ghosts and the undead | Reading Backwards book reviews

d e a d . w i n t e r Zombie apocalypse. The scenario has been reworked again and again, and has become pretty predictable. Something spreads through the population, turning almost everyone into shambling, undead creatures in search of braaaaains. A ragtag group of unlikely companions hole up together to beat back the hoard. The odds are stacked heavily against them. Luckily, S. Dave Shabet has put a new spin on the old story. He’s got one hell of a framing device. Full Story	The Barbarian By Judith E French Read: February 2010 Rating: A bit muddled I bought this book because, well, it’s called The Barbarian and it has a laughably swoony cover. I mean, c’mon, what’s more classically romance novel than a dude’s face all up close and personal while he gaze intensely at you, all the while holding [...] Full Story	The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold Read: January 2010 Rating: Lovely The sort of book that stays with you for a long time. Susie is fourteen when she is lured off by a neighbor, raped, and murdered. She watches from her heaven as her family struggles to cope with the aftermath. Her father is obsessed with finding her [...] Full Story
The Phoenix Requiem By Sarah Ellerton Read: 2009 Rating: Lovely http://requiem.seraph-inn.com/ Considering the OMGHUGE plot turn that happened this October, I figured I should get around to reviewing this. Sarah Ellerton made her name in webcomics with Inverloch. That series has ended, and now she has two projects running simultaneously, both exquisite. Full Story	The Skull of the World and The Fathomless Caves By Kate Forsyth Read: ~2002, November 2009 Rating: Gripping Hoo-! I was up MUCH later than intended last night, polishing off the last of book 6, which I read right on the heels of #5. Good reading, there. When I say gripping, I mean it. The last third especially… The Skull of the World follows [...] Full Story	Death Mill Mansion By Will Hartzell-Baird Read: September 2009 Rating: Clever Do you see that adorable little pyramid thing dusting the title on the book cover? You see that? That’s the most adorable killer robot you will ever see. Its name is XR-36, but it secretly thinks of itself as Octavius. It can’t announce this because XR-36 is [...] Full Story
The Pool of Two Moons By Kate Forsyth Read: Way Back When, July 2009 Rating: Bonny Book Two in the Witches of Eileannan is a big ‘un. It covers TWO mega-battles/wars, and a giantass cast of characters. I love it. And plenty of men in kilts. Not much fetishizing of the kilts, but plenty of kilts. And women kilting their [...] Full Story	Black Dagger Brotherhood By J.R. Ward Read: April-May 2009 Rating: Cool My mom got me hooked on these. She bought the whole Black Dagger Brotherhood series (1-6) and she immersed herself in them for about a week. Then she passed them on to me. Good, solid books. Not perfect, but few things are. As a whole, the series [...] Full Story	Megatokyo by Fred Gallagher Read: Continuously, reread May 2009 Rating: Brills Get sucked in: http://www.megatokyo.com/ If you’ve been reading webcomics for any period of time and haven’t come across Megatokyo you’re not surfing the right comics. Ever seen the Sad Girl In Snow trope? This is where it was born. Megatokyo is a lot of things, [...] Full Story
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte Read: March 2009 Rating: Poison I give up. I quit. I want nothing more to do with this torturous mess. I decided it was time to try Wuthering Heights because my TiVo had picked up a documentary on the Bronte sisters, which was of course full of people who think they’re the [...] Full Story	Mistress of the Art of Death By Ariana Franklin Read: Feb 2009 Rating: AWESOME. I go down on bended knee to my friend V for recommending this. The cover and its text make this sound like a pretty dark murder mystery that happens to be set in medieval Europe. That was pretty cool, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it so [...] Full Story	Peony In Love By Lisa See Read: January 2009 Rating: Lovely Set in China during a time of transition, the novel is a story of love, and voice. Peony Definitely an improvement over Snow Flower, in that the language doesn’t have as many weak spots, and the historical fact conveyed is much, much smoother. Oddly enough, the voice [...] Full Story
The Immortally Sexy Series 1-4 by Stephanie Rowe Read: 2007/2008 Rating: Mostly fab I didn’t realize I hadn’t blogged about any of these! They’re so much fun! I found the first one at the grocery store, and by the time I finally read it I was able to hop online and buy the next 3. Yes, they’re that good. I [...] Full Story	A Great And Terrible Beauty These books are huge. Undeniably huge. This is my most popular post, and I am just as excited as everyone else for The Sweet Far Thing (Book #3!) to be released on December 26th. I’ve pre-ordered as an Xmas gift for my mom. A film is also in production, and you can get more info [...] Full Story	The Black Jewels Trilogy + Dreams Made Flesh By Anne Bishop Rating: IXCALLENT. Read: 1: High school. 2: June 2006. I love this books. I cannot BEGIN to express how much I love these books. There’s so much to talk about… I’m going to have to try to limit myself. I must’ve passed over Queen about a thousand times in B&N. I always [...] Full Story
Queen of the Amazons By Judith Tarr Rating: Ixcelsiooor! Read: June 2006 This one came from Strand Books, my beloved second-hand goldmine. The description was interesting, the cover art is gorgeous (her neck piece looks like mother of pearl) and the story is well-told and thoroughly unusual. Very good. Full Story	Madumo: A Man Bewitched Adam Ashforth Rating: Decent Read: December 2005 I’m unsure how to categorize this one. It was required reading for my Apartheid & After class. The main issue? Witchcraft. Full Story