POISON INK by Christopher Golden

Sammi is a floater.  She has friends in every clique at school, but doesn’t really fit in with any one of them.  Her only close friends are four girls just like her.  They started hanging out together because they didn’t fit in anywhere else.  Just hanging out has turned into four of the strongest friendships Sammi has ever had.

Sammi, Caryn, Letty, TQ, and Katsuko are inseparable.  One night during a sleepover, the idea of getting a tattoo to represent their bond to each other develops.  Immediately they are all excited – except for Sammi.  She knows her parents wouldn’t approve and with them teetering on the edge of divorce already, she doesn’t want to give them anything else to fight about.  Sammi hopes the idea of the tattoo just falls by the wayside and eventually is forgotten.  Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

Together they come up with a plan to get out of the house and go to a tattoo shop close to Letty’s house.  The creepy tattoo artist doesn’t ask to see their IDs and they all start to plan where they will place their tattoo.  Each girl chooses a different location, but all will have the exact same design.  After all of her friends have already been tattooed, Sammi decides she can’t go through with it.

Immediately, Sammi is shunned and becomes on outcast in her group.  They even go so far as to defriend her on her Instant Messaging Buddy List.  Soon after the application of the tattoos, Sammi notices a change in TQ, Caryn, Letty, and Katsuko for the worse.  They become violent, promiscuous, and horribly mean.  In the middle of a fight that lands Sammi in the hospital, she spots the tattoos on her friends’ skin and sees that they have changed.  Tendrils have started to emerge and cover more of their bodies.  Sammi realizes something sinister is going on and that the creepy tattoo artist must be behind it.  She decides to find a way to save her friends and get them out from under the control of the poisoned tattoos.

 

SOULLESS by Christopher Golden

For the first time ever, three powerful mediums are going to join hands on a live morning TV show in order to conduct the largest ever seance.  The minute they join hands, people in the live studio audience begin to hear voices and feel the bone chilling cold that is so often associated with the spirit world.  Panic breaks out and rightly so….the spirits have been given the opportunity to come through an open door into the world of the living and they aren’t wasting any time.

Spirits are returning to their dead and decomposing bodies and raising up from their graves.  Zombies begin to brutally attack anyone unfortunate enough to get in their path.  A group of strangers are thrown together and forced to find a way to survive - even if what they have to do is very unpleasant.

Christopher Golden has delivered a genuine horror novel.  Blood and gore flow free throughout the chapters.  However, as weird as this may sound, the violence portrayed in SOULLESS is done tastefully and not disgusting at all.  SOULLESS is a thrill ride – a thrill ride with flesh eating zombies every step of the way.

SOULLESS will be available in stores October 2008.  Check out more on the website.

 

POISON INK by Christopher Golden

Sammi is a floater.  She has friends in every clique at school, but doesn’t really fit in with any one of them.  Her only close friends are four girls just like her.  They started hanging out together because they didn’t fit in anywhere else.  Just hanging out has turned into four of the strongest friendships Sammi has ever had.

Sammi, Caryn, Letty, TQ, and Katsuko are inseparable.  One night during a sleepover, the idea of getting a tattoo to represent their bond to each other develops.  Immediately they are all excited – except for Sammi.  She knows her parents wouldn’t approve and with them teetering on the edge of divorce already, she doesn’t want to give them anything else to fight about.  Sammi hopes the idea of the tattoo just falls by the wayside and eventually is forgotten.  Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

Together they come up with a plan to get out of the house and go to a tattoo shop close to Letty’s house.  The creepy tattoo artist doesn’t ask to see their IDs and they all start to plan where they will place their tattoo.  Each girl chooses a different location, but all will have the exact same design.  After all of her friends have already been tattooed, Sammi decides she can’t go through with it.

Immediately, Sammi is shunned and becomes on outcast in her group.  They even go so far as to defriend her on her Instant Messaging Buddy List.  Soon after the application of the tattoos, Sammi notices a change in TQ, Caryn, Letty, and Katsuko for the worse.  They become violent, promiscuous, and horribly mean.  In the middle of a fight that lands Sammi in the hospital, she spots the tattoos on her friends’ skin and sees that they have changed.  Tendrils have started to emerge and cover more of their bodies.  Sammi realizes something sinister is going on and that the creepy tattoo artist must be behind it.  She decides to find a way to save her friends and get them out from under the control of the poisoned tattoos.

 

SOULLESS by Christopher Golden

For the first time ever, three powerful mediums are going to join hands on a live morning TV show in order to conduct the largest ever seance.  The minute they join hands, people in the live studio audience begin to hear voices and feel the bone chilling cold that is so often associated with the spirit world.  Panic breaks out and rightly so….the spirits have been given the opportunity to come through an open door into the world of the living and they aren’t wasting any time.

Spirits are returning to their dead and decomposing bodies and raising up from their graves.  Zombies begin to brutally attack anyone unfortunate enough to get in their path.  A group of strangers are thrown together and forced to find a way to survive - even if what they have to do is very unpleasant.

Christopher Golden has delivered a genuine horror novel.  Blood and gore flow free throughout the chapters.  However, as weird as this may sound, the violence portrayed in SOULLESS is done tastefully and not disgusting at all.  SOULLESS is a thrill ride – a thrill ride with flesh eating zombies every step of the way.

SOULLESS will be available in stores October 2008.  Check out more on the website.

 

BLISS by Lauren Myracle

Bliss in the Morning Dew has hippie parents and when they ditch her at her grandmother’s house on their way to Canada she is forced to survive in a world that is completely alien to her.

After living on a commune for years, Bliss expects high school to be like The Andy Griffith Show and is looking forward to starting frienships with people her age.  Her grandmother enrolls her at Crestview Academy, an elite school that used to be a convent, which makes her both nervous and excited.

Much to Bliss’ relief, she doesn’t have any trouble finding girls to hang out with and everyone seems to be extremely patient with her asking questions like: 1) what is a parade float? and 2) what are Flavor Straws?  Everything seems to be going great until she begins to hear the voice of a long dead novitiate – Liliana.  Liliana is trying to get someone to perform a ceremony that will release her spirit and allow her to have power again and since Bliss has always been able to sense things from the “other” side, she seems like the perfect candidate.

Lauren Myracle, the author of TTYL, has written a disturbing horror novel that takes the reader deep into the hippie culture.  She mixes facts from the 1969 Charles Manson Family Murders, a creepy ghost story, and typical high school drama into a wonderfully creative story.  The use of quotes from 60’s culture TV Shows, Commercials, and Transcripts from the Charles Manson trial add to the charm of this book.  While the middle of the story is a little slow, it doesn’t detract from the quality as a whole.

 

ZOMBIE BLONDES by Brian James

Hannah has just moved with her father to a new town AGAIN. She can’t understand how her father doesn’t understand that he can’t run from his problems.  Once she gets settled someplace they seem to get into a financial situation that her father would run away from rather than solve.  It never seems to work.  Her father promises that Maplecrest is going to be different.  Boy was her ever right – just not in the way he meant.

Hannah is used to being the new girl in school.  She has made picking out the rulers of the school an art form.  At Maplecrest, they are the Cheerleaders and the Cheerleaders are led by Maggie Turner – with her pale skin, glowing blonde hair, and brilliant blue eyes, Hannah can see why she attracts so much attention.  

 

Lukas approaches Hannah at lunch on her first day.  He comes to warn her.  He doesn’t want her to get pulled into the popular crowd.  The popular crowd, he warns her, are flesh eating zombies that are slowly killing off the people in town.  Hannah’s mind immediately flashes to all the For Sale signs she saw in the yards of the homes her and her father passed on their way into town but zombies?  There was no way she was going to believe that.  She could clearly see by the comic books Lukas carried with him that he was letting his imagination get carried away.  While glad to have a friend at school, she didn’t like him talking about zombies and quickly put it out of her mind as crazy talk.

 

When the Cheerleaders approach Hannah she is both excited and nervous.  Can she make the cut and win a spot on the squad? What will she have to do to be accepted by the girls?

 

Brian James has written an exciting horror novel set in an everyday teen setting – high school.  What could be more horrifying?

 

CORALINE (Graphic Novel) by Neil Gaiman

I was extremely excited when I saw the Coraline in graphic novel form.  When the book first came out I totally fell in love with it.  For a children’s book, it was completely frightening.  The graphic novel does a great job of hitting the high points of the story and the illustrations are great, but I don’t think it should be used as a replacement for the original book.  The illustrations that are in the book publication are even creepier than the color illustrations in the graphic novel.  For example, look at this illustration of the Other Mother from the book.

  ICK!!!!

If you aren’t familiar with the story at all, here is a quick summary.  Coraline has just moved to a new flat with her parents.  School is still a couple of weeks away so she is left to explore her surroundings including the grounds of the building and the flat itself.  Her parents are extremely involved in their work and have little time for Coraline so she is left on her own a lot.

There is one door in the flat that is locked and when she asks her mother what is behind the door she is told that it leads to another flat, but the passage way has been bricked over – her mother opens the door to prove it. 

Later that night, while Coraline is in bed, she hears a clicking across the floor, curious about what made the noise, she gets out of bed and creeps into the hallway.  She notices the door that leads to the other flat is open.  Her curiousity forces her to walk into the dark opening and what she finds is a mirror image of her own flat – including her Other Mother and Other Father.

After entering the flat next door, Coraline’s life takes a horrifying turn.  She must enter a battle with the Other Mother in order to save not only her life, but the lives of several others.

This is an awesome book.  You should definately read the book in addition to reading the graphic novel.

 

ZOMBIE BLONDES by Brian James

Hannah has just moved with her father to a new town AGAIN.  She can’t understand how her father doesn’t understand that he can’t run from his problems.  Once she gets settled someplace they seem to get into a financial situation that her father would run away from rather than solve.  It never seems to work.  Her father promises that Maplecrest is going to be different.  Boy was her ever right – just not in the way he meant.

 

Hannah is used to being the new girl in school.  She has made picking out the rulers of the school an art form.  At Maplecrest, they are the Cheerleaders and the Cheerleaders are led by Maggie Turner – with her pale skin, glowing blonde hair, and brilliant blue eyes, Hannah can see why she attracts so much attention.  

 

Lukas approaches Hannah at lunch on her first day.  He comes to warn her.  He doesn’t want her to get pulled into the popular crowd.  The popular crowd, he warns her, are flesh eating zombies that are slowly killing off the people in town.  Hannah’s mind immediately flashes to all the For Sale signs she saw in the yards of the homes her and her father passed on their way into town but zombies?  There was no way she was going to believe that.  She could clearly see by the comic books Lukas carried with him that he was letting his imagination get carried away.  While glad to have a friend at school, she didn’t like him talking about zombies and quickly put it out of her mind as crazy talk.

 

When the Cheerleaders approach Hannah she is both excited and nervous.  Can she make the cut and win a spot on the squad?  What will she have to do to be accepted by the girls?

 

Brian James has written an exciting horror novel set in an everyday teen setting – high school.  What could be more horrifying?

 

Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz

 

Have you seen the movie Session 9?  Did you like The Blair Witch Project?  If so, you need to read Project 17. 

Derek wants to be a film maker and he has come up with the perfect subject for a movie.  He is planning to enter his film about teens spending the night inside the haunted Danvers State Hospital into a contest.  The only thing he needs now is a cast.

Mimi is a goth chick.  She begins helping Derek plan by drawing story boards for possible scenes and showing him the ways to get into the hospital at night without getting caught by the security guards that are always on duty.  Mimi has a special reason for wanting to see inside the abandoned mental institution and has been thinking about it for a long time.

Liza is a straight A student hoping to get into Harvard.  She has done everything she feels is in her power to get in.  She is class valedictorian and devotes all her spare time to studying, but when she hears from her guidance counselor that being admitted isn’t a sure thing, she begins to panic.  The only advice her counselor can give her is to get involved in extra-curricular activities, but at the end of the school year, there isn’t much to choose from.  Once Liza hears about a student movie being shot, she decides it might be her only chance to show a little diversity in her school career.

Chet is Derek’s best friend.  Basically he decides to tag along so he doesn’t have to be at home.  Chet’s father is an alcoholic and sometimes knocks Chet around when he’s had too much to drink.  Chet uses humor to hide his pain and embarrassment.  He intends to be the comic relief for the night.

Greta and Tony are a loving, romantic couple that both are majorly into acting.  They are members of the drama club and look for any chance to be in the spotlight.  Tony’s main passion is directing, but Greta definately wants to be an actress.  They use Derek’s film as an excuse to prepare for their future in the business.

Together, these six teenagers sneak past security guards and enter Danvers State Hospital.  Tension fills the pages right from the start.  Through the dark tunnels, in the run down hallways, and behind the doors to rooms where lobotomies and other frightening medical procedures took place, the kids learn about themselves, eachother, and the people that inhabited the walls of Danvers State Hospital.

Project 17 isn’t a book to read in the dark if you are easily creeped out.  The weird occurances that take place while the kids are inside make you believe there are ghosts living in the hospital.  Your heart will pound until you get to the last page – and maybe even after.