ZOM-B Baby by Darren Shan
WARNING! If you haven't read the first book in this series, STOP READING NOW! NOW! Spoilers ahoy!
Gone? Good.
The story so far Full review...
The Skull in the Woods by Sandra Greaves
Dartmoor wasn't exactly Matt's first choice as a place to spend his school holidays. He barely knows his Uncle or cousins, and there was obviously some bad blood between members of the family. But his father was away for the summer, as were most of his friends and he couldn't stand another day in the house with his mother's new boyfriend, especially as their relationship was dashing any hopes Matt might have held of his parents ever reuniting. But whatever the trouble may have been between Matt's mother and his now dead Aunt Rose, his Uncle Jack has welcomed Matt into his home and treated the boy with all the kindness one might expect for a prodigal son. His youngest cousin Kitty seems delighted to have a new member of the family to play with as well, but Tilda, who is near his own age can't stand him and is determined to have this interloping city dweller out of the way as quickly as possible. Matt treats Tilda with same contempt, with the two children carrying on where their feuding parents left off. Full review...
Fire & Ash by Jonathan Maberry
ALERT! Spoilers for early books in the Rot & Ruin series are scattered throughout this review. So if you haven't read the others, get thee over to my words about book one. Full review...
The Dead Men Stood Together by Chris Priestley
A young boy lives in a harbour town with his mother. It's a happy life, but the boy misses his father, a sailor who left for the sea a year ago and died far from home. He also dreams of the sea and of adventure. So when his uncle comes to visit, full of stories of faraway lands and treasure, he is entranced. He ignores the warning from the pilot's son. How could his uncle be the devil? And, despite his mother's tears, he follows his uncle to sea. Full review...
Dead Brigade by James Lovegrove
Sergeant Jonah Hammond's career has been at a standstill in the years since he launched a complaint against a reckless commanding officer whose arrogance resulted in the massacre of British soldiers. Now that same officer is offering Hammond another chance. This time Hammond won't have to worry about some idiot getting his men all killed - because they are already dead. Hammond has been given the task of training a crack squad of reanimated soldiers, immune to pain, disease and capable of fighting with massive injuries. These living dead are reanimated by nanobots. They are capable of learning, following instructions, and meant to be incapable of independent thought. However, it soon becomes apparent that things don't always go the way they are meant to. These are not mindless killing machines; a part of them is still human, still the soldier they once were, trapped within a decaying corpse, kept refrigerated until ready for the next mission. They have no life, nor do they have the luxury of death. Full review...
The Fury: The Director's Cut by Alexander Gordon Smith
I chose The Fury expecting a zombie novel. It isn't what I was expecting at all. The official press release describes the Fury as a zombie book without zombies. This book has several things in common with the zombie genre; a group of survivors, in this case all children struggling to survive against a world that wants to destroy them. Unlike the typical zombie book, those affected by the fury are not the mindless living dead. They are ordinary people who go about ordinary lives with one exception. When they get near one of these children they are gripped by an uncontrollable urge to rip them apart, and everyone on the planet, other than a very small group is affected. Parents murder their children, other children will kill their best friends and total strangers will give up everything to destroy them. After they have killed them, they will go back to their ordinary lives. The world will continue unchanged - at least for now. What makes these children different? Why does the whole world want them dead? Who is infected - and with what? Full review...
Burnt Island by Alice Thompson
Max Long is a semi-successful author and has had seven novels published, none of which were bestsellers. Max is unsatisfied with the critical and sales responses for his books and is determined to write a story that will rocket him to stardom and the bestseller list. Burnt Island is a remote rocky outpost in the ocean that he believes will inspire him to write a novel for the masses. He lodges with another author on the island and although meaning to concentrate on his writing he is distracted by the people and the creepy atmosphere of the isle. Something is not at all what it seems on Burnt Island, but is it of Max's creation or something that was already waiting for him? Full review...
The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones
Hannah Wilde flees into the Welsh mountains with daughter Leah and husband Nate while the life blood slowly seeps out of him. They run to escape the evil that has relentlessly haunted Hannah's family for generations. Some people see it as a Hungarian legend but to the Wildes it's real and insatiable and won't forget them. They know what to do: verify everyone, trust no one and, if in any doubt, RUN! Although one day that may not be enough. Full review...
NOS-4R2 by Joe Hill
Vic McQueen has a talent for finding things. Her little Raleigh bicycle can take her over a seemingly demolished bridge near her home and takes her to places where lost items have come out. Over the years, she has built up stories in her head as to how she found these items, but as she gets older, she becomes more and more unable to find herself. One day, she takes her bridge to a place where she finds Charles Talent Manx III, a man who has a similar talent, but uses it to take children out of the world, rather than bringing lost things back into it. Full review...
Silver by Chris Wooding
'Silver' has a large ant with silver circuits on the cover, and while there are no actual ants in this book, the illustration is very well suited. This books puts a unique twist on the ever popular zombie genre. Instead of living corpses, we have nanobots which can turn humans into machines. They possess a swarm intelligence similar to ants. This sounds far fetched but a great deal of progress has been made in research currently being conducted with just this in mind - to create nanobots with swarm intelligence - a phenomenon well known in the natural sciences in which a less intelligent organism is capable of highly intelligent behaviour through a hive mind. It would be impossible for scientists to control hundreds or thousands of nanobots independently - so the idea is to control a few and have these control the rest. Of course there would always be safeguards on this type of technology and there were safeguards in the book as well - they just didn't work. Full review...
ZOM-B Angels by Darren Shan
Ok. I'm going to do this for all books in this series except the first one. Before we begin. If you haven't read the first book in this series, DON'T read this review. It contains spoilers. Read my review of the first book, read the first book itself, then come back. If you don't, you'll be sorry... Full review...
Deadlands by Lily Herne
I was hesitant to choose this book. I love a good dystopian future book. The problem is, I don't define very many of them as good. I have read far too many zombie books that really don't offer anything different, plenty of blood, gore, and damsels in distress, but not enough character development, or logical thought. Psychological horror can be ever so much more chilling than blood and guts, but it is also much more difficult to pull off. Sarah and Savannah Lotz, the mother and daughter team who have written this book under the pen name Lily Herne, have managed to do this perfectly. Full review...
Through Dead Eyes by Chris Priestley
After an unfortunate episode at school, Alex has joined his father on a business trip to Amsterdam. He had been hoping to spend some time with his father, but instead he is palmed off on Angelien, daughter of his father's new girlfriend. But Angelien is pretty and so Alex is quite happy to be shown around by her. When her boyfriend Dirk isn't around, that is. At an antique market, Alex finds himself drawn to an ancient-looking mask. He can't help but buy it. And once bought, he can't help but put it on. Full review...
The Revenge of Frankenstein by Shaun Hutson
Imprisoned and sentenced to death for the crimes he feels were caused by his creation and not his drive to bend the reach and morals of medical science, Doctor Frankenstein is given a way out of the guillotine's grasp, and gains a loyal adherent in the misshapen form of Carl. They move on to work together at a charitable hospital, which serves merely as a front for the Doctor's usual experiments, transplanting body organs, reviving corpses or bits thereof, and bringing new forms of life to the world. Cue yet another problematic creation, with an unfortunate way of leaving a trail of violence and vehemence, but with another innocent female to tender him, in this respectful and intelligent sequel. Full review...
The Prey by Andrew Fukuda
Having escaped the vampires hunting them on the boat left by the Scientists, Gene, Sissy and the boys make their way down the river and arrive at the Mission. Food is abundant, the place is peaceful, and the Elders promise them a trip on the next train to Civilisation. Gene and Sissy can hardly believe it. But it's soon apparent that the Mission is not all it seems and Gene begins to wonder if they haven't simply exchanged one hellhole for another. Although they find out a great deal more about the Scientist - he developed the Origin, a cure for vampirism - understanding his plans is as frustrating as ever. And with the vampires coming ever closer, even to the Mission itself, and the Elders making moves of their own, time is running out and Gene and Sissy must decide what to do... Full review...
The Arthur Moreau Story by Guy Booth
You could be forgiven for thinking that Johnny Debrett is an unlikely hero, given his occupation as a seller of second hand books, but he has some illustrious connections, not least to Sir Frederick Appleby. Some say that he runs the country and Appleby's deputy, Peter Tyndale is married to Debrett's sister, Celia. Our tale began many years before with some two hundred mysterious and widely reported deaths on a French island which hadn't elicited a single cry of grief from a relative, but we join the story as Appleby asks Debrett to attend the funeral in France of a former business partner, Arthur Moreau. There are, apparently, some unresolved queries about Moreau and despite Debrett's estrangement from the deceased over recent years he's thought to be the person best able to obtain the answers. Full review...
Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan
Ok. Before we begin. If you haven't read the first book in this series, DON'T read this review. It contains spoilers. Read my review of the first book, read the first book itself, then come back. If you don't, you'll be sorry. Full review...
Beyond by Graham McNamee
Teenager Jane's life so far has been plagued by near-fatal accidents. The last one left a nail embedded in her brain and the doctors say surgery is too dangerous. And she sleepwalks at night, walking alone in a daze up the highway. As you can imagine, Jane's parents are beyond worried about her. But they don't know the worst of it. Only Lexi, Jane's best friend and fellow Creep Sister, does. The truth is that Jane's shadow is trying to kill her. Literally. She has no control over it but it has control of her. Full review...
Ash by James Herbert
There are strange goings on at Comraich Castle, with the normal poltergeist type activities of cold spots in rooms and the lights inexplicably dimming having escalated into a resident being found pinned to the wall of his room by his own blood and innards. David Ash is sent in to investigate, but he is warned that he must work alone and in secrecy, as whilst some of the residents of Comraich Castle are not ghosts, they are considered long dead by the outside world and that world must never know of their continued existence. Full review...
Eden Moore – Not Flesh Nor Feathers by Cherie Priest
A year has passed since medium Eden Moore's brush with the ghostly battlefields and she's certainly come a long way since the first time we encountered her. She's learnt a lot from media celebrity Dana Marshall, is nearly 25 and has decided it's time to move out of Aunt Lu and Uncle David's place. She even has her eye on an apartment in a downtown block by the river. However, some things don't change. The Read House is being renovated to combine a hotel and Starbucks but one room remains untouched due to paranormal activity. Eden's TV journalist friend Nick calls her in to communicate with the ghost, a young girl who isn't satisfied with scary noises and shifting ornaments. Within moments of entering Eden is trapped as the phantom attempts to tear her limb from limb mumbling about how 'they' are coming for her. Who are 'they'? Why are people disappearing near the river? Chattanooga will soon find out as it's about to flood and in the mud something stirs. Full review...
The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill
There is a theory regarding ghosts that they are projected recordings from the very brickwork of buildings – that 'stone tapes' can replay scenes or characters of heightened emotion so that people can see the vestige of what went before. What if something a bit more animated than a building – a lively, realistic oil painting – can also convey collected recorded instances of such strong feelings - feelings such as mortal terror? It would be like Dorian Gray's portrait, recording all the horrors, keeping them intact in one place – but would it be the cause or the effect? Full review...
Dolly by Susan Hill
An empty house in the remote fenlands of England, with a man returning to it alone… a lawyer sorting out an inheritance… something buried yet still yielding power… Susan Hill's name, and the subtitle 'a ghost story' on the cover… We do seem to be in the territory of The Woman in Black, but worry not – this new short genre novel is a very different beast. Full review...