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Haunt of Horrors Press

Weird Review: NOS4A2 by, Joe Hill

NOS4A2_coverTitle: NOS4A2

Author: Joe Hill

Publisher: William Morrow (An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) 2013

Number of Pages: 704

Format: Print (Hardcover)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars aligned

 

COME TO CHRISTMASLAND

What would you do for a lifetime pass to a place where every morning is Christmas and unhappiness is against the law?

Don’t give up on wonder! Don’t give up on dreams!

We’re looking for go-getters who love children and aren’t afraid of adventure!

 


“NOS4A2 is a fast-paced, wind through your hair, stomach-flipping roller-coaster ride that will make you white-knuckle the binding and refuse to let go. We follow Victoria McQueen, a Brat (as her father lovingly calls her) with enough snotty attitude to earn the name. However, Vic has a quality that will make you fall in love with her: imagination. Through the power of her mind and her Raleigh Tuff Burner bicycle, she is able to dream up ‘bridges’ that allow her to find things. Whether it be a family heirloom, a photograph, or just looking for trouble, Vic is able to find it with the help of her Shorter Way Bridge – a long-destroyed covered bridge that fell into the water. Unfortunately it is this same bridge, and Vic’s adolescent rebellion, that inevitably send her to Charles Talent Manx.”

That is an excerpt from my review of NOS4A2, for Haunt of Horrors Press. As you can probably tell by reading the above passage I am absolutely in love with this book. Hill has accomplished something special with this novel which officially places him in the running with the rest of the worlds best horror writers. Though most already know that he is an offspring of the King himself, he has done a damn good job of writing under his pseudonym, earning his way with the absence of his family name.

Hill utilizes an excellent tool within this horror/fantasy and that is the use of a portal. Both Manx, and Vic find there way through Hill’s “inscape’s” that he has mentioned in his other great novel, Horns. Through these inscapes, Vic, with the help of her Shorter Way Bridge, finds Maggie, a junkie who loves scrabble. She helps explain to Vic how her bike and bridge are part of these inscapes; “Big old hole in reality… I am reaching into my inscape to get the tiles I need. Not into a bag. when I say your bike or my tiles are a knife to open a s-s-slit in reality, I’m not being like, metaphorical.”

These inscapes are an excellent adaptation to the use of the portal tool. Hill has begun to create and expand a new universe that I wish I could join. Whether it be ‘The Treehouse of the Mind,” the Crooked Alley, a sack of scrabble tiles, or a bike, these “knives,” as Maggie calls them, are used to poke a hole in reality allowing the user to manipulate or alter it to there choosing. This opens up so many opportunities for Hill’s characters, and increases anticipation and cravings to see him continue to play around in this realm of thought.

This is a novel that every reader, casual or avid, horror fan or not, should have on their book shelf!

Check out the whole review HERE!

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If you have checked out NOS4A2, let me know what you think by leaving a comment. And if you like all the tasty bits we gibber about here, become a follower or submit to receive email updates with every new post! Check us out on Twitter @UnspkbleGibberr and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UnspeakableGibberer.

 

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Weird Review: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward By H.P. Lovecraft and I.N.J. Culbard

Charles Dextar WardTitle: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Author: H.P. Lovecraft

Adapted By: I.N.J. Culbard

Publisher: SelfMadeHero

Number of Pages: 128

Format: Print (Paperback)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars aligned

 “I say to you again…”

Providenc Rhode Island, 1928. A dangerous inmate disappears from a privat hospital for the insane, his method of escape baffling the authorities. Only the patient’s final visitor, family phusician D. Marinus Bicknell Willet – himself a piece of the puzzle – holds the key to unlocking The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. A macabre mixture of historical investigation grave-robbing and bone-chilling revelation, this adaptaion artfully lays bare on of H.P. Lovecraft’s most horrifying creations.

“…do not call up any that you can not put down.”


 

“I.N.J Culbard’s illustrations of Lovecraft’s emotions are amazing and enrapture the reader into a world of questionable identities and the insecurities we all encounter. They are emotions that Lovecraft reserved for himself and, I believe, is the reason he initially withheld the tale in fear of disclosing his own sense of not-belonging during the time of his life.

That is an excerpt from my review of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, for Haunt of Horrors Press. Culbard is at it again, with his beautifully illustrated vision of one of the late Lovecraft’s best works. Any fan of Lovecraftian literature is in need of having this adaptation on their shelves, next to the rest of their moldering tomes. Happy reading!

Check out the whole review HERE!

Weirdlings who’ve enjoyed The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, or I.N.J. Culbard’s stuff, have also checked out:

If you have checked out The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, let me know what you think by leaving a comment. And if you like all the tasty bits we gibber about here, become a follower or submit to receive email updates with every new post! Check us out on Twitter @UnspkbleGibberr and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UnspeakableGibberer.

 


Weird Review: John Dies at the End by David Wong

JohnDiesAtTheEnd-001Title: John Dies at the End

Author: David Wong

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Number of Pages: 469

Format: Print (Paperback)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars aligned

 

 

STOP.

  • You should not have touched this book with your bare hands.
  • No, don’t put it down. It’s too late.
  • They’re watching you.

THE IMPORTANT THING IS THIS:

  • The drug is called soy sauce,  and it gives users a window into another dimension.
  • John and I never had the chance to say no.
  • YOU STILL DO.

If H.P. Lovecraft and Hunter S. Thompson sat down, tolerated each other, got drunk and composed a novel, this book would be the result. David Wong’s John Dies at the End is a witty, comedic horror novel that uncovers the world behind the curtain we call reality, and shines light unto an otherwise known darkness that encapsulates our world, possibly the universe, as we know it.”

That is an excerpt from my review of John Dies at the End, for Haunt of Horrors Press. This is a great book with lots of fun crazy stuff going on inside. If you are a fiend for the weird, then this is a novel you should have in your happy little hands.

Check out the whole review HERE!

Weirdlings who’ve enjoyed John Dies at the End have also checked out:

 

If you have checked out John Dies at the End, let me know what you think by leaving a comment. And if you like all the tasty bits we gibber about here, become a follower or submit to receive email updates with every new post! Check us out on Twitter @UnspkbleGibberr and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UnspeakableGibberer.