said, anyway. But here's what I thought about the whole thing.

If you're looking for some mind-enriching activity, this is not it. If you're looking for semblance of characters believable enough to be stuck on top of a prison garrison, this is not it. One thing it is is that it's an action film so you expect and hope for great action scenes. You can only hope for good dialogue or even lines and gee, I only get one and it's even an inside joke, so to speak, with respect to Wentworth Miller's character. And those who don't have any idea of the series Prison Break might not even get it. Short of saying this is my least liked Resident Evil film of the four.

Yes, the action scenes are sort of ok. I liked that part seen on the trailer where Alice is being chased by a horde of zombies on top of the building. But all the 3D stuff, I don't know. When I watch action scenes, I want them fast and good. Like watching Jason Statham slathered in oil fighting a horde of baddies in the first Transporter movie. I don't want my action scenes slow-mo'ed for the purpose of giving effect to the 3D elements of the film. It breaks the pacing for the purpose of the effect. And I didn't like the fact that fight scenes near the end feels like The Matrix all over again, complete with Wesker in shades and dodging bullets and what-not.

But the zombie dogs are creepy. Creeeeepy. There's not much zombie stuff anyway. There appears to be new ones, the kind that has a stinger, pretty much like the vampires of del Toro's The Strain. And there's this big, tall, covered thing with the very large ax bent on killing the girls. For a zombie, he sure looks like he could process information (instead of the usual "Oooh humans, food!"). Then again, I could be missing some characters from the game.

In a nutshell it's mindless, sort of fun action flick enough to waste your time if needed. It's something you watch if you've already invested yourself with the first three films, like I do. Because I learned to care about Alice even if I miss Carlos terribly. There's not much emotional connection with the other cast to care for them right now and I would probably ignore the next film until uh, that last scene after the initial round of credits were featured and made me go "What the...."

So yes, in a couple or so years I'll probably see the sequel to this one. Let's hope it's way, way better than this.

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My guest post on my Book Twin's blog is up at Things Mean A Lot. It's all about Joss Whedon. Let the geek love begin!

Hive Mentality

The Passage
Justin Cronin

Remember my reaction after reading The Passage a couple or so of weeks back? Here's why:

It's a story that starts with a flashback and a caveat: Before she became the Girl from Nowhere — the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years — she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. That line alone prepares you for a story that will span the ages as well as raises questions as to why those appellations are attached to her. You feel the book in your hands, carefully fanning the pages without peeking, trying to assess the enormity of it all.

But once you start reading everything becomes irrelevant. You become part of the story somewhat. You see yourself in Iowa, where Amy was born and raised by her mother and eventually left at the convent. And with just a little hint of horrors to come in the form of emails exchanged between doctors, you are back, now in the company of federal agents tracking her. But I'm not making things clear now, am I? The Passage, in a nutshell, is a story of engineered science gone wrong. Horribly wrong.

Set in America of the near future troubled by acts of terrorism in its native soil, the government sets it sight on creating super soldiers that would take out the enemy surreptitiously, overseas. In a well-guarded fortress in snow-covered Colorado, in floors below the surface, is a laboratory complete with cells destined for test subjects. And those subjects are people forgotten by time, people who are deemed by law to live the rest of their lives behind bars to keep the rest of us safe. Can you feel where this is heading already? But see here, the Dr. Frankenstein of this imagined future needs a control subject, someone very young, someone like Amy, No Last Name. Like the other test subjects, no one would miss Amy. And of course something goes wrong somewhere.

You see, the super soldiers they were trying to create weren't exactly soldiers to begin with. We, bookish people, have a better term for that: vampires. This is a science-engineered vampire story.

Fast forward seventy or so years into the future and we encounter that well-lighted community in California where we meet the other cast of characters: Peter, Caleb, Mausami, Theo, Alicia, Sara, Michael, Hollis and a handful of others. They are the third generation of survivors from the first wave of infection after the experiments had gone wrong. They call the vampires virals. And this is where the rest of the story takes off. Because the batteries that power the electricity of the community are failing. And one light-less night, heck even a light-less hour, is enough to decimate the group by the virals that stalk the place the moment night comes in.

It's not just a story of fighting virals but one of survival. And a story of survival doesn't get interesting without good characters to believe in and cheer for. Here, the third generation survivors give us a glimpse of what's it like living in a world devoid of the amenities we currently enjoy. They give us the face of the future where all their lives were lived walled-in, with gates guarded by crossbow-bearing peers. They read books saved from years back about places and things they are not familiar with. All the babies and kids live in a further enclosed space where the virals are never mentioned until they are old enough to understand, old enough to take on a role in further defending or helping the community, old enough to be responsible.

Based on my previous short posts a couple or so weeks back you guys know that I couldn't put this book down. And yes, even if I practically told you parts of the first fourth of the story I encourage you to read this. It's a rollercoaster ride to one scary, heartbreaking, horrifying future.

Let's get some things clear. The science-engineered vampires here aren't your Bram Stoker's version. The virals aren't the supernatural kind but borne of the mind of one Jonas Lear after experiments with vampire bats. Like the bats, the virals hate the light and feed on blood. The virals often kill the ones they feed on but a small percentage survive the attack and become virals themselves which is the effect of the lab-created virus injected on the initial test subjects.

One thing I didn't know even after I finished the book was the fact that this is the first of a planned trilogy. Seriously. I mean, I was practically holding my breath knowing that I was holding a mere handful of pages left with just a major obstacle removed (and if you've read the book you know how many problem areas are there - oh dear, speaking in riddles to avoid further spoilers is killing me). And that's not the entire reason why I screamed "Nooooooooooooooooooooo" in that post of mine. And it's not entirely due to the cliffhanger ending also. As cliffhangery (hahaha) as one gets with the last major line.

I screamed because it had a negative ending. Rather, it is easy to speculate that it had a negative ending. I screamed "Nooooooooooooooooooooo" because I never thought I cared so much for the characters only to be left with that note. Then again, I should have known better than to assume everyone's safety. In fact I should have known early on and took note of the introductions for the chapters; those lines I thought were positive signs for survival but not necessarily of the ones I am rooting for. Again I speak in riddles so bear with me. I traveled with those characters throughout the rest of the book and it broke my heart to be left hanging that way. Like I said, everything is speculation from the time the book ended. And at that time I didn't know that this book is part of a trilogy. So I continue to hope. Which means I am looking forward to the second book in this series.

Sigh. Everything comes in threes. The Strain Trilogy. The Uglies Trilogy. The Midnighters Trilogy of four. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy of five. Hahaha. I just need a laughing break.

This is my second book for Carl's Readers Imbibing Peril V and let's see if my next pick would top this as my favorite for the challenge, so far.

Other interesting points of view:

Books I Done Read
Boston Bibliophile
Estella's Revenge
Fantasy Book Critic
Fyrefly's Book Blog
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
Neth Space
Presenting Lenore
Rhapsody in Books Weblog
Savidge Reads
S. Krishna's Books
The Wertzone

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Aside: Funny how my reads tend to have a certain commonality in them, in my case a certain characteristic of a chosen animal. The Strain points me to the nesting habits of rats. This one about the hive mentality of bats. Rats. Bats. Maybe my next book should feature cats. And then gnats. Oh wait, gnats aren't mammals. Hahaha.

Without A Photo

I need to get my writing mojo back. And my reading mojo for that matter. Obviously I haven't been reading much. Well, I try every night as it's the only time I get to pick something up. But most times I end up solving easy sudoku puzzles to lull me to sleep. Weird, right? Like I get my brain worked up with placing numbers on a grid so I could sleep. Hence, my not-quite moving Reading List. Not to mention a pile of books I've yet to ramble about.

But a good thing happened this week. We have a new puppy at home.

Now's the perfect time to place a picture below but no, not going to happen. Today, at least. I'm still having trouble getting it to sit still. It. How cruel of me. The "It" has a name. His name's Guido. It's like saying doggie backwards. That's the idea. I stole that idea from a friend actually. But for lack of any other appealing names, we stuck to it. And Guido seems to be fine with it. He responds to it already. Then again, any growing puppy craving for attention would respond to any call, right?

There's a downside to having Guido. You see I own the alpha dog in the house, Titan. I posted a picture of her once. She was actually sick a couple of weeks back and had to be taken to a vet. Plus, she was sad when Winnie passed on. She was slowly regaining her strength back the day Guido was brought to us (just this Monday). And then she suddenly became sad and depressed again. The alpha dog is jealous. She hated me for doting on the new puppy. And when I took her back to the vet for the follow-up, the doc told me as well not to pay too much attention to the puppy while my dog is still recovering.

Ah, but how could I even ignore the puppy! Oh well, my sister told me I was a bad alpha dog owner. Hahaha.

Dogs. If you have one (or two) then you know what I'm talking about. It's bad enough my Titan gets cranky and snarls unnecessarily when Guido comes near her. Much worse during feeding time when the puppy (who basically requires at least three meals a day) prances around my Titan while the latter slowly chews her food. Hopefully, things would normalize soon enough. Normal, meaning the new puppy recognizes my Titan as the alpha dog and would cower at the mere sight of her. Hahaha.

Oh well. Hopefully I get back to posting regularly, that or at least my backlogs, in the next couple of days. Have a great weekend, book blogging friends!

Rumple-What?

I watch Top Chef as much as I can. Here, it is aired on free tv quite late. Top Chef Las Vegas had its finale about a month back with reruns airing in the meantime hopefully before picking up Top Chef Masters 2. I don't think the recently finished Top Chef Washington DC will be aired this year. Other than books I love food, you see. And it is fascinating to watch those chefs create meals in a time-pressured environment where other chefs of notoriety or renown (haha), taste and pass judgment ala-Simon Cowell on food. It sounds like a nice gig, really. You get to eat and wonder at the brains behind the chefs in the kitchen. Me, I just watch. If you ask the very basic cake recipe from me I'll come up with nothing. I need a recipe book propped open before I create something remotely tasty.

I'm not here to talk about food, really. There's just this one favorite challenge of mine in the Las Vegas season, the one where Penn and Teller (yes, the magicians) appeared as guests. The chefs were asked to deconstruct a favorite American dish and it was exciting to see the chefs come up with imaginative ways to like, deconstruct a lasagna. Or pot roast. In the present season (Top Chef Washington DC), they had a somewhat similar challenge called Covert Cuisine where the chefs were asked to disguise a commonly known dish into something else. Why this talk about disguise and deconstruction? Simple. The story I picked for my Short Story Peril this week is a well-known fairy tale in disguise.

On Lickerish Hill is the second story in Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories. And it's quite difficult to read. I mean, it feels like I'm reading a very old English text. It was only sometime in the middle of the story when I put the pieces together and realized that this is a retelling of Rumplestiltskin. Did I even spell that right? I won't say it three times. Oh wait, I'm not calling the Bogeyman.

Miranda Sowreston relates in her journal the events leading to her marriage with the melancholic Sir John Sowreston, who was led to believe Miranda could spin five skeins of flax in a day for a month. About a year after they were married, Sir John put Miranda in a cell to demand his spun threads.

The thing I had difficulty here isn't actually the text but uh, well for one thing how the women are treated. It was good that Miranda gets to talk with the scholars and all, all visitors of her husband, but gee, putting your wife in a cell and threatening her with death isn't exactly the proper way to treat one's spouse. It's just a story, I know. And it's not like the original had a judicious leading man in the first place. Still, I never even liked the original story to begin with.

But this one was well-written. If this were a Top Chef dish it would get great points for disguising the tale until sometime in the middle of the story. Then again I should have picked up on it much earlier. There were clues, you see. I was just a teeny wee bit slow that day. Hahaha.

Still, for my hands down favorite deconstructed fairy tale of all time, nothing beats Snow Glass Apples from Neil Gaiman. You should listen to the audio version of that in Two Plays for Voices. Far creepier. Hahaha.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo*

*My reaction after reading that last line from Justin Cronin's The Passage.

Status Update #2

While I try not to ditch any of the books I picked for my RIP V pool, I'm finding it hard to ignore Justin Cronin's The Passage. Note to self: Why didn't I place that on my pool to begin with? I finished ten chapters already and now I feel like I'm neglecting my other books.

And that I don't mind neglecting those other books. Sigh.

Magical Ladies

Above all remember this: that magic belongs as much to the heart as to the head and everything which is done, should be done from love or joy or righteous anger.

While I have a lot of backlog posts in mind, I decided to pick up Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, if only to jumpstart my RIP Challenge V. I needed it, you see. I'm having trouble with slow starts and I'm having the slowest of slow starts with The Town that Forgot How to Breathe. It's not the book's fault really, but mine. I see the hauntings: the ghostly appearance of a little girl in the barn, the smell of stinky fish, a sea monster found floating at sea (Oh wait, that's another book entirely - Lauren Groff's The Monsters of Templeton), at least two people on the verge of dying. All these things are signs of things yet to come and yet, with a measly number of minutes allowed to me before sleep I cannot move on just yet with the story.

I will be doing Short Story Peril today with The Ladies of Grace Adieu. Picking this up reminded me of how much I adored Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell when I read that about five years ago. It tells the tale of three women, all practitioners of magic: the second Mrs. Fields, Cassandra Parbringer, and Miss Tobias, in a village called Grace Adieu in Gloucestershire. The events of the story took place during Jonathan Strange's visit to his brother-in-law Mr. Henry Woodhope, a rector enamored of Cassandra. During those times, women practitioners of magic were rarely known. Rather, they keep to themselves. And they believe in and respect The Raven King.

There is a certain familiarity to the manner by which the story is written if at least you've read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Plus, Jonathan Strange is here in the story, so with Arabella, his wife. But the focal point of this tale is basically the titular ladies.

This story has all the perfect ingredients for a great read: a short background, a possible entanglement, an impending doom, a rescue mission, and a meeting of considerable importance, all in 32 pages. Well, that's as far as I can say without actually spoiling it. But gee, it was a charming read despite its darkness. There is a slight humor in the darkness actually, because bad things happen to presumably bad people, which somehow makes it easier to digest. Besides, the protective mantle shown by the three ladies is formidable magic enough that even Jonathan Strange recognized and would like to learn from. Oh dear, this story made me pull off my copy of that big block of a book off my shelves wanting to reread it! Tsk tsk tsk.

One of the things I adored with Clarke's novel and extends up to this story (and quite possibly the entire collection) is this: she has created a perfectly believable, magical world fit for the Napoleonic era. It feels like a story of manners on the one hand (and yes, it is) and yet a story of magic on another. Which is simply delicious. It also reminded me of Northanger Abbey, somewhat, with the reference to Mrs. Radcliffe's novels.

I'll go through the rest of the stories in due time. But for now consider picking up this imaginative tale and be delighted by the possibility that three seemingly regular ladies out for a walk on a starlit evening are magicians indeed, out to protect kids from a dire fate.

And if you haven't read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell yet, why haven't you? I'm thinking of rereading it this year, I mean this month. Which would somehow throw off my planned reads for the season.

Other interesting point of view:

Rememorandom

Lesson #3

If you plan on writing the rest of the afternoon, never eat pasta for lunch.

I'm so sleepy....

Among Us

The Strain
Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

This too will be difficult for you to accept. But to them we are not enemies. We are not worthy foes. We don't even rise to that level in their eyes. To them we are prey. We are food and drink. Animals in a pen. Bottles upon a shelf.

I remember tweeting about listening to the audio version of this book last month, likening it to having Hellboy tell you a scary bedtime story. You see, it is Hellboy telling you a scary bedtime story. Ron Perlman, the guy who played that damn red thing onscreen, read it. Hahaha! But here is where it gets interesting, at least for me. I didn't like the shivery feeling the voice left me while describing a huge plane lying stranded along the runway and for all intents and purposes everyone in it being dead. Didn't. Like. It. Don't get me wrong, I love the story. I was just too damn afraid to press Play again. And again. But I'm stubborn so I still listened, a track or two at a time. I haven't had a good night's sleep for a handful of days until I finally saw a copy of the book during NBS' annual Cut-Price Book Sale. Some of you are probably thinking I copped out and read the book instead. And you're right. Hahaha.

I'm listening to Radiohead while typing this. I don't know. Maybe I just want to keep the sound of Sardu's walking stick (Pick-pick-pick) off. I haven't gotten it off my system since I started listening to the book. Even after I finished the text. Yay, creepy. What a way to start RIP V. To think I'm cheating here by posting about a book I finished last week but have yet to ramble about. Hahaha.

Noticed my nervous laughter yet? Hahaha. Oh, there it is. Hahaha.

While it starts ominously enough with a tale of a young Abraham Setrakian listening to his grandmother telling him a scary bedtime story, the shift to the future-present we are more familiar with is far creepier. After descent and uneventful landing a plane stopped communicating to the tower. It lies there on the runway with all the lights off. No sign of a hostile situation even. All windows appeared to be closed. This occurred at night, before the occultation or what is known as a total solar eclipse for the next day. Enter Ephraim Goodweather, a CDC doctor out to investigate the cause of the apparent death of all the passengers save for four who survived not remembering anything that happened previously. And before I tell you the whole thing I'll stop now and let you discover the rest (scare yourself like me). I'll tell you this though, it's a vampire story. It's a scientific vampire story. Think Richard Matheson, research like Richard Preston and uh, a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hahaha.

Oh and before you pick this up I have to tell you now, it's the first book of a trilogy. Yep, that's right. So if I tell you now that the ending is [insert a hypothetical situation here - hahaha] you'll probably tear my hair out for saying so. Then again, the second book titled The Fall will be out this month. Or is already out? I'm not sure. What I'm sure of is that I won't be seeing that book anytime soon here. I mean it took a whole year for me to find a copy of this. The last book will be released in 2011.

What do you need to know before you pick this? It's written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I may not know who Chuck Hogan is but I like del Toro. Pan's Labyrinth ring any bells? That gorgeous, gorgeous dark faerie story? He created that. He also directed both Hellboy films.

When visual people start writing horror stories you tend to take notice. And that's your first mistake. Because once you cracked open the book, or in my case I initially pressed Play, I was hooked - no matter how claustrophobically eerie everything was, even out there in the open air of the runway, blanketed by darkness. When visual people write, your brain automatically reacts, sending induced shivers down your spine. And the only way to stop is to finish the entire thing. Seriously. Because if you put it down halfway through it would haunt you. No, seriously.

It doesn't help that the chapters feel like you're watching a film unfolding before you, chopped into scenes designed for maximum effect. And yes, while it feels like there's more action involved you also have this empathy towards the characters. They are likable (at least the good guys, as good as you could get them in a story like this, hahaha). There's the usual suspension of disbelief (the fate of the world lies in the guiding hand of a very old man wielding a silver sword, among others). There's enough back story on relationships, on their personal history, to react and feel for them. Of course all those take a backseat when you read parts brimming with the horror. And yes, there's blood and gore. It's a vampire story after all.

I think there's a part of our brain that flips a switch when things get too much. Maybe that's why I longed for the text version. I still haven't finished the audiobook. I try to (am on the fifth disc now) but I think I'm rationalizing why I haven't gotten far with it. I rationalize that it's not as scary listening to a story written in third person point of view. And it is. [Aside: I commented as much to Charley on a separate post of hers, the difference in listening to a story in varying points of view. A first person story feels more personal, more immediate, more intimate. A third person story, not quite. Then again, if I'm listening to a first person point of view horror story, I'd probably have a heart attack.] It feels like someone's just describing something, yes. It just so happened that the scenes are pretty disturbing indeed. Or I can ask myself "How come he doesn't do good voices for other characters?" When I say that I feel like he's (Ron Perlman) just reading the text. And goodness, I did that already. Now I feel that I can finish the whole discs. The only difference now and back then is quite simple, I already know how it ends. Short of saying I couldn't handle the suspense with just a disembodied voice telling me how things are going.

One last thing. A bit spoilery though so stop now if you haven't read this yet and planning to pick this for the challenge. The vampires here appear somewhat familiar to me. No, they're not the sparkly kind. But if you've seen Blade II then you know what I mean. It's been bugging me the whole time, you see. I've seen them before (and no, I don't mean in real life, unless I'm a vampire typing this thing up in a basement or something, away from sunlight, which is a good yet creepy idea). And the reason it's familiar is simple. Del Toro directed that film too. And his version of a vampire probably germinated from that. I'm talking about the Reaper vampires. Sardu and the others appear somewhat similar to the Reaper vampires of the film. The latter actually is more menacing if you've seen the film. Then again I assume too much.

Think you can handle another scary vampire story? Pick this. Better yet, listen to the audio version first like I did and see if you could handle that without copping out, like I did. Hahaha.

Night is real. Night is not an absence of light, but in fact, it is daytime that is a brief respite from the looming darkness...

Other interesting points of view:

Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews
Fantasy Book Critic
The Wertzone

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This is a cheat post for Carl's Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge V. I read this before the official start of the challenge, hahaha, but I'm posting about it only now. Hence, cheating. This is a good choice for RIP V. One hell of a horror story indeed.

RIP V

Officially, Fall is here. I mean, there. I mean, it's Fall somewhere, right? But not in Australia, I think. I live in a tropical country. We don't have a Fall season. But every year for four years now I go through the season vicariously with most of the book blogging world. So I guess it's obvious, Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge V is here!

I'm picking Peril the First. Ergo, I've to read four books. Who am I kidding? Since I joined this fun event I never stopped at four. Plus, I'll be doing Short Story Peril as well as Peril on the Screen too! Sounds like I'll be having a wickedly delightful two months!

Here's my not-quite pool:



I know it's not quite a large pool as before but give me a few days to add other stuff in. These books have been neglected for some time, like there's a TBR forest in my room. Two of them I placed on the past year's list (or even prior). If you've seen a photo of my bedside pile, well, these books weren't there save for two. You could only imagine the number of books in my overly stuffed shelves. These came from some of those shelves. Dusty even (hence I opted for the Copy setting meant for text shots, and goodness, it's still blurred). Maybe later I'll be able to unearth other gems. Or maybe a gnarled hand sandwiched between dusty spines will point me to other perfect matches for this challenge. That thought alone is weird I should stop now.

I know I'll be adding a bit more as I set aside some of my current reads for now. Join us in this fiendish, spine-tingling endeavor!

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Books from the top to bottom: The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower, The Poet and the Murderer by Simon Worrall, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly, 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill, Scary! Stories That Will Make You Scream Edited by Peter Haining, The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, The Town that Forgot How to Breathe by Kenneth J. Harvey and The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist.