Top Ten Tuesday 10/23/2012: Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

This week we're discussing Halloween reads!  I LOVE horror, so this is a really fun topic.  Let's discuss!


1.  Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz - These books were my OBSESSION as a kid.  I probably checked them out of the library about a hundred times.  Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a collection of short stories and poems with some of the freakiest drawings I've ever seen.  I read these books in fourth grade and they still stick with me.


Seriously?  What the hell is this doing in a kids book!?

2.  Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake - I read Anna Dressed in Blood last year around Halloween time and loved it!  It has a great basis in real pagan/witchcraft practices that I found really refreshing.

3.  Velveteen by Daniel Marks - Velveteen is a 2012 debut and really awesome!  It's a story about about a girl who was murdered by a serial killer and is now trapped in purgatory but is determined to get revenge.  The writing is fantastic and if you're a fan of Kat Dennings you will love the sarcastic humour. 

4.  A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - Horror is a very visual genre and A Monster Calls has some of the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen.  It's a brilliant book that is best read in one sitting.  Just block off a few hours and settle in.  Be prepared for some waterworks though, this one has a surprisingly emotional connection.

Beautiful.

5.  Misery by Stephen King - I'm reading this one right now and oh my goodness, it is so fantastic.  It's probably my most favorite Stephen King work, and I would highly recommend the movie as well.  I'd say the movie is one of the best book to movie adaptations I've ever seen (plus Kathy Bates won the best actress oscar which almost never happens for a horror film).


6.  And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and Ten by Gretchen McNeil -  I read And Then There Were None in middle school and I think it just may be the best murder mystery of all time.  I absolutely love it and in my opinion it belongs on the classics shelf.  More recently is a modern YA adaptation Ten by Gretchen McNeil that just came out earlier this year.  I am very interested to see how she changes the original work to fit a modern teen audience and I plan on reading Ten very very soon.

7.  The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn -  As a large coffee table sized book with full color pages, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn is one of the most beautifully presented books.  Part fantasy part auto-biography, Emilie Autumn blends journal entries, photographs, and drawings from different eras together into a chilling novel.

8.  The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith - The Marbury Lens is arguably one of the weirdest novels I've ever read, and I question it's YA label.  This novel doesn't hold back and fully immerses you in one of the most graphic and strange worlds in the YA genre.

9.  World War Z by Max Brooks - Listen to the audio book for this one, you won't regret it.  World War Z is told in a series of interviews about the zombie apocalypse.  I absolutely loved the complete picture that develops through first hand accounts of horrors experienced around the world. 

10.  Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park is another classic from my childhood.  Anyone who grew up in the 90s saw Jurassic Park and if you're liked me, absolutely loved it.  I read the novel in middle school and I found it to be just as exciting and frightening as the movie. 

So there  you go!  These are my top ten novels to get into the Halloween spirit.  What are you selections?  (stay tuned for a top ten movie list!)

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

#1 in The Body Finder series
Published March 16, 2010 by HarperTeen
4 Stars

Goodreads Review
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

Review:  The body finder has a really interesting premise that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I really liked the idea of the echos, how they worked and how they helped Violet solve the murders.  For me they were a unique concept that really added to the suspense of the mystery. 

Violet was a fairly likable main character in general, even if she is obsessively boy crazy.  I mean, I know most 16 year old girls are obsessively boy crazy, but Violet was taking it to a new level.  The teenager angst was a little too heavy for my taste, and I would have preferred more murder and mayhem, and less high school drama.  (though I have to admit the kissing scenes were pretty great, Derting knows how to write sexual tension (comeone adult romance novel!))

Speaking of murder and mayhem, I really loved the serial killer!  Some of the chapters were written from his perspective and they were FREAKY!  I really loved these chapters beacuse they were perfectly timed and added a lot of great suspense to the story. I was really surprised by some of the plot twists and had absolutely no idea about the killer's identity, so that's a pretty good sign of a good mystery in my book!

Overall The Body Finder is a really cool start to this unique murder mystery series.  I'm really curious to see what kind of bad guy will show up in the next book, Desires of the Dead.  The title hints that maybe there will be more ghosty happenings?  Who knows, but I'm really excited to find out!

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

#1 in the Velveteen series
Pubished October 9, 2012 by Delacorte
egalley for review from netgalley
5 stars
DAC 2012

Goodreads Review
Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that's not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it's not a fiery inferno, it's certainly no heaven. It's gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn't leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what's really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she's figured out just how to do it. She'll haunt him for the rest of his days.
It'll be brutal . . . and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen's obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she's willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can't help herself when it comes to breaking rules . . . or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her. 

Review:  You guys.  Velveteen is freaking AWESOME.  FOR REALZ.  This is probably my #1 most anticipated book of 2012, and I know this book doesn't come out until October, and of course I have it already pre-ordered, but I could not resist reading it as soon as it landed in my Kindle (thanks netgalley!!!!).  And Velveteen does not disappoint.  If you guys watch Danny's youtube channel (and you should, shame on you if you don't!) you know he is sarcastic, intelligent, eclectic, and a little bit creepy (and I mean that in the most admiration filled way possible) and this is exactly what you get with Velveteen. 

The very best thing about this book is the main character, Velvet.  She is fan-freaking-tastic.  Of course I love her snarky and rude attitude that's wrapped in a bad ass goth exterior, but Velvet is SO MUCH MORE than that.  This character is deep, yo.  She's gone through some hardcore trauma and even though she acts all tough, I think she's a lot more wounded than she wants to admit (and you would be too if some sadist tortured you to death!).

I wanted to mention the world building too.  I absolutely LOVED this interpretation of purgatory.  The descriptions of purgatory aren't just descriptions, they're brush strokes.  Seriously, Marks has one of the best vocabularies in YA literature.  His writing is SO creative and descriptive.  I found myself googling a lot of stuff just so I could get a clearer visual in my head, and I almost never bother to do that.

Photo Credit

This is a nutmeg grater.  You're welcome for that visual.

There are a few things I wanted to change about the story.  I really wanted more Bonesaw!  I really liked that character and I liked how Velvet reacted to him and I wanted more.  It honestly felt like two books were being shoved together, and sadly my preferred story got neglected.  (side note, when I read this back in April the synopsis made it seem a lot darker and a lot more of a revenge story, it has since changed to better reflect the actual story within which I think was a really smart move. The original synopsis would disappoint people who were looking for a horror book and got PNR and scare away people looking for an urban fantasy or paranormal story.)

I also could have done without Nick all together to be honest.  I guess he was there to help bring out Velvet's soft nougat center or whatever, but he felt very one dimensional and kind of a crutch.  I would have rather seen Velvet deal with her demons on her own. 

All in all I really loved this book, but more so I really loved Danny's writing.  I am extremely excited for whatever project he puts out next, be it another Velveteen book or something completely new.  You KNOW I will be reading it!

Where I've Been and Changing the Direction of my Blog

Hi guys!  Long time no see, huh?  You may have noticed that I haven't been very active on here in the past two months.  Some of you might be wondering, Amanda, what happened?  Did work send out out of the country?  Did you get sick?  Did you die!?  Ha, well, I can safely say that nothing traumatic happened to me.  I just got burned out.  In the two months I've been away I haven't read a single book.  I've started quite a few, but I couldn't get into any of them.  I think I just put too much pressure on myself to meet certain goals and just got overwhelmed. 

However, I am back now and with a new focus!  I really want to start some changes on this blog.  While I love books I am also very passionate about movies and video games as well.  I want to start some video game and movie reviews as well as expand my blog to different topics of discussion as well. 

I also want to kind of change my focus when it comes to how I do reviews, what I choose to read next, and how I run my blog and youtube channel.  I really admire people who chose a monthly theme for what they read/review/watch ect.  One person in particular is Priscilla from The Readables.  I absolutely adore how she organizes her channel and I think I might start emulating that. 

So, my goal for the rest of October is to get all caught up on reviews.  I have around fifteen or so that I'd like to finish and while I may not get to all of them, I absolutely want to do every book from 2011.   Then starting in November I want to choose a theme for the month.  I also would love to do a book to movie adaptation review every month, so we'll see how that goes.  There are quite a few movies coming out that I think would be great to read the book before seeing. 

But yeah, that's where I've been these past few months!  Just taking a break while I clear my head and re-focus.  Thanks to everyone for sticking with me and look forward to more posts soon!

October 2012 New Reads

So, September was a slow month for the blog.  I only wrote 5 posts in the whole month and not one of them was a review!  Well, it's October now and I plan on starting fresh with an October new releases post!  This isn't a complete list, just some of the ones I'm interested in. I hope this list will help feed your readers! 

October 1

League of Strays by L.B. Schulman
DAC

Why I'm Excited:  I got this book as an eARC from netgally, and the has been some drama llamas surrounding this book, so I have a bit of morbid curiosity.

Skinny by Donna Cooner
DAC

Why I'm Excited:  This sounds like a really interesting take on an eating disorder book.  I think we all have the skinny inner monologue and I'm interested to see how the author handles this idea.






October 2

Eve & Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine ApplegateWhy I'm Excited:  I was a HUGE Animorphs fan as a kid, so I'm interested to see what these authors can do together (FYI Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate are married which I find pretty dang awesome).

Ironskin by Tina Connolly
#1 in the Ironskin series
DACWhy I'm Excited:  This is a Jane Eyre adaptation, and it sounds, well, kinda weird.  It's got fey and seems to focus quite a bit on the relationship aspect of Jane Eyre, but I still think it will capture the Gothic feel of the inspiration novel.

Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass
DAC

Why I'm Excited: First off, COVER! Lucid sounds like a really cool paranormal mystery.







Passenger by Andrew Smith
#2 in The Marbury Lens series

Why I'm Excited:  I read The Marbury Lens a few months ago and I am dying to find out what happens!  I really liked the uniqueness of the first book and I'm really excited for the sequel. 






Promised by Caragh M. O'Brien
#3 in the Birthmarked Series

Why I'm Excited:  This series sounds like such a cool dystopian and it's gotten a lot of good reviews.  Now that the final book is coming out maybe I'll read it!






Through to You by Emily Hainsworth
DAC

Why I'm Excited:  This sounds like a really cool paranormal romance.  I'm really interested in the idea of parallel universes and I'm curious to see how the author will pull it off.






October 8

Demon Eyes by Scott Tracey
#2 in the Witch Eyes series

Why I'm Excited:  I was introduced to Scott Tracey through old videos on the YARebels Youtube Channel and I really want to read his work!







October 9

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
DAC

Why I'm Excited:  This sounds a little bit like a YA version of The Time Traveler's Wife (which I reviewed a while ago).  If they're at all similar I have a feeling I will really like this book.






The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges
#2 in the Katerina series

Why I'm Excited:   Russian fantasy series!  Maybe I'll have better luck with this series than other Russian fantasy...we'll see.







Velveteen by Daniel Marks
DAC

Why I'm Excited:  I was fortunate enough to read an ARC of Velveteen and I must say I thoroughly LOVED it!  Velvet is a fantastic character with a fantasticly sarcastic voice.  I highly recommend Velveteen for your Halloween reads!





October 16

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin
#2 in the Ashfall series

Why I'm Excited:  I've gotten both books in this series for review from netgalley, I need to read them!  Everyone loves a good natural disaster story, right?






Beta by Rachel Cohn
#1 in the Annex series

Why I'm Excited:  Beta has a really interesting premise.  I like stories that deal with robots/clones/experiments who are supposed to not have feelings and yet start to have emotions.  I like the themes of what constitutes a soul, so I really want to pick this one up.

Hidden by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

#10 in the House of Night series

Why I'm Excited:  I really like The House of Night series, I've read the first 7 books in the series.  I really like the pagan themes that run in this series and I'm excited to see what happens!






Two and Twenty Dark Tales edited by Nina Berry
Anthology

Why I'm Excited:  This collection of short stories takes classic mother goose fairy tales and gives them a darker twist.  I want the audio book for this!







October 23

Dark Star by Bethany Frentte

Why I'm Excited:  Dark Star sounds like a really cool urban fantasy.  I expect lots of sweet action!








Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick
#4 in the Hush, Hush series

Why I'm Excited:  Hush, Hush was supposed to be a trilogy....how are they adding a 4th book?  We shall see.







The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa
#1 in the The Iron Fey:  Call of the Forgotten series

Why I'm Excited:  I loved the Iron Fey series, so I'm so excited to read a sequel starring Ethan, Meghan Chase's younger brother!  There better be Grimalkin or Imma be pissed!





The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
#2 in the Mara Dyer series

Why I'm Excited:  I felt pretty meh about The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer but I want to see where the series goes because I have NO idea. 








October 30

Rebel Heart by Moira Young
#2 in the Dust Lands series

Why I'm Excited:  I really enjoyed the first book in this series Blood Red Road and I really want to read the next book!







Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier
#2 in the Elstein Trilogie

Why I'm Excited:  This is a German series so it's taking a while to be translated into English, but I've read really great reviews of this series.  It has some really interesting time travel elements that I'm really excited to read about!