REVIEW: CARRIE

Author: Stephen King
Series: No, standalone
UK Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
UK Release date:
Genre: Horror/thriller

Carrie White is no ordinary girl.
Carrie White has the gift of telekinesis.
To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie - the first step towards social acceptance by her high school colleagues.
But events will take a decidedly macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night as she is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her . . . (Goodreads)
Despite having watched a number of films based on his books, I have never actually read any of Stephen King's books. Reading Carrie, I was not disappointed.

Sixteen year old Carrie is an unusual protagonist. Not because she has rare telekinetic powers. But because she is the girl that everyone picks on and nobody likes, and she passively accepts the abuse and taunts thrown at her. To start with I empathised with her, but didn't really sympathise with her or even like her that much. Perhaps because the start was written in third person perspective, it kept the bullying and Carrie at a distance. But as the narrative switched to Carrie's first person perspective and sometimes her mothers, I began to understand how tough her home life was and why she was the she was.

And I also started to hate her mother. A zealous, religious fanatic, she put Jesus, righteousness and atonement above all else, including Carrie. Her mother seemed completely oblivious to Carrie's needs or the psychological trauma she was suffering. Although Carrie started off as a passive character, accepting her mother's and peer's abuse, her developing telekinetic powers gave her the courage to stand up to her mother. It was great to see Carrie refuse to bow to her mother's ridiculous beliefs and demands, however Carrie went too far in the end. Really though, who could blame her. And despite the horrors of what happened, part of me was a little bit glad that Carrie was able to exact revenge of those mean people that had bullied her for so long.

The narrative changed quite regularly, quoting articles/papers one page and then quickly changing to a character's point of view. Sometimes these perspectives overlapped, and it could be a little confusing to keep track of. However you got to see each of the characters differing thoughts and feelings about a particular event and somehow still flowed and kept up a fast pace.

From the very outset, we knew something bad would happen at the end of the story, although I had no idea what exactly that would be. We do know Carrie is not only the instigator but also cause for national concern. Because of this my curiosity was instantly piqued, and there was a gradual build up of tension and suspense throughout the plot, with flashbacks and new experiences telling Carrie's story and giving the backstory to the final climatic events. Carrie's story, whilst deep troubled was also very gripping and sad. I sped through the pages with ease, and understand now why Stephen King's writing has captured the attention of so many.

Carrie is a twisted psychological thriller horror, and a brilliant read.

Rating: 5*

REVIEW: ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD

Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Yes, #1
UK Publisher: Orchard
UK Release date: July 2012
Genre: YA Paranormal

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. (Goodreads)

First off, I loved Anna Dressed in Blood. It was a gripping and haunting ghost story. Beautifully written it had me engrossed from page 1. I just adored Kendare Blake's writing style which was easy to  read, flowed naturally and was wonderfully captivating.

Cas was a brilliant protagonist. From the first person perspective, his distinctive voice and witty personality shone through. I loved his sense of humour and purpose, and I enjoyed seeing him change from the 'loner' that doesn't want to get close to anyone to actually needing the friends he had made. For his age, Cas was quiet mature and grounded and I think his character benefitted from not being a typical sulky teenager. Instead he had a sense of motivation, and a really great relationship with his mum, whom I adored.

As soon as I heard about Anna through the ominous letter covered in blood, I couldn’t help but think of her as some evil, wretched ghost (that looked like the girl off the film Ring) and that couldn’t be reasoned with thereby needing to be completely banished. I wasn’t disappointed (Anna was a force to be reckoned with) but she was also so much more. To then have the unusual interplay between Cas and Anna was so unexpected and well done that it felt completely natural and brilliant.

The secondary characters, Thomas and Carmel were well developed, each of their personalities bouncing off each other to create humorous but very natural feeling dialogue exchanges. Together with Cas there were an unexpected ragtag group: the ghost-hunter, the witch, and the popular girl. Considering Cas kept proclaiming he worked alone, the support he had from them was unexpected but it worked so well.

Looking back there was foreshadowing in the plot that could have helped me guess the ending. But I was so caught up in the tense action, the gory horror and fast paced plot, that I didn’t pause for even a second to try to interpret the clues. I just enjoyed the story for what it was. There were certainly a few moments that had me on the edge of the seat with tingles running down my spine.

Anna Dressed in Blood is a creepy, fast paced horror thriller, with wonderfully written characters and dialogue and a ghost story to match any horror film.

Rating: 5*

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: JEREMY DE QUIDT ON THE FEATHERED MAN

Today I am really excited to have author Jeremy de Quidt joining me on the blog to talk about some of his latest book The Feathered Man, a historical YA with some creepy undertones and strong characters that delves into the concept of what happens after your last breath.

How would you describe The Feathered Man to a potential reader?

It’s an adventure, a dark, frightening adventure. I wanted to take the science and thought of the early nineteenth century - that Gothic world of Mary Shelley in which the boundaries of medicine and anatomy were being pushed forward - and mix it up with murder, and curse and the belief in an after life from an earlier, more distant time. It’s about a search for that unanswerable question - where does life go when we have breathed our last? Maybe it’s an answer it’s better not to know.

What sparked the ideas for this new book?

A present to my daughter Alice. A friend of ours gave her a life-sized wire and feather sculpture of a kneeling man. Alice hung it on her bedroom wall. I would go in to her room to say ‘goodnight’  and see its shape in the dark. I’d sit there on the edge of her bed and think to myself ‘there’s a story there.’

If you were to 'sell' The Feathered Man using a single quote or line from the book, what would you choose?

The warning given to Markus by Professor Karolus - ‘Curiosity is a killing thing.’

The Feathered Man is set in a German town in a long ago era. Did you need to carry out any research to help you write the book, and if so, what did you research?

I needed to have a grasp on the science and philosophy of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and of the beliefs and ritual of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The town itself is made up - I dipped into every mental picture I had of a northern German town and fitted them together, though the twin-spired church is based on the Marienkirche in Lubec. It was on a postcard that someone once sent to me.

Who was your favourite character to develop and write for in The Feathered Man?

I liked writing Frau Drecht. She is simply so horrible. Cruel people are bad enough, but scheming cruel people are even worse - they are an absolute gift to a writer.

The Feathered Man touches on some thought-provoking issues such as life after death. Has writing this book taken you on any emotional/philosophical journeys.

It made me think about the conflict between religious belief and science, and the conflict between different religious beliefs themselves. And I had to think about an after life. I ended up asking myself what if there was one, but what if it was more broken and disfunctional than life itself?

When you were writing The Feathered Man what were the positive or challenging elements?

I found the difficult part was combining the real world and an after life - finding a way of running them together as one. The positive part? Actually making it to the end of the book.

Who would you say inspires you and your writing (people you know, authors etc).

I find I’m more inspired by object and image than by people or by other authors. I find it really difficult to read any fiction while I’m trying to write it myself. But it’s not the case that I see an object and think ‘I could make up a story about that,’ it’s more that it sets in motion a train of thought that leads to other things. Old photographs do that for me too. I love old photgraphs - they are a gold mine for imagination.

How has writing your second book differed from writing your first? Has it been easier, with the experience behind you, or more challenging?

It was far more challenging. When I wrote my first - The Toymaker - it was as a weekly instalment to tell to children at a local junior school. The only pressure was to make sure there was another instalment ready to tell them come Thursday. It was a different thing altogether knowing that I was writing a book that a publisher was waiting for. I think it’s an almost universal fear among second time novelists that the first was a complete fluke and that you are about to be found out in a big way when you try to write a second.

What can we expect next from Jeremy de Quidt?

I don’t know yet. I still haven’t quite put down THE FEATHERED MAN - I need to get a little more distance between him and me, and by then one of the ideas that is quietly working away in my head will have pushed it’s way to the front. I’ve got an opening scene I’d like to use though, and in it there is snow on the ground, and the breath of the man makes a small cloud as he walks towards the door of the carriage.

Thank you so much Jeremy for taking time to talk about The Feathered Man. If you would like to find out more about Jeremy de Quidt or his latest book you can find it here:

Goodreads
Jeremy's Blog on the David Fickling Books website

The Feathered Man was released on 1st November 2012 by Random House. You can read my review of it here or you can head on over to Amazon to grab yourself a copy.

REVIEW: THE FEATHERED MAN

Author: Jeremy de Quidt
Series: No, standalone
UK Publisher: Random House
UK Release date: 1st November 2012
Genre: YA, Horror, Historical
Kindly given by the publisher for an honest review

In a German town, long ago, lives a tooth-puller's boy called Klaus. It isn't Klaus's fault that he sees his master steal a diamond from the mouth of a dead man in Frau Drecht's lodging house, or that Frau Drecht and her murderous son want it for themselves.

He has nothing to do with the Jesuit priest and his Aztec companion who turn up out of the blue looking for it, or the Professor of Anatomy who takes such a strange interest in it. No, Klaus doesn't want any trouble. 

But when he finds himself with the diamond in his pocket, things really can't get much worse - that is, until the feathered man appears. Then they become a matter of life . . . and death.

The Feathered Man features some very strong characters, some of whom are very cruel and heartless. Particularly Frau Drecht who uses children as free labour and has an unusually high number of deaths in her boarding house. I loathed this woman and really wanted her to get her just desserts. In comparison, the two young children, Klaus and Liesel, were so innocent, naive and vulnerable. Because of this they ended up constantly on the run and all I wanted was for them to find safety and hope. My heart went out to them both because they had no parents or anyone to look out for them, and sorely needed someone to give them a hug, food and a warm bed. But in the poverty stricken German setting, safety and love were very hard to find.

The setting very much reminded me of Victorian London, due to the historical timing as well as the stark contrast between those with money and education and the poor struggling just to survive. There were also a fair few gruesome acts in the story from murder, torture and maltreatment which gave the town a very dark and sinister underbelly. This poverty meant that Klaus and Liesel were forced to work for horrible adults just to survive, and when they were both in danger (which was quite often!) I was wracked with fear for them. The plot also took a number of sharp twists and turns, and there was plenty of intrigue when new characters were introduced and I tried to figure out how hey might fit into the puzzle.

A huge part of the plot links to the spiritual and what happens after death. I’m not sure I completely understand the other world. In fact, if that’s what it is like afterwards, I’m not sure I want to know. And yet, the desire to know what lies beyond drove several of the characters to commit heinous acts of violence and murder. I did like that this spiritual element was balanced against the exploration of the physical through anatomy, and that the anatomists were intrigued in life after death despite having a scientific background. 

The Feathered Man is a dark and chilling tale of human nature and what happens when our curiosity about death exceeds the value of life.

Jeremy de Quidt is currently taking part in blog tour for The Feathered Man. Here on My Book Journey Jeremy will be answering some questions about his latest book – be sure to stop back on November 6th 2012. 

Rating: 4*

TRAILER TUESDAY

So I've decided to follow in the steps of lots of other bloggers that highlight recent trailers for books (and films).

First up is the bio and trailer for Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose #1) by Fiona Paul. Venom is out on October 30th 2012 from Penguin.

Cassandra Caravello is one of Renaissance Venice’s lucky elite: with elegant gowns, sparkling jewels, her own lady’s maid, and a wealthy fiancé, she has everything a girl could desire. Yet ever since her parents’ death, Cassandra has felt trapped, alone in a city of water, where the dark and labyrinthine canals whisper of escape.

When Cass stumbles upon a murdered woman—practically in her own backyard—she’s drawn into a dangerous world of courtesans, killers, and secret societies. Soon, she finds herself falling for Falco, a mysterious artist with a mischievous grin... and a spectacular skill for trouble. Can Cassandra find the murderer, before he finds her? And will she stay true to her fiancé, or succumb to her uncontrollable feelings for Falco?

Beauty, love, romance, and mystery weave together in a stunning novel that’s as seductive and surprising as the city of Venice itself.

******

Second up is the trailer for the film Detention starring The Hunger Games' Peeta or Josh Hutcherson. Below is the bio for the film, which was released in April this year in America. It went straight to DVD in August here in the UK which is why it completely missed my radar.

This comedy/horror movie is about a group of teens who go to Grizzly Lake High School. When one of their class mates is killed by someone dressed up as 'Cinderhella' (a character from a popular horror movie) they are all under suspicion. But when they all get detention, they try to work out who it is. 

FILM REVIEW: THE MOTH DIARIES

Today's film review has been written by my lovely other half Dani Riot.

Director: Mary Harron
Writers: Rachel Klein (novel), Mary Harron (screenplay)

Release date: 2011

Genre: Horror/paranormal

The Moth Diaries is the debut novel of Rachel Klein, published in 2002.

At an exclusively girls' boarding school, a sixteen year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her growing obsession is her roommate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy's friendship with their new and disturbing classmate, Ernessa. Around her swirl dark rumors, suspicions, and secrets as well as a series of ominous disasters. As fear spreads through the school and Lucy isn't Lucy anymore, fantasy and reality mingle until what is true and what is dreamed bleed together into a waking nightmare that evokes with gothic menace the anxieties, lusts, and fears of adolescence. At the center of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it, "Is Ernessa really a vampire?" or has the narrator trapped herself in the fevered world of her own imagining?

I'll come clean, I haven't read the book that The Moth Diaries movie was based on, so I have nothing to base my opinion on, as I appreciate that so many people say the movie versions of books are not as good. I should even come clean and say I didn't even know what the story was going to be about when I watched it. Because as a photographer, I watched this film predominantly for the styling… But that's not to say I wasn't pleasantly surprised.

The story is great because it keeps you guessing. None of the characters, especially Ernessa are ever 'outed' as to what they truly are. I really like films that are psychological, leaving it up to the viewer to keep questioning over and over as each element is put into place. Is Ernessa a vampire? Is she a dead girl from years past? Or is it all in Rebecca's head? It's hard to tell, but one things for certain… something strange is going on.

Personally, I don't think the film is long enough, at just under 1 hour 20 minutes, some things look really rushed. At one point two nights of action pass within minutes. Of course there is always the problem of things seeming too dragged out also, but I feel this movie had a lot more scope to learn more about some of the other characters in the story, as it does seem very Rebecca, Ernessa and Lucy centric. There are other fairly main characters we never really learn about, only their interactions with the main three.

Visually, this movie is awesome, I really like the way they mix the modern with the Victorian. It really helps that the boarding school has a history as an old hotel resort, so a lot of the resort is left behind, like the now decaying gardens, and the deteriorating creepy hallways and dorm rooms. But the stand out for me is the way Ernessa's character bounces between the generations, sometimes dressed in modern goth blacks, and then vintage Victorian dresses.

Overall, it's a good movie, something to get your brain working with, and at its length, it's not too taxing either. I have watched this movie twice now, first alone when I just let myself fall into the story, and a second time with Hannah where it threw up discussions and opinions on character and story. So depending on what you want to get from this movie, it's flexible in that way.

The Moth Diaries is a creepy, intriguing and beautifully styled film.

FILM REVIEW: OSOMBIE

Director: John Lyde
Release date: 2012
Genre: Zombie
UK premiere viewed at Sci-Fi-London 11.

The story follows Dusty, a yoga instructor from Colorado, who is on a desperate rescue mission to save her crazy brother Derek, a conspiracy theorist who is convinced Osama bin Laden is still alive, despite having (reportedly) been buried at sea. In Afghanistan, Dusty falls in with a team of NATO Special Forces on a secret assignment. It turns out Derek is not so crazy after all, and Osama has returned from his watery grave to gather together an army of zombie jihadists. When the NATO group crashes headlong into the growing zombie apocalypse, Dusty and the troops must find and destroy the root of the zombie insurgency before it infests the rest of the world.

With plenty of action, Osombie pulls apart historic events and gives it a humorous zombie twist. As the title would have you believe, Osama Bin Laden is the key focus of the film. However this isn't the case. Yes, the film revolves around the conspiracy theory that he wasn't actually killed, and it takes this idea one step further and adds in the zombie element. But the story actually follows a small group of NATO troops on a secret mission. I would have liked to have seen more of the terrorist leader turned zombie, but I have to admit I did like following the story of the different characters within the troop. Each had their own distinct character and personality, and several characters had a nickname to describe their key traits such as 'Tomboy' or 'Joker'. Although the film tried to make a fairly serious point there was plenty of humour, with one male character always ending up topless shooting zombies, and another screaming profanities at his ex-wife whilst blowing up zombies with a heavy machine gun.

There were a few inconsistencies and cheesy scenes…cue the upset 'tomboy' practising martial arts against a setting sun. But there were also some serious moments as different characters were bitten and likewise bit the dust. Even military training and ammunition provisions couldn't stop flesh-eating zombies and when soldiers died, I felt the emotion of the rest of the troop which was testament to the casting and writing.

Conspiracy theories, gun-toting, and a stunning desert backdrop combined well in Osombie to give a zombie enemy worth fighting against.

Rating: 4*